The Atonement


In our 10,000 hour quest to deepen our faith, what is most deserving of our study?  Remember, our goal is to avoid the trap of information overload. What could we focus on that would bring the greatest potential for growth and goodness? Consider these two quotes:

“Satan has been successful in diverting much of the Christian world’s attention from the one doctrine that can save us, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, to the ancillary doctrines that have meaning only because they draw their sustenance from this redeeming event.  Like a skilled magician, Satan’s every move is to divert our attention and dilute our focus from the primary object at hand, namely Christ’s atoning sacrifice, in hopes we will turn exclusively to doctrines of secondary and far lesser import” (Tad R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement, page 15).

“The atonement of Christ is the most basic and fundamental doctrine of the gospel, and it is the least understood of all our revealed truths.  Many of us have a superficial knowledge and rely upon the Lord and his goodness to see us through the trials and perils of life.  But if we are to have faith like that of Enoch and Elijah, we must believe what they believed, know what they knew, and live as they lived.

“May I invite you to join with me in gaining a sound and sure knowledge of the Atonement” (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, New Witness, xv). Aren’t those powerful words?  Of all the things we could study and understand, the Atonement is the most deserving of our efforts.

President Nelson shared similar thoughts in a recent conference address as he spoke of inviting us to… "consecrate a portion of [our] time each week to study everything Jesus said and did as recorded in the standard works. I invited [you] to let the scriptural citations about Jesus Christ in the Topical Guide become [your] personal core curriculum.

“I gave that challenge because I had already accepted it myself. I read and underlined every verse cited about Jesus Christ...I felt a renewed devotion to Him as I read again in the Book of Mormon the Savior’s own statement about His mission in mortality.”

Now don’t forget how lucky we are!  We have the gospel library app where we can literally touch the footnote and all references automatically are linked.  God has provided the means for this and our other 10,000 hours pursuits to be more efficient than ever before.  We can study with focus and precision more so than in any other age previous to this time!  I would invite you to consider studying this way.  When you are ready to understand more, look at the footnotes.  Read the scriptures there. Go to those scriptures and read those footnotes and continue to “chase the footnotes” until you understand.  It can make the standard works come together in such a helpful way.

With these brethren and all others who have made a similar plea, I invite you to study about the ministry, mission, and message of Jesus Christ. How you do it must be in a way that causes it to sink deeply into your own heart.  For example, my husband loves to LISTEN to talks or the scriptures.  I am a visual person and do much better with reading it.  Be prayerful about how to tackle this, but get going!  What would it mean to spend 10,000 hours devoted to learning about Jesus Christ?! Can you imagine?

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Comments

  1. Supposedly 10,000 hours makes you an expert at something and what better thing to become knowledgeable about than Jesus Christ? I love you enthusiasm as you write, you can hear and feel it in your words!
    There's a scripture study tool my dad made that I've been using called Scripture Notes to study scriptures and the topical guide. (It's really nice because you can type comments next to scriptures and create notes, the newest thing is the topical guide which totally simplifies studying about Jesus Christ or all God has promised Covenant Israel!)
    https://scripturenotes.com/the-3-plus-levels-of-topical-guide-study
    I'll leave a link below in case this sounds interesting, Thanks again for sharing this and especially with the enthusiasm you did!

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