There is an ancient and famous story that comes from India. You have probably heard it sometime before. It is about six blind men who come across an elephant for the first time and try to discover what it is. The first to approach the elephant bumps up against its big broad side and says, I see. It’s like a wall. The second, feeling the tusk exclaims, It’s so pointy, round and smooth that an elephant must be like a spear. The third man touches the coiled trunk and says, My gosh! An elephant must be like a snake! The fourth feels around the leg and says, An elephant is clearly like a tree. The fifth accidentally touches one of the ears and declares, Even the blindest man in the world would notice that an elephant is like a fan! The sixth touches the fidgety tail and says, An elephant is much like a rope. And thus the blind men had a long and drawn-out argument. Each was stubborn and violent in expressing his opinion and, even though all of them were partially right, they were all wrong. What should these men have done? They should have compared their observations to gain a clearer understanding of what an elephant is.
In April of 1985, during General Conference, the great scholar and apostle Bruce R. McConkie gave what would be his last talk in mortality. In this unforgettable talk, Elder McConkie said the following: Now the Atonement of Christ is the basic fundamental doctrine of the Gospel and it is the least understood of all our revealed truths. Brothers and sisters, I believe it is possible that we do not understand the atonement because we are like those blind Indian men: we only see part of the Savior’s central work. Seeing as there were six blind men in the story of the elephant, I would like to talk to you about six words that have been used to express what the Great Messiah has done for every one of us.
For me, there is no word that explains what the atonement is more succinctly than the German translation: Sühnopfer. Sühnopfer has two parts: Sühn, sin, and Opfer, offering. Therefore, when we say the word atonement we are referring to when Jesus Christ gave himself up as a sacrifice for sin. We know that this translation is good because it is in agreement with the scriptures. In 2nd Nephi, it reads:
Behold, he (referring to Jesus Christ) offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered. (2nd Nephi 2:7)
In his epistle to the Hebrews, the Apostle Paul asks the question, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)
The scriptures teach us that this sacrifice, this Sühnopfer, began when Jesus Christ knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane and suffered the spiritual, emotional and mental anguish of all man-kind; so much so that, as it says in scripture, he bled from every pore (Mosiah 3:7). This sacrifice ended when the Savior exclaimed on the cross: It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30). The Lord, of His own free will, allowed His body to die so that he could take it up again and become resurrected in three days, thus making it possible for all of us to also become resurrected and inherit an immortal body.
Another curious translation to describe this eternal sacrifice for sin comes from the first full translation of the Bible into English: atonement. John Wycliffe was the first to translate the Bible from Latin to English. His translation was so good that the translators of the King James Bible, which we normally use in English, copied more than 70% from what he had already written. In fourteenth century Europe, anything that was worth writing was written in Latin so Spanish, French, Italian, German and English had not been very developed as written languages. In fact, there weren’t even any dictionaries in those languages. This is why, when Wycliffe couldn’t think of a good word in English to describe the Savior of the World’s sacrifice, he made one up. Many years later the great Shakespeare would continue making up words.
Atonement literally means what it appears to mean: at-one-ment. In other words: at-one, being one, combined with the suffix: –ment, which makes the word a noun. Another way to express this word perhaps would be unification. Christ performed a unification for all of us. Even though Wycliffe came up with this word on his own we should not think any less of it because it is in complete agreement with the scriptures. In the Gospel of John, we read that the Lord said the following in His prayer to our Heavenly Father:
And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. (John 17:10-11)
With whom does Christ want to unify us? With Him and our Heavenly Father. Because, as it says in Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 84:37-38): … And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father; And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him. Through this unification with Jesus Christ, we may receive all that the Father has. This great atonement, or unification, is meant to unify all of the human family.
Many modern translations of the Bible prefer the translation reconciliation. This is also a good translation as it simply highlights another part of the Lord’s central mission. Let’s look at the word reconciliation. As evidenced in the words redo, renovate and repeat, the prefix re- means again or once more. The morpheme con means together. The root of the word is silio which means chair or seat. The suffix –tion makes the word a noun. Therefore, the word reconciliation literally means to sit down again together. But with whom? Well, the scriptures teach us this very clearly. Alma 34:36, says the following:
And this I know, because the Lord hath said he dwelleth not in unholy temples, but in the hearts of the righteous doth he dwell; yea, and he has also said that the righteous shall sit down in his kingdom, to go no more out; but their garments should be made white through the blood of the Lamb.
