This week we finish looking at God’s reconciliation of us back to Himself with the atoning death of Jesus Christ and address head on some of the concerns expressed by Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins about the atonement. Until you understand what happened at the cross, you cannot truly understand how much God loves you! Here is a link to the Hitchen’s – D’Souza debate:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ_WGb8X3L8,  quote at the 34 minute mark Hitchen’s issues:1.    God threw the sins of all of mankind on someone else, Jesus.2.    After God threw the sins of mankind on Jesus, He had Jesus tortured to death, somehow against Jesus’ will, to pay for them (that is the implication after all).3.    God cannot relieve you and I of the responsibility for the debt that the sins we have committed have generated.4.    God is attempting to deny that we have committed the sins that generated the sin debt in question.5.    God is attempting to say that we are not guilty of the sin we have committed.6.    God cannot take all of this from us, the promise to do so is immoral.7.    This is an evil and bloodthirsty act committed against a victim’s will.  Psalm 103, “2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: 3Who forgives all your iniquities…6 The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed…10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. 11For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982)  Hebrews 10, “14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. 15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”  (The Holy Bible, New King James Version, 1982) “I have described atonement, the central doctrine of Christianity, as vicious, sado-masochistic and repellent.  We should also dismiss it as barking mad, but for its ubiquitous familiarity which has dulled our objectivity.  If God wanted to forgive our sins, why not just forgive them, without having himself tortured and executed in payment…” (Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2008, p. 287)

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