Week 6: Atonement (penal substitution and Christus Victor)/Church Plants/Marry Me

Matrix Revolutions...ending:

Click here to watch all 4 parts at once..


OR
Part 1 (click here)
(Check the cross over Neo's head at 1:26 at that click)
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Part 2: is embedded below..
Check the crosses at 2:00 amd 2:56
What Scripture at  3:15?


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part 3Here 

part 4:


   


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  see also:

• "Christus Vicror" atonement (see  p, 148 of "Teaching the Bible through popular culture and the arts"
• by Mark Roncace, Patrick Gray)
• 
  

• : Neo Victor and the "literal Deus ex machina"

• Anabaptism, Christus Victor, Postmodernity

•  

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Christus Victor

Christus Victor (Christ the Victor) is a view of the atonement taken from the title ofGustaf Aulén’s groundbreaking book, first published in 1931, where he drew attention back to the early church’s Ransom theory. In Christus Victor, the atonement is viewed as divine conflict and victory over the hostile powers that hold humanity in subjection. Aulén argues that the classic Ransom theory is not so much a rational systematic theory as it is a drama, a passion story of God triumphing over the powers and liberating humanity from the bondage of sin. As Gustav Aulén writes, “the work of Christ is first and foremost a victory over the powers which hold mankind in bondage: sin, death, and the devil.”^[1]
The Ransom Theory was predominant in the early church and for the first thousand years of church history and supported by all Greek Church Fathers from Irenaeus toJohn of Damascus. To mention only the most important names Origen, Athanasius,Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom. The Christus Victor view was also dominant among the Latin Fathers of the Patristic period including Ambrose, Augustine, Leo the Great, and Gregory the Great.
A major shift occurred when Anselm of Canterbury published his Cur Deos Homoaround 1097 AD which marks the point where the predominate understanding of the atonement shifted from the ransom theory to the Satisfaction Doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church and subsequently the Protestant Church. The Eastern OrthodoxChurch still holds to the Ransom or Christus Victor view. This is built upon the understanding of the atonement put forward by Irenaeus, called “recapitulation”.^[2]
As the term Christus Victor indicates, the idea of “ransom” should not be seen in terms (as Anselm did) of a business transaction, but more of a rescue or liberation of humanity from the slavery of sin. Unlike the Satisfaction or Penal-substitution views of the atonement rooted in the idea of Christ paying the penalty of sin to satisfy the demands of justice, the Christus Victor view is rooted in the incarnation and how Christ entered into human misery and wickedness and thus redeemed it. Irenaeus called this “Recapitulation” (re-creation). As it is often expressed: “Jesus became what we are so that we could become what he is”.  LINK

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Where  else does a "Christus Victor": show up in literature/film?
C.S. Lewis, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" :

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PLANTS 

Design an ad for a new church.  The ad should include:

-Name of church
-Vision or mission or purpose statement
-When and where it will meet
-A logo, illustration, picture, or symbol
-Anything else important to include

The catch: Don't just design the church however you think one should look like; but use only the information in the following scriptures to guide you:

• Matthew 16:13-20
• Acts 2: 42-47
• Acts 4:32-37
• Romans 12:1-11
• 1 Corinthians 12:27-31; 1 Corinthians 14:26-32
• Ephesians 4:1-13
• Philemon
• any texts from Matthew  or Ephesians you remember from class that relate

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UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM:

"The altar of a church building is no closer to God's heart than the restroom" (p. 163, read in context)

God in the Bathroom?
The ancient Hebrew language didn’t have a world for “spirituality.” Apparently that category didn’t exist in ancient Hebrew thought because they believed that all of life had the potential to be “spiritual.” This is very different from our dualistic worldview that separates the world into two categories: the spiritual (sacred) and the material (secular). In this worldview, God inhabits the spiritual realm, but he leaves the material realm to us. In order for a dualist to experience God’s presence, he has to transcend the secular realm and tap into the sacred where he will find God. The Hebrew worldview rejects this dualism. Lawrence Kushner puts it this way:

Judaism sees only one world, which is material and spiritual at the same time. The material world is always potentially spiritual. All things– including and especially, such apparently non-spiritual things and grossly material things as garbage, sweat, dirt, and bushes–are not impediments to but dimensions of spirituality.

That means it’s possible to encounter God’s presence anywhere, including the bathroom. Here’s a prayer taken from the Babylonian Talmud that was meant to be prayed while the pray-er was relieving himself:

"Blessed is he who has formed man in wisdom in wisdom and created in him many orifices and cavities. Is is fully know before the Throne of Thy glory that if one of them should be improperly opened or one of them closed it would be impossible for a man to stand before Thee."

If this prayer makes you uncomfortable because you think the bathroom is off limits to God, then you are a dualist.
Wade Hodges

)"the basin, the cross and the tomb become pivotal signs of the new kingdom.  The cross has long served as the preeminent symbol-the  flag-of the Christian church.  Only looking at the cross, however. detracts us from its very reason for being.  Three upside down symbols flow together in the gospel story: the basin, the  cross, and the tomb.  The basin is actually the foremost Christian symbol. Jesus himself voluntarily selects a basin to capture the meaning of his ministry.  The crossis a Roman symbol, a harsh sign of the state's power to execute criminals.  The ruling powers used the  cross, an instrument of death, to respond to Jesus' basin initiatives.  But God has the last word with the empty tomb. It stands throughout the ages as sign of God's reign over they forces of evil." pp. 242, read all of  241-247



  "With one stroke, Jesus erases titles".."Titles are foreign to the Body of Christ.  226

•  Terms like Doctor and Reverend perpetuate status differences unbefitting the spirit of Christ."  Titles pay tribute to position, degree and status rather than to personhood.  Members of flat kingdoms call each other, as the sign of highest personal respect, by our first names" (239, emphasis mine)
• "We call each other by our first name, for we have one Master and one Lord, Jesus Christ" (256).

See:

Pastors in Kraybill's tradition (Mennonite) have not been historically comfortable with 

any title, really (and going way back, salaried pastors).. St. Paul (oops, Paul, the saint) didn't seem to be either. We call him "The Apostle Paul," but though he was entitled to, he never called himself that: "Paul (comma), an apostle."

see:

• "Don't let anyone call you Teacher, Reverend or Rabbi..."
• Apostles as Slaves

 

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the video we closed with:

"Marry Me"

Be sure to watch till the end for a special surprise guest (who was NOT in the version we showed in class)

When a couple was to be married, the fathers would negotiate the bride price. Once the bargain was struck, the groom would offer a cup of wine to his bride to be — declaring his love and pledging his life. She could either accept it or not. If she accepted the cup, she accepted the offer and pledged her love and life to him.
The Passover meal has four cups of wine. The third cup is the cup of redemption (or salvation). The host says a prayer and then passes the cup. “Blessed are you, oh God, king of the universe, creator of this fruit of the vine. He then declared this cup the blood of the new covenant — a new promise, in essence offering a pledge of his life.
When we take communion, God is declaring his love to us, and when we take the cup, we are returning his offer — promising our love and lives to God.
The bride-price paid by Jesus was high — his very life. It was so high that he asked God to let this “cup” pass from him.
The Lord’s Supper is a meal with God after a fellowship offering — it’s eating a meal with God.  LINK