Below I
examine some items related to the atonement of Jesus Christ. I forewarn readers
that these are a little unusual, but are helpful to properly understand and
have the right overall perspective when approaching them.
The first
relates to some false doctrine that occasionally rears its head with fringe
types or misled fundamentalists that are not members of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. The second relates to what I have come to believe
to be a meaningful clarification of doctrine, or at least doctrine that I have
become satisfied within myself as to its correctness. The third relates to the
issue of pain in the repentance process, something misunderstood by the world
and dissident/extremist activist Latter-day Saints. We conclude with true
teachings about the atonement by prophets.
We Will Not Atone for the Sins of Others
I hope I do
not surprise anyone by noting that over the almost two centuries over which The
Restored Church of Jesus Christ has existed, that there have been occasions
when some members, and even leaders, have believed and taught false doctrine. It
happens in the true church of Jesus Christ simply because it is made up of
fallible mortal people who sometimes get things wrong, and of course, Satan tries
to influence covenant making and keeping church members in particular; if he
can fool an influential Latter-day Saint, he can cause much harm.[1]
One false
doctrine is the concept that in order for a Latter-day Saint to become like God
is now, they must undergo the experience of an atoning sacrifice themselves;
they must suffer themselves for the sins of others.
The
justification for this notion arises from certain interpretations of a few
obscure historical references. One of them is from historical material referenced
in the Joseph Smith Papers Project. In presenting it here, I take the excerpt
from a Joseph
Smith Papers Project volume book review. I
underline the relevant wording:
On
January 30, 1842, Wilford Woodruff wrote in his “Book of Revelations” notebook
about a sermon Joseph Smith gave on deification that contains ideas that are
typically associated with the later King Follett Discourse, although as the
editor’s note, “Some ideas related to deification expressed here do not
appear again in any later discourses” (page 128).
"Jan
30[th] [1842] Joseph the Seer taught the following principles that the God
& father of our Lord Jesus Christ was once the same as the Son or Holy
Ghost bothaving [both having] redeemed a world became the eternal God of
that world he had a son Jesus Christ who redeemed this earth the
same as his father had a world which made them equal & the Holy Ghost would
do the same in his turn & so would all the Saints [p. [3]] who
inherited a Celestial glory so their would be Gods many & Lords many their
were many mansions even 12 from the abode of Devils to the Celestial glory All
Spirits that have bodies have power over those that have not hence men have
power over Devils &c" (page 129.)
A
footnote here also states that “JS made similar statements regarding Jesus
Christ and the Holy Ghost in 1843 and 1844 but did not repeat in extant
documents this teaching about ‘all the Saints’” (page 129, footnote 358).[2]
As the
thinking goes, to redeem an earth you have to endure the unimaginable infinite agony
of an atoning sacrifice. Taken in conjunction with this source are two others
that are (sort of) traceable to President Lorenzo Snow, but certainly do not
represent settled doctrine. President Snow’s famous couplet, teaching that “As
man now is, God once was. As God now is, man may be,” which is true doctrine,
has been incorrectly extrapolated to mean that to become as God now is, man
must do what Jesus and His father did, which is ostensibly to atone or suffer
for the sins of others.
A side
question arises, as to whom the “others” are. Elder McConkie taught that the
atonement “applies to all the worlds of Christ’s creating.” Truman
Madsen taught the same doctrine using different wording, that Jesus
redeemed all those who are His spirit siblings, the spirit sons and daughters
of our common Eternal Father in heaven. Madsen said: “If Christ himself was
uniquely begotten and was the firstborn in the spirit, and if he was the Christ
not only of this earth but also, as the Prophet taught later, of the galaxy, so
before him the Father himself was a Redeemer, having worked out the salvation
of souls of whom he was a brother, not a father. This is deep water. The
conclusion is drawn by Joseph Smith in his King Follett discourse. Whatever
else it may mean, and it is mind-boggling, it at least means this: The Father,
by experience, knows exactly what his Son has been through. And the Son, by
experience, knows exactly what the Father has been through.”
