Deep Dive: Sin and the Atonement

Service Description

Sometimes, when we look back at things we learned or studied during our time in high-control religion, it's reasonable to think, "What in the world was THAT about?" When the rhetoric was just too bizarre, or the teachings hopelessly confused, or the practices wildly out of pocket, it can be extremely helpful to take a long, slow look at it and compare it to historic Christian practices and teachings. That's what Deep Dives are for. In this five-week mini-cohort, we'll be going right for the jugular and examining the ways the American institutional church has taught about what exactly Jesus was doing on the cross: why was he crucified? Was that necessary? How is this not a divine act of child abuse? And why in the world are we out here punishing innocent people so we can let guilty ones off? Atonement - and especially teachings like penal substitution - is absolutely central to the beliefs of most religions, not just Christianity. But Christianity does have its own unique claims about WHAT atonement is, HOW it's done, WHY it's needed, WHO's doing it, and what it's all FOR. And with so much riding on it, there's been a lot of harm done. Some of that harm has been in the form of plain old confusion. Some has come in the form of high-control religion forcing agreement with extremely narrow modes of belief. And some has come in the form of flat-out abusive teaching and lies. But there's a reason the Bible talks about sin and atonement. And it's probably got very little to do with what you think. Let's take a 'deep dive' together into this subject. We're going to find a lot of clarity about what the Bible is actually trying to say about this subject, and hopefully, a lot of healing and peace.