So the Atonement is not based on justice but on mercy. The principle of mercy is so powerful that the Savior’s sacrifice not only satisfied the demands of justice but it made Jesus the great mediator. He can therefore provide the repentant not only with forgiveness but total exaltation for all those who are willing to follow Jesus up through the entire plan of salvation. He provides the intercession to take mankind past the gates of death and carry the righteous back into the presence of the Father for time and all eternity.
The thoughtful student of the gospel cannot help but ask, “How did Christ’s crucifixion accomplish all of this? In fact, why was the crucifixion even necessary for human salvation?”
As a seventeen year old missionary in England I posed this question to Elder John A. Widtsoe of the Council of the Twelve. He was then serving as the president of the European mission, with his headquarters in Britain. This is how I happened to see him occasionally. When I asked Elder Widtsoe why Jesus had to be crucified, he said, “Who asked you to ask me that question?” I replied, “Well, nobody. It’s my question. Ever since I was a little boy in Canada they would tell us at Easter time how Jesus suffered. He was lacerated with a whip, he had a crown of thorns on his head, blood was running down his face. Here was the very Son of God hanging on a cross with spikes driven through his hands and his feet.”
For me this raised a lot of questions. I wondered who wanted to have the Son do this? And what did it accomplish? And if it was necessary, how did it work? Furthermore I just wondered what it had to do with my salvation.
So when I asked President Widtsoe why Jesus had to be crucified, he gave me an interesting reply. He said, “I could answer your questions, but you wouldn’t understand it. You don’t know yet enough about your Heavenly Father for me to explain it to you.”
I then asked him if he would teach me about Heavenly Father. It was an audacious request to ask a busy Apostle, but he said if this was really my question then perhaps I would be persistent enough to trace through the scriptures, line upon line and precept upon precept, until I got the whole picture. Well it took about seven years -- both on my mission and after I returned home. Finally I reached a point where he had me write it all up with the scriptural sources sited, and after reviewing it he said, “Yes, I think you’ve got the whole picture.”
Now one of the reasons it took me so long was because President Widtsoe would not tell me the chapter and verse for each principle. He would simply describe a certain principle and then tell me approximately where it was covered in the scriptures and then send me away to find it. When I asked him why he wouldn’t give me the specific citation he said, “I wouldn’t deprive you of the thrill of finding it.”
When I wrote up this material for Elder Widtsoe I called it “A Personal Search for the Meaning of the Atonement.”
Several years ago Orville Matheny, the mission president in Dallas, Texas, asked me to give a talk to his missionaries on the Atonement and explain it according to the principles set forth in the 34th chapter of Alma. I agreed and since a major portion of that talk is about the chapter we are now covering, here is a tape just the way it was presented to around 200 missionaries in Dallas, Texas, a few years ago: A Personal Search for the Meaning of the Atonement Talk Excerpt
I want you to first write down Mark 14:36. This is where Jesus said to his Father, “O Father, all things are possible unto Thee.” In other words, “You are God. You can do anything. You have it within your power.” And then the petition, “Take this cup from me. Don’t make me do it. Work it out some other way. Please! Do it without my having to go through with this.” He was trembling.
The Father knew there wasn’t any other way. All things are possible unto God, but He’s a god of law. He’s a god of cause and effect. He’s a god of love. He’s a god of justice. But, what the Son had been called to do is the way. There isn’t any other way.
So he had to send an angel to him. I wish we had the conversation. We can only guess what the angel might have said. But he ministered to Jesus and he probably said, “You don’t have to do this. Everybody has their free agency. But the Father knew you would do it and that’s why you were ordained from the pre-existence because He knew you would do it. But you don’t have to. However, if you don’t do it, everything in which your hand participated by way of creation will go back to outer chaos. The earth, the animals, the plants, the human beings, their bodies, all the other planets on which there are similar families that you helped create -- they all go back to chaos. The only way they can be preserved and perpetuated and exalted is to have you do this.” The angel probably said something like that. At least, he convinced the Savior that He must go forward if He wanted the Father’s will to be done.
So that’s when Jesus said, “Thy will be done,” and He sweat great drops of blood. Now let me give you the other passages that fill in the details. Matthew 26:39 states, “Let this cup pass from me.” Luke 22:43 tells us the angel came and ministered to him. Luke 22:44 states that as soon as He had said, “Thy will be done,” the terror of the assignment came upon Him with such an overwhelming impact that the capillaries of his circulatory system couldn’t even contain His blood. It came through the sweat glands and onto His skin as it were great drops of blood. That is a kind of suffering you and I probably couldn’t even contemplate, let alone endure. But He did. Then He said in Matthew 24:42, “Thy will be done.”
One of the things that you learn in studying the scriptures is that you get all of the authorities that talk about the same incident. Take all of the details that each of them have and then piece them together so that you’ve got the whole picture, and that’s the one we have here. Now, Jesus describes His terror in D&C 19:15-19. I’m going to read that to you in moment, but not now.
In Acts 4:12 we are told that the Father could not have saved us. There is only one name given under heaven whereby you can be saved, and it is not Elohim. I don’t know whether that disturbs you or not. I thought God could do anything. Why couldn’t He save us after we had fallen? Doesn’t that question bother you a little? That’s the one I asked Brother Widtsoe. Doesn’t God love us as much as the Son? It’s His plan to have us come down to earth. Why is there only one name given under heaven whereby we can be saved, and it doesn’t include the Father, but it’s only the Son? Is there an answer to that?
“Yes,” Brother Widtsoe said, “there’s an answer.” Seven years -- he didn’t tell me about that part. But, anyway.
I think that’s enough. Just draw a line. That raises all the questions. Let’s look for some answers.
Brother Widtsoe didn’t give me the answers the way I have lined them up here. He gave me some of the big answers first, and I want to start with one of the fundamental answers, which is the bottom line of where it all happens. Write down 2 Nephi 2:14. Father Lehi is on his death bed. He’s trying to share with sons some of the last elements of gospel testimony before he passes away. He’s pleading with his sons to acknowledge and recognize the great truths of the gospel.
He said that you must realize that there is a God and that He created everything either to act or to be acted upon. Now, this means there are two building blocks in the universe. One building block consists of an active ingredient. It acts. There is another thing that doesn’t act but it can be acted upon.
