“A Great and Last Sacrifice”

Alan C. Miner

According to John Welch, building upon the foundational testimony of Christ, each Book of Mormon prophet distinctively accented certain attributes of Jesus Christ. Judging simply from the names and titles that they used in referring to the Lord, we can see that each Book of Mormon prophet related to and testified of Jesus in his own personal ways, revealing to us things about Jesus Christ and also about the prophets who knew him.

Amulek's testimony of Christ shines in the light of his background and experiences. He is the only one to ever refer to the atonement of Jesus Christ as the "great and last sacrifice" (five times--Alma 34:10,13,14). For Amulek it is the magnitude of the atonement that is impressive. Not once does he mention the suffering of Christ, for mortal suffering no matter how extreme is still of finite duration. Amulek, therefore, made no attempt to explain or depict the mechanics of the great, last, infinite, and eternal sacrifice to "atone for the sins of the world" (Alma 34:8; see also 11;40). To Amulek, who himself had been exposed to terrible risks of harm and torture, it was especially pertinent to describe the atonement as encircling people "in the arms of safety" (Alma 34:16), a phrase unique to him in all of scripture. [John W. Welch, "Ten Testimonies of Jesus Christ from the Book of Mormon," F.A.R.M.S., 1994, pp. 14-15]

Note* The great sacrifice of all the believers in Ammonihah should not go unnoticed here. Also, the term "last sacrifice" is not found in the Bible. However, an interesting countercontext of a "great sacrifice" in the last battles with Gog and Magog is found in Ezekiel 39:17-22:

And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God. And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward.

[Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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