Atonement And At-Onement

MON., NOV. 7, 1983, 5:52 AM
FARM, FRONT OF FIRE

The class in My doctrine in which you participated yesterday, o son, was a good one, but I am disappointed that you did not offer the insights embodied in this morning’s title. I have given you several teachings on this subject and you should have been able, motivated, and ready to offer this as an idea, if not a truth, as the class progressed. But this is far from My first disappointment, with you and with myriad servants, so I shall do what any good teacher should do… repeat the lesson.

Your theme yesterday was limited atonement, and the discussion centered on whether all would benefit from My sacrifice or whether this is just for the elect. As you discerned, later, you gave little consideration to the nature of these humans in the earth. They seemed to be either passive recipients of an eternal gift or passive acceptors of a damned existence after this life because of My choice. Now hear another interpretation.

As Jesus I was able to offer the sacrifice called atonement because I was “at-one” with the Father, God Almighty. I made the sacrifice, and I accepted the sacrifice as a way for others to come into this relationship. And what is the relationship? The realization of being “at-one” with Me, in all of My “forms” and with, ultimately, all souls… even with the earth itself… with all of My creation.

Now I realize that this doesn’t sound very Christian, but it is, because I, the Christ, do offer it. Let Me clarify. Remember the phrase, “study the peace, unity, and purity of the church?” Remember your conclusion that the church, as the Body of Christ, is truly at peace, is truly unified or at-one, and is pure. But because the church is also almost uncountable congregations of people who exhibit desires to squabble and fight, among themselves and with others in the ultimate Body, to exhibit disunity and dis-harmony, and to behave in ways too diverse to call pure, My ideal picture of the Church is badly blurred. But atonement is still real and a moving, dynamic force.

Because I, the Christ, am at-one with the Father (and was, even here in the earth) and because I function as the teaching, counseling, helping Holy Spirit the model for at-onement is everpresent, in spirit. Ay, there’s the key… spirit. Spirit seeks to unify… to bring to at-onement. As any spirit develops, through sacrifice, through giving, through relationship with Me, it realizes the fundamental fact of at-onement. The crucifixion is considered to be the act of atonement, in more orthodox terms. And yet, would the crucifixion have been memorable if there had been no resurrection?

I survived physical death and returned to let My disciples know this. I also told them I would go and be at-one with the Father, and because I did this, so could they, and so could others who never would know Me, as Jesus, directly in the flesh. Without Me, as the functioning Holy Spirit, this important “lesson” could have been forgotten… lost. But I come to stir spirits to realize what it is their nature to be… at-one with one another.

You realize the truth of what I teach, but your growth has not been sufficient to feel it as truth. You feel at-one with those of like culture and like understanding of spirit, but you do not yet feel what you would like to feel about those who believe differently… or not at all. Spirit is what brings together, but the influence of spirit can be dimmed by the culture and the mind, which so often remind of differences… of reasons for disunity.