Time for Some Criticism
4 February 2022
We have a Facebook saved items folder (well, we all have one of those out here in Zuckerberg's ghetto to keep track of stuff; our version of a wayback machine). One of our categories we smugly named "Idiots on the Bible", which is funny in a mocking, condescending, and completely uncharitable way.
This
was pounded into our awareness by a recent post in this here social
media destination. It was written by a friend, someone we respect,
someone whose orthodoxy we had no cause to question...until the post in
question.
We had the uncomfortable realization that someone could be completely and totally wrong about something without being an idiot. And make no mistake: the statement is completely and totally heterodox -- so bad, it's not even wrong. But our friend is not an idiot and we shouldn't call her one. So we're changing the name of the category. Maybe something like “Smart People Misapply the Bible” or “The Bible Behaving Badly” (stolen from a book title).
Here's the TL|DR of the refutation:
If Jesus eradicated sin, why is there so much sin still in the world?
Our friend's so-bad-it's-not-even-wrong statement has done some good, though, at least for us. We get to explore some of the theological terms surrounding her premise. This will begin a series of posts on the idea of ATONEMENT. It is a bit outside our scope to do theology in any significant way on this page; after all, we are word nerds, not theology nerds. But a meander into Mere Christian orthodoxy is inevitable. So it will be here. So buckle up buttercups. join us for a still-to-be-defined series on ATONEMENT. And have some charity for all the theological idiots out there and the mockers (such as we) who mistakenly believe we are better than they are.
