WE have also the scheme of redemption.
According to this "scheme," by the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden
of Eden, human nature became evil, corrupt and depraved. It became
impossible for human beings to keep, in all things, the law of God.
In spite of this, God allowed the people to live and multiply for some
fifteen hundred years, and then on account of their wickedness drowned
them all with the exception of eight persons.
The nature of these eight persons was evil, corrupt and depraved, and
in the nature of things their children would be cursed with the same
nature. Yet God gave them another trial, knowing exactly what the result
would be. A few of these wretches he selected and made them objects of
his love and care, the rest of the world he gave to indifference and
neglect. To civilize the people he had chosen, he assisted them in
conquering and killing their neighbors, and gave them the assistance of
priests and inspired prophets. For their preservation and punishment
he wrought countless miracles, gave them many laws and a great deal of
advice. He taught them to sacrifice oxen, sheep, and doves, to the end
that their sins might be forgiven. The idea was inculcated that there
was a certain relation between the sin and the sacrifice,--the greater
the sin, the greater the sacrifice. He also taught the savagery that
without the shedding of blood there was no remission of sin.
In spite of all his efforts, the people grew gradually worse. They would
not, they could not keep his laws.
A sacrifice had to be made for the sins of the people. The sins were
too great to be washed out by the blood of animals or men. It became
necessary for. God himself to be sacrificed. All mankind were under the
curse of the law. Either all the world must be lost or God must die.
In only one way could the guilty be justified, and that was by the
death, the sacrifice of the innocent. And the innocent being sacrificed
must be great enough to atone for the world; There was but one such
being--God.
Thereupon God took upon himself flesh, was born into the world--was
known as Christ--was murdered, sacrificed by the Jews, and became an
atonement for the sins of the human race.
This is the scheme of Redemption,--the atonement.
It is impossible to conceive of anything more utterly absurd.
A man steals, and then sacrifices a dove, or gives a lamb to a priest.
His crime remains the same. He need not kill something. Let him give
back the thing stolen, and in future live an honest life.
A man slanders his neighbor and then kills an ox. What has that to do
with the slander. Let him take back his slander, make all the reparation
that he can, and let the ox alone.
There is no sense in sacrifice, never was and never will be.
Make restitution, reparation, undo the wrong and you need shed no blood.
A good law, one springing from the nature of things, cannot demand, and
cannot accept, and cannot be satisfied with the punishment, or the
agony of the innocent. A god could not accept his own sufferings in
justification of the guilty.--This is a complete subversion of all ideas
of justice and morality. A god could not make a law for man, then suffer
in the place of the man who had violated it, and say that the law had
been carried out, and the penalty duly enforced. A man has committed
murder, has been tried, convicted and condemned to death. Another man
goes to the governor and says that he is willing to die in place of the
murderer. The governor says: "All right, I accept your offer, a murder
has been committed, somebody must be hung and your death will satisfy
the law."
But that is not the law. The law says, not that somebody shall be
hanged, but that the murderer shall suffer death.
Even if the governor should die in the place of the criminal, it would
be no better. There would be two murders instead of one, two innocent
men killed, one by the first murderer and one by the State, and the real
murderer free.