The Atonement

Last week, we finished the final lesson in the Doctrine and Covenants lesson manual. Next week, we will begin the new year's study of the Old Testament.

This week, we will have a lesson on The Atonement.

Reading 1 - Articles of Faith 3

[The Atonement of Christ] is the very root of Christian doctrine. You may know much about the gospel as it branches out from there, but if you only know the branches and those branches do not touch that root, if they have been cut free from that truth, there will be no life nor substance nor redemption in them. Boyd K. Packer, “The Mediator,” Ensign, May 1977, 54

Reading 2 – Elder Bruce R. McConkie said: Now the greatest and most important single thing there is in all eternity—the thing that transcends all others since the time of the creation of man and of the worlds—is the fact of the atoning sacrifice of Christ the Lord. He came into the world to live and to die—to live the perfect life and be the pattern, the similitude, the prototype for all men, and to crown his ministry in death, in the working out of the infinite and eternal atoning sacrifice. And by virtue of this atonement, all things pertaining to life and immortality, to existence, to glory and salvation, to honor and rewards hereafter, all things are given full force and efficacy and virtue. The Atonement is the central thing in the whole gospel system. Bruce R. McConkie, “Behold the Condescension of God,” New Era, Dec. 1984, 35    

I need thee every hour,

In joy or pain,

Come quickly and abide,

Or life is vain.

“I Need Thee Every Hour,” Hymns no. 98, Salt Lake City, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1985

Reading 3 - Mosiah 3:19

C.S. Lewis captured the nature of our mortal tendency to oppose God when he wrote, “Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement; he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.”

Reading 4 - Elder Merrill J. Bateman said: "For many years I thought of the Savior's experience in the garden and on the cross as places where a large mass of sin was heaped upon Him. Through the words of Alma, Abinadi, Isaiah, and other prophets, however, my view has changed. Instead of an impersonal mass of sin, there was a long line of people, as Jesus felt 'our infirmities,' "[bore] our griefs . . . carried our sorrows . . . [and] was bruised for our iniquities.' The Atonement was an intimate, personal experience in which Jesus came to know how to help each of us."  Merrill J. Bateman, “A Pattern for All,” Ensign, Nov 2005, 74

Reading 5 - John 21:4-7

Reading 6 – John 21-15-17

Reading 7 – Alma 7:11-12

Reading 8 – Mosiah 27:36-37

Reading 9 – President Gordon B. Hinkley said: [Jesus Christ’s] Atonement is the greatest event in human history. There is nothing to compare with it. It is the most fundamental part of our Father’s plan for the happiness of His children. (Gordon B. Hinckley, “Inspirational Thoughts,” Ensign, Sept 2007, 4–8)

Lesson 46: “Zion—The Pure in Heart” - Scriptures and Quotes

Joseph Smith Translation – Genesis 9:21

Joseph Smith taught, “We ought to have the building up of Zion as our greatest object. … The time is soon coming, when no man will have any peace but in Zion and her stakes” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 160–61).

Elder Alexander B. Morrison wrote:  "The dream of a better world is as old as mankind. From time immemorial, men and women of faith and hope have dreamed of a Holy City, whose king is the Lord God Omnipotent; a place of refuge for the righteous fleeing the storms of a wicked world; an abode where peace is in every heart, where there is no fear nor want and all people are brothers and sisters, where faith and purity shine in every face. That place, in Judeo-Christian parlance, is called Zion."

Reading 1 – Doctrine and Covenants 97:21

Reading 2 – Doctrine and Covenants 82:14

Reading 3 – Moses 7:18-19

Reading 4 – The 10^th Article of Faith

Reading 5 – Hebrews 12:22-23

Joseph Smith taught: "The building up of Zion is a cause that has interested the people of God in every age; it is a theme upon which prophets, priests and kings have dwelt with peculiar delight; they have looked forward with joyful anticipation to the day in which we live." (TPJS, p231)

Reading 6 - Elder Orson F. Whitney taught:  "Yet it is none the less significant: for as the mountain towers above the plain, as the great peaks of these ranges lift their heads above the valleys where we dwell, so must the Zion of God, the pure in heart, be lifted up, not in pride and vanity, but by their purity and righteousness above the level of the rest of mankind. Therefore, Zion, in its temporal and in its spiritual significance, means something high and lifted up, and it is in this sense that the prophets of old used it when speaking of Mount Zion, meaning not only that little hill in the city of Jerusalem, but in its grander and broader significance, the people of God, the pure in heart, who were to rise above and become superior to the rest of mankind." (Collected Discourses, vol 1)

Mosiah 4:16-21

Reading 7 - Elder James E. Talmage wrote:  "The Church in this day teaches that the New Jerusalem seen by John and by the prophet Ether, as descending from the heavens in glory, is the return of exalted Enoch and his righteous people; and that the people or Zion of Enoch, and the modern Zion, or the gathered saints on the western continent, will become one people." (Articles of Faith, p318)

Doctrine and Covenants 101:6-8

Doctrine and Covenants 105:5

Doctrine and Covenants 105:9

Reading 8 - President Harold B. Lee said: “The borders of Zion, where the righteous and pure in heart may dwell, must now begin to be enlarged. The stakes of Zion must be strengthened. All this so that Zion may arise and shine by becoming increasingly diligent in carrying out the plan of salvation throughout the world” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1973, 5; or Ensign, July 1973, 3)

Doctrine and Covenants 82:14-15

Moroni 7:47-48

Reading 9 – Doctrine and Covenants 38:27

Reading 10 – Doctrine and Covenants 97:10, 13, 15-16

Reading 11 – Doctrine and Covenants 133:8-9

Doctrine and Covenants 97:18-25

Reading 12 - President Gordon B. Hinckley said: “I see a wonderful future in a very uncertain world. If we will cling to our values, if we will build on our inheritance, if we will walk in obedience before the Lord, if we will simply live the gospel, we will be blessed in a magnificent and wonderful way. We will be looked upon as a peculiar people who have found the key to a peculiar happiness.

“‘And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord … : for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem’ (Isaiah 2:3).

“Great has been our past, wonderful is our present, glorious can be our future” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1997, 94; or Ensign, Nov. 1997, 69).

President Thomas S. Monsen said: “The future is as bright as your faith.”