Did Jesus Redeem Mankind? — Page 85
? 78 WAS ADAM FORGIVEN? Again, it is clear from the Bible that Adam remained pure in spite of his sin. Why it so happened, say the Christians, because his sin was forgiven. So, could the sin of his generation be forgiven, is our contention, without the necessity of a vicarious atonement. 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 atonement 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 seem 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