You’ve read that in Second Nephi. I had read it. I’ve gone through the Book of Mormon as a teacher over a hundred times teaching it or studying it. Over a hundred times. It’s like President Matheny said, “Brethren, people keep adding things to the Book of Mormon for me. I keep finding new things.”
Well, that’s one that I finally found. I didn’t find it on my own. Brother Widtsoe said, “It’s there, now you look for it in the early part of Second Nephi.” There it was, something to act and something to be acted upon.
Write down D&C 93:30. “That which acts,” the Lord said, “is called intelligence or light.” Now, what is an intelligence? There’s no description, except that its like light. Everything that exists, which is truth, is filled with intelligence. Everything is filled with it.
The best way for you to know about intelligence is to find out about it the way I found out about it. I said to Brother Widtsoe, “What’s an intelligence like?”
He said, “Well, look in the mirror and tell me. You’re an intelligence.”
“Oh! That’s right, that’s good. I’m an intelligence, aren’t I?”
He said, “How big are you?”
I said, “I don’t know.”
He said, “Where are you?”
“Well, I’m right here.” (pointing to his heart)
He said, “You’re not down there. Did you notice. Isn’t that down from where you are?”
“Oh, yeah, it is.”
He said, “Take hold of your chin. Shut your eyes.”
So, I did. Now, he said, “Is that below you or above you or is that right on?”
I said,“That’s below me.”
He said, “Take hold of your ear. Is that beside you?”
I said, “Yeah, that’s out there.”
He said, “Where is your little `I am’?”
I said, “It’s way in there, isn’t it?”
He said, “I think so. It’s way back in there. It’s a little tiny `I am’. It’s self knowing. It’s self determining. It’s anticipatory. It can learn. It’s a little intelligence.” Fascinating! It always existed as an independent entity. A little “I am.”
Now, write down D&C 93:29-30, which states that intelligence is eternal and it is independent to act for itself. That’s what the Lord said. This is the essence of reality that acts for itself.
All right, next is Abraham 3:19-23, which talks about spirits and that some are more intelligent than others. Then it tells you that its talking about spirits that are organized intelligences. So, you’re really talking about intelligences that are one above another. Abraham is telling us that intelligences are organized and graded. What the Lord is saying is that we start out with the little ones, but then we come up to you who are some of my most magnificent intelligences that I gave bodies in my image. You’re real super. You’re special.
Joseph Smith described the graduated intelligences that are structured in nature in History of the Church 4:519. He said he gave this sermon to the Apostles and their wives so that they’d know this wonderful, marvelous God science of graduated intelligences. But, then he didn’t say any more about it, and so we have to go to the early brethren who heard about it to get more details.
The next principle is found in D&C 93:33, where it states that which is acted upon is called element. Next write down Journal of Discourses7:2, where Brigham Young said these little bits of element are capacitated to receive intelligence. Now, notice what happens. You get a little piece of element -- and it must be extremely tiny -- and you attach a little intelligence to it. You can now talk to it and say, “Move that little fellow over here. You two combine together. Now bring in three more. That’s fine. Let’s get this thing going.” Now we’ve got ourselves a little atom working. We get enough of those and we’ll have a molecule. It’s a universe when you get through. I don’t know how many -- maybe a million little intelligences and bits of elements all spinning around that little universe there. We call it an atom. It‘s so tiny you can’t see it.
We put a lot of them together and we have a molecule. They’ll do certain things. The Lord said in the 88th section that He gives them orders and He gives them a pattern to follow, and they’ll always follow that pattern unless you want them to do something else. You get two little molecules that we call hydrogen and another little molecule that acts completely different that we call oxygen and we put them together and we’ve got water. Isn’t that nice? We have water. But, Jesus said, “Wine. You know what to do. High grade of wine, please.” And it happened.
All of a sudden the mystery is gone out of the miracles. You and I perform things by playing force against force. That’s the way you make a motor go. But the Lord talks to things. That’s a better way, wouldn’t you agree? See, God doesn’t violate law. He sets things going.
You have H2O, and that’s water. He said, “But, I need wine.”
“Oh, all right,” and it changes.
Now, that’s the universe in which we live. This is God science and Brother Widtsoe said, “Isn’t that thrilling, Elder Skousen?”
I said, “I never even thought of that being a possibility.”
He said, “God has revealed so many marvelous things to us if we will just study it out and put it all together.”
All right, just a little bit more here. Abraham 4:9, 10, 12, and 18 is where you see intelligence responding to the commandments of the Gods during the creative process. Notice what it says, “And the Gods commanded the dry land to come up. And they watched until they were obeyed.” Dirt doesn’t obey as dirt, unless it had intelligence in it. Would it? It can‘t obey if it’s just stuff that has no capacity to obey.
This is one of the great revelations of God. These little intelligences are in everything. I can move a mountain. I just tell it to move, and I can let my priesthood tell it to move, and if it’s authorized, it will move. Nephi the Second was told by the Lord, “I have declared before all my angels that when you speak, all things are to obey as though God had spoken it. And I know that I can share this power with you because you’ll never use it until I tell you.”1 He could say to the clouds, “Don’t rain. Go away.” Or he could say, “Clouds, come in and let us have rain.” That is the power of God.
Jesus would say to the little cells of the eyes of a blind man, “You have not functioned properly since the birth of this man. In your places, please.”
Suddenly the man says, “I can see!”
“Crooked arm, straighten,” and it straightened.
“Feet, walk,” and everything goes into its proper order.
We call these miracles. It is the science of God speaking to His creations and saying, “Straighten up and fly right like you were suppose to.” That’s what He is doing. There is the key to the miracles. This is going to bring us closer to something else in just a moment.
When God commands, they obey. Take Helaman 12:3-18 where he describes all of the things that obey on God’s command. They obey just like they did during the creation process. Add Jacob 4:6 and 1 Nephi 20:13. Jacob said, “We can have the water obey us, the trees obey us, when we speak with the priesthood.” And in D&C 88:38-42 the Lord says, “Intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence,” to do the things God has instructed it to do.
Now we come to a most interesting passage that was hidden away. It took me a long time to find it and I read over it at least ten or fifteen times. Brother Widtsoe would say, “You’re missing it. It’s in Section 29.”
