Christianity - A Journey from Facts to Fiction — Page 25
Sin and Atonement 25 whelming evidence to the contrary in many books of the Old Testament. In the fifth century, Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, was in- volved in a confrontation with the Pelagian 1 2 movement, concern- ing the controversy of the nature of the fall of Adam and Eve. He proclaimed the Pelagian movement as being heretical because it taught that Adam’s sin affected only him and not the human race as a whole, that every individual is born free of sin and is capable in his own power of living a sinless life, and that there had even been persons who had succeeded in doing so. Those in the right were labelled as heretics. Day was de- nounced as night, and night as day. Heresy is truth, and truth heresy. The Transfer of Sin Let us now re-examine the theme that God does not forgive the sinful without punishing them because it is against His sense of justice. One is horrified to realise that for century after century Christians have believed in something which is most certainly beyond the grasp of the human intellect and contrary to human conscience. How on earth, could God forgive a sinful person 1 2 The movement of Pelagians, 360-420 CE. The British theologian. He taught that each person possesses free will (and hence the possibility of salvation), denying Augustines ’ doctrines of predestination and original sin. Cleared of heresy by a synod in Jerusalem 415, he was later condemned by the Pope and the emperor. [Publishers]