Bob Robinson has an excellent post up dealing with some of the current controversy about the Atonement. He is concerned that the gospel has subtely shifted from believing in Jesus to believing in certain facts about Jesus. A subtle, but important difference. Here’s a quote:
The focus of our conversation subtly transferred from faith in Jesus to faith in a set of propositions.
Instead of asking the person to have faith in Jesus, I was asking the
person to have faith in my particular understanding of what happened on
the cross.
But you should really go read the whole thing. It’s a very clear presentation of an important theological issue, and includes pictures of roses!
This is so interesting…I hadn’t thought about this before and now I’ve been chewing on it all day…thanks for the link.
I think that in order to have faith in Jesus Christ in the right way, we have to know something about Him and what He stands for. We have to be familiar with His teachings and be willing to believe and obey what He taught and what He continues to teach thru the Bible. It does no good to say we believe in Christ and call Him “Lord”, but do not believe and strive to practice the way of life He teaches. And if we are to know what He teaches, we have to spend time with the Bible. — author@ptgbook.org
I agree wholeheartedly with that. Knowledge of a person always involves facts about a person, but it can’t be equated with facts about a person. So having faith in Jesus will probably involve believing in the atonement, among other things. But simply believing the facts of the atonement doesn’t necessarily mean I have put the full weight of my trust in Jesus, the person (as revealed in the Bible, of course).