Atonement Fellowship Differences

atonement fellowship differences 

The Clean Flesh Position
1. The Bible devil is personal sins only, and is a moral term equivalent to the mind of the flesh. The same applies to “sin in the flesh,” which is a moral term only and is not a physical characteristic of our nature. Mortality and “proneness to sin” are physical, but they are not a part of the Bible devil. “Proneness to sin” is caused by transgression becoming a way of life by the sinner.
2. God required Jesus to be crucified only because of our personal sins. The crucifixion was not required because Christ had any relationship to physical sin; for himself crucifixion was simply an act of obedience.
3. The crucifixion was a ritual whereby sin as a principle (represented by human nature) was ritually condemned in Christ, but it did not actually exist there. Jesus was not “made sin” by being of human nature, sin’s flesh.
4. Baptism is only for the forgiveness of personal sins.

The UnAmended Position
The UnAmended hold that a man is legally condemned for being born with human nature and that this legal condemnation will hold a person in the grave forever once he dies. Therefore circumcision and baptism  are necessary to remove this legal condemnation and that this is why Jesus was baptized.The only basis revealed in the Bible upon which God can raise a person from the dead to judgment is that the person be “in the covenant” through circumcision or baptism. If the unbaptized are to be raised it will have to be upon a different basis.

The Partial Atonement Position
This theory is similar to that of the “clean flesh” position inasmuch as it teaches that sin is only transgression, and that Christ’s offering was only for those of his believers, because they are sinners in action. Consequently they teach that no sacrifice, atonement, or offering is required on account of the defiled nature we bear. The diabolos, being sin in the flesh, is thus destroyed by dying and not by sacrifice. Since they teach that sacrifice is only for transgression and not for any physical defect or need of redemption, atonement does not apply to the Lord Jesus Christ, but only to others. In this way, the theory requires that the Lord Jesus did not offer for himself for the purifying of his sin’s flesh. They explain that the offering of Christ was only an action of obedience in order that others could be saved, and that Christ was only benefited as a result of his action for others.

The Whole Truth
1. The Bible devil is a personification of the physical principle in human nature which lures and incites us to sin. Since this physical characteristic of our nature inevitably produces personal sins in every human except Christ, it is termed “sin in the flesh” or “the law of sin” in our members. God holds no man morally guilty for being born with the devil in his flesh.
2. Jesus needed to crucify his flesh in order to destroy the devil (the law of sin, called “the law of condemnation” [BASF #8] in his flesh) and redeem himself from sin nature. This is the righteous basis upon which God forgives our personal sins.
3. The crucifixion was the real condemnation of Sin by killing the devil (the root cause of personal sins) in the flesh of a sinless human — in Christ himself. This will ultimately accomplish the destruction of the devil in all of the redeemed. Jesus was “made sin” by being born of human nature so that he could condemn it to death in himself. In his crucifixion he identified with the transgressions of his people, being “made a curse for us,” and thus came under the full weight of the divine law against Sin.
4. Baptism provides for the forgiveness of past sins and is our commitment to put to death the old man of sin’s flesh; whilst providing a covenant relationship with the Eternal Spirit, with hope of partaking of divine nature.

Vine’s Expository Dictionary
— on the “Heart”
KARDIA (kadia), the heart (Eng. “cardiac” etc), the chief organ of physical life (Lev. 17:11), occupies the most important place in the human system. By an easy transition the word came to stand for man’s entire mental and moral activity, both the rational and the emotional elements. In other words, the heart is used figuratively for the hidden springs of the personal life. “The Bible describes human depravity as in the ‘heart,’ because sin is a principle which has its seat in the centre of man’s inward life, and then ‘defiles’ the whole circuit of his action, Mat. 15:19, 20. On the other hand, Scripture regards the heart as the sphere of divine influence, Rom. 2:15; Acts 15:9... the heart, as lying deep within, contains ‘the hidden man,’ 1Pet. 3:4, the real man. It represents the true character but conceals it” (J. Laidlaw, in Hastings’ Bible doc). • The word is also translated from the Greek PSUCHE (yuch), signifying “soul” or “life.”

the significance of blood
in sacrifice
FOR the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof” (Lev. 17:11, 14).

