Definition (house-style)
Propitiation (strafverzoening, Gr. hilasterion) is the dimension of the atonement by which God’s wrath is appeased by the sacrifice of Christ. In Rom. 3:25 God set Christ forward ‘to be a propitiation (hilasterion)’ — the Greek term that also designates the mercy seat of the ark (Heb.: kapporeth). Propitiation is distinguished from atonement in the broader sense by its emphasis on the wrath-stilling aspect: God is holy and his justice demands punishment for sin; Christ bears that punishment and thereby appeases the divine wrath.
Propitiation is theologically distinct from atonement as a category: atonement encompasses all dimensions of the reconciling work; propitiation specifically addresses the wrath-stilling dimension directed at God’s holy righteousness.
Author variants
Warnock
Warnock affirms propitiation as the indispensable foundation of justification, citing Rom. 3:25-26:
“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (Mercy Seat) through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past […] that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
[Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, ch. 2]
Warnock connects propitiation to the absolute necessity of blood:
“For there is positively no acceptance for any man before God except by the shedding of the precious blood of Christ. It is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul, and ‘without shedding of blood is no remission.’ (Heb. 9:22).”
[Warnock, ch. 2]
For Warnock propitiation is the non-negotiable heart of the gospel. Modernism that rejects the atoning blood thereby closes the door of salvation. At the same time Warnock situates propitiation at the Passover level (first phase) within his progressive soteriology: the judicial ground is laid at Passover, but the believer is called to press on toward Pentecost and Tabernacles.