Mormon Doctrine

It is interesting to observe the heresies that creep into the belief systems of Mormons. Some are, in the main, benign, such as the modern proscription against long hair and whiskers on men, or the demand that boys must wear white shirts and ties to pass the sacrament, right handed of course. I had a bishop who flatly said that any boy who wore wire-rimmed glasses was unworthy to date his daughter, I have worn them ever since as a precaution. Others are more insidious; notably the long held belief that in some future world all righteous Mormons will be polygamists, widely taught when I was a boy; or the odd idea that black Africans, but not black Fijians or Australians, had sinned in some pre-mortal world and were therefore to be denied full priesthood blessings, including the temple endowment and eternal marriage, or that repentant American Indians would spontaneously turn white.

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Time, reason, or revelation seems to eventually deal with some of these quirks of Mormon folk doctrine, however, there is one “doctrinal” contradiction that continues to annoy. It is the idea that Jesus paid for the sins of the world – read universe – not on the cross, but in the Garden of Gethsemane. This canard poked its head up again in my High Priest’s Group lesson a few weeks ago. I’ve been quite “well behaved” in class for sometime, but I couldn’t let this pass. When I pointed out that the idea, based on one stretched reference in the Doctrine and Covenants, contradicts LDS doctrine, I was snarled at.

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The next Sunday, the good brother conducting took a few minutes to clarify “LDS doctrine” by reading from Jesus the Christ, by James Talmage. I love the book, and admit that I was once taken in by Talmage on this myself. Fortunately, I have had ample time to study and meditate, as we have all been counseled by the Lord to do. Here is the troublesome reference from pages 613 and 614 of my 1971 edition.

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“Christ’s agony in the garden is unfathomable by the finite mind both as to intensity and cause. The thought that He suffered through fear of death is untenable. Death to Him was preliminary to resurrection and triumphal return to the Father from whom He had come, and to a state of glory even beyond what He had before possessed; and, moreover, it was within His power to lay down His life voluntarily. He struggled and groaned under a burden such as no other being who has lived on earth might even conceive as possible. It was not physical pain, nor mental anguish alone, that caused Him to suffer such torture as to produce an extrusion of blood from every pore; but a spiritual agony of soul such as only God was capable of experiencing. No other man, however great his powers of physical or mental endurance could have suffered so; for his human organism would have succumbed, and syncope [the action of fainting] would have produced unconsciousness and welcome oblivion. In that hour of anguish Christ met and overcame all the horrors that Satan, “the prince of this world” could inflict. The frightful struggle incident to the temptations immediately following the Lord’s baptism was surpassed and overshadowed by this supreme contest with the powers of evil.

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“In some manner, actual and terribly real though to man incomprehensible, the Savior took upon Himself the burden of the sins of mankind from Adam to the end of the world. Modern revelation assists us to a partial understanding of the awful experience. In March 1830, the glorified Lord, Jesus Christ, thus spake: “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent, but if they would not repent, they must suffer even as I, which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit: and would that I might not drink the bitter cup and shrink – nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.” (end quote)

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The “great drops of blood” quote is from St. Luke 22: 44, the exact words in my King James translation are; “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood”. Which doesn’t mean it was blood, just “like” blood.

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I didn’t say anything at the time, but after class I presented my friend six scriptures from the Book of Mormon, and encouraged him to pay attention to the words of the temple endowment ceremony which repeatedly references the crucifixion, but never mentions the Garden of Gethsemane. His first response to my request was to tell me that he didn’t care what the Book of Mormon said. I think those words gave him pause, and he agreed to give my list a look. Reminding my Mormon friends that the Book of Mormon is the most correct book in existence and the cornerstone of “our” religion, I provide the verses here for consideration:

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1. 1 Nephi 11: 32 – 33 “And it came to pass that the angel spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld the Lamb of God, that he was taken by the people; yea, the Son of the everlasting God was judged of the world; and I saw and bear record. And I, Nephi, saw that he was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world.”

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Note: In his lesson on the atonement, Nephi was shown the crucifixion, not the suffering in Gethsemane, as paying for the sins of the world.

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2. 2 Nephi 9: 5 “Yea, I know that ye know that in the body he shall show himself unto those at Jerusalem, from whence we came; for it is expedient that it should be among them; for it behooveth the great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him.”

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Note: Jesus was not subject unto men in the garden, but rather before the Sanhedrin and the Roman Governor, which resulted in his death ON THE CROSS by which he died for all men. There is no mention of suffering some other place or by some other way to provide deliverance from sin.

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3. Mosiah 15: 5 – 9 “And thus the flesh becoming subject to the Spirit, or the Son to the Father, being one God, suffereth temptation, and yieldeth not to temptation but suffereth himself to be mocked, and scourged, and cast out, and disowned by his people.

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“And after all this, after working many mighty miracles among the children of men, he shall be led, yea, even as Isaiah said, as a sheep before the shearer is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.