Bro. Thomas, as a medical practitioner, was trained in, and was experienced in, the functions of the human body. With that background, he has written a number of expositions which clearly explain the significance, both in respect to Law rituals and in relation to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. His explanations, therefore, ought to be carefully considered. A selection of his explanations, together with those of some brethren who followed him, are here presented for the assistance that they provide.
“In Lev. 17:11 he saith, ‘I have given the blood to you upon the altar for a covering upon your souls; for the blood itself shall cover the soul.’ The reason given for the blood being thus used is; ‘because the soul of the flesh is in the very blood.’ The soul, nephesh, or life, is in the blood. The blood contains or covers it, as it were, and as it is a question of life or death — life forfeited for sin, the wages of which is death — that is appointed to cover sin which covers life, namely, the blood in this sense, ‘the life, or soul, of all flesh is in the blood thereof’ because the vitality of all animalsis in the blood.
Now the blood of Jesus was more precious than the life-blood of any other man. If it had not been so, it would have been inadequate to the purchase of life for the world.
The blood of Jesus was the only blood of all the generations of Adam, that had not been generated by the lust of the flesh; and which had not energized a man to the commission of sin.
The purifying or sanctifying property of the Yahweh-Name being connected with bloodshedding, as prefigured in the law, necessitates the death of him who becomes the medium of its manifestation.” Eureka, vol. pp. 278-279.
Further, Bro. Thomas also wrote the following in Eureka vol. 3, p. 666:
“The mission of the Lord Jesus Christ was to ‘destroy that having the power of death which is the devil;’ of Sin’s Flesh; in other words, to ‘take away the Sin of the world;’ and to ‘destroy the works of the devil’ — of Sin — Heb. 2:14; Jn. 1:29; 1Jn. 3:8.
This mission has been completed in himself and he is now able to extend the effects of the mission to others, concerning whom Bro. Thomas wrote:
“In being made a sacrifice for sin by the pouring out of his blood upon the cross, he was set forth as a blood-sprinkled mercy seat to all believers of the gospel of the kingdom ...” (Elpis Israel, p. 133). Such are then “justified by his blood” (Rom. 5:9; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:22; Mat. 26:28).
Bro. Roberts adds the following: “The taking away of sin is especially associated with the bloodshedding death or offering of Christ, because that is the one element of the process of sin-taking away which implies all the rest. The death of Christ implies all the other parts of the process by which sin was covered.
The prominence of the ‘blood of Christ’ is due to the symbolism of the law which converged and terminated in him. Blood-shedding was its constant feature in the slaying of animals from the foundation of the world. This blood-shedding had two significances, related one to the other, and both declarative of a fundamental principle in the relations between God and man, and illustrated in the death of Christ, who was slain for us. The first is that death is the penalty of sin. The blood is the life (Lev. 17:11-14) and the shedding of blood was, therefore, typical of death. But it was typical of more than death; it was typical of a violent manner of death, for in natural death the blood is not shed. Blood-shedding includes both ideas. But why was it necessary that both should be thus prominent in the law? Because death had a double hold upon those for whom Christ was to die. They are hereditarily mortal because they inherit their being from one who was condemned to death because of sin: and their own numerous offences render them liable to the violent death decreed by the law. Christ came under both curses, and discharged them both by the shedding of his blood.”
(Refer “The Christadelphian,” 1873, p. 553).
It is blood that energizes a man to the commission of sin. Hence it is the “life” in the blood that provides the energy, vitality or impetus that enables the members of the body to make movements that end in acts of transgression. Paul, in Romans 7:5 referred to this movement as “motions of sin in my members,” motions or movements that lead to, or are themselves an act of transgression.
In Eureka, vol. 2, pp. 222-224, Bro.. Thomas provides an exposition relating to “The Altar” and quotes Paul in Hebrews 13:10 that “we have an altar” which, in being cleansed by the blood of Jesus is made identical with him. In explaining (p.222) the operation of sacrifices upon the Mosaic altar, he wrote: “The burnt bodies consumed into smoke were whole burnt offerings: and typified, or represented the utter destruction of Sin’s Flesh, which sin had been condemned in the flesh of the victim, by the abstraction therefrom, or The pouring out of the soul of the flesh in the slaughter of the victim. “The soul of the flesh is in the blood.” The blood covers upon the soul, or life, therefore, in pouring out the blood, the soul or life of the animal was poured out unto death; and the blood being poured out at the base of the altar, the soul was there and the altar was considered as covering it; hence the phrase, “underneath the altar the souls of the slain.”
In extending this explanation to the Lord Jesus (p. 224) Bro. Thomas further wrote: “The flesh made by the Spirit out of Mary’s substance, and rightly claimed therefore in Psa. 16:8; Acts 2:31, as His flesh, is the Spirit’s anointed altar, cleansed by the blood of that flesh when poured out unto death on the tree.” This flesh was the victim offered — the sacrifice, suspended on the tree by the voluntary offering of the Spirit-Word (Jn. 10:18). “Sin was condemned in the flesh” when the soul-blood thereof was p\oured out unto death. The Spirit-Word made his soul thus an offering for sin (Isa. 53:10); and by it sanctified the Altar-body on the tree. It was now a Thusiasterion — an altar most holy; and all who touch it are holy; and without touching it none are holy.”
