March 15, 2010 issue
Canadian MBs plan atonement statement
By Mennonite Weekly Review staffWINNIPEG, Man. — Responding to constituents’ concerns, a Canadian Mennonite Brethren leadership board plans to write a statement on Christ’s atonement for sin.
The Board of Faith and Life of the Canadian Conference of MB Churches is writing the statement after holding a study conference last year on “Confessing Christ in a Pluralistic World.”
The statement will go to conference delegates for ratification and then be added to the commentary on the church’s Confession of Faith, a news release stated.
Different understandings of the atonement have caused disagreement within parts of the Canadian MB community. Some members are concerned that some theologians are de-emphasizing or questioning penal substitution, which traditionally has been evangelicals’ dominant way of understanding the atonement.
At the study conference last October in Saskatoon, Sask., Mark Baker, a professor at Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in Fresno, Calif., and author of Recovering the Scandal of the Cross and Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross, acknowledged his writings had generated controversy, the MB Herald reported. He said he affirmed Jesus’ substitutionary death. Baker advocates “following the New Testament in using a diversity of images” for atonement and critiques any theory presented as the only explanation.
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