Propitiation is often confused with atonement. When the definition of the word is understood as appeasing a deity, Christian theologians don't consider that the god of this world is the one that has to be appeased but that the God of Creation is the one who requires appeasement.
Often Christian writers will make statements such as: "The only way for God’s wrath against sinful man to be appeased is through the blood and death of animals in the Old Testament and ultimately through Jesus Christ." This creates the impression that the Lord of Creation is an ogre who created man with the intention of purposely causing suffering and then extracting delightful revenge.
The lack of coherence in Christian theology is exemplified by the idea that the Lord of Creation is a wrathful being, hell-bent on punishment. With this in mind, it is easy to understand how doctrines that claim God created some humans for punishment and others for unmerited favor and divine blessings for eternity. The pundits who adhere to these views also demonstrate "cognitive dissonance" when they claim that they are saved by grace and then insist that works need to be performed to demonstrate that a person is saved by this irresistible grace.
Commenting on the use of the word "propitiation" and highlighting the difficulty and incoherent use of the idea to appease the wrath of God, Elliot's Commentary For English Readers states:
A propitiation.—The Greek word properly means “that which renders propitious.” Here, “that which renders God propitious.” In some way, which is not explained at all in this passage, and imperfectly explained elsewhere, the death of Christ did act so as to render God “propitious” towards men. He became more ready to pardon as they became more anxious to be pardoned.
The idea that the Lord God Creator of Heaven and Earth needs to be appeased to satisfy his need for blood, or placating to quell his anger is foreign to the idea of the righteous God of love and compassion extending grace to Adam and Eve and all their descendants.
Adam and Eve became corrupt when they rejected the Word of God and followed their own temptations. Nevertheless, God understanding that there were mitigating circumstances imputed His righteousness to the Man (male and female) and descendants as a matter of grace, unmerited favor. To say that God now requires appeasement as if he were a blood-thirsty deity is inconsistent with what He has done by imputing His righteousness and extending grace to every human being.
The American Heritage Dictionary provides us with the following definitions of "propitiate", from which "propitiation" is derived:
1. a. To placate or attempt to placate (a threatening nation, for example) by granting concessions, often at the expense of principle.
b. To calm, soothe, or quiet (someone): appeased the baby with a pacifier. See Synonyms at pacify.
2. To satisfy, relieve, or assuage: appease one's thirst.
Vines Complete Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words states that the Greek word ἱλάσκομαι (hilaskomai) translated "propitiation":
in profane Greek meant to conciliate, appease, propitiate, cause the gods to be reconciled; their goodwill was not regarded as their natural condition, but as something to be earned. The heathen believed their gods to be naturally alienated in feeling from Man. In the N.T. the word never means to conciliate God....
HILASKOMAI (ἱλάσκομαι) was used amongst the Greeks with the significance to make the gods propitious, to appease, propitiate inasmuch as their good will was not conceived as their natural attitude, but something to be earned first. This use of the word is foreign to the Greek bible, with respect to God, within in the Septuagint or the New Testament. It is never used of any act whereby man brings God into a favourable attitude or gracious disposition….
Through the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, he who believes upon Him is by God’s own act delivered from justly deserved wrath, and comes under the covenant of grace. Never is God said to be reconciled, a fact itself indicative that the enmity exists on man’s part alone, and that it is man who needs to be reconciled to God, and not God to man. God is always the same and, since He is Himself immutable His relative attitude does change towards those who change. He can act differently towards those who come to Him by faith, and solely on the ground of the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, not because He has changed but because He ever acts according to His unchanging righteousness.
What becomes clear is that propitiation is the heathen idea of appeasing a deity, so that the ogre would not injure the party seeking conciliation. The Bible does not teach that God seeks to be appeased by man, yet a propitiatory sacrifice was offered by God. This means that someone had to be appeased, or placated by having their lust for blood satisfied.
The English Standard Version of the Bible uses the word "propitiation" four times:
[Lord Jesus Christ] whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. (Romans 3:25)
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17)
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
In respect to Romans 3:25, the blood was the appeasing, placating, and satisfying factor that showed God's righteousness. Vine points out that man didn't have to do anything to appease, placate or satisfy God through some act along the lines of heathen thinking, whether it be the act of sacrificing some animal or another human (Hebrews 10:6). Understanding why God needed to demonstrate that He Himself is righteous is where the problem lies for these theologian, who seem to have their headspace imbedded in worldly ideas, rather than realizing Who God actually Is, even though they give the impression that they know He is the Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent One, and there is no other (Isaiah 45:21-22).
