Articles of Faith: What Do Latter-day Saints Believe About the Atonement of Jesus Christ? 2

Article of Faith 3

We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved,

by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

This is the second essay about the Atonement of Jesus Christ as stated in the third Article of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Last week, I discussed the importance of understanding how the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, as the third pillar of eternity, is essential to Heavenly Father’s plan for the eternal happiness of His children. The discussion this week comes from the words of Elder James E. Talmage (Articles of Faith [1913], 74—76).

The Atonement of Christ is taught as a leading doctrine by all sects professing Christianity. The expression is so common a one, and the essential point of its signification is so generally admitted that definitions may appear to be superfluous; nevertheless, there is a peculiar importance attached to the use of the word “atonement” in a theological sense. The doctrine of the atonement comprises proof of the divinity of Christ’s earthly ministry, and the vicarious nature of His death as a foreordained and voluntary sacrifice, intended for and efficacious as a propitiation for the sins of mankind, thus becoming the means whereby salvation may be secured….

The structure of the word in its present form is suggestive of the true meaning; it is literally at-one-ment, “denoting reconciliation, or the bringing into agreement of those who have been estranged.” And such is the significance of the saving sacrifice of the Redeemer, whereby He expiated the transgression of the fall, through which came death into the world, and provided ready and efficient means for man’s attainment of immortality through reconciliation with God.

Nature of the Atonement – The atonement wrought by Jesus Christ is a necessary sequel of the transgression of Adam; and, as the infinite foreknowledge of God made clear to Him the one even before Adam was placed upon the earth, so the Father’s mercy prepared a Savior for mankind before the world was framed. Through the fall Adam and Eve have entailed the conditions of mortality upon their descendants; therefore all beings born of earthly parents are subject to bodily death. The sentence of banishment from the presence of God was in the nature of a spiritual death; and that penalty, which was visited upon our first parents in the day of their transgression, has likewise followed as the common heritage of humanity. As this penalty came into the world through an individual act, it would be manifestly unjust to cause all to eternally suffer therefrom without means of deliverance. Therefore was the promised sacrifice of Jesus Christ ordained as a propitiation for broken law, whereby Justice could be fully satisfied, and Mercy be left free to exercise her beneficent influence over the souls of mankind. All the details of the glorious plan, by which the salvation of the human family is assured, may not lie within the understanding of man; but man has learned, even from his futile attempts to fathom the primary causes of the phenomena of nature, that his powers of comprehension are limited; and he will admit, that to deny an effect because of his inability to elucidate its cause would be to forfeit his claims as an observing and reasoning being.

Simple as is the plan of redemption in its general features, it is confessedly a mystery in detail to the finite mind….

            However incomplete may be our comprehension of the scheme of redemption through Christ’s                vicarious sacrifice in all its parts, we cannot reject it without becoming infidel; for it stands as                the fundamental doctrine of all scripture, the very essence of the spirit of prophecy and                            revelation, the most prominent of all the declarations of God unto man.