Islam - The Summit of Religious Evolution — Page 107
107 Islam, does not recognize original sin. A child is born with a pure nature and not as Paul says: "We were by nature the children of Wrath; that is liable to punishment. ” 14 V The natural consequence of eating or touching the forbidden tree was death: "lest ye die. " 15 If it were true that Jesus, by his crucifixion, paid the ransom for original sin, then no one should have died after it. Firstly, according to Biblical teaching, Adam did not die after touching the fruit from the forbidden tree but was rather expelled from the Garden of Eden, in total contradiction of its earlier statement. Secondly in similar contradiction of this belief the death sentence is still being carried out. The Christian nations especially, have invented the swiftest ways to death. VI The belief that by killing His innocent Son, God reconciled His Justice and Mercy, is certainly incomprehensible. "Moral justice cannot take the innocent for the guilty, even if the innocent would offer himself. To accept this as justice is equivalent to destroying the very principle of its existence. It then is no longer justice; it becomes indiscriminate revenge. " 16 Even Biblical accounts affirm that the doctrine of Atonement is false and contrary to Divine Justice and provides evidence to that effect: (i) When Judah requested Joseph to take him instead of his younger brothers, Joseph answered: "God forbid that I should do so; but the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant; and as for you, get you up in peace unto your father. ” 17 (ii) When the Israelites made a god of gold, a calf, Moses said to them: 18 "You have committed a great sin and now I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I can make an atonement for your sin". So Moses went back to the Lord and said "Oh, What a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves a god of gold. But now, please forgive their sin - but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written". Here Moses offered himself as an atonement for the sin of his people, which Jesus never did. God's answer to his entreaty was, that it was against His justice to take the innocent for the guilty, saying: "Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. ” 19 The killing of an innocent person for a guilty one is, therefore, absolutely contrary to justice as well as to mercy. Thus God, instead of reconciling His attributes of Mercy and Justice, destroyed them both according to this Christian belief. VII The assertion that Jesus, the righteous, was made the propitiation for the sin of the whole world 20 is not only incomprehensible, but is also contrary to the axiom of the Old Testament: "The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous and the transgressor for the upright. ” 21