It may seem bold, even presumptuous, to dare to question that we as a people know what the gospel is --- everyone in the Church knows what the gospel is, many of us say. . . . Then when you ask them to define what the gospel is they say, Love. . . . This is why correction is necessary.
Do you recall the story of the battleship on a collision course with another vessel? They sent out a signal, "Advise you change course twenty degrees." The message came back, "Advisable for you to change course twenty degrees." The captain said, "Send, I'm a captain, change course!" The reply came, "I'm a seaman second class, you had better change course twenty degrees!"
The captain was furious. "Send: I'm on the bridge of a battleship, change course!!" Back came the flashing light, "This is a lighthouse, suggest you change course twenty degrees."
If we don't correct our course, we'll end up where we are going.
There is no salvation in diluted doctrine or in half-truths. Salvation lies in knowing and living the bold, clear truths of the restored gospel. Nothing else will work.
Joseph said, "If we start right, it is easy to go right all the time; but if we start wrong, we may go wrong, and it be a hard matter to get right." We are now experiencing this. People in the Church hear the Brethren at general conference and they hear confirmation of what they believe already, screening out the "harder" messages. Or they hear we should "talk of Christ, rejoice in Christ, preach of Christ, and prophesy of Christ" and convince themselves that endless echoes on food storage and family-history indexing is fulfilling this message on Christ.
Having detoured, it is indeed a hard matter to get right. We're not used to it.
I have been attacked more than once when I speak of these things with, "You think you are the only one who knows the gospel." I answer meekly, "I hope that isn't so." But the gospel is what it is, we have received it in revelation from heaven, and we cannot make it up as we go along.
So, again, what is it? What is the restored gospel we have through Joseph Smith and which he gave his life to seal? Joseph himself said it this way:
"The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it. But in connection with these, we believe in the gift of the Holy Ghost, the power of faith, the enjoyment of the spiritual gifts according to the will of God, the restoration of the house of Israel, and the final triumph of truth."
This is the twentieth, and last, of a series of answers Joseph published "to save myself the trouble of repeating the same a thousand times over and over again."
The third of these answers fits in with last week's Sabbathoughts on repentance. The question was: "Will everybody be damned, but Mormons?" Joseph answered: Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness.
You gotta love a man like that! Even more a prophet as bold and clear as that! So, are you offended yet? Is this too strong? Are you eager for us to get to the love part? Let's do that right now:
Remember our context . . . we want to find what the gospel is, in light of our claim that we have a lot to learn on what it is because we make up our own "expired version".
To the Love part: The best known verse in all Christianity is John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Sad to relate, I have noticed many of us stop after the first six words, in the mistaken belief that they define the gospel and we need no more gospel. "For God so loved the world", they quote, and place a period or full stop, even an exclamation point after them, and claim, That is the gospel! (President Monson in priesthood session mocked the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" for its simplistic hollowness.)
"Have they not read the scriptures?" as the Risen Lord asked some confused Nephites about some other confused Nephites (see 3 Nephi 27). . . . I'd say it this way: "That's a nice thought about Love, but no!"
Those first six words in John 3:16 bespeak the Father's motive and reason for the gospel. "For God so loved the world"--- His children. It is a poor father who does not love his children. That is not news, good or otherwise. Of course God loves His children, even in their fallen, natural state.
It is at this point in the verse that the gospel message begins! How much does He love them? To the extent that He gave His Only Begotten Son as a precious sinless sacrifice to die for the guilt and sins of all His other children . . . . Now we are into the gospel message . . . !
A text without a context is a pretext. And people the world over, even in the true Church, wrench pure words out of context to suit their own purpose. John 3:16 is exhibit A in the court case of such dishonest scriptural shenanigans.
In conclusion for this article (we have a lot more to say later on the subject), let's go back to that other form of dishonesty and pretext we mentioned earlier, where people who should know better think they "talk of Christ . . . [and] preach of Christ" whenever they insert a family picture into a scrapbook, or add a heart to a birthday card. Nothing wrong with doing those things, but let's not be deluded that they represent a bold declaration of testimony when it's needed. Consider this from Hugh Nibley:
"A favorite with LDS schoolmen has been Brigham Young's declaration that 'Every art and science known and studied by the children of men is comprised within the Gospel.' But this does not mean, as is commonly assumed, that anything one chooses to teach is the gospel. That would be as silly as arguing that since all things are made of electrons, protons, neutrons, etc, whenever anyone opens his mouth to speak he gives a lecture on physics. It means rather that all things may be studied and taught in the light of the gospel."
So, . . . What is the gospel? Are we getting any closer? Are we being too subtle or too evasive here? Well, we are trying to lay the groundwork and show why the question is important, because mistaken ideas have supplanted the Lord's truth.
Next time we'll look at how the Lord Himself answers the question by saying, "This is my gospel." In the meantime, I'll leave you with this one clue: Doctrine and Covenants 33:8--13. . . . Even though not one in ten of you will even take the trouble to look at it. . . .
There is more. Stay with me on these sacred things.
God bless you.
Steve
P.S. Please feel free to share with others. References and sources available if needed.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
Sabbathought: What Is the Gospel? --- Not What You Thought!
Multiple times in the scriptures the Lord speaks of "my gospel", and "the fulness of the gospel", and "this is my gospel." In each place the definition or description is something different from what we thought it would be. When the Lord speaks of His gospel it is simpler, cleaner, neater, more concise, more profound than what we make up instead. It is better.
On many occasions I have asked gospel classes to fill in the blank in this statement from Elder Boyd K. Packer: "The purpose of the Church is not activities and programs. The purpose of the Church is: _________." A variety of answers gets suggested. "Love" is a common response. "Service" is too. "Freedom", some say. . . . "Salvation." "Families." "Joy."
No one would argue that these suggestions are not part of the big picture. But Elder Packer is right when he says that "The purpose of the Church is ordinances." Think of it: What is it we as a Church do for each and every member that is essential to their happiness and salvation in families? Something that is so essential that we even do it for the dead!
It is the ordinances. The ordinances of the temple. You can't be saved without them. They are the Lord's lesson plans for who He is and how to become like Him. "And without the ordinances . . . and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh;
"For without this [power of godliness] no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live [in His presence]." And the means, the vehicle to the power of godliness, is the ordinances. This is the gospel journey.
Someone said in a moment of fine-tuned inspiration that when Truth leaves the field, it is not error that takes over, but sentimentality. The scriptures teach us that "Truth is knowledge" of things as they really are, and really were, and really will be. If we say we have the Truth we are saying we have the knowledge. The knowledge of the gospel. Of the Truth. This is the gospel journey, authored by Him who said, "I am the way, the Truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
The ordinances all center in Him and His Atonement. He is the way. His ordinances are the means. This is the temple. This is the gospel plan, the gospel path. That path starts with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and proceeds from there. In our day, the seed of this truth is first planted through the Book of Mormon. (But only if we plant that seed . . . and nourish it with much care so that it gets root. See Alma 32.)
Elder Bruce R. McConkie's doctrinal commentary on Luke 20:1 gives us this significant insight on the phrase "preached the gospel":---
"How often the gospel authors remind us that Jesus was not just teaching ethical principles such as love, honesty, and charity. Rather, he preached the gospel, which means that he commanded men to accept God as their Father, believe in Christ as the Son, manifest faith in the atoning sacrifice of the Son, repent of their sins, be baptized by immersion for the remission of sins, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then (after all this!) endure to the end by keeping all the commandments, including the practice of love, honesty, charity, and every true ethical principle."
Can you see in this trenchant paragraph what the gospel is? Can you see what it is not? It is not a mere system of ethics. The ethics --- love, honesty, charity, and so forth --- are the fruits. But you don't get fruits by focusing on fruits. You don't go climbing up a ladder to pour living water on the branches and buds and fruits of the tree. You put the water where it is needed, where it can do the tree and its fruits the most good. You put it at the roots.
The gospel roots produce gospel fruits. For most of us, the ladder of success is leaning against the wrong tree. And the ladder is in fact not really necessary, unless a pruning is needed. It is simpler than that, cleaner, neater, easier, more concise. You pay attention to the roots. That is where the water and time and attention is needed. And the roots are the revealed gospel.
Elder J. Thomas Fyans said a generation ago: "Our roots spring from Palmyra, not from Cambridge [or Athens, or Madison Avenue, I would add]."
Do you see it? Do you see that the real story --- God's story, the Godspel, the gospel, the good news is easier and better than the fictional account we have invented out of the precepts and philosophies of men?
We have much more to say on this. For it is our true context. Our true battleground. It is where we belong. It is what we each knew a hundred years ago in the premortal life. And everything we teach as the gospel here must trace its roots back to those lessons we learned at the feet of the Lamb back in premortality.
Do these words, these terms and expressions make sense to you? Do you see that unless we use the right words, we shall not know the plan?
I learned this week that the word nice has a root meaning the opposite of what it means to us in common usage today. Someone taught me, quite accurately, that Jesus never told us to be nice. He told us "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." He knew that, especially in the stern days of today we would be in battle mode. "We Are All Enlisted", as Elder Holland so boldly and profoundly taught to the priesthood two weeks ago.
The word nice. You know that science comes from Latin sciere, to know. In Latin, ne-sciere means not to know, and is where we got the word nice from. It originally meant foolish, wanton, silly, simple, ignorant. As John Ayto points out, its meaning has changed over the centuries from stupid to pleasant. A dramatic change. I show this because we should know something, not just "be nice". The gospel just goes so much deeper than that.
