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"The grand reason of the burst of public sentiment in anathemas upon Christ and his disciples, causing his crucifixion, was evidently based upon polygamy, according to the testimony of the philosophers who rose in that age. A belief in the doctrine of a plurality of wives caused the persecution of Jesus and his followers. We might almost think they were "Mormons." -Jedidiah Grant, Journal of Discourses, 26 vols., 1:, p.346
"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" -Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3:7
"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" -Joseph Smith, Doctrine and Covenants 19:16-19
"Christians speak often of the blood of Christ and its cleansing power. Much that is believed and taught on this subject, however, is such utter nonsense and so palpably false that to believe it is to lose one's salvation. Many go so far, for instance, as to pretend, at least, to believe that if we confess Christ with our lips and avow that we accept Him as our personal Savior, we are thereby saved. His blood, without other act than mere belief, they say, makes us clean." -LDS tract entitled, What the Mormons Think of Christ ,1973, 22
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom 10:9
"Our Lord's sufferings -- the pain, torture, crown of thorns, scourging, and final crucifixion -- which he endured between the night of the Last Supper and his death on the cross are collectively spoken of as the Passion of Christ. The sectarian world falsely suppose that the climax of his torture and suffering was on the cross - a view which 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. It was there that he trembled because of pain, bled at every pore, and suffered both in body and in spirit, and would that he 'might not drink the bitter cup.' It was there he underwent his greatest suffering for men, taking upon himself, as he did, their sins on conditions of repentance." -Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 555
"There is no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith. If Joseph Smith was verily a prophet, and if he told the truth...no man can reject that testimony without incurring the most dreadful consequences, for he cannot enter the kingdom of God."- Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p.190
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6
"But under certain circumstances there are serious sins for which the cleansing of Christ does not operate, and the law of God is that men must then have their own blood shed to atone for their sins." -Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 92
"Redemption from personal sins can only be obtained through obedience to the requirements of the gospel, and a life of good works." -James Talmage, Articles of Faith, 1952, pp.478,479
"For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." Joseph Smith; Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 25:23
"Christ's agony in the garden is unfathomable by the finite mind, both as to intensity and cause.. It was not physical pain, nor mental anguish alone, that caused Him to suffer such torture as to produce an extrusion of blood from every pore; but a spiritual agony of soul such as only God was capable of experiencing.. In some manner, actual and terribly real though to man incomprehensible, the Savior took upon Himself the burden of the sins of mankind from Adam to the end of the world.. From the terrible conflict in Gethsemane, Christ emerged a victor.. The further tragedy of the night, and the cruel inflictions that awaited Him on the morrow, to culminate in the frightful tortures of the cross, could not exceed the bitter anguish through which He had Successfully passed" James Talmage, Jesus the Christ, pp. 613-14
"Thus ends such accounts as we have of Jesus' suffering in Gethsemane. It is now over and he has won the victory; the atonement, in large measure, has been worked out, and he is now ready for the shame and humiliation and pain of the cross" Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah, vol. 4, p. 126
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