More on the 'Cosmic child-abuse' claim.

Those who fear that the doctrine of Penal Substitution lacks a theological base may benefit from reading this.  In this article Williams addresses the claim that 'penal substitution' is tantamount to cosmic child-abuse.  

The claim appears to be that the infliction of pain on a child by a parent is unjust, and that penal substitution mandates such infliction.  There is an immediate problem here with the criticism, namely that when the Lord Jesus Christ died he was a child in the sense that he was a son, but not in the sense that he was a minor.  As an adult, he had a mature will and could choose whether or not to co-operate with his Father.  So we are in fact looking at a father and an adult son who will together for the father to inflict suffering on the son, as we have seen in our Trinitarian exposition.