Christianity - A Journey from Facts to Fiction — Page 16
16 Christianity – A Journey from Facts to Fiction son of Adam, he could not have escaped the element of congeni- tal sin with which he was born. This is a simple outline of the entire doctrine. Here is the solu- tion advanced by Christian theologists. The Atonement of Mankind To solve this apparently insoluble problem, God conceived an ingenious plan. It is not clear as to whether He consulted His ‘Son’: did they both conceive the plan, or was it entirely the idea of the ‘Son’, which was later accepted by God the Father? The features of this plan unfolded at the time of Christ as are as follows: two thousand years ago the ‘Son of God’, who literally shared eternity with Him, was born to a human mother. As the ‘Son of God’, he combined within him the perfect traits of a human being as well as those of God the Father. Next we are told that a pious and chaste lady, by the name of Mary as , was chosen to be the mother of the ‘Son of God’. She conceived Jesus as in partner- ship with God. In that respect, being a literal ‘Son of God’, Jesus as was born without sin, yet somehow he retained his human character and entity. Thus he volunteered himself to take the burden of the entire sin of those of mankind who would believe in him and accept him as their saviour. By this clever device, it is claimed, God avoided compromising His eternal attribute of absolute justice. Remember that according to this modus operandi man would not go unpunished, however sinful he might be. God would still be able to exact retribution from the sinful without compromising