Islam - The Summit of Religious Evolution — Page 110
110 of obedience demonstrated by the great prophet Abraham. It is only the Muslims who have commemorated this great event from its inception and still continue to do so to this day. Hence, history and tradition provide an answer to this irrelevant question and establish that the Abraham's only son who willingly submitted to God's command was Ishmael. The concept of human sacrifice for the redemption of sin in Christendom is also a pagan custom and serves to further illustrate the strong pagan influence on modern day Christianity. Pagans believed in the sacramental sufferings, death and resurrection of their Gods Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Mithra, etc. , who had died "for the sins of mankind". Primitive and semi-civilized idolaters of various countries, especially West Africans, had many forms of sacrifice. In the annual "customs" of Dahomey, now abolished, hundreds of human victims were sacrificed. This primitive custom of human sacrifice is discussed elsewhere. 37 The idea of propitiatory sacrifice of animals was found in Judaism (probably borrowed from the pagans of Babylon), but they never believed in human sacrifice, not that the Messiah would be sacrificed on the Cross as a ransom for the sins of the world. Jesus himself never said anything that could be interpreted with certainty as meaning that the forgiveness of original or actual sin and a great reconciliation between God and man were to be the consequence of his death; he never said that his death was to be regarded as a sacrificial atonement. The words "The Son of Man came. . . to give his life a ransom for many” 38 are evidently a comment by the author of the Gospel, not the words of Jesus. Even if spoken by Jesus, they might only have meant that just as he had lived to bring happiness to others, so he was prepared to die alone for this case without implicating his followers. The words used by him at the Last Supper are usually supposed to indicate the sacrificial and atoning nature of his death but this is a misinterpretation. According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus says: "This is my blood of the New Covenant which is shed for many," and according to Luke he says: "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood which is shed for you," and it is only in the much later Gospel of Matthew that the words "for the remission of sins" are added. "The most conservative critic," wrote Hastings Rashdall, the Dean of Carlisle, "Will have no hesitation in treating this addition as an explanatory gloss by the author of Gospel; 39 the meaning of the other words may well have been simply that he was about to lay down his life for his friends and to die for the cause. ” 40 It was much later that Paul and his collaborators, who after granting the assertion of the Jews that Jesus died on the cross, presented to the Gentiles the crucified Jesus as an atonement and ransom for the sins of the world; a belief similar to what they already believed concerning their own gods. Paul says: "in Jesus we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. ” 41 He also called his blood "The blood of his Cross" 42 and in Hebrews, "The blood of sprinkling. " 43 John says: "He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. " 44 The various authors commenting on this in their commentary say: "There was wrath in the bosom of God at sin: but, through the sacrifice of Christ for sin offered once for all, He has "turned away all His wrath, and can be just. "