What If There Was No Atonement?

Richard G. Scott

I testify that except for the Atonement of the Holy Redeemer, the demands of justice would prevent every soul born on earth from returning to the presence of God, to partake of His glory and exaltation, for all make mistakes for which we cannot personally appease justice. I witness that except for the "infinite atonement" of Christ, we could not return to God at death and, as Jacob solemnly warned, "our spirits [would] become subject to … the devil, to rise no more. And our spirits [would] become like unto him, and we [would] become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, … to remain with the father of lies, in misery" [2 Ne. 9:7-9]. ("Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer," Ensign, May 1997, p. 53)

Bruce R. McConkie

[In this quotation, Elder McConkie reviews the scriptures regarding the question, "What if there were not Atonement?"] If there were no creation, we would not be, neither the earth, nor any life thereon. All things, in effect, would vanish away. And if there were no atonement, the purposes of creation would be frustrated; man would remain lost and fallen forever; there would be no resurrection nor eternal life; Adam and all his posterity would be as Lucifer, cast out, damned, without hope, lost forever.

The Book of Mormon prophets have made these things exceedingly clear. In plain words, as they proclaimed the infinite glories of the atonement, they have affirmed such things as: "Were it not for the atonement, which God himself shall make for the sins and iniquities of his people, they must unavoidably perish. For . . . there could not any man be saved except it were through the redemption of God." (Mosiah 13:28, 32; 15:19; 16:4; Jacob 7:12.) "There could be no redemption for mankind save it were through the death and sufferings of Christ, and the atonement of his blood." (Alma 21:9.)

Indeed, it is Nephi's brother Jacob to whom we turn for what is probably the clearest explanation found in any scripture now extant for the doctrinal explanation as to why all men would be lost if there were no atonement. "Our flesh must waste away and die," he says, which fact is one of the truisms of life. Then he puts death in its true perspective in the eternal plan with this explanation: "For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord." (2 Ne. 9:4-6.) Thus, Adam accomplished his mission to fall and create the need for a Redeemer.

What then of redemption, of the promised deliverance, of the expiatory sacrifice of Him who did no sin, "who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead"? (2 Ne. 2:8.) Of his sinless sacrifice Jacob said: "It must needs be an infinite atonement--save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption." (2 Ne. 9:7.) Save for the infinite power of this, the most selfless act ever performed, Paul would never have been able to write of man's body: "It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body." (1 Cor. 15:42-44.)

Save for this atonement, Jacob continues, "the first judgment which came upon man" - his banishment from the presence of the Lord because he transgressed the law and partook of the forbidden fruit, and also the natural death that attends his newly found mortal state - "must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more." (2 Ne. 9:7.) There would have been no resurrection, no immortality, no reunion of body and spirit, no victory over the grave - nothing but endless death.

"But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things." (2 Ne. 2:24.) The purposes of the Almighty neither have been nor can be frustrated. The fall was part of his plan; he designed and decreed it from the beginning. Its gloom is to turn into joy and gladness as both temporal and spiritual death are abolished in Gethsemane and on Calvary. And so Jacob exclaims: "O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more." (2 Ne. 9:8.) Subject to whom? To Lucifer, the traitor and rebel who defied Deity and spread the woes of war in the heavenly courts. Christ is now our King and we worship him because we will it so. Had there been no atonement Lucifer would have been our eternal head and we would have worshipped him because he willed it so. Agency and freedom would have ceased for all those whom God had sired.

But this is not all. Jacob continues: "And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself." (2 Ne. 9:9.) Devils! Angels to a devil! Damned souls, denied a grave, denied a resurrection, purposeless creatures in whose souls the light we once had would become darkness!

"God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people." (Mosiah 15:1.) He shall redeem them from that (otherwise) everlasting death which is the grave, and that (otherwise) everlasting death which is eternal, abysmal darkness where none of the light of heaven is found, and where they would have no choice but to grovel before the Angel of Darkness. Ought we not, then, as did our friend Jacob, extol our Redeemer and Savior in such words of doctrine and beauty as these:

"O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit.

"And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave.

"And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.

"O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect.

"O the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel! For he delivereth his saints from that awful monster the devil, and death, and hell, and that lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment." (2 Ne. 9:10-13, 19) [From The Promised Messiah, pp. 227-230]