Ephesians 2:6 says, speaking of our Heavenly Father: And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. One of the most trusted places in the home is the kitchen table. Normally, it is there where the most trusted people sit: friends and family members. Through the reconciliation of Jesus Christ, we can become acceptable to sit down again at the table in our Heavenly Father’s home.
The word reconciliation, however, is only a Latin based translation of the Greek term katallagein. Katallagein is a financial word that could be translated as to exchange, to trade or even to redeem in the sense of redeeming one thing for another. If you go and redeem a store coupon then you can get something else for it, say a gallon of milk. In other words, another way to translate katallagein could be remission. The Apostle Paul gives us an example of this in his epistle to the members of the Church in the city of Corinth:
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
The price that was just mentioned in these scriptures refers to the sacrifice which Jesus Christ made for all of us. Christ, then, offered Himself up in exchange for us. The scripture goes as far to say that even our bodies and spirits belong to Him. In other words, the voucher that is used to redeem something, in this case, is Christ’s suffering and perfect life. The redeemed item is all of us, our bodies and spirits.
Since the word atonement is a quintessentially English word, another word is used in Spanish to describe what the Savior did for us. The word, expiation, exists in English even though it is not commonly used. The prefix ex– means from or out of, piō means to avenge or appease, and again, the suffix -tion makes the word a noun. In other words, it is the act of appeasing. What, though, is it appeasing? Once again, the scriptures offer us the answer:
And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also. (Alma 42:15)
I would like to call your attention to the part where it says that Christ appeased the demands of justice. We live in a corrupted world where we have many chances to choose what is wrong. Heavenly Father is perfectly just and when a mistake is made a price must be paid. Justice cannot be appeased until the price is fully paid. Because we are imperfect, we are unable to do this. In this way, the word expiation is also a good translation because it teaches us that Jesus Christ satisfies the demands of justice.
Many times the same word with a slightly different pronunciation is used in many languages. Expiation is one of these words. In Italian it’s expiazione, in Portuguese: expiação, in French: expiation, in Romanian: ispăşire, in Catalan: expiació. Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic have the same basic word for atonement as well: kafar. This word means to pass over with the palm, to wipe out, to cover or to pardon.
It is from this word that we derive another: kafata. The tradition of the kafata comes from ancient times when people would flee into the desert seeking the protection of some tribal chief. The person would come to the tent and exclaim: Ana dakhiluka, which means: I am thy suppliant! and then the chief would place the hem of his robe over the person’s shoulder and declare him under the protection of the tribe. I do not think that it is a coincidence that the first Nephi of the Book of Mormon, who was surely familiar with Arab customs, said the following when asking God for mercy: O Lord, wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy righteousness! (2 Nephi 4:33).
The need for a savior began in the Garden of Eden, where the first sin was committed. All of the sudden, Adam and Eve gained knowledge and no longer saw each other with the eyes of a child. They went and found fig leaves to cover themselves. We learn in the Book of Moses (Moses 4:27) that, before casting them out of the Garden of Eden, the Lord made Adam and Eve clothes out of animal skins. That first fig-tree’s leaves could grow back but animal skins do not grow on plants. It was necessary to sacrifice an animal in order to cover Adam and Eve. Jesus Christ, just like that first animal, had no sin but someone needed to be sacrificed for man-kind. Just as it was necessary to sacrifice an animal to cover Adam and Eve’s bodies, it was necessary for Christ to sacrifice himself to cover our sins.
Adam and Eve’s fall was precipitated by the Devil. It is quite possible that we do not know The Enemy of All Righteousness’ true name. The name Lucifer means light bearer but could simply be another way to describe the title which he held in the premortal world: Son of the Morning (Isaiah 12:12). After being cast out of God’s presence he was no longer called Lucifer but Ha-Shatan, which in Hebrew means The Accuser.
I do not know exactly how the final judgment will be but I think that it will be something like this: I stand alone with my judge, Heavenly Father. A large screen appears in front of us and my life story is played out for us to watch. Satan, the accuser, comes and points to every time I commit a sin. He calls attention to every sin of omission and commission, thought or acted out. It is a long movie. The prophet Alma the Younger informs us how we will feel after watching this movie:
For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence. (Alma 12:14)
Satan is not the only one who has many titles. Jesus Christ is also known as the Savior of the World, the Great Redeemer, the Creator, the Only-Begotten Son of the Father in the Flesh, the Beloved Son of the Father, and our Advocate with the Father. At the end of the movie, when I am most heart-broken and ashamed, Jesus comes and says, Father, it’s all right. I have paid the price of all of his sins. There has been justice. The Devil can say nothing in response to this defense and leaves. The story, however, does not end there.
