Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig.

Today, the Doctrine of Christ, Part 17.

For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

Last time we introduced the penal substitution theory of the atonement of the Protestant reformers.

And today we want to continue to look at this theory in greater depth.

One of the greatest of the post-Reformation theologians was the French-Swiss theologian, François Touritaine, who wrote a large three-volume work

called Institutes of Elytic Theology.

Now, if you're like me, you've never heard of the word elenctic before. What in the world

is elenctic theology? Well, elenctic theology is theology that is developed in conversation with one's opponents.

And so Turitaine's work is of great value because he develops his theology in conversation

with those who oppose it.

And in particular, with regard to the doctrine of the atonement,

he is responding to the work of the 16th century Unitarian theologian theologian, Faustus,

Socinus. Socinus wrote a withering critique of the reformer's doctrine of penal substitution that

is remarkably relevant even today, and the movement of Socinianism that stemmed from Faustus

Sosinus continues to exert influence even today among theologians who find his objections to penal

substitution often to be unanswerable. But Turitin, in his institutes of

Electic theology, sought to respond to Socinus in other opposing points of view.

He treats the doctrine of the atonement in topic number 14, questions 10 to 14.

And we want to look more closely at what he has to say on that score.

Turretin's doctrine of the atonement is founded upon his theory of justice, which is crucial because this is where he departs from Sosinus.

Turitin holds that retributive justice, or what he called punitive justice, is essential to God's

...