What is Atonement

holyrokker said:

I would like to participate is a civil, respectful discussion about atonement.

Here is my initial offering:

Imagine a young couple in a heated argument: angry voices, hurtful words, doors being slammed, followed by tense silence.

They still love each other, but they can’t undo what has been done.

The young husband, regretting his words, buys some flowers the next day and brings them to his wife as a token of his remorse. She accepts the flowers and throws her arms around him, forgiving him completely.

In a sense, the flowers represent an atonement. The young bride does not forgive her husband because of the flowers. She forgives him because of her love for him. The flowers symbolize the young man’s contrite heart.

Similarly, the motivation for God’s forgiveness of our sins is not the death of Christ, but rather His love toward us.

Click to expand...

Its a reconciling and sufficient covering of something or some union or agreement which has been severed....

Atonementthe Jewish Encyclopedia)The setting at one, or reconciliation, of two estranged parties—translation used in the Authorized Version for "kapparah," "kippurim." The root ("kipper"), to make atonement, is explained by W. Robertson Smith ("Old Testament in the Jewish Church," i. 439), after the Syriac, as meaning "to wipe out." This is also the view taken by Zimmern ("Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Babylonischen Religion," 1899, p. 92), who claims Babylonian origin for both the term and the rite. Wellhausen ("Composition des Hextateuchs," p. 335) translates "kapparah" as if derived from "kapper" (to cover). The verb, however, seems to be a derivative from the noun "kofer" (ransom) and to have meant originally "to atone."

This root meaning (kofer) fits nicely with the meaning and purpose of redemption (fulfilling all or part of a ransom or payment due)