[Footnote A: "New Testament Scriptures," as here used means more than the New Testament of the Bible. It means that New Testament of course, but that plus the Book of Mormon books written after the birth of Messiah, beginning with III Nephi, and also the immediate scriptures of the New Dispensation, viz., the Doctrine and Covenants.]
DISCUSSION.
1. The Fact of the Atonement: The important thing to be established in the mind of man concerning the atonement is the fact of it. While it is not the intention of this treatise to avoid the discussion of the philosophy of the Atonement[A]—by which is meant only a discussion of the reasonableness of it—and rest in the mere fact of it as proved from the Scriptures, still I repeat that the fact of it and man's acceptance of it as a fact, is of first importance.[B] This and the following lesson of Part II, therefore, are devoted to grouping the scriptural texts for the fact of the Atonement from "New Testament Scriptures."
[Footnote A: Part III is wholly devoted to that division of the subject.]
[Footnote B: Elsewhere on this theme I have said: How is it that through the sacrifice of one who is innocent salvation may be purchased for those under the dominion of death? I will observe, in passing, that what should most concern us is, not so much how it is that such is the case, but is it a fact? Is it true that God has established such a scheme of redemption, is what should concern us most.
To that question the blood sprinkled upon a thousand Jewish altars, and the smoke that darkened the heavens for ages from burnt offerings, answer yes. For those sacrifices, and that sprinkled blood were but typical of the great sacrifice to be made by the Messiah.
Even the mythology of the heathen nations retains the idea of an Atonement that either has been, or is to be made for mankind. Fantastic, distorted, confused; buried under the rubbish of savage superstition it may be, but it nevertheless exists. So easily traced, so distinct is this feature of heathen mythology, that some writers have endeavored to prove that the gospel plan of redemption was derived from heathen mythology. Whereas the fact is that the gospel was understood and extensively preached in the earliest ages; men retained in their tradition a knowledge of those principles or parts of them, and however much they may have been distorted, traces of them may still be found in nearly all the mythologies of the world.
The prophets of the Jewish scriptures answer the foregoing question in the affirmative. The writers of the New Testament make Christ's Atonement the principal theme of their discourses and epistles. The Book of Mormon, speaking as the voice of an entire continent of people, whose prophets and righteous men sought and found God, testifies to the same great fact, and the revelations of God as given through the Prophet Joseph Smith are replete with passages confirming this doctrine. * * * The evidence here indicated is more than sufficient, it seems to me, to establish the fact of the Atonement beyond the possibility of a doubt: and if there are some things in it not yet within the scope of our comprehension, still there is sufficient foundation for our glorious hope and faith of eternal life through its power: for the evidence proving the fact of that Atonement is sufficient, wanting nothing, either in quality or quantity" "(The Gospel," Ch. ii.)]
2. The Angel's Testimony to the Atonement of Christ: "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: * * * She shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins."[A]
[Footnote A: Matt. i:18, 23.]