Objection:
You reject the atonement of Christ. You make of no effect the Savior’s death because you teach that His atonement for sin was not completed on Calvary.
Answer:
We believe that the death of Christ provided a divine sacrifice sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world (See John 1:29; 1 Peter 2:24). We believe, further, that when we confess our sins, God does then and there forgive them (See 1 John 1:9); and that unless we afterward turn away to a life of wickedness, this divine forgiveness is complete and final, so far as we are concerned. But we also hold that, in harmony with 1 John 1:9, He will “cleanse us from all unrighteousness” as illustrated in the Levitical type of the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). There is a great final day when God will formally blot out of existence the sins of all who “shall be accounted worthy to obtain that [heavenly] world.” Luke 20:35. This final accounting must come at the very close of probation, for only when we have run our entire course and the records are complete could this act, which settles our destiny for eternity, take place. Therefore the great hour of God’s judgment is the logical time for all accounts to be finally settled. In making such statements, we but echo the words of Christ: “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Matthew 24:13.
Denying the atonement of Christ is one thing; believing that the final disposition of sins is yet future is an altogether different thing. We do not deny the atonement; we differ with some other Christian people simply about the time element involved. We believe unqualifiedly that our sins are forgiven and will be blotted out wholly and only by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed on Calvary. No discussion about the time involved in the divine transaction can blur the real question at issue, namely, whether or not Christ, and Christ only, makes atonement for us. We do not believe that our Savior’s precious atoning blood loses any of its efficacy merely due to the passage of time. That certain acts of Christ after Calvary are also necessary for the plan of salvation from sin is evident by reference to such texts as the following: Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:17; Hebrews 7:25.
Of those who charge us with teaching strange doctrines because we believe Christ’s work of atonement for sin was begun rather than completed on Calvary, we ask these questions: If complete and final atonement was made on the cross for all sins, then will not all be saved? For Paul says that He “died for all.” Are we to understand you as being Universalists? “No,” you say, “not all men will be saved.” Well, then, are we to understand that you hold that Christ made complete atonement on the cross for only a limited few and that His sacrifice was not world-embracing but only partial? That would be predestination in its worst form.
We are free from the dilemma that such questions as these create. We believe that Christ on the cross made provision for the atonement for all sinners. Thus all who will may be saved. But we also believe that only those who “endure unto the end… shall be saved.” Therefore we escape, on the one hand, the false doctrine of Universalism; and on the other, the equally false doctrine of claiming full and final salvation for a man before he has endured “unto the end.” Therefore if the saving of a man involves his deeds “unto the end,” which must be true of the last man saved in the world, as well as of those of former generations, the final phase of Christ’s saving work of atonement cannot be completed until the end.
