Be of Good Cheer! Jesus is the Christ, Jeshua, the Holy Messiah who soon will come in power and great glory.

  1. Remarks: Be of Good Cheer
  2. By President Dallin H. Oaks
  3. First Counselor in the First Presidency
  4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, headquarters Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Click here for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir “Let Us All Press On” music https://www.google.com/search?q=let+us+all+press+on+by+the+tabernacle+choir&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS863US863&oq=Let+us+all&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j35i39j46i457j0l5.4028j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

If you want to talk to the missionaries, to get in touch and make an appointment and reach missionaries for a phone call or online face to face call 1-801-240-1000 or check out toll free numbers depending on where you are in the world at this internet link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/help/support/toll-free-numbers-gsc?lang=eng/.

  1. Our unshakable faith in the doctrine of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ guides our steps and gives us joy.
  2. In the final days of His mortal life, Jesus Christ told His Apostles of the persecutions and hardships they would suffer.1 
  3. He concluded with this great assurance: “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
  4. That is the Savior’s message to all of our Heavenly Father’s children.
  5. That is the ultimate good news for each of us in our mortal lives.
  6. “Be of good cheer” was also a needed assurance in the world into which the resurrected Christ sent His Apostles.
  7. “We are troubled on every side,” the Apostle Paul later told the Corinthians, “yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8–9).
  8. Two thousand years later we are also “troubled on every side,” and we also need that same message not to despair but to be of good cheer.
  9. The Lord has special love and concern for His precious daughters.
  10. He knows of your wants, your needs, and your fears.
  11. The Lord is all powerful. Trust Him.
  12. The Prophet Joseph Smith was taught that “the works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught” (Doctrine and Covenants 3:1).
  13. To His struggling children, the Lord gave these great assurances:
  14. “Behold, this is the promise of the Lord unto you, O ye my servants.
  15. “Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God” (Doctrine and Covenants 68:5–6).
  16. The Lord stands near us, and He has said:
  17. “What I say unto one I say unto all, be of good cheer, little children; for I am in your midst, and I have not forsaken you” (Doctrine and Covenants 61:36).
  18. “For after much tribulation come the blessings” (Doctrine and Covenants 58:4).
  19. Sisters, I testify that these promises, given in the midst of persecutions and personal tragedies, apply to each of you in your troubling circumstances today.
  20. They are precious and remind each of us to be of good cheer and to have joy in the fulness of the gospel as we press forward through the challenges of mortality.
  21. Tribulation and challenges are the common experiences of mortality.
  22. Opposition is an essential part of the divine plan for helping us grow,2 and in the midst of that process, we have God’s assurance that, in the long view of eternity, opposition will not be allowed to overcome us.
  23. With His help and our faithfulness and endurance, we will prevail.
  24. Like the mortal life of which they are a part, all tribulations are temporary. In the controversies that preceded a disastrous war, United States president Abraham Lincoln wisely reminded his audience of the ancient wisdom that “this, too, shall pass away.”3
  25. As you know, the mortal adversities of which I speak—which make it difficult to be of good cheer—sometimes come to us in common with many others, like the millions now struggling through some of the many devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  26. Similarly, in the United States millions are suffering through a season of enmity and contention that always seems to accompany presidential elections but this time is the most severe many of the oldest of us can ever remember.
  27. On a personal basis, each of us struggles individually with some of the many adversities of mortality, such as poverty, racism, ill health, job losses or disappointments, wayward children, bad marriages or no marriages, and the effects of sin—our own or others’.
  28. Yet, in the midst of all of this, we have that heavenly counsel to be of good cheer and to find joy in the principles and promises of the gospel and the fruits of our labors.4 
  29. That counsel has always been so, for prophets and for all of us.
  30. We know this from the experiences of our predecessors and what the Lord said to them.
  31. Remember the circumstances of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
  32. Looked at through the lens of adversities, his life was one of poverty, persecution, frustration, family sorrows, and ultimate martyrdom.
