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WHY WAS THE ATONEMENT NECESSARY?Probably no subject in scripture has aroused more questions or provoked morewonderment than the atonement. In every dispensation the Lord has declared that it is thekeystone to the entire plan of salvation. During four millenniums mankind looked forward to it,and, in obedience to God
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s commandments, sacrificed the first-born of their choicest flocks toremind themselves of its importance. After it occurred, the Lord instructed that the sacrament beinstituted to memorialize the great event and that the emblems be given “in remembrance of hissuffering” and served to the members of the Church whenever they met together. From Adamuntil now, the atonement has been the principal subject of all sacred scripture and true churchritual.It is appropriate therefore, that we study this awe-inspiring event which occupies such aprominent place in the plan of salvation.It was just twelve hours before the occasion of His crucifixion that Jesus of Nazarethretired to the seclusion of His favorite place of prayerful mediation on the slopes of Mount Olivet.The scriptures say He walked off a little way from His disciples and suddenly threw Himselfprone upon the ground. It was nighttime and quiet. From the arboreal labyrinth of GethsemaneHis Apostles heard the heart stirring pleas of the very Son of God as He trembled in mortalanguish before the brink of destiny for which He was ordained and born. “O my Father” He said,“if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!” (Matt 23:39). And, according to Mark, He imploredfervently, “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me:nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt” (Mark 14:36).How did Elohim respond to this plea? We now know this was a bitter hour not only forJesus but also for His Father. Probably the desperate grief of Abraham when he raised thesacrificial knife to slay his beloved son, Isaac, could only compare in a finite degree with theincomprehensible grief which the Eternal Father must have felt on this dark night as He beheldHis own beloved Son face the ordeal of torture and death. An ordeal which could have beenprevented, of course, but only at the risk of wiping out the whole plan of salvation for the humanrace.Down through the corridors of nineteen hundred years there comes the echo of thosepleading words: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me…”The student cannot help asking, “Why wasn
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t it possible?”INABILITY OF GOD TO SAVE MAN DIRECTLYThe apparent necessity for the atonement demands an explanation. Some may say thatthe atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ was to satisfy “justice.” But whose justice? Justice does notexist except as a concept in the mind. Whose sense of justice had been violated? Manystudents will say the atonement was necessary to satisfy God
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s sense of justice. But let us thinkthat through. If the Father wanted us to have this experience of the Fall as a means of makingus eligible for exaltation and eternal life, why would it violate His sense of justice to take us backinto His presence afterwards when the school of mortality is completed?Why would the Father demand a vicarious atonement to redeem us from a Fall whichwas His idea in the first place (Moses 4:2)? The scripture plainly teaches that man
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s coming toearth was part of the Father
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s plan (2 Nephi 2:22-25). He wanted Adam to fall in order to partakeof the experiences of mortality and provide physical tabernacles for the great family of spiritchildren which He had prepared for this earth. Why, then, could not the Father take us back?Why did Jesus have to “purchase” us through suffering and act as a mediator to get us back?