We put our trust in the gospel as it is revealed by prophets in the scriptures, by prophets in our midst, and by the spirit of prophecy in our hearts. Anything else will give us a false idea. And we shall end up with the philosophies of men, mingled with scripture. And such can never save.
The words read and riddle are from the same family, the same genealogical root. Whenever we read anything we are matching, interpreting, working out black marks on a page---we are solving a riddle. Thus it is with the scriptures and the gospel. Many times it is not given in plainness. It has to be pondered and worked on. Soon, as part of the pondering / solving process it becomes easier, familiar, and a delight. And with Nephi we begin to delight in plainness.
That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do. And:
"What we obtain too cheaply we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods" (Thomas Paine).
We have work to do to solve the riddle of what the plain simple gospel really is, and, having found that pearl of great price, to be loyal to it in the face of the confused story offered us by the world, and sadly embraced by us because we show indifference to the real story. Are we making sense here?
More on all of this later. Let me know if this is helping.
God bless you.
Steve
On many occasions I have asked gospel classes to fill in the blank in this statement from Elder Boyd K. Packer: "The purpose of the Church is not activities and programs. The purpose of the Church is: _________." A variety of answers gets suggested. "Love" is a common response. "Service" is too. "Freedom", some say. . . . "Salvation." "Families." "Joy."
No one would argue that these suggestions are not part of the big picture. But Elder Packer is right when he says that "The purpose of the Church is ordinances." Think of it: What is it we as a Church do for each and every member that is essential to their happiness and salvation in families? Something that is so essential that we even do it for the dead!
It is the ordinances. The ordinances of the temple. You can't be saved without them. They are the Lord's lesson plans for who He is and how to become like Him. "And without the ordinances . . . and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh;
"For without this [power of godliness] no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live [in His presence]." And the means, the vehicle to the power of godliness, is the ordinances. This is the gospel journey.
Someone said in a moment of fine-tuned inspiration that when Truth leaves the field, it is not error that takes over, but sentimentality. The scriptures teach us that "Truth is knowledge" of things as they really are, and really were, and really will be. If we say we have the Truth we are saying we have the knowledge. The knowledge of the gospel. Of the Truth. This is the gospel journey, authored by Him who said, "I am the way, the Truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
The ordinances all center in Him and His Atonement. He is the way. His ordinances are the means. This is the temple. This is the gospel plan, the gospel path. That path starts with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and proceeds from there. In our day, the seed of this truth is first planted through the Book of Mormon. (But only if we plant that seed . . . and nourish it with much care so that it gets root. See Alma 32.)
Elder Bruce R. McConkie's doctrinal commentary on Luke 20:1 gives us this significant insight on the phrase "preached the gospel":---
"How often the gospel authors remind us that Jesus was not just teaching ethical principles such as love, honesty, and charity. Rather, he preached the gospel, which means that he commanded men to accept God as their Father, believe in Christ as the Son, manifest faith in the atoning sacrifice of the Son, repent of their sins, be baptized by immersion for the remission of sins, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then (after all this!) endure to the end by keeping all the commandments, including the practice of love, honesty, charity, and every true ethical principle."
Can you see in this trenchant paragraph what the gospel is? Can you see what it is not? It is not a mere system of ethics. The ethics --- love, honesty, charity, and so forth --- are the fruits. But you don't get fruits by focusing on fruits. You don't go climbing up a ladder to pour living water on the branches and buds and fruits of the tree. You put the water where it is needed, where it can do the tree and its fruits the most good. You put it at the roots.
The gospel roots produce gospel fruits. For most of us, the ladder of success is leaning against the wrong tree. And the ladder is in fact not really necessary, unless a pruning is needed. It is simpler than that, cleaner, neater, easier, more concise. You pay attention to the roots. That is where the water and time and attention is needed. And the roots are the revealed gospel.
Elder J. Thomas Fyans said a generation ago: "Our roots spring from Palmyra, not from Cambridge [or Athens, or Madison Avenue, I would add]."
Do you see it? Do you see that the real story --- God's story, the Godspel, the gospel, the good news is easier and better than the fictional account we have invented out of the precepts and philosophies of men?
We have much more to say on this. For it is our true context. Our true battleground. It is where we belong. It is what we each knew a hundred years ago in the premortal life. And everything we teach as the gospel here must trace its roots back to those lessons we learned at the feet of the Lamb back in premortality.
Do these words, these terms and expressions make sense to you? Do you see that unless we use the right words, we shall not know the plan?
I learned this week that the word nice has a root meaning the opposite of what it means to us in common usage today. Someone taught me, quite accurately, that Jesus never told us to be nice. He told us "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." He knew that, especially in the stern days of today we would be in battle mode. "We Are All Enlisted", as Elder Holland so boldly and profoundly taught to the priesthood two weeks ago.
The word nice. You know that science comes from Latin sciere, to know. In Latin, ne-sciere means not to know, and is where we got the word nice from. It originally meant foolish, wanton, silly, simple, ignorant. As John Ayto points out, its meaning has changed over the centuries from stupid to pleasant. A dramatic change. I show this because we should know something, not just "be nice". The gospel just goes so much deeper than that.
We put our trust in the gospel as it is revealed by prophets in the scriptures, by prophets in our midst, and by the spirit of prophecy in our hearts. Anything else will give us a false idea. And we shall end up with the philosophies of men, mingled with scripture. And such can never save.
The words read and riddle are from the same family, the same genealogical root. Whenever we read anything we are matching, interpreting, working out black marks on a page---we are solving a riddle. Thus it is with the scriptures and the gospel. Many times it is not given in plainness. It has to be pondered and worked on. Soon, as part of the pondering / solving process it becomes easier, familiar, and a delight. And with Nephi we begin to delight in plainness.
That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do. And:
"What we obtain too cheaply we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods" (Thomas Paine).
We have work to do to solve the riddle of what the plain simple gospel really is, and, having found that pearl of great price, to be loyal to it in the face of the confused story offered us by the world, and sadly embraced by us because we show indifference to the real story. Are we making sense here?
More on all of this later. Let me know if this is helping.
God bless you.
Steve
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Sabbathought: The Day of Atonement --- today 8 October
Today is Elder M. Russell Ballard's birthday. He is 83. Also today, my grandson, Tanner, is being baptized. And in the Jewish calendar, today is the Day of Atonement.
Which brings us back to repentance, as discussed last week.
What a privilege and a blessing it is to have the glorious gift of repentance! Without Jesus Christ and His Atonement all would be lost. And we would be devils----angels to the devil---through all eternity, simply by virtue of the Fall of Adam, our first father.
Today is the Day of Atonement, but if we understand the gospel we know that every day is a day of atonement. How so? Because of the gift of repentance, whereby we can access the powers of the Atonement.
Notice: we have not mentioned sin or sins yet. No need to so far. Simply by virtue of our fallen nature, we need to repent: to turn, to change, to turn back to God and His ways, which ways we knew so well a hundred years ago, before we came here to learn and to prove ourselves.
Cloaked in a fallen nature to make the test real and relentless, subject through the flesh to the enemy of our souls, hostage most of the time to the subtle influence of that enemy, we are in desperate need of a savior, a rescue, a ransom.
Today is the Day of Atonement for each of us. . . . If we will.
Tomorrow is the Sabbath. Also a day of atonement, for it is the day of the sacrament.
For four thousand years the human family offered sacrifice as a reminder, as a type, of the sacrifice of the Son of God. Today we offer our sacraments on the holy day as a type and a reminder of His blood sacrifice for us.
Follow with me this doctrinal explanation: After the Fall, shut out from the presence of the Lord, Adam and Eve were "obedient unto the commandments of the Lord.
"And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me."
The angel then explained why, "saying: This thing is a similitude [a type, a reminder, an echo] of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth."
Now notice the doctrinal basis for repentance coming up here: "Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore." This is all found in Moses chapter 5.
No mention of sin yet. The Fall was not a sin. It was a necessary transgression, downward but forward. A deliberate and knowing act by Adam so that men might be and the human race begun.
Later on, Adam asked the Lord, "Why is it that men must repent and be baptized in water?" The Lord's answer is of particular value for us and especially today for Tanner: "And the Lord said unto Adam: Behold I have forgiven thee thy transgression in the Garden of Eden."
That answer from the Lord is a confirmation of the doctrine we are teaching here and last week. This is found in Moses chapter 6. The next verse is of great value in confirming our doctrine:
"Hence came the saying abroad among the people, that the Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world."
So, . . . why does Tanner need to be baptized today? I'm not telling you. The doctrine is clear in the scriptures, starting with these we've quoted here. But this much I will say: because he is alive, and accountable.
But here is the point. The very point of His doctrine:
Repentance is not an event. And it goes beyond even being a process for some specific sin or sins. It is a way of life. That is what the angel was saying to Adam . . . : "thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son" --- not just the sacrifice, and later the sacrament, but all that thou doest. You need a daily reminder of your total dependence on Him. Indeed "I Need Thee Every Hour."
"And thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore." It is ongoing. It is constant. It is a way of life. As long as you have blood in your veins --- the badge, or mark, of the Fall --- you need to repent. Repent of your fallen nature. Turn back to God. And then later, when you have sins, you need to take care of them by repentance also.
