Atonement: Gethsemane or Golgotha?

Atonement: Gethsemane or Golgotha?
Hi, I’m Danny. I was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 60 years. It’s April and that time of year to remember the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior. So, I have titled this video “Atonement: Gethsemane or Golgotha?”
One of the most distinctive theological differences between Christianity and Mormonism involves the greatest event in world history – the Atonement of Yeshua Mashiach or Jesus Christ. You say – “but Christians and Mormons both believe in the atonement!” That’s true, but they differ in where it took place and that is what makes it significantly important.
If we took a survey and asked where Yeshua’ atonement took place – I almost guarantee 100% of Christians would answer, “On the cross.” For the same question, nearly 100% of Latter-day Saints would respond, “In the garden of Gethsemane.” Obviously, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not view the atonement of Christ in the same biblical Christian manner. Instead, it teaches the atonement occurred primarily in the Garden of Gethsemane and finished with His death on the cross.
Mormonism draws mainly from its unique scriptures to establish some of its doctrine on the atonement. Doctrine & Covenants 19:16-19 “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink— Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.” It implies in this passage that the atonement occurred in the Garden.
Nevertheless, the location of where the atonement occurred comes primarily from the minds and opinions of the LDS Church leaders themselves. They have clearly taught that it was in the Garden where Jesus paid for the sins of the world.
Here is a sample of their statements:
Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, DNTC, 1:774 “Where and under what circumstances was the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God made? Was it on the Cross of Calvary or in the Garden of Gethsemane? It is on the Cross of Christ that most Christians look when centering their attention upon the infinite and eternal atonement. And certainly, the sacrifice of our Lord was completed when he was lifted, up by men; also, that part of his life and suffering is more dramatic and, perhaps, more soul stirring. But in, reality the pain and suffering, the triumph and grandeur, of the atonement took place primarily in Gethsemane.”
President Ezra Taft Benson, Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p14 “It was to Gethsemane that Jesus took on Himself the sins of the world, in Gethsemane that His pain was equivalent to the cumulative burden of all men, in Gethsemane that He descended below all things so that all could repent and come to Him.”
President Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 1:130 “A great many people have an idea that when he was on the cross, and nails were driven into his hands and feet, that was his greatest suffering. His great suffering was before he ever was placed upon the cross. It was in the Garden of Gethsemane that the blood oozed from the pores of his body: ‘Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit – and would that I might not drink the bitter cup and shrink.’ That was not when he was on the cross; that was in the garden. That is where he bled from every pore in his body.”
Apostle M. Russell Ballard, Ensign May 2004 “There in the quiet isolation of the Garden of Gethsemane, He knelt among the gnarled olive trees, and in some incredible ways that none of us can understand, the Savior took upon Himself the sins of the world.”
Thomas S. Monson, Henry B. Eyring, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, First Presidency Easter Message, Church News, April 16, 2017 “At this Easter season, we remember with immense gratitude the sacrifices of our Savior in Gethsemane and on Calvary’s cross. No mere mortal can comprehend the full import of what Christ did for us in Gethsemane. His suffering there caused Him to ‘tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit.’ (Doctrine and Covenants 19:18). Following the agony of Gethsemane, the Savior’s wounded body was nailed to the cross on Calvary’s hill.”
President Russell M. Nelson, General Conference, October 2018 “In the Garden of Gethsemane, our Savior took upon Himself every pain, every sin, and all of the anguish and suffering ever experienced by me and by everyone who has ever lived or will ever live. Under the weight of that excruciating burden, He bled from every pore. All of this suffering was intensified as He was cruelly crucified on Calvary’s cross.”
Despite these clear statements from LDS leadership – to believe the atonement occurred in the garden – would be contrary to the teaching of the Bible.
The word “atonement” is the act of reconciling people with God by means of a blood Sacrifice. In Old Testament times, redemption was demonstrated through the ceremonial sacrifice of an animal. God made it clear that forgiveness would be provided only through the death of a pure and innocent substitute that represented the payment for the penalty of sin. God said, Leviticus 17:11“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the alter to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
The reference to Yeshua as the Lamb of God points back to the institution of the Jewish Passover in Exodus 22. At that time, the Israelites were commanded to sacrifice an unblemished lamb and to smear its blood on the doorposts of their homes. The blood would be the sign for the Angel of Death to “pass over” that house, leaving those covered by the blood safely protected. Yeshua was prophesied in Isaiah 53 to be the Lamb who would die for the people’s sins. When Yeshua came to John to be baptized – John the Baptist recognized Him and cried, John 1:29 “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Thereby identifying Yeshua to be the ultimate sacrifice for sin.
