Tad R. Callister wrote about ‘A Life Without Hope’ in his book ‘The Infinite Atonement:”
A wise Bishop asked “. . .How would it be . . . if there were no Atonement?” He then said, “I have often thought of that—what would it be like if there were no bread because there had been no crucifixion, no water because there had been no shedding of blood? If there had been no Atonement, what would the consequences be for us? Of course the question is now moot, but it does put in perspective our total dependence on the Lord. To ask and answer this question only heightens our awareness and appreciation of the Savior. What might have been even for the “righteous,” if there had been no atoning sacrifice, stirs the very depths of human emotion.
First, there would be no resurrection, or as suggested in the explicit language if Jacob: “This flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise not more” (2 Nephi 9:7).
Second, our spirits would become subject to the devil. He would have “all power over you” and “seal you his” (Alma 34:35). In fact we would become like him, even “angels to a devil” (2 Nephi 9:9).
Third, we would be “shut out from the presence of God” (2 Nephi 9:9), to remain forever with the father of lies.
Fourth, we would “endure a never ending torment” (Mosiah 2:39).
Fifth, we would be without hope, for “if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. . . . If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15: 14, 19). The poet, John Fletcher, captures the desperate lot of the individual who inherits Lucifer’s life:
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again. (1)
Dante spoke of that same fate when he discovered these lines inscribed on the gates of hell: “ABANDON ALL HOPE, ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE!”2 Without the Atonement, Macbeth’s fatalistic outlook on life would have been tragically correct; it would be a play without a purpose:
. . . . If there had been no Atonement, . . .the rising of every sun would be a reminder that for us it would one day rise no more, that for each of us death would claim its victory, and the grave would have its sting. Every death would be a tragedy, and every birth a tragedy in embryo. The culmination of love between husbands and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters would perish in the grave, to rise no more. Without the Atonement, futility would replace purpose, hopelessness would be exchanged for hope, and misery would be traded for happiness. If there were no Atonement, Elder Marion G. Romney declared, ” the whole purpose for the creation of earth and our living upon it would fail.”6 President David O. Mckay quotes James L. Gordon in this regard: “A cathedral without windows, a face without eyes, a field without flowers, an alphabet without vowels, a continent without rivers, a night without stars, a sky without a sun—these would not be so sad as a . . . soul without Christ.”7 The contemplation of such a world as this would be the most despairing thoughts that could ever darken the mind or sadden the heart of man. But fortunately, there is a Christ and there was an Atonement, and it is infinite for all mankind. ~Tadd L. Callister, The Infinite Atonement, (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 2000) 108-114 (pocket book edition)
Notes
1. Fletcher, “Henry VIII,” in Cook, Famous Poems, 44.
2. Dante, Divine Comedy, 5.
6. Conference Report, Oct. 1953
7. Conference Report, Oct 1952, 12.