We are oversimplifying a bit here in order to show that even before sin or sins become an issue each daughter of Eve and son of Adam has to be set right with God. Because of the state or condition that you have been placed in, out of the presence of God, separated from Him and His righteousness, strangers in a strange land, possessing a nature that is at enmity with your origins and true nature: here in this condition you are an enemy to God and His plan of happiness. There is only one solution.
As promised, let's turn to C.S.Lewis for further help.
Remember last week he spoke of "the hole" man had got himself into. How that, through the Fall, man "had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself . . . a rebel." That the only way out of this predicament is to start life over again. (Are you listening, Tanner?)
Before we quote Brother Lewis again, notice: so severe and dominating is the fallen nature that it will not yield to helpful hints, to wise sayings and platitudes, to therapy, hypnosis, counseling, medication, or any other construct of man, including the philosophies of men, mingled with scripture. The only solution is to start again. To be born again. To die (by drowning . . . and by fire, Tanner) and come forth to a new life. A new life in Christ.
Now. It takes a good person to repent. It takes someone who knows and believes this doctrine we are teaching here, and which is the main message of the Book of Mormon. Or, as Jack Lewis said it: "Only a bad person [lost, fallen, stained and drenched in a bad environment] needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly."
So, in a sense, that excludes us, each of us. None of us is good enough to repent! Yet all of us need to! And we all sense keenly this lack within us. This is where the Savior comes in. Our job is to surrender to Him.
"Very well, then, we must go through with it," wrote C.S.Lewis. "But the same badness ['because of the fall our natures have become evil continually,' said the brother of Jared in the Book of Mormon] which makes us need it, makes us unable to do it. Can we do it if God helps us? Yes, but what do we mean when we talk of God helping us? We mean God putting into us a bit of Himself, so to speak."
How marvelous! Immediately now the sacrament should spring to mind! And the words of Christ might flood into our minds, especially from the Gospel of John, which, unlike the other three Gospels, is written to and for the Saints, for those submissive to this process:
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (6:63).
"If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (8:31--2) --- free from the effects of the Fall.
"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me" (15:3--4).
These last words are most meaningful. John the Baptist, in his message of repentance and baptism, Tanner, taught, "Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance" (Matthew 3:8).
The Savior explained: "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).
Without Him ye cannot even repent. He is the one who changes you, who effectively repents with you, within you. He alone is the one who is good enough to repent perfectly. Alma confirms this: "Behold, he changed their hearts . . . ." (Alma 5:7, emphasis added).
In a very real sense, Christ within us is the only way our repentance will work, will be effective.
Our job is to show up --- like Tanner today. Humble . . . as a child. Submissive. Joseph taught us that the word baptizo in the Greek means to overwhelm, to immerse, or bury (TPJS, 262, 314).
Well, there is so much more to say on this. One thing in the gospel leads to another, until all truth is circumscribed into one great whole. It is marvelous in our eyes and hearts.
Hope this helps, Jake. Let's let this open a dialogue of doctrine on the basic things. Let's exchange insights and understanding on it all.
Let's help ourselves and each other to see that repentance is a boon, a good thing, a wonderful blessing, and the essence of the Atonement. Let's make it fashionable within our circles of influence to repent, to come unto Christ and partake of his goodness. Joseph taught:
"It is our duty to concentrate all of our influence to make popular that which is sound and good, and unpopular that which is unsound."
Repentance is a way of life, central to a life lived in Christ. It is sound and good.
These things are true and faithful.
More later.
Enjoy the Sabbath in the sure knowledge of these marvelous truths.
Steve
Which brings us back to repentance, as discussed last week.
What a privilege and a blessing it is to have the glorious gift of repentance! Without Jesus Christ and His Atonement all would be lost. And we would be devils----angels to the devil---through all eternity, simply by virtue of the Fall of Adam, our first father.
Today is the Day of Atonement, but if we understand the gospel we know that every day is a day of atonement. How so? Because of the gift of repentance, whereby we can access the powers of the Atonement.
Notice: we have not mentioned sin or sins yet. No need to so far. Simply by virtue of our fallen nature, we need to repent: to turn, to change, to turn back to God and His ways, which ways we knew so well a hundred years ago, before we came here to learn and to prove ourselves.
Cloaked in a fallen nature to make the test real and relentless, subject through the flesh to the enemy of our souls, hostage most of the time to the subtle influence of that enemy, we are in desperate need of a savior, a rescue, a ransom.
Today is the Day of Atonement for each of us. . . . If we will.
Tomorrow is the Sabbath. Also a day of atonement, for it is the day of the sacrament.
For four thousand years the human family offered sacrifice as a reminder, as a type, of the sacrifice of the Son of God. Today we offer our sacraments on the holy day as a type and a reminder of His blood sacrifice for us.
Follow with me this doctrinal explanation: After the Fall, shut out from the presence of the Lord, Adam and Eve were "obedient unto the commandments of the Lord.
"And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me."
The angel then explained why, "saying: This thing is a similitude [a type, a reminder, an echo] of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth."
Now notice the doctrinal basis for repentance coming up here: "Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore." This is all found in Moses chapter 5.
No mention of sin yet. The Fall was not a sin. It was a necessary transgression, downward but forward. A deliberate and knowing act by Adam so that men might be and the human race begun.
Later on, Adam asked the Lord, "Why is it that men must repent and be baptized in water?" The Lord's answer is of particular value for us and especially today for Tanner: "And the Lord said unto Adam: Behold I have forgiven thee thy transgression in the Garden of Eden."
That answer from the Lord is a confirmation of the doctrine we are teaching here and last week. This is found in Moses chapter 6. The next verse is of great value in confirming our doctrine:
"Hence came the saying abroad among the people, that the Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world."
So, . . . why does Tanner need to be baptized today? I'm not telling you. The doctrine is clear in the scriptures, starting with these we've quoted here. But this much I will say: because he is alive, and accountable.
But here is the point. The very point of His doctrine:
Repentance is not an event. And it goes beyond even being a process for some specific sin or sins. It is a way of life. That is what the angel was saying to Adam . . . : "thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son" --- not just the sacrifice, and later the sacrament, but all that thou doest. You need a daily reminder of your total dependence on Him. Indeed "I Need Thee Every Hour."
"And thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore." It is ongoing. It is constant. It is a way of life. As long as you have blood in your veins --- the badge, or mark, of the Fall --- you need to repent. Repent of your fallen nature. Turn back to God. And then later, when you have sins, you need to take care of them by repentance also.
We are oversimplifying a bit here in order to show that even before sin or sins become an issue each daughter of Eve and son of Adam has to be set right with God. Because of the state or condition that you have been placed in, out of the presence of God, separated from Him and His righteousness, strangers in a strange land, possessing a nature that is at enmity with your origins and true nature: here in this condition you are an enemy to God and His plan of happiness. There is only one solution.
As promised, let's turn to C.S.Lewis for further help.
Remember last week he spoke of "the hole" man had got himself into. How that, through the Fall, man "had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself . . . a rebel." That the only way out of this predicament is to start life over again. (Are you listening, Tanner?)
Before we quote Brother Lewis again, notice: so severe and dominating is the fallen nature that it will not yield to helpful hints, to wise sayings and platitudes, to therapy, hypnosis, counseling, medication, or any other construct of man, including the philosophies of men, mingled with scripture. The only solution is to start again. To be born again. To die (by drowning . . . and by fire, Tanner) and come forth to a new life. A new life in Christ.
Now. It takes a good person to repent. It takes someone who knows and believes this doctrine we are teaching here, and which is the main message of the Book of Mormon. Or, as Jack Lewis said it: "Only a bad person [lost, fallen, stained and drenched in a bad environment] needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly."
So, in a sense, that excludes us, each of us. None of us is good enough to repent! Yet all of us need to! And we all sense keenly this lack within us. This is where the Savior comes in. Our job is to surrender to Him.
"Very well, then, we must go through with it," wrote C.S.Lewis. "But the same badness ['because of the fall our natures have become evil continually,' said the brother of Jared in the Book of Mormon] which makes us need it, makes us unable to do it. Can we do it if God helps us? Yes, but what do we mean when we talk of God helping us? We mean God putting into us a bit of Himself, so to speak."
How marvelous! Immediately now the sacrament should spring to mind! And the words of Christ might flood into our minds, especially from the Gospel of John, which, unlike the other three Gospels, is written to and for the Saints, for those submissive to this process:
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (6:63).
"If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (8:31--2) --- free from the effects of the Fall.
"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me" (15:3--4).
These last words are most meaningful. John the Baptist, in his message of repentance and baptism, Tanner, taught, "Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance" (Matthew 3:8).
The Savior explained: "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).
Without Him ye cannot even repent. He is the one who changes you, who effectively repents with you, within you. He alone is the one who is good enough to repent perfectly. Alma confirms this: "Behold, he changed their hearts . . . ." (Alma 5:7, emphasis added).
In a very real sense, Christ within us is the only way our repentance will work, will be effective.
Our job is to show up --- like Tanner today. Humble . . . as a child. Submissive. Joseph taught us that the word baptizo in the Greek means to overwhelm, to immerse, or bury (TPJS, 262, 314).
Well, there is so much more to say on this. One thing in the gospel leads to another, until all truth is circumscribed into one great whole. It is marvelous in our eyes and hearts.
Hope this helps, Jake. Let's let this open a dialogue of doctrine on the basic things. Let's exchange insights and understanding on it all.
