Mormon Cross

Why are there no crosses on Mormon churches?

Some LDSaints are as negative on the cross as Dracula.

Some of the reasons given so far are odd if you think about them.

We believe in a living Christ

What seems to escape them is that the resurrection of Jesus was the vindication that He was obedient unto death, even the death on the cross.

Philipians 2:8. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Mosiah 15:7 Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father.

What we see is that Jesus had to be completely obedient from birth to death for us to be saved. The crucifixion was the completion, the pinnacle, the clear demonstration of that obedience. The garden experience was a step toward the completion of the obedience, but because there was more obedience required, was not the completion that saves us.

How do we know that He completed the obedience that was required for our salvation? God raised him up as a testimony that His life of obedience was accepted and we can be saved by it. That’s why Paul would say

Romans 1:4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

1 Corinthians 15 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

Look very carefully at the following, especially at the “and thus”:

Mosiah 15:7-8 Yea, even so he shall be led, CRUCIFIED, and slain, the flesh becoming SUBJECT EVEN UNTO DEATH, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father.
AND THUS God breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death; giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men--

So, the resurrection is important to consider, but will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father even unto the death of the cross makes the resurrection and the remission of sins a reality.

Battered and Bloody

Says John on this very thread:

“Me personally I like to think of Jesus as clean, happy and glorified. When I walk into my church I am greeted by a happy, healthy Jesus, not one all bloody, hanging on the cross battered and bloody. I know what he did for us all I don't need to see it all the time”.

What may have escaped John and others of this persuasion is that the whole concept of the Sacrament is to make us “see it all the time”.

“O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it; that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son”

O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee, in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this wine to the souls of all those who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them;

Your Prophetess Wrote

In mem’ry of the broken flesh We eat the broken bread
And witness with the cup, afresh, Our faith in Christ, our Head. His precious blood he freely spilt; His life he freely gave,

And also the Sacrament hymn, In Memory of the Crucified

We rev’rence with the broken bread, Together with the cup we take,
The body bruised, the lifeblood shed, A sinless ransom for our sake.

We are to think of Jesus all bloody, hanging on the cross battered and bloody. That is the whole point.

Read Isaiah 53.

I like to think of Jesus as clean, happy and glorified

When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him, he cried “Behold the Lamb of God!” He was not painting a picture of a little lamb clean and happy nor glorified frolicking in a pasture. He was recalling the sacrificial lamb of OT types.

And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain,

It is Your Cross, too, Crucified One

When I see the cross, I not only consider what Jesus was willing to do for me, I think about how I must crucify the “old man” that I am/was.

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

When Jesus told us we must take up our cross daily, he was referring to our own crucifixion. Everyday we must put that old man, that natural man, to death and work on raising the new man after the image of Christ.

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Galatians 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Like Carrying A Gun

Christopher writes “There probably is a better explanation but it would be like carrying a gun if he were killed by a gunman.”

I would rather think that if someone’s plane was crashing and they jumped with a parachute, they may wear a parachute emblem to remember how grateful that such a device saved them. A parachute badge would also be used to start a conversation with people so that he could share his wonderful news.

The cross is my parachute for it saves me from certain and eternal destruction.