  33. As he suffered imprisonment, his wife and children and the other Saints suffered incredible hardships as they were driven out of Missouri.
  34. When Joseph pleaded for relief, the Lord answered:
  35. “My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
  36. “And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:7–8).
  37. This was the personal, eternal counsel that helped the Prophet Joseph to maintain his native cheery temperament and the love and loyalty of his people.
  38. These same qualities strengthened the leaders and pioneers who followed and can strengthen you as well.
  39. Think of those early members!
  40. Again and again, they were driven from place to place.
  41. Finally they faced the challenges of establishing their homes and the Church in a wilderness.5 
  42. Two years after the initial band of pioneers arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, the pioneers’ grip on survival in that hostile area was still precarious.
  43. Most members were still on the trail across the plains or struggling to get resources to do so.
  44. Yet leaders and members were still of hope and good cheer.
  45. Even though the Saints were not settled in their new homes, at October 1849 general conference a new wave of missionaries was sent out to Scandinavia, France, Germany, Italy, and the South Pacific.6 
  46. At what could have been thought their lowest level, the pioneers rose to new heights.
  47. And just three years later, another 98 were also called to begin to gather scattered Israel.
  48. One of the Church leaders explained that these missions “are generally, not to be very long ones; probably from 3 to 7 years will be as long as any man will be absent from his family.”7
  49. Sisters, the First Presidency is concerned about your challenges.
  50. We love you and pray for you.
  51. At the same time, we often give thanks that our physical challenges—apart from earthquakes, fires, floods, and hurricanes—are usually less than our predecessors faced.
  52. In the midst of hardships, the divine assurance is always “be of good cheer, for I will lead you along.
  53. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours” (Doctrine and Covenants 78:18).
  54. How does this happen?
  55. How did it happen for the pioneers?
  56. How will it happen to women of God today?
  57. By our following prophetic guidance, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against [us],” the Lord said by revelation in April 1830.
  58. “Yea,” He said, “… the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory” (Doctrine and Covenants 21:6).
  59. “Fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:34).
  60. With the Lord’s promises, we “lift up [our] heart[s] and rejoice” (Doctrine and Covenants 25:13), and “with a glad heart and a cheerful countenance” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:15), we go forward on the covenant path.
  61. Most of us do not face decisions of giant proportions, like leaving our homes to pioneer an unknown land.
  62. Our decisions are mostly in the daily routines of life,
  63. but as the Lord has told us, “Be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:33).
  64. There is boundless power in the doctrine of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
  65. Our unshakable faith in that doctrine guides our steps and gives us joy.
  66. It enlightens our minds and gives strength and confidence to our actions.
  67. This guidance and enlightenment and power are promised gifts we have received from our Heavenly Father.
  68. By understanding and conforming our lives to that doctrine, including the divine gift of repentance, we can be of good cheer as we keep ourselves on the path toward our eternal destiny—reunion and exaltation with our loving heavenly parents.
  69. “You may be facing overwhelming challenges,” Elder Richard G. Scott taught.
  70. “Sometimes they are so concentrated, so unrelenting, that you may feel they are beyond your capacity to control.
  71. Don’t face the world alone.
  72. ‘Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding’ [Proverbs 3:5].
  73. … It was intended that life be a challenge, not so that you would fail, but that you might succeed through overcoming.”8
  74. It is all part of the plan of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ,
  75. of which I testify,
  76. as I pray that we will all persist
  77. to our heavenly destination,
  78. in the name of Jesus Christ,
  79. amen.

Hits: 111

Jesus is the Resurrected Messiah who provides all of us with a Resurrection.

Jesus is the Resurrected Messiah who provides all of us with a Resurrection. Like Heavenly Father, Jesus now has a glorified resurrected body of flesh and bones.

See https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/resurrection?lang=eng

Resurrection

Overview

Because of the Fall of Adam and Eve, we are subject to physical death, which is the separation of the spirit from the body. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all people will be resurrected and saved from physical death (see 1 Corinthians 15:22). Resurrection is the reuniting of the spirit with the body in an immortal state, no longer subject to disease or death.

