With the translators of the Bible imbued with the idea of the truth of the Plan of Salvation as developed by the reasoning of St. Anselm, it was almost inevitable that they should have projected his idea into their translations. Almost inevitable also that those who read those translations should see his idea as Divinely placed in the Word of God: indeed, as the true idea of the Word of God.
Men forget that Jesus in His teachings was not preaching the wrath of God, or Eternal Vindication of violated law, but the love of God in seeking men to save them from themselves, and from their cruel enemies of hell, "For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost." Jesus in the Parables never suggests that men are saved by the acceptance of a dogma— or by substitution of the innocent for the guilty. Instead in the parable of the House upon the Rock He shows men the imperative need to base their lives upon the keeping of His commandments of love—"Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them." He did not even remotely suggest the Plan of Salvation.
In the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, who were they who inherited the kingdom? Those who claimed Salvation through Faith Alone and the blood of Jesus? Or those who lived in love to others? Not there or in the other parables did He suggest salvation by the Plan of Salvation. The Plan of Salvation is a human deduction based upon a human theory, but it has proved deadly in its effect in showing men that their living has nothing whatever to do with entering heaven hereafter.
When therefore we read In the New Testament that Jesus was the propitiation for our sins, let us remember that He was the coming forth of God Himself to bring men back to Himself, forgiving and forgetting their waywardness even more truly than the Father of the Prodigal Son forgave his son.
Take the word "atonement." Its obvious meaning in English is at-one-ment, compounded of three words, "at" and "one" and "ment," to become at one, or of one mind with God. It has been changed by usage in connection with the Plan of Salvation to mean "expiation or "propitiation." If means—in its original form— basic agreement of one person with another through adjustment in love and thought.
