Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

5. Like the moral influence and the example theories, it also fails to explain how the
Old Testament saints were saved. If the punishment inflicted on Christ was merely for
the purpose of deterring men from sin, it had no retroactive significance. How then
were people saved under the old dispensation; and how was the moral government of
God maintained at that time?
6. Finally, this theory, too, fails on its own principle. A real execution of the penalty
might make a profound impression on the sinner, and might act as a real deterrent, if
man’s sinning or not sinning were, even in his natural state, merely contingent on the
human will, which it is not; but such an impression would hardly be made by a mere
sham exhibition of justice, designed to show God’s high regard for the law.
F. THE MYSTICAL THEORY.
The mystical theory has this in common with the moral influence theory, that it
conceives of the atonement exclusively as exercising influence on man and bringing
about a change in him. At the same time it differs from the moral influence theory in
that it conceives of the change wrought in man, not primarily as an ethical change in the
conscious life of man, but as a deeper change in the subconscious life which is brought
about in a mystical way. The basic principle of this theory is that, in the incarnation, the
divine life entered into the life of humanity, in order to lift it to the plane of the divine.
Christ possessed human nature with its inborn corruption and predisposition to moral
evil; but through the influence of the Holy Spirit He was kept from manifesting this
corruption in actual sin, gradually purified human nature, and in His death completely
extirpated this original depravity and reunited that nature to God. He entered the life of
mankind as a transforming leaven, and the resulting transformation constitutes His
redemption. This is in effect, though with differences of detail, the theory of
Schleiermacher, Edward Irving, Menken, and Stier. Even Kohlbruegge seemed inclined
to accept it in a measure. It is burdened, however, with the following difficulties:
1. It takes no account of the guilt of man. According to Scripture the guilt of man
must be removed, in order that he may be purified of his pollution; but the mystical
theory, disregarding the guilt of sin, concerns itself only with the expulsion of the
pollution of sin. It knows of no justification, and conceives of salvation as consisting in
subjective sanctification.
2. It rests upon false principles, where it finds in the natural order of the universe an
exhaustive expression of the will and nature of God, regards sin exclusively as a power
of moral evil in the world, which involves no guilt and deserves no punishment, and
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