While this
doctrinal theorizing from these fine thinkers—that Elohim the Father wrought an
atonement for all His siblings, and Jesus the Son did likewise for all of His—is
very probably true, neither spoke formally for the Church. Further, it remains highly
doubtful that President Snow’s couplet should be taken to include or encompass
an atoning sacrifice in order for believers to become as God is (since Jesus is
the only person who has atoned for others), or simply a successful probationary
testing period of mortality as part of the plan of salvation that all who
become gods must undergo. The fact is, Jesus has already atoned for all of us,
His spirit brothers and sisters, and there is no need for other atoning
sacrifices from any of Elohim’s spirit children. If we one day become as
God now is, and give birth to a first-born spirit son, who becomes our only
begotten son in the flesh, he may then have opportunity to work out an
atonement for his spirit siblings living on earths that he created. (See JST,
Revelation 2:26–27.)
A third
reference comes from the diary of Elder Orson F. Whitney (I researched and wrote
a biography of him years ago so I am familiar with this material), which
has an entry that relates part of a private 1887 conversation he had with Elder
(and therefore not yet President) Lorenzo Snow: “He told me that he heard Joseph Smith tell a man once that
he would become a God and reign in glory, but that before that he would have to
be crucified as Christ was. That man is still living. . . .” The name of the
man was not given and the diary entry is not a solid foundation on which to
build a sturdy doctrinal house.
The interpretation that some fringe speculators
have put on this diary entry is that when Jesus was crucified he atoned for the
sins of all mankind; he redeemed and saved those who will repent (which is
true)—but that therefore all who will yet become gods must also be crucified.
Part of the illogic presented here is the false doctrine of reincarnation,
since no one (or at least no church member) in our dispensation has ever been
crucified that I know of.
As it happens, Elder Whitney, before
undergoing a long and difficult repentance process, believed in reincarnation
(or multiple mortal probations for the same spirit) for about three decades—a
doctrine he later repudiated before his call to the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles. The evident train of thought here represented would seem to be that
mortals would live and die and be reborn and live and die and be reborn again
and again and again until reaching some time in the eternities when they would rise
to such a stature that they would be crucified as Christ was, atone for the
sins of a world (or worlds), thereby redeeming it, and become a god to that
world. If you don’t add reincarnation to this convoluted equation, it doesn’t
work since no Latter-day Saints (or others) are ever crucified or suffer an
atoning sacrifice. Church members today, or ever, simply do not suffer to
redeem others as Jesus did.
Some folks have and do believe this utter
nonsense.[3] There are false teachers
and prophets online and writing books that, despite all that the scriptures
teach and all that modern prophets and apostles have emphatically taught, lead
others far astray; some who love to savor the historically obscure and buy into
the gunk and junk. Diary entries and discourse notes are not the canonized
revelations that we must measure all doctrine against. Be it known that Orson
Whitney later became either ashamed or embarrassed by many things he had
written in his diary and ripped out entire pages and crossed out portions—some
of which was done very near the quoted diary entry, which is why we only have a
portion of it. (Be it also known that modern Apostles have extensively quoted
Elder Whitney’s sound and solid doctrinal teachings.)
Having this nutty doctrine in the
back of my mind, I was pleasantly gratified to find Elder Jeffrey R. Holland teaching the following true
doctrine, given to
missionaries in the context of others suffering a small amount of what
Christ suffered as they do His work and sacrifice to serve Him:
It
seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few
moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a
step or two toward the summit of Calvary.
Now,
please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near
what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I
believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the
truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been
paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.
And again:
A
disciple of Christ is somebody that walks where He walked. And says what He
said. And feels what He feels. And sheds the tears He shed. On occasion the
road to salvation always goes through the garden of Gethsemane. The road to
salvation always goes to the summit of Calvary.