Let's help ourselves and each other to see that repentance is a boon, a good thing, a wonderful blessing, and the essence of the Atonement. Let's make it fashionable within our circles of influence to repent, to come unto Christ and partake of his goodness. Joseph taught:
"It is our duty to concentrate all of our influence to make popular that which is sound and good, and unpopular that which is unsound."
Repentance is a way of life, central to a life lived in Christ. It is sound and good.
These things are true and faithful.
More later.
Enjoy the Sabbath in the sure knowledge of these marvelous truths.
Steve
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Sabbathought: It takes a good person to repent.
What do you make of our title here this time?
Let's expand it a bit: It takes a good person to repent --- in fact only a good person can repent properly --- in a way that will do any good and have any benefit or value for him.
This needs some attention and explanation.
If there is a more important idea or doctrine or truth anywhere, please let me know. The whole concept of repentance holds a negative place in our minds. Admit it. It is not something we want to discuss. I don't need to go see the bishop! I have not lied, cheated, or stolen anything. Repentance comes after faith and before baptism. I can prove it. It's in the fourth article of faith. I know my scriptures and the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. . . .
And I am already baptized so repentance is now passe' for me---done, dusted, a thing of the past. My sordid past. So please don't bring that up again.
I wonder how many of you had chance to read the article by Wallace Goddard in Meridian magazine we sent out this week. No reason why you should --- I impose things on you from time to time as if you were looking around for things to do or to read or to learn. I sense how presumptuous that may appear.
But Brother Goddard did a good job. His article is a partner for what we try to advance in these pages. To sum up his message: 1) We are all in a fallen state, and in deep, deep trouble. 2)The only solution is the Atonement of Jesus Christ --- not just the best solution . . . the only solution. 3) The only way to access that Atonement is on His terms, the terms of repentance.
"We have met the enemy, and he is us", says the article.
I have tried for years to find the perfect teaching illustration to drive home the greatest irony on this earth: that the whole created world---all the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, but especially mankind, for man caused it---is in a desperate state, is dominated by a fallen nature, and is helpless to rescue himself from it. The irony is that, in this condition, man thinks he is OK ("I'm OK --- You're OK") and that any flaws or deficiencies he may have he can take care of himself, thank you very much. And any other view is judgmental, negative, and unhelpful.
But, in truth, there is nothing that is more helpful and crucial to us than the doctrine of Christ, and His Atonement, and His restored gospel. Central to that message --- which is the message of the Book of Mormon --- is the notion of repentance. You can't come unto Christ without repentance. Or rather, the way to Christ is repentance. There is no other way. Can you see why Satan has invested so much trouble in making it a negative thing?
Let's explore how it is so: the word repent in English has negative connotations to begin with. It comes from a Catholic background and carries the idea of punishment. You can almost see and hear the word repent in the word punishment. The Old Testament word is nacham, to sigh or be sorry; or shuwb, meaning turn (back). The Greek (New Testament) is even better: metanoia, to change, to think differently, to change the mind and heart.
This Greek meaning is helpful. Can you see the idea of metamorphosis in it? Metamorphosis is when a caterpillar changes from a wormy little bug into a butterfly. It changes. It repents . . . ! . . . It gets wings! It becomes liberated.
John the Baptist came before the Lord Jesus, to prepare the way for Him. The first word John spoke in his ministry was, Repent (see Matthew 3:2). Our footnote is helpful: The Greek word denotes 'a change of heart or mind,' i.e. 'a conversion.'
In the next chapter we find: "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (4:17). His first word? Repent. This is the gospel, the message of salvation, the good news, the glad tidings of great joy. Namely that here comes the means now, the way whereby you fallen beings can repent. Here comes the Savior. The Lamb of God. The Redeemer of the world. Rejoice! All is not lost. Here comes the rescue!
Can you see why the enemy would seek to make repent a dirty word . . . ? He has largely succeeded, has he not!
Stay with me here, if you have the time and the interest. Let's go a bit further:
The idea for our title came from C.S.Lewis's Mere Christianity. I'll paraphrase and quote from it: We are told in scripture that Christ died for us, "that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed. . . . How Christ's death did all this [is] secondary; . . . not to be confused with the thing itself."
We hear and speak of how His death let us off or excused us "because Christ had volunteered to bear a punishment instead of us. Now on the face of it that is a very silly theory. If God was prepared to let us off, why on earth did He not do so? And what possible point could there be in punishing an innocent person instead? None at all that I can see, if you are thinking of punishment in the police-court sense.
"On the other hand, if you think of a debt, there is plenty of point in a person who has some assets paying it on behalf of someone who has not. Or if you take 'paying the penalty,' not in the sense of being punished, but in the more general sense of . . . 'footing the bill,' then, of course, it is a matter of common experience that, when one person has got himself into a hole, the trouble of getting him out usually falls on a kind friend."
Are you with this idea so far? It makes sense. It echoes Elder Boyd K. Packer's masterful talk on The Mediator. What C.S. Lewis is saying here is the point of the Book of Mormon message and of Brother Goddard's article: You have got yourself in a hole --- the fall of Adam did that for you --- and you need a kind friend who has assets, the means and the will, to get you out . . . ! Brother(!) Lewis's next sentence confirms this context and perspective:
"Now what was the sort of 'hole' man had got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor---that is the only way out of a 'hole.'
"This process of surrender---this movement full speed astern--- is what Christians call repentance."
Do you see it? Surely you can start to see the doctrine if you have stayed with us this far! What a glorious way of looking at it! What a marvelous work and a wonder! What a message of good tidings and great joy to all (fallen) men! Brother Lewis continues:
"Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years [since Adam fell]. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. In fact, it needs a good man to repent. And here comes the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person--- and he would not need it.
"Remember, this repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose: it is simply a description of what going back to Him is like. If you ask God to take you back without it, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back."
[Think of the true definitions of repent --- to turn, to go back, to return.]
To go back without going back "cannot happen. Very well, then," concludes Brother Lewis, "we must go through with it. . . ."
And he goes on to show how it is done. C.S.Lewis learned all this good doctrine from the New Testament, without the help of the Book of Mormon, which is more than remarkable. You can hear echoes of Paul's epistles, as well as the Savior's teachings, in his words.
Next week we will take a look at how Jack Lewis describes it is done, how it is that we are able, in Christ, to "go through with it."
Do you see what a blessing and a privilege the capacity to repent is, and how it has come to us as a marvelous gift in the Atonement? Do you also see the vested interest the devil has in keeping it from us! Of getting us to think it is a thing of naught? That we don't need it!
We have more to say on this. For it is the gospel. Small wonder that every dispensation of the gospel opens with this one word: repent. No wonder that the Lord opened our dispensation with this command: "Say nothing but repentance to this generation." It is not a punishment, it is an open invitation to come unto Him, a blessing and a privilege. And it is the message of the Book of Mormon.
More later.
General conference this weekend. Let's see how many of the talks echo this glorious doctrine. My thought is: they all will. Listen carefully . . . .
Steve
Let's expand it a bit: It takes a good person to repent --- in fact only a good person can repent properly --- in a way that will do any good and have any benefit or value for him.
This needs some attention and explanation.
If there is a more important idea or doctrine or truth anywhere, please let me know. The whole concept of repentance holds a negative place in our minds. Admit it. It is not something we want to discuss. I don't need to go see the bishop! I have not lied, cheated, or stolen anything. Repentance comes after faith and before baptism. I can prove it. It's in the fourth article of faith. I know my scriptures and the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. . . .
And I am already baptized so repentance is now passe' for me---done, dusted, a thing of the past. My sordid past. So please don't bring that up again.
I wonder how many of you had chance to read the article by Wallace Goddard in Meridian magazine we sent out this week. No reason why you should --- I impose things on you from time to time as if you were looking around for things to do or to read or to learn. I sense how presumptuous that may appear.
But Brother Goddard did a good job. His article is a partner for what we try to advance in these pages. To sum up his message: 1) We are all in a fallen state, and in deep, deep trouble. 2)The only solution is the Atonement of Jesus Christ --- not just the best solution . . . the only solution. 3) The only way to access that Atonement is on His terms, the terms of repentance.
"We have met the enemy, and he is us", says the article.
I have tried for years to find the perfect teaching illustration to drive home the greatest irony on this earth: that the whole created world---all the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, but especially mankind, for man caused it---is in a desperate state, is dominated by a fallen nature, and is helpless to rescue himself from it. The irony is that, in this condition, man thinks he is OK ("I'm OK --- You're OK") and that any flaws or deficiencies he may have he can take care of himself, thank you very much. And any other view is judgmental, negative, and unhelpful.
But, in truth, there is nothing that is more helpful and crucial to us than the doctrine of Christ, and His Atonement, and His restored gospel. Central to that message --- which is the message of the Book of Mormon --- is the notion of repentance. You can't come unto Christ without repentance. Or rather, the way to Christ is repentance. There is no other way. Can you see why Satan has invested so much trouble in making it a negative thing?
Let's explore how it is so: the word repent in English has negative connotations to begin with. It comes from a Catholic background and carries the idea of punishment. You can almost see and hear the word repent in the word punishment. The Old Testament word is nacham, to sigh or be sorry; or shuwb, meaning turn (back). The Greek (New Testament) is even better: metanoia, to change, to think differently, to change the mind and heart.