In a brief, concise but lucid statement in ”Catechesis,” Bro. Thomas penned Item 51 thus: “To be “justified by spirit” is the second item of The “Great Mystery of Godliness.” The flesh in or through which the Deity was manifested was, for the brief space of thirty-three years, inferior to the angelic nature, which is spirit. It has been ‘purified’ by the sprinkling of its own blood on the cross; it came forth from the tomb an earthy body, which, in order to become spirit, and so, “equal to the angels” had to be “justified,” rectified, “made perfect” or quickened “by spirit.”
The apostle Paul wrote to the Hebrews about the significance of sacrificial blood-shedding on the part of the Lord Jesus, in ch. 9 of his epistle. In v. 7 he referred to the High Priest having entered into the “second (tabernacle) once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and the errors of the people.” Then, in v. 11 he applied these activities to the Lord and in v. 12 he described the result accruing to the Lord for so doing. “By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption” and he added, in ch. 13:20, that it was by the “blood of the everlasting covenant” that Yahweh brought the Lord from the dead, a prior necessity to his subsequent entry into the “Holy Place.”
To the foregoing explanations are now added these made by Bro. Roberts in “The Law of Moses,” ch. 18, “The consecration of Aaron” and the sub-section entitled, “The Sacrificial Blood” ... pp. 170-171, where he treated with the significance of the sacrificial blood in connection with the work of the Lord. “Now all these things were declared to be “patterned of things in the heavens,” which is admitted on all hands, converge upon and have their substance in Christ. There must, therefore, be a sense in which Christ (the antitypical Aaron, the antitypical altar, the antitypical mercy seat, the antitypical everything), must not only have been sanctified by the action of the antitypical oil of the Holy Spirit, but purged by the antitypical blood of his own sacrifice.”
He must therefore have been the subject of a personal cleansing in the process by which he opened the way of sanctification for his people. If the typical holy things contracted defilement from connection with a sinful congregation, were not the antitypical (Christ) holy things in a similar state, through derivation on his mother’s side from a sinful race? If not, how came they to need purging with his own “better sacrifice?” (Heb. 9:23).
“Under apostolic guidance, we see Christ both in the bullock, in the furniture, in the veil, in the high priest, and, in brief, in all these Mosaic “patterns,” which he says were “ a shadow of things to come” (Heb. 8:5; 9:23; 10:1; 3-5). All were both atoning and atoned for (Lev. 16:33). He was “purified with” ... his own sacrifice (Heb. 9:23, 12).
Bro. Roberts also made similar references in “The Blood of Christ,” p. 10 under the sub-heading of “The Shadow Institution.’ He wrote:
“Look then, at Lev. 17:11: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls (lives); for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul (life).” And, v. 14, “For it (the blood) is the life of all flesh ... for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof.”
In addition to Bro. Thomas, and Bro. Roberts, Bro. Henry Sulley also understood the physical properties and functions of the human body. He wrote, in his Book “the Temple of Ezekiel’s Prophecy,” a chapter headed “The Parable of the Sin-bearer,” commencing at p. 232.
“Since impulse to sin arises from the flesh (Jas. 1:14) in response to the wiles of the tempter, the motive power of which is provided by the life -blood coursing through the arteries of the body, the only way to abolish such impulses is by death, as saith the apostle, “he that is dead is free from sin.” In this way, the source from which sin comes, its fountainhead is destroyed. This occurred in the crucifixion of Jesus, who not only destroyed the adversary in himself by dying (Heb. 2:14; Eph. 2:15-16), but will also destroy the power of sin in others (1Jn. 3:8). Refer p. 234.
“Until crucifixion, when the life-blood exuded from his wounds, there could be no release from those impulses which are aroused by temptation and which were intensely offensive to him, even causing him to resent the well-meant solicitude of Peter and say, “Get thee behind me Satan (adversary); thou art an offence unto me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of men” (Mat. 16:23). So long as the life-blood was coursing through his veins he must always be amenable to and in conflict with temptation to sin, for only ‘he that is dead is free from sin’ (Rom. 6:7). refer p. 245.
Attention is also directed to the article entitled “The power of the Altar” by Bro. H. P. Mansfield and reproduced in the Logos publication “The Atonement,” pp. 185-186. There the writer quoted Exo. 29:36-37, and showed that the Mosaic altar required to be cleansed, although it had not transgressed. He wrote: “The blood is the cleansing agent, as it made the altar ‘holy: and not unclean.’ As the altar had to be cleansed, atoned for, anointed and sanctified, and as it typed the Lord Jesus, it is obvious that he was involved in his own sacrifice. he had to be cleansed from flesh-nature and clothed upon with Spirit-nature. And this was effected through his offering.”
In a similar article entitled “The Christ Altar,” appearing in pp. 187-190, he wrote the following: “Now look a little more closely at the manner in which the altar of Exo. 29:36 had to be cleansed. It was not by washing ... but by the shedding of blood, and that of a sin offering. The altar was thus cleansed through the shedding of blood. Whose blood was shed to cleanse the Jesus-altar? None other than his own.”
Blood is the motivating force which gives power or ability to the members of the body to respond to impulses and to thus put into action a transgression. These are the “motions of sin in (our) members” (Rom. 7:5) or “the law of sin in my members” (Rom. 7:23, 25). In that sense the blood is the life