"Understanding the Atonement by Understanding the Body"

Absolutely amazing blog called "ONE Climbs" by Steven Reed, that I've just discovered this month, with much of it devoted to symbolism, a passion of mine...this post is a bit different, but still fascinating!

I love this part:

"Sins and transgressions are not just ethereal ideas, but an actual physical record we create that resides within us. This is why thoughts can be sins.

Whether you act it out or not, you have instructed the synapses in your brain...to produce an incorrect or impure sequence of data; you have willed something evil into existence. It may not exist in the world as an action, but it exists in your brain just as data exists in a computer in the form of ones and zeroes. A being who uses their will to instruct matter to from into imperfect structures cannot ever participate in eternal life where creation and the instruction of matter and intelligences is the entire purpose.

In this life, your brain is your own private universe, with every facet and fragment created by you and through your actions, brought into the sphere of this world to influence the lives and futures of your fellow beings for good or for evil.

This is why we can only receive a 'remission' of sin through baptism. Just like cancer in remission, it still resides in your body, but it doesn't effect your progression and ability to act. The cancer may be removed through surgery or a change in the physical body. Likewise, sin, or "imperfect code" must be removed from the body of man through another process we understand as "the resurrection'."

And it only gets better from there...do pay Steven a visit; you'll be glad you did! Thanks, Steven!