You
are not going to bleed from every pore. You are not going to be nailed to a
cross. Don’t get me wrong, you are not going to be some grand atoner. But
you are a disciple of Christ. You are going to have to experience a little
of what He experienced.[4]
It is
always such a sweet and pleasing thing to hear or read the prophets, seers, and
revelators teach the true doctrine of Christ and His atonement, and related
matters. They have taken the scriptures and the Holy Spirit for their guide and
by taking their counsel we can be saved from distractions or deviations with
eternal consequences.
So much for
the nutty fringes operating outside solid and sound gospel teachings. As Elder
Bruce R. McConkie observed, safety is found by staying in the mainstream of the
Church.
We do not Atone for Our Own Unrepented Sin in the Spirit
World
This brings
us to a matter of clarification regarding some peripheral atonement doctrine.
Doctrine and Covenants 19 has some wording that I have pondered at some length because
I may have misunderstood and therefore miss-taught it on a few former occasions.
In this
revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith we read:
Therefore I command you to
repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by
my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you
know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.
For behold, I, God, have suffered
these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
But if they would not repent they
must suffer even as I;
Which suffering caused myself, even
God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every
pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the
bitter cup, and shrink. . . (D&C 19:15-18).
While I
couldn’t say for sure, I may have believed and taught that these passages
intent is to tell us that if we don’t sincerely and fully repent of our own
sins in this life that we will have to suffer or atone for them in the next
life, undergoing the same infinite incomprehensible agony that Christ suffered
in the garden and on the cross.
I am
indebted to an insightful article (found in the BYU RSC Religious Educator)
by Chris Porter, a former Seminary teacher, for prodding my mind to further
thought on this subject. I now conclude, and trust I am right, that we will
have to suffer even as Jesus did (perhaps in some cases even to the same extent
He did; I do not know) but not as an atonement for our own
sins. The main point being that Christ is the great atoner, we are not. We
will have to suffer because we did not repent, but that suffering will not
become an effectual atoning or redeeming kind of suffering that takes away our
sins—only God could do that. I realize some may view this as a fine line or unimportant
doctrinal distinction, but I thought it worthwhile in refining and improving my
own gospel understanding.
The
verses cited above in Doctrine and Covenants 19 compare the suffering of the
unrepentant to Christ’s suffering in the garden, but they do not imply that
this suffering will have the same redeeming or atoning effect. Some may
conclude that the intense suffering described in section 19 will be sufficient
to completely satisfy the demands of justice, hence allowing unrepentant
sinners to make up for their own sins; however, the suffering that originates from
recognizing the debt created by our sins is not synonymous with an actual
payment of that debt. To comprehend the doctrine taught by section 19, one must
first consider whether fallen, mortal beings are capable of paying the price of
sin.
According
to President Joseph Fielding Smith, “The effect of Adam’s transgression was to
place all of us in the pit with him. Then the Savior comes along, not subject
to that pit, and lowers the ladder.” Clearly, individuals who have fallen into
a deep pit are incapable of lowering their own ladder or escape rope; as the
Book of Mormon teaches, “Since man had fallen he could not merit anything of
himself” (Alma 22:14). President Joseph Fielding Smith taught simply, “Since we
were all under the curse [of the Fall], we were also powerless to atone for our
individual sins.” President Joseph F. Smith stated, “Men cannot forgive their
own sins; they cannot cleanse themselves from the consequences of their sins.”
In order to receive a remission of sin, every man, woman and child born into a
fallen world is entirely dependent on him who is neither subject to the Fall
nor to any personal sins. As the hymn declares, “There was no other good enough
to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heav’n and let us
in.”
