As I said in the first of these posts – atonement – ‘asking the question‘ this subject is a right old rabbits’ maze of dimly lit tunnels. One question leads to another and another and another – you get the idea. It is easy to get lost (unless you are a rabbit) and at times, you need to go back to the start…
Whatever people say, the bible does tie together. Sure, there are difficult, weird and mysterious bits.
People say that you can see Jesus throughout the Old Testament. This is of course one of those statements that is cited without much thought. Is it really true? Every part? Given that it can be helpful to look at the OT this way, then it stands to reason that the reverse must also be helpful – as you look at Jesus it inevitably leads you back to the Old Testament. Some think that everything points to the cross, and suggest that the cross is where ‘atonement’ happened. Others think that it was at the temptation that the victory over sin, and the devil was won. Still others prefer to consider the incarnation – that Jesus became human that we might become divine. (Athanasius succinctly put this ‘ The Word was made flesh in order that we might be made gods’, though it was a common idea among the early church, and still is in the Orthodox – but takes time for evangelicals to absorb ref).
Back to our foundational mythology
If you are going to look at what the atonement really is about then it is probably a good idea to at least have something of a look at what problem that atonement solves. This is obvious – and means we need to look at sin. But, in true ‘warren’ style if you want to get a fuller understanding of the concept of sin you need to think what the effects of sin are on…. well just about everything really. And in order to get this you need to go back to the foundational mythology of our faith. Back to Paradise, and back to our divine Mother and Father and their place within it
To more fully grasp how far the human race has fallen, it is necessary to get a sense of the heights on which it started out, the way that Yahweh Elohim conceived us to be within our cosmos and the wonderful (awesome) things that he had prepared for us to do.
Sounds familiar? Exciting? You bet.
We begin this with looking at human identity – re-presentation.