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Just how do they view the Crucifixion?

Mormon belief of the Crucifixion seems to be that in order to distance mormonism from Christianity, the Atonement was the climax of Christ's mission and he sweat blood in Gethsamane...then the Crucifixion, because the Cross would be a featured player, was just the anticlimax to the Atonement.

Those early leaders worked real hard to put a lot of ground between Christian belief and mormon belief.

That was before some PR flack convinced the leaders in Salt Lake that mormons ought to be called "Christians".

A Response to Latter-day Saints Who Say, "We Never Criticize Christian Churches"

The mormon "motto" is Choose the Right...Christians prefer to

Hi caww, no reluctance as far as I am concerned.

In the Book of Mormon Jesus speaks about the Crucifixion:

3 Nephi 27: 13 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.

14 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—

15 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.

I noticed a hint of avoidance by Mormons to speak of the Crucifixion......is there a reason they avoid this from their doctrinal point of view? Just how do they view the Crucifixion?

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They view the Crucifixion as a means of death. They believe the sin bearing took place in the Garden not on the cross and that the cross is where Jesus died, but it could have been any method since His death was only necessary so that He could be resurrected. It didn’t matter how.

If you ask an LDS why they don’t use crosses, they will say ‘we focus on the resurrection’, yet they don’t really. Their Easter services are pretty much the same as any sunday.

It used to be that the ‘gotcha comment’ for the LDS to a Christian was “well, if Jesus was beheaded would you wear a knife/guillotine around your neck?” And THAT comment shows how much disdain they have for the Cross.

They will speak of the ‘atonement’ in general terms (like they speak of Christ in general terms) but the “atonement” usually means only the Garden.

Mormons look at the Garden as where the atonement took place - not the cross.

The LDS Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith gave the following reason for Mormonism’s rejection of the cross as a symbol:

“........ such a custom is repugnant and contrary to the true worship of our Redeemer. Why should we bow down before a cross or use it as a symbol? Because our Savior died on the cross, the wearing of crosses is to most Latter-day Saints in very poor taste and inconsistent to our worship ..... We may be definitely sure that if our Lord had been killed with a dagger or with a sword, it would have been very strange indeed if religious people of this day would have graced such a weapon by wearing it and adoring it because it was by such a means that our Lord was put to death.” (Answers to Gospel Questions, Volume 4, pages 17-18).

Late LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie explained,

“The sectarian world falsely suppose that the climax of his torture and suffering was on the cross…a view they keep ever before them by the constant use of the cross as a religious symbol. The fact is that intense and severe as the suffering was on the cross, yet the great pains were endured in the Garden of Gethsemane.” (Mormon Doctrine, page 555)

However, deep down I think Robert A. Rees, the former editor of the LDS periodical “Dialogue” may have nailed it. He cites from Minnesota Minneapolis Mission a manual that was distributed to missionaries in the mid-1990s that contained a “sample presentation” including a short discussion of the cross. It went like this:

LDS Missionary: “In the end, Mr. Brown, what did the people do to Jesus? That’s right, they crucified him. They rejected the word of God by killing God’s son, Jesus. And after they killed him, they gradually fell into another apostasy. They went through the dark ages and didn’t progress spiritually for hundreds and hundreds of years. …Of course, these people in apostasy were very religious. There were a lot of different churches here on earth, but none of them had a living prophet which means they had no guidance from God – only the wisdom of men. They did remember Jesus and so they used the cross as a symbol of Christianity. But they made many changes in his teachings. What did the Jews use to crucify Jesus? That’s right, a cross. Then really, Mr. Brown, the cross is a sign of what? ‘APOSTASY.’”

So it appears that at the core, rejection of the cross is parallel to the rejection of Christianity as a whole. Sadly they cannot say with Paul -
Gal 2:20* I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
21* I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.