Those who believe exclusively in the moral influence theory point to the prodigal son in Luke 15 and say that in the story “atonement” was accomplished between father and son without any reference to Christ’s death on Calvary. However, does not logic demand an admission that the parable makes no mention at all of Christ? Are we to infer that we can be reconciled without Jesus? On the other hand, as Henry Alford once discerned, the sacrifice of Christ “is presupposed