{"id":22862,"date":"2023-09-05T10:20:06","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T14:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22862"},"modified":"2023-09-05T10:25:53","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T14:25:53","slug":"22862","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22862","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Amazing Love (You Are My King) - Hillsong.wmv\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/avJ4lDnZWRU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">At-One-Ment Not Atonement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Franciscan alternative orthodoxy emphasized incarnation more than redemption. Franciscans did not believe that God sent Jesus to earth to die as a substitutionary atonement* for our sins. Father Richard summarizes:&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the thirteenth century, the Franciscans and the Dominicans were the church\u2019s debating society, as it were. We were allowed to have minority positions in those days. We invariably took opposing positions in the great debates in the universities of Paris, Cologne, and Oxford, and neither opinion was kicked out of the church at that time.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In these debates, Thomas Aquinas (1225\u20131274) and the Dominicans were being true to the Scriptures, the Jewish temple metaphors of sacrifice, price, and atonement. Many passages can give the impression that a ransom is required. But our Franciscan teacher, Blessed John Duns Scotus (c. 1266\u20131308), who founded the theological chair at Oxford, said that <strong>Jesus\u2019 crucifixion didn\u2019t solve any problems with God or change God\u2019s mind about us. God\u2019s mind didn\u2019t need changing. Rather, Jesus was changing&nbsp;<em>our<\/em>&nbsp;mind about God!&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Duns Scotus <strong>built his argument on a New Testament understanding of the pre-existent Cosmic Christ in Colossians, Ephesians, and John\u2019s Gospel. Jesus is \u201cthe image of the invisible God\u201d (Colossians 1:15), who came forward in a moment of time so we could look upon \u201cthe One we have pierced\u201d (John 19:37) and see God\u2019s unconditional love\u2014and at the same time, see what humans do to almost everything\u2014and God\u2019s unconditional love-response to that. <\/strong>[1]&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Duns Scotus firmly believed that God\u2019s freedom had to be maintained at all costs. <strong>If God \u201cneeded\u201d or demanded a blood sacrifice to love God\u2019s own creation, then God was not&nbsp;<em>freely&nbsp;<\/em>loving us<\/strong>. Duns Scotus taught that Christ was Plan A from the very beginning (see Colossians 1:15\u201320; Ephesians 1:3\u201314; John 1:1\u201318). Christ wasn\u2019t a Plan B after the first humans sinned, which is the way most people seem to understand the significance of Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection. <strong>The Great Mystery of Incarnation was not motivated by a problem but by&nbsp;<em>love<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Franciscan view grounds Christianity in love and freedom from the very beginning. It creates a coherent and positive spirituality, which draws us toward lives of inner depth, prayer, reconciliation, healing, and universal at-one-ment, instead of any notion of sacrifice, which implies an angry God who needs to be bought off.<\/strong> [2]&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the cross, Jesus bears the consequences of hatred publicly,<strong> but in an utterly new way that consists of forgiveness and letting go.<\/strong> We finally call it \u201cresurrection,\u201d not just for Jesus\u2019 body, but for all of history. A new and possible storyline is set forth. If God and Jesus are not hateful, violent, punitive, torturing, or vindictive, then our excuse for the same is forever taken away from us. Jesus\u2019 entire journey told people two major things: <strong>that life could have a positive storyline, and that God was far different and far better than we ever thought.<\/strong> [3]&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-1-481x500.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22864\" width=\"788\" height=\"819\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-1-481x500.png 481w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-1-289x300.png 289w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-1-768x798.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-1.png 1038w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 788px) 100vw, 788px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At-One-Ment Not Atonement Franciscan alternative orthodoxy emphasized incarnation more than redemption. Franciscans did not believe that God sent Jesus to earth to die as a substitutionary atonement* for our sins. Father Richard summarizes:&nbsp;&nbsp; In the thirteenth century, the Franciscans and the Dominicans were the church\u2019s debating society, as it were. We were allowed to have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22862"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22862"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22868,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22862\/revisions\/22868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}