Paul Wilczynski's Observations

The Anatomy of a Divisive Doctrine

Progressive Ink! writes on the source of fundamentalist/evangelical theological divisiveness:

He begins by saying "The main source of fundamentalist/evangelical theological divisiveness can be found in the Christian doctrine of Atonement. It is within this doctrine that otherwise good-hearted people find their inspiration to exclude all other religions, systems, and ontologies by broadly labeling them all as “untrue,” or, even more bluntly, “not of God.” Theirs, however, is a doctrine not only from God, but also the foundation of their “one and only true way.” Their “Atonement” says, simply: “Jesus Christ’s (Christ was not his last name, BTW) spilling of blood on the cross reconciled humanity to God, and vice versa.”"

A bit later ... "First of all, Jesus as a sacrifice is a religious carry over from Judaism’s own animal sacrifice system which was a carry over from the rest of the known Mediterranean world. In other words, the entire section of the world - “pagans” and all - practiced animal sacrifices. So, Judaism was doing nothing new or extraordinary and one must wonder if a God who required animal sacrifices was more a reflection of the human being of the time than of any sort of metaphysical being? If it is the former, then Jesus as sacrifice is a mere carry over of a primitive humanity’s religion and it necessity should be questioned."

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:00 AM