“One Sunday morning our teenaged son stood with two other priests to administer the sacrament, as they had done on many prior occasions. They pulled back the white cloth, but to their dismay there was no bread. One of them slipped out to the preparation room in hopes some could be found. There was none. Finally our troubled son made his way to the bishop and shared the concern with him. A wise bishop then stood, explained the situation to the congregation, and asked, “How would it be if the sacrament table were empty today because there were no Atonement?”
- Tad R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement, p 57
Doctrinally, if there was no Atonement: there would be no resurrection (2 Nephi 9:7); we would become subject to the devil forever and would even become ‘angels to the devil’ (2 Nephi 9:9); and we would ‘endure a never ending torment’ (Mosiah 2:39). A life with the devil for all eternity is a harrowing prospect none of us would rush to but there is one thing even worse and that is being shut out from God’s presence forever (2 Nephi 9:9).
When Adam fell, the Earth physically fell away from God and His habitation. In a way, we became lost. Have you ever felt lost? Either physically or spiritually? Have you ever felt the crushing absence of belonging? Have you ever felt that you were all alone in a world full of people, not belonging to anyone or anything? If so, try to imagine this feeling at its’ most intense level. Imagine feeling totally and utterly alone, and devoid of any human contact. If you can, you can comprehend the feeling of being lost. This is the fate that would be ours if the Atonement never took place. We would be lost forever.
After Alma tasted his exquisite pains and looked into the jaws of hell, he beheld God sitting on his throne surrounded by countless angels singing His praises and he longed to be in the presence of God again (Alma 36:22). Even Cain who chose to worship Satan rather than God considered his banishment from God’s presence ‘a punishment greater than he could bear’ (Genesis 4:13,14; Moses 5:38,39).
How can we relate to a tragedy such as being cut off from God’s presence forever if we cannot remember what it was like to live with Him? Ours is a path of faith. When I studied the Fall one year, I came to understood the inexpressible horror of being endlessly lost and I wept as the comprehension of the Atonement flooded my heart feeling the witness of the Spirit in the very marrow of my bones. I think this is something I understood in my pre-existence, before this world was even made. This therefore is our key. We do not need to remember what it was like then. The Holy Ghost can give us understanding and can bear witness to our hearts here and now of the hope that the Atonement gives us; that we can be redeemed from the grasp of hell and the absence of a loving Father and be once again encircled in the arms of His love (2 Nephi 1:15). Does this not make you want to sing the song of redeeming love? (Alma 5:26)
This Easter as we contemplate, with gratitude, the absolution of our sins the Atonement affords, may we also consider the blessing of being at one with God again, the reality that only the sacrifice of Christ offers us. May we long for the reunion and the endless sense of belonging to a home we were once lovingly nurtured in. May we eagerly look forward to the time we can meet the Holy One of Israel as the keeper of the gate who ‘employs no servant there’ (2 Nephi 9:41); who waits for us with open arms (Mormon 6:17) to bring us back once again into the presence of our God.
