VICARIOUS ATONEMENT
Back of the old doctrine of vicarious atonement is a profound and
beautiful natural truth, but it has been degraded into a teaching that
is as selfish and brutal as it is false. The natural truth is the
sacrifice of the solar Logos, or the deity of our system. The sacrifice
consists of limiting Himself in the matter of manifested worlds and it
is reflected in the sacrifice of the Christ and other great teachers who
use their vast consciousness through a physical brain for the helping of
the world. Compared to the descent of such supermen into mundane spheres
a mere physical death is a trifling sacrifice indeed.
The help that such great spiritual beings have given mankind is
incalculable and altogether beyond what we are able to comprehend. But
for such sacrifice the race would be very, very far below its present
evolutionary level. But to assume that such sacrifices relieve man from
the necessity of developing his spiritual nature or in any degree
nullify his personal responsibility is false and dangerous doctrine.
Nobody more than the theosophist pays to the Christ the tribute of the
most reverent gratitude. He also holds with St. Paul that each must
work out his own salvation.
The belief in special creation arose in that period of our history when
our ancestors knew little of nature. Modern science was then unborn and
superstition filled the western world. Now that we do know the truths of
nature, now that we know that creation is a continuous process that is
still going on, it is time to abandon the old conceptions and bring
religious beliefs and scientific principles into harmonious
relationship.
Wherever it touches the practical affairs of life the old idea of
special creation and special salvation fail to satisfy our sense of
justice and of consistency. Intuitively we know that any belief that is
not in harmony with the facts of life is a wrong belief. The idea of
special creation is not only inconsistent with the facts as science has
found them, but it does not give us a sound basis for moral development.
Having started with the false idea of the special creation of the soul,
which brings it into the world free from personal responsibility, it
became a necessity to invent a special salvation to give any semblance
of justice at all.
Now the vital point against this plan of salvation is that it denies the
soul's personal responsibility and teaches that whatever the offenses
against God and nature have been, they may be cancelled by the simple
act of believing that another suffered and died in order that those sins
might be forgiven. It is the pernicious doctrine that wrong doing by one
can be set right by the sacrifice of another. It is simply astounding
that such a belief could have survived the Middle Ages and should
continue to find millions who accept it in these days of clearer
thinking. But it seems that when people are taught a thing in childhood
the mind accepts it then without reasoning and afterwards vaguely
regards it as one of the established facts without thinking further of
it at all. But upon reflection we see at once the impossibility of its
being true. We hear of a lingering practice in a remote province of
China, whereby a man convicted of a crime is permitted to hire a
substitute to suffer the penalty in his stead. The law must have its
victim and its supremacy must be upheld. We laugh at that and know well
enough that punishing the unfortunate substitute, who sacrifices himself
to obtain a sum of money that will provide for his family, cannot
regenerate the offender. Indeed, we see clearly that his willingness to
shift the responsibility for his crime upon another only sinks him
farther into iniquity. The only person who can gain in moral strength is
the one who makes the sacrifice.
Let us suppose that that system of vicarious atonement for wrong doing
were to be adopted generally. Then every murderer who had the means
would escape the consequences of his crime. Every burglar who was
successful enough to have the cash on hand could elude prison. Every
pickpocket could hire a substitute to suffer for him and thus continue
his criminal career. Every embezzler would have the money to purchase
freedom. Every corruptionist would be safe. Every thief could laugh at
the law. It would make a mockery of justice. It would place a premium
upon crime and a handicap upon honesty and virtue. However bad the
dishonest might be it would make them worse. It would necessarily lower
the standard of their morality by shifting the burden of their sins to
others. It would destroy personal responsibility, and personal
responsibility is the basis of sound morals and the foundation of
civilized society.
Yet that is precisely the sort of thing that goes with the belief in
special creation and special salvation--the teaching that we are not
responsible for our sins and that by believing that another assumed them
and died for us we can escape the results of our wrong doing and thus be
saved. What are we to be saved from? From nothing but ourselves. From
our selfishness, from our capacity to do evil, from our willingness to
inflict pain, from our lack of sympathy with all suffering and from the
heartlessness that is willing to let others suffer in order that we may
escape. Salvation must necessarily mean capacity to enjoy heaven. The
man who is willing to purchase bliss by the agony of another is unfit
for heaven and could not recognize it if he were there. What do we think
of a person here who shifts his sins upon another and while that other
suffers he goes free and enjoys the fruits of his baseness?
A heaven that is populated with those who see in vicarious atonement a
happy arrangement for letting them in pleasantly and easily would not be
worth having. It would be a heaven of selfishness and that would be no
heaven at all. A real heaven can be composed only of those who have
eliminated selfishness; only of those who want to help others instead of
trying to dodge the consequences of their own acts; only of those who
are manly and womanly and generous and just and true. Nothing less than
a recognition of personal responsibility can lead to a heaven like that.
Yet the theory of special salvation ignores it, waves it aside--in fact
denies it!
Reincarnation represents personal responsibility and therefore absolute
justice. It shows that, not merely in all the vast future, but also in
this life and in every life, and all the time, our degree of happiness
depends upon our present and past course. If reincarnation were
generally understood it would necessarily raise the average of morality.
It furnishes a deterrent for the evil doer and a tremendous incentive
for the man who desires to obey natural law and be happy. It shows the
one that there is no possible escape from evil deeds; that he must
return life after life to associations and environments determined by
the good or the ill he has done; that he can no more escape from his
evil deeds than he can escape from himself; that he must ultimately
suffer in turn the pain of every blow and the humiliation of every
insult he has inflicted upon others. It assures the man of good
intentions and right desires that every good deed shall rise up in the
future to bless him; that all whom he has helped shall become his
helpers hereafter; that even his good intentions that failed in their
purpose through mistaken judgment, shall bring him joy in the future.
What a splendid thing it is to know that every thought and act adds
permanent value to the character; that all we learn in any life becomes
an eternal possession; that we can add to our intellect, to our insight,
to our compassion, to our wisdom, to our power, as certainly and
definitely as a man can add to his bank account or permanent
investments; that whatever we may be in this incarnation we can return
again stronger and wiser and better.
The hypothesis of reincarnation shows our inherent divinity and the
method by which the latent becomes the actual. Instead of the ignoble
belief that we can fling our sins upon another it makes personal
responsibility the keynote of life. It is the ethics of self-help. It is
the moral code of self-reliance. It is the religion of self-respect.
Think of the utility as well as of the common-sense of a scheme of
salvation that really saves us because it evolves us; that never denies
us a chance to retrieve an error; that gives us an opportunity to right
every wrong; that brings us back life after life until all enemies have
been changed to friends; until all accounts are closed and balanced;
until all our powers have been evolved, until intellect has become
genius; until sympathy has become compassion and the last moral battle
has been fought and won.