I said, “I couldn’t find it.”
He said, “Read it again.” I still couldn’t find it.
He said, “Read it again. You have to get the Spirit when you read. Maybe you’ll get it this time.”
I finally got it! It is in D&C 29:36 where God says, “My honor is my power.”
Do you want to know where God got His power from? He said, “It’s my honor that gives me my power. My honor is my power.”
Brother Widtsoe said, “This is a priesthood principle that often isn’t quite appreciated. You are ordained from above, but your power comes from those over whom you have supervision.”
What makes a great bishop? His ordination? He’s ordained from above, isn’t he? What makes him a great bishop? It is home teachers doing their home teaching. It is Sunday School teachers preparing their lessons. It is people having Family Home Evening, paying their tithes, and going to the temple. And people say, “My, what a great bishop.” Why? Because he is being honored in his calling. That’s what makes a great bishop. He was ordained from above. He was supported by those from below over those whom he supervised. Do you follow that? “My honor is my power.” Just as Jesus was honored and obeyed when He said, “Water, be wine.”
When God appeared to Moses, he was 80 years old. He appeared to him on Mount Sinai, which means “burning bush.” The Lord told Moses, “I’m now going to rescue Israel out of Egypt.”2
Moses said, “Oh! I think that’s just great because Miriam, my sister, is down there. Mother is still down there. Aaron is still down there. I’m so happy to hear that.”
The Lord said, “I’m going to have you bring them out.”
Moses said, “Oh, no! No! I’m a capital fugitive. They’d kill me.”3
The Lord said, “I’ll go with you.”4
Moses said, “I’m still scared.”
The Lord said, “What do you have there in your hand?”
“My shepherd staff.”
“Throw it on the ground.” He threw it on the ground. It became a serpent! A metamorphosis took place.
The Lord said, “Pick it up.” So he did. By the tail, of course. It became a staff again.5
Now, watch what the Lord said. (Holding up his hand) You see my hand? Do you want to see the miracle of God? See that hand? That hand is made of dirt! Isn’t that fantastic? The Lord said to Moses, “Put your hand in your bosom.”
So he did. The Lord talked to that hand and said, “Now my children. Don’t go all the way back. Let’s go back to leprosy. Simulate leprosy. Moses, take your hand out.”
It was dripping with an incurable disease. “Moses, put your hand back in your bosom.”
And the Lord said, “My children, as you were.”
“Moses, take your hand out.”
“Oh!” Moses said. Beautiful, pink flesh. Isn’t that marvelous?6
Then the Lord told Moses, “If you want to take water and pour it out and turn it into blood, I’ll do that for you. That they may know that you come to them not by your strength only but by the very power of God.” So, Moses did it, you remember. Finally he consented to go.7
Now, once we understand some of these principles, we are beginning to comprehend a little bit about the God that we worship. That’s what the Lord says, “I want you to understand more about me. I want you to understand that I am not a distant, mystical being. I’m your loving Heavenly Father and I operate in an atmosphere of cause and effect and in a universe of law. There is nothing magic about what I do. Everything is based on science and I’m trying to teach it to you gradually.”
Now just a little bit more. We are told that God must maintain the confidence of these intelligences in order that they will sustain him and honor him. No other church has even dared to preach this doctrine -- and no other scripture contains it save the Book of Mormon -- that it is possible for God to fall. Now, He isn’t going to, because He knows how to avoid it. He just wants us to know that he walks a razor’s edge of necessity of having his conduct, as the great arbiter of heaven whom they all love and respect, be absolutely immaculate in dispensing justice and truth and love among them.
Now that’s a great discipline, is it not? You can write down the references to this. This is in Alma 42:13, 22, and 25 and Mormon 9:19. All of these passages say “or he would cease to be God.” Who dares preach such a principle that God is under the necessity of maintaining certain conditions or he could cease to be God? He wouldn’t have power any more. How could he lose his power? By not being honored any more.
Now, you have the problem of the Atonement. Our Father wanted us to come into a laboratory where good and evil existed side by side; where you and I could learn for ourselves -- not because Father said so -- but we could learn for ourselves the difference between good and evil.
Have you noticed a little rubs off? In fact, you have to repent and erase it continually. It keeps rubbing onto us. You think you’ve just got it whipped and the next thing you know, you’re doing it again. Or, you’re tempted to do it again. That’s life. And that’s how we learn the difference between good and evil and the penalties thereof. You never went through this before. You learned how to be obedient in heaven because our Heavenly Father told you what the results would be if you didn’t, and sure enough it would happen. But you couldn’t quite understand. He gave you the criteria, but you didn’t know for yourself, the Book of Mormon says.8 That is why you came into this life. You’re really learning for yourself. So am I. Believe me I’m learning.
The next passage is Alma 34:9, where it states the Father cannot save us. The Atonement is indispensable. You have to have an atonement. But, what would happen if there hadn’t been an atonement? Would you like to know that one? All right, it’s 2 Nephi 9:7-9 that describes what would have happened if there hadn’t been an atonement. We would have all become subject to Lucifer and we would suffer the same consequences. The early brethren made it very clear that Lucifer’s fate was total dissolution, which means that he and his hosts will be stripped of their spirit bodies. They will be stripped of all things that pertain to the organized kingdom of God and cast back into outer darkness as naked, unorganized intelligences. Some of the early brethren thought that maybe they’d get another chance, that they might be scooped up again and come into another creation. The Lord said in the Doctrine and Covenants, “Don’t ever preach that they get a second chance. I have never authorized that to be taught.”9 So, we don’t preach that.
So how does the Atonement work? We have the problem. We have the basic ingredients for the solution. Alma 34:11 says that one person cannot pay for the sins of another. That’s Amulek speaking, not Alma. He’s a new convert to the Church, a missionary companion of Alma, talking to the Zoramites. He said, “One person cannot satisfy the demands of justice by paying for the sins of another.” You just stop and think about whether or not this is true.
Let’s say I have committed a heinous offense -- a capital offense. This good elder loves me enough to offer his life on behalf of my offense for which I should die. This elder says, “Brother Skousen still has a lot of teaching to do. I will go on the gallows for him.” Does that satisfy any of you? Do you feel good about that? Are you satisfied? Do you feel justice has been done? Has it satisfied your sense of justice? Amulek said no, it won’t.