The Savior was the first person on this earth to be resurrected. The New Testament contains several accounts testifying that He rose from the tomb (see Matthew 28:1–8Mark 16:1–14Luke 24:1–48John 20:1–291 Corinthians 15:1–82 Peter 1:16–17).

When the resurrected Lord appeared to His Apostles, He helped them understand that He had a body of flesh and bones. He said, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke 24:39). He also appeared to the Nephites after His Resurrection (see 3 Nephi 11:10–17).

At the time of the resurrection, we will “be judged according to [our] works. … We shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of all our guilt” (Alma 11:41, 43). The eternal glory we receive will depend on our faithfulness. Although all people will be resurrected, only those who have come unto Christ and partaken of the fulness of His gospel will inherit exaltation in the celestial kingdom.

An understanding and testimony of the resurrection can give us hope and perspective as we experience the challenges, trials, and triumphs of life. We can find comfort in the assurance that the Savior lives and that through His Atonement, “he breaketh the bands of death, that the grave shall have no victory, and that the sting of death should be swallowed up in the hopes of glory” (Alma 22:14).

Related Topics

Scriptures

Scripture References

Scripture Study Resources

Hits: 294

Jesus is the Christ, Yeshua, the Holy Messiah who soon will come in power and great glory

  1. The Culture of Christ
  2. By Elder William K. Jackson Of the Seventy
  3. Click here to watch Elder Jackson’s talk.https://youtu.be/_BMIsM5B78c
  4. Click here to listen only https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BMIsM5B78c
  5. We can cherish the best of our individual earthly cultures and be full participants in the eternal culture that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
  6. What a magnificent world we live in and share, home to a great diversity of peoples, languages, customs, and histories—spread out over hundreds of countries and thousands of groups, each rich in culture.
  7. Mankind has much to be proud of and to celebrate. But though learned behavior—those things to which we are exposed by the cultures we grow up in—can serve as a great strength in our lives, it can also, at times, become a significant obstacle.
  8. It may seem that culture is so heavily embedded in our thinking and behavior that it is impossible to change.
  9. It is, after all, much of what we feel defines us and from which we feel a sense of identity.
  10. It can be such a strong influence that we can fail to see the man-made weaknesses or flaws in our own cultures, resulting in a reluctance to throw off some of the traditions of our fathers.
  11. An over fixation on one’s cultural identity may lead to the rejection of worthwhile—even godly—ideas, attributes, and behavior.
  12. I knew a wonderful gentleman not too many years ago who helps to illustrate this universal principle of cultural myopia.
  13. I first met him in Singapore when I was assigned to be his family’s home teacher.
  14. A distinguished professor of Sanskrit and Tamil, he hailed from the south of India.
  15. His wonderful wife and two sons were members of the Church, but he had never joined nor listened much to the teachings of the gospel.
  16. He was happy with the way his wife and sons were developing and supported them fully in their undertakings and Church responsibilities.
  17. When I offered to teach him the principles of the gospel and share our beliefs with him, he initially balked.
  18. It took me a while to figure out why:
  19. he felt that by so doing, he would become a traitor to his past, his people, and his history!
  20. To his way of thinking, he would be denying everything he was, everything his family had taught him to be, his very Indian heritage.
  21. Over the next few months, we were able to talk about these issues.
  22. I was awed (though not surprised!) by how the gospel of Jesus Christ was able to open his eyes to a different viewpoint.
  23. In most man-made cultures, there is found both good and bad, constructive and destructive.
  24. Many of our world’s problems are a direct result of clashes between those of differing ideas and customs arising from their culture.
  25. But virtually all conflict and chaos would quickly fade if the world would only accept its original culture, the one we all possessed not so very long ago.
  26. This culture dates back to our premortal existence.
  27. It was the culture of Adam and Enoch.
  28. It was the culture founded on the Savior’s teachings in the meridian of time, and it is available to all women and men once again in our day.
  29. It is unique.
  30. It is the greatest of all cultures and comes from the great plan of happiness, authored by God and championed by Christ.
  31. It unites rather than divides. It heals rather than harms.
  32. The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us that there is purpose in life.
  33. Our being here is not just some big cosmic accident or mistake!
  34. We are here for a reason.
  35. This culture is grounded in the testimony that our Heavenly Father exists, that He is real and loves each one of us individually. We are His “work and [His] glory.”1 
  36. This culture espouses the concept of equal worth.
  37. There is no recognition of caste or class.
  38. We are, after all, brothers and sisters, spirit children of our heavenly parents—literally.
  39. There is no prejudice or “us versus them” mentality in the greatest of all cultures.
  40. We are all “us.”
  41. We are all “them.”
  42. We believe that we are responsible and accountable for ourselves, one another, the Church, and our world.
  43. Responsibility and accountability are important factors in our growth.
  44. Charity, true Christ-like caring, is the bedrock of this culture.
  45. We feel real concern for the needs of our fellowman, temporal and spiritual, and act on those feelings.
  46. This dispels prejudice and hatred.
  47. We enjoy a culture of revelation, centered on the word of God as received by the prophets (and personally verifiable to each one of us through the Holy Ghost).
  48. All humankind can know the will and mind of God.
  49. This culture champions the principle of agency.
  50. The ability to choose is extremely important for our development and our happiness.
  51. Choosing wisely is essential.
  52. It is a culture of learning and study.
  53. We seek knowledge and wisdom and the best in all things.
  54. It is a culture of faith and obedience.
  55. Faith in Jesus Christ is the first principle of our culture, and obedience to His teachings and commandments is the outcome.
  56. These give rise to self-mastery.
  57. It is a culture of prayer.
  58. We believe that God will not only hear us but also help us.
  59. It is a culture of covenants and ordinances, high moral standards, sacrifice, forgiveness and repentance, and caring for the temple of our bodies.
  60. All of these bear witness to our commitment to God.
  61. It is a culture governed by the priesthood, the authority to act in God’s name, the power of God to bless His children.
  62. It edifies and enables individuals to be better people, leaders, mothers, fathers, and companions—and it sanctifies the home.
  63. True miracles abound in this, the oldest of all cultures, wrought by faith in Jesus Christ, the power of the priesthood, prayer, self-improvement, true conversion, and forgiveness.
  64. It is a culture of missionary work.
  65. The worth of souls is great.
  66. In the culture of Christ, women are elevated to their proper and eternal status.
  67. They are not subservient to men, as in many cultures in today’s world, but full and equal partners here and in the world to come.
  68. This culture sanctions the sanctity of the family.
  69. The family is the basic unit of eternity.
  70. The perfection of the family is worth any sacrifice because, as has been taught, “no other success can compensate for failure in the home.”2 
  71. The home is where our best work is done and where our greatest happiness is attained.
  72. In the culture of Christ, there is perspective—and eternal focus and direction.
  73. This culture is concerned with things of lasting worth! It comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is eternal and explains the why, what, and where of our existence.
  74. (It is inclusive, not exclusive.)
  75. Because this culture results from the application of our Savior’s teachings, it helps provide a healing balm of which our world is in such desperate need.
  76. What a blessing it is to be part of this grand and noble way of life!
  77. To be part of this, the greatest of all cultures, will require change.
  78.  The prophets have taught that it is necessary to leave behind anything in our old cultures that is inconsistent with the culture of Christ.
  79. But that doesn’t mean we have to leave behind everything. 
  80. The prophets have also emphasized that we are invited, one and all, to bring our faith and talents and knowledge—all that is good in our lives and our individual cultures—with us and let the Church “add to it” through the message of the gospel.3
  81. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is hardly a Western society or an American cultural phenomenon.
  82. It is an international church, as it was always meant to be.
  83. More than that, it is supernal.
  84. New members from around the world bring richness, diversity, and excitement into our ever-growing family.
  85. Latter-day Saints everywhere still celebrate and honor their own heritage and heroes, but now they are also part of something far grander.
  86. The culture of Christ helps us to see ourselves as we really are, and when seen through the lens of eternity, tempered with righteousness, it serves to increase our ability to fulfill the great plan of happiness.
  87. So what happened to my friend?
  88. Well, he was taught the lessons and joined the Church.
  89. His family has since been sealed for time and all eternity in the Sydney Australia Temple.
  90. He has given up little—and gained the potential for everything.
  91. He discovered that he can still celebrate his history, still be proud of his ancestry, his music and dance and literature, his food, his land and its people.
  92. He has found that there is no problem incorporating the best of his local culture into the greatest of all cultures.
  93. He discovered that bringing that which is consistent with truth and righteousness from his old life into his new one serves only to enhance his fellowship with the Saints and to assist in uniting all as one in the society of heaven.
  94. We can, indeed, all cherish the best of our individual earthly cultures and still be full participants in the oldest culture of them all—the original, the ultimate, the eternal culture that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
  95. What a marvelous heritage we all share.
  96. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Hits: 350

Theology. The Culture of Christ.

  1. The Culture of Christ
  2. By Elder William K. Jackson Of the Seventy
  3. Click here to watch Elder Jackson’s talk.https://youtu.be/_BMIsM5B78c
  4. Click here to listen only https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BMIsM5B78c
  5. We can cherish the best of our individual earthly cultures and be full participants in the eternal culture that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
  6. What a magnificent world we live in and share, home to a great diversity of peoples, languages, customs, and histories—spread out over hundreds of countries and thousands of groups, each rich in culture.
  7. Mankind has much to be proud of and to celebrate. But though learned behavior—those things to which we are exposed by the cultures we grow up in—can serve as a great strength in our lives, it can also, at times, become a significant obstacle.
  8. It may seem that culture is so heavily embedded in our thinking and behavior that it is impossible to change.
  9. It is, after all, much of what we feel defines us and from which we feel a sense of identity.
  10. It can be such a strong influence that we can fail to see the man-made weaknesses or flaws in our own cultures, resulting in a reluctance to throw off some of the traditions of our fathers.
  11. An over fixation on one’s cultural identity may lead to the rejection of worthwhile—even godly—ideas, attributes, and behavior.
  12. I knew a wonderful gentleman not too many years ago who helps to illustrate this universal principle of cultural myopia.
  13. I first met him in Singapore when I was assigned to be his family’s home teacher.
  14. A distinguished professor of Sanskrit and Tamil, he hailed from the south of India.
  15. His wonderful wife and two sons were members of the Church, but he had never joined nor listened much to the teachings of the gospel.
  16. He was happy with the way his wife and sons were developing and supported them fully in their undertakings and Church responsibilities.
  17. When I offered to teach him the principles of the gospel and share our beliefs with him, he initially balked.
  18. It took me a while to figure out why:
  19. he felt that by so doing, he would become a traitor to his past, his people, and his history!
  20. To his way of thinking, he would be denying everything he was, everything his family had taught him to be, his very Indian heritage.
  21. Over the next few months, we were able to talk about these issues.
  22. I was awed (though not surprised!) by how the gospel of Jesus Christ was able to open his eyes to a different viewpoint.
  23. In most man-made cultures, there is found both good and bad, constructive and destructive.
  24. Many of our world’s problems are a direct result of clashes between those of differing ideas and customs arising from their culture.
  25. But virtually all conflict and chaos would quickly fade if the world would only accept its original culture, the one we all possessed not so very long ago.
  26. This culture dates back to our premortal existence.
  27. It was the culture of Adam and Enoch.
  28. It was the culture founded on the Savior’s teachings in the meridian of time, and it is available to all women and men once again in our day.
  29. It is unique.
  30. It is the greatest of all cultures and comes from the great plan of happiness, authored by God and championed by Christ.
  31. It unites rather than divides. It heals rather than harms.
  32. The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us that there is purpose in life.
  33. Our being here is not just some big cosmic accident or mistake!
  34. We are here for a reason.
  35. This culture is grounded in the testimony that our Heavenly Father exists, that He is real and loves each one of us individually. We are His “work and [His] glory.”1 
  36. This culture espouses the concept of equal worth.
  37. There is no recognition of caste or class.
  38. We are, after all, brothers and sisters, spirit children of our heavenly parents—literally.
  39. There is no prejudice or “us versus them” mentality in the greatest of all cultures.
  40. We are all “us.”
  41. We are all “them.”
  42. We believe that we are responsible and accountable for ourselves, one another, the Church, and our world.
  43. Responsibility and accountability are important factors in our growth.
  44. Charity, true Christ-like caring, is the bedrock of this culture.
  45. We feel real concern for the needs of our fellowman, temporal and spiritual, and act on those feelings.
  46. This dispels prejudice and hatred.
  47. We enjoy a culture of revelation, centered on the word of God as received by the prophets (and personally verifiable to each one of us through the Holy Ghost).
  48. All humankind can know the will and mind of God.
  49. This culture champions the principle of agency.
  50. The ability to choose is extremely important for our development and our happiness.
  51. Choosing wisely is essential.
  52. It is a culture of learning and study.
  53. We seek knowledge and wisdom and the best in all things.
  54. It is a culture of faith and obedience.
  55. Faith in Jesus Christ is the first principle of our culture, and obedience to His teachings and commandments is the outcome.
  56. These give rise to self-mastery.
  57. It is a culture of prayer.
  58. We believe that God will not only hear us but also help us.
  59. It is a culture of covenants and ordinances, high moral standards, sacrifice, forgiveness and repentance, and caring for the temple of our bodies.
  60. All of these bear witness to our commitment to God.
  61. It is a culture governed by the priesthood, the authority to act in God’s name, the power of God to bless His children.
  62. It edifies and enables individuals to be better people, leaders, mothers, fathers, and companions—and it sanctifies the home.
  63. True miracles abound in this, the oldest of all cultures, wrought by faith in Jesus Christ, the power of the priesthood, prayer, self-improvement, true conversion, and forgiveness.
  64. It is a culture of missionary work.
  65. The worth of souls is great.
  66. In the culture of Christ, women are elevated to their proper and eternal status.
  67. They are not subservient to men, as in many cultures in today’s world, but full and equal partners here and in the world to come.
  68. This culture sanctions the sanctity of the family.
  69. The family is the basic unit of eternity.
  70. The perfection of the family is worth any sacrifice because, as has been taught, “no other success can compensate for failure in the home.”2 
  71. The home is where our best work is done and where our greatest happiness is attained.
  72. In the culture of Christ, there is perspective—and eternal focus and direction.
  73. This culture is concerned with things of lasting worth! It comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is eternal and explains the why, what, and where of our existence.
  74. (It is inclusive, not exclusive.)
  75. Because this culture results from the application of our Savior’s teachings, it helps provide a healing balm of which our world is in such desperate need.
  76. What a blessing it is to be part of this grand and noble way of life!
  77. To be part of this, the greatest of all cultures, will require change.
  78.  The prophets have taught that it is necessary to leave behind anything in our old cultures that is inconsistent with the culture of Christ.
  79. But that doesn’t mean we have to leave behind everything. 
  80. The prophets have also emphasized that we are invited, one and all, to bring our faith and talents and knowledge—all that is good in our lives and our individual cultures—with us and let the Church “add to it” through the message of the gospel.3
  81. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is hardly a Western society or an American cultural phenomenon.
  82. It is an international church, as it was always meant to be.
  83. More than that, it is supernal.
  84. New members from around the world bring richness, diversity, and excitement into our ever-growing family.
  85. Latter-day Saints everywhere still celebrate and honor their own heritage and heroes, but now they are also part of something far grander.
  86. The culture of Christ helps us to see ourselves as we really are, and when seen through the lens of eternity, tempered with righteousness, it serves to increase our ability to fulfill the great plan of happiness.
  87. So what happened to my friend?
  88. Well, he was taught the lessons and joined the Church.
  89. His family has since been sealed for time and all eternity in the Sydney Australia Temple.
  90. He has given up little—and gained the potential for everything.
  91. He discovered that he can still celebrate his history, still be proud of his ancestry, his music and dance and literature, his food, his land and its people.
  92. He has found that there is no problem incorporating the best of his local culture into the greatest of all cultures.
  93. He discovered that bringing that which is consistent with truth and righteousness from his old life into his new one serves only to enhance his fellowship with the Saints and to assist in uniting all as one in the society of heaven.
  94. We can, indeed, all cherish the best of our individual earthly cultures and still be full participants in the oldest culture of them all—the original, the ultimate, the eternal culture that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
  95. What a marvelous heritage we all share.
  96. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Hits: 358

