Children, Youth and a New Kind of Christianity (CYNKC) conference, sponsored in part by the Emergent Village, and hosted by Emergent Church leader Brian McLaren had much to say:

Carl Stauffer, professor of Development and Justice Studies at Eastern Mennonite University, warned against the Bible’s “seemingly divinely ordained violence.” Emergent Church guru Brian McLaren similarly worried about how church-going parents can give their children “loaded guns” in the form of “texts of terror” condoning war and other violence. He wondered whether unfiltered Bible-reading could “leave them with the idea that God is violent.” And he warned: “Bible-preaching/teaching/reading people are the most dangerous in the world for Muslims.”

Almeda Wright, professor of Religion and Youth Ministry at Pfeiffer University, confessed a worry about “a Gospel narrative of redemptive suffering…I have a problem with redemptive suffering.” She summarized: “We are saved when we suffer; we are saved when violence is done.” And she asked: “Am I willing to participate in death that is supposed to save us?” ...McLaren tried to clarify the argument. “This is something we need to talk about,” he proclaimed, “Baptism and the Eucharist can be tools for violence or for peace.” He explicitly called out the theory of penal substitutionary atonement, where “the Father inflicts violence [on Christ] for the forgiveness of sins.”...McLaren warned, “If you keep [penal substitutionary atonement], make sure you have a safety on it.”

But scripture is very clear:

"Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." Hebrews 9:23

John MacArthur notes,  God set the rules. "The soul that sins, it shall die." And then God, in grace, moved right back in and provided a death substitute. Jesus' death is the only thing that satisfies God, you see. Because He requires death. And all over the Old Testament He splattered blood in order that they might be constantly made aware of the fact that bloodshed was the only expiation for sin. ...Forgiveness isn't just God looking down and saying, "Oh, it's all right. I like you a lot, and I'll just let it go." It's the costliest thing in the universe. Without bloodshed, there is no forgiveness of sins.  

If you are forgiven, it is because somebody died.

Christian Research Network