Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 129
Chapter Ten—Redemption or Atonement 129 Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. Then Moses made two proposals to God (Exodus 32:32): ‘If thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. ’ Here Moses offered himself as an atonement for the sin of his people—which Jesus never did—but God’s answer to his entreaty was that it is against His justice to take the innocent for the guilty, saying: ‘Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book’ (Exodus 32:33). The killing of an inno- cent person for a guilty one is, therefore, directly contrary to justice as well as to mercy. Thus God, instead of reconciling His attributes of mercy and justice, destroyed them both. 7. The assertion that Jesus, the righteous, was made the propitia- tion for the sin of the whole world 1 is not only incomprehen- sible, but is also contrary to the axiom of the Old Testament: ‘The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous and the trans- gressor for the upright. ’ 2 8. The belief that Jesus, after his death on the cross, was in Hell for three days, during which he suffered the penalty of the sins of the world, is directly contrary to what Jesus himself said to 1. 1 John 2:2 2. Prov. 21:18