Perhaps unwittingly, here’s a glimpse at the bleak future of the American Christian Church from Christianity Today:

At the 2006 Ancient Evangelical Future conference, historian Martin Marty commented briefly on the Atonement theories proposed by the early church. Did the church fathers hold to penal substitution, Christus Victor, or Anselm’s view of the Atonement? Yes. All of the above.

Panelists pressed Marty to declare one view or another the "right" one. Whatever one thinks, he responded, the reality is that the church held to multiple versions.

The same is true today, in evangelical thinking about the nature of the gospel. Because we are a biblical people, we want to preserve the gospel in as pure a form as possible, which is why many people and institutions (like this magazine) prioritize substitutionary Atonement. But because we are an evangelistic, missional people, we want to contextualize the gospel to reach as many as possible…

You see, where human beings might not think a proper view of the single most important event in human history–the Atonement–is important, one is hard-pressed to think that it’s a light matter to our Creator Who left the glory of Heaven to be brutally tortured and murdered by His Own creatures. CRN thinks there’s just the slightest possibility Christ would appreciate His Church to proclaim His glory concerning His indescribable sacrifice.