Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 132
? 132 hearing a sermon read by a relation of mine, who was a great devotee of the Church, upon the subject of what is called Redemption by the death of the Son of God. After the sermon was ended I went into the garden, as I was going down the garden steps, I revolted at the recol- lection of what I had heard, and thought to myself that it was making God Almighty act like a passionate man that killed his son when he could not avenge himself in any other way: and as I was sure a man would be hanged that did such a thing, I could not see for what purpose they preached such sermons. This was not one of those thoughts that had anything of childish levity; it was to me a serious reflection arising from the idea I had that God was too good to do such an action, and also too Almighty to be under any necessity of doing it. I believe in the same manner to this moment; and I moreover believe that any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system. 1 12. A Christian might say here, as Christians usually do: ‘If I owe a person money, and cannot pay him, and he threatens to put me in prison, another person can take the debt upon himself and pay it for me. Thus Jesus, the Son of God, had paid the ransom for our sins for having been in Hell for three days and three nights. ’ It might be justifiable if sin were taken as a debt, and the debtor, unlike God, be so powerless and poor, or mean and revengeful, that being fully aware of one’s inability, he does 1. Thomas Paine. The Age of Reason. p. 41.