Salvation and Atonement

Salvation and atonement

The Mormon doctrine of salvation

Salvation is eternal life. For Mormons the ideal of salvation is to live forever as a family in the highest heaven of the celestial kingdom.

Mormons believe that human beings get salvation both through the grace of God and their own actions.

Part of the work of salvation has been done by the atonement of Jesus Christ, in that all human beings are guaranteed resurrection, but to attain the full quality of eternal life, human beings also have work to do.

Mormons believe that people arrive in this world without sin, but that they soon misbehave and need to be saved from the consequences of their own actions.

To live close to God, a person must have dealt with all the sins in their life. People have a choice of what sins they commit, and they have a free choice of what to do to put things right.

For a Mormon to achieve salvation they must do the following:

• Believe in Jesus Christ.
• Be baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• Receive the gift of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands by a person with priesthood authority.
• Endure the tests of their life on earth.
• Follow the teachings of Christ and his Apostles.
• Keep God's commandments.
• Repent of their sins.
• Undo any wrongs they may commit.
• Treat other people in the way they would want to be treated.

To reach the highest level of glory, a person must also have been sealed in an eternal marriage in a Mormon temple.

The third of the Mormon Articles of Faith contains the core of the Mormon doctrine of Salvation:

The Fall of Man

The Fall of Man is the term used to describe the misbehaviour of Adam and Eve, and their eviction from the Garden of Eden.

Mormons do not believe in the idea of original sin - that all human beings are tarnished with sin from birth because Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.

Mormons believe that eating the forbidden fruit was not wrong in itself but was a transgression of God's instructions.

However Mormons also believe that the Fall was a necessary part of God's plan, that it was necessary for human beings to achieve exaltation.

This is because human beings have to go through bodily life on earth as part of their spiritual development, and if Adam and Eve had not "fallen" this would not happen.

That's why Mormons hold Adam and Eve in high regard, unlike other Christians, because if they had not fallen the whole plan of salvation would have been frustrated.

Sin and salvation

Sin and salvation

Since there is no original sin, human beings are not inherently evil. But they often choose to do bad things, and so commit sins.

When they sin they push themselves away from God, and the more they sin, the further from God they get and the more they need 'salvation'.

From the age of eight, Mormons believe that human beings are accountable for the sins they commit (before that age children are sinless, because of Christ's atonement.)

A plan of salvation

Mormons have a plan of salvation laid down by God.

In this plan the spirit children of God are sent to earth to have a body in which they learn to obey God's laws, get baptised, resist the temptations of the world, repent of their sins, and live the most Christ-like lives that they can.

At the end of their lives they are judged by God and given a place in heaven that is appropriate for the quality of life they have lived.

The role of Jesus

Mormons believe that Jesus Christ took upon himself the sins of everyone who ever lived or will live on this earth.

Because Jesus died on the cross was buried and rose on the third day, everybody, no matter what their beliefs or righteousness, will be resurrected.

Mormons believe that Jesus Christ has given everyone this gift of resurrection, no matter who they are or how badly they may have behaved.

But not everyone gets eternal life with God. That is only given to those who comply with the conditions that are part of the plan of salvation.

The two types of salvation

Mormons believe that they, like other Christians, have received grace because of Jesus' death and atonement. Mormons also believe that they have to do their bit towards salvation as well.

They also believe in a further type of individual salvation - called 'exaltation' - through which human beings grow to become gods. An individual achieves this type of salvation through their actions.

Salvation through actions

Mormons believe that salvation must be partly earned by the things that a person does and the spirit a person carries in their heart.

The role of actions in salvation is grounded in Jesus' insistence that the love for Christ will be expressed by obedience to his commandments. To put it another way:

What you need to do to be saved is learn the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ (as revealed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), and to live it.

To put it another way: the best way of achieving salvation is to copy the behaviour of a perfect human being - and the only perfect human being was Jesus Christ.

So to be saved a person must accept Christ into their lives - good works without faith won't do. But a person needs to demonstrate their faith by things that they do in order to demonstrate the meaning of their faith.

Actions and grace

Good actions will only take a person so far towards salvation, and Mormons believe that those good actions are only possible because God's grace gives them the strength and the faith to do good actions.

But even good actions are not enough to bring a person to salvation. Once someone has done their best (really done their best - God can't be fooled) to make amends for their sins...

So although salvation ultimately comes about through grace, actions are an integral part and demonstrate the commitment to Christ and our fellow human beings.

Atonement

Atonement

Mormons believe that Christ has atoned for Adam and Eve's transgression in Eden and for the physical death that came to humankind as a result. This did away with placing the burden of original sin on humankind.

This is a free gift - human beings don't have to do anything to get it.

Mormons also believe that Christ atoned for any sins a person may commit, provided that person repents fully of those sins.

(There's actually more to it than than that - see the previous section on salvation.)

Gethsemane

Mormons place great stress on what happened in Gethsemane.

Christ's agony in the garden is a climax of sufferings when he takes onto himself all the sins of humanity, past, present, and future.

This poetic phrase can be translated into something simple and powerful - Christ suffers the pain of being punished as if he had himself committed all the sins of humanity.

Christ's anguish is not fear of what is to happen to him, but the pain of carrying those sins.

Crucifixion

The suffering is prolonged by his trial, torture, and eventual execution.

Finally comes the ultimate cruelty, the moment when Christ realises that God the Father has abandoned him and cries out "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

This was so that he could pay the ultimate price alone, and so be able to succour his people.

In that moment Christ added to his burden the experience of those who through their sin separate themselves totally from God the Father.

Result

Christ took the punishment, paid the price and human beings no longer have to die, but get eternal life.

Conditional atonement

The atonement gives everyone eternal life. But it only frees people from their own personal sins if they do their part; repenting of their sins and living good lives, as God has ordered.