What LDS Leaders Won't Tell You About the Cross

The atonement is one of the most important parts of the Christian faith. But Mormonism just doesn't seem to get why. As a born again Christian, Mormonism's view of the atonement can be really confusing because there are three different ways that Latter-day Saints have understood it. First, some people believe that the atonement occurred when Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane. Second, others believe that the atonement occurred when Jesus died on the cross. And third, which in my experience is most popular these days, is that the atonement began in the garden and was completed on the cross.

Now, different LDS leaders have taught slightly different things about this. 10th president of the LDS church, Joseph Fieldingmith, said this. What then was Christ's great suffering? I wish we could impress this fact upon the minds of every member of this church. His great suffering occurred before he ever went to the cross. It was in the Garden of Gethsemane. So the scriptures tell us that blood oozed from every pore of his body and in the extreme agony of his soul he cried to his father. It was not the nails driven into his hands and feet. 13th President Ezra Tapbenson said this. It was in Gethsemane that Jesus took on himself the sins of the world.

In Gethsemane that his pain was equivalent to the cumulative burden of all men. in Gethsemane that he descended below all things so that all could repent and come to him. Recently, it seems like things have really shifted away from this kind of language. Now, I'm hearing a lot more people say things like this. Jesus's atoning sacrifice took place in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary. Now, despite the difference in locations, what has been very consistent amongst Latter-day Saints is what the atonement actually accomplished. In Mormonism, it does two things. First, it unconditionally guarantees that all men will be saved from the consequences of physical death.

Thus, everyone will be resurrected into one of the three different kingdoms of glory. But second, the atonement paved the way for faithful Latter-day Saints to be able to walk the covenant path in order to be exalted in celestial glory. It gave us everything we need in order to overcome spiritual death through our own obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. Henry B. Iring, first counselor in the current First Presidency, said this, "It is hard to know when we have done enough for the atonement to change our natures and so qualify us for eternal life." The church website similarly states, "Although we are redeemed unconditionally from the universal effects of the fall, we are accountable for our own sins.

Romans 6:23

But we can be forgiven and cleansed from the stain of sin if we apply the atoning blood of Christ." But this is a vast misunderstanding of Jesus's atonement. The big question that we need to be asking is, what is atonement? And for real, where did it occur? I believe that Mormonism has way too low a view of what Jesus accomplished in the atonement. To understand why we believe that the atonement occurred specifically at the cross, you have to first understand what atonement is. And if you want to understand what atonement is, you need to first understand why we need it in the first place. It's actually really simple.

We all need Christ's atoning work because every single person is a sinner. Because sin merits punishment and because the punishment for sin is death. Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death." And not only physical death, but also spiritual death, separation from God. The entire history of redemption actually builds up to Jesus's atoning work. Everything that happens points forward to that pivotal event. In fact, the point of the old covenant sacrificial system was to provide a pattern of atoning sacrifice that would eventually build up to and be fulfilled by Jesus's atoning sacrifice on the cross.

Under the old covenant in the days of Moses, a person could have their sins atoned for by offering up a substitute sacrifice, typically a lamb or a goat. There were really two parts of what an atoning sacrifice accomplished. First, the offense was forgiven. The offender being made white as snow, something called expeation. Second, the wrath and punishment of God was averted to the sacrifice, something called propitiation. Imagine a man who stole a bike. That man has several different but interrelated problems. First, the thief is morally guilty. He has failed to be righteous like he should have been.

He's defiled by that guilt. Second, he owes money for what he stole. Someone's got to pay for the bike, and as the offender, it should really be him. Third, he's now under civil judgment. He might go to prison. Fourth, he has a relational breach with the bike shop owner. That owner probably doesn't like him very much. An atoning sacrifice covers over all four issues. First, it makes it as though the man has never sinned. It covers over and forgives his sin, experation. Second, it pays for the bike and all associated penalties. It actually suffers the judgment that the man himself should have suffered.