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“Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father.

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“And thus God breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death; giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men –

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“Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion towards the children of men; standing betwixt them and justice; having broken the bands of death, taken upon himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice.”

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Note: It is Christ’s being crucified and slain, becoming subject unto death, by which his will, (his desire to avert the cup), is swallowed up in the will of the Father. It is the cross that makes it possible for Christ to stand between men and justice, and breaking the bands of death that enables him to take on himself their iniquity and redeem them.

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4. Alma 30: “And ye also say that Christ shall come. But behold, I say that ye do not know that there shall be a Christ. And ye say also that he shall be slain for the sins of the world –

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“And thus ye lead away this people after the foolish traditions of your fathers, and according to your own desires; and ye keep them down even as it were in bondage, that ye may glut yourselves with the labors of their hands, that they durst not look up with boldness, and that they durst not enjoy their rights and privileges.”

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Note: It is Korihor, the anti-Christ, that is condemning Alma the Younger for teaching that Christ shall be slain for the sins of the world. My point here is “slain for the sins of the world”, not sweat blood for the sins of the world.

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5. 3 Nephi 11: 11 – 14 “And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of the bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.

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“And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words the whole multitude fell to the earth; for they remembered that it had been prophesied among them that Christ should show himself unto them after his ascension into heaven.

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“And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto them again saying:

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“Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye my feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.”

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Note: The symbols of Jesus’ atonement are not sweaty skin or bloody pores, but the marks of the cross; and he says that he was slain for our sins; not tormented in the garden for our sins. Christ does not claim to have suffered in a garden for the sins of the world – but in his own words, he was slain for the sins of the world.

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6. 3 Nephi 27: 13 – 16 “Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you – that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me.

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“And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil –

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“And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works.

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“And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at the day when I shall stand to judge the world.”

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Note: The Father sent him to be crucified for the sins of the world, not to suffer in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is ONLY AFTER Jesus was LIFTED UP ON THE CROSS that he could draw all men unto him; that we might be able to repent and be held guiltless before God. If “. . . in some manner, actual and terribly real though to man incomprehensible, the Savior took upon Himself the burden of the sins of mankind from Adam to the end of the world. . .” in the garden, he surely would have mentioned it to the people of the New World on his visit to them after his ascension into heaven. Instead he specifically instructs them otherwise.

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My friend from High Priests was good enough to read the scriptures and to “listen very carefully in the Temple”. Last Sunday he was willing to agree that the atonement was a process – though Jesus doesn’t necessarily agree with that, it is a worthy compromise, at least a step in the right direction. He brought me two Ensign articles to consider. He had marked the following passage by Elder James E. Faust, an apostle who wrote in the November 1988 Ensign:

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“It has been almost two thousand years since the wondrous occasion when death was conquered. We still do not know how the Savior was able to take upon Himself and bear our transgressions, our foolishness, our grief, our sorrows, and our burdens. It was indefinable and unfathomable. It was almost unbearable. The indescribable agony was so great in Gethsemane that “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:44) That haunting cry on the cross, in a loud voice in His native Aramaic, “Eloi, Eloi, Lama sabachthani? Which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) gives but a mere glimpse of His suffering and humiliation. One cannot help wondering how many of those drops of precious blood each of us may be responsible for.” (End quote.)

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I don’t think Faust is taking a stand on this argument. He mentions Gethsemane as a place of suffering, so do the Gospels, but he acknowledges the cry on the cross as the moment in which Jesus takes on the burden he alone was sent to bear. In light of the pronouncements of the Book of Mormon Prophets and Jesus himself, I feel vindicated in challenging those who would diminish the cross to an after thought of the atonement.

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My High Priest friend also gave me an Ensign article form May of 1985 by Apostle Bruce R. McConkie. I pointed out that Elder McConkie is famous for misstatements in print; none the less, several lines from the speech are worth noting in this discussion. This is the section highlighted by my source:

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“This sacred spot, [. . . a pleasant garden spot, Gethsemane by name . . .] like Eden where Adam dwelt, like Sinai from whence Jehovah gave his laws, like Calvary where the Son of God gave his life a ransom for many, this holy ground is where the Sinless Son of the Everlasting Father took upon himself the sins of all men on condition of repentance.

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“We do not know, we cannot tell, no mortal mind can conceive the full import of what Christ did in Gethsemane.

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“We know he sweat great gouts of blood from every pore as he drained the dregs of that bitter cup his Father had given him.

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“We know he suffered, both body and spirit, more than it is possible for man to suffer, except it be unto death.

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“We know that in some way, incomprehensible to us, his suffering satisfied the demands of justice, ransomed penitent souls from the pains and penalties of sin, and made mercy available to those who believe in his holy name.

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“We know that he lay prostrate upon the ground as the pains and agonies of an infinite burden caused him to tremble and would that he might not drink the bitter cup.

