Heart of the Matter – Show 14: The Cross

LIVE! From the “Mecca of Mormonism” Salt Lake City, Utah –

THIS . . . is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology. . . . “Where Mormonism Meets Biblical Christianity Face to Face.” Show 14 The Cross April 6th 2010

And I’m your host, Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion.

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Comparison of Doctrinal Views

Driving through downtown SLC on Sunday afternoon through crowds of nicely dressed people reminded me that another Semi-Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints had just concluded. I haven’t been able to review all the content as of yet, but highlights seemed to include . . .

L. Tom Perry, Apostle. Born 1922

The Divine plan for our happiness. His Mother. Good and uplifting manners.

NEVER quoted the Bible. NEVER witnessed of Jesus Christ – a mention – a mention but that was it! VOID of God’s Word entirely. A man who calls himself an APOSTLE of Jesus Christ doesn’t draw all of his time in and around Him. Now what would Peter, James, or John have said?

And with that, let’s have a prayer. PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER

Well, the year of 2010 for Heart of the Matter is a year of looking at alphabetized topics and then reviewing what the LDS say about them and then compare it to what the Bible actually says. Tonight, being in the “C”s – we come to one of the most obvious external differences that exists between Bible teaching churches and/or the LDS church . . . the presence – and/or the absence of, the cross.

Symbolism and Meaning of the Cross

Interestingly enough, when most Latter-day Saints are asked if they are Christian they ardently confirm that they are. And yet on almost every doctrinal point, Mormon doctrine differs in some way or another with biblical Christian doctrine or practice. The views on the cross are no exception.

Now while I believe that there is a great difference between the official doctrines of Mormonism and the heart-felt beliefs many Latter-day Saints privately maintain, when it comes to how most LDS general populous views the cross, I think I am safe in saying that most faithful members of the Mormon church miss the meaning of it completely. In fact in some ways, I think the basic differences in the way Mormons and Christians see the cross perfectly pictures how vastly different Mormonism is from biblical Christianity.

We live in a world of symbols. Some are internationally recognized and others only locally significant. Symbols evoke deeply felt emotions within human beings. They encapsulate epochs of time, moments in history and articulate in a single icon what entire libraries often fail to describe. Icons and symbols serve to remind people of their allegiance to a cause or group and can be pregnant with deep multi-faceted meaning.

I am always taken back when I watch Olympic champions shed tears of allegiance as they look upon their country flags from the award stand. God knows human beings relate to icons and symbols. He made us this way. And before the foundation of the world knew the import of the cross. Think of the Star of David, a peace sign, and even The Golden Arches – all of them speaking to specific groups, with certain agendas, and bearing a particular philosophy on some area or aspect of life. To Christians, the cross is symbolically central to the single most important thing in their existence.

But there exists a few common misunderstandings that occur when it comes to this universal symbol – which Mormonism rejects. First, it is not a man-made icon, like the Swasktika or black and white Yin and Yang, but is found in scripture itself. We remember that when Jesus was crucified the Jews, not wanting Him to hang there overnight because of the onset of Passover, asked the Roman soldiers to break His legs so

Fulfillment of Prophecy in Christ's Crucifixion

He would die before sunset. But when they got to Him He was already dead so, fulfilling prophecy, there was no need to break any bone in His body. Well, another picture was fulfilled in Christ here. Looking all the way back to the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses foretold the very circumstance of Jesus' crucifixion on a wooden cross when he wrote:

Deuteronomy 21:23

“His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) . . .”

The Cross as an Instrument of Death

Generally speaking, in scripture, the cross represents two very different but interconnected things. First, it is most often seen as an instrument of deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. and torture. This is the cross's material meaning. Often, this understanding of the cross is where it all begins and ends in the minds of many people – especially with the Mormons. They see it only as the barbaric fixture upon which Jesus suffered the brutality of physical death. In a very simplistic way, Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ, could be seen by some as a cinematic representation of the Cross as an instrument of physical death.

While on my full-time LDS mission when people would ask, “How come you guys don’t have crosses in or on your churches?” I was taught in the MTC to say something to the effect of: “Well, suppose someone you loved very much was murdered by a buck knife. How would you like it if people stuck replicas of bloody buck knives all over the place in memoriam of him?” This is an example of seeing or representing the cross in a very limited way – only as an instrument of death. As an unregenerate believer, and therefore before I was capable of understanding the Bible with spiritual eyes, I thought this response toward why Mormons don’t revere the cross was so clever and witty. It made sense to me logically because I had an intellectual understanding of His death and sacrifice but no personal, biblical understanding of what that time on the cross REALLY meant for me spiritually.