In Hebrews 2:17, we are told that the Son of God had to be made like humans in every respect so that he could appease the sins of the people, and thereby become a merciful and faithful high priest of God. The parallel of the Melchizedek priesthood with the Levitical order is compared in the book of Hebrews. The Levites offered sacrifices to God that were of no avail (Hebrews 10:11), because they could not satisfy the demands of God's righteousness, nor satisfy the bloodthirstiness of someone, like the offering of the body of the righteous Jesus of Nazareth could. Jesus offering of Himself fulfilled the criteria demanded of God, but not His wrath or bloodthirstiness.
The Apostle John and the Apostle Paul use the term "the wrath of God". The Apostle Paul especially gives the impression that God is merely enduring time until the day He vents His wrath. But, as does the Apostle John, the Apostle Paul is speaking in a human way (Romans 3:5), but with the idea of the "righteous judgement of God" impregnated within their expression. They are not speaking as the heathens understand wrath. Heathens see themselves as satisfying the desires of a deity with a blood sacrifice, whether animal or human. There is no doubt that Israelites may also have misinterpreted God as a bloodthirsty ogre, rather than the righteous God who delights in justice, mercy, love (cf. Jer. 9:24; Matt 23:23).
Reading the passages of Scripture there always seem to be something that is alluded to when speaking of God's wrath or the sacrificial offering at Calvary of Lord Jesus Christ, which commentators seem to have difficulty explaining. The paradox of a human sacrifice being an appeasement of God's wrath and an demonstration of His righteousness to Himself, just doesn't make sense to the discerning mind. The Apostle John's portrayal of the Son of God sacrificial offering of Himself as the propitiation of our sins being an expression of the love of God, may seem to answer the question of appeasement for many; except it doesn't.
Helps Word Studies appeals to the idea of appeasing God's wrath when it comments on what the Apostle John has to say about the Son of God being the propitiation for sins:
hilasmós – properly, propitiation; an offering to appease (satisfy) an angry, offended party. (hilasmós) is only used twice (1 Jn 2:2, 4:10) – both times of Christ's atoning blood that appeases God's wrath, on all confessed sin. By the sacrifice of Himself, Jesus Christ provided the ultimate /hilasmós ("propitiation").
Can you believe that the God who created the Universe and everything in it is an angry offended person who needs to appeased or He will take pleasure in torturing people for eternity. This has been the message of the Church ever since the Roman Catholic Church became the predominate organized religious entity in the Roman Empire. The Calvinists saw no reason to alter this view. It just fits in with the Jewish interpretation of the "chosen" and the heathen, who are not chosen, but are condemned to eternity to suffer unbearable torturous pain. Calvin being a crypto--Jew might go a long way towards explaining this teaching being perpetuated today.
Concerning wrath, the book of Revelation informs us that there is another who takes pleasure venting his wrath upon the people of the Earth. We read:
But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short! (Revelation 12:12b)
The heathen sacrifice to the Devil. They have many gods These gods come under the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) for the present time, not the God of the Universe. The god of this world has gained access to all the wealth and all that was originally given to the Man (Genesis 1:26-30). This he boasted of when tempting Jesus in the worldliness:
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” (Matthew 4:8-9)
If the Devil did not have possession of all the kingdoms of the world, which entails having all the kings and people of the Earth as his subjects, then he would not have been able to offer them to Jesus as a temptation. What was given to the Man (male and female) before the Fall, the Devil was able to take captive for himself. The Man exercised his freewill and listened to the voice of the Devil. Jesus of Nazareth exercised his freewill and said:
Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
The Devil had everything that was originally given to the Man. Now he was the god of this world. The Man was given that status, initially, having been created in the image of God, but now the Devil has become the god of this world, and people need to appease him if they are to succeed in this world. Indeed, those who rule the affairs of men, worship the Devil. Fortunately, as the Son of Man, Lord Jesus understood what His mission was, and He was not going to appease the Devil by worshiping Him.
All the heathen nations and nominal Christians worship the Devil. All who do not worship and serve the Lord God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, are servants and Devil worshipers, whether they know it or not. Their will is to do their father's desires (John 8:44). He was a liar from the beginning and they have been captured by the Devil to do his will (2 Timothy 2:26).
When Jesus was taken to the top of a high mountain and shown all the kingdoms of the Earth in a moment of time, He could have worshiped the Devil, if He so desired. This would not have given Jesus His rightful place as the Lord of Creation, because the Devil would have still been god of this world, and the Son of God would have been subject to him. Instead, Jesus had to take back what was rightfully His and do so by demonstrating the righteousness of God. This He did by appeasing the wrath of the god of this world.
When Jesus was on the cross, the god of death took him to Hell. The Devil in taking the life of the righteous man he was satisfying his desire for blood. As god of this world, by taking the offering of a righteous man, he was appeasing his claim to the kingdoms of the Earth and the posterity of the Man. Whatever claim the Devil had over the subjects of the kingdoms of the Earth through Adam and Eve had now been appeased. Even if the Devil wasn't placated by having consumed the body of the righteous man on the Cross of Calvary, there was nothing he could do about it. He no longer had reign over the kingdoms of the world, even if he still had reign over subjects who sinned and allowed him to take them captive.
