- BIBLE (Correct): The cross is where Jesus bore our sins in His body (1 Pet. 2:24) and where He removed the certificate of debt (Col. 2:14).
The Greek word for cross is stauros. It can mean an upright stake, but it can also mean the cross. Though some say that Jesus died on a vertical stake and not a cross, when we look at what Thomas said to Jesus after the resurrection, we find he mentioned the nails in Jesus’ hands. That’s two nails, one for each hand, hence, an outstretched position where the hands were to Jesus’ left and right with one nail in each.- “The other disciples therefore were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe,” (John 20:25).
- “The other disciples therefore were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe,” (John 20:25).
- CS: Jesus went to the cross and died a physical death. But it is not a place of atonement for actual sins because . . .
- “Christ came to destroy the belief of sin,” (S&H, p. 473).
- “The real cross, which Jesus bore up the hill of grief, was the world’s hatred of Truth and Love,” (S&H, p. 50).
- “The real cross, which Jesus bore up the hill of grief, was the world’s hatred of Truth and Love,” (S&H, p. 50).
- Islam: Denies that Jesus died on the cross. Instead, Allah made someone to look like Jesus and that man was crucified.
- “And for claiming that they killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of God. In fact, they never killed him, they never crucified him–they were made to think that they did. All factions who are disputing in this matter are full of doubt concerning this issue. They possess no knowledge; they only conjecture. For certain, they never killed him,” (Quran 4:157).
- “And for claiming that they killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of God. In fact, they never killed him, they never crucified him–they were made to think that they did. All factions who are disputing in this matter are full of doubt concerning this issue. They possess no knowledge; they only conjecture. For certain, they never killed him,” (Quran 4:157).
- Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jesus did not die on a cross but on a stake, (Reasoning from the Scriptures, 1985, p. 89-90). The cross is a pagan symbol, (Reasoning from the Scriptures, 1985, p. 90-92).
- “Thus the weight of the evidence indicates that Jesus died on an upright stake and not on the traditional cross,” (Reasoning from the Scriptures, p. 90, par. 1, Cross).
- “If you belong to one of Christendom’s churches, did the church ever tell you that the cross is a pagan symbol? If it did not, it withheld the truth from you,” (Watchtower, 2/11/68, p. 93, The Cross is of Pagan Origin).
- LDS – Mormonism: Jesus died on the cross, but that is not the true place of his atonement.
- “His [Jesus] great suffering was before he ever was placed upon the cross. It was in the Garden of Gethsemane that the blood oozed from the pores of his body . . . That is where he bled from every pore in his body,” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 1:130).
- “It was in Gethsemane, on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, that Jesus made his perfect atonement by the shedding of his blood-more so than on the cross,” (BYU Professor Robert J. Matthews, A Bible! A Bible! p. 282).
Cross – False View
Cross – False View
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