I am keeping up my resolution not to read Adrian Warnock’s blog. But that doesn’t stop me reading about his latest offerings at his unrelated namesake Dave’s blog. And what I read there doesn’t encourage me to start reading Adrian’s again. It seems that these two have restarted what Adrian has called the “Warnock wars”, and on most issues here I am firmly on Dave’s side.
In his latest series Adrian, as reported by Dave, returns to the issue of the atonement, and Steve Chalke’s view of it. The first of Dave’s new series of posts ends with:
Well thank-you very much Adrian, I am sure we are all grateful for your attempts to break up reconciliation between evangelical Christians.
Make sure you read several other posts and comments before moving on to Dave’s latest post, which ends as follows:
Near the start of his post Adrian writes:
One of my major concerns about this whole debate is what a rejection of PSA does to our view of the Bible.
Absolutely it challenges a simplisitic partial reading of Scripture in favour of a thorough and respectful dialogue with the whole of Scripture – a truely evangelical approach to scripture. What a wonderful idea that is, fopr me the wonder of opening up models of atonement and considering others besides Penal Substitution is that we find new ways of understanding God that are far more in tune with Jesus the Son of God as revealed in Scripture. Go on try it, I promise the view on this side of the fence is fantastic. What a wonderful loving God we serve!
Well done for critiquing someone’s view on the basis of what you have read secondhand from someone who disagrees with them. I don’t know where Dave on the other hand, has got his view of Jesus the Son of God “as revealed in Scripture”. Perhaps that is as revealed in the bits of Scripture which don’t include Isaiah 53 for instance – or is that not talking about Jesus?
Si, my point was not to critique Adrian’s views, but only to point my readers to Dave’s critique.
Could it be that both Warnocks are a bit selective in their reading of the OT? Or could it be that there is a valid reading of Isaiah 53 which is not exactly according to Adrian’s version of PSA?
Henry Neufeld has also commented on this debate, from a slightly different angle.
Si,
Isn’t it amusing that you critique Peter for reading my blog about Adrian’s posts and then commenting. Yet you have done exactly the same thing to me.
Yes I have studied Isaiah 53 (it would be rather a surprise if I hadn’t and thought I could write about atonement wouldn’t it). I have also blogged about it (at least in passing). I certainly do not ignore it in my thinking on atonement.
I do not believe Isaiah 53 supports PSA. Generally such readings ignore a crucial word ie “BUT” at the start of verse 5. This implies that while they thought he was being punished by God they were wrong.
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