Pesky Philistines and the Trouble with Chariots

I am painfully aware that to many of my fellow Christians, especially those who have walked some way along life’s road with me, my rejection of the inerrancy of Scripture and of a Penal Substitution understanding of atonement has seemed like an abandonment of my faith. I also realise that many take my criticisms of certain theological positions quite personally. And I need to warn such readers that this post might well be received in that way. But here is what I wish they would see: I reject these doctrines not because I am rejecting God, nor because I intend to insult those who see God through the lenses of those doctrines, but because these doctrines (the doctrines, independent of the people who hold them) are not worthy of God. I am not rejecting God, but inferior ways of seeing God, and even then, not on a personal level, but…