President Ezra Taft Benson taught:
“Much of the Christian world today rejects the divinity of the Savior. They question His miraculous birth, His perfect life, and the reality of His glorious resurrection. The Book of Mormon teaches in plain and unmistakable terms about the truth of all of those. It also provides the most complete explanation of the doctrine of the Atonement. Truly, this divinely inspired book is a keystone in bearing witness to the world that Jesus is the Christ.”
Some years ago I had dinner with a retired judge. In the course of our conversation we found ourselves focusing on the Book of Mormon. At one point he made this bewildering statement: “I’ve read the Book of Mormon and there is nothing new in it that’s not already in the Bible. I was dumbfounded. It was obvious that he either had not read the Book of Mormon, or he did not understand it. If it were not for the Book of Mormon we would all fall victim to many of the misconceptions about the Fall and the Atonement, as discussed above, simply because the Bible, as inspired as it is, has had many parts which are “plain and most precious” deleted from its original contents. Nephi prophesied, however that in the last days “other books” would restore the “plain and precious things” which have been taken away from [the Bible]” (1 Nephi 13: 39-40). Fortunately, the Book of Mormon has come to our rescue. It clarifies certain doctrinal points that are ambiguous in the Bible, confirms others, and even more importantly, fills in many of the gaps and voids that are glaringly apparent. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has said: “Much of this doctrine [of the Atonement] has been lost or expunged from the biblical records. It is therefore of great consequence that the Book of Mormon prophets taught that doctrine in detail and with clarity.”8
Sometimes it is difficult for us as members of the Church to distinguish between our beliefs in the Atonement and those of the rest of the Christian world. Many of us grow up thinking that what we know about this central doctrine is also what the world knows and believes, but it is not so. Without modern scriptures, particularly the Book of Mormon, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to grasp many of the basic tenets of the Atonement. Almost two thousand years of Bible interpretation and varied conclusions arrived at by many in the Christian world should be ample evidence of the need for additional scriptural insight. (continued) ~Tad R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 28-29 (pocket book edition)
Continued. . . ‘The Divinity of Our Savior II’
7. Benson, Witness and a Warning, 18.
8. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, 199.