And
further:
In
discussing this point, one should not assume that the rebellious can avoid
suffering altogether in this life or the next through hasty, insincere
repentance. The rebellious must be changed, and this change cannot come about
effortlessly. President Spencer W. Kimball taught that “Repentance means
suffering. If a person hasn't suffered, he hasn’t repented. . . . He has got to
go through a change in his system whereby he suffers and then forgiveness is a
possibility.” Undoubtedly, the suffering that leads to repentance will be of
varying degrees depending on the extent of wickedness and pride. In the seventh
chapter of Moses, Enoch sees the God of heaven weeping over the extreme
wickedness of the inhabitants of the earth which “shall perish in the floods”
(verse 38). God speaks of their suffering (verse 37) and the “prison . . .
prepared for them” (verse 38) but then gives this instructive conclusion:
“Wherefore, [Christ] suffereth for their sins; inasmuch as they will repent in
the day that my Chosen shall return unto me, and until that day they shall be
in torment” (verse 39; emphasis added).
Alma the younger’s
experience is one of the great illustrations of the principle that sin leads to
pain and suffering of a kind. As part of his (mortal) personal repentance
process, Alma was tormented: “And now, for three days and for three nights was
I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul” (Alma 36:12-17). This speaks of
the exquisite “pains” of a soul that had to be changed. Alma did his repenting
in mortality, but seems to have undergone a similar process to that described
in section 19 that spirits must suffer—incomprehensibly severe spiritual pain.
(See also Elder Hales general conference talk here.)
One reason,
among others, that I address this subject is that I am often running into
inaccurate or poor understandings of pain—in social media, newspaper
articles, media websites, blogs, comment forums, and activist musings or
declarations. They often call for the end of people having to experience some or
any kind of pain, usually spiritual or emotional. LGBT activists, especially,
are so often shouting down or revolting against anything that would cause a
practicing LGBT person any pain.
When any
person breaks the law of chastity—commits very serious sin—they eventually have
to repent of it or endure the consequences stated in section 19 and D&C 138.
This is spiritual law, not a social club’s arbitrary rules that can be changes
at some liberal/progressive activist’s whim. As
President Oaks taught: “Church leaders and members cannot avoid their
responsibility to teach correct principles and righteous behavior (on all
subjects), even if this causes discomfort to some.” And: “A person engaging in
that kind of behavior should well feel guilt. They should well feel themselves
estranged from God, who has given commandments against that kind of behavior.
It’s not surprising to me that they would feel estranged from their church.
What surprises me is that they would feel that the Church can revoke God’s
commandments.”
I ponder
these principles and attendant consequences occasionally when I see an activist
loudly calling for the cessation of anything that causes any kind of pain, or criticizing
the church for maintaining its standards of moral conduct. (When they criticize
His Church, they are criticizing Him.) How little they realize what is in store
for them, whether in this life or the next.
Some Pain is Part of Partaking of the Atonement of Jesus
Christ
Some true
doctrine that Elder
Whitney taught and attributed to the Prophet Joseph Smith: “They [rebellious
and wayward children of temple-sealed righteous parents] will have to pay their
debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path;
but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and
forgiving father’s heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in
vain.”[6]
Illustrating this sometimes unwanted and uncomfortable but eternal truth, that
a degree of pain is part of (often the beginning of) the repentance process,
especially for serious sin, is the experience of those who have (thankfully!)
chosen to return to the gospel and the Church after serious transgression. As
Church leaders have related—and those sinners who have experienced it can
attest—it is indeed a thorny and painful path back to full fellowship (whether
in this life or the next).
Not
too long ago, I received a letter from the office of the Council of the Twelve
authorizing me to interview a man to determine whether he was worthy to receive
a restoration of blessings. Attached to that assignment letter were two pages
of information about this individual. In reading these pages, I learned, among
other things, that the man was a former Melchizedek Priesthood holder; that he
had received his temple endowment years before; and that he had once been
sealed to his wife and family. Moreover, I learned that the man had
transgressed seriously several years ago and that, because of his
transgressions, he had been excommunicated from the Church. Such
excommunication resulted in his loss of membership, baptism, gift of the Holy
Ghost, holy priesthood, endowment, and temple sealing. All of these sacred
privileges and blessings had either been cancelled or withdrawn.
On
the appointed day and hour, I met with the man. With him was his lovely wife.