This Greek meaning is helpful. Can you see the idea of metamorphosis in it? Metamorphosis is when a caterpillar changes from a wormy little bug into a butterfly. It changes. It repents . . . ! . . . It gets wings! It becomes liberated.
John the Baptist came before the Lord Jesus, to prepare the way for Him. The first word John spoke in his ministry was, Repent (see Matthew 3:2). Our footnote is helpful: The Greek word denotes 'a change of heart or mind,' i.e. 'a conversion.'
In the next chapter we find: "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (4:17). His first word? Repent. This is the gospel, the message of salvation, the good news, the glad tidings of great joy. Namely that here comes the means now, the way whereby you fallen beings can repent. Here comes the Savior. The Lamb of God. The Redeemer of the world. Rejoice! All is not lost. Here comes the rescue!
Can you see why the enemy would seek to make repent a dirty word . . . ? He has largely succeeded, has he not!
Stay with me here, if you have the time and the interest. Let's go a bit further:
The idea for our title came from C.S.Lewis's Mere Christianity. I'll paraphrase and quote from it: We are told in scripture that Christ died for us, "that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed. . . . How Christ's death did all this [is] secondary; . . . not to be confused with the thing itself."
We hear and speak of how His death let us off or excused us "because Christ had volunteered to bear a punishment instead of us. Now on the face of it that is a very silly theory. If God was prepared to let us off, why on earth did He not do so? And what possible point could there be in punishing an innocent person instead? None at all that I can see, if you are thinking of punishment in the police-court sense.
"On the other hand, if you think of a debt, there is plenty of point in a person who has some assets paying it on behalf of someone who has not. Or if you take 'paying the penalty,' not in the sense of being punished, but in the more general sense of . . . 'footing the bill,' then, of course, it is a matter of common experience that, when one person has got himself into a hole, the trouble of getting him out usually falls on a kind friend."
Are you with this idea so far? It makes sense. It echoes Elder Boyd K. Packer's masterful talk on The Mediator. What C.S. Lewis is saying here is the point of the Book of Mormon message and of Brother Goddard's article: You have got yourself in a hole --- the fall of Adam did that for you --- and you need a kind friend who has assets, the means and the will, to get you out . . . ! Brother(!) Lewis's next sentence confirms this context and perspective:
"Now what was the sort of 'hole' man had got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor---that is the only way out of a 'hole.'
"This process of surrender---this movement full speed astern--- is what Christians call repentance."
Do you see it? Surely you can start to see the doctrine if you have stayed with us this far! What a glorious way of looking at it! What a marvelous work and a wonder! What a message of good tidings and great joy to all (fallen) men! Brother Lewis continues:
"Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years [since Adam fell]. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. In fact, it needs a good man to repent. And here comes the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person--- and he would not need it.
"Remember, this repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose: it is simply a description of what going back to Him is like. If you ask God to take you back without it, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back."
[Think of the true definitions of repent --- to turn, to go back, to return.]
To go back without going back "cannot happen. Very well, then," concludes Brother Lewis, "we must go through with it. . . ."
And he goes on to show how it is done. C.S.Lewis learned all this good doctrine from the New Testament, without the help of the Book of Mormon, which is more than remarkable. You can hear echoes of Paul's epistles, as well as the Savior's teachings, in his words.
Next week we will take a look at how Jack Lewis describes it is done, how it is that we are able, in Christ, to "go through with it."
Do you see what a blessing and a privilege the capacity to repent is, and how it has come to us as a marvelous gift in the Atonement? Do you also see the vested interest the devil has in keeping it from us! Of getting us to think it is a thing of naught? That we don't need it!
We have more to say on this. For it is the gospel. Small wonder that every dispensation of the gospel opens with this one word: repent. No wonder that the Lord opened our dispensation with this command: "Say nothing but repentance to this generation." It is not a punishment, it is an open invitation to come unto Him, a blessing and a privilege. And it is the message of the Book of Mormon.
More later.
General conference this weekend. Let's see how many of the talks echo this glorious doctrine. My thought is: they all will. Listen carefully . . . .
Steve
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
GIFTS: Gem of an insight from Elder McConkie re USA in the Last Days
Latter-day Saints who are sensible and sensitive are keenly aware of the folly of being alarmist and shrill about the dangers and evils that surround us in the Last Days.
It is annoying and even counter-productive to insistently sound an alarm over minor matters and on the things of lesser importance.
At the same time it is good and necessary to have a dialogue together on things of deep interest and pertinence, especially when they affect all of us. This is one of those times.
We are in the Last Days. By any measure of interpretation the words and warnings of prophets ancient and modern are clearly unfolding before our eyes. The weather and natural phenomena, the distress among nations, political upheaval and the brazen actions of secret combinations high and low all attest to this. It is imperative for us to watch and be vigilant:---
"Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
"Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."
As we discussed in our youth Sunday School class last week, "sober" means able to think seriously about important matters.
"For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
"But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
"For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ."
Solid, sterling, sober words, Paul. Thank you.
Last night I finished reading a novel, One Second After, about the effects across America of a small nuclear device detonated some 200 miles overhead to produce an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). The result was destruction of the electrical grid for the whole country.
Vehicles built since the 1980s that relied on computerized electrical systems would not start nor run. Food supplies, therefore, were brought to a standstill. Cold storage for food and medicines was likewise rendered impotent. Phone service and communications of all kinds ceased, except for primitive and inadequate methods. Transportation ground to a halt. The hero in the novel drove his mother-in-law's old Edsel, but pumping gas was not possible in any usual way.
The book was well written, sensitive and provocative, family- and community-centered, but necessarily brutal and compelling in its description of the tribal instincts to eat and survive, including cannibalism, that surfaced among people and towns. I was deeply impressed and affected by it, by its message and its sensitive, human treatment of the theme.
Less than two weeks ago, separate and independent of the novel, The Heritage Foundation, defender and educator on the Constitution and civic matters in the nation, issued a short article on the matter of EMP and its possible effects:
"It sounds like something out of a movie. A nuclear weapon detonates at high altitude, generating a burst of electromagnetic energy that devastates the United States---destroying electronics, collapsing communications, halting transportation, and shutting down all electrical power. Unfortunately, the threat of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) strike is all too real, and it's time America's leaders wake up to the reality."
Their brief article goes on to detail the total loss of our present lifestyle. It also makes this point: a nuclear weapon is not the only way it could occur. Unusually powerful solar activity could produce the same catastrophe.
Elder McConkie has commented on certain verses in the Apocalypse---the Book of Revelation--- as depicting "nuclear holocaust, which surely must come." He has also written at length on the prophecies of the Last Days, most clearly in The Millennial Messiah.
In the novel I read, the scenario was plausible, realistic, credible. The hero was religious . . . a widower with a young family, . . . a college professor, ex-military, a patriot, . . . and a good family man. The final chapter describes the community's rescue --- after a full year of isolation, and attack from desperate tribal groups --- by a military company whose column of vehicles flew the Stars and Stripes. The final sentence of the book, however, reads:
"The world had changed forever, the America they knew . . . never to return."
As I say, provocative . . . and plausible. Not mere alarmist fiction.
So . . . what of the prophecies? What is the real story? Do we have any clues, any help on that front?
The prophets have said that all the wars and calamities we have experienced throughout history will appear as a child's game compared with what is coming. Again, this is not designed to depress or alarm or destroy hope. But it is well to know something of the realities ahead. Something that can be a sure anchor for our faith and survival, whether in life or in death.
We do well to take heed. To watch, and be sober.
In The Millennial Messiah, Elder McConkie has this paragraph:
"As to the coming end of all nations and the final triumph of Israel [as a people---us, the House of Israel---and as a nation], we should make a brief comment. Many of the present nations of the earth will be here, flourishing, fighting, struggling for a place in the sun, when the Lord comes. It is our firm conviction as a people that the stars and stripes will be waving triumphantly in the breeze, as a symbol of the greatness and stability of the United States of America, when the Lord comes. This nation was established to be the Lord's base of operations in this final gospel dispensation. From it the gospel is to go to every other nation and people. The greater its influence among the nations of the world [take note, Mr President], the more rapidly the gospel spreads. But the Lord has told us that all nations, the United States included, shall cease to be when He comes. These are His words:
"'With the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations' (D&C 87:6.)"
Can you see the value of the scriptures, and of the prophets?
Can you see the need for the real story of how history will play out?
Can you see, in light of all the above, the importance of the election in fourteen months?
Can you read between the lines?
Again, feel free to share this, if you sense any value in it. Pass it on to others.
I wish I knew how to persuade you to engage in a shared discussion of these and other vital things. We get precious little comment or feedback on any of this. Which is strange to me.
God bless you.
Warmest regards,
Steve
P.S. Again, we have omitted references and sources on purpose. Contact me if you would like to go deeper.
It is annoying and even counter-productive to insistently sound an alarm over minor matters and on the things of lesser importance.
At the same time it is good and necessary to have a dialogue together on things of deep interest and pertinence, especially when they affect all of us. This is one of those times.
We are in the Last Days. By any measure of interpretation the words and warnings of prophets ancient and modern are clearly unfolding before our eyes. The weather and natural phenomena, the distress among nations, political upheaval and the brazen actions of secret combinations high and low all attest to this. It is imperative for us to watch and be vigilant:---
"Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
"Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."
As we discussed in our youth Sunday School class last week, "sober" means able to think seriously about important matters.
"For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
"But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
"For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ."
Solid, sterling, sober words, Paul. Thank you.