The Doctrine of the Cross

When I was born again, and remained LDS by the way for another four years – I almost immediately developed a new understanding and love for the symbol of the cross. This understanding wasn’t taught to me nor did I have to think about it or choose to love or resonate with it. I just did. What changed? How did I go from viewing the cross only as an instrument of death, which was “humanistically repulsive and intellectually insipid” to me, to viewing it as an object of honor, adoration, and eternal appreciation? I went from seeing the cross as ONLY an instrument of death to understanding what I call, The Doctrine of the Cross.

Material Cross

Biblically, the cross of Christ is represented in three distinct ways: materially, metaphorically, and metonymically. We have covered the first way – the material cross. The material cross of Christ is the object he physically died upon. It is believed that the LORD was crucified on a TAU (from the Greek letter for T), which is also known as the St. Anthony’s Cross. This cross has no top to it (like the Latin cross has) but instead looks like a capital T. The Latin Cross is the lowercase “t” often depicted in religious art and jewelry – like the stuff I have hanging about my neck.

The material cross is very important to the Church of Rome but it does not hold a place of importance to most Protestant believers around the world. To the Catholics, the material cross is often accompanied by a figure of Jesus attached to it. This icon is known as a crucifix. A cross without Jesus is not a crucifix, it is just a cross. Yes, we do embrace, honor and revere his physical suffering and know that we cannot comprehend it. But the material cross is only part of the cross's import.

The metaphorical cross of Christ also plays an important part in biblical Christianity. It represents afflictions. According to scripture, it is metaphorically assigned to all believers. So important is the metaphorical cross that the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to write, to let every man

Luke 9:28

“take up his cross.”

So important is the metaphorical cross in the lives of believers that Paul wrote in Romans 6:6 saying . . .

“. . . that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace. might be

The Cross: Beyond an Instrument of Death

"We see from this passage (and others like it) that the cross is far more than just the instrument of death which the Romans used to kill the physical body of Jesus but that it has metaphorical application to all who chose to follow him.

With this metaphorically significance, the Holy Spirit utilizes this God-given icon to remind every Christian that we too, ought to be crucified with our King, and to take up our cross and walk. The LDS are so myopically focused on the Instrument of Death aspect of the cross they errantly and ignorantly say some of the most demeaning things about it. Consider what noted science-fiction writer and LDS thinker, Orson Scott Card wrote about the cross, which was published in the Official Mormon periodical Meridian Magazine wrote about the cross:

PLACE QUOTE HERE

We can't blame Card for his ignorance. He only mimics the twisted thinking he has been taught by his LDS leaders over the years. One of these twists is the LDS notion that the Garden of Gethsemane was the “true place of the atonement of Jesus” and not the cross.

Misunderstandings of the Cross

BYU Professor Robert J. Matthews wrote in his book, “A Bible, A Bible:”

“It was in Gethsemane, on the slopes of the Mt. of Olives, that Jesus made His perfect atonement by the shedding blood – moreso than on the cross.”

Nowhere in the Bible is the garden of Gethsemane noted as a place of shame or atonement or the place where the suffering for sin took place. And the fact that Jesus sweat “as it were great drops of blood” in the Garden while contemplating what He was about to endure is only recorded by Luke. This is simply another form of Mormon twistianity. Accept enough of them and before you know it, you are on the opposite side of The Good News.

LDS Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley added to an LDS distancing of itself from the cross when he said in the April 2005 edition of the LDS magazine, The Ensign:

“(For the LDS . . .) the cross is the symbol of the dying Christ, while our message is a declaration of a Living Christ.”

Another major twist away from the biblical exegesis of what Jesus did. All of these LDS twists take the single most important view of the cross – meaning what it fully represents to humankind spiritually – and reduces it to a common and meaningless form of Roman capital punishment.

The Importance of Metonymy

So we have the material meaning of the cross. And we have the metaphorical meaning of the cross. Let’s talk about the third way the Bible presents the importance of the cross – the metonymically. This way is COMPLETELY lost to the LDS . . . and it is perhaps the most important.