For hundreds of years, animal sacrifices were made in the Jewish temple on, a daily basis for the sins of individuals. Then annually, the children of Israel celebrated the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur. On this sacred day, the Jewish Levitical high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and pour the blood of the sacrificial animal upon the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant. This blood sacrifice was an offering for the sins of that high priest and for the nation of Israel – which sought reconciliation with the God whom they had offended throughout the year. The animal symbolically taking on itself the penalty deserved for sinful people. But the mere act itself of killing an animal for one’s sins did not appease God. Redemption was based on an individual’s faith in what the sacrifice represented. This demonstration of faith would lead to the obvious act of repentance, thereby making the sacrifice efficacious.
The New Testament explains that the animal sacrificial system typified what, the Messiah would do when He would voluntarily pay the price for sin through His own death. Hebrews chapter 9 emphasizes wonderful truths concerning this event. Christ secured access into the very presence of God in heaven not just for Himself only, but for all mankind. Because Christ’s blood was shed through His death – all who believe in Him now have access to the presence of the Holy One. At the very hour of His death, the heavy thick temple veil that separated mankind from the Holy of Holies was supernaturally torn in half, from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51) making it possible for all mankind to have direct access to God by way of Yeshua Mashiach – Jesus Christ, who was not only the sacrificial Lamb of God but is also our Great “High Priest” (Hebrews 3:1).
Christians have long maintained that His act of sacrifice took place at Calvary on Golgotha hill. There is no biblical record of Yeshua atoning for our sins in the garden. Never did a lamb sit somewhere alone – in a pasture and suffer as a substitute sacrifice for sin. It was the death of that Lamb that clearly represented atonement for sin. Mormonism’s inclusion of the garden has no biblical connection to the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant – which was, a clear picture of the shedding of the Lord’s blood that would occur after His arrest, during the unjust trials, and on the cross.
Then what did happen in the Garden of Gethsemane? The Bible explains it was where Yeshua suffered great agony in His humanity over the impending pain and suffering that would culminate in crucifixion and His death on the cross. His was to do the Father’s will (Luke 22:42), but in His flesh as a man He shrank at the thought of being tortured and nailed to the cross. Wouldn’t we all? The anguish and distress He experienced in the garden was so intense that it says in Luke 22:44 “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground.” The way that verse is written suggests that His sweat was so profuse that the drops of heavy sweat were comparable to what great drops of blood would look like. The fact that ONLY Luke, who was a medical physician, describes it that way – makes it more likely that Luke was simply using a figure of speech or metaphor.
Moreover, Biblical scholars agree that it is almost certain Luke did not himself write that passage describing Jesus “sweating blood.” That verse is not found in some of our oldest and best ancient manuscripts and had to have been a later variant added by a scribe or translator. Which raises the obvious question – How did this later variant in the Bible – added possibly in the 3rd or 4th century AD., end up in the Book of Mormon, in Mosiah 3:7 written about 124 BC., which says, “And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.” And then again in 1829 in Doctrine and Covenants 19?
It seems awfully strange to claim so descriptively that “blood cometh from every pore.” So, did He literally bleed from EVERY pore of His body? Such a concept is found neither in the New Testament Gospels nor in the Epistles. The only acceptable blood sacrifice in the eyes of God requires “expiration” not “perspiration.”
In the biblical account, none of the eyewitnesses reported Yeshua wearing blood-soaked clothing that night in the garden, which would have been a noteworthy observation. Had He bled from every pore, He would have been easily recognizable to the temple guard who were seeking to arrest Him that evening. They would not have needed Judas Iscariot to identify Yeshua with a kiss – if Yeshua and His clothes were drenched in blood.
I must point out – there are a couple of powerful clues in the Bible about where the atonement took place. In the gospel of Matthew, Yeshua prays in the garden three times to the Father that if it be possible, “this cup” – meaning His taking upon Him our sins, suffering and dying on the cross – would pass from Him, but that God’s will would be accomplished. So horrible was the task ahead of Him that even Yeshua – the Son of God – asked His Father if there was any other way? But being our Savior, He submitted His will to that of His Father. So, the “cup” He would eventually drink was the first important clue as to when and where the atonement occurred.
However, Satan was not going to leave our Lord alone when He was about to embark on the most pivotal act that would defeat the devil and his powers – once and for all. THIS was the real trial of the garden: Yeshua overcoming the natural temptation or desire to let the “cup” pass – and to not drink it. He prayed – not for the world, but for Himself that He would have the human strength to endure the pain and torture of the cross. Matthew 26:39-42 records, “And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.” If He were taking on the sins of the world in the garden and not praying for those He was atoning for – now, that would be a strange omission.
