Tip of the Day, December 16

16 December

December 16 – Isaiah 53:5, 11; “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”

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These are only two of the 48 prophecies in this chapter of Isaiah.

Isaiah lived about 700 years before Christ. Ask the Mormon why they believe Jesus paid the price for their sin in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The Hebrew word for wounded is: chalal.  It means bore, pierced. Our crooked nature needed more than our obligatory sacrifices could atone for so He willingly hung there for us.  Yet the crucifixion was nothing in pain compared to the sins He had to carry for us.

Also share Zechariah 12:10 with them.  It says He was pierced.

I realize going over the simplistic part of the gospel may seem redundant for a Christian; however for the Mormon if they are asked the same question repeatedly they will actually begin to think about it.  Encourage them to take responsibility for their own thinking instead of blindly accepting what they’ve been taught and not questioning.

You won’t find commentaries or speeches about the sufferings of Jesus while He hung on the cross in the Mormon writings. When they refer to the crucifixion they use the term “atonement” and it is coupled with what they think happened here in the Americas at the time He died and how much the early saints of Mormonism have suffered.  Also notice that they say the darkness lasted three days, in the Bible it lasted three hours.

In addition to all that, when Jesus was crucified people who had been dead in their graves came up out of them.  He came to bring life, not death!  Nowhere in the Bible does it say there was great groaning and howling of the people.  From the biblical accounts the only thing destroyed was the temple and that is something to praise God for!  Why was there a great destruction in Mesoamerica if Jesus was crucified in Israel?  And why does the Mormon Church symbolically put the veil back up with all the works in the temple?

One more thing about this passage in the Book of Mormon…I just read the LDS report on the Mormon apostle Henry Eyring’s speech delivered at the Christmas Devotional in Salt Lake City on December 4th.

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/61790/President-Eyring-Messiah-brought-light.html#

The focus of his speech was “light”.  He commented several times on the miraculous light that shone forth at the birth of Jesus and the miracles surrounding this event.  The accounts Mr. Eyring spoke about at the Christmas Devotional don’t exactly line up with the events Nephi spoke about in the Book of Mormon.

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“And it came to pass that it did last for the space of three days that there was no light seen; and there was great mourning and howling and weeping among all the people continually; yea, great were the groanings of the people, because of the darkness and the great destruction which had come upon them.”  3 Nephi 8:23.

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