Metonymy is a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another – with which it is closely associated. For example, when we say “Washington” we are metonymically using Washington DC to represent the whole of the United States government. Or when we say “the power of the sword” we are using the sword metonymically for military power. This view of the cross is perhaps the MOST important as the cross of Christ is used metonymically for the gospel, the doctrine of the gospel, and of what He did upon the cross to bring about “the Good News” for us.

In this case, the cross is metonymical for everything the Good News represents, its the Work of Christ for man, the shed blood, the hope, the miracle, our justification, our sanctification . . . It is emblematical of our very eternal life. And the Bible tells us so.

In my opinion, all references to the cross are important, but this metonymical association really touches on the present-day significance the cross has to born-again Christians. It is also this most important aspect of the cross that the LDS miss entirely! Under the guise of restoring the early church back to the earth, Joseph Smith took full theological license to twist a number of core biblical Christian beliefs – and to label these twists as part of this restoration.

Such twists have helped to remove the metaphorical and metonymical applications of the cross from the Mormon mind – leaving it only to be errantly identified as a Roman instrument of death. And what have they been willing to replace it with? Graven images of mythical angels and phallus spires pointing to deification of Man?

Listen very carefully to the metonymical sense of these verses.

Paul

The Power and Significance of the Cross

1st Corinthians 1:17-18 says, “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."

The cross is metonymically THE POWER of GOD! And the LDS refuse it?

In Galatians (5:11) Paul refers to “the offence of the cross.” How can the cross be “an offence” to someone? Ask the LDS! Here is a perfectly clear picture of what their other Gospel has created! They are offended by the CROSS! Is the cross an offence to you or is it a symbol of joy, peace, and God’s great love? How you view the cross is very dependent on whether you have been spiritually reborn or not and whether you truly understand Jesus. Those who have NOT been born again by God will almost always view the cross in errant terms – even as an offense.

The Unifying Power

In Galatians 6:12-14 Paul speaks metonymically of “. . . suffering persecution for the cross of Christ. Then he continues, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." You notice Paul says nothing about glorying in the Garden, that He glories in nothing other than the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn’t say He glories in temple ordinances or rights. In church membership or baptisms. In His righteous walk as a follower of Christ – no, he says, “He glories ONLY in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Again in Ephesians 2:16, the cross is used metonymically as the thing that unifies sinful man to Holy God, saying: “that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: By his bloody death on the cross we are reconciled into one body through the expiation of sin. By slaying the hatred between all peoples on the cross, Jesus annulled the Jewish ceremonial law!

The Humility and Sacrifice

How about a few more? Speaking of Jesus Philippians 2:8 says: “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Why is this important? Because the death on the cross was a public and humiliating death. It was before the world, as it were. It was planned and highly purposeful in the mind of God from the beginning of all things. Fashioned as man, Jesus allowed himself to stand on the bottom rung on the ladder from the Throne of God. He came all the way down to the most despised death of all, a condemned criminal on an accursed cross. This is important stuff, my friends, because Jesus didn’t suffer for the sickness and sins of the world in private. Or by lethal injection.

God the Father had Him out in the public eye, suffering for the sins of the world for all to see in the MOST humiliating of circumstances – purposefully. And the LDS discount this! They have the audacity to challenge its meaning and purpose and place in the eternal economy of God and the sacrifice of His only Son. Unreal!

Look at Hebrews 12:2: Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Shamed and brought to the lowest of low. Hung on a tree publicly. With common criminals. Spit on, mistreated, shamed, and ridiculed publicly for what? For you and I. And on top of it all, here is where all of God’s wrath was placed. What greater ploy than to get people – well meaning people – to take their eyes off the very place where they were each reconciled to Him!

And to have them look up at . . . golden angels or spires that inspire the proud hearts of men! The LDS claim the blood in the garden! Unreal!

Read Colossians 1:20: “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” And, having made peace through what? The blood of the garden? The Gospel of an golden angel? No! Never! “The blood of his cross!”

The Message of the Cross

He made our peace through the cross! He endured shame on the cross! He reconciled us by the cross! He fulfilled the Law on the cross! Ordinances were done by the cross! Now listen to this. Listen.

Colossians 2:14

“Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;”

When Christ was nailed to the cross, our obligation to fulfill these ordinances were done away forever, releasing us, freeing us, giving us peace. Are you getting the picture here? What happened on that cross altered, fulfilled, completed, atoned, connected, and made one of what God had intended from the beginning!