Additionally, while in the garden, and many times before His passion – Yeshua speaks of His “hour” as in John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20. This is the second important clue we are given. Once the trial of Gethsemane was over, it says in Matthew 26:45 “Then cometh Jesus to His disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.” His “hour” was not “at hand” – until AFTER Yeshua overcame the garden temptation to abandon His mission.
While Yeshua was in the garden, it says Luke 22:43 God sent “an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.” He communed openly with the Father and had an angel there to support Him in His moment of weakness and temptation. It is illogical to think that if God poured out His wrath upon His Son for our sin in the garden that He would at the same time send an angel to strengthen Him. Which is the reason NO angel was sent to strengthen Him once Yeshua was on the cross. It was THERE that the weight of the sins of the world caused Yeshua for the first time in eternity to be separated from His Holy Father. And how did He respond? Yeshua cried in, Mark 15:34 “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Once Yeshua overcame the garden trial and was outside Gethsemane facing the temple soldiers who came to arrest Him, Peter acted rashly in defending Yeshua by cutting off Malchus’ ear. Yeshua quickly restores the ear and then says to Peter in John 18:11 “Put up thy sword into the sheath; the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” Meaning, “Peter, I just overcame the temptation to follow My own will. And now you are stepping in to impede what I was sent to do, which is to drink the “cup” my Father gave me to drink! Put away your sword and let me proceed to the cross.”
The moment Jesus relinquishes Himself into the hands of sinful men, THEN the atonement began. The binding, the slapping, the spitting, the mockery, and the scourging. Therefore, the beatings, the torture, the fatigue, and humiliation, culminating in His crucifixion and death on the cross were all inclusive of His atonement for our sins. This is the drinking of the bitter “cup.”
There is a reason Yeshua was taken to a well-traveled spot outside the city, stripped of His clothing, humiliated, shamed, mocked, derided, and publicly denounced. To suffer quietly and relatively alone in the garden for the sins of the world is not a picture of what sin produces. Sin often produces shame, embarrassment, public humiliation, and being removed from the presence of those we love. All, of these things were an element of His crucifixion and death on the cross. Before Jesus was put upon that horrible tree of terror, only the vilest, condemned men who were hated by society were hung there. Anyone who was crucified was seen as the lowest of low – a perfect picture of our state in sin.
The Bible testifies exactly what His suffering and “death” on the cross accomplished WITHOUT any mention of the garden. Here are just a few references:
Psalm 22:1, 6-8, 15-16 “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.”
Isaiah 53:4-5 “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
Romans 5:6-11 “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love towards us, in the, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”
1 Corinthians 1:17 “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.
1 Corinthians 1:23 “But we preach Christ, crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;”
1 Corinthians 2:2 “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
1 Corinthians 5:7 “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:”
1 Corinthians 15:3 “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.”
Galatians 3:13 “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”
Galatians 6:14 “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.”
Ephesians 2:16 “And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:”
Philippians 3:18 “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.”
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.”
Colossians 2:13-15 “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, had he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 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. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”
Hebrews 2:9 “Be we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”
Hebrews 2:14 “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;”
Hebrews 9:13-16 “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinking the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there also of necessity be the death of the testator.”
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.”
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.”
Revelation 13:8 “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Even the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi 11:33 and 3 Nephi 11:14, teaches that Jesus was “slain for the sins of the world.” He didn’t suffer in a garden for the sins of the world – He was killed for the sins of the world.
If the LDS Church is a true restoration of biblical Christianity, why don’t its leaders emulate the apostolic emphasis of the New Testament? Neither Yeshua nor any author of the Bible claims Gethsemane was the location of Christ’s atonement. Instead, there is an abundant number of references to the cross – where Christ suffered and died to pay the debt for sin. It is not the blood He sweat that cleanses us of our sins, but the blood that was shed in a public display of the propitiatory sacrifice on the cross that cleanses us. That is why we look to the cross with love and appreciation for Christ’s atoning sacrifice.
Apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” It should disturb us when leaders of the LDS Church distract our attention from Yeshua’s suffering atonement on the cross, causing people to focus elsewhere on things that are not true or scriptural. Their statements and others like them, cause Latter-day Saints to miss the cross – to see another Jesus – to discount the meaning of His suffering, and revise the truth of the Savior’s atoning work. If the Devil can get people to take their eyes off the truth of the gospel and redirect them to something that is a deception – then, THAT would be a victory for Satan.
It is my prayer that all Christians and Latter-day Saints alike will correctly believe in the cross as the place where Yeshua drank the bitter cup and atoned by shedding His blood and dying for the sins of the world according to the Word of God.
You can find more videos like this on You Tube or at my website TalkingtoMormons.com
Thanks for watching and God bless!