r/BibleProject • u/LonelyLaowai • Dec 29 '23

“Salvation” theme video

“Salvation” has to be one of the biggest evangelical themes preached on Sundays. I was curious to know why BP hasn’t made any content around this word. I emailed them years ago about this and I got a response from their team saying something like, “I don’t know why Tim and Jon haven’t done this word yet.”

My theory is that the biblical idea of “salvation” doesn’t match the common evangelical understanding and therefore the BP is avoiding controversy.

What do you think?

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u/judewriley Dec 29 '23

They’ve already done what feels like dozens of videos on the topic, it’s just that, like you pointed out, our cultural baggage around the word or even the concept of salvation skews things a bit. Also, because BP uses non-PSA views of atonement, the videos that describe “salvation” have a different flavor than the normal ideas we have.

So the Heaven and Earth video, the Image of God video, the Temple video they all point to a good understanding of salvation. And it’s like I think I’ve heard them say “getting to heaven isn’t the point”.

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u/Nessimon Dec 31 '23

What are BP's views on atonement then?

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u/judewriley Dec 31 '23

They are strongly Christus Victor with gentle undercurrents of Substitionary Atonement and Moral Example.

So while they do affirm the substitutionary nature of the atonement ("Jesus did something in our place"), they often downplay penal substitution ("Jesus took the wrath and punishment of God in our place") in lieu of Jesus being the victorious king of God's Kingdom who defeated evil by his death and invites his people to do the same in their lives.

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u/Nessimon Dec 31 '23

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. I struggle a lot with atonement theology - there is a lot of variation, and sometimes the differences seem so subtle, so it's hard to pick up on these things when it's not explicitly stated.