Category: Atonement
Was the Sacrifice of the Messiah Really Needed? How the Book of Moses + Book of Mormon May Help Remove a Stumbling Block
I received a thoughtful question from a former member of the Church who struggles with our belief that a sacrifice of the Messiah was really necessary to save mankind. Based…
The Glue of Forgiveness and the Anti-Nephi-Lehies (the People of Ammon)
As I ponder the many messages of Christmas, one in particular comes from a dramatic story in the Book of Mormon about a large group of Lamanites, the “Anti-Nephi-Lehies” or…
Saved by Grace “After All We Can Do”? Nephi’s Context of Reconciliation
2 Nephi 25:23 has the statement, “for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” Does this mean that salvation is a chore in which we do much of the work, or a transaction in which we pay as much of the price as we can, and Christ only steps in after all we have done or paid to make up the difference? Or does this actually mean that salvation is completely “apart from” if not unrelated to all that we can do? Or something else? I think a plausible answer comes through considering the context.
“Whole Worlds Are Full of His Glory”: Thoughts on a Passage from the Words of Gad the Seer
In a post on “The Words of Gad the Seer” and in a related book review for Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, I’ve shared the dramatic…
Cherishing the Book of Mormon’s Teachings on the Fairness of God
One of the most spiritually and intellectually satisfying elements of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ the is fairness of God. Contrary to centuries of tragically misguided theology about the…
Adam and the Fall: God’s Plan Thwarted?
We’ve had a few comments recently from people who disagree with the LDS view of the plan of salvation, especially our understanding of the purpose of life and the destiny…
