“No doubt the pool of Bethesda was a mineral spring whose waters had some curative virtue. But any notion that an angel came down and troubled the waters, so that the first person thereafter entering them would be healed, was pure superstition. Healing miracles are not wrought in any such manner” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1965–73], 1:188).
“Just as the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda needed someone stronger than himself to be healed (see John 5:1–9), so we are dependent on the miracles of Christ’s atonement if our souls are to be made whole from grief, sorrow, and sin. … Through Christ, broken hearts are mended and peace replaces anxiety and sorrow” (“The Power to Heal from Within,” Ensign, May 1995, 13).
According to Elder James E. Talmage of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the Savior’s response to the Jewish leaders recorded in John 5:17–47 “stands as the most comprehensive sermon in scripture on the vital subject of the relationship between the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ” (Jesus the Christ, 3rd ed. [1916], 208).
In a doctrinal statement dated June 30, 1916, the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:
“Jesus Christ spoke and ministered in and through the Father’s name; and so far as power, authority, and godship are concerned His words and acts were and are those of the Father” (“The Father and the Son: A Doctrinal Exposition by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,” Ensign, Apr. 2002, 17).
While pondering John 5:29, the Prophet Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon received the vision recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 76. This vision gave them additional understanding about the Resurrection and the plan of salvation (see D&C 76:11–19).
“In the end, the central purpose of all scripture is to fill our souls with faith in God the Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ—faith that They exist; faith in the Father’s plan for our immortality and eternal life; faith in the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which animates this plan of happiness; faith to make the gospel of Jesus Christ our way of life; and faith to come to know ‘the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [He has] sent’ (John 17:3)” (“The Blessing of Scripture,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2010, 34).