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“We know that an angel came from the courts of glory to strengthen him in his ordeal, and we suppose it was mighty Michael, who foremost fell that mortal man might be.

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“As near as we can judge, these infinite agonies—this suffering beyond compare—continued for some three or four hours.

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“After this—his body then wrenched and drained of strength—he confronted Judas and the other incarnate devils, some from the very Sanhedrin itself; and he was led away with a rope around his neck as a common criminal, to be judged by the arch-criminals who as Jews sat in Aaron’s seat and who as Romans wielded Caesar’s power." (Close quote.)

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For the most part McConkie is paraphrasing Talmage. He also presents some interesting inconstancies. Note that he ranks Gethsemane with “Calvary where the Son of God gave his life a ransom for many. . .” An eloquent argument that it was on the cross that Jesus saved the world. It is also important to note that the agonies in the garden relate to an effort to escape “the bitter cup”. This does not seem to imply that he is drinking the cup at the time. It is a far more reasonable progression that Jesus would struggle with the fear of what lay ahead – ask that God remove it from him – and agree to take it in the events that followed than to twist the meaning to somehow fit the claim that he was at that very time suffering the agonies he sought to avoid. Realize that Jesus suffered in a way no man might suffer except it be unto death; this surely implies that the death of a God will be a yet more bitter cup. If he had already drained the dregs on the ground in the garden why return time after time to ask that it might pass.

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McConkie’s claim, that Jesus left Gethsemane wrenched and drained of strength, does not fit the Gospel account. The Jesus described by Luke in Ch 22 comes strengthened by an angel, upon his sleeping disciples; who he wakes and admonishes to pray against temptation. He questions Judas on his method of betrayal by a kiss and, preventing a fight between his disciples and the servants of the high priest, even heals one wounded by a disciple. He then scolds the arresting priests and temple captains, there is no mention of Romans, for sneaking up on him as if he were a thief, reminding them that he had been with them daily. Then, while Peter denies him three times, Jesus endures the abuse of those that “held him”. As soon as it is day, he defends himself nobly before the chief priests and scribes. They then take him to Pilate; who finds no fault in him. He is then sent to Herod who questioned him in many words. Jesus is then defended by Pilate; who at last relents to the demands of the Priests and hands him over to be crucified. But Jesus is not broken. He has time and strength to prophesy to the Daughters of Jerusalem. In spite of flogging and abuse, on the Cross, Jesus is not broken. He asks God to forgive those who nailed him there and even has strength to speak with the malefactors who hang next to him. And once the sky is darkened and the veil in the temple rent, (note this did not happen while Christ was in Gethsemane) he commends his spirit to God and gives up the ghost. The centurion watching does not see a wretch, but glorifying God, saying certainly this was a righteous man.

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McConkie goes on to acknowledge the importance of Calvary:

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“Finally, on a hill called Calvary—again, it was outside Jerusalem’s walls—while helpless disciples looked on and felt the agonies of near death in their own bodies, the Roman soldiers laid him upon the cross.

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“With great mallets they drove spikes of iron through his feet and hands and wrists. Truly he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. . .

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“And , finally, when the atoning agonies had taken their toll—when the victory had been won, when the Son of God had fulfilled the will of his Father in all things—then he said, “It is finished” (John 19:30), and he voluntarily gave up the ghost.” (Close quote.)

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Here McConkie admits that it was on the cross that, as Isaiah prophesied, Jesus was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. He also points out that on the cross the victory was won and the will of God fulfilled.

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McConkie further adds to the confusion by first stating, “Then in Gethsemane we will see the Son of God ransom man from the temporal and spiritual death that came to us because of the Fall.” And then four lines later claim: “And now, as pertaining to this perfect atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God—I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and at Golgotha, and as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God and was crucified for the sins of the world.” (End quote)

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Note: McConkie rightfully mentions the suffering in Gethsemane, but testifies that it was that the Son of the Living God who was crucified for the sins of the world. One has to take even McConkie out of context to argue that the atonement was accomplished in Gethsemane not on the cross.

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A reasoned discussion of this doctrinal deviation requires some rationale for this desire to banish the atonement to the garden. I believe I have some explanations. In its early days, the Mormon Church was eager to separate itself from other Christian denominations; to be peculiar. One defiance to conformity was to reject the cross and crucifix as symbols of Jesus. In support of this revolt, Talmage removed the importance of the cross from his view of the gospel. I think it was also troubling to Talmage, as it is to others, that ordinary men have died of crucifixion, so such a death was not special enough a way to pay so great a price. Death is too fathomable for the taste of some; something more wonderful had to be concocted.

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There is another problem; many members prefer to get their doctrine pre-digested; rather than reading and pondering the word of God, they take the short cut through church literature. Many either don’t pay attention when reading their scriptures or limit such reading to the verses assigned in Sunday school class. Having heard, from childhood up, the “atonement in the garden” theory, they see no reason to question it. I hope I have provided a few.