The sacrificial offering of the body that had been prepared for the Son of God (Hebrews 10:5) to enter at birth became the propitiation for sin by virtue of the Evil One accepting it and consuming the Son of Man, taking Him to Hades (1 Peter 3:18-19). Lord Jesus Christ being God Himself possessed the power of an indestructible life (Hebrews 7:16), so the Devil could not contain Him in the chains of darkness and death. Jesus rose from the dead, triumphantly, leading forth a host of captives that had been taken into captivity (1 Cor. 15:20; Eph.4:8).
The aspect of Christ's death that had to with propitiation had nothing to do with appeasing the wrath of God the Father, rather it was about appeasing the wrath of the Devil and satisfying his desire for innocent blood in order to placate the legal stranglehold through which he held sway over the Man, who inadvertently gave him the right over the kingdoms of the world. Humans, unfortunately, are stuck in darkness because the god of this world has blinded their minds from understanding the truth. Only when we turn to God, and begin seeking Him out, do we begin to grasp the meaning of being enlightened and growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Devil still accuses everyone who looks to God and then sins. This becomes clear when we consider the following Scripture:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2)
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. (Revelation 12:10)
There is no need for an advocate if there is no accuser. When there is an accuser acting like a prosecutor in a court of law, the accused can either defend themselves, if innocent, or make use of a lawyer or an advocate to act on the their behalf. If guilty, on behalf of the accused the advocate can plead mitigating circumstances. For someone who is guilty of what they have been accused, for that individual to plead mitigating circumstances that will lessen the punishment, just doesn't cut it. Hence, the reason a third party to act as an advocate on behalf of the accused.
The book of Job tells the story of a man who unwittingly overstepped the line and began sacrificing on behalf of his children, believing that his actions would make amends for sins committed by on their behalf. Now Job was covering for his children just in case they sinned against God. What Job wasn't doing was let his children take responsibility for their own actions and then coming to make amends themselves, if need be. Job overstood the mark. Apart from this, Job was walking righteously before the Lord.
The Devil, aka Satan, came before God and accused Job of being protected by the Lord. If not, Job himself would curse God. Satan was given every opportunity to cause harm to Job, but not permission to take his life. The story of Job and his accusers is a fascinating account of how one man wears the shame of being stripped of all his wealth and physical integrity, even smelling from foul sores covering his body, yet without cursing God. The God of the Universe was not his accuser and neither was He the one inflicting sorrow upon Job. The god of this world was the one delightfully inflicting pain upon Job.
Those who are not looking to God and not seeking to express faith towards Him, the Devil is not worried about. Those who do look to God, the Devil is very worried about. Keeping them from lifting Lord Jesus Christ higher is his current objective. For when Jesus is lifted higher, He draws all men unto to himself (cf. John 12:32-34).
Out advocate is Lord Jesus Christ the righteous one who gave Himself as the propitiation to the Devil to make amends for us not asking to be born into a world of sin and death. Jesus was invited to worship the Devil, but he refused. The Devil was given the opportunity to take an innocent life, and he could not help himself but do according to his nature. He was a murderer from the beginning and the father of lies. Not only does the Devil deceive others, he deceives himself. In claiming the life of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary, the Devil was accepting the innocence of one man to placate his claims on all men.
Innocent blood had spilled on to the ground when Cain murdered his brother Abel. Once more innocent blood was spilled onto the ground when the Devil consumed the body of Jesus Christ.
His strength is hunger-bitten, and calamity is ready for his stumbling. By disease his skin is consumed, the first-born of death consumes his limbs. He is torn from the tent in which he trusted, and is brought to the king of terrors. (Job 18:12-14 RSV)
When Moses was sent by God to Pharaoh in Egypt, he was told:
And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my first-born son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me”; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son.’” (Exodus 4:22-23 RSV)
Israel was the firstborn of nations unto God and a type of the church, the assembly of the Firstborn (Hebrews 12:23). Pharaoh was a type of the Devil, the firstborn of death, and his firstborn a type of Cain (1 John 3:12). The firstborn of God was to slay the firstborn of death, who had consumed his limbs and riddled his body with disease and become the firstborn from the dead (Jn. 12:31;16:11; Col. 1:18; 2:15; 1 Jn. 3:8).
Appeasing the Devil's appetite for innocent blood enabled God to make amends on behalf of what occurred in the Garden of Eden and ensued as a consequence of the Man's (Genesis 5:2) actions. For sin entered the world through one man and death spread to all men (except Enoch and Elijah) because all men sinned (Romans 5:12).
The innocent blood of Jesus, in which is the life of the flesh (Lev.17:14; Deut.12:23), became the propitiation for sins committed by members of the human race.
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