October 9 – His own body on the tree. 1 Peter 2:24; “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
_____
Our Mormon reference today comes from ‘The New Era’, a monthly publication produced for members of LDS youth groups. It’s designed to reach out to kids from ages 13-18. We have two deep concerns with this. One – the false doctrine they perpetuate. Two – they’re lying to their own kids, who are the most vulnerable, spiritually and otherwise.
As you’ll see in today’s Mormon reference, they’ve lied about where Jesus paid for the sins of man.
The Church has done this repeatedly since its inception. We can only surmise the answer for that is because they don’t want to accept Jesus paid in full for the sins of man on the cross at Calvary, so they’ve gone out of their way to point to other things to in an effort to divert attention away from the truth, and confuse people. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says the preaching of the cross is foolishness. As I’ve always said, I guess I’m a fool for God.
Be sure you share these with the Mormon you know so they’ll know the truth!
The word ‘crucified’ is listed in the Bible 37 times, and tree is listed 9 times – here’s the list for both words –
The references we’ve listed for ‘tree’ are for those we’ve used in this scenario. The list isn’t indicative of all the times the word ‘tree’ appears in the Bible.
Crucified – 37x | Tree – 9x |
Matt 8x | Deut. 21:22-23 – 2x |
Mark 5x | Jos 8:29 – 1x |
Luke – 4x | Acts 5:30 – 1x |
John – 6x | Acts 10:39 – 1x |
Acts – 3x | Acts 13:29 – 1x |
Rom – 1x | Gal 3:13 – 1x |
1 Cor – 4x | 1 Pe 2:24 – 1x |
2 Cor – 1x | Rev 2:22 – 1x |
Gal – 4x | |
Rev – 1x |
_____
New Era, ‘His Mission and Ministry,’ Dec., 1999, pp. 4, 6; “Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all mankind, even as many as will, shall be redeemed. The Savior began shedding His blood for all mankind, not on the cross but in the Garden of Gethsemane. There He took upon Himself the weight of the sins of all who would ever live. Under that [page 6] heavy load, He bled at every pore.” – Russell M. Nelson
To think a common everyday punishment is all that Jesus went through to give us the atonement seems narrow thinking to me. The atonement is greater than the physical death on the cross.
It was in the Garden of Gethsemane where the Christ accepted His earthly death. At the time of His final acceptance He sweat ” great drops of blood” because of the pain.
Luke 22:
42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were falling down to the ground.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all say to ” take up the cross, and follow me”.
They do not say to make graven images of the cross and follow Jesus.
Jesus wants you to gather up your biggest problems, your biggest burdens and follow Him.
He, with the help of Simon the Cyrenian, had to take up His cross and carry it to the killing field.
If you want to use the cross to help you remember what Jesus did for us please do not say it is wrong for us not to follow that tradition. After all, it is a transition, not a doctrine.
Like all Christians we take up our personal cross and follow Jesus.
We just use different traditions than you do to remember His sacrifice.