The Atoning Blood of Christ

In a recent podcast, Dr. Avram Shannon said this, “The word atone and atonement appears more times in Leviticus than the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine & Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price combined. Atone and atonement, it's a priestly concept. It's what God is doing through sacrifice. When the Book of Mormon often uses atone, it's basically always in temple contexts.” One of the major places that the Book of Mormon teaches about the atonement is in the address of King Benjamin, which was indeed at the temple: “The people gathered themselves together throughout all the land, that they might go up to the temple to hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them” (Mosiah 2:1). This likely was the occasion of a great feast, perhaps even the fifty-year Jubilee feast. But whatever the event, surely there was the sacrifice of animals taking place at that temple. And so it is fitting that the people would learn about the true meaning of sacrifice: “And many signs, and wonders, and types, and shadows showed he unto them, concerning his coming; and also holy prophets spake unto them concerning his coming; and yet they hardened their hearts, and understood not that the law of Moses availeth nothing except it were through the atonement of his blood” (Mosiah 3:15). The people were moved and sought to receive this divine atonement whilst in the midst of the sacrifice of animals for an atonement made by priests (as described in Leviticus): “O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mosiah 4:2).

               Jacob also appears to have taught much about the atonement at the temple. Nephi described how a temple was built among them: “I, Nephi, did build a temple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon.” He then described how he made Jacob a priest: “I, Nephi, did build a temple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon” (2 Nephi 5:16, 26). Perhaps instead of thinking about priest like we do today, we should think of Jacob as a priest at the temple who would make sacrifices for the people under the law of Moses. In the next chapter Nephi records the words that Jacob taught, undoubtedly at the temple. Later when Jacob would teach the people, he specified that it was at the temple: “Wherefore I, Jacob, gave unto them these words as I taught them in the temple, having first obtained mine errand from the Lord. For I, Jacob, and my brother Joseph had been consecrated priests and teachers of this people, by the hand of Nephi” (Jacob 1:17-18). That second sentence was perhaps a justification for why it was okay for him to teach at the temple, for he was a consecrated priest to perform sacrifices and the sacred rituals there. Here is what he taught about the atonement: “Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption…. Where there is no condemnation the mercies of the Holy One of Israel have claim upon them, because of the atonement; for they are delivered by the power of him. For the atonement satisfieth the demands of his justice upon all those who have not the law given to them, that they are delivered from that awful monster, death and hell, and the devil, and the lake of fire and brimstone” (2 Nephi 9:7, 25-26). He finished his message in this instance with an plea for them to be saved by God through the atonement: “Wherefore, may God raise you from death by the power of the resurrection, and also from everlasting death by the power of the atonement, that ye may be received into the eternal kingdom of God, that ye may praise him through grace divine” (2 Nephi 10:25). Later Jacob would also encourage them with these words, “Wherefore, beloved brethren, be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son, and ye may obtain a resurrection, according to the power of the resurrection which is in Christ, and be presented as the first-fruits of Christ unto God, having faith, and obtained a good hope of glory in him before he manifesteth himself in the flesh. And now, beloved, marvel not that I tell you these things; for why not speak of the atonement of Christ, and attain to a perfect knowledge of him, as to attain to the knowledge of a resurrection and the world to come?” (Jacob 4:11-12) It is likely that all of these teachings were at the temple in the midst of the sacrifice of animals where priests, including perhaps Jacob himself, were making atonement for sin under the instructions in Leviticus (see Leviticus 4:20, for example).   

               It may be that Abinadi as well taught at or near the temple when he testified to the priests of Noah concerning the atonement of the Savior. We know from Mosiah 11:10 that there was a temple there, and so if Abinadi wasn’t at the temple itself, surely he was close by as he taught this, “The time shall come when it shall no more be expedient to keep the law of Moses. And moreover, I say unto you, that salvation doth not come by the law alone; and were it not for the atonement, which God himself shall make for the sins and iniquities of his people, that they must unavoidably perish, notwithstanding the law of Moses” (Mosiah 13:27-28). This people may still have been doing the sacrifices of the law of Moses—likely the wicked priests themselves would have officiated in those—and Abinadi pointed them to the meaning of these sacrifices in the atonement made by God Himself. All of these passages in the Book of Mormon do suggest that the Nephites learned about the ultimate sacrifice by the Son of God in the context of the animal sacrifices they were offering at the altars of the temple.