This is a very important thing to understand about the Atonement. I hear people preaching for this much sin there had to be this much suffering, and that’s what Jesus provided. No, that is the law of quid pro quo. Amulek says the Atonement is based on a completely different principle. It isn’t quid pro quo. It isn’t this much suffering for this much sinning. It’s a different doctrine entirely.
That’s what Paul was so upset about when the Jews tried to preach that doctrine.10 We have it back in the Church being taught occasionally that way. What does Amulek say the key to the Atonement was? He said it was Jesus going up on that cross. It had to be someone -- not you and me -- but someone who was infinitely loved, which means universally loved. He would be so terribly tortured in his role as our leader that the sense of compassion in every little intelligence would be touched.
Isn’t this interesting? You’re this same way. You are subject to compassion. Every intelligence can be reached. Each has a sense of compassion. It’s necessary to somehow reach that sense of compassion sufficiently to overcome the demands of justice. Because, when our Heavenly Father puts us down here and we try to repent the best we can, we are still unworthy to come back. Are we not? It’s impossible to become perfect in this life. Right? Everybody agree to that? “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”11 Does that sound familiar? You can’t become perfect in this life. Those little intelligences say, “Father, remember? You held us back.” You can’t overlook them. Our Father wanted us to learn the difference between good and evil, and it’s impossible for Him, then, to bring us back. Everybody see the problem?
How does He get us back? He ask us to do the best we can. Then he says, “We’ve worked it out. We’ve found out how we can reach those little intelligences.” So, when Jesus was on that cross, the suffering had to be so terrible that it is infinite in its persuasive power. We mean that much to him, and when He pleads for us, He doesn’t do it because of our righteousness, because it wasn’t that good. We did the best that we could, but still it wasn’t perfect. He says, “They did the best they could, and now will you, for my sake, let them come up, or I’ll be robbed of the reward of my labor. Will you let them come up?”
The intelligences will say, “Jehovah, not for their sake, because they were imperfect, but if they mean that much to you, let them come up.” So Amulek says that the compassion that has been created in those little intelligences is enough to overcome the demands of justice. That is found in Alma 34:15-16.
So the Atonement is not based on the law of so much suffering for so much sin. It’s based on mercy and love. That is all it is based on. It’s those little intelligences saying, “All right, if they mean that much to you, after all you went through.”
Now, how much did he go through? When Jesus was dedicated as the eldest son in the temple, an old man named Simeon came hurrying up. The Holy Ghost had whispered to him, “Rush to the temple today. You will see the face of the Messiah, as I promised you before, that you would not die until you had seen him.”12 He came up and took that little baby out of the arms of Mary and said, “Now, O Lord God Jehovah, let me depart in peace, for mine eyes have beheld thy salvation. The glory of thy people, Israel, and a light unto the Gentiles.”13 Then he handed the baby back to Mary and said, “Because of him, little mother, one day sorrow will pierce your soul like a sword.”14
Thirty three years later on Golgotha, at the place of the skull, she saw that beloved boy of hers nailed to the cross, spiked, a crown on his head, blood on his face, lacerated, sweating and crying out in suffering. What do you think that did to that mother? It was so intense that the Father had to do one final thing to make it supreme. He had to withdraw His spirit from Jesus. His Spirit had sustained Jesus, as it sustains all of us up to a point because it’s in all of us. All of the sudden, the Father withdrew his spirit from Jesus. As it left him, he cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me?”15 Then the Spirit came back and Jesus said, “Oh, I did it! It is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”16 And He died. At that moment, Jesus became the Christ.
This was a terrible experience for the Father. When He had to tell His Son that it was necessary for Him to go forward with the Atonement in the garden of Gethsemane, when He had to withdraw His spirit from Him on the cross, that was a terrible experience. The Book of Mormon says the reason that Abraham was commanded to slay his own son, Isaac, was so that at least one earthly father would know what it’s like to have the role of the Father and to sacrifice his son.17 Abraham didn’t have to go through with it, but he was reconciled to it because he knew that it was for a righteous purpose he didn’t understand. The Father just wanted Abraham to know, at least one father to know, a little bit of what it was like to be the Father on the night of Golgotha.
Since this understanding of the Atonement began to clarify itself in my mind and I began to see what was the meaning of Jesus on that cross, He has become my personal Savior. I love Jesus. I love my Heavenly Father. I never realized before what they went through for me and my children and for you and all the rest of us. I’ve learned to love God with all my heart and feel closer to them.
I love to testify about them. I love to testify of their great mission to us and the great sacrifice of both the Father and the Son and what they went through for our sakes. This is God’s science of salvation. That is all I’ve been talking about this morning: the real science of salvation; why the Atonement was necessary; why God, the Father, couldn’t do it; and why He said His Son is the only name given under heaven whereby we may be saved. We know that they have done their part, and now all we’ve got to do is our part.
That is why Jesus makes such a plea to us, and I’m going to read this now in closing. Turn to D&C 19:15-19, and listen to the Savior’s words:
"Therefore I command you to repent -- repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, [you see, He’s a god of love, but He also has to be a god of justice or the intelligences would lose confidence in Him] 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; [in other words, what we do is repent in order to qualify] but if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; [notice how terrible it was] 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 --
“[And this verse is wonderful] Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.”
Jesus is saying, “I did it! I did it! I was so frightened. I was so scared. I trembled. I asked the Lord not to make me go through with it. He said that I didn’t have to, but He told me the consequences if I backed out. I did it! I did it!” He was just so thrilled about it. “Now,” He said, “don’t let that be wasted.” Now turn to D&C 45:3-5, which states:
"Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him, [see the Father loves us as much as the Son. It’s His plan, really. That’s what Jesus said in the pre-existence, Father, I will do it the way you want it done.’ Lucifer wanted to do it a different way and take credit. The Son said, I‘ll do it the way it’s been done before. I’ll do it. I will suffer.’] saying:
“Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.”
Now turn to Alma 34:14-16, and we have our concluding thought from Amulek -- a great tribute to the Savior and what His sacrifice accomplished:
"And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law, [meaning the law of Moses] every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal. [It’s going to reach every corner of the universe.] And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of his last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about the means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.