Once the greetings and niceties had been exchanged, I invited my fried to tell
me his story. He told me of his conversion and of his varied activities in the
Church. He told me about his first wife, his first marriage, and the subsequent
birth of three children. He also told me of his love for his family and his
desire to provide them with security and with the luxuries of life. Then, with
some display of emotion, he told me how his strong urge to gather these
material things had caused him to neglect his wife and children. In time
serious problems had developed between the man and his mate, and she had asked
for a divorce.
The
divorce was obtained. Feeling that his world had collapsed around him, the man
lost all interest in life. He therefore sold his business, moved to a new
location, and began to live after the way of the world. He drowned himself in
drink, he turned to the use of tobacco, and he became heavily involved in sex.
One affair led to another. Each nefarious incident caused him to sink deeper
and deeper into the mire of sin.
Then
he met a woman who was different. She had principles and standards and lived
accordingly. He courted her for a brief time, and they were married.
A
month or so after their marriage, the wife startled her husband by asking, “Why
is it that I catch glimpses of goodness and greatness in you and then they’re
gone?” She added, “Sometimes I feel as if I’m married to only half a man.” The
husband was moved by what his wife had said and replied, “I suppose it is time
I leveled with you. I am a Mormon—a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.” He then explained to his wife what that Church membership
had once meant to him. He spoke also of the basic principles and ordinances of
the gospel. He described the priesthood and his temple marriage and sealing to
his former companion.
When
the explanations were over, the wife was crying. She told her husband that she
had never heard anything quite so beautiful. She asked, “How can we bring those
blessings back into your life so that they will remain?” He told her he would
need to seek out a bishop, confess his sins, submit to court proceedings, and
undergo a rather lengthy period of repentance. The woman said, “Whatever the
price, we will pay it. And we will begin right now.”
As
the man had predicted, once a bishop had been located, a court was held, and he
was stripped of all of his blessings. But as this good woman had committed,
they climbed together the long path back. They had struggled for four years
before he was rebaptized and finally given the gift of the Holy Ghost.
At
the conclusion of this successful interview, I restored the man’s blessings,
including the priesthood, an office within that priesthood, the temple
endowment, and the temple sealing. As soon as I had pronounced the “Amen,” the
woman rushed into her husband’s arms and declared, “Now I have a complete man—a
whole man!”
Notice how
the fact that a price (of pain and struggle) has to be paid is mentioned
as part of the process. President
M. Russell Ballard shared the following; it is instructive to recognize
words like trauma, agony, shock, hurt, and pain as they are mentioned by those
who endured them:
The
trauma of being disfellowshipped or excommunicated from the Church will likely
never be fully understood by those who have never experienced it. One man said,
“The shock I felt was terrible.” But he knew it was the Lord’s will. “I could
feel the spirit of concerned brethren in the room as I was told the decision of
the council,” he said. “I felt only love and compassion.”
Still,
the pain was hard to bear. “Left to cope with the anguish and grief inside me,
I cried, I prayed, I lay awake at night afraid that I would lose my wife and
children forever. Although I continued to counsel with my bishop, I felt alone,
with rebellion in my heart many times and feelings of guilt because of this
rebellion. …
“As
I look back now, working through each personal challenge was terribly difficult
but necessary, and the whole process was a great blessing to me. … Repentance
is something that each individual must find for himself or herself, in process
of time.”
Friends
and family are vitally important for an individual who is struggling to return
to the gospel path. Those around such a person must refrain from judging. They
must do all they can to show love. The Lord has commanded, “Wherefore, I say
unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his
brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth
in him the greater sin.
“I,
the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to
forgive all men.” (D&C 64:9–10.)
A
woman who had been a Relief Society president tells of the love and support she
received during a painful period of disfellowshipment. “When the brethren of
the council listened to me, I could feel love as I had never felt it before.
They all wept with me.”
Although
she initially felt as if her heart would “break into a million pieces,” the
next day a comforting spirit returned, and she realized that she would not be
abandoned.
