Mormon Musings

Diluted Christianity is not C hristianity,  it is a feeble att empt  to have Christianity with out  Christ, for it denies the c entral  service of Jesus' life— the  Atonement. Those who call t hemselves  Christians but deny  the divinity of Jesus cannot se em  to tolerate those of us who  accept and proclaim the divini ty  of Christ. No one, brothers  and sisters, would pay us much  heed if we were merely nonsmok ing,  non-drinking humanists. Wit hout  acknowledging the reality  of the Resurrection and the Ato nement,  believing in the minis try  of Jesus would mean slumpin g  into t...

Jesus' marvelous meekness pre vented  any "root of bitterness"   from "springing up" in Him ( Heb.  12:15). Ponder the Savior 's  precious words about the Ato nement  after He passed through  it. There is no mention of the  vinegar. No mention of the sco urging.  No mention of having be en  struck. No mention of having   been spat upon. He does decla re  that He "suffer[ed] both bod y  and spirit" in an exquisitene ss  which we simply cannot compr ehend.    (D&C 19:18; see also v.   15.) Neal A. Maxwell (Ensign, May 1989, p.  64. )

There will be no end to the r ipples  of the Resurrection resu lting  from the infinite  Atonement.  Neal A. Maxwell, (Ensign, November 1988, p.   33.)

Nobody becomes perfect in this life…Becoming perfect in Christ is a process.  We begin by keeping the commandments today, and we keep more of them tomorrow…We can become perfect in some minor things…if we chart a course of becoming perfect, and, step by step and phase by phase, are perfecting our souls by overcoming the world, then it is absolutely guaranteed—there is no question whatsoever about it—we shall gain eternal life…If we chart a course and follow it to the best of our ability in this life, then when we go out of this life we’ll continue in exactly the same course…The Prophet Joseph Smith told us that there are many things that people have to do, even after the grave, to work out their salvation. Bruce R. McConkie

His infinite Atonement affected every age, every dispensation and every person (See 2 Nephi 9:7; 25:16).  Hence the appropriate symbolism of Him bleeding at each and every pore--not just some--in order that "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Corinthians 15:22). Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign November 1988, p. 33

You are not to suppose that you are going to be jumped into the midst of revelations, and by one great and grand step are to burst the vail, and to rend it from your eyes, do you think that you are to step into the celestial kingdom and see it all at once? No, these blessings are by far too precious to be attained in such a way; they are to be attained by diligence and faith from day to day, and from night to night. Hence you are to become habituated to do good in your thoughts and conduct, in all that you do, until you become perfectly initiated into the great principles of righteousness, and continue to live uprightly until it becomes a kind of second nature to be honest, to be prudent, to govern all your passions, and bring all of the influences of the flesh, of the fallen nature, into the most perfect subjection to the law of God. Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses 3:348

Ironically, during the moments when in agony He was benefitting billions upon billions of mortals, He was attended by only a faithful few. Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, November 1988, p. 33