=1. The Atonement Proved by Evidence.=--"It is often asked: 'How
is it that through the sacrifice of one who is innocent salvation
may be purchased for those under the dominion of death?' We
observe in passing that what should most concern man is not so
much how it is that such is the case, but is it a fact?... To
that question the blood sprinkled upon a thousand Jewish altars,
and the smoke that darkened the heavens for ages from burnt
offerings, answer yes.... Even the mythology of heathen nations
retains the idea of an atonement that either has been, or is to
be made for mankind. Fantastic, distorted, confused, buried under
the rubbish of savage superstition it may be, but it nevertheless
exists. So easily traced, so distinct is this feature of heathen
mythology, that some writers have endeavored to prove that the
gospel plan of redemption was derived from heathen mythology.
Whereas the fact is that the gospel was understood and
extensively preached in the earliest ages; men retained in their
tradition a knowledge of those principles or parts of them, and
however much they have been distorted, traces of them may still
be found in nearly all the mythologies of the world. The prophets
of the Jewish scriptures answer the question in the affirmative.
The writers of the New Testament make Christ's atonement the
principal theme of their discourses and epistles. The Book of
Mormon, speaking as the voice of an entire continent of people
whose prophets and righteous men sought and found God, testifies
to the same great fact. The revelations of God as given through
the Prophet Joseph Smith are replete with passages confirming
this doctrine."--Roberts' _Outlines of Ecclesiastical History_,
Section viii, 6.
=2. Redemption from the Fall Universal and Unconditional.=--"We
believe that through the sufferings, death, and atonement of
Jesus Christ all mankind, without one exception, are to be
completely and fully redeemed, both body and spirit, from the
endless banishment and curse to which they were consigned by
Adam's transgression; and that this universal salvation and
redemption of the whole human family from the endless penalty of
the original sin, is effected without any conditions whatever on
their part; that is, they are not required to believe or repent,
or be baptized, or do anything else, in order to be redeemed from
that penalty; for whether they believe or disbelieve; whether
they repent or remain impenitent, whether they are baptized or
unbaptized, whether they keep the commandments or break them,
whether they are righteous or unrighteous, it will make no
difference in relation to their redemption, both soul and body,
from the penalty of Adam's transgression. The most righteous man
that ever lived on the earth, and the most wicked wretch of the
whole human family, were both placed under the same curse without
any transgression or agency of their own, and they both alike
will be redeemed from that curse, without any agency or
conditions on their part."--Apostle Orson Pratt in _Remarkable
Visions_.
=3. Christ the Author of our Salvation.=--President John Taylor
speaks of the death of Christ as an expiatory sacrifice, and
adds:--"The Savior thus becomes master of the situation,--the
debt is paid, the redemption made, the covenant fulfilled,
justice satisfied, the will of God done, and all power is now
given into the hands of the Son of God,--the power of the
resurrection, the power of the redemption, the power of
salvation, the power to enact laws for the carrying out and
accomplishment of this design.... The plan, the arrangement, the
agreement, the covenant was made, entered into and accepted,
before the foundation of the world; it was prefigured by
sacrifices, and was carried out and consummated on the Cross.
Hence, being the Mediator between God and man, He becomes by
right the Dictator and Director on earth and in heaven for the
living and for the dead, for the past, the present, and the
future, pertaining to man as associated with this earth or the
heavens, in time or eternity, the Captain of our salvation, the
Apostle and High Priest of our profession, the Lord and Giver of
life."--_Mediation and Atonement_, Pres. John Taylor, p. 171.
=4. The Atonement Inaugurated by Christ.=--"The Apostle Paul
quite comprehensively sums up the results of Christ's death and
resurrection: 'But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become
the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive' (I Cor. xv,
21-22). That is, death having come on all men through the
disobedience of Adam, so must all be raised to immortality and
eternal life through the death and resurrection of Christ. Paul
also asserted that 'the last enemy that shall be destroyed is
death' (verse 26). John the Revelator declares that he saw death
and hell cast into the lake of fire (Rev. xx, 14). The atonement,
as wrought out by Jesus Christ, further signifies that He has
opened up the way for man's redemption from his own sins, through
faith in Christ's sufferings, death, and resurrection. The
Apostle Paul well expresses this: 'For all have sinned, and come
short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,
through the forbearance of God' (Romans iii, 23-26). These
passages evidence that redemption from death, through the
sufferings of Christ, is for all men, both the righteous and the
wicked; for this earth, and for all things created upon it. The
whole tenor of the scriptures assures us that, while they may be
sure of resurrection from death, regardless of their personal
acts, yet they will be rewarded for their works, whether they be
good or evil, and that redemption from personal sins can only be
obtained through obedience to the requirements of the Gospel, and
a life of good works. The transgression of Adam being infinite in
its consequences, those consequences cannot be averted, except
through an infinite atonement."--_Compendium_, F. D. Richards &
J. A. Little, pp. 8-9.
=5. The Atonement Necessary.=--"In the economy of God and the
plan proposed by the Almighty, it was provided that man was to be
placed under a law apparently simple in itself, yet the test of
that law was fraught with the gravest consequences. The
observance of that law would secure eternal life, and the penalty
for the violation of that law was death.... If the law had not
been broken, man would have lived; but would man thus living have
been capable of perpetuating his species, and of thus fulfilling
the designs of God in preparing tabernacles for the spirits which
had been created in the spirit world? And further, could they
have had the need of a mediator, who was to act as a propitiation
for the violation of this law, which it would appear from the
circumstances was destined to be broken; or could the eternal
increase and perpetuity of man have been continued, and his high
exaltation to the Godhead been accomplished, without the
propitiatory atonement and sacrifice of the Son of
God?"--_Mediation and Atonement_, Pres. John Taylor, pp. 128-129.
=6. The Need of a Redeemer.=--For special treatment of this topic
see "Jesus the Christ," pp. 17-31.