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AUTHOR PROFILE
Tad R. Callister
Tad R. Callister is described in biographical records as an American religious leader (1945–2025) (1945–2025). The selections gathered here touch on atonement, purpose, scripture study. This profile brings the attributed quotations together with their available source information.
“Elder Neal A. Maxwell suggests that the prime reason the Savior personally acts as the gatekeeper of the celestial kingdom is not to exclude people, but to personally welcome and embrace those who have made it back home.”— Tad R. Callister
Biography at a glance
- Profile: American religious leader (1945–2025)
- Life: 1945–2025
- Quotes in this collection: 21
Life and work
Biographical records connect Tad R. Callister with Brigham Young University and New York University School of Law. This collection includes 21 quotations credited to Tad R. Callister. Each quotation page preserves its own citation, when supplied, so readers can follow the passage back to its stated context.
Reading the quotations
The selections gathered here touch on atonement, purpose, scripture study. These topic links make it easier to compare these words with other voices in the LDS Flow library. Citations are shown on the individual quotation pages where the source collection provided them.
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Sources and further reading
Quotes by Tad R. Callister
21 quotes
“Elder Neal A. Maxwell suggests that the prime reason the Savior personally acts as the gatekeeper of the celestial kingdom is not to exclude people, but to personally welcome and embrace those who have made it back home.”
The Infinite Atonement
“The Atonement of Jesus Christ outweighs, surpasses, and transcends every other mortal event, every new discovery, and every acquisition of knowledge, for without the Atonement all else in life is meaningless.”
The Infinite Atonement
“The Book of Mormon is not only the keystone of our religion, but it can also become the keystone of our testimonies so that when trials or unanswered questions confront us, it can hold our testimonies securely in place. This book is the one weight on the scales of truth that exceeds the combined weight of all the critics’ arguments. Why? Because if it is true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet and this is the restored Church of Jesus Christ, regardless of any historical or other arguments to the contrary. For this reason, the critics are intent on disproving the Book of Mormon, but the obstacles they face are insurmountable because this book is true.”
"God’s Compelling Witness: The Book of Mormon," Conference October 2017
“The Atonement is our singular hope for a meaningful life.”
The Infinite Atonement
“If the Atonement is the foundation of our faith (and it is), then no one should be content with a casual acquaintance of this doctrine. Instead, the Atonement should be paramount in our intellectual and spiritual pursuits.”
The Infinite Atonement
“I imagine that if we could see the heavenly barometer that reads and records the secret thoughts of each person during the sacrament, we would have a pretty good measure of the spirituality of that person.”
The Infinite Atonement
“The Savior’s message was essential to our salvation, but his personal exposition of it was not. President J. Reuben Clark Jr. gave this caution: “Brethren, it is all right to speak of the Savior and the beauty of his doctrines, and the beauty of the truth. But remember, and this is the thing I wish you . . . [to] always carry with you, the Savior is to be looked at as the Messiah, the Redeemer of the world. His teachings were ancillary and auxiliary to that great fact.”
The Infinite Atonement
“There was something in the Savior’s descent that made possible man’s ascent.”
The Infinite Atonement
“But how does the Atonement motivate, invite, and draw all men unto the Savior? What causes this gravitational pull– this spiritual tug? There is a certain compelling power that flows from righteous suffering– not indiscriminate suffering, not needless suffering, but righteous, voluntary suffering for another. Such suffering for another is the highest and purest form of motivation we can offer to those we love. Contemplate that for a moment: How does one change the attitude or the course of conduct of a loved one whose every step seems bent on destruction? If example fails to influence, words of kindness go unheeded, and the powers of logic are dismissed as chaff before the wind, then where does one turn…In the words of the missionary evangelist, E. Stanley Jones, suffering has “an intense moral appeal.” Jones once asked Mahatma Gandhi as he sat on a cot in an open courtyard of Yervavda jail, “‘Isn’t your fasting a species of coercion?’ ‘Yes,’ he said very slowly, ‘the same kind of coercion which Jesus exercises upon you from the cross.'” As Jones reflected upon that sobering rejoinder, he said: “I was silent. It was so obviously true that I am silent again every time I think of it. He was profoundly right. The years have clarified it. And I now see it for what it is: a very morally potent and redemptive power if used rightly. But it has to be used rightly.”
