Cross or Garden?
Let’s be clear: the atonement of Jesus Christ—the once-for-all sacrifice that paid for the sins of the world—happened on the cross. It was not some quiet, inner spiritual event in a garden. It was public, bloody, brutal, and final. That’s what the Bible teaches plainly. That’s what Christians have believed for 2,000 years. So how did the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) come to teach that the atonement happened primarily in the Garden of Gethsemane? The answer lies not in Scripture, but in the theological inventions of Joseph Smith and later LDS leaders who reinterpreted the events of the Passion week to fit a different gospel. While Mormons do not deny the cross outright, they shift the focus to Gethsemane as the location where the “real” suffering for sins took place. This is deeply problematic, not only because it contradicts the biblical record, but because it distorts the very heart of the gospel: the cross of Christ. According to the Bible, Jesus Himself cons...