Journal of Discourses

Blood atonement in the Journal of Discourses

The sermons that taught it, the sermons that limited it, and the one that denied it outright — all from the same pulpit.

Blood atonement is the teaching that some sins are beyond the reach of Christ's atonement, and that the sinner must have his own blood shed to be saved. It was preached most sharply in 1856 and 1857, during the Mormon Reformation. Nine discourses in the Journal bear on it — three that teach it, four that state the premise it rests on, and two that pull against it.

The sermons that teach it

All three are from volume 4, preached within months of each other at the height of the Reformation. The first is Jedediah M. Grant, the counsellor in the First Presidency who drove that campaign until his death in December 1856.

And you who have committed sins that cannot be forgiven through baptism, let your blood be shed, and let the smoke ascend, that the incense thereof may come up before God as an atonement for your sins, and that the sinners in Zion may be afraid.

Jedediah M. Grant, Rebuking Iniquity, Journal of Discourses, Volume 4

Brigham Young, in a discourse whose printed title names the subject outright:

There are sins that men commit for which they cannot receive forgiveness in this world, or in that which is to come, and if they had their eyes open to see their true condition, they would be perfectly willing to have their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins; and the smoking incense would atone for their sins, whereas, if such is not the case, they will stick to them and remain upon them in the spirit world.

Brigham Young, The People of God Disciplined By Trials—Atonement By the Shedding of Blood—Our Heavenly Father—A Privilege Given to All the Married Sisters in Utah, Journal of Discourses, Volume 4

And in the discourse that is also his fullest statement on the Adam-God doctrine, put as a question to the congregation about what love of a neighbour requires:

Any of you who understand the principles of eternity, if you have sinned a sin requiring the shedding of blood, except the sin unto death, would not be satisfied nor rest until your blood should be spilled, that you might gain that salvation you desire. That is the way to love mankind.

Brigham Young, To Know God is Eternal Life—God the Father of Our Spirits and Bodies—Things Created Spiritually First—Atonement By the Shedding of Blood, Journal of Discourses, Volume 4

The premise underneath it

The doctrine rests on a claim that is far less contested and appears far more often: that there are sins the atonement does not cover — murder and denying the Holy Ghost. These four sermons state that premise without prescribing the remedy, and are frequently quoted as though they do.

Still, if God will forgive you, I will, of all the sins you have committed, if you have not shed innocent blood, or sinned against the Holy Ghost. I will forgive you of all sins that God will forgive you of. God be merciful to you, and God bless the poor and honest, and those who are filled with integrity and virtue, God bless you forever, and you shall be blessed, whether the rest do right or not. Let us do right, and the day of deliverance will come, I know it, and we will be rescued from the evil that is coming.

Heber C. Kimball, The Body of Christ—Parable of the Vine—A Wild Enthusiastic Spirit not of God—The Saints Should not Unwisely Expose Each Others' Follies, Journal of Discourses, Volume 4

If a man has shed innocent blood, he will have to pay the atonement, or he never can atone for his sin; therefore, at the day of judgment he will be judged according to men in the flesh, and condemned according to the law.

Heber C. Kimball, Greater Responsibilities of Those Who Know the Truth, &c, Journal of Discourses, Volume 7

There is great blessing to be placed upon faithful men in the latter days—they are to be sealed up unto eternal life, and against all sins and blasphemies, except the shedding of innocent blood, or consenting thereunto, which is the same in the eyes of God. The wicked are slaying the wicked, and the North calculates to use up the South in a few days; in this they will be mistaken. They will whip each other, first one and then the other. Let the Saints acknowledge the hand of God in it all. War and bloodshed will follow the Gospel of the Son of God, until it has spread over every nation, tongue and people who reject the Gospel after it is proffered to them, and have spilled innocent blood or consented to it.

Heber C. Kimball, Practical Religion—Instruction to Elders Going on Missions, Journal of Discourses, Volume 10

When a man sheds innocent blood a crime is committed by him, and he must atone for it either in this life or in the life to come. God will visit them in His own time and in His own way, until these things are atoned for. He will leave men and nations to themselves, when they abandon themselves to evil, and His spirit cannot abide with them.

George Q. Cannon, The Present Condition of the Saints—Their Past Trials—The Attempted Assassination of President Garfield, Etc, Journal of Discourses, Volume 22

Where the same pulpit pulled the other way

The Journal is not one voice. Heber C. Kimball — who elsewhere taught that murder is beyond forgiveness — argued in 1859 that shedding a man's blood needlessly offends God, reasoning from a revelation about killing animals.

If he is not well pleased with us when we shed the blood of beasts when we have no need of it, would it not be much more displeasing to him were we to shed the blood of man unnecessarily? It is not the Spirit of God that leads a man or woman to shed blood—to desire to kill and slay. When the time comes that we have need to shed blood, then it will be necessary we should do it, and it will be just as innocent as to go and kill an ox when we are hungry or in the time of famine.

Heber C. Kimball, Shedding Blood—God's Provision for His Saints, Journal of Discourses, Volume 6

And in 1884, from the same stand, Charles W. Penrose denied the doctrine directly, in as flat a sentence as the series contains.

We read that "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." Not my blood or your blood is to be shed for the remission of our sins; but He who was without sin allowed His blood to be shed as a sacrifice for our sins. Now the whole question hinges on that. If you reject the doctrine of proxy in baptism, you must reject the doctrine of proxy in the atonement.

Charles W. Penrose, The Church of Christ—Churches of Men—Conflicting Ideas—True Sources of Learning—Oneness Explained—Only One True Religion—"Probation After Death"—Ideas of Hell Changing—Different Degrees of Glory—Work for the Dead—Completeness and Simplicity of the Gospel, Journal of Discourses, Volume 24

Where it stands

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rejects blood atonement and states that it has never been church practice. Its position is that the atonement of Jesus Christ is sufficient for all sin that can be repented of, and that the sermons above were rhetorical rather than instructions to act. No one was ever executed by the church under it.

What is not disputed is that the words were preached and printed. Both facts sit in the same volumes, which is the case for reading them rather than reading about them.

The sermons