“And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice.”
That is what you are in the mission field to tell people about. Now the story that I’ve told you this morning -- the one that we worked out with such difficulty -- is the most profound principle of the whole gospel: the Atonement and why it was necessary. That isn’t what you preach, but it is what you must know in order to preach and testify of Christ.
Let me give you an example, now as I finish, of Abraham Lincoln. I want to show you how mercy overcomes the demands of justice, everyday, in real life. During the Civil War there was a boy fighting in the Union forces, 19 years old, and he went to sleep on guard duty. The opposition broke through and wiped out a whole flank of the army. Several hundred men were killed, including some of the best friends of this young man. But he survived. He was court-martialed and sentenced to die. He expected to die. He thought that it was only just that he die. President Lincoln was ready to sign his death warrant for his execution when a little mother appeared on the scene.
She said, “President Lincoln, when this war started I had a husband and six sons. First I lost my husband, and then one by one I lost five of my sons. Now I only have one son left, and he is sentenced to be executed by a firing squad because he went to sleep on guard duty. He feels awfully sad because he lost some of his best friends, and he expects to die. President Lincoln, I‘m not asking you to spare this boy’s life for his sake, but for his mother’s sake. He is all I have left. For my sake, could you spare him?”
President Lincoln said, “For your sake, little mother, I will spare him.” As far as I know, President Lincoln was never criticized for that decision.
Does that touch the heart of compassion? Notice how that overcame the demands of justice. “For your sake, I will spare him.” And that is what has happened for us.
The salvation of Jesus Christ is very real and the price He paid was very terrible. You’re here to testify that Jesus is the Christ and that the gospel has been restored to prepare for His Second Coming. Now, that’s our mission. I went to the mission field thinking that testifying of the Restoration was our whole mission. No, that’s incidental. The divinity of Jesus Christ is our main message, and also the fact that He has now spoken to prophets, they’re walking the earth, and the priesthood is back. That’s our good news. We’re preparing for the Second Christmas, when there will be a thousand years of peace on earth, good will toward men.
I only pray that God will bless every one of us to fulfill our callings with valiance, so that the Spirit can testify to thousands of His children that Jesus is the Christ and they can feel our testimony. They can then enjoy the fruits of the gospel, like many others, hundreds and then thousands. That is my prayer on this beautiful Christmas season in the year 1980.
I pray God’s richest blessings on you, my brothers and sisters, as upon myself, that our Heavenly Father will not be disappointed in our efforts, and I say it in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. The Text of Alma, Chapter 34 continues
In this lecture you will notice that the Atonement, which blotted out the demand for justice, was based on the flood of mercy generated by the suffering of the Savior during the crucifixion. It was not from a quid pro quopayment for sin, that is so much suffering for so much sin, but it was rather a flood of mercy would erase the demands of justice. Enoch saw the indescribable intensity of the Savior’s suffering, which was so excruciating that it impacted every intelligence in this entire round of the Father’s creation. Here is what the scripture says:
“And he [Enoch] heard a loud voice, and the heavens were veiled and all the creations of God mourned; and the earth groaned, and the rocks were rent.”18
The great Book of Mormon prophet Abinadi also understood how the Atonement created a huge repository of mercy and compassion, which gave Jesus intercessory power forever to intervene on behalf of those who deserve special blessings. Here is the way Abinadi said the Atoning sacrifice operates. It gave:
“... the Son power to make intercession for the children of men [notice it isn’t payment for sin] -- having ascended into heaven, having [aroused] the bowels of mercy, being filled with compassion towards the children of men ... having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice.”19
Notice that it was the bowels of mercy and not the payment for sins which overcame and satisfied the demands of justice. The instant the hosts of intelligences were flooded with such an overwhelming sense of love and compassion for the suffering Savior, it combined to completely nullify the demands for justice. This is what it means by the Savior’s sacrifice completely “overcoming the demands of justice.”
Of course, we should remind ourselves that the Atonement was retroactive. As we mentioned earlier, when Jesus accepted this assignment in the council of heaven, the Father knew he would fulfill it.20 Therefore it was looked upon as a fait accompli-- or a future event that would be treated as though it was already an accomplished fact.
It thereby became available to Adam and Even around 4000 B.C.to blot out their transgression in the Garden of Eden.21 And because the Savior volunteered to accept this assignment, it immediately went into full force and effect. The floodgates of vicarious blessings for the entire human family began to pour out on the children of men from ancient times. As a result:
Through the intercession of Jesus our sins are forgiven and blotted out as soon as we have repented.
Through the intercession of Jesus we are allowed to receive physical bodies.
Through the intercession of Jesus we are allowed to become members of his Church.
Through the intercession of Jesus we are allowed to hold the holy priesthood.
Through the intercession of Jesus we are allowed to be married for time and all eternity.
Through the intercession of Jesus we are allowed to go to paradise when we die.
Through the intercession of Jesus we are allowed to come forth in the first resurrection.
Through the intercession of Jesus we are allowed to return to the Father’s glorious presence.
Through the intercession of Jesus we will be allowed to become exalted beings and have eternal posterity just like our Father.
Notice that none of these great blessings would have come as a result of Jesus merely paying for past sins. These are positive blessings that needed a mediator to intercede, so that for the Savior’s sake the blessing would be granted. The recipient didn’t earn these blessings. He or she merely qualified for them. The blessings came for the sake of Jesus.
This brings us to a conclusion of the discussion of the glorious Atonement doctrine as set forth in the Book of Mormon. Now let us proceed to cover the rest of Amulek’s sermon to the apostate Zoramites.
Now Amulek pleads with these Zoramites who have been compelled to be humble because of their afflictions, to renew their covenants with God. It all begins by pleading with the Lord. Amulek said:
“Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you; Yea, cry unto him for mercy; for he is mighty to save. Yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him. Cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks. Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening. Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies. Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness. Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them. Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase. But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness. Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you.”
“And Thus Mercy Can Satisfy the Demands of Justice”
So the Atonement is not based on justice but on mercy. The principle of mercy is so powerful that the Savior’s sacrifice not only satisfied the demands of justice but it made Jesus the great mediator. He can therefore provide the repentant not only with forgiveness but total exaltation for all those who are willing to follow Jesus up through the entire plan of salvation. He provides the intercession to take mankind past the gates of death and carry the righteous back into the presence of the Father for time and all eternity.
