Adam and Eve’s Sin and the New Mormon Website
In my daily LDS Gems e-mails I received notice today (February 26, 2008) of another new website launched by the Church. Here in part is what it said;
“The new site is a helpful resource for anyone who wishes to know firsthand what Latter-day Saints believe about Jesus Christ. It is also a valuable reference that Church members can use as they share their beliefs with others.”
http://jesuschrist.lds.org/SonOfGod/eng
Now while I always have something to say about theatrics of the Church, I am once again amazed at how the Church pulls out all the stops in their production of looking good to outsiders. 2 Corinthians 11:14 comes to mind;
“And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.”
The purpose of the site is to proclaim to the world the Church’s focus of worship. They’ve also beefed up television ads with offers of free DVDs which show much of the same thing they have on the new site.
It looks as if they’ve taken some blows in the media lately and therefore wanting the public at large to understand their stance of what they believe. Don’t be fooled my friends. The only thing that’s changed is the amount of money they dumped into this one.
While cruising through their site I came across this in their description of Jesus;
“After the agony of Gethsemane came His arrest, His trials, His condemnation, then the unspeakable pain of His death on the cross, followed by His burial in Joseph’s tomb and the triumphant coming forth in the Resurrection. He, the lowly babe of Bethlehem who two millennia ago walked the dusty roads of the Holy Land, became the Lord Omnipotent, the King of kings, the Giver of salvation to all. None can fully comprehend the splendor of His life, the majesty of His death, the universality of His gift to humankind. We unequivocally declare with the centurion who said at His death, “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39).”
The part that caught my attention the most in that paragraph is “the unspeakable pain of His death on the cross”. I am totally convinced the only reason they “can’t speak of it” is because they don’t believe it. What that front page of their new site doesn’t say is that they believe Jesus paid for your sin and mine in the Garden of Gethsemane!
I’m no theologian, but after studying the Bible for the past fifteen years I would imagine the pain Jesus felt wasn’t just physical while He hung so willingly upon that cursed tree.
John chapter eleven contains the shortest verse in the Bible. (As my pastor said last week, “It’s every AWANA kid’s favorite verse”.) For those of us who’ve read it in context we see how much Jesus hurts for those of us who grieve for our loved ones that have died. John 11:35; “Jesus wept”. This is merely one of a myriad of verses in the gospels that tell us of His grief and agony over our pathetic condition.
His pain on the cross was physically painful; it is undoubtedly the most painful death known to mankind. However, let’s not lose focus of why Jesus was hanging there to begin with. Putting the Roman trials and Pharasitical charges aside, there’s a bigger picture that cannot be overlooked, much to the chagrin of the LDS Church. If we go to the place of why to begin with, we must literally go back to the beginning – Adam, Eve and the Garden of Eden. For those who have never heard, this is officially what is known as “the curse”.
Genesis 3:15 says; “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
Now before we go there – the average Mormon is going to tell you that they only believe the Bible “as far as it is translated correctly” (8th Article of Faith). Meaning they’ve been taught to believe that it’s corrupted. As we know this is a lie. My biggest concern is that if you truly believe this teaching, then why pray tell do you use the Bible at all? Nevertheless, let’s see the sequence of events that takes place in Genesis;
Genesis 2:24-26; 3:6; “And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
Where in that sequence of events did God tell those two they must sin? Where did it say that if or when they did sin they wouldn’t have kids? God created woman for man for a number of reasons, but one of the reasons is so they would multiply.
What kind of god would set his creation up to trick them? The God of the Bible, the God I worship, would do no such thing. If you’re a mom or dad, is this what you do to your kids? Don’t you love them fiercely and want only the best for them? I know that’s the type of love I have for my own children and would never set them up to fail.
Just as I cannot fathom the pain Jesus felt on that cross, I am also certain I cannot imagine the pain it cost our Heavenly Father’s heart to see Adam and Eve sin. Because of their sin God knew that all of mankind, Adam’s future generations, would be subject to having a sin nature. Just as you’ll one day hand down your great-grandfather’s photo album or your color of hair to your own children, we’ve received our inheritance from Adam. Every rude thought, vile deed and evil sin you and I have committed in life stems from that one act in the Garden of Eden. That’s not to say we can blame our behavioral problems on Adam, God forbid! But friends, this one act from the beginning of time is why Jesus hung on that cursed tree.
Jesus wouldn’t have wept at the grief of his friends’ loss of Lazarus for no good reason. He hates death, as it is the consequence of sin. Paul tells us of the fulfilled promise of God in Ephesians 2:14-16;
“For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.”
Why would God contradict Himself regarding the place where atonement must take place? Why would it suddenly and rather randomly, change from sacrifices being performed outside the city walls to inside the city walls, which is where the Garden of Gethsemane is found? And why is the story about original sin different for the Mormons than it is for the Christians and Jews?
The Church can try to dress up their own gospel message in new innovative ways all they want, but if it doesn’t line up with biblical orthodoxy we must throw out their reasoning and pretty presentations.
Think about it.