Christ as the Son of God

President Hinckley said this, “Multitudes will gather on a thousand hills to welcome the dawn of the Easter day and to remind themselves of the story of the Christ, whose resurrection they will commemorate. In language both beautiful and hopeful, preachers of many faiths will recount the story of the empty tomb. To them—and to you—I raise this question: ‘Do you actually believe it?’  Do you actually believe that Jesus was the Son of God, the literal offspring of the Father?”  The two largest religious groups in the world are Christianity with 2.2 billion followers and Islam with 1.7 billion followers.  There is much that is similar between these two groups and both are considered “Abrahamic religions.”  But one of the key differences is their respective answers to this question from President Hinckley: Is Jesus Christ the Son of God?  As Hugh Nibley described it, “The Koran hails Jesus as a true prophet and a great one, yet Moslem theology rejects all his teachings about the Son of God as false; it teaches that Mary was ‘the woman of truth’ who conceived Jesus by the Holy Ghost and bore him when she was still a virgin, yet it deplores the idea that God should have a Son.”  Yet Christianity declares with John the Baptist with boldness that Jesus “is the Son of God” (John 1:34). 

                All of the four LDS books of scripture declare that Jesus is indeed the Son of God.  The phrase appears dozens of times in the New Testament, with all four gospel writers referring to the Savior as the Son of God.  John summarized one of the great missions of these books of scriptures this way: “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:13).  One cannot accept the New Testament as scripture but reject that Christ is the Son of God.  With 50 references to the Son of God, the Book of Mormon takes only ten chapters to first testify of Christ as the Son of God.  Nephi taught that the power of the Holy Ghost comes by “faith on the Son of God—and the Son of God [is] the Messiah who should come” (1 Nephi 10:17).  The angel said to Nephi in his subsequent vision as he saw Mary, “Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.”  Nephi then testified, “I beheld the Son of God going forth among the children of men; and I saw many fall down at his feet and worship him” (1 Nephi 11:18, 24).  Nephi later wrote that the Jews would one day “be persuaded to believe in Christ, the Son of God” (2 Nephi 25:16).  King Benjamin testified that “he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mosiah 3:8).  Abinadi, Alma, Aaron, Amulek, Helaman the son of Helaman, Mormon, Nephi the son of Helaman, Samuel the Lamanite, and the Savior Himself all also testified that Jesus was the Son of God.  The Book of Mormon stands absolute in its declaration that Jesus is the Son of God.  In the Doctrine and Covenants is no less clear: the Savior declared over and over again that He is the Son of God.  The words, “I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God” appear six times (D&C 6:21, 10:57, 11:28, 35:2, 36:8, 52:44).  In another verse He declared simply, “I am Jesus that was crucified.  I am the Son of God” (D&C 45:52).  The Doctrine and Covenants stands as a third witness to the Bible and Book of Mormon that Christ is indeed the Son of God.  In the Pearl of Great Price, Noah preached to the people with these words, “Believe and repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, even as our fathers, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost” (Moses 8:24).  All the prophets from the beginning have testified that Jesus is the Son of God, and that divine birth gave Him the power to truly overcome death and sin and wrought out the infinite atonement for mankind.