The book caters to the modern thinker who has a basic
understanding of Christianity, but who has reservations about
such things as the virgin birth, incarnation, physical
resurrection, or original sin. It professes to answer the question:
Why should forgiveness require the shedding of blood?
That, after all, is the question implicit in the fundamental
Christian belief: Christ died for our sins. Yet it has never been
satisfactorily answered. To call the crucifixion
a substitute punishment, a sacrificial death, or a ransom, is
merely to raise additional questions. Why would a good and
gracious God require an innocent person to die in place of the
guilty? Why would he demand a sacrifice? Why a lethal ransom
payment?
Forgiveness is an act of mercy, but to compel one who is
blameless to undergo intense suffering and a violent and shameful
death would seem to be an act of cruelty. This apparent paradox
was accepted by the New Testament writers, and it has been accepted by Christians, including the best theologians and scholars, ever since. It has been accepted because the belief of the
first Christians was so strong; and because it is more than
belief in a paradox. It is belief in a paradox that includes the
belief that a man was raised from the dead.
Nevertheless, if Christ died on the cross for the forgiveness
of our sins, there must have been something in the mechanics of
the crucifixion that eradicated sins; something that we are
capable of understanding, and that makes sense in reason and
logic, but which has not yet been discovered. Many of the mysteries of God´s creation have turned out to be perfectly reasonable once they have been found out.
Just as there exist electromagnetic waves that carry television pictures around the globe, bouncing off satellites in a
matter of micro-seconds, so there surely must exist a spiritual
realm that cannot be observed with the senses, and which we have
not yet had the insight to uncover in a manner susceptible to a
widespread consensus. Discovery of the means to tap into that
spiritual realm might very well result in our understanding of
the death of Christ that causes our sins to be forgiven. Conversely, it may be that achievement of insight into the mechanics
of the crucifixion is what will enable us somehow to penetrate
the invisible domain of the spirit.
This book, in the form of a Socratic dialogue between two
Christians, is an attempt to solve the mystery, to provide a
clear, logical explanation for the crucifixion as the means for
the reconciliation of sinners. Since the realm of the Spirit is
beyond the senses and scientific exploration, theories about it
are not subject to the usual standards of proof which rely on
observation and experiment. We can, however, apply the tests of
reasonableness and plausibility, and the aim of the book has been
to keep its conclusions within those bounds.
The theory that is developed, then, is one that, it is hoped,
makes sense as a matter of logic, that is plausible, and that is
solidly grounded in the doctrines of the New Testament. At the
same time it ought to afford the reader with the basis for an
understanding of the Christian religion from a new perspective
providing a deeper insight into the basic tenets of Christianity.
These, it will be seen, include the resurrection of Christ as a
spiritual resurrection, the Holy Spirit as the spirit of Christ
which is love, grace as the gift of the spirit, sin as absence of
the spirit which supplants the law, and the kingdom of God as the
living realm of the spirit.
An Appendix confirms that many of the conclusions reached in
the dialogue are directly supported by passages of New Testament
scripture which are there quoted in full.
For more details, and to read a chapter devoted to a discussion of God´s law, click here to go to the book´s web site.
