Quote from Kenneth Grider

[cih1355]

The following is a quote from Kenneth Grider. I found it to be interesting.

"A spillover from Calvinism into Arminianism has occurred in recent decades. Thus many Arminians whose theology is not very precise say that Christ paid the penalty for our sins. Yet such a view is foreign to Arminianism, which teaches instead that Christ suffered for us. Arminians teach that what Christ did he did for every person; therefore what he did could not have been to pay the penalty, since no one would then ever go into eternal perdition. Arminianism teaches that Christ suffered for everyone so that the Father could forgive the ones who repent and believe; his death is such that all will see that forgiveness is costly and will strive to cease from anarchy in the world God governs. This view is called the governmental theory of the atonement."

The quote is taken from this web page: Arminianism

That web page has a collection of articles taken from different sources. The above quote from Kenneth Grider ultimately comes from the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, by Elwell.

 

[Jimmy the Greek]

True. Arminianism (especially today in Wesleyanism) is associated with the Governmental View of the Atonement developed by Hugo Grotius. The following is excerpted from Governmental theory of atonement - Theopedia

This view of the atonement was developed by Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) in his writing against the Socininans expounded in "Defensio Fidei Catholicae de Satisfactione Christi adversus F. Socinum (1636). Grotius, a theological Arminian, utilized "governmental" semantics due to his training in law and his general view of God as moral governor (ruler) of the universe. Grotius sought to demonstrate that the atonement appeased God in the divine role as cosmic king and judge.

This view is contrasted with that of the Satisfaction theory formulated by Anselm (1033-1109), and the subsequent Penal substitution theory held by the Reformers which argues that Jesus received the actual punishment due to men and women.

Governmental Atonement became the prominent view in Arminianism and has prospered in traditional Methodism where it has been detailed by 19th century Methodist theologian John Miley in his Atonement in Christ and his Systematic Theology (ISBN 0943575095) and more recently by Nazarene theologian J. Kenneth Grider in his 1994 book A Wesleyan-Holiness Theology (ISBN 0834115123).