The thoughtful student of the gospel cannot help but ask, “How did Christ’s crucifixion accomplish all of this? In fact, why was the crucifixion even necessary for human salvation?”
As a seventeen year old missionary in England I posed this question to Elder John A. Widtsoe of the Council of the Twelve. He was then serving as the president of the European mission, with his headquarters in Britain. This is how I happened to see him occasionally. When I asked Elder Widtsoe why Jesus had to be crucified, he said, “Who asked you to ask me that question?” I replied, “Well, nobody. It’s my question. Ever since I was a little boy in Canada they would tell us at Easter time how Jesus suffered. He was lacerated with a whip, he had a crown of thorns on his head, blood was running down his face. Here was the very Son of God hanging on a cross with spikes driven through his hands and his feet.”
For me this raised a lot of questions. I wondered who wanted to have the Son do this? And what did it accomplish? And if it was necessary, how did it work? Furthermore I just wondered what it had to do with my salvation.
So when I asked President Widtsoe why Jesus had to be crucified, he gave me an interesting reply. He said, “I could answer your questions, but you wouldn’t understand it. You don’t know yet enough about your Heavenly Father for me to explain it to you.”
I then asked him if he would teach me about Heavenly Father. It was an audacious request to ask a busy Apostle, but he said if this was really my question then perhaps I would be persistent enough to trace through the scriptures, line upon line and precept upon precept, until I got the whole picture. Well it took about seven years -- both on my mission and after I returned home. Finally I reached a point where he had me write it all up with the scriptural sources sited, and after reviewing it he said, “Yes, I think you’ve got the whole picture.”
Now one of the reasons it took me so long was because President Widtsoe would not tell me the chapter and verse for each principle. He would simply describe a certain principle and then tell me approximately where it was covered in the scriptures and then send me away to find it. When I asked him why he wouldn’t give me the specific citation he said, “I wouldn’t deprive you of the thrill of finding it.”
When I wrote up this material for Elder Widtsoe I called it “A Personal Search for the Meaning of the Atonement.”
Several years ago Orville Matheny, the mission president in Dallas, Texas, asked me to give a talk to his missionaries on the Atonement and explain it according to the principles set forth in the 34th chapter of Alma. I agreed and since a major portion of that talk is about the chapter we are now covering, here is a tape just the way it was presented to around 200 missionaries in Dallas, Texas, a few years ago: A Personal Search for the Meaning of the Atonement Talk Excerpt
I want you to first write down Mark 14:36. This is where Jesus said to his Father, “O Father, all things are possible unto Thee.” In other words, “You are God. You can do anything. You have it within your power.” And then the petition, “Take this cup from me. Don’t make me do it. Work it out some other way. Please! Do it without my having to go through with this.” He was trembling.
The Father knew there wasn’t any other way. All things are possible unto God, but He’s a god of law. He’s a god of cause and effect. He’s a god of love. He’s a god of justice. But, what the Son had been called to do is the way. There isn’t any other way.
So he had to send an angel to him. I wish we had the conversation. We can only guess what the angel might have said. But he ministered to Jesus and he probably said, “You don’t have to do this. Everybody has their free agency. But the Father knew you would do it and that’s why you were ordained from the pre-existence because He knew you would do it. But you don’t have to. However, if you don’t do it, everything in which your hand participated by way of creation will go back to outer chaos. The earth, the animals, the plants, the human beings, their bodies, all the other planets on which there are similar families that you helped create -- they all go back to chaos. The only way they can be preserved and perpetuated and exalted is to have you do this.” The angel probably said something like that. At least, he convinced the Savior that He must go forward if He wanted the Father’s will to be done.
So that’s when Jesus said, “Thy will be done,” and He sweat great drops of blood. Now let me give you the other passages that fill in the details. Matthew 26:39 states, “Let this cup pass from me.” Luke 22:43 tells us the angel came and ministered to him. Luke 22:44 states that as soon as He had said, “Thy will be done,” the terror of the assignment came upon Him with such an overwhelming impact that the capillaries of his circulatory system couldn’t even contain His blood. It came through the sweat glands and onto His skin as it were great drops of blood. That is a kind of suffering you and I probably couldn’t even contemplate, let alone endure. But He did. Then He said in Matthew 24:42, “Thy will be done.”
One of the things that you learn in studying the scriptures is that you get all of the authorities that talk about the same incident. Take all of the details that each of them have and then piece them together so that you’ve got the whole picture, and that’s the one we have here. Now, Jesus describes His terror in D&C 19:15-19. I’m going to read that to you in moment, but not now.
In Acts 4:12 we are told that the Father could not have saved us. There is only one name given under heaven whereby you can be saved, and it is not Elohim. I don’t know whether that disturbs you or not. I thought God could do anything. Why couldn’t He save us after we had fallen? Doesn’t that question bother you a little? That’s the one I asked Brother Widtsoe. Doesn’t God love us as much as the Son? It’s His plan to have us come down to earth. Why is there only one name given under heaven whereby we can be saved, and it doesn’t include the Father, but it’s only the Son? Is there an answer to that?
“Yes,” Brother Widtsoe said, “there’s an answer.” Seven years -- he didn’t tell me about that part. But, anyway.
I think that’s enough. Just draw a line. That raises all the questions. Let’s look for some answers.
Brother Widtsoe didn’t give me the answers the way I have lined them up here. He gave me some of the big answers first, and I want to start with one of the fundamental answers, which is the bottom line of where it all happens. Write down 2 Nephi 2:14. Father Lehi is on his death bed. He’s trying to share with sons some of the last elements of gospel testimony before he passes away. He’s pleading with his sons to acknowledge and recognize the great truths of the gospel.
He said that you must realize that there is a God and that He created everything either to act or to be acted upon. Now, this means there are two building blocks in the universe. One building block consists of an active ingredient. It acts. There is another thing that doesn’t act but it can be acted upon.
You’ve read that in Second Nephi. I had read it. I’ve gone through the Book of Mormon as a teacher over a hundred times teaching it or studying it. Over a hundred times. It’s like President Matheny said, “Brethren, people keep adding things to the Book of Mormon for me. I keep finding new things.”
