Many challenges. If Jesus is not God, he can redeem no man for it is written:

Psalm 49:8-10 “A man can not at all redeem (release) a brother (from the righteous demands of the law); and give not to God a ransom (a sacrificial payment) for him- for the redemption of their soul (from the consequence of sin) is precious, and it (the unredeemed soul) ceases forever- for he (the redeemed man) shall yet live forever; not he shall see corruption (of the soul in the grave).”
This is the dilemma the early Christians faced.

Let’s go back to where it all began in the Garden of Eden. Virtually God said to Adam and Eve via the judgment, “the wage of sin, is eternal death.” The sin is identified as “disobedience” to God. God then become the standard, His word then paramount.

With the Fall of Man comes the problem of how to obtain eternal life. The thing to prevail over forth ward is the “eternal death sentence” for both saint and sinner. Someone must pay the price for the Fall of Man, or there is no hope for eternal life.

The Israelites tried to deal with the daily sins of man by the Sacrifice which God declared to be an “iniquity”, placing the burden of guilt upon the priesthood.

(Quoted Out of Context) “To believe in the crucified one is to want no other victims of ritual killing. To depend on the blood of Jesus is to refuse to depend on the sacrificial blood offerings of the Levitical priesthood. It is to swear off scapegoats. Sacred redemption promises offerings of future atonement within the priesthood in accordance to righteousness.”
“Seen from this perspective, the somewhat obscure actions of Christ make complete sense. Jesus, in the role of a victorious Messiah defeated the opposing evil of the “iniquitous gift” by a direct battle. God would never build a new world on “ritual murder”. God found a way- once and for all- to turn to good what man had founded in evil.”
“Jesus steps into this double bind and overcome it. No other than the Messiah could. This task is appointed to him alone. No ordinary victim could change the process, could uncover what was obscured in the constant practice of scapegoating.”
“To submit passively to the sacrificial mechanism would do nothing to change it. That only smoothes the way for future victims and condemns them to invisibility. Such is the dilemma, the malignant wisdom of an evil that we seem doomed to serve whichever way we turn. Humanity is caught in this bondage, caught without even being able to name it directly. We know not what we do.”
“Redemptive violence- was a means of overcoming eternal punishment for the sin, removing the pollution and punishing the transgression on the people that has brought disaster on the community. The sin that the Messiah overcame was the offense of the scapegoat, for it was the sin of the one that jeopardized the many.”
“Only a Jew, representing the “guilt” of the nation of priests could undeniably vindicate many, by suffering this sacrifice, to reverse it. The work of the cross is the work of a transcendent (awe-inspiring) God, breaking into a cycle we could not change alone. It is a saving act of God, a victory over the powers of this world, a defeat of death.”

God hates the plunder in a burnt offering.

The Lamb of God
Jesus is the Christ, yet a man born through the blood-line of David, a necessary requirement for the fulfillment of scripture. Thusly, his humanity is established. At most at this stage he could only be deemed half a God. We are confronted with many sons of God but only ONE son of God. The One son of God is the Mighty God, manifesting the ucorruptible Word of God and His plan for Salvation.

Jesus set the way, as witnessed through the salvation of God, manifest in his ascension, thusly, becoming the way to truth and life walking in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice.

JESUS TAUGHT – Matthew 9:13 “…’No need have those being strong of a healer, but those having (physical, spiritual, or moral) illness. But learn what it is: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice;’ for not I (Jesus) came to call righteous (ones) but sinners to repentance.’”

Even Yahoo Answers has tackled this one; click here to see what they have to say on the matter.

If you read the above article (under #1), you will find that we agree with you that Jacob, Solomon, and David are all sons of God. Indeed, we agree that, as you say, “we are all sons of God.” Like Ben said, though, we do maintain that Jesus is special in that he is the Only Begotten Son of God in the flesh.

Jasmine,

Yes. Mormon people believe that Jesus is the son of God.

Thank you for expressing your opinions, but we firmly maintain that Jesus Christ was and is the only person whose biological father is God the Father. As far as religion is concerned, I guess we will just have to wait and see, but I see no harm in believing in a higher power and supreme being, especially if that belief promotes respect of each other and doing good in the world.

I think you’re right there, and I like the example.

Similarly Jews always thought of themselves as children of Abraham, because of the covenant that God made with him. They’re always calling Abraham their father. So I agree that the concept of childhood and fatherhood in the third sense wouldn’t seem so confusing to them.

The Adam-God theory is a slightly different claim than the one Dave has tackled here. I invite you to take a closer look at what Brigham was saying by visiting the FAIR Wiki.

Dave,

Maybe the third example (becoming children of God or of Christ) makes more sense in a certain ancient cultural context than 21st-century America. Here is an analogy from the Book of Mormon:

“the children of Amulon…were displeased with the conduct of their fathers, and they would no longer be called by the names of their fathers, therefore they took upon themselves the name of Nephi, that they might be called the children of Nephi and be numbered among those who were called Nephites.” (Mosiah 25:2)

These people rejected their wicked biological fathers and chose to become “children” of Nephi. In the same sense, when we’re baptized we take the name of Christ on us and opt to become His children.