For two thousand years, Christians have understood the death of Jesus to be substitutionary—a sacrifice that paid for our sins. From the earliest creeds to the teaching of the New Testament to the writings of the Church Fathers to today, this has been a core belief of Christianity throughout its history. But in modern times, this idea is being repudiated as “Cosmic Child Abuse.” On today’s show, we are going to address these questions:

• What is the historic belief of the Christian church on atonement?
• Why does God have wrath and how can that be a good thing?
• Is penal substitutionary atonement a late invention of medieval Christians?
• If God required the sacrifice of his Son, doesn’t that make him a Divine child abuser?
• If I can just forgive people without a sacrifice, why can’t God?