Dear Gramps,
I understand that the Atonement was a physical and spiritual payment that Jesus Christ made for all of God’s children. He paid for our bodies overcoming death unconditionally, and paid for our spirits overcoming sin conditionally upon our faith, repentance, and good works. My question is: did the Atonement pay for the 1/3 part of the hosts of heaven who dissented? They did not receive physical bodies, so have no physical death, but don’t they need the Atonement to allow their spirits to live eternally?
John, from Blacksburg, Virginia
Dear John,
The wicked spirits who followed Satan in the premortality, and were cast with Satan out of the realms of heaven, and denied the opportunity to be born into mortality and gain physical bodies, will never have mortal bodies and will never be permitted to inherit a kingdom of glory. The Atonement is not for them. The one third will never be released from the realms of Satan, where they chose to go.
The great Atoning sacrifice of the Savior provided for all mortals the ability to gain exaltation. His resurrection assured a reunion of body and spirit at the resurrection for every single mortal, whether they have merited any kingdom of glory, or whether they have chosen in mortality to follow Satan, thus becoming sons of perdition. The final state of the sons of perdition is to live with Satan for eternity, having sacrificed in mortality the opportunity to inherit a kingdom of glory.
Gramps
