Earlier this summer, a young couple led their children downstairs to the theater entrance in the Washington D.C. Visitors Center. Usually, the prospect of seeing a movie appeals to children but one of their little ones, who appeared to be around 4 years old, seemed distressed.

"What is the movie about?" the child wanted to know. When told it was about the Church, the youngster asked, "Is Jesus in it?" When a parent answered, "Yes," the child balked. Looking puzzled, the parents urged the little one forward. As they reached the door to the theater, the child exclaimed, "No! I don't want to see the movie!" It looked as though a tantrum might be brewing. One of the parents knelt down, looked the child in the eye and asked, "Why don't you want to see the movie?"

The child burst into tears and, through sobs, said, "I don't want to see them put Jesus on the cross."

What a powerful lesson this young child taught in the theater lobby about the reality of the suffering that Jesus endured to bring about the Atonement. Apparently, the child had seen a video in which was a scene portraying the crucifixion of Jesus and, therefore, equated the scene with Church films. To the youngster, there was no distinction between the actual suffering of Jesus and the portrayal by an actor. To this child, the Savior's suffering was real, and, just as significant, the Savior is real.

Many don't recognize Jesus Christ for who He is. And, difficult though it is for us to comprehend, neither do they recognize who the Father is.

At a Latter-day Saint Student Association fireside in 1971, President Harold B. Lee said that when he had served as a missionary in the 1920s the greatest responsibility was "to defend the great truth that the Prophet Joseph Smith was divinely called and inspired and that the Book of Mormon was indeed the word of God. But even at that time there were the unmistakable evidences that there was coming into the religious world actually a question about the Bible and about the divine calling of the Master, Himself. Now, fifty years later, our greatest responsibility and anxiety is to defend the divine mission of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, for all about us, even among those who claim to be professors of the Christian faith, are those not willing to stand squarely in defense of the great truth that our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, was indeed the Son of God." (Quoted by Elder Dallin H. Oaks, October 1990 general conference.)

In the New Testament account of Paul's visit to Mars' hill we learn that the "men of Athens" erected an altar "To the Unknown God." (Acts 17:22-23.) They seemed to have followed in the footsteps of the children of Israel who, when Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the commandments, became restless and asked of Aaron, the brother of Moses, "Make us gods which shall go before us …" From their jewelry, Aaron fashioned a molten calf. (See Exodus 32:1-4.)

To the children of Israel, Moses called, "Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto me." (Exodus 32:26.) To the people at Athens, Paul bore testimony of Him whom they ignorantly worshiped, declaring that God had made the world and all things therein and "is Lord of heaven and earth." Further, Paul said, "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device." (See Acts 17:24-29.)

Though thousands of years have passed since the golden calf was fashioned at the foot of Mount Sinai and nearly two millennia have elapsed since Paul preached after seeing the altar on Mars' hill, many still worship golden calves of material objects and possessions and, sad to say, do not know the Father or His Son.

Some from the so-called "intellectual" community say that any effort to comprehend God reflects childishness. The great irony is that many little children, such as the child at the visitors center, have the spiritual maturity to recognize the Divine.

In the October 1955 general conference, President J. Reuben Clark Jr., then second counselor in the First Presidency, said: "It is our mission, perhaps the most fundamental purpose of our work, to bear constant testimony of Jesus Christ. We must never permit to enter into our thoughts and certainly not into our teachings, the idea that He was merely a great teacher, a great philosopher, the builder of a great system of ethics. It is our duty, day after day, year in and year out, always to declare that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ who brought redemption to the world and to all the inhabitants thereof."