Over the past couple months or so, I've become increasing interested in Eastern Christianity (the Orthodox church); it's a little hard to describe. Perhaps a logical progression from Anglicanism. I found this video series on YouTube recently, regarding God's justice from the perspective of the East:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D28MWNYGYAUI know that the series is quite long. (And Protestants may not like the early mention of the book of Wisdom.) However, I wanted to get some input from others on the concepts posited from Scripture, and from the Early Fathers. I'm condensing this far too much, but here are some ideas:
- God does not desire spiritual death; it is not an exactment of punishment. It is a result of man separating himself from God (sin), the source of life.
- Christ was not punished by God the Father on the Cross. The incarnation of Christ, becoming fully God and fully man, living as a man, and indeed dying, and raising Himself from the dead, is Christ's victory over the power of sin and death, and the redemption of human nature.
I have never heard the nature of sin, and the Atonement described in this way. What do you think?
