Good evening Daedelus76! It is good to meet you. I’m Finrock.
Mormonism has changed so much… how could I know about it? Depending on what prophet is in charge, it is a completely different religion.
If I understand your comment here correctly, you seem to be indicating that the importance of the Atonement in Mormonism has changed along with other things so you weren’t aware of it.
There is some truth to the idea, because we do believe in continuing revelation and we believe that God can yet reveal new things to the Church, through His prophet. However, the idea that we have a completely different religion, based on who is the prophet, simply isn’t true. The core doctrines and gospel message of the Church have stayed essentially the same through-out it’s history. There have been some big revelations, such as ones that ended the practice of plural marriage and extended the priesthood to all male members (in the past African-Americans could not hold the priesthood). But, at the core, the Church has remained consistent.
One thing that is absolute in the Church is the preeminence of Jesus Christ and His atonement in all that we do, say, or teach. Indeed, “…we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins” (2 Ne. 25:26). Joseph Smith taught that “…[t]he fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven;
and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.” From the beginning and to this day, Jesus Christ and His atonement lay at the center of our religion.
We believe that in the Garden of Gethsemane is where Jesus actually suffered the pains of all the sins of all of mankind, but not only their sins, but also their infirmities and their weaknesses. So great was the suffering that it caused “…even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit” (D&C 19:18). But, this wasn’t the end of Jesus’ suffering. From the hands of the Romans and finally to the cross, Jesus suffered. The LDS church does not take the suffering on the cross lightly. In a recent speech, one of our apostles, Elder Holland, speaking of the events on the cross had this to say about the last moments of Jesus’ life. Please excuse the lengthy quote, but I think it is needful:
"*Now I speak very carefully, even reverently, of what may have been the most difficult moment in all of this solitary journey to Atonement. I speak of those final moments for which Jesus must have been prepared intellectually and physically but which He may not have fully anticipated emotionally and spiritually—that concluding descent into the paralyzing despair of divine withdrawal when He cries in ultimate loneliness, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
The loss of mortal support He had anticipated, but apparently He had not comprehended this. Had He not said to His disciples, “Behold, the hour . . . is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me” and “The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him”?
With all the conviction of my soul I testify that He did please His Father perfectly and that a perfect Father did not forsake His Son in that hour. Indeed, it is my personal belief that in all of Christ’s mortal ministry the Father may never have been closer to His Son than in these agonizing final moments of suffering. Nevertheless, that the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It was required; indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone.
But Jesus held on. He pressed on. The goodness in Him allowed faith to triumph even in a state of complete anguish. The trust He lived by told Him in spite of His feelings that divine compassion is never absent, that God is always faithful, that He never flees nor fails us. When the uttermost farthing had then been paid, when Christ’s determination to be faithful was as obvious as it was utterly invincible, finally and mercifully, it was “finished.” Against all odds and with none to help or uphold Him, Jesus of Nazareth, the living Son of the living God, restored physical life where death had held sway and brought joyful, spiritual redemption out of sin, hellish darkness and despair. With faith in the God He knew was there, He could say in triumph, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit*” (Holland,
None Were With Him).
I’ve run out of characters, so I will comment on the last part of your post separately.
Kind Regards,
Finrock
