In this post I’ll explain the goals of our trip, introduce the Latin America leadership team, and recount some of the highlights of our brief, yet productive, trip that lasted a total of four days (with a day of travel on each end). It was a quick, hard-hitting, Spirit-led adventure.

Continuing on from the previous weeks, we will talk about two more themes in the atonement and apply them to counseling. The themes are propitiation and expiation. Propitiation is God’s wrath satisfied, the payment of sin accounted for and God’s wrath turned into favor. Expiation is the wiping away of sin. The debt of sin no longer stands against us. The debt is cancelled; the sin is removed.

I have the humbling and exciting responsibility of serving as the US Area Director for Acts 29 International over Latin America. Two weeks ago I, along with several other key leaders, traveled to Ecuador to help lead and teach the very first Acts 29 church planting conference in Latin America. Its taken a couple weeks to process my time there. This blog series will tell you a bit of the story. In this post I’ll explain a little about our work in Latin America.

Halloween provides an opportunity to be missional. (Mt 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; John 20:21; Mt 11:19) Our God is a sending God who sent his Son to live, die and rise again for the forgiveness of sin and redeemed life with God. As God’s people, we too are now sent. That means we should be where the community is, doing what the community is doing. This was Jesus’ model and he was called a glutton and drunkard because of it.

So, what do we do with Halloween? First, we shouldn’t merely accept it nor quickly dismiss it. The history of Halloween is muddled and unclear. As scripture is unclear on the matter, each of us must give careful thought to the question. The issue we’re dealing with here is one of conscience, which means the end product may differ from Christian to Christian. This also means we have to be careful when speaking to others whose consciences may be weak in this area (1 Cor 8). Ultimately this is an open-handed issue.

Let’s first cover a bit of the history of his sugar-coated holiday. (Disclaimer: The history of this holiday is long, complex, interwoven and often debated. This is my attempt at synthesizing my research and findings.)
There are signs that in the early 4th century the church had a day, the specific day is unknown, during which they celebrated the lives of well-known Christians. Several hundred years later on May 13th, 610 AD, Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon and established that day to specifically celebrate Mary and the martyrs of the Church.

The history of Halloween is long, complex and somewhat uncertain. Halloween, as we celebrate it today, can be traced back to pagan, Catholic, and relatively recent American roots. It is therefore difficult to pinpoint any one single source of this over-commercialized holiday, let alone a general consensus as to what it actually means.

This week, I am going to explain how Christus Victor flows from penal substitution in the atonement and how it applies in counseling. In the blog addressing penal substitution, I mentioned that the atonement is central to our faith and that penal substitution is central to the atonement, which flows right into Christus Victor.

Missio Dei is a latin theological term that means the “sending of God”. The term highlights the truth that mission is birthed from the trinitarian nature of God. God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus Christ (John 12:45,49;16:5). God the Father and Son sent God the Spirit (John 15:26;14:16,26). Now, God the Father, Son and Spirit send the church (John 17:18;20:21).

I am going to spend the next couple of weeks talking about how the atonement works in counseling and in our lives as Christians. When we look at Scripture with a biblical theology lens, from Genesis to Revelation, everything points to the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross is where transformation occurs and change happens. As I said last week, we view counseling as the great commission, making disciples out of men.