The dogma of the atonement which very naturally resulted from the
theological interpretation of the crucifixion, was readily accepted
by the Christian church. The idea of averting disasters by sacrifice
and thus causing one devoted victim to bear the load of the sins of
others, in payment of which his death was acceptable, is one of the
greatest antiquity, and we find sacrifices of various kinds offered to
propitiate the deities, from the simple offerings of primitive man to
the more elaborate sacrifices of a more complicated society. Finally
came the idea of human sacrifice and then the culminating theory of the
sacrifice of a divine being whose suffering should atone for all the
sins of mankind. The belief of redemption from sin by the sufferings
of a divine incarnation was general and popular centuries before
the time of Jesus. In the temple of the moon the Albanians of the
eastern Caucasus kept a number of sacred slaves. When one exhibited
more than usual symptoms of inspiration, the high priest maintained
him in the utmost luxury for a year, after which he was anointed and
led forth to be sacrificed. After his death, the people stood upon the
body as a purificationary ceremony, it being believed that the dead
man was possessed of a divine spirit. The ancient Greeks were also
familiar with the use of the human scapegoat, and it was customary
at Marsailles, one of the busiest and most brilliant of the Greek
colonies, to sacrifice an inspired man when the city was ravaged by
the plague. All are familiar with the old Jewish practice of using
the scapegoat as the vehicle for the expiation of sins, and the whole
theory of the atonement is little more than a modernized expression
of the old idea that the sins of the community may be delegated to
one agent to be sacrificed for the purification of the rest.
The prophecy, as it is called by John, made by Caiaphas, the high
priest, "it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people,
and that the whole nation perish not" (John xi, 50; xviii, 14), which
has been seized upon by the Christians as a reference to the vicarious
atonement, is nothing more than the opinion of an ardent orthodox Jew
that if Jesus were permitted to live and preach he would destroy the
ancient faith and his converts would abandon the old religion. The
words "it is expedient for us" qualify the whole statement. They
signified that the priesthood would be without a following were he
allowed to continue. The idea of a vicarious atonement for all the
people would have been of no expediency whatever to Caiaphas and
his class. They felt that if orthodoxy fell by Jesus' preaching, the
Romans could easily crush them, for it was only by their union and the
support of their ancient rites that they could form any front to the
imperial government; it was by these alone that they had any political
significance. Once dismembered, the Jews would be scattered to the
corners of the earth (John xi, 52). This was the meaning of Caiaphas'
words, and he was correct, for such was the actual case. When orthodoxy
was undermined, the Jewish nation was ruined.
The doctrine that God was angry with humanity because of its ancestors'
transgressions, and would forgive its sins only on its acceptance of
belief in the godhead of Jesus, is so entirely at variance with the
Jewish teachings, which held that God freely forgave penitents on
the confession of their sins (Ex. xxxiv, 6-7; Neh. ix, 17; Ps. ciii,
3; cxxx, 4; Is. xxxiii, 24; Dan. ix, 9) that it was never accepted
by them.
Some old Christian writers believed that it was to the devil that the
Christ was sacrificed. Their belief in the justice of the Supreme
would not allow them to think that he demanded the sacrifice of an
innocent for the sins of the guilty. Proclus of Constantinople, in the
age of Austin, wrote that "the devil held us in a state of servitude,
boasting that he had bought us. It was necessary, therefore, that
all being condemned, either they should be dragged to death, or a
sufficient price be paid; and because no angel had the wherewithal
to pay it, it remained that God should die for us."
While such an idea is certainly of a higher moral nature than that
which states that God sacrificed his own innocent son for man, it
has the unfortunate result of attributing to the devil greater power
than to God; for if the devil could demand and receive a part of the
god-head as ransom, then God himself was weaker than the arch fiend.
Hislop, in his "Two Babylons," commenting upon the Chaldean doctrine
that it was "by the works and merits of men themselves that they must
be justified and accepted of God," utterly condemns it, and glories in
the dogma of the atonement with great and illogical pleasure. Having
reviewed the Egyptian belief that Anubis weighed the merits and
defects of departed souls, so that Osiris, in accordance with the
result, might judge and sentence them; and the Parsee belief that the
Angel of Justice sat on the bridge of Chinevad, which connected heaven
and earth, weighing souls to decide whether or not they should enter
paradise, he condemns such theories as "utterly demoralizing," and
asserts that no believer can ever have "any solid feeling of comfort,
or assurance as to his prospects in the eternal world," which very fact
would seem conducive to clean lives and good deeds. Then he continues
in ecstasy to exalt the immoral Christian doctrine of "justification
by faith alone," which he declares alone "can produce a life of loving,
filial, hearty obedience to the law and commands of God," and by which
man may reach salvation "absolutely irrespective of human merits,
simply and solely through the righteousness of Christ."
This is one of the most absurd and immoral doctrines of all the
absurd and immoral doctrines of Christianity, and one which leads to
all varieties of crime and misery. A man who believes that simple
faith alone is a perfect and acceptable passport to eternal bliss
will take no pains to lead either a decent or useful life. He is at
liberty to commit all the crimes known to his nature; he may murder,
steal, rape, and lie with impunity, for his faith in Christ will
save him from his well-deserved punishment; while a man of high
ethical standards and immaculate moral principles, who spends his
whole life in self-sacrifice for the progress of humanity is doomed
to damnation, unless he believe! What a horrible doctrine! What a
blasphemous conception of the justice of God!
Every student of comparative theology knows that such views of
atonement were centuries old at the date of the supposed birth of
the Christ, and that all sorts of sacrifices were made at the altars
of different gods with the same idea of atonement; but, aside from
this, is there not something cowardly and mean in trying to shirk the
responsibilities of one's actions upon either an animal, a man, or a
god? Is it not contemptible to suppose that the death and suffering
of another will allow one to go unpunished, or that such suffering is
a license for humanity to sin? All that is ridiculous, blasphemous,
and illogical appears in this stupid dogma.