by Louis Berkhof
in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats
TO some this little treatise on the atonement will undoubtedly seem like the voice of a distant and forgotten past, strangely out of place in the modern world. They cannot conceive of any one still believing the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. Are we not told repeatedly that no sensible man believes this doctrine today? Does not Ballard assert that “all notions of appeasing an angry God, or ‘satisfying’ divine justice, are pagan”; and does not even a Scottish Presbyterian like David Smith relegate this doctrine to the limbo of theological antiquiti es? Has it not become fashionable to ignore it in the pulpit and even to express a horror of “blood-theology”? And do not the winds of doctrine that blow in upon us through the radio represent a strong counter-current?
Happily, however, there is still a goodly number that does not worship at the shrine of the modern spirit, that finds joy and peace in the doctrine of the vicarious sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, and that continues to glory in “the foolishness of the cross.” For them this book may probably be of some service. It may promote a better understanding here and there of this central doctrine of redemption. It may in some cases strengthen and deepen the conviction that the penal substitutionary doctrine is the only Scriptural doctrine of the atonement. And it may help some to defend their position over against those who question this doctrine or even boldly renounce it.
The book is sent forth as a testimony to the truth of the atoning work of Jesus Christ, with the prayer that the Lord of the Church may bless the message which it conveys, and may thus ever-increasingly “see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.”
L. Berkhof.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
A Central Doctrine in Eclipse
Historic Theories of the Atonement
The Historical Occasion for the Atonement
The Necessity of the Atonement
The Atonement in Relation to the Law of God
The Atonement in Relation to the Covenant of Redemption
The Atonement and the Priestly Work of Christ
The Objective Nature of the Atonement
The Vicarious Nature of the Atonement
The Past ane Future Bearings of the Atonement
The Subjective Effects of the Atonement
The Restricted Design of the Atonement
Objections to the Doctrine of a Limited Atonement Considered
Select Literature