The conceptual difference in a Mesoamerican world was not in the dying and resurrecting God, but in the concept of a spiritual death in addition to the physical death. The Atoning Messiah serves a dual function in the Atonement. One is the reconciliation of the physical death, and the second is the reconciliation of the spiritual death. For Samuel, it is this second aspect of the Atonement that receives the attention because it is the place where there would be the greatest misunderstanding on the part of his audience.
Even those who had fallen from Nephite faith might yet understand a resurrection made possible by a dying God, but they would still miss the essential reconciliation of God and man that comes through the remission of sin. It is this part of the atoning sacrifice that receives Samuel’s concentration. As he is speaking to a people who have apparently adopted the Nehorite doctrine of universal salvation, this is indeed the most critical message about the function of the coming Atoning Messiah.