I’d like to take a small break in this story to ask you a question. Let’s say that I am a very influential man and I say to you, I have a job lined up for you if you want it. If you like, you can quit your job tomorrow and start as the new CEO of the biggest, most successful bank in the country. You will have a yearly salary of two million dollars and enjoy certain perks like taking the company jet when your family goes on vacation. Would you accept this job? If not, let me make you another offer. If you want, I can make arrangements for you to play for the athletic team of your choice. I’ll get you a ten million dollar, five year contract. What do you say?
Well, unless you know how to manage a large company and have a thorough understanding of the banking system you wouldn’t last a day as the CEO of the country’s largest and most successful bank. Unless you were in fabulous shape and had the necessary skill, you would be very embarrassed to play for any professional team. All good jobs require preparation. If we are not prepared it won’t matter that someone has handed us the job. We wouldn’t be successful and we would probably quite after a while, if not immediately.
The scriptures explain what the final judgment could be. In Doctrine and Covenants the Lord Himself says the following:
For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory. And he who cannot abide the law of a terrestrial kingdom cannot abide a terrestrial glory (D&C 88:22-23).
The question is then, what preparation do we need to take full advantage of the Christ’s atonement? The answer is to keep the commandments. There are many Latter-day Saints, and many other Christians as well, who believe that we can save ourselves through keeping the commandments. They believe that Jesus Christ pays for most of our sins but that we also need to do some of the work ourselves. This is a concept which I do not understand.
In the Doctrine and Covenants, Jesus Christ says the following:
When he shall deliver up the kingdom, and present it unto the Father, spotless, saying: I have overcome and have trodden the wine-press alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God (D&C 76:107).
I do not see any mention of any of us sinners coming and working a shift to help tread the part of the wine-press that corresponds to our sins. What I understand from this scripture is that Christ alone paid for our sins.
Speaking of new converts to the Church of Jesus Christ, the prophet Moroni tells us:
And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ; and their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith. (Moroni 6:4).
This scripture says that they relied alone on the merits of Christ. It does not say that they relied partially on their own merits and partially on Christ’s. If the commandments are not for self-salvation then what is their function?
The function of the commandments in our lives can be compared to a mother who pays for her daughter’s piano lessons. No mother pays for private piano lessons so that her child will reimburse her at some future date. This is not what the mother is after. The parent pays for piano lessons so that her daughter will learn to play an instrument, develop discipline and diligence, express herself through music, develop or gain a talent, and enrich her life and the lives of all those who listen to her play. When the daughter practices the piano, she is in no way paying for her teacher’s time. The mother makes the full payment
We have the commandments for many reasons and one of them is to prepare us to be able to live in the presence of God. If we do not keep, or do not like keeping, the two greatest commandments – to love God and to love our neighbor – then why would we want to live with our Heavenly Father and others who do want to live that way? Just as the out of shape athlete, the physician who cheated on all of her tests, or the child who sits down to play the piano for a full house without having practiced for even an hour, we will not feel prepared. We will know that Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins so that we could live with Him and inherit all that the Father has, but we will also know that we will not be able to do so. Moroni explains it this way:
Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell (Mormon 9:4).
The prophet known as Samuel the Lamanite explained in this way:
And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free. He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you (Helamán 14:30-31).
These scriptures teach us that, even though the Savior paid the full price of our sins and assured us a place in His heavenly kingdom, he will not force us to accept this place. The only ones who will want to come in are those who try to keep the commandments and, therefore, the covenants which they have made with Him, including the commandment to repent when we make mistakes.
We all need the kafar to cover our sins; we all need the expiation to satisfy the demands of justice; we are all in need of the katallagein which redeems us from the fall of Adam; all of us need the reconciliation which makes it possible for us to sit down at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the presence of the Almighty; we all need the atonement to be able to be one with our Heavenly Father and we should all be grateful for the Sühnopfer which Jesus Christ performed by sacrificing Himself for all of us.
I testify that these things are true, in the name of the Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ, Amen.
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