There are certain so called _modern_ views of the atonement
which it may be well to examine briefly, if only to show how
unscriptural they are. That the modern mind fails to see in the
doctrine of the atonement what the orthodox faith has held for
centuries to be the truth of God regarding this fundamental Christian
doctrine, there is certainly no doubt. To some minds today the death
of Jesus Christ was but the death of a martyr, counted in the same
category as the death of John Huss or Savonarola. Or perchance
Christ's death was an exhibition to a sinful world of God's wondrous
love. Or it may be that Christ, in His suffering of death, remains
forever the sublime example of adherence to principles of righteousness
and truth, even to the point of death. Or, again, Calvary may be an
episode in God's government of the world. God, being holy, deemed
it necessary to show to the world His hatred of sin, and so His
wrath fell on Christ. The modern mind does not consider Christ's
death as in any sense vicarious, or substitutionary. Indeed,
it fails to see the justice as well as the need or possibility of
one man, and He so innocent, suffering for the sins of the whole
race--past, present and future. Every man must bear the penalty of
his own sin, so we are told; from that there is no escape, unless,
and it is fervently hoped and confidently expected, that God, whose
wondrous love surpasses all human conception, should, as He doubtless
will, overlook the eternal consequences of man's sin because of
the great love wherewith He loves the race. The love of God is
the hope of the race's redemption.
What shall the Christian church say to these things, and what
shall be her reply? To the Word of God must the church resort
for her weapons in this warfare. If the so called modern mind and
its doctrinal views agree with the Scriptures, then the Christian
church may allow herself to be influenced by the spirit of the age.
But if the modern mind and the Scriptures do not agree in their
results, then the church of Christ must part company with the modern
mind. Here are some of the modern theories of the atonement: