Abraham's Seed

In the Book of John, Jesus taught his disciples that if they believed on His word then they would know the truth, and the truth would make them free. In reply to this many said, "We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?" (John 8:33). The Jews believed that their lineage guaranteed them the blessings promised to Abraham and their seed. I wonder then what they thought of the northern tribes who had been scattered by the Assyrians long before. Where they still entitled to these blessings, even though their nation was destroyed because they refused to repent? How then would the Jews be exempt from the same fate? In response to this standpoint Jesus taught, "Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham" (Luke 3:8).

In Sunday school today we discussed some modern "fables" that exist within the church. I wonder how many of the Saints today, like the Jews of old, believe we are justified simply because we are members of the Church. Because we have been baptized and attend our meetings weekly we are saved. I remember one of my Sunday school teachers a long time ago saying to us something like, "I think there will be many Saints that will be surprised when they see how many people there are in the Celestial Kingdom who were not members of the church." Isn't that true? God will judge us based on our works and the desires of our hearts (D&C 137:9)—it says nothing there about baptism. Having the fullness of the everlasting gospel doesn't justify us, only our works and desires do. In fact, understanding the gospel gives us even more responsibility, so we need to be careful not to become like the Pharisees of old: "And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth" (John 9:40-41).

I am so grateful that God is not a respecter of persons. He, in His infinite justice and mercy, will not condemn one man because he didn't have the opportunity to hear the gospel in this life, and exalt another because he was born into the church. I am grateful that we are required to work out our salvation (Philip. 2:12), giving us the chance to become more and more like our Savior. I know that the everlasting gospel has again been restored upon the earth in its fullness. So now that our eyes are opened, let us do the works of Abraham, that we may be counted as his seed.

A Strange New Sect

After Paul was arrested and taken to Rome, he called together the chief Jewish leaders in Rome and they told him: "We neither received letters out of Judaea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came shewed or spake any harm of thee. But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against" (Acts 28:21-22). The Jews and others at that time viewed Christians as simply a heretical new sect of Judaism, not as a restoration of the fullness of the everlasting gospel as it was given to Adam.

Interestingly, we had a reenactment of this scene in the 1800s with the Prophet Joseph Smith: "I soon found, however, that my telling the story had excited a great deal of prejudice against me among professors of religion, and was the cause of great persecution, which continued to increase; and though I was an obscure boy, only between fourteen and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in life such as to make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of high standing would take notice sufficient to excite the public mind against me, and create a bitter persecution; and this was common among all the sects—all united to persecute me" (JS-H 1:22).

It's amazing how many parallels we can find between the stories of the persecutions of the early Saints in New Testament times and the early Saints at the beginning of this dispensation. Both groups were considered heretical by their peers, both added new (or restored) scripture and doctrines to their canon, and both groups were heavily persecuted. Jesus warned his disciples before his crucifixion of the persecutions they would face: "They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service" (John 16:2). Isn't this what happened to the early Saints? Isn't this exactly what happened in Missouri and Nauvoo?

As a new onslaught of persecutions assail us in the media, in the press, and on the internet, I think we can find comfort in knowing that the Lord knows the beginning from the end. He has restored His Gospel upon the earth in these last days, never to be taken again. He will uphold us through our persecutions so long as we keep preparing for His coming. He promises us: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27).

Bible Culture

Today in New Testament class we had a member of the faculty at the BYU Art Museum come and talk to us about some of the art in our museum on campus that has to do with the New Testament. Art is a very important tool for teaching and learning, especially things like the Bible, because most of us work better with visuals. When we hear a story, we picture the events in our mind. If we see a picture of the story, that makes it all the easier for us to form the image in our imagination!

The lady that visited us shared an interesting experience. She was at a seminar at another school some time ago, and the presenter showed a painting involving symbolism from the story of Jonah and the Whale. When she asked the large group of students/faculty there what the meaning of symbols in the painting was, not one of them could answer. Why? Because they weren't familiar with Biblical stories! These people were probably raised in homes where their parents weren't practicing Christians, and our schools today not only don't think it's important to teach the Bible, but that it's wrong to do so! This is a great tragedy not just from a religious standpoint, but because our society is losing its connection with a large part of our historical culture.

I was in the car once with a friend of mine, and we were listening to Cake on his CD player. In the chorus of one of the songs it says repeats the words, "sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell." My friend, hearing the lyrics, commented on how random that statement seemed. I looked at him in confusion for a moment, and then I realized that he had probably never heard the words of Christ to his disciples as stated in Matthew: "And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left" (Matt 25:32-33).

I'm so grateful to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. Not only does it give us insight into the meaning of art and literature, but into the meaning of life itself. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, and only in Him can we fine Life Eternal!

A New Commandment

We had Stake Conference today, and one of the members of the Stake Presidency made a comment that I thought was very interesting...

In the Gospels—and the rest of the New Testament for that matter—the commandment is often given that "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Mark 12:31). We often think of this as one of Christ's key teachings, but this commandment wasn't actually something new. Christ gives the Parable of the Good Samaritan when elaborating on the greatest commandments in the law: to love God with all our heart, might, mind and strength; and to love our neighbors as ourselves. As Jesus states, these are the greatest commandments in the law, and the latter is actually found in the book of Leviticus (Lev 19:18).

On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus gave a new commandment—like unto the one found in the old covenant—but elaborated and expounded upon it: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). Isn't that interesting to think of this commandment as expounding the ancient commandment to love they neighbor as thyself?

In class a couple weeks ago we discussed the Sermon on the Mount, and the difference in the approaches that Jesus took in interpreting the law to those of the Pharisees. The Pharisees took the law given them through Moses and build restrictive structures around it, such as the many "traditions of the elders" concerning Sabbath day observance. Jesus, however, sought to attack the problem at the roots. He taught the people that they needed a change of heart, because as long as the desire to sin still existed in their hearts then the underlying problem was still there.

I think this principle is shown in its ultimate form in this new commandment. Rather than simply loving others because we would like to be loved, or not doing mean things to them because we wouldn't want to have them do mean things to us, Jesus commands us to love one another as He loves us. At our stake conference meeting last night, Elder Stone of the Seventy said, "For some of us there will only be one question at the day of judgment: Did you learn to love?" When we can see one another as the Savior does, and share that same unconditional love that He has for us, then we have truly experienced the change of heart that we need.

Sacred Records

On Friday I had the opportunity to attend the Church History Symposium here at BYU. One of the talks given was entitled "And there shall be a record kept among you", as quoted from Doctrine & Covenants 21:1. The emphasis of his talk was on the record keeping, not just recording. What good is writing a record, after all, if no one takes care of it afterward and it is lost? The speaker talked a lot about the challenges that the early Saints faced in keeping the records of the Restoration. Persecution, Apostasy, and lack of a stability and resources in the early church led to a great many precious records being lost or destroyed. One example of this is the 116 manuscript pages from the Book of Lehi lost by Martin Harris.

In Between the Testaments, frequent mention is made to Apocryphal writings originating in the first century AD, such as the Book of Enoch and others. When I first read that the records originated so long after the time of the Prophets, I thought that meant that they were works of fiction invented by Jews and Christians of that time. The same is true of many early Christian writings, such as the Gospel of Thomas. However, the book suggests that, although these records were not penned by either Enoch or Thomas, they do have at least some truth to them because they were most likely based on an oral tradition.

There are so many records mentioned in the scriptures that we no longer have access to today (see "Lost Books" in the Bible Dictionary), and many of the records that have remained to our day are no longer in their pure and complete forms. It is really such a tragedy when the sacred words given by God to men are lost to us! I'm grateful that today, in our digital age, we have access to such a wealth of information. We can visit LDS.org and find the teachings of so many prophets and apostles in our day. We have the scriptures in our homes, and most of us are even privileged to have our own copies! These blessings were unheard of in days of old—we are truly blessed!