Jesus of Nazareth and the Atonement

-
What are your thoughts on Jesus and the Atonement?

I believe there was a man named Jesus of Nazareth and that following many of the teachings attributed to Him may lead to satisfying life of love and service. The greatest form of worship one can ascribe to any individual is to strive to live life in accordance with the wisdom that he or she imparted.  Christ represents to me radical love and compassionate outreach to all, even those considered to be less desirable or misunderstood by traditional society. In this sense, as I strive to follow many of the teachings attributed to Jesus, I consider myself to be a Christian.  

I think the concept of the atonement is one of the enduring principles of Christianity. We are all inherently limited in our ability to truly experience and understand the sorrows and struggles of any other human being.  So the concept of there being One who has "descended below all things" "that his bowels may be filled with mercy" and "that he might know, according to the flesh, how to succor his people" is a beautiful concept  (See Book of Mormon - Alma 7 and Doctrine and Covenants Section 122).

Just as the Christ of the New Testament is able to use that suffering and pain in a positive way to better help others, so too we can use our own sorrows, struggles, and heartaches to better understand and extend greater compassion to our fellow travelers in this mortal journey.  And thus the atonement is not limited to a singular salvific event accomplished in Gethsamane or Golgatha but is an open invitation to personally reach out and help others who may be or will also be experiencing some form of suffering.  It is an invitation to become partakers in an ongoing and eternal "at-one-ment" with others.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act - Personal Income Tax Changes

-
  On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) which includes several provisions that impact taxes and spending.   Whenever I tell people I'm a CPA, I get a lot of questions about taxes and usually push back that tax is not my area of expertise. This is true - I've never done anyone's taxes other than my own and am not a tax expert. I do, however, have a basic understanding of our tax code and a natural curiosity when there are significant changes in tax legislation.  I've also seen a lot of mis-information being shared online - which is likely in part due to the fact that our US tax code is unnecessarily complicated.  Here's my summary of the most prominent personal income tax provisions of the OBBBA. These are largely sourced through Google Gemini AI , do not cover non-tax spending provisions of the bill and do not include my own personal opinions on the bill (maybe I'll do a separate post on that). 1. Makes Tax Cuts and Jobs ...
Read more

My stance on the "controversial" social issues

-
I've seen a lot of political discussions in the last week in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, an outspoken and controversial conservative activist.  This has caused me to reflect on what my current positions are on the "controversial" issues.  Over time, my political stances have shifted from my conservative upbringing, but I don't think any of my political positions are as set in stone as I used to believe they were. Does anyone probably care about my current political beliefs? Eh, maybe not.. but this is more of an exercise for myself to write out and try to clarify for myself what my current stance is on various issues. Gun control The US has far too many gun deaths compared to other countries.  Part of this stems from mental health issues as well as the breakdown of families and community support that lead to self-inflicted gun deaths, gang violence, and other forms of violence like school shootings. A large part of the problem, though, seems to...
Read more

Thrive Day 2019

-
Today I attended a conference in Salt Lake called Thrive, which a group dedicated to providing healing, joy and community to those who have or are transitioning from Mormonism. (See website here ) Deconstructing one's faith system can be an incredibly emotional and challenging experience that is often referred to as a "dark night of the soul." In processing the grief associated with losing one's beliefs, there can be significant anger, frustration and pain in learning new things that contradict the narratives you always accepted as true. Many have feelings of being lost, confused, broken and often have no one they can safely turn to. Doubt is seen as a disease and loved ones that want to help either don't know how to help, are eager to bear their testimony at them, and try to "fix" them rather than seeking understanding.  And in all honesty, when someone is in the "anger" stage of grief, they are difficult to talk to and frequently make mista...
Read more