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The writing and correspondence of Hastings Rashdall: 1905 - 1915

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Sermon,"The Atonement in Prophecy and Experience" preached at Hereford Cathedral,

Good Friday, 1914.
[Published in Principles and Precepts, eds HDA Major & FL Cross, Blackwell, 1927, pp 119-128]

Extracts:

In what sense was our Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world? Our Lord Himself always taught, you will remember, that God forgives sin upon the one only condition of sincere repentance. It is probable that He never in any way connected the forgiveness of sin with His own death. Certainly He never taught that forgiveness was dependent upon belief in the atoning efficacy of His blood. How then can we account for the belief of His Church in all after-ages that sin was to be forgiven in some sense through Christ, and in a special manner through His death?

The whole sermon may be downloaded here - in .pdf format

Towards the end of the second century the Church did begin to develop a number of theories on the subject – some of them good and edifying, others (as I think most modern minds feel) very much the reverse. But happily none of these theories ever got into the Creeds, and so there has been much variety of Christian thought on the subject. Theories once universally accepted are now almost as universally rejected. I will not go into the details of these theories now. I will only remark this about them – that too many of them assume that God was naturally unwilling to forgive sin or to bestow on the sinner the power of overcoming sin – that the Father was angry and revengeful, or at best a Being who was just but not merciful and loving, who required to be propitiated by the blood of an innocent victim, a Son who (all unlike Himself) was loving, compassionate, and forgiving. The healthier theories of the Atonement agree in representing the death of Christ as a revelation of the character of the Father.

Back to "Explore the writings of Rashdall - 1905-1915"

The great question for us now is, Do we believe in that love of God which Christ taught by His words, and of which His followers saw in His voluntary death a crowning manifestation? And remember that even belief in the love of God will do us no good unless it awakens answering love in ourselves – unless it adds to our hatred of the sin which separates us from God and increases our love of other men.

The writing and correspondence of Hastings Rashdall: 1905 - 1915		HastingsRashdall.org.uk
Sermon,"The Atonement in Prophecy and Experience" preached at Hereford Cathedral, Good Friday, 1914. *[Published in Principles and Precepts, eds HDA Major & FL Cross, Blackwell, 1927, pp 119-128]*
Extracts:
In what sense was our Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world? Our Lord Himself always taught, you will remember, that God forgives sin upon the one only condition of sincere repentance. It is probable that He never in any way connected the forgiveness of sin with His own death. Certainly He never taught that forgiveness was dependent upon belief in the atoning efficacy of His blood. How then can we account for the belief of His Church in all after-ages that sin was to be forgiven in some sense through Christ, and in a special manner through His death?		The whole sermon may be downloaded here - in .pdf format
	Towards the end of the second century the Church did begin to develop a number of theories on the subject – some of them good and edifying, others (as I think most modern minds feel) very much the reverse. But happily none of these theories ever got into the Creeds, and so there has been much variety of Christian thought on the subject. Theories once universally accepted are now almost as universally rejected. I will not go into the details of these theories now. I will only remark this about them – that too many of them assume that God was naturally unwilling to forgive sin or to bestow on the sinner the power of overcoming sin – that the Father was angry and revengeful, or at best a Being who was just but not merciful and loving, who required to be propitiated by the blood of an innocent victim, a Son who (all unlike Himself) was loving, compassionate, and forgiving. The healthier theories of the Atonement agree in representing the death of Christ as a revelation of the character of the Father.
Back to "Explore the writings of Rashdall - 1905-1915"	The great question for us now is, Do we believe in that love of God which Christ taught by His words, and of which His followers saw in His voluntary death a crowning manifestation? And remember that even belief in the love of God will do us no good unless it awakens answering love in ourselves – unless it adds to our hatred of the sin which separates us from God and increases our love of other men.