The Infinite Atonement
Some are willing to set aside the precious gospel truths restored by Joseph Smith because they get diverted on some historical issue or some scientific hypothesis not central to their exaltation, and in so doing they trade their spiritual birthright for a mess of pottage. They exchange the absolute certainty of the Restoration for a doubt, and in that process they fall into the trap of losing faith in the many things they do know because of a few things they do not know.
“Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration,” Ensign, November 2009, p. 37
“Every temptation proves a crossroad where we must choose between the high road and the low road. On some occasions it is a trial of agonizing frustration. On other occasions, it is a mere annoyance, a nuisance of minor proportions. but in each case there is some element tot uneasiness, anxiety, and spiritual tugging–ultimately a choosing that forces us to take sides. Neutrality is a nonexistent condition in this life. We are always choosing, always taking sides. That is part of the human experience–facing temptations on a daily, almost moment-by-moment basis–facing them not only on the good days but on the days we are down, the days we are tired, rejected, discouraged, or sick. Every day of our lives we battle temptation–and so did the Savior. It is an integral part of the human experience, faced not only by us but also by him. He drank from the same cup.”
The Infinite Atonement
“Part of the human experience is to confront temptation. No one escapes. It is omnipresent. It is both externally driven and internally prompted. It is like the enemy that attacks from all sides. It boldly assaults us in television shows, movies, billboards, and newspapers in the name of entertainment or free speech. It walks down our streets and sits in our offices in the name of fashion. It drives our roads in the name of style. It represents itself as political correctness or business necessity. It claims moral sanction under the guise of free choice. On occasion it roars like thunder; on others it whispers in subtle, soothing tones. With chameleon-like skill it camouflages its ever-present nature, but it is there–always there.”
The Infinite Atonement
“A cathedral without windows, a face without eyes, a field without flowers, an alphabet without vowels, a continent without rivers, a night without stars, and a sky without a sun—these would not be so sad as a . . . soul without Christ.”
The Infinite Atonement
“The Savior was no ivory-tower observer, no behind-the-lines captain… The Savior was a participant, a player, who not only understood our plight intellectually, but who felt our wounds because they became his wounds.”
The Infinite Atonement
“The powers of the Atonement do not lie dormant until one sins and then suddenly spring forth to satisfy the needs of the repentant person. Rather, like the forces of gravity, they are everywhere present, exerting their unseen but powerful influence.”
The Infinite Atonement
“Neutrality is a nonexistent condition in this life. We are always choosing, always taking sides. That is part of the human experience – facing temptations on a daily, almost moment-by-moment basis – facing them not only in good days but on days we are down, the days we are tired, rejected, discouraged, or sick.”
The Infinite Atonement
“Jacob placed no qualifiers when he said the Savior would suffer ‘the pains of every living creature, both men, women and children, who belong to the family of .’ These were pains both related and unrelated to sin or transgression. In other words, the Savior voluntarily took upon himself not only the cumulative burden of sin and transgression, but also the cumulative burden of all depression, all loneliness, all sorrow, all mental, emotional, and physical hurt, and all weakness of every kind that afflicts mankind.”
The Infinite Atonement
“President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke of [the Atonement’s] relationship to other events in world history: “When all is said and done, when all of history is examined, when the deepest depths of the human mind have been explored, there is nothing so wonderful, so majestic, so tremendous as this act of grace.”
The Infinite Atonement
“The Atonement was designed to do more than restore us to the ‘starting line’—more than just wipe the slate clean. [Its] crowning purpose [is] to endow us with power so that we might overcome each of our weaknesses and acquire the divine traits that would make us like God.”
“How Can I Lead a More Saintly Life?” p. 89
“We become like those things we habitually love and admire. And thus, as we study Christ’s life and live his teachings, we become more like him.”
The Infinite Atonement
“Our dress affects not only our thoughts and actions but also the thoughts and actions of others.”