Elder Holland Taught: “With all the conviction of my soul I
testify that … a perfect Father did not forsake His Son in that hour. Indeed,
it is my personal belief that in all of Christ’s mortal ministry the Father may
never have been closer to His Son than in these agonizing final moments of
suffering. Nevertheless, … the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort
of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence”
“It was required, indeed it was central to the significance
of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong
nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of
us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite
and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but
spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw,
leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone” (“None Were with Him,”
Ensign, May 2009, 87–88).