One
of the most difficult things for her was going to church the next Sunday, even
though it was much easier than she had thought. The bishop made a point of
shaking her hand. With words and without, priesthood leaders who had
participated on the council expressed their concern and love. No one else knew.
“There was no sign of disrespect,” she says.
As
the weeks and months passed, she found that her pain and suffering were
actually aiding the cleansing and healing process. In fact, her pain and
suffering served a necessary purpose in the process of healing. And the pain
that her family experienced was relieved somewhat through the kind and
thoughtful attention extended to them by others.
With
agony she acknowledges, “Every member of the Church must realize that he or she
is capable of sinning. How I have paid for fooling myself about what I was
doing!”
We
must constantly guard our thoughts. Serious sin almost always begins with
unworthy thoughts. Some years ago at the direction of the First Presidency, I
interviewed a man for the restoration of his priesthood and temple blessings.
This brother had been excommunicated while serving in an important calling in
his ward. While we visited, I asked him, “How did this all happen?”
In
very sober terms he said, “It all began when I picked up a pornographic
magazine and read it. From this subtle beginning, I was led to more and more
erotic things—including R- and X-rated
films and videotapes—until I committed adultery
with a prostitute.”
He
continued, “As I look back, I can hardly believe I did those awful things. But
I did them, and it all started by reading a pornographic magazine. Brother
Ballard, tell the Saints to be careful what they read and what they see on
television, movies, and videos.”
A
sister who was disciplined after years of faithful service and devotion to the
Church said: “I had no idea I was capable of committing such a serious
transgression. I had assumed that if I knew something was wrong, I would never
do it. Little did I understand the sometimes strange dynamics of human
behavior, or what I was capable of.”
Never
forget that. Satan is real, and he has the power to “grasp” mortals “with his
everlasting chains … and [lead] them away carefully down to hell.” (2 Ne.
28:19, 21.). . .
To
you who have not yet returned, who may still be struggling with the hurt and
haven’t yet felt the healing: please allow yourself to feel the love that the
Lord, his presiding authorities, and your friends in the Church feel for you.
We are aware of your pain, and we pray for your healing and your return.
Certainly we must realize that
penalties for sin are not a sadistic desire on the part of the Lord, and that
is why when people get deep in immorality or other comparable sins, there must
be action by courts [Disciplinary Councils] with proper jurisdiction. Many
people cannot repent until they have suffered much. They cannot direct their
thoughts into new clean channels. They cannot control their acts. They cannot
plan their future properly until [after] they have lost values [blessings] that
they did not seem to fully appreciate. Therefore, the Lord has prescribed
excommunication, disfellowshipment, or probation, and this is in line with
Alma’s statement that there could be no repentance without suffering, and many
people cannot suffer, having not come to a realization of their sin and a
consciousness of their guilt.
Other Church
leaders have taught likewise; see President
Hinckley; President
Oaks—“The truly repentant sinner who comes to Christ with a broken heart
and a contrite spirit has been through a process of personal pain and suffering
for sin”; Elder
Theodore M. Burton; Elder
Bruce C. Hafen; Elder
Neal A. Maxwell; Elder
Marion D. Hanks; Elder
Neal L. Andersen—“Divine forgiveness is one of the sweetest fruits of the
gospel, removing guilt and pain from our hearts and replacing them with joy and
peace of conscience.” These are but a few of many others that could be shared.
It seems
that those who call for a cessation or absence of pain as a consequence of sin are
contravening the most important eternal truths involved with the repentance
process, forgiveness, and the atonement of Jesus Christ that can fix it all.
The Prophets Teach and Define the Atonement
As
Latter-day Saints, we refer to His mission as the Atonement of Jesus Christ,
which made resurrection a reality for all and made eternal life possible for
those who repent of their sins and receive and keep essential ordinances and
covenants.
