"But men drink damnation to their own souls except they humble themselves and become as little children, and believe that salvation was, and is, and is to come, in and through the atoning blood of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent."
King Benjamin's speech emphasized the atoning functions of the Savior's blood more than any other aspect of Christ's ministry.
Five times King Benjamin mentions the "blood" of Christ in connection with the Atonement (Mosiah 3:7, 11, 15, 16, 18). Might he have been near the temple's sacrificial altar? He was possibly using it as an object lesson to teach about the advanced theology of "that great and last sacrifice," as Alma later puts it. As soon as the people were gathered at the temple to hear him speak — even before pitching their tents — the people had offered blood sacrifices.
Other Book of Mormon prophets had previously spoken, and would later speak, of having their garments washed white in the blood of the Lamb, but no prophet gave such clear information about the atoning work of Christ's blood itself or placed such central attention on the fact that Christ's blood actually would be spilt, according to John W. Welch, BYU scripture scholar and law professor, in an essay titled "Ten Testimonies of Jesus Christ from the Book of Mormon."
It was King Benjamin alone who described Jesus' bloody sweat coming from every pore in anguish for his people. And it was King Benjamin who linked the atoning blood of Christ with the full range of atonement concepts under the law of Moses. The king assured his people that Christ's blood will atone for the sins of those who humble themselves and repent, and for the sins of those "who have fallen by the transgression of Adam, who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned," Welch wrote.
The need under the law of Moses to atone even for sins committed in ignorance is stated in Numbers 15:27-29, and such iniquities were of particular interest on the Day of Atonement, when the scapegoat carried away "all their iniquities" (Leviticus 16:22).
e-mail: jhancock@desnews.com