As it stands in this thread, you have said nothing that leads me to believe you have any more insights into how the atonement actually works than anyone else off the street so I stand by my original assertion that we (including you) don’t really understand the atonement.

Geoff:

“You will need to establish when humankind individually made the original covenant with God with your theory. If you hold that it was before we were born then you would need to show why it is enforceable to people who have no knowledge or memory of it. If we did not individually make the covenant and break it you would need to show why we would be held responsible for promises we never made.”

Exactly my point about being born guilty.(See earlier post. I don’t know how to link it.) We can’t be held responsible for promises we never made and we couldn’t have made any valid covenant before being born, so why would we be lost without the atonement? That would not be just. Maybe it’s not just, but it’s the situation. Maybe God could forgive us without the (sacrificial) atonement, but the necessity for it is to overcome death. But the scriptures say otherwise. We inherit our guilt/mortality. Adam is mankind; we are all connected. That’s why we all have to be sealed, so we can resurrect.

On a side note, this brings up the subject of the story of Adam and Eve. It is about how we humans became gods/judges/elohim. God said, after they had partaken of the tree of knowledge, that they had become like God, knowing good from evil. In other words they could make judgments and act as judges and establish government. Notice Adam and Eve also became creators after they had partaken of the fruit ( there is no mention of children until after they left the garden). A god is not just a creator, which all humans are, but he is also a judge. Adam and Eve had free will and could be deceived, so their natures were the same before they ate the fruit as they were after. The only difference between God and humans is the mortality/immortality factor.