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Monday, April 02, 2007

Jeffrey John Easter message: 'Christ did not die for sin'

http://www.evangelicals.org/news.asp?id=644

[EV News] 2 April 2007--According to the Telegraph on Saturday the Dean of St Albans, Jeffrey John, will use an opportunity on BBC Radio 4 this Easter to undermine the doctrine of penal substitution.

The bible teaches that because humans have sinned, God sent Christ as a substitute to suffer and die in our place. However according to Jeffrey John: clergy who preach this Easter that Christ was sent to earth to die in atonement for the sins of mankind are "making God sound like a psychopath", "In other words, Jesus took the rap and we got forgiven as long as we said we believed in him," says Mr John. "This is repulsive as well as nonsensical. It makes God sound like a psychopath. If a human behaved like this we'd say that they were a monster."

"Too many Christians go through their lives failing to realise that God is about "love and truth", not "wrath and punishment".

According to Jeffrey John, Christ was crucified so he could "share in the worst of grief and suffering that life can throw at us".

Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham, accused him of attacking the fundamental message of the Gospel."He is denying the way in which we understand Christ's sacrifice. It is right to stress that he is a God of love but he is ignoring that this means he must also be angry at everything that distorts human life," he said.

Bishop Wright criticised the BBC for allowing such a prominent slot to be given to such a provocative argument. "I'm fed up with the BBC for choosing to give privilege to these unfortunate views in Holy Week," he said.

Related articles:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/01/neaster01.xml
Easter message: Christ did not die for sin - Sunday Telegraph
http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/457702672.html
Gay Anglican Priest's Apostasy is Complete; Denies Atonement of Christ - Christian News Wire

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