This was the moral theory of the atonement. It was not supposed to work
any result in the nature of God or his disposition towards men. Its
effect was to work along the lines of human thought and human action:
it was to affect men, and make them willing to be saved instead of
making God willing to save them. This was the moral theory of the
atonement; and you will see how it gradually approaches that which
intelligent and free men, it seems to me, must hold to-day in the light
of their careful study of human history and human nature. It is almost
the theory which is being held by the freest and noblest men of to-day.
The difference between it and that which I shall in a moment try to set
forth is chiefly that Dr. Bushnell confines this work of the atonement
to the person and history and character of one man instead of letting
all men share in this divine and atoning work which is being wrought
out through all the ages.
Let me now come to set forth what I believe to be the simple and
demonstrated truth. My objections against this old theory are
threefold. I will mention them, and have done with them in a word.
In the first place, the supposed origin of sin in heaven seems to me so
absurd as to be utterly unthinkable. This idea of war in heaven,
rebellion against God, smacks too much of the Old World traditions, of
the mythologies of Greece and Rome and of other peoples. Jupiter could
dethrone his father, the god Saturn, because Saturn was not almighty
and all-wise.
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