Many Christian churches that you have seen most likely have a cross on top of it. You may also see that probably almost all Christians that you come across may be wearing a cross necklace or, they have a cross in their house.
However, if you go to a church that belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, you can see that none of the church buildings have a cross in or on them. You will also see that no members that belong to the church are probably wearing the cross.
President Hinckley said, “I do not wish to give offense to any of my Christian brethren who use the cross on the steeples of their cathedrals and at the altars of their chapels, who wear it on their vestments, and imprint it on their books and other literature. But for us, the cross is the symbol of the dying Christ, while our message is a declaration of the living Christ.”
The cross is important in our faith but the reason why we don’t use the cross is because the cross represents the death of Christ. Jesus Christ had to die to accomplish his mission but we would rather dwell on his resurrection.
““On Calvary he was the dying Jesus. From the tomb he emerged the living Christ. … Because our Savior lives, we do not use the symbol of his death as the symbol of our faith. But what shall we use? No sign, no work of art, no representation of form is adequate to express the glory and the wonder of the Living Christ. He told us what that symbol should be when he said, ‘If ye love me, keep my commandments’ (John 14:15)”
– President Hinckley
The message in our church is that Christ is risen! Because of this we focus on his resurrection rather than his death and suffering. Members of the LDS church can have or wear a cross but most members of our church don’t own a cross.
“Even though we do not believe in using the cross as a symbol in our Church, we do not criticize others for wearing or using the cross in their religions. We should understand that the cross is significant and sacred to them. In fact, the 11th article of faith says, “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.”
—Gordon B. Hinckley
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