Editor’s note: This article was originally published on LDSLiving.com in April 2021.
As Latter-day Saints, it is not uncommon to hear phrases like, “The most important part of Christ’s Atonement was in Gethsemane” or “Yes, Christ was crucified, but lots of other people were too. What’s unique about the Savior’s Atonement happened in Gethsemane.” According to John Hilton III's 5-Minute Fireside, “The problem with those statements is simple—they’re not true.”
“The scriptures and our Church leaders described the Savior’s Atonement taking place in both Gethsemane and Calvary. Surprisingly, though, while many of us focus more on Gethsemane, Christ’s Crucifixion is more frequently emphasized in both the scriptures and the words of our prophets,” Hilton teaches.
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Hilton goes on to support this claim before emphasizing that as Latter-day Saints, we do not have to choose between Calvary and Gethsemane. He quotes Jennifer Lane, a religious educator at BYU–Hawaii, who said, “He is the life and the light of the world: Christ as the sacrifice, and Christ as the living Word. We don’t have to pick which one to focus on because we can’t have one without the other.”
Watch the full 5-minute Fireside here.
