A Defense of the Redemptive Power of the Cross of Christ in Light of the Ministry of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and the Death of George Floyd

In this lecture for United Lutheran Seminary, I seek to defend the biblical conviction that the cross of Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and is a call for radical solidarity with one another against the thesis of new theologians such as Richard Rohr that would seek to draw a wedge between the earthly ministry of Jesus and his execution. According to contemporary theologians, the death of Jesus is a horrendous tragedy and should not be held up as a sign of anything other than a great tragedy.

However, as a committed Christian who believes in the atoning power of Jesus’ death for the forgiveness of my sins, I have submitted this lecture responding to these claims drawing on contemporary history in the 20th Century and events in the 21st pointing out how indebted we are to the message of the cross. While I emphasize these historic moments, I offer neither a conservative of liberal political affirmation of them, but only list them as recent examples where humanity was called to respond with love and protest as a result of their conviction of the atoning power and suffering.