JESUS CHRIST

Jesus Christ in Gethsemane

Robert Millet, long-time religious faculty member of Brigham Young University, and Gerald McDermott, Evangelical spokesperson and theologian, have modeled in conversation how those embracing two different spiritual viewpoints can dialog civilly about their respective beliefs.  Having lectured around the country contrasting Mormonism and Evangelical tenets, Bob and Gerald have maintained a close and meaningful friendship, and have striven to attain a deeper understanding of each other’s faith and beliefs.

For over 180 years, Mormons (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) have unequivocally declared their central belief in the atoning mission of Jesus Christ and their pivotal belief in the Savior as Redeemer and Head of His Church, and yet, for so long, this notion has been frequently disavowed or simply missed by the collective public.  In light of this ongoing misperception, it is refreshing to hear what Gerald McDermott shares in this regard:

I’m afraid I am one of those who has misunderstood and misrepresented Mormons. . . . I mistreated a distinguished Mormon historian when he came to speak to my class more than a decade ago. Besides treating him rudely, I did not understand how central Jesus Christ was to his faith and to the LDS Church [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] generally.  As I remember it, I suspected he wasn’t telling me the whole truth when he insisted he was trusting in Jesus for his salvation, and I suggested as much to my class by my repeated counter-assertions and questions. (more…)

Death has come to be the universal heritage; it may claim its victim in infancy or youth, in the period of life’s prime, or its summons may be deferred until the snows of age have gathered upon the hoary head; it may befall as the result of accident or disease, by violence, or as we say, through natural causes; but come it must, as Satan well knows; and in this knowledge is his present though but temporary triumph. But the purposes of God, as they ever have been and ever shall be, are infinitely superior to the deepest designs of men or devils; and the Satanic machinations to make death inevitable, perpetual and supreme were provided against even before the first man had been created in the flesh. The atonement to be wrought by Jesus the Christ was ordained to overcome death and to provide a means of ransom from the power of Satan.

As the penalty incident to the fall came upon the race through an individual act, it would be manifestly unjust, and therefore impossible as part of the divine purpose, to make all men suffer the results thereof without provision for deliverance. (more…)

After the fall of Adam . . . there was no way nor means by which man could be raised from the grave except through the death of the Divine One. A great and eternal law had been violated, and it required the death of a God, really, to atone for the broken law and to bring to pass the salvation of man and the salvation of the world.. . . .

I like to look upon it from a practical point of view, or in a way that we may clearly understand it. . . . If you had lost the home where you were born, the old family homestead that was very dear to you, because in a follish moment you overreached yourself and in excessive confidence you placed a mortgage on that home, with the thought that you could easily redeem it, would you not feel very much distressed and sad when finally it was discovered that you could not redeem it and the mortgage was to be foreclosed so that it was to pass out of your hands? (more…)

A man walking along the road happens to fall into a pit so deep and dark that he cannot climb to the surface and regain his freedom. How can he save himself from his own folly? Not by an exertions on his own part, for there is no means of escape in the pit.  He calls for help and some kindly disposed soul, hearing his cries for relief, hastens to his assistance and by lowering the ladder, gives to him the means by which he may climb again to the surface of the earth. (more…)

Let not ignorance and thoughtlessness lead us into the error of assuming that the Father’s foreknowledge as to what would be, under given conditions, determined that such must be. It was not His design that the souls of mankind be lost; on the contrary it was and is His work and glory, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). Nevertheless He saw the evil into which His children would assuredly fall; and with infinite love and mercy did He ordain means of averting the dire effect, provided the transgressor would elect to avail himself thereof. The offer of the firstborn Son to establish through His own ministry among men the gospel of salvation, and to sacrifice Himself, through labor, humiliation and suffering even unto death, was accepted and made the foreordained plan of man’s redemption from death, of his eventual salvation from the effects of sin, and of his possible exaltation through righteous achievement. (more…)