Last night I finished reading a novel, One Second After, about the effects across America of a small nuclear device detonated some 200 miles overhead to produce an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). The result was destruction of the electrical grid for the whole country.
Vehicles built since the 1980s that relied on computerized electrical systems would not start nor run. Food supplies, therefore, were brought to a standstill. Cold storage for food and medicines was likewise rendered impotent. Phone service and communications of all kinds ceased, except for primitive and inadequate methods. Transportation ground to a halt. The hero in the novel drove his mother-in-law's old Edsel, but pumping gas was not possible in any usual way.
The book was well written, sensitive and provocative, family- and community-centered, but necessarily brutal and compelling in its description of the tribal instincts to eat and survive, including cannibalism, that surfaced among people and towns. I was deeply impressed and affected by it, by its message and its sensitive, human treatment of the theme.
Less than two weeks ago, separate and independent of the novel, The Heritage Foundation, defender and educator on the Constitution and civic matters in the nation, issued a short article on the matter of EMP and its possible effects:
"It sounds like something out of a movie. A nuclear weapon detonates at high altitude, generating a burst of electromagnetic energy that devastates the United States---destroying electronics, collapsing communications, halting transportation, and shutting down all electrical power. Unfortunately, the threat of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) strike is all too real, and it's time America's leaders wake up to the reality."
Their brief article goes on to detail the total loss of our present lifestyle. It also makes this point: a nuclear weapon is not the only way it could occur. Unusually powerful solar activity could produce the same catastrophe.
Elder McConkie has commented on certain verses in the Apocalypse---the Book of Revelation--- as depicting "nuclear holocaust, which surely must come." He has also written at length on the prophecies of the Last Days, most clearly in The Millennial Messiah.
In the novel I read, the scenario was plausible, realistic, credible. The hero was religious . . . a widower with a young family, . . . a college professor, ex-military, a patriot, . . . and a good family man. The final chapter describes the community's rescue --- after a full year of isolation, and attack from desperate tribal groups --- by a military company whose column of vehicles flew the Stars and Stripes. The final sentence of the book, however, reads:
"The world had changed forever, the America they knew . . . never to return."
As I say, provocative . . . and plausible. Not mere alarmist fiction.
So . . . what of the prophecies? What is the real story? Do we have any clues, any help on that front?
The prophets have said that all the wars and calamities we have experienced throughout history will appear as a child's game compared with what is coming. Again, this is not designed to depress or alarm or destroy hope. But it is well to know something of the realities ahead. Something that can be a sure anchor for our faith and survival, whether in life or in death.
We do well to take heed. To watch, and be sober.
In The Millennial Messiah, Elder McConkie has this paragraph:
"As to the coming end of all nations and the final triumph of Israel [as a people---us, the House of Israel---and as a nation], we should make a brief comment. Many of the present nations of the earth will be here, flourishing, fighting, struggling for a place in the sun, when the Lord comes. It is our firm conviction as a people that the stars and stripes will be waving triumphantly in the breeze, as a symbol of the greatness and stability of the United States of America, when the Lord comes. This nation was established to be the Lord's base of operations in this final gospel dispensation. From it the gospel is to go to every other nation and people. The greater its influence among the nations of the world [take note, Mr President], the more rapidly the gospel spreads. But the Lord has told us that all nations, the United States included, shall cease to be when He comes. These are His words:
"'With the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations' (D&C 87:6.)"
Can you see the value of the scriptures, and of the prophets?
Can you see the need for the real story of how history will play out?
Can you see, in light of all the above, the importance of the election in fourteen months?
Can you read between the lines?
Again, feel free to share this, if you sense any value in it. Pass it on to others.
I wish I knew how to persuade you to engage in a shared discussion of these and other vital things. We get precious little comment or feedback on any of this. Which is strange to me.
God bless you.
Warmest regards,
Steve
P.S. Again, we have omitted references and sources on purpose. Contact me if you would like to go deeper.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
GIFTS : To Be, or Not To Be . . . Bold
Knowing that the Savior was meek and lowly of heart we naturally think of Him as easy-going, perhaps even a bit of a soft touch! Or at least we assume that His love will override all other considerations. Maybe that is why we speak of Him as a "friend" or our "older brother." It certainly might explain why we are unafraid to offend or displease Him.
A true understanding of the fact that He is our Lord as well as our Savior, the Lion of Judah as well as the Lamb of God, the God of battles as well as the Prince of Peace might change our minds.
Consider this from an Apostle of the Lord, a generation ago:
"We are having many challenges these days---challenges to our way of life, challenges to our moral standards, challenges actually to our doctrines. I am convinced in my own mind, studying all the difficulties that face us in the world today, that we are really living in the Last Days. I believe that now and in the years to come we will need a stronger testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ than ever before.
"Every one of us must do as the Presidency of the Church does, and that is to treat God as a person and not as a concept or an idea of any kind. He is a Person, and we need to deal with Him that way. We must realize that He has feelings, and we can offend Him or we can please Him, depending on our attitude" (Elder Mark E. Petersen, 1 Sept. 1983).
That was given twenty-eight years ago. A prophetic statement.
And an insightful one. The Lord has feelings---more tender and holy than we are used to believing of Him perhaps. We must seek to please Him.
"It isn't the words we speak that will bring forth His love. It is the keeping of His commandments and doing the will of our Father in heaven," taught Elder LeGrand Richards of the Twelve in October 1968 general conference. . . . So much for God's "unconditional" love.
I think in large measure we have been taken hostage by the world's false ideas on many of these sacred matters to do with our God and where we stand with Him.
Recall with me the Prophet's clarification of the Savior's meek and lowly disposition:
"Some of the company thought I was not a very meek Prophet; so I told them: 'I am meek and lowly in heart,' and will personify Jesus for a moment, to illustrate the principle, and cried out with a loud voice, 'Woe unto you, ye doctors; woe unto you, ye lawyers; woe unto you, ye scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites!' But you cannot find the place where I ever went that I found fault with their food, their drink, their house, their lodgings; no, never; and this is what is meant by the meekness and lowliness of Jesus" (TPJS, 270).
"On another occasion," as Joseph McConkie tells it, "a couple of pious men of the cloth interrogated the Prophet at length, hoping to find some fault in him. When they stepped out of the house to leave, Joseph drew a line on the ground with his shoe and challenged his visitors to toe the line and see if they could outjump him. They went off in a huff amazed that one who professed to be a man of God would propose such an activity on the Sabbath day. When asked why he had done so, the Prophet responded that they had come to find fault with him, and he hated to see them leave disappointed."
On yet another occasion, "[The Rushton family] arrived at Nauvoo the evening of April 13. Father was naturally very anxious to find the members of his family already established there, and hurried towards the town in search of them. He had gone only a short distance when he met a man riding a beautiful black horse. The man accosted him, saying, 'Hey, Bub, is that a company of Mormons just landed?'
"In much surprise father answered, 'Yes, sir.' 'Are you a Mormon?' the stranger continued. 'Yes, sir,' father again answered. 'What do you know about old Joe Smith?' the mounted stranger asked.
"'I know that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God,' said father. 'I suppose you are looking for an old man with a long, gray beard. What would you think if I told you I was Joseph Smith?' the man continued.
"'If you,' said father, 'are Joseph Smith, I know you are a Prophet of God.' In a gentle voice the man explained: 'I am Joseph Smith. I came to meet these people, dressed as I am in rough clothes and speaking in this manner, to see if their faith is strong enough to stand the things they must meet. If not, they should turn back right now.' This was father's introduction to the Prophet Joseph."
There are a thousand such accounts of the character of Joseph Smith. If you want to know what the Savior was like, search and find what Joseph was like.
These statements and illustrations are to show us that we come short of a correct assessment of our Lord and Savior's true character and demeanor. And, as in all things, He is our example of how to be bold. And Joseph is just like Him.
From Donald Q. Cannon: "My great-grandfather, Angus M. Cannon, had a vision with a rather sobering message. . . . He kept a very extensive journal, more than eighty volumes, in which this experience is recorded. He expressed it as follows: 'I did hear a voice which said---Angus, it is your privilege to appear before the Lord and I immediately looked and beheld Him, apparently about 30 rods [approx. 500 feet] distant. . . . I saw His profile down to His waist. . . . I undertook to arise and go to Him but dared not approach Him and said, "My God! Who can appear before Him!" I imagine He would say: How have you used my name and what use have you made of my Priesthood? When I thought of my many light speeches and the manner in which I had striven to embellish my remarks in addressing people as His servant, circumlocuting around the truths given of Him as witness His sermon on the mount, I was unable to go to Him.'"
Again, we learn from Parley P. Pratt's autobiography: While in Philadelphia, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were invited to speak to a group of some three thousand people in one of the largest churches there. Elder Rigdon addressed the congregation first. Fearful of the reaction people might have to pure Mormonism, he defended the Restoration with Bible passages, studiously avoiding reference to the coming of angels, visions, and other remarkable spiritual events upon which the Restoration rests. Sidney Rigdon's timidity so annoyed Joseph that---
"When he [Sidney] was through, brother Joseph arose like a lion about to roar; and being full of the Holy Ghost, spoke in great power, bearing testimony of the visions he had seen, the ministering of angels which he had enjoyed; and how he had found the plates of the Book of Mormon, and translated them by the gift and power of God. He commenced by saying: 'If nobody else had the courage to testify of so glorious a record, he felt to do it in justice to the people, and leave the event with God.'
