Berkley Professor of Theology Rita Nakashima Brock says that “Christ’s death upon the cross has no place in authentic Christianity,” and that “the atonement of Christ was a concoction of male church leaders in the 10th century when they began celebrating bread and wine communion.” How would you confront her comments?

There has never been a period in Christian history when the significance and the necessity of the cross have been more controversial than in our present day. It never ceases to amaze me how contemporary theologians and other post-modern academicians will accept such statements by Brock without challenge. Her comments are clearly wrong on a number of historical points.

The Christian faith has always had the cross as its universal symbol because of the person and work of Jesus Christ. The cross is the most crucial aspect of Jesus’ person and work; the cross is at the very center of biblical Christianity as it crystallizes the essence of the ministry of Jesus.

For Brock to contend that the cross has “no place in authentic Christianity” is diametrically opposed to what Paul wrote, “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” (I Cor. 2:1-2)

The focal point of Paul’s teaching was simply, “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Perhaps Brock slept during that portion of her biblical studies classes that would have pointed out Paul wrote these words some 950 years before her fantasized 10th century happenings.

With regard to communion, again in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul raises these questions, “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?” Why did Paul raise these questions if communion would not yet be “concocted” for another 950 years?

“The Didache (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles),” written by the early church fathers around 150 AD, contains instructions about the Eucharist. In addition it records the oldest known Christian Eucharistic prayers.

Ignatius’ letter to the Philadelphians, written around 100 AD, directs the readers to “Take care, therefore, to participate in one Eucharist.” In his letter to the Smyrnaeans he writes of heretics who abstain from the Eucharist because they refuse to acknowledge that “Jesus Christ suffered for our sins” and goes on to state that it is not permissible to either baptize or to hold a Eucharist without a bishop.

Justin Martyr in his “First Apology” (an early work, dated 150 to 155 AD of Christian apologetics addressed to the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius) writes concerning the Eucharist, that “no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration.” But perhaps Brock had an excused absence from her church history classes that dealt with the writings of the Apostolic Fathers.

True, the word “atonement” is rare in the New Testament. It occurs only once in the KJV at Rom 5:11, and not at all in many other translations. But the idea of the atonement is there throughout the Scriptures. It was through the suffering and death of the Son of God that the redemption of the world was achieved. It was not a concoction of 10th century male church leaders to exercise power over people; it was not as Brock teaches, “when the masses were duped into depending on the sacrificial Jesus.”

Unfortunately those who support the teachings of Rita Nakashima Brock in the name of “progressive theology” fail to understand that our Christian faith stands or falls with the identification and involvement of God Himself with the crucified Christ. It is only when we allow our thoughts to be held captive by every grim scene at Calvary, when we have fully appreciated the horror and desolation of the cross, when we have knelt at the foot of the cross in adoration and in amazement, that we realize the full wonder of the gospel of the crucified and risen Son of God.