Original title: Easter, Fall and Atonement

In this episode, Brendon and Skyler discuss the fifteenth lesson in the LDS Come, Follow Me sunday school manual. This week (Apr. 3-9) is titled "Easter: O Grave, Where is Thy Victory?"

We invite you to worship with us on any Sunday - either at First Baptist Church of Provo or Christ Presbyterian Church in Magna. We welcome visitors!

Note: in the official LDS church e-mail for this Holy Week (2023) literally has as the subject line - "Rise above your challenges".

LDS Sources:

2 Nephi 2, 2 Ne 25.23, Moroni 10.32, D&C 93 (also here), D&C 29, Moses 1.39; Moses 5.10-11; Articles of Faith; also The Articles of Faith by James E. Talmage, wherein he states: "Adam found himself in a position that made it impossible for him to obey both of the specific commandments given by the Lord...He deliberately and wisely decided to stand by the first and greater commandment."

JST Rom. 4 (Smith changes "justifies the ungodly" to justifies NOT the ungodly"; This is clearly a rejection of Paul's actual teaching, yet through the means of "inspired translation".)

Gospel Principles (manual quoted is 2009 edition)

Jesus Christ Chosen as Savior; also The Constitution: A Heavenly Banner

The Gift of Grace (Dieter Uchtdorf)

The Healing Power of Jesus Christ (Cristina Franco)

Zion and the Spirit of At-one-ment (M. Catherine Thomas)

Christ: The Light that Shines in Darkness (Sharon Eubank)

Good Shepard, Lamb of God (Gerrit Gong)

The Mediator (Boyd Packer)

Personal Search for the Meaning of the Atonement; The First 2,000 Years; A Gospel Trilogy by W. Cleon Skousen

Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage

A Rational Theology; Evidences and Reconciliations by John A. Widtsoe; he states: "Adam and Eve, in view of the great sacrifices they made to make the Great Plan a reality, are the great hero and heroine of human history." (p. 52)

King Follett Discourse; Sermon in the Grove (Joseph Smith)

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith (ed. Joseph Fielding Smith), pp. 346-348, 369-376

Brigham Young: JD 1.50f; JD 1.83; JD 3.247; JD 4.53-54; JD 4. 219-220; JD 7.2; 9.305; JD 10.110; 14.71f; 17.143; also here

Heber C. Kimball: JD 6.38; JD 6.125-126; JD 7.19-20

J.M. Grant: JD 4.49-51

The Miracle of Forgiveness by Spencer W. Kimball

For the concept of "multiple saviors", see "The Doctrine of the Firstborn and Only Begotten" by Rodney Turner - wherein he states about the theology of Joseph Smith: "These and the Prophet’s earlier remarks are believed by some to infer that our God and his father once sacrificed their lives in a manner similar to the atonement of Jesus Christ...Therefore, in Christ’s atonement and subsequent resurrection, he was repeating ordinances his Father and his father’s father had performed." Later he states that "[s]tatements of Brigham Young indicate that he believed in the concept of multiple saviors."

The Mediation and Atonement by John Taylor (wherein he states: "Why did it need an infinite atonement?...For the simple reason that a stream can never rise higher than its fountain...A man, as a man, could arrive at all the dignity that a man is capable of obtaining or receiving; but it needed a God to raise him to the dignity of a God."

"LDS Teachings are rather unique in depicting Adam and Eve's transgression not only as a wise noble act, but one performed with full cognizance that they were furthering God's purposes in the salvation of humankind. Apostle Dallin H. Oaks praised the 'wisdom and courage [of Adam and Eve] in the great episode called the Fall." ("This is My Doctrine": The Development of Mormon Theology by Charles Harrell, p. 252)

Exploring Mormon Thought: The Problems of Theism and the Love of God by Blake Ostler

Temple and Cosmos by Hugh Nibley (esp. ch. 1)

"...the founders of Utah incorporated in the laws of the Territory provisions for the capital punishment of those who willfully shed the blood of their fellow men. This law, which is now the law of the States, granted unto the condemned murderer the privilege of choosing for himself whether he die by hanging, or whether he be shot, and thus have his blood shed in harmony with the law of God; and thus atone, so far as it is in his power to atone, for the death of his victim. Almost without exception the condemned party chooses the latter death." (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 1.136)

Mormonism and the Magic World View; The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn

Watchman on the Tower: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right by Matthew Harris; Thunder from the Right: Ezra Taft Benson in Mormonism and Politics (ed. Matthew Harris)

Conflict in the Quorum by Gary Bergera

Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? by Jerald and Sandra Tanner

Resources:

The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul

God in the Whirlwind by David Wells

Confessions by St. Augustine

The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross by Leon Morris

Core Christianity; Christless Christianity by Michael Horton (also here and here)

Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray

American Gospel: Christ Crucified

D.A. Carson (here and here)

What is the Gospel? (Voddie Baucham)

Temple Made With Hands? (Jason Wallace)

Another Gospel? by Alisa Childers (also here and here)

Christianity and Liberalism; The Person of Jesus by J. Gresham Machen

Can We Trust the Gospels? by Peter Williams

Unmasking the Pagan Christ by Stanley Porter and Stephen Bedard

Who Moved the Stone? by Frank Morison

The Bedrock of Christianity by Justin Bass (also here, here, here)

"Revelation, Proof, and Presuppositionalism: Acts 17.30-31" by Lane Tipton (found in Revelation and Reason, ed. K. Scott Oliphant)

The Book of Isaiah (vol. 1) by Edward J. Young (also here)

Contemplating God with the Great Tradition: Recovering Trinitarian Classical Theism by Craig Carter (also here and here)

To See and Perceive Not by Craig Evans

The Christ of the Covenants by O. Palmer Robertson; Kingdom Through Covenant by Peter Gentry

Who is God? by Richard Bauckham

American Awakening by Joshua Mitchell

All that is in God by James Dolezal