Understanding The Atonement

[Cold Steel]

I recommend all Latter-day Saints read The Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister. It's a heartfelt, personal approach that sheds a great deal of new light on the subject. What we LDS believe that puts us on a different level is that the Father knew of no other way. Theology based on God framing all laws ignores the fact that God Himself was subject to forces that required the atonement. Otherwise, He could have removed the bitter cup and combined mercy and justice in His own crucible.

Our redemption required the sacrifice of the Son of God and, had it not happened, the Earth, its inhabitants and the the materials the planet is made from would have reverted to chaotic matter and every soul would have been lost. So, too, would be all the worlds created by the Son.

There is a great deal of meaning in the Lord's declaration, "It is finished." The relief on both Heaven and Earth must have been immense, especially with the Savior Himself.

[Programmer]

The 15 to 20 minute alotment for talks is just a recommendation. Ask your Bishop, and he might be happy to let you give it.

Sheesh, Sacrament meetings are not supposed to be rigid business meetings. They are to be guided by the Holy Spirit.

Ask your Bishop.

[consiglieri]

All right, consig... How did your talk go? Was it close to the one here?

GG

Okay, I am ready to retun and report.

First, thank you to everybody who was kind enough to post their comments. I really appreciate it. It was a strange thing when i came to the office Thursday morning and spent seveal hours writing this all up. I never do that with a talk. But I felt compelled for some reason to do it with this one. As I wrote, I put down old thoughts, and several new thoughts came to me, as well.

Thanksgiving afternoon, our family gathered together in the living room, and we shared things for which we were grateful. For my part, I spoke about how grateful I am for the Atonement, and then delivered this address. My wife said she liked it, at least.

Between then and Sunday, I told my wife that I did not think that there would be enough time to deliver the whole thing; and she told me the time constraints were not important, but that I should just deliver it anyway. I told her that I really felt I needed to finish promptly at five minutes after, when all good final speakers are supposed to say Amen.

My son gave the first talk and did a great job. Then my 12-year old daughter sang a song about Thanksgiving, "We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing."

Prior to the meeting and even while others were speaking, I kept coming up with different ideas I could talk about; different experiences I could share. I was tempted to go that way. But the thought came to me that I should not doubt the inspiration I received initially.

As it turned out, I did abbreviate the talk quite a bit. I made some initial comments, speaking of my gratitude for the different members of my family; went into the introduction of the talk, and then skipped everything else except for the part that I thought was the heart of it, which was part V about how we can come to understand the Atonement experientially, ending with the line about dancing with God. I then expressed my thankfulness for the Atonement and sat down promptly at five-minutes after the hour.

Now, for a couple of notes afterward: During Gospel Doctrine class, a sister referred to what I had said about learning the Atonement experientially and used it as a platform to excoriate the members (in a nice way) for the fact that the Seattle Temple is used to only 1/3 of its capacity. (Talk about being hoisted on my own pitard!)

Sunday evening, I got a call from my friend who is a member of the stake presidency. He told me that he enjoyed my talk when I finally got around to the point! (So hear, hear, for all of you who said that the introduction was too long!)

Oh, well, we do the best that we can with what we have, I suppose.

Thank you again, one and all, for your comments and welcome criticisms.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[Zechariah]

Okay, I am ready to retun and report.

First, thank you to everybody who was kind enough to post their comments. I really appreciate it. It was a strange thing when i came to the office Thursday morning and spent seveal hours writing this all up. I never do that with a talk. But I felt compelled for some reason to do it with this one. As I wrote, I put down old thoughts, and several new thoughts came to me, as well.

Thanksgiving afternoon, our family gathered together in the living room, and we shared things for which we were grateful. For my part, I spoke about how grateful I am for the Atonement, and then delivered this address. My wife said she liked it, at least.

Between then and Sunday, I told my wife that I did not think that there would be enough time to deliver the whole thing; and she told me the time constraints were not important, but that I should just deliver it anyway. I told her that I really felt I needed to finish promptly at five minutes after, when all good final speakers are supposed to say Amen.

My son gave the first talk and did a great job. Then my 12-year old daughter sang a song about Thanksgiving, "We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing."

Prior to the meeting and even while others were speaking, I kept coming up with different ideas I could talk about; different experiences I could share. I was tempted to go that way. But the thought came to me that I should not doubt the inspiration I received initially.

As it turned out, I did abbreviate the talk quite a bit. I made some initial comments, speaking of my gratitude for the different members of my family; went into the introduction of the talk, and then skipped everything else except for the part that I thought was the heart of it, which was part V about how we can come to understand the Atonement experientially, ending with the line about dancing with God. I then expressed my thankfulness for the Atonement and sat down promptly at five-minutes after the hour.

Now, for a couple of notes afterward: During Gospel Doctrine class, a sister referred to what I had said about learning the Atonement experientially and used it as a platform to excoriate the members (in a nice way) for the fact that the Seattle Temple is used to only 1/3 of its capacity. (Talk about being hoisted on my own pitard!)

Sunday evening, I got a call from my friend who is a member of the stake presidency. He told me that he enjoyed my talk when I finally got around to the point! (So hear, hear, for all of you who said that the introduction was too long!)

Oh, well, we do the best that we can with what we have, I suppose.

Thank you again, one and all, for your comments and welcome criticisms.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

It sounds like things went well with your talk. I'm glad. Sometimes we can allow the counsel, advice, or opinions of others, to cause us to second guess the inspiration we've been given, so I hope none of our comments were problematic for you in that way.

I remember one time several years ago when I was relatively new at teaching, I had a heavy lesson to teach, and, while preparing, I felt strongly impressed to relate a very personal story, that resulted in an extremely powerful lesson that I don't think would have been very well received if I hadn't done so. However, if I had not been traveling the previous weekend, which was general conference, and if I'd heard a talk given by one of the twelve, which discussed how we are to teach, I doubt I would have given the lesson as I did.

After the experience of giving that lesson, and then reading the talk, I could appreciate everything discussed in it, but, if I'd heard it before giving my lesson, I'm sure I would have allowed a couple comments in it about personal stories, to cause me to second guess the inspiration I'd received, and intimidate me out of sharing what I did, even though the most important point made in the talk was that we are to teach by the Spirit.

[Bat-Man]

Good thoughts, Will.

Incidentally, Robert Millet uses an analogy of dancing when trying to understand the atonement, and anything else from God.

Words, alone, always were and always will be an imperfect means of communicating.