Did Jesus Redeem Mankind? — Page 61
vicarous atonement. 61. . In order to fortify the theory of vicarious atonement or to prove that the mind of man had become vitiated beyond reform, it is necessary to establish that after the fall of Adam, man became so degenerated that he could not have recourse to virute. If the evidence of the Bible leads to the conclusion that man really could not take to virtuous life after Adam had committed sin, then as the. Bible holds forth, various atonement must necessarily be accepted as admissible. But if the Bible itself supports the stand that man did not become degenerate after the sin of. Adam and did not lose hold of virtue, the very foundation of the atonemet theory is knocked out. (It should be clearly noted that the Holy Quran does not characterize Adam's incident as an act of sin)- If man could remain virtuous without an atonement and also abstain from sin, nothing extraneous seemed to be called for his salvation. . We quote below from the Bible in this respect: "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression who is the figure of him that was to come" (Romans,. Ch. 5:14). { . ;. Here "that was to come" stands for Messiah (peace be on him) and his 'like' means Adam. It is averred that death laid its hand on all from Adam to Moses who had not sinned like Adam (the like of Messiah). In other words. Paul admits that there had been many from Adam to Moses who had not sinned. This clearly establishes that man can shun sin. The Bible is very clear on the point that there had been born many men after Adam who did not sin. It is strange, however, that since this theory was made in utter consternation, at the spur of the moment, to meet criticism