Well, that’s one that I finally found. I didn’t find it on my own. Brother Widtsoe said, “It’s there, now you look for it in the early part of Second Nephi.” There it was, something to act and something to be acted upon.
Write down D&C 93:30. “That which acts,” the Lord said, “is called intelligence or light.” Now, what is an intelligence? There’s no description, except that its like light. Everything that exists, which is truth, is filled with intelligence. Everything is filled with it.
The best way for you to know about intelligence is to find out about it the way I found out about it. I said to Brother Widtsoe, “What’s an intelligence like?”
He said, “Well, look in the mirror and tell me. You’re an intelligence.”
“Oh! That’s right, that’s good. I’m an intelligence, aren’t I?”
He said, “How big are you?”
I said, “I don’t know.”
He said, “Where are you?”
“Well, I’m right here.” (pointing to his heart)
He said, “You’re not down there. Did you notice. Isn’t that down from where you are?”
“Oh, yeah, it is.”
He said, “Take hold of your chin. Shut your eyes.”
So, I did. Now, he said, “Is that below you or above you or is that right on?”
I said,“That’s below me.”
He said, “Take hold of your ear. Is that beside you?”
I said, “Yeah, that’s out there.”
He said, “Where is your little `I am’?”
I said, “It’s way in there, isn’t it?”
He said, “I think so. It’s way back in there. It’s a little tiny `I am’. It’s self knowing. It’s self determining. It’s anticipatory. It can learn. It’s a little intelligence.” Fascinating! It always existed as an independent entity. A little “I am.”
Now, write down D&C 93:29-30, which states that intelligence is eternal and it is independent to act for itself. That’s what the Lord said. This is the essence of reality that acts for itself.
All right, next is Abraham 3:19-23, which talks about spirits and that some are more intelligent than others. Then it tells you that its talking about spirits that are organized intelligences. So, you’re really talking about intelligences that are one above another. Abraham is telling us that intelligences are organized and graded. What the Lord is saying is that we start out with the little ones, but then we come up to you who are some of my most magnificent intelligences that I gave bodies in my image. You’re real super. You’re special.
Joseph Smith described the graduated intelligences that are structured in nature in History of the Church 4:519. He said he gave this sermon to the Apostles and their wives so that they’d know this wonderful, marvelous God science of graduated intelligences. But, then he didn’t say any more about it, and so we have to go to the early brethren who heard about it to get more details.
The next principle is found in D&C 93:33, where it states that which is acted upon is called element. Next write down Journal of Discourses7:2, where Brigham Young said these little bits of element are capacitated to receive intelligence. Now, notice what happens. You get a little piece of element -- and it must be extremely tiny -- and you attach a little intelligence to it. You can now talk to it and say, “Move that little fellow over here. You two combine together. Now bring in three more. That’s fine. Let’s get this thing going.” Now we’ve got ourselves a little atom working. We get enough of those and we’ll have a molecule. It’s a universe when you get through. I don’t know how many -- maybe a million little intelligences and bits of elements all spinning around that little universe there. We call it an atom. It‘s so tiny you can’t see it.
We put a lot of them together and we have a molecule. They’ll do certain things. The Lord said in the 88th section that He gives them orders and He gives them a pattern to follow, and they’ll always follow that pattern unless you want them to do something else. You get two little molecules that we call hydrogen and another little molecule that acts completely different that we call oxygen and we put them together and we’ve got water. Isn’t that nice? We have water. But, Jesus said, “Wine. You know what to do. High grade of wine, please.” And it happened.
All of a sudden the mystery is gone out of the miracles. You and I perform things by playing force against force. That’s the way you make a motor go. But the Lord talks to things. That’s a better way, wouldn’t you agree? See, God doesn’t violate law. He sets things going.
You have H2O, and that’s water. He said, “But, I need wine.”
“Oh, all right,” and it changes.
Now, that’s the universe in which we live. This is God science and Brother Widtsoe said, “Isn’t that thrilling, Elder Skousen?”
I said, “I never even thought of that being a possibility.”
He said, “God has revealed so many marvelous things to us if we will just study it out and put it all together.”
All right, just a little bit more here. Abraham 4:9, 10, 12, and 18 is where you see intelligence responding to the commandments of the Gods during the creative process. Notice what it says, “And the Gods commanded the dry land to come up. And they watched until they were obeyed.” Dirt doesn’t obey as dirt, unless it had intelligence in it. Would it? It can‘t obey if it’s just stuff that has no capacity to obey.
This is one of the great revelations of God. These little intelligences are in everything. I can move a mountain. I just tell it to move, and I can let my priesthood tell it to move, and if it’s authorized, it will move. Nephi the Second was told by the Lord, “I have declared before all my angels that when you speak, all things are to obey as though God had spoken it. And I know that I can share this power with you because you’ll never use it until I tell you.”1 He could say to the clouds, “Don’t rain. Go away.” Or he could say, “Clouds, come in and let us have rain.” That is the power of God.
Jesus would say to the little cells of the eyes of a blind man, “You have not functioned properly since the birth of this man. In your places, please.”
Suddenly the man says, “I can see!”
“Crooked arm, straighten,” and it straightened.
“Feet, walk,” and everything goes into its proper order.
We call these miracles. It is the science of God speaking to His creations and saying, “Straighten up and fly right like you were suppose to.” That’s what He is doing. There is the key to the miracles. This is going to bring us closer to something else in just a moment.
When God commands, they obey. Take Helaman 12:3-18 where he describes all of the things that obey on God’s command. They obey just like they did during the creation process. Add Jacob 4:6 and 1 Nephi 20:13. Jacob said, “We can have the water obey us, the trees obey us, when we speak with the priesthood.” And in D&C 88:38-42 the Lord says, “Intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence,” to do the things God has instructed it to do.
Now we come to a most interesting passage that was hidden away. It took me a long time to find it and I read over it at least ten or fifteen times. Brother Widtsoe would say, “You’re missing it. It’s in Section 29.”
I said, “I couldn’t find it.”
He said, “Read it again.” I still couldn’t find it.
He said, “Read it again. You have to get the Spirit when you read. Maybe you’ll get it this time.”
I finally got it! It is in D&C 29:36 where God says, “My honor is my power.”