"The entire congregation were astounded, electrified, as it were, and overwhelmed with the sense of the truth and power by which he spoke, [and] many souls were gathered into the fold."
Bold? Aye, and more. What to be bold about, for us? Why, about the truth . . . ! --- the only thing worth being bold about. A lack of boldness, therefore, shows a lack of conviction of the truth, a shortage of knowledge and understanding, which always comes by the Spirit, when we pay the price. Who was it that chided the Priesthood for "timid efforts" in leaving "unwarned or unaided" a human soul "so that he has to wait till a dependable servant of God comes along"?
Ah yes. It was President Monson, echoing his predecessor, the head of our dispensation, Joseph Smith, who lamented that "none but fools will trifle with the souls of men." Let's not be fools. Let's be wise. And bold . . . "in justice to the people, and leave the event with God."
The word teach in Hebrew carries the meaning of warn. A timid warning is no warning at all. The Apostles, after the Savior's ascension, in the Book of Acts had a new boldness because they had the power and gift of the Holy Ghost following Pentecost. We find this boldness nine times in Acts alone (it is found only three times in the whole of the Old Testament), and nineteen additional times in Paul's writings. The Greek word is parrhesia and means "all outspokenness, frankness, bluntness; by implication: assurance, confidence in spirit and demeanor; plainness"
(Strong's). This definition is a fitting summary of all we have said here.
"The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1).
There is more. But this will do for now.
Please share with others.
Let me know your thoughts on these important matters.
Steve
A true understanding of the fact that He is our Lord as well as our Savior, the Lion of Judah as well as the Lamb of God, the God of battles as well as the Prince of Peace might change our minds.
Consider this from an Apostle of the Lord, a generation ago:
"We are having many challenges these days---challenges to our way of life, challenges to our moral standards, challenges actually to our doctrines. I am convinced in my own mind, studying all the difficulties that face us in the world today, that we are really living in the Last Days. I believe that now and in the years to come we will need a stronger testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ than ever before.
"Every one of us must do as the Presidency of the Church does, and that is to treat God as a person and not as a concept or an idea of any kind. He is a Person, and we need to deal with Him that way. We must realize that He has feelings, and we can offend Him or we can please Him, depending on our attitude" (Elder Mark E. Petersen, 1 Sept. 1983).
That was given twenty-eight years ago. A prophetic statement.
And an insightful one. The Lord has feelings---more tender and holy than we are used to believing of Him perhaps. We must seek to please Him.
"It isn't the words we speak that will bring forth His love. It is the keeping of His commandments and doing the will of our Father in heaven," taught Elder LeGrand Richards of the Twelve in October 1968 general conference. . . . So much for God's "unconditional" love.
I think in large measure we have been taken hostage by the world's false ideas on many of these sacred matters to do with our God and where we stand with Him.
Recall with me the Prophet's clarification of the Savior's meek and lowly disposition:
"Some of the company thought I was not a very meek Prophet; so I told them: 'I am meek and lowly in heart,' and will personify Jesus for a moment, to illustrate the principle, and cried out with a loud voice, 'Woe unto you, ye doctors; woe unto you, ye lawyers; woe unto you, ye scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites!' But you cannot find the place where I ever went that I found fault with their food, their drink, their house, their lodgings; no, never; and this is what is meant by the meekness and lowliness of Jesus" (TPJS, 270).
"On another occasion," as Joseph McConkie tells it, "a couple of pious men of the cloth interrogated the Prophet at length, hoping to find some fault in him. When they stepped out of the house to leave, Joseph drew a line on the ground with his shoe and challenged his visitors to toe the line and see if they could outjump him. They went off in a huff amazed that one who professed to be a man of God would propose such an activity on the Sabbath day. When asked why he had done so, the Prophet responded that they had come to find fault with him, and he hated to see them leave disappointed."
On yet another occasion, "[The Rushton family] arrived at Nauvoo the evening of April 13. Father was naturally very anxious to find the members of his family already established there, and hurried towards the town in search of them. He had gone only a short distance when he met a man riding a beautiful black horse. The man accosted him, saying, 'Hey, Bub, is that a company of Mormons just landed?'
"In much surprise father answered, 'Yes, sir.' 'Are you a Mormon?' the stranger continued. 'Yes, sir,' father again answered. 'What do you know about old Joe Smith?' the mounted stranger asked.
"'I know that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God,' said father. 'I suppose you are looking for an old man with a long, gray beard. What would you think if I told you I was Joseph Smith?' the man continued.
"'If you,' said father, 'are Joseph Smith, I know you are a Prophet of God.' In a gentle voice the man explained: 'I am Joseph Smith. I came to meet these people, dressed as I am in rough clothes and speaking in this manner, to see if their faith is strong enough to stand the things they must meet. If not, they should turn back right now.' This was father's introduction to the Prophet Joseph."
There are a thousand such accounts of the character of Joseph Smith. If you want to know what the Savior was like, search and find what Joseph was like.
These statements and illustrations are to show us that we come short of a correct assessment of our Lord and Savior's true character and demeanor. And, as in all things, He is our example of how to be bold. And Joseph is just like Him.
From Donald Q. Cannon: "My great-grandfather, Angus M. Cannon, had a vision with a rather sobering message. . . . He kept a very extensive journal, more than eighty volumes, in which this experience is recorded. He expressed it as follows: 'I did hear a voice which said---Angus, it is your privilege to appear before the Lord and I immediately looked and beheld Him, apparently about 30 rods [approx. 500 feet] distant. . . . I saw His profile down to His waist. . . . I undertook to arise and go to Him but dared not approach Him and said, "My God! Who can appear before Him!" I imagine He would say: How have you used my name and what use have you made of my Priesthood? When I thought of my many light speeches and the manner in which I had striven to embellish my remarks in addressing people as His servant, circumlocuting around the truths given of Him as witness His sermon on the mount, I was unable to go to Him.'"
Again, we learn from Parley P. Pratt's autobiography: While in Philadelphia, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were invited to speak to a group of some three thousand people in one of the largest churches there. Elder Rigdon addressed the congregation first. Fearful of the reaction people might have to pure Mormonism, he defended the Restoration with Bible passages, studiously avoiding reference to the coming of angels, visions, and other remarkable spiritual events upon which the Restoration rests. Sidney Rigdon's timidity so annoyed Joseph that---
"When he [Sidney] was through, brother Joseph arose like a lion about to roar; and being full of the Holy Ghost, spoke in great power, bearing testimony of the visions he had seen, the ministering of angels which he had enjoyed; and how he had found the plates of the Book of Mormon, and translated them by the gift and power of God. He commenced by saying: 'If nobody else had the courage to testify of so glorious a record, he felt to do it in justice to the people, and leave the event with God.'
"The entire congregation were astounded, electrified, as it were, and overwhelmed with the sense of the truth and power by which he spoke, [and] many souls were gathered into the fold."
Bold? Aye, and more. What to be bold about, for us? Why, about the truth . . . ! --- the only thing worth being bold about. A lack of boldness, therefore, shows a lack of conviction of the truth, a shortage of knowledge and understanding, which always comes by the Spirit, when we pay the price. Who was it that chided the Priesthood for "timid efforts" in leaving "unwarned or unaided" a human soul "so that he has to wait till a dependable servant of God comes along"?
Ah yes. It was President Monson, echoing his predecessor, the head of our dispensation, Joseph Smith, who lamented that "none but fools will trifle with the souls of men." Let's not be fools. Let's be wise. And bold . . . "in justice to the people, and leave the event with God."
The word teach in Hebrew carries the meaning of warn. A timid warning is no warning at all. The Apostles, after the Savior's ascension, in the Book of Acts had a new boldness because they had the power and gift of the Holy Ghost following Pentecost. We find this boldness nine times in Acts alone (it is found only three times in the whole of the Old Testament), and nineteen additional times in Paul's writings. The Greek word is parrhesia and means "all outspokenness, frankness, bluntness; by implication: assurance, confidence in spirit and demeanor; plainness"
(Strong's). This definition is a fitting summary of all we have said here.
"The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1).
There is more. But this will do for now.
Please share with others.
Let me know your thoughts on these important matters.
Steve
GIFTS: The Unknown Christ
We often hear in classes, comments, talks, discussions, and testimonies "doctrines that have no roots in scripture [or] those that have been grafted into the tree of life. It is important that we separate the wheat from the chaff. One cannot make good bread with chaff, and certainly not the bread of life."
Our beloved teacher and brother Joseph Fielding McConkie wrote this in 1987. In the generations before and since, his has ever been the voice of defense of good doctrine. He is a great advocate for the truths we possess because of Joseph Smith and the Restoration. He is a prime example of a true defender of the faith. We love him and thank him for it.
Do you readily see the Christ in these words from Joseph McConkie? For me, when I see these words --- doctrines, roots, scripture, tree of life, bread of life --- I immediately think of the Christ and the doctrine of Christ.
Truly, unless one sees the true Christ everywhere in the Old and New Testaments, and in all the other scriptures, then there is no understanding of the scriptures at all. And lacking that understanding we really do not know the Christ at all, for the scriptures and prophets were given to testify of Him.
Jesus the Christ is "the key of knowledge, the fulness of the scriptures" --- the reason and the purpose that we have prophets and scripture. For that matter, He is the reason we have eyes and ears and intellect.
