3 debates surrounding the crucifixion

By Brandon Showalter, Opinion writer and social commentator Friday, April 19, 2019

A silhouette of the image of the crucified Christ against a sunset in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. | (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/AntanO)

The crux of the Christian faith is the cross.

This is the moment in history where Jesus Christ, the Son of God, voluntarily laid down His life so that humanity might be set free from sin and restored to life, Christians have believed through the ages.

Yet this pivotal moment that has so much meaning to believers in Jesus worldwide, God incarnate crucified, is fraught with vigorous debate about what exactly Jesus accomplished.

Theologians have for centuries gone back and forth about the nature of the atonement — how Jesus paid for sin and reconciled mankind to God — and the particularities of what unfolded during the Jewish Passover more than 2,000 years ago, where Jesus, the Paschal Lamb, was sacrificed.

Here are three misconceptions, historical errors or seemingly biblical but not specifically scriptural inferences about the crucifixion and the events surrounding the death of Jesus.