From Dallin H. Oaks and his book, “With Full Purpose of Heart”:
. . . . Many years ago a young Latter-day Saint enrolled at a Midwestern university and applied for a scholarship available only to Christians. Both the applicant and the university officials were unsure whether a Latter-day Saint was eligible. After consulting a panel of theologians, they concluded that this student was Christian after all.
When I first heard of that event more than thirty years ago, I was shocked that anyone, especially a member of the Church would entertain any doubt that we are Christians. I have come to a better understanding of that confusion. I think we sometimes thoughtlessly give others a cause to wonder. How does this happen?
For many years I was a teacher of law. A frequent teaching method in that is to concentrate classroom instruction on difficult questions—obscure and debatable matters that lie at the fringes of learning. Some law teachers believe that the simple general rules that answer most legal questions are so obvious that students can learn them by independent study. As a result, those teachers devote little to teaching the basics.
I believe some of us sometimes do the same in thing in gospel teaching. We neglect to teach and testify to some simple, basic truths of paramount importance. This omission permits some members and nonmembers to get the wrong idea about our faith and beliefs.
What do members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints think of Christ? We believe that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten of God the Father. He is our Creator, He is our Savior. His Atonement paid for the sin of Adam and won victory over death, assuring resurrection and immortality for all men.
He is all of these, but He is more. Jesus Christ is our Savior, whose atoning sacrifice opens the door for us to be cleansed of our personal sins so that we can be readmitted into the presence of God. He is our Redeemer.
The Messiah’s atoning sacrifice is the central massage of the prophets of all ages. It was prefigured by animal sacrifices prescribed by the law of Moses, who’s whole meaning, one prophet explained “pointed to the great and last sacrifice [of] the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal” (Acts 34:14). The Atonement was promised and predicted by the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah declared:
‘He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities . . . and with his stripes we are healed.
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
“He was brought . . . as a lamb to the slaughter. . . . He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgressions of my people was he stricken. . . .
“He bare the sin of many, and made intersession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:5-8, 12)
At the beginning of the Savior’s ministry, John the Baptist exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). At the end of the Savior’s ministry, as Jesus blessed the cup and gave it to His disciples, He said, “This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). As we partake of the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, we drink in remembrance of His blood . . . which was shed for [us]” (Doctrine 20:79).
The writers of the New Testament taught that our Saviors suffering and blood atoned for our sins. Apostle Paul told the Corinthians that the first principle to the gospel he preached to them was “how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3). And to the Colossians he wrote, “We have redemption through His blood, even forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 2;17: 10:10).
Peter described how Christ “bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by those stripes we are healed” (1 Peter 2:24). John wrote that “the blood of Jesus Christ . . . cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7; 2:2; 3:5; 4:10).
We revere the Bible. And so we and our fellow believers in Christ sing these words from that inspiring hymn
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing, Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in, that on the cross my burden gladly bearing He bled and died to take away my sin.5
Although the Bible’s explanation of atonement for individual sins should be unmistakable, that doctrine has been misunderstood by many who believe only in the Bible to explain it. Modern prophets declare that the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the everlasting gospel more in clarity than any other scripture (Doctrine & Covenants 20:8-9; 27:5). In a day when many are challenging the divinity of Jesus Christ or doubting the reality of His atonement and resurrection, the message of that second witness, The Book of Mormon, is needed more than ever.
President Ezra Taft Benson reminded us again and again that the Book of Mormon “was written for our day” and that it “is the keystone in our witness of Jesus Christ.”6 I believe that our Heavenly Father has had His prophets direct us into a more intensive study of the Book of Mormon because this generation needs its message more than any of its forebears. As President Benson said, The Book of Mormon “provides the most complete explanation of the doctrine of the Atonement,” and “its testimony of the Master is clear, undiluted, and full of power.”
In contrast, what is called “liberal theology” teachers that Jesus Christ is important not because He atoned for our sins but he taught us the way to come to God by perfecting ourselves. In this theology, human beings can be reconciled to God entirely through their own righteousness.8 Another group, secular rather than religious—believes that Jesus was not God, that man is God and the we can create our own destiny through the powers of our mind.9
Are Latter-day Saints susceptible to such heresies? The Apostle Paul wrote that we should work out our own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). Could that familiar expression mean that the sum total of our own righteousness will win us salvation and exaltation?. Could some of us believe that our heavenly parentage and our divine destiny allow us to pass through mortality and attain eternal life solely on our own merits?
On the basis of what I have heard, I believe that some of us, some of the time, say things that can create that impression. We can forget that keeping the commandments, which is necessary, is not sufficient. As Nephi said, we must labor diligently to persuade everyone “to believe in Christ and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23).
In his famous poem “Invictus,” William Ernest Henley hurled man’s challenges against fate. With head “bloody, but unbowed,” determined man is unconquerable.3 The last verse reads: It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.10
Writing a half-century later, Elder Orson F. Whitney replied with these lines:
Art thou in truth? Then what of him who bought thee with his blood?
Who plunged into devouring seas And snatched from the flood?
Who bore for all our fallen race What none but him could bear.—
The God who died that man might live, And endless glory share?
Of what avail they vaunted strength, Apart from his vast might?
Pray that his Light may pierce the gloom, That thou mayest see aright
Men are bubble as on a wave, As leaves upon a tree.
Thou, captain of thy soul, forsooth! Who’s gave that pace to thee?
Free Will is thine—free agency, To wield for right or wrong;
But thou must answer unto him, To whom all souls belong.
Bend to the dust that head “unbowed,” Small part of life’s great whole!
And see in him, and him alone, The Captain of my soul. 11)
Man unquestionably has impressive power and can bring to pass great things by tireless efforts and indomitable will. But after all our obedience and good works, we cannot be saved from the effect of our sins without the Grace extended by the atonement of Jesus Christ. ~~ Dallin H. Oaks, With Full Purpose of Heart (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002), p.2-7 (continued)
