The purpose of the atonement goes misunderstood, reduced, and oversimplified to forgiving sin. The vacant lot is always susceptible to gaps that constantly accumulate trash. When the atonement is used to it’s full potential, it replaces the dark with light, Filling the Gaps in each of us individually.
Catholics and many other religious sects have reduced religion to the power of forgiving sin. In our church, we too have reduced the atonement to forgiving sin. We have developed the false tradition of refusing the sacrament and temple privileges as a penalty of repentance. However, Christ was quick to forgive sins. His advice to the sinner was always to “Go and sin no more.” Now that’s really the hard part, isn’t it?! That requires Filling the Gaps with light and truth. That is what the atonement offers!
Sinning no more is where the atonement has it’s greatest value. Sin comes from darkness. Light dispels the dark. If you are filled with light, their can be no darkness within you, therefore, the potential for sin is destroyed. The atonement is misunderstood as forgiving sin, and would be properly understood as filling you with light instead. Each individual dictates how resistant or receptive they are to being filled with light, based upon the hardness/softness of their heart. Your relationship with anyone else, but Christ, gives you no advantage, and can possibly be to your disadvantage.
When the atonement is reduced to forgiving sins, the authority of the priesthood is ALWAYS mutated into a form of unrighteous dominion. Kissing the ring, touching a man’s hem, bowing in reverence, standing when a man enters the room, following a man, has replaced the necessity for light and truth to fill a darkened mind. It reduces salvation to being accepted by the traditions of men, while remaining ignorant of the words of Christ. Offices of rank are considered as salvific and redeeming, and disobedience to such offices of rank are counted as apostasy. All the while, knowing the heavens is viewed as unnecessary and looking beyond the mark.
An atonement that focuses only on removing sin is oversimplified. It ignores the tremendous amount of work necessary in being filled with light and truth. We are so distant from the light of God that if He were to return today, we would burn because we are not conditioned to the enormous light that accompanies Him. Ever since the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith we have been in a backwards spiral, conditioned to less and less light, constantly being manipulated by government pressures (gold and silver, false priests who oppress, armies and navies, etc.).
- Blacks holding priesthood (Civil War)
- Polygamy (Utah’s efforts to acquire statehood)
- Word of Wisdom and sacramental wine (Prohibition)
- Blacks allowed to hold priesthood (Equal Rights Activist)
- Marriage (LGBT efforts)
Rather than being founded upon the laws of heaven, being immovable and unshaken, so the Lord can reveal things that have not been revealed from the foundations of the earth, the church has been in a backwards spiral, aligning more with the world, instead of being a peculiar people. People who have sought out the Lord and have found Him are being cast out, as a threat. Those who have studied the scriptures are cast out because they will not be bullied to conform to the traditions of men. And those who climb the ranks, acquiring offices in the hierarchy, have little power to resolve marital issues, pornography problems, and abuse of any kind. Their best approach is to remove sacrament and temple privileges, advise them to some form of psychological counseling, and reciting primary songs, scriptures, and hymns until the temptation “magically” disappears. None of that works! None of them have the ability to offer any light to fill the darkness. I have been guilty of them all, have tried their counsel, and can bear testimony that it doesn’t work! Their counsel only suppresses the habit, and never resolves the darkness within. Their concept of atonement is misunderstood, reduced, and oversimplified.
The vacant lot is always susceptible to gaps that constantly accumulate trash. In our ignorance, it is no wonder why we are constantly having to clear out the vacant lot, and trash continues to return. Zion must extend beyond clearing a vacant lot. Zion must be filled with the glory of God, which is intelligence, or in other words light and truth. Many of you have expressed that our nephew needs help, but none of you have the ability to offer light and truth to Fill the Gap. As long as the Doctrines of Christ go ignored, we too will suggest reciting primary songs, scriptures, and hymns until the temptation goes away, or we will suggest that if a temptation arises: to call someone, or we will suggest confession to a officer of rank, or removal of sacrament and temple privileges just the same. That will be because you have no power to help Fill the Gap, if within you, you too haven’t Filled the Gap. Consider your own vacant lot. Trash is constantly accumulating in you. Just because the darkness is in different areas of your life doesn’t mean you don’t have gaps. The atonement is correctly and properly intended to Fill the Gap.
When the atonement is used to it’s full potential, it replaces the dark with light, Filling the Gaps in each of us individually. You must have a personal relationship with Christ in order to overcome your weakness. You must have revelation. You must recognize the voice of the Lord, and that requires humbly studying the words of Christ.
Ether 12:27
“27. And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”
It is Christ who Fills the Gap. Nobody else! The best we can do is point to the patterns of Christ in the scriptures. That is what is meant by establishing a house of ORDER! It is learning the ORDER of God. It is each person’s responsibility to learn God’s ORDER and apply it, to develop a relationship with the Savior. Christ has the power to save because He performed the atonement. It is Christ alone that descended below all things, and ascended above all things. So He has the answer for all who desire to ascend! Each of our circumstances are absolutely different, and custom made for our benefit, if we are humble, come unto Christ, and have faith in Him. None of us can solve the problems of another, only our own. But Christ’s atonement gives Christ the ability to give you the answers you need, to make weak things strong in all who will come unto him.
Conclusion: When we partake of the sacrament, what Christ offers us is that we always have His (Christ’s) spirit to be with us. The longer we have his spirit with us, the more instruction we are able to receive. Dependent upon the instruction we are willing to receive, the light and truth within us casts out the darkness, such that we are able to be totally filled with light. That is how we become prepared for the coming of the Lord. That is how the atonement works for our salvation. When the atonement is used to it’s full potential, it replaces the dark with light, Filling the Gaps in each of us individually. Life eternal is knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ. No man can offer salvation. Follow Christ. Follow no man!
Word Compass 