Nathan Pitchford points out a major flaw in the Christus Victor theory of the atonement currently gaining ground in new evangelicalism and the emerging church through Greg Boyd who is also an advocate of Open Theism. Apprising Ministries encourages you to keep an eye out for both because anything that’s anti-establishment (hello 1960’s) and “new,” when in reality these views are not new at all, the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church latches right onto it.

In fact, recently Boyd spoke at Mars Hill Bible Church and as one listens to the message Boyd tells us that it was Rob Bell who asked him to speak on this Christus Victor theory. But in this short piece over at Reformed Theology Pitchford writes:

It is a tragedy of the highest degree that so many theologians today are emphasizing such models of the atoning work of the Savior as Christus Victor to the minimization of penal substitution. The tragedy is not that the reality of Christ’s conquering Satan through his work on the cross is acknowledged or even emphasized, but rather that this idea is passed off to some degree as mutually exclusive of his bearing his people’s sins, and undergoing the just wrath of the Father in their place.

The highlighted part illustrates for you the enemy’s point of attack. And the following Scripture comes to mind about these preachers of apostasy in the new evangelical and emerging church – from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them (Acts 20:30).

You can read this entire short informative piece by Pitchford right here.