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Note: Mormons say Gethsemane is where Jesus Christ paid for the sins of the world.

For Latter-day Saints, Gethsemane was the scene of Jesus' greatest agony (1), even surpassing that which he suffered on the cross (2), an understanding supported by Mark's description of Jesus' experience (3) (Mark 14:33-39). According to Luke 22:43-44, Jesus' anguish (4) was so deep that "his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground," an observation that harmonizes with the view that Jesus suffered (5) most in Gethsemane during his Atonement. Even though these verses are missing (6) in some of the earliest extant manuscripts of Luke's gospel, their content is confirmed in modern (7) revelation (e.g., D&C 19:18). The evidence for Jesus' extreme agony in Gethsemane is buttressed by a prophecy in the (8) Book of Mormon and a statement by the resurrected Savior recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants. About 125 B.C., a Book of Mormon king, Benjamin, recounted in an important address a prophecy of the coming messiah spoken to him by an angel during the previous night. Concerning the Messiah's mortal experience, the angel declared that "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" (9) (Mosiah 3:7). The Doctrine and Covenants gives the following poignant words of the resurrected Jesus: "Behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent 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" (10) (D&C 19:16, 18). Modern LDS leaders have emphasized that Jesus' most challenging experience (11) came in Gethsemane. Speaking in a general conference of the Church in 1982, Marion G. Romney, a member of the First Presidency, observed that Jesus suffered "the pains of all men, which he did, principally, in Gethsemane, the scene of his (12) great agony" (Ensign 12 [May 1982]:6). Church President Ezra Taft Benson wrote that "it was in Gethsemane that Jesus took on Himself the sins of the world, in Gethsemane that His pain was equivalent to the (13) cumulative burden of all, in Gethsemane that He descended below all things so that all could repent and come to Him" (Benson, p. 7). Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Daniel H. Ludlow, editor, 1992, pages 541-542.



Note: Mormons say Jesus Christ shed His blood in Gethsemane.

Jesus endured all the hardships and pains of his ministry, and shed his (14) own blood in Gethsemane in the great spiritual struggle of sin, law, mercy, and justice. He permitted his own execution by Roman soldiers and completed every part of his assigned task. Behold the Messiah, Robert J. Matthews, 1994.



Note: Mormons say Adam appeared to Jesus Christ in Gethsemane to strengthen Him.

If this angel was Adam (15) (and there seems to be no reason to doubt it), here was the Messiah in the Garden of Gethsemane in his greatest of all trials, shedding his blood to (16) redeem mankind from the effects of Adam's transgression in the Garden of Eden and also from the results of each person's own sins. There appeared from heaven to strengthen him the very person of Adam (17) himself - he who brought mortality and blood and death and sin into the world. The parallel issue is unmistakable! The plan of salvation to which both (18) Adam and Jesus subscribed in the premortal world was being worked out in the world of Adam's (19) posterity. Each had fulfilled his foreordained part, and now the two principals (20) were together as Jesus triumphed over sin and mortality. The Man Adam, Joseph McConkie, Editor, 1990, page 84.



(1) The scene of Jesus' greatest agony was where he died.

Mark 15:33-34 Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"



(2) The cross surpasses Gethsemane since that is where He died.

Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.



(3) Jesus Christ death on the cross finished the Atonement.

John 19:30-31 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.



(4) Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross that brings peace with God the Father.

Colossians 1:19-20 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.



(5) The Atonement is centered upon the death of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world.

Ephesians 2:13-16 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.



(6) The Gospel of Luke has more information than Matthew and Mark.

For his accounts of Jesus' ministry in Jerusalem (chapters 20-21), and of the passion and resurrection (chapters 22-24), Luke again draws on Mark. Added to the Markan narrative, however, are Jesus' last words to his disciples (22:21-38), his words on the way to the cross (23:28-31), the words of the two crucified criminals (23:39-43), the appearances of the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus and in Jerusalem (24:13-49), and Jesus' ascension (24:50-53).

Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, Volume 16, page 253.



http://truthandgrace.com/Gethsemane.htm


http://youtu.be/iFdHTorPh24

Here is a powerful Apostolic witness The Purifying Power of Gethsemane
Note that he hints to our personal, going to the garden and witnessing for our self the things that happened there.

I believe this was his last GC talk right before he died.

Also, there was a Howard Hunter talk, where he basically had a near death experience and was taken in a panoramic vision to the garden to witness Christ's suffering … I was unable to find this talk on LDS.org.

'For the preaching of the Garden of Gethsemane is foolishness to those who are perishing..." Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?

My understanding is that when Christ was on the cross, he again suffered what he suffered in Gethsemane, and the Spirit of the father withdrew. This is why he cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

It was sort of a "double whammy" that he experienced.

I had never heard that the LDS believed that Christ's shedding of blood was the reference to the drops of blood he sweat in Gethsemane. The term "shedding of blood" refers to death. He died on the cross.

liz3564 wrote:My understanding is that when Christ was on the cross, he again suffered what he suffered in Gethsemane, and the Spirit of the father withdrew. This is why he cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

yes read the BRM talk linked in previous post ... its a good read.

I had never heard that the LDS believed that Christ's shedding of blood was the reference to the drops of blood he sweat in Gethsemane. The term "shedding of blood" refers to death. He died on the cross.

I always remember this to be the case ... i.e. reference to "great gouts of blood from every pore". Note that, so the talk and scriptures point out ... Christ did not die on the Cross from the hand of another, but killed himself ... as it were.

Did he shed "drops of blood" in the Garden? Which Gospel account says this? Luke says his sweat was "like" drops of blood not that it was blood. Jesus shed blood in his scourging and on the cross where the atonement took place.

Albion wrote:Did he shed "drops of blood" in the Garden? Which Gospel account says this? Luke says his sweat was "like" drops of blood not that it was blood. Jesus shed blood in his scourging and on the cross where the atonement took place.

Hello, read the linked talk!!! also remember the whole Bible as translated correctly part. who ya going to believe a living Apostle or a faulty book?

RockSlider wrote:

Albion wrote:Did he shed "drops of blood" in the Garden? Which Gospel account says this? Luke says his sweat was "like" drops of blood not that it was blood. Jesus shed blood in his scourging and on the cross where the atonement took place.

Hello, read the linked talk!!! also remember the whole Bible as translated correctly part. who ya going to believe a living Apostle or a faulty book?

That talk was kind of a stemwinder. Is McConkie saying that the atonement started at Gethsemane and ended at the resurrection?

I know of no "living apostle" and would take the word of the Bible over any living person claiming to be such. How convenient that you can claim something to be falsely translated when it does not agree with what your claimed "apostles" say. I know of no Biblical source that says that Jesus sweat drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. only that his sweat was "like" drops of blood falling to the ground.

Brad Hudson wrote:That talk was kind of a stemwinder. Is McConkie saying that the atonement started at Gethsemane and ended at the resurrection?

no it was a witness of Christ that covered the ground