A Voice from Christmas Past
By Davis Bitton

Merry Christmas! Have you heard the version of Mormon history now making the rounds? It goes like this. Until very recently Latter-day Saints did not often mention Jesus Christ. Their preoccupation was Joseph Smith and their own history. Their talks very seldom included anything about Christ.

Then, as the narrative goes, stung by criticism and anxious to be accepted by mainstream Christians, the Mormons craftily included more references to the Savior in their public meetings and enlarged the visibility of the name Jesus Christ on their stationery. The change is variously attributed to different recent Church presidents.

A few Latter-day Saints go along with this charge, conceding that Mormons de-emphasized Jesus Christ until, lo, enlightened professors and Church leaders decided to set things right.

I am not so ready to give away the store.

True, a "subtitle", Another testament of Jesus Christ, was added on the title page of the Book of Mormon. And yes, a larger typeface for the Jesus Christ in the name of the Church can be dated fairly recently. These are cosmetic changes to counter deliberate misrepresentation. The scriptural text justifying that subtitle remains the same, and the Church has carried the name of Christ from the beginning

What about the impression that in the bad old days Mormons paid scant attention to Jesus Christ? How helpful it would be to have a witness who actually lived during the distant age prior to I-pods. Miraculously, I have discovered such a witness — myself! Let me take you back to the 1940s.

Each year our ward choir performed an Easter cantata and a Christmas cantata. I know because my father was choir director of the Blackfoot Second Ward, and I was accompanist. Preparation required rehearsals for several weeks. At the performance floral decorations adorned the chapel. There were no speakers unless a speaking part was included in the cantata itself. The entire meeting, after the sacrament, was given over to musical praise of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are other ways of expressing praise and devotion, but this was our way. It should count for something. Little did we think that hate-mongers would later come along, clucking their disapproval of our "cultish" behavior and conveying the impression that we did not even believe in Jesus Christ. Of course we were not performing for them.

In days of yore, before the consolidated meeting schedule, we had Sunday school in the morning and returned to sacrament meeting at 7:30 in the evening. The sacrament was administered in both meetings.

The congregation sang a sacrament song from the hymnal. Such hymns have been used ever since the organization of the Church in 1830. I wonder if those who color the Latter-day Saints as non-Christians have ever done a serious study of our sacrament hymns. I wonder which of the words they would disagree with. I wonder how they could see these hymns as anything other than an expression of deep gratitude for the atoning sacrifice of the Savior.

Sunday school was also intended for instruction. Lesson manuals in those days had an identifiable author. I remember children's classes going over the Bible stories and planting in our minds scenes from the Savior's ministry in Palestine. For three consecutive years the adult gospel doctrine class used manuals on the New Testament by Russel B. Swenson. There was something substantial about those lessons.

In addition, wonder of wonders, young Latter-day Saints in that distant decade studied the New Testament in their seminary classes for an entire year. The sequence of courses required for seminary graduation was Old Testament, New Testament, and Church History. These classes met five days a week. I wonder how many of our critics had similar training during their youth.

More fundamental than the classroom or manuals was the sacrament itself. Since the term is sometimes used as a synonym for ordinance, perhaps we should specify that in Mormon usage the sacrament refers to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, the partaking of bread and water in commemoration of His sacrifice.

I remember an article in the Church News about 1950 in which James L. Barker, a language professor and president of the French Mission, told of a French scholar’s research on the earliest sacramental prayers in Christian history, going back to the second and third century. The words of the surviving prayers varied somewhat, but they all included the following elements: addressing God, the idea of remembering the Savior's sacrifice, and a commitment to follow Him. The prayers were all offered in His name.

The prayers used by Latter-day Saints in weekly gathering include all of these elements. These prayers were not thought up yesterday. They have been used regularly and repeatedly since 1830, and of course are drawn from our standard works of scripture. From the beginning of the restoration the sacrament has been the central feature of Latter-day Saint worship.

Do not misunderstand me. I do not pine for the past. I love the testimonies of Jesus Christ as we hear them in our local meetings and in general conference. I am an enthusiastic supporter of the sequence of subjects in the adult gospel doctrine class, which takes us through the standard works on a four-year cycle. As a teacher for many years I have personally benefited from this immersion in the scriptures, all of which testify of Jesus Christ.

But I do wish to defend those Saints of the 1940s. For critics to claim that early Saints did not believe in Christ, or to imply the same by saying they believed in “a different Christ,” or to suggest the same thing about us today, is bearing false witness. It’s that simple.

If they were at all interested in fairness, outside commentators could note that Mormons add to the four gospel accounts a visit of the resurrected Lord to the Western hemisphere as recounted in another work of scripture. They could explain that we do not accept the creeds formulated by theologians and philosophers at church councils starting three hundred years after the crucifixion.

They could note that we accept other works of scripture besides the Bible and do not think God ever restricted his communication to that compilation. Such differences indeed set us apart from other Christians.

But a different Christ? Those two words leave the false impression that we have anointed someone other than Jesus of Nazareth as our messiah. Please!

The Latter-day Saints of the 1940s, when the Church had less than a million members, were members of The Church of Jesus Christ. They sustained their prophets, Presidents Heber J. Grant and George Albert Smith, both of whom testified of Christ. They sang then, as we sing now, the words from Handel’s Messiah: “For unto us a child is born... unto us a Son is given.”