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t the Father love us as much as the Son?From the scriptures it is obvious that the Father was somehow subject to an impellingcircumstance which made it impossible for Him to bring us back into His presence by actingdirectly or though His own initiative (Alma 11:37). As Peter declared, “There is none other nameunder heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). That name is JesusChrist. No one else has the power to take us back: Not even Elohim, our Father. The scripturespoint to the reason why.OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD CIRCUMSCRIBED BY LAWWe speak of our Heavenly Father as being omnipotent – all-powerful. But this does notmean that He is free to do anything capricious or arbitrary. God is omnipotent, but only withinthe circumscribed boundaries of law, truth, and justice. He cannot violate these or He wouldcease to be God. As Mormon and Alma plainly taught:“And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be god…”(Mormon 9:19)“…the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, he would cease to be God.”(Alma 42:13,22)“What do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you, Nay; not onewhit. If so, God would cease to be God.” (Ibid., 42:25)In other words, if eternal principles were violated, God would cease to be God.But who is it that occupies a position great enough in the universe to require of theexalted Elohim his Godhood in case He should violate any of the principles of truth and justice?That there is such a power to which the Father is subject would appear obvious from the abovescriptures.THE SOURCE OF GOD
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S POWERThrough modern revelation we learn that the universe is filled with vast numbers ofintelligences, and we further learn that Elohim is God simply because all of these intelligenceshonor and sustain Him as such. In other words, as God extended His power and influencethroughout His great kingdom, He did so by obtaining the voluntary cooperation and support ofvast concourses of intelligences.In Section 93 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord states that all of these intelligencesact freely and independently in their own respective spheres. They obey God because they wantto; not because they have to (D&C 93:30). Therefore, the Father is actually dependent uponthey
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re sustaining influence or honor to accomplish His purposes.Here is the clue to the source of God
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s power.The Lord refers to it specifically in another section of the Doctrine and Covenants. He isspeaking of the great council in heaven, and He says that on that occasion Lucifer “rebelledagainst me, saying, Give me thine honor, which is my power…” (D&C 29:36). God
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s “power” isderived from the honor and support of the intelligences over whom He rules. This is what Lucifercoveted.It is apparent from these and other scriptures that the present exalted position of ourHeavenly Father was gradually built up. His glory and power is something which He slowlyacquired until today “all things bow in humble reverence” (D&C 76:93). But since God “acquired”
the honor and sustaining influence of “all things” it follows as a correlary that if He should everdo anything to violate the confidence or sense of justice of these intelligences they wouldpromptly withdraw their support, and the “power” of God would disintegrate. This is whatMormon and Alma meant when they specifically stated that if God should change or act contraryto truth and justice “He would cease to be God.” Our Heavenly Father can do only those thingswhich the intelligences under Him are voluntarily willing to support Him in accomplishing.THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF ORGANIZEDINTELLGENCES THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSETo appreciate better the interdependent relationship existing between God and theintelligences over whom He rules, it is desirable to examine the function of these intelligences inthe kingdom of God.In the Doctrine and Covenants, “intelligence” or that eternal, self-knowing “will: withineach of us is called by several different names. Sometimes it is called “the light of truth,”sometimes “the light of Christ,” and in one place it is identified with the phenomenon of “life.”An example of the first use is in Section 93:29: “Intelligence, or the light of truth, was notcreated or made, neither indeed can be.” An example of the second use is in Section 88:6-7.There the scripture explains that Christ has extended His personal influence until itcomprehends all things. His will has become the accepted criteria of all the intelligences in theuniverse. He has so completely allied Himself with the “light of truth” that this vast sea ofobedient intelligences might well be called “the light of Christ” (See Joseph Fielding Smith, TheWay to Perfection, pp. 227-229). A few verses later this is described as being the essence orforce which is ordinarily referred to as “life” (D& 88:13).From the above it will be seen that “the light of truth” and “the light of Christ” simplyappear to be collective terms to designate the masses of organized intelligences in God
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skingdom. And what are these intelligences capable of doing?According to the scripture, these organized intelligences which are variously referred toas “the light of truth” and “the light of Christ” constitute the very substance “which is in all things,which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God” (D&C 88:13).The fact that the universe is literally saturated with carefully organized intelligencesmakes it possible for God to “give a law unto all things, by which they move in their times and intheir seasons” (D&C 88:42). It is the medium by which God extends His will into the organizingand controlling of the sun, the moon, and all other heavenly bodies (D&C 88:7-10,42-43). Itexplains why God could organize the earth by commanding the very elements to obey (Abraham4:18). It explains the testimony of such prophets as Jacob who said: “…we truly can commandin the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea”(Jacob 4:6, Mormon 8:24).Every creation of God is filled with the requisite order of intelligences necessary toorganize it into whatever pattern the Lord has designed. And these intelligences which occupyeach creation recognize the voice of Priesthood and obey it when properly exercised.By introspection it is a simple matter to appreciate how the human intelligence isresponsible for the phenomenon of “life” in a human being, but it may be a new concept to somethat this same pattern is followed in placing intelligences of life in “all things” – even in thosethings which are ordinarily referred to as “inorganic.”Brigham Young said: “There is life in all matter throughout the vast extent of all theeternities; it is in the rock, the sand, in water, air, the gases, and in short, in every descriptionand organization of matter whether it be solid, liquid or gaseous, particle operating with particle”
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