The Atonement of Jesus Christ is His great sacrifice, one that consisted of His suffering for the sins of the world, one that culminated with His painful death on the cross. I understand that this sacrifice has power, daily and weekly influence on me; the Atonement is the gift of Salvation. I want to understand it better.
At this moment, and for weeks, I have been searching to understand where and how this was taught from the beginning. I am certain that the need for the Atonement was revealed to Adam and Eve in the beginning:
50: But God hath made known unto our fathers that all men must repent.
51: And he called upon our father Adam by his own voice, saying: I AM God; I made the world, and men before they were in the flesh.
52: And he also said unto him: If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, and be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ, the only name which shall be given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men, ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, asking all things in his name, and whatsoever ye shall ask, it shall be given you.
53: And our father Adam spake unto the Lord, and said: Why is it that men must repent and be baptized in water? And the Lord said unto Adam: Behold I have forgiven thee thy transgression in the Garden of Eden.
54: Hence came the saying abroad among the people, that the Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world.
55: And the Lord spake unto Adam, saying: Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good.
56: And it is given unto them to know good from evil; wherefore they are agents unto themselves, and I have given unto you another law and commandment.
57: Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time.
58: Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children, saying:
59: That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory.
60: For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified;
(The Book of Moses 6: 50-60, The Pearl of Great Price)Adam asked a very important question: Why is it that men must repent and be baptized in water? When the entire answer was laid out, Adam understood that as we grow sin conceives in our hearts (mind, desires), so we must "turn to the Lord" ("repent" in Hebrew means 'turn, turn around'), "hearken unto His voice" ("obey His words"), "repent of all our transgressions" ("turn away from all our transgressions"), "believe" ("have faith"), and be "baptized", then we will receive the Holy Ghost. For the first time I believe that I understand the sacred summary of this encounter: "For by the water ye keep the commandment" ("ye show that ye believe and hearken unto my voice by being baptized as I have commanded"), "by the Spirit ye are justified" ("we receive a Godly presence inside us to help us overcome our fallen nature, thus we become 'just' or 'righteous'"), and by the blood ye are sanctified" ("by the Atonement of Jesus Christ our sins are washed away").
We are told that these holy words were removed from Moses' record long ago. I have gained a testimony that, inasmuch as all truth is truly subsumed in one great total, "all connected" as I usually put it, even when unrighteous people would delete a great truth from scripture, what remained still manages to carry the imprint or mark of what had once been there, though it may take divine revelation to shine light on the traces.
Take for instance what The Lord told Isaiah about the restoration of Israel, of Zion, of His Church, in Isaiah 54: 5-6:
5: For thy Make is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
6: For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.As The Lord addressed Israel He compared Israel collectively--every man, woman, and child--to a woman, a woman forsaken and grieved. With these words in mind, let us consider the following early instructions to mankind:
27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28: And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 2:27-28)When God married Adam and Eve, He gave them dominion over all living things in all spheres (water, air, earth), power to subdue the earth, and a command to fill the earth with offspring. Notice what God said after the fall:
16: Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. (Genesis 3:16)
17: And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18: Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. (Genesis 3:17-19)I know that traditionally verse 16 has been taken to mean "Well, Eve, since you fell for Satan's ploy first and thereby messed up, your punishment is twofold: first you will have painful labors and deliveries, and for good measure your husband will lord over you."
But notice that originally Adam and Eve were told to replenish the earth. Notice also that after the fall no mention of having children is made to Adam (Genesis 3:17-19); Eve alone is told that she shall bring forth children. Well if Adam and Eve were to replenish the earth, and inasmuch as it was The Lord God speaking to Eve just as The Lord spoke to Isaiah, I discern that The Lord God addressed Adam and Eve together as "a woman, forsaken (cast out) and grieved (now acquainted with the consequences of sin)." Yes, our hearts now conceive of sin, but there is hope, namely, that our desire should be to our Husband, our Redeemer, the Holy One, and He should rule over us.
If my impression is correct (and I am not so much asserting that it is as I am stating that this view may be conveyed by these words), I have moved closer to seeing the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His role as the Redeemer either as preserved in a trace of the teachings or preserved overtly, but misunderstood: that originally Adam and Eve were commanded to "replenish the earth" and have dominion over it, but after their transgression, the "woman" alone would bear children, and her desire should be to her Husband who would rule over her. Adam is told that he will labor in the earth and eat its herb, yet that the earth would push up thistles and thorns despite his efforts. Also Adam alone will eat bread. Adam is dust (a spirit housed in a body), and to dust he shall return (his spirit shall return to his physical body). Eve is not told that she is of dust and will return to dust, interestingly enough.
24: Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.
25: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
26: But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
27: So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
28: He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
29: But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
30: Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. (Matthew13:24-30)So The Savior is the man who performs the great work of sowing and reaping in this earth, with the service of His servants, and despite His efforts, the enemy (Satan) sows tares, but The Savior still reaps a harvest.
25: Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. (John 11:25)Jesus tells Martha, a woman, interestingly enough, that all who believe in Him shall live, even if they die physically. So the One person who had power over death, power to lay down His life and take it up again, (be of dust and return to being of dust), will bring all others along with Him.
51: I AM the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
52: The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
53: Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
54: Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
55: For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56: He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
57: As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
58: This is the bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live. (John 6:51-58)In Genesis chapter 3 only Adam is told he shall eat bread. Jesus told the people that He was the bread that came down from Heaven, His body, and he that eats His body and drinks His blood, shall live, that He, Jesus, shall live in that person, and that as Jesus lived by The Father, we shall live by Him, The Son.
Our desire shall be to our Husband, our Redeemer, our Lord, The Holy One, and may He rule over us always. The Atonement and Redemption was taught from the beginning. You wonder how? Well, the first Adam introduced the Fall and death, but the Second Adam was going to introduce Life. In order to do so, the Second Adam would not only have to restore life, He would have to undo the effects of the Fall, of sin, Alone. The Atonement was taught from the beginning.
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