The Cross in Worship

I pray that Latter-day Saints everywhere will demand the cross in their chapels. I pray they will add a cross-bar to those chapel spires out of respect, adoration, and worship of Jesus Christ. I pray they will tear down those golden images from the top of their temples and rent every temple veil in the name of Him who already did the job . . . with His life . . . taken – given – on the cross.

Interactive Segment

GRAPHIC: The Material Cross

GRAPHIC: The metaphorical cross Hey, let’s open up the phone lines –

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Bible Infallibility and Mormon History

(Emails below)

michael Farnworth

HYPERLINK "http://www.alatheamedia.com:2095/3rdparty/squirrelmail/src/compose.php?send_to=farnworthm%40yahoo.com" farnworthm@yahoo.com

I had a couple questions about the infallibility of the Bible. Why is the Bible infallible and why does it have to be infallible? thanks for your response. m

Shawn, as a young LDS boy in growing up in the 50's I was taught this Story and in Fact located on temple squire housed in a museum located in the south east corner the LDS Church had a repucated this Jaradit boat…. Some time in the mid to late 60's the display had been removed… I wonder why?

Mormons do believe that the first people in America came via submarine. It is the story of the Brother of Jared, found in Ether in the Book of Mormon. As the story goes, Jared and his family were present at the Tower of Babel and Jared asked his brother to beg the Lord not to confound his family's language (and that of his friends) so that they could all stay together. (see Ether chapter 1 verses 33-37.)

Jared then asked his brother to ask God if they needed to leave. The Brother of Jared received revelation that they were to leave the area and take animals of all kinds "both male and female, of all kinds" and journey to a new land that God had prepared and set apart for them. (see Ether Chapter 1 verses 38-43.)

They gathered up all kinds of animals,birds, insects (Honey Bees are specifically mentioned, which is odd since the first bees in America were brought by Dutch immigrants in the late 1700s to the early 1800s.)

The story continues that they built barges and crossed some minor sea located in the wilderness(presumably the Red Sea) before they arrived at "The great waters that divided the lands." (see Ether Chapter 2 verses 1-7 and Ether chapter 2 verse 13.)

When they got to the coast, God revealed the ship design that the Jaredites were to use. It was in the shape of a football, had no windows, and it had a hole in both the top and the bottom that could be plugged with a wooden cork. According to the Lord (in the Book of Mormon) this was done because storms might arise and turn the ships upside down. And suffocating because your air-hole is underwater would kind of suck. (see Ether Chapter 2 verses 16-21.)

The lack of windows bothered the Brother of Jared (also known as Mahonri Moriancumer, according to

The Jaredites' Journey

Joseph Smith went to pray to God about how to light the submersibles. God, being the fiendishly clever sort, asks the Brother of Jared what he wants God to do, because as God says, "You can't have any windows or fire, dammit!" God clarifies this by telling the Brother of Jared that they are going to spend a lot of time underwater. "You shall be as a whale, going to the depths of the sea." (see Ether Chapter 2 verses 22-25.)

Preparing the Submersibles

According to the legend found in the Book of Mormon, he laid out sixteen rocks (2 for each football… err, submersible) and prayed to Jesus and asked him to merely touch the rocks that they might glow with divine light and thereby provide the necessary illumination for the journey. And, because of his faith, Christ appears to him and does so. (see Ether Chapter 3 verses 1-6.)

So, the Jaredites now have a way to get air, a light source and their boats. They proceed to gather food for the journey and make all kinds of preparations. (see Ether Chapter 6 verse 4.)

Journey Across the Sea

Anyways, the boats had no means of propulsion. In the Book of Mormon, it says (paraphrased slightly) that, "they were driven before the winds for 344 days." According to the Book of Mormon, they spent a significant amount of time underwater, and they were attacked by whales and other "monsters of the sea" but no harm could befall them. (see Ether Chapter 6 verses 5-11.)

That is the scriptural belief that the first inhabitants of North America came by way of submarine.

Shawn, there are many LDS Teaches/Stories like this one that for some reason the LDS Church doesn't promote any longer. I think it would be interesting to your viewers if you could spend some time "Remembering" these once Mormon stories/Teaching Which We were told were the Truth.

Brent Christiansen