Do you want to know where God got His power from? He said, “It’s my honor that gives me my power. My honor is my power.”
Brother Widtsoe said, “This is a priesthood principle that often isn’t quite appreciated. You are ordained from above, but your power comes from those over whom you have supervision.”
What makes a great bishop? His ordination? He’s ordained from above, isn’t he? What makes him a great bishop? It is home teachers doing their home teaching. It is Sunday School teachers preparing their lessons. It is people having Family Home Evening, paying their tithes, and going to the temple. And people say, “My, what a great bishop.” Why? Because he is being honored in his calling. That’s what makes a great bishop. He was ordained from above. He was supported by those from below over those whom he supervised. Do you follow that? “My honor is my power.” Just as Jesus was honored and obeyed when He said, “Water, be wine.”
When God appeared to Moses, he was 80 years old. He appeared to him on Mount Sinai, which means “burning bush.” The Lord told Moses, “I’m now going to rescue Israel out of Egypt.”2
Moses said, “Oh! I think that’s just great because Miriam, my sister, is down there. Mother is still down there. Aaron is still down there. I’m so happy to hear that.”
The Lord said, “I’m going to have you bring them out.”
Moses said, “Oh, no! No! I’m a capital fugitive. They’d kill me.”3
The Lord said, “I’ll go with you.”4
Moses said, “I’m still scared.”
The Lord said, “What do you have there in your hand?”
“My shepherd staff.”
“Throw it on the ground.” He threw it on the ground. It became a serpent! A metamorphosis took place.
The Lord said, “Pick it up.” So he did. By the tail, of course. It became a staff again.5
Now, watch what the Lord said. (Holding up his hand) You see my hand? Do you want to see the miracle of God? See that hand? That hand is made of dirt! Isn’t that fantastic? The Lord said to Moses, “Put your hand in your bosom.”
So he did. The Lord talked to that hand and said, “Now my children. Don’t go all the way back. Let’s go back to leprosy. Simulate leprosy. Moses, take your hand out.”
It was dripping with an incurable disease. “Moses, put your hand back in your bosom.”
And the Lord said, “My children, as you were.”
“Moses, take your hand out.”
“Oh!” Moses said. Beautiful, pink flesh. Isn’t that marvelous?6
Then the Lord told Moses, “If you want to take water and pour it out and turn it into blood, I’ll do that for you. That they may know that you come to them not by your strength only but by the very power of God.” So, Moses did it, you remember. Finally he consented to go.7
Now, once we understand some of these principles, we are beginning to comprehend a little bit about the God that we worship. That’s what the Lord says, “I want you to understand more about me. I want you to understand that I am not a distant, mystical being. I’m your loving Heavenly Father and I operate in an atmosphere of cause and effect and in a universe of law. There is nothing magic about what I do. Everything is based on science and I’m trying to teach it to you gradually.”
Now just a little bit more. We are told that God must maintain the confidence of these intelligences in order that they will sustain him and honor him. No other church has even dared to preach this doctrine -- and no other scripture contains it save the Book of Mormon -- that it is possible for God to fall. Now, He isn’t going to, because He knows how to avoid it. He just wants us to know that he walks a razor’s edge of necessity of having his conduct, as the great arbiter of heaven whom they all love and respect, be absolutely immaculate in dispensing justice and truth and love among them.
Now that’s a great discipline, is it not? You can write down the references to this. This is in Alma 42:13, 22, and 25 and Mormon 9:19. All of these passages say “or he would cease to be God.” Who dares preach such a principle that God is under the necessity of maintaining certain conditions or he could cease to be God? He wouldn’t have power any more. How could he lose his power? By not being honored any more.
Now, you have the problem of the Atonement. Our Father wanted us to come into a laboratory where good and evil existed side by side; where you and I could learn for ourselves -- not because Father said so -- but we could learn for ourselves the difference between good and evil.
Have you noticed a little rubs off? In fact, you have to repent and erase it continually. It keeps rubbing onto us. You think you’ve just got it whipped and the next thing you know, you’re doing it again. Or, you’re tempted to do it again. That’s life. And that’s how we learn the difference between good and evil and the penalties thereof. You never went through this before. You learned how to be obedient in heaven because our Heavenly Father told you what the results would be if you didn’t, and sure enough it would happen. But you couldn’t quite understand. He gave you the criteria, but you didn’t know for yourself, the Book of Mormon says.8 That is why you came into this life. You’re really learning for yourself. So am I. Believe me I’m learning.
The next passage is Alma 34:9, where it states the Father cannot save us. The Atonement is indispensable. You have to have an atonement. But, what would happen if there hadn’t been an atonement? Would you like to know that one? All right, it’s 2 Nephi 9:7-9 that describes what would have happened if there hadn’t been an atonement. We would have all become subject to Lucifer and we would suffer the same consequences. The early brethren made it very clear that Lucifer’s fate was total dissolution, which means that he and his hosts will be stripped of their spirit bodies. They will be stripped of all things that pertain to the organized kingdom of God and cast back into outer darkness as naked, unorganized intelligences. Some of the early brethren thought that maybe they’d get another chance, that they might be scooped up again and come into another creation. The Lord said in the Doctrine and Covenants, “Don’t ever preach that they get a second chance. I have never authorized that to be taught.”9 So, we don’t preach that.
So how does the Atonement work? We have the problem. We have the basic ingredients for the solution. Alma 34:11 says that one person cannot pay for the sins of another. That’s Amulek speaking, not Alma. He’s a new convert to the Church, a missionary companion of Alma, talking to the Zoramites. He said, “One person cannot satisfy the demands of justice by paying for the sins of another.” You just stop and think about whether or not this is true.
Let’s say I have committed a heinous offense -- a capital offense. This good elder loves me enough to offer his life on behalf of my offense for which I should die. This elder says, “Brother Skousen still has a lot of teaching to do. I will go on the gallows for him.” Does that satisfy any of you? Do you feel good about that? Are you satisfied? Do you feel justice has been done? Has it satisfied your sense of justice? Amulek said no, it won’t.
This is a very important thing to understand about the Atonement. I hear people preaching for this much sin there had to be this much suffering, and that’s what Jesus provided. No, that is the law of quid pro quo. Amulek says the Atonement is based on a comp