Propitiation. And third, it repairs the relationship between the man and God. Reconciliation. In order for an atoning sacrifice to be acceptable to God, it had to be young, healthy, and without blemish. The offending person would bring the lamb to a priest, lay his hands on the head of the animal as a way to illustrate the transfer of guilt to that animal, and then the lamb would be put to death. For the sacrifice to be effective, it was critical that the lamb not just suffer or bleed, it had to die. In this way, a person at that time could atone for their sins. Hebrews says, "Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

That shedding of blood is unto death." This horrific act of sacrifice was to be a picture of just how heinous our sin was in light of a holy God. It deserves the penalty of death instead of paying for the penalty of sin by my own death. Something else must die in order to take my place and pay for my sin. And that is what sacrifices were to teach the people. Apart from the death of a sacrifice, there could be no forgiveness of sins. But there was one glaring problem. After a person offered a sacrifice, they would sin again and again and again. And they would incur judgment again and again and again.

The old covenant system was never set up to be a permanent solution for our sins. We needed a final ultimate timeless sacrifice to once and for all time atone for our sins. And so God sent Jesus. Just like a sacrificial lamb, Jesus is without blemish morally. And just like a sacrificial lamb had to die in order to atone for our sins, Jesus had to die. That is why he's called the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That's why Revelation presents him as a lamb who was slain. As a once-for-all atoning sacrifice on the cross, Jesus makes it as though we never sinned and have no guilt in God's eyes.

expeation. Jesus pays our sin debt and the penalty of divine wrath, suffering in our place on the cross. Propitiation. And he repairs our relationship to God. Reconciliation. In contrast to this, Mormonism claims that while the atonement universally propitiates God's wrath, all of us enter into a different degree of glory. It does not make us guiltless or remove all our sins in God's eyes. Joseph Fielding Smith taught this. The atonement of Jesus Christ is of a two-fold nature. Because of it, all men are redeemed from mortal death in the grave and will rise in the resurrection to immortality of the soul.

Then again, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel, man will receive remission of individual sins through the blood of Christ and will inherit exaltation in the kingdom of God, which is eternal life. But I would argue that Mormonism's view of the atonement is far too small. It propitiates, but it doesn't expedate. He doesn't really believe that Jesus once and for all time covered over all our sins unless we are obedient to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. A person in the bottom two degrees of glory will be forever separated from the glorious presence of heavenly father. Because unless someone's sins are forgiven and cleansed, they cannot be in the presence of a holy God.

Without both experiation and propitiation, there can be no reconciliation. But the Bible teaches that Jesus really did fully accomplish expeation, propitiation, and reconciliation through his death on the cross. While in Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion, we're told that Jesus experienced such agony that his sweat became like great drops of blood. falling to the ground. But this event, as important as it was, was not properly the atonement for at least four reasons. First, for atonement to occur, something had to die. And Jesus didn't die in the garden. Second, we're told that it was on the cross that Jesus atoned for sins.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. Third, Jesus himself recognized that the cup of suffering he had to drink was not accomplished in the garden. As Christ was leaving the garden, he told Peter, "Put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?" Jesus was anticipating that the cup of God's wrath had not yet been poured out. Fourth, the book of Hebrews makes abundantly clear that it was Jesus's sacrifice, his death, that accomplished this atoning work. Here's what Hebrews says.

Therefore, Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Jesus's suffering in the garden, while significant, did not make us guiltless. It did not pay the price and penalty for our sin. And it did not reconcile us to God. The atonement did not occur in the garden. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. But what's arguably more important is this. Jesus's atonement did not secure the potential for us to walk a covenant path and so secure eternal glory in the celestial kingdom.

His atoning work on the cross secured a total and lasting forgiveness for all his people apart from any and all worthiness of our own. In him we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. The blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. For many people, their sins haunt them because they know they are not worthy, that they are not good enough, that they do not keep their covenants, they do not keep the commandments. If you want your sins truly forgiven, if you want the wrath that you deserve to be averted, if you want true, full, and lasting reconciliation with God, then you need to believe in Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross.

God put Christ forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Tied into this entire discussion is a difference in views of the afterlife. Mormonism teaches that there are three degrees of glory. Christianity has historically taught that there is a binary heaven and hell. So, if you want to learn more about why we disagree with Mormonism's three degrees of glory, check out this video here. Thanks so much for watching and God bless.