GIFTS: A test of how much we accept the real gospel message: the offensive B word.

Central to the gospel message is CHRIST. The heart of the gospel message, therefore, is known as the Doctrine of Christ.

But what does that mean? What is the Doctrine of Christ? Let us explain and reason together. Nothing is more important.

It is the powers in the life and ministry, and the details which lead us to know, understand, accept and embrace the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who is Christ.

Central to that understanding is an acceptance of the critical need each person has for that Atonement.

The whole gospel plan --- all the scriptures and manuals, historical events, buildings --- the chapels and temples, the visitors' centers and office buildings, universities and schools --- the keys, powers, authorities; the meetings, conferences, satellite broadcasts; the purposes, functions, programs, the missionary work, ordinances, teachings, welfare --- all we have, are, and do as a people and as a Church, our whole raison d'etre, or reason for being, are to focus our hearts, minds, and actions on the Savior and our need for Him.

Our need for Him goes far beyond a Friend, a Counsellor, or even a Comforter who understands our personal problems and feelings.

Our fundamental need for Him is a legal issue.

"A law was broken, Jesus died / That justice might be satisfied . . . ."

We need a price to be paid to bail us out of our deep dilemma. We need an Advocate too, to defend us on a legal basis to satisfy the demands of a broken law. The PLAN called for, necessitated, hinged upon, cried out for a Redeemer, a Savior. Unless and until we understand and embrace this idea, we shall see no real need to come unto Christ in the way He demands.

"Just as a man does not really desire food until he is hungry, so he does not desire the salvation of Christ until he knows why he needs Christ.

"No one adequately and properly knows why he needs Christ until he understands and accepts the doctrine of the Fall and its effect upon all mankind.

"And no other book in the world explains this vital doctrine [of the Fall!] nearly as well as the Book of Mormon" (President Ezra Taft Benson, 1987).

Unless you keenly sense your desperate need for Him, you won't fully come unto Him, your discipleship will be casual, lukewarm, and a bit indifferent.

In a single sentence: our desperate and crucial need for a Savior hangs on one thing, a single event, a temporary but devastating condition; one word: the Fall.

Adam fell. It was vital to the plan that he did. To introduce birth --- and death --- two rites of passage, to the earth and progress to his subsequent family.

But, you say, it was Eve who first fell, who opened the gate to mortality for us all, who partook of the fruit first. Not strictly so.

"Adam fell that men might be [born]." The Fall was a priesthood ordinance, performed in a Garden. It was fixed, mended, repaired, resolved in another priesthood ordinance in a Garden. All of which we recall and remember in another priesthood ordinance called the sacrament, in a peaceful setting, a chapel.

Are you with me so far?

This is the Doctrine of Christ. This is the Restored Message of the Gospel. This is the reason for Joseph Smith. This is the message of the Book of Mormon. This is the message of Christmas and of Easter. This is why we have all that we listed above, all to address the great compelling need of the whole human family --- the family of Adam and Eve --- all of us, their posterity.

This is the Plan of Salvation. This is the Doctrine of Christ.

It is all purposeful, deliberate, essential, necessary, and crucial to the Plan of our Father.

Now, there is our key word, our key doctrine: Father.

Elder Packer said, "I used to think I understood what the word 'Father' meant. I have come to know what it means. Brothers and Sisters, it is in the scriptures" --- the deep and true meaning of Father.

We pray to Father. Jesus taught us to do so. By divine mandate we address our prayers to Father. This itself is an act of faith and of hope and of love that He is our Father. But beyond that it is in anticipation that He can be, again, our Father. How so?

The fact is that the Fall is so severe, so all-affecting, that it separated us from our God and the family of God. We in effect became orphaned from our original family and home. When the Savior told His Apostles and disciples --- US --- "I will not leave you comfortless" He actually said, "I will not leave you orphans" (see John 14:18, footnote a).

Yes, so severe and catastrophic and totally effective --- IT HAD TO BE SO! --- was the Fall that it left us all without our original family and without a legal father.

There is a word for a person without a legal father. It is an offensive word, disreputable and cutting, insulting and devastating. Such is the description of the doctrinal and legal implications, and aspects of the Fall.

The Apostle Paul uses the word as he explains the way back from our fallen condition --- back into the family of God. The word is found once only in scripture: in Paul's letter to the Hebrews (chapter 12:8, see verses 5--11). The truth --- the fact of life --- is that we all remain as b-----ds, as orphans, unless we are born again into the family of God, and submit humbly to the chastenings associated with that process.

This process of rebirth takes a miracle. It requires a new Father, One willing to adopt us back into the original family from which we are orphaned and alienated by the Fall.

Do you see just how severe and devastating the Fall is --- and had to be?! To test out that premise, simply ask yourself what it took to fix it. It took the blood and the life and the total humiliation of a God to suffer at the hands of those same fallen men we described. In essence, and in truth, we all nailed Him to the cross, such was our great need. Such was the Plan.

The new Father, the Father of our new birth, is Christ. The labor pains are mainly His, but we will share them, "if so be that we suffer with him" (Romans 8:17). We become His children --- His sons and His daughters --- and He brings us back, by adoption, to the Father, our God, the Mighty Elohim, as joint-heirs with Himself.

This is the Doctrine of Christ. And the Message of Easter.

Just as we were of a necessity born into a death- and sin-dominated condition in this world, by the water, blood, and spirit --- the water and blood of our mother, and the spirit we are from our premortal birth in Father's family --- so we are to be born again, by water, blood, and Spirit ---the water of baptism, and this time the blood of our new adoptive Father, and the Holy Spirit.

This is the Plan. These are the main, essential details of the Doctrine of Christ, found in the Book of Mormon and in all the scriptures, and in the words of our sacrament hymns and Christmas and Easter songs, and in the temple. It is everywhere in the gospel, yet we tend to miss it in favor of an easier plan, as we foolishly suppose. (Have you noticed that these words are all in the same family: fall, folly, fool, foolish, fault. . . ?)

These very points of Christ's doctrine elude most of us --- even in the true Church, His Church. We prefer, and settle for, a social gospel, or an ethical gospel, and tend to avoid the redemptive gospel described here and in the scriptures --- by default really, merely by our neglect of the scriptures.

So, a final question in this Test of How Much We Accept the Real Gospel Message. Does this descriptive summary --- using the right words so we will know the Plan --- does it fit and correspond with your understanding and perception and pre-conceived ideas of the Father's Plan --- the Gospel --- for the salvation and education of His children unto Godhood with Him? Does it match? Are we on the same page? On the same page as the Lord and His prophets?

You know, this Doctrine of Christ offends those who are not ready for it, who prefer an easier way. The New Testament, especially the Savior's ministry, bears ample witness of this.

Defender of the faith . . . valiant in the testimony of Jesus . . . not ashamed of the gospel or the Doctrine of Christ. We are in a battle, friends and family, we are in a test to see if we know.

To see if we know Him. And to see if we will defend Him and the real plan at all hazards.

God bless.

Much love and best wishes as we get ready for Conference this week, and for Easter the week after that.

Steve

GIFTS: "I don't need 'the doctrine of Christ' now --- I have His Church."

From your observation of the members at the local level of the Church, is it easy for you to see any of them making a statement like this?

Or can you not imagine any of them saying this?

Would you yourself ever feel comfortable saying something like this?

Discuss.

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More later.

God bless.

Steve