And yet we are largely blind to Him. And He is unknown to us. Why so? Because the scriptures are largely unknown to us. And we are left, for our knowledge and understanding of Him, with the common ideas floating around in the world about Him. We are left with hearsay testimony, with half-baked ideas, secondary notions, guesswork and folly.
This truth was known to the prophets. Isaiah especially warned of it. He said that the true Messiah would have the most distorted image of any and all men. That we, the children of men, would consider Him beneath us, and would esteem Him not.
When we are steeped in self esteem it is hard to esteem Him who truly deserves our esteem. Such are the dangers of the philosophies and the precepts of men.
Nephi too, a friend and an echo of Isaiah, foretold that we --- natural mankind --- would trample Him under our feet, set Him at naught by neglecting and ignoring His voice and His counsels.
The simple fact that we struggle to be drawn to His voice in the holy writ He has revealed, that we think we are doing Him and angels a favor by reading His words at all, is evidence of this sad fact.
We neglect the scriptures because they are hard to understand. It takes work, hard work, to study and understand them. So we are left with a faint, misty, distorted image of their Author.
The scriptures can only be understood and fully appreciated when we have the same Spirit that inspired their prophet-authors in the first place: the Holy Ghost. That Spirit does not serve everyone, only those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and revelation. Only those who "have esteemed the words of His mouth more than their necessary food."
It is not the work of scholarship, so much as a love affair with the work of the Lord, as President Gordon B. Hinckley boldly affirmed.
In 1611, the translators of the King James Version of the Bible, 400 years ago this year, said of the scriptures: "If we be ignorant, they will instruct us; if out of the way, they will bring us home; if out of order, they will reform us; if in heaviness, comfort us; if dull, quicken us; if cold, inflame us. . . .
"The scriptures then being acknowledged to be so full and so perfect, how can we excuse ourselves of negligence, if we do not study them?"
These translators added, "Tolle, lege; Tolle, lege!" Latin for "Take up and read; Take up and read" the Scriptures.
A surface skimming or scanning of the scriptures won't do. We will come short unless our best efforts cause us to go deeper, below the surface. Precious gems are not found on the surface. Only gravel is found there. We must go deeper. We must, in humility and tears if need be, pay the price.
Pay the price. Out of honor and justice to Him of whom they speak.
Only then can we expect to come to know Him so that we can emulate Him, imitate Him. How serious a matter is this?
Twice in the Gospel, or Testimony, of Matthew we find the Lord chiding His disciples---the Saints---because they did not know Him or trouble themselves to find Him. More accurately, He speaks of the Last Days, when He comes in glory, when He will chide or rebuke those who considered themselves His people. "Lord, Lord, open unto us," plead the foolish virgins. But His reply comes, "Verily I say unto you, Ye know me not." And the door remains shut, even locked, as the footnote shows.
The other instance is near the end of the Sermon on the Mount: "And then will I say, Ye never knew me; depart from me ye that work iniquity."
Each time, to His disciples, or Saints, who wanted in to the feast, who had done many wonderful works of service in His name, but who, after all, knew Him not! . . . Truly, works without faith are dead, quite as dead as faith without works. And faith comes by hearing the word of God---by seeking to know the word and thus coming to know the Word.
Are not these things plain? Don't you love Nephi who delighted in plainness, who cried out for His help to be strict in the plain road! ---who began to close his record thus:
"And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be."
Nephi, who had just written, "Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock;" nor work hard at it.
Do you know of things more vital than these? --- for our children, our families, our posterity, ourselves. I have been unable to find more vital matters, and I am looking hard all the time.
We began here with doctrine, roots, bread---even the sustaining Bread of Life. Also the Tree of Life, from which comes the fruit that is most delicious and pure and sweet of all fruits, which was desirable to make one happy.
Know ye not that this Tree of Life is the Savior? It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It is not merely some fuzzy abstract notion like Love, as the world would have us believe. Search the scriptures---go deep---you will find this to be so.
Let's go deeper, so we can find Him whose visage or face was so marred, obscured, distorted by the foolish ideas of the world that He is unrecognizable, unless we seek deep to find and know Him.
More on this later.
God bless.
Steve
P.S. Sources and references have been purposely left out of the article. If you wish to know them, or to go deeper (!) in any way on this noble theme, please let me know. As always, feel free to share this around.
Our beloved teacher and brother Joseph Fielding McConkie wrote this in 1987. In the generations before and since, his has ever been the voice of defense of good doctrine. He is a great advocate for the truths we possess because of Joseph Smith and the Restoration. He is a prime example of a true defender of the faith. We love him and thank him for it.
Do you readily see the Christ in these words from Joseph McConkie? For me, when I see these words --- doctrines, roots, scripture, tree of life, bread of life --- I immediately think of the Christ and the doctrine of Christ.
Truly, unless one sees the true Christ everywhere in the Old and New Testaments, and in all the other scriptures, then there is no understanding of the scriptures at all. And lacking that understanding we really do not know the Christ at all, for the scriptures and prophets were given to testify of Him.
Jesus the Christ is "the key of knowledge, the fulness of the scriptures" --- the reason and the purpose that we have prophets and scripture. For that matter, He is the reason we have eyes and ears and intellect.
And yet we are largely blind to Him. And He is unknown to us. Why so? Because the scriptures are largely unknown to us. And we are left, for our knowledge and understanding of Him, with the common ideas floating around in the world about Him. We are left with hearsay testimony, with half-baked ideas, secondary notions, guesswork and folly.
This truth was known to the prophets. Isaiah especially warned of it. He said that the true Messiah would have the most distorted image of any and all men. That we, the children of men, would consider Him beneath us, and would esteem Him not.
When we are steeped in self esteem it is hard to esteem Him who truly deserves our esteem. Such are the dangers of the philosophies and the precepts of men.
Nephi too, a friend and an echo of Isaiah, foretold that we --- natural mankind --- would trample Him under our feet, set Him at naught by neglecting and ignoring His voice and His counsels.
The simple fact that we struggle to be drawn to His voice in the holy writ He has revealed, that we think we are doing Him and angels a favor by reading His words at all, is evidence of this sad fact.
We neglect the scriptures because they are hard to understand. It takes work, hard work, to study and understand them. So we are left with a faint, misty, distorted image of their Author.
The scriptures can only be understood and fully appreciated when we have the same Spirit that inspired their prophet-authors in the first place: the Holy Ghost. That Spirit does not serve everyone, only those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and revelation. Only those who "have esteemed the words of His mouth more than their necessary food."
It is not the work of scholarship, so much as a love affair with the work of the Lord, as President Gordon B. Hinckley boldly affirmed.
In 1611, the translators of the King James Version of the Bible, 400 years ago this year, said of the scriptures: "If we be ignorant, they will instruct us; if out of the way, they will bring us home; if out of order, they will reform us; if in heaviness, comfort us; if dull, quicken us; if cold, inflame us. . . .
"The scriptures then being acknowledged to be so full and so perfect, how can we excuse ourselves of negligence, if we do not study them?"
These translators added, "Tolle, lege; Tolle, lege!" Latin for "Take up and read; Take up and read" the Scriptures.
A surface skimming or scanning of the scriptures won't do. We will come short unless our best efforts cause us to go deeper, below the surface. Precious gems are not found on the surface. Only gravel is found there. We must go deeper. We must, in humility and tears if need be, pay the price.
Pay the price. Out of honor and justice to Him of whom they speak.
Only then can we expect to come to know Him so that we can emulate Him, imitate Him. How serious a matter is this?
Twice in the Gospel, or Testimony, of Matthew we find the Lord chiding His disciples---the Saints---because they did not know Him or trouble themselves to find Him. More accurately, He speaks of the Last Days, when He comes in glory, when He will chide or rebuke those who considered themselves His people. "Lord, Lord, open unto us," plead the foolish virgins. But His reply comes, "Verily I say unto you, Ye know me not." And the door remains shut, even locked, as the footnote shows.
The other instance is near the end of the Sermon on the Mount: "And then will I say, Ye never knew me; depart from me ye that work iniquity."
Each time, to His disciples, or Saints, who wanted in to the feast, who had done many wonderful works of service in His name, but who, after all, knew Him not! . . . Truly, works without faith are dead, quite as dead as faith without works. And faith comes by hearing the word of God---by seeking to know the word and thus coming to know the Word.
Are not these things plain? Don't you love Nephi who delighted in plainness, who cried out for His help to be strict in the plain road! ---who began to close his record thus:
"And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be."
Nephi, who had just written, "Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock;" nor work hard at it.
Do you know of things more vital than these? --- for our children, our families, our posterity, ourselves. I have been unable to find more vital matters, and I am looking hard all the time.
We began here with doctrine, roots, bread---even the sustaining Bread of Life. Also the Tree of Life, from which comes the fruit that is most delicious and pure and sweet of all fruits, which was desirable to make one happy.
Know ye not that this Tree of Life is the Savior? It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It is not merely some fuzzy abstract notion like Love, as the world would have us believe. Search the scriptures---go deep---you will find this to be so.
Let's go deeper, so we can find Him whose visage or face was so marred, obscured, distorted by the foolish ideas of the world that He is unrecognizable, unless we seek deep to find and know Him.
God bless.
Steve
P.S. Sources and references have been purposely left out of the article. If you wish to know them, or to go deeper (!) in any way on this noble theme, please let me know. As always, feel free to share this around.
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