THE ATONEMENT: GOD'S DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT VS. UNITARIAN AND
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE DOCTRINES OF THE ATONEMENT
"Apart from the shedding of blood there is no remission."—Hebrews
9:22.
Our subject in this chapter is "God's Doctrine of the Atonement vs. the
Unitarian and Christian Science Doctrines of the Atonement." One of the
most fundamental, central and vital doctrines of the Christian faith
is the Christian doctrine of the Atonement. Without the Bible Doctrine
of the Atonement you have no Christianity, but the Devil's substitute
for Christianity. Without the Bible Doctrine of the Atonement you have
no real gospel, but an utterly false and soul-destroying philosophy.
In speaking on the doctrine of the Deity of Christ I said: "If a man
really holds to right views concerning the person of Jesus Christ he
will sooner or later get right views on every other question, but if
he holds a wrong view concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ
he is pretty sure to go wrong on everything else sooner or later."
The same is true regarding the doctrine of the Atonement: If a man
really holds to right views concerning the Atonement made by our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary, he will sooner or
later get right on every other question; but if he holds a wrong view
regarding the Atonement made by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, he
is pretty sure to go wrong on everything else sooner or later. There is
a great need in this day of teaching on this subject that is definite,
clear, accurate, exact, complete; because not only in Unitarian and
Christian Science circles, but also in circles that are nominally
orthodox, in professedly Christian colleges, seminaries, pulpits,
Sunday School classes, and religious papers, magazines, pamphlets,
books, there is much teaching to-day that is vague, inaccurate,
misleading, unscriptural, and oftentimes utterly false and devilish,
teaching that is essentially Unitarian or Eddyistic. Men and women
use the old words with a new meaning; so as to deceive, if it were
possible, the very elect. Even the Christian Scientist will tell you
he believes in the Atonement, and that Mrs. Eddy taught the Atonement.
But when you begin to ask direct and pointed questions regarding his
belief and teaching you will find that by Atonement he meant, and
that Mrs. Eddy meant, something utterly different from what you mean
and what the Bible teaches. Paul tells us that the Devil camouflages
as an angel of light (II Cor. 11:14), but never has he done it more
successfully and dangerously than in the teaching regarding the
Atonement which he has inspired in Mrs. Eddy and in Unitarian teachers,
and also in the teachers in many supposedly orthodox pulpits, in many
Congregational pulpits, in some Methodist pulpits, in many Baptist
pulpits, and even in some Presbyterian pulpits. Some years ago in
teaching a Bible class in Minneapolis, attended by people from all the
churches, I remarked incidentally that Christian Science denied the
doctrine of the Atonement through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. A
very intelligent lady, a lady perfect in her manners, came to me at the
close of the class and said: "Mr. Torrey, you ought not to have said
what you said to-day about Christian Science; for you do not understand
its teachings. They do teach the Atonement." I replied: "I said that
Christian Science denies the Doctrine of the Atonement _through the
shed blood of Jesus Christ_. Do you believe that Jesus Christ bore your
sins in His own body on the cross?" She answered: "I think Christian
Science is a beautiful system of teaching." I said: "That is not what
I asked you. Do you believe that Jesus Christ bore your sins in His
own body on the cross?" She replied: "Christian Science has done me a
great deal of good." "That is not what I asked you. Do you believe that
Jesus Christ bore your sins in His own body on the cross?" "I think
that Jesus Christ's life was the most beautiful life ever lived here
on earth." "That is not what I asked you. Do you believe Jesus Christ
bore your sins in His own body on the cross?" "The Christian Scientists
are lovely people." "That is not what I asked you. Do you believe that
Jesus Christ bore your sins in His own body on the cross?" "I believe
in following the Lord Jesus Christ." "Do you believe that Jesus Christ
bore your sins in His own body on the cross?" "Oh," she said, "that is
a doctrinal question." "Now," I said, "you are yourself an illustration
of the truth of the very thing I said. You do not believe in the
_Atonement through the shed blood of Jesus Christ_." The Christian
Scientist uses the word "atonement," but he means something entirely
different from what the Bible teaches regarding the atoning death
of Jesus Christ. So does the Unitarian. So do many of the ministers
supposedly of orthodox denominations. The pastor of a Congregational
church in this city said recently: "I have my own kind of religion; it
answers for me, but I hope I have sense enough to see that it would not
answer for everybody. I imagine the Salvation Army captain preaching my
kind of religious doctrine, without a devil, without a hell, without an
_atonement of blood_ and recompense, without an infallible Bible—and
I see his audience melting away like snow in the rain. Is his doctrine
truer than mine, or is mine truer than his? Why, neither; his is true
for him and mine for me—that is all—each after his own kind." Now
this may sound tolerant and lovely, but it is utter nonsense. Any
doctrine which is not true for everybody is not for anybody true, and
any doctrine which is true is true for everybody. If a doctrine that
leaves out "_an atonement of blood_" is not true for the Salvation
Army—and it certainly is not—it is not _true_ for anybody else. Truth
is not relative; it is absolute. What is true is true, and what is
false is false. So we come face to face with the question, What does
the Bible teach on this great fundamental doctrine?