It
is doctrinally incomplete to speak of the Lord’s atoning sacrifice by shortcut
phrases, such as “the Atonement” or “the enabling power of the Atonement” or
“applying the Atonement” or “being strengthened by the Atonement.” These
expressions present a real risk of misdirecting faith by treating the event as
if it had living existence and capabilities independent of our Heavenly Father
and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Under
the Father’s great eternal plan, it is the Savior who suffered. It is the
Savior who broke the bands of death. It is the Savior who paid the price for
our sins and transgressions and blots them out on condition of our repentance.
It is the Savior who delivers us from physical and spiritual death.
There
is no amorphous entity called “the Atonement” upon which we may call for
succor, healing, forgiveness, or power. Jesus Christ is the source. Sacred
terms such as Atonement and Resurrection describe what the Savior
did, according to the Father’s plan, so that we may live with hope in this life
and gain eternal life in the world to come. The Savior’s atoning sacrifice—the central act of all human history—is best understood and appreciated when we expressly
and clearly connect it to Him. . . .
As
we invest time in learning about the Savior and His atoning sacrifice, we are
drawn to participate in another key element to accessing His power: we choose
to have faith in Him and follow Him.
True
disciples of Jesus Christ are willing to stand out, speak up, and be different
from the people of the world.
I hope the
foregoing items relating to the atonement of Jesus Christ can have the same
effect on others that they have had on me—to further refine and improve my
understanding and appreciation of the magnificent doctrine and power of the
atonement of Jesus Christ; what Elder
McConkie stated was: “the most basic and fundamental doctrine of the gospel”
and yet declaring that “it is the least understood of all our revealed truths”—least
understood is quite the wake-up call for improvement. “Many of us have a
superficial knowledge and rely upon the Lord and his goodness to see us through
the trials and perils of life” he taught.
Before
the Crucifixion and afterward, many men have willingly given their lives in
selfless acts of heroism. But none faced what Christ endured. Upon Him was the
burden of all human transgression, all human guilt. And hanging in the balance
was the Atonement. Through His willing act, mercy and justice could be
reconciled, eternal law sustained, and that mediation achieved without which
mortal man could not be redeemed.
He
by choice accepted the penalty in behalf of all mankind for the sum total of
all wickedness and depravity; for brutality, immorality, perversion, and
corruption; for addiction; for the killings and torture and terror—for all of it that ever had been or all that ever
would be enacted upon this earth. In so choosing He faced the awesome power of
the evil one, who was not confined to flesh nor subject to mortal pain. That
was Gethsemane!
How
the Atonement was wrought we do not know. No mortal watched as evil turned away
and hid in shame before the Light of that pure being. All wickedness could not
quench that Light. When what was done was done, the ransom had been paid. Both
death and hell forsook their claim on all who would repent. Men at last were
free. Then every soul who ever lived could choose to touch that Light and be
redeemed.
By
this infinite sacrifice, “through [this] Atonement of Christ, all mankind may
be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel” (Articles of
Faith 1:3). (Ensign,
March 2008, 15.)
[1]
In substantiation I note that the writings of two women that are evidently
somehow still members of the Church, Peggy Stack and Jana Riess, regularly
appear in the Salt Lake Tribune, and contain much false doctrine and
worldly philosophizing and activism. Further, I note that one of the more
popular “Mormon”-related online podcasters is an excommunicated member that is
devoting his life to destroying faith in Jesus Christ and His Church. He
celebrates apostasy.
[2]
Also found at this link:
[3]
I have seen books written to promote this doctrine. One that I perused used
many quotations from authorities that did not actually say what the author
wanted them to say. In fact the author was so ashamed of his work that he
refused to put his name on his book, so it has a title but no author. This
simply is not how doctrine is taught to the Church. It is however how the devil
promotes false doctrine.
[4]
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, unpublished transcript of small portion of MTC
address, January 23, 2016.
[5]
“”They Must Suffer Even As I’:
Misconceptions concerning Personal Payment for Sin,” The Religious
Educator 20, no. 1 (2019).
[6]
I realize this quote talks about these wayward children “suffering for their sins,”
but this may not mean atoning for them, but rather suffering because of their
sins.
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