The Sheriff is Coming. Jesus The Resurrected Christ Messiah Yeshua is Coming in Power and Great Glory. So Repent and Get Ready!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-sheriff-is-coming-tomorrow-my-friend-richard-w-linford.html

Jesus Christ Painting - The Sheriff is Coming Tomorrow My Friend by Richard W Linford

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Jesus The Christ Messiah is Yeshua, the Son of the Living God The Father, who soon will come in power and great glory so repent and get ready for your rapture. Quoting Psalm 20 verse seven: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”

THE GREAT I AM, JESUS CHRIST, THE HOLY MESSIAH, WHO SOON WILL COME IN POWER AND GLORY SO REPENT AND GET READY FOR YOUR RAPTURE

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: BUT WE WILL REMEMBER THE NAME OF THE LORD OUR GOD.

  1. Some trust in RALPH LAUREN, and some in ARMANI: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  2. Some trust in PRADA, and some in BURBERRY: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  3. Some trust in FENDI, and some in HOUSE OF VERSACE: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  4. Some trust in CHANEL, and some in GUCCI: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  5. Some trust in LOUIS VUITTON, and some in HERMES: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  6. Some trust in FERRARI F60s, and some in ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOMS: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  7. Some trust in FORD MUSTANGS, and some in CHEVROLET CORVETTES: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  8. Some trust in FORD F-150s, and some in CHEVROLET SILVERADOS: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  9. Some trust in MANSORY VIVERE BUGATTI VEYRONS, and some in ASTON MARTIN ONE-77s: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  10. Some trust in KOENIGSEGG CCXR TREVITAs, and some in LAMBORGHINI VENENOs: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  11. Some trust in TOYOTA TACOMAS, and some in DODGE RAM 1500s: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  12. Some trust in TESLA EVs, and some in CHEVROLET BOLTs: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  13. Some trust in LEXUS, and some in BMWs: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  14. Some trust in AUDI, and some in MERCEDES-BENZ: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  15. Some trust in JAGUARs, and some in VOLVOs: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  16. Some trust in APPLE, and some in MICROSOFT: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  17. Some trust in iPHONEs, and some in iPADs: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  18. Some trust in CHOCOLATE KISSES, and some in LOBSTER CROISSANTS: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  19. Some trust in BAKLAVA, and some in CRÈME BRULEE: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  20. Some trust in PIZZA MARGHERITA, and some in GUACAMOLE: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  21. Some trust in AMERICAN BARBECUE, and some in MAC AND CHEESE, but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  22. Some trust in KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN, and some in BACON LETTUCE AND TOMATO SANDWICHES: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  23. Some trust in KRISPY KREME DONUTS, and some in EINSTEIN BAGELS: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  24. Some trust in Acura, and some in Cadillac: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  25. Some trust in Chevrolet Colorados, and some in GMC Sierra 1500s: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
  26. Quoting Psalm 20 verse seven: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”

Let us all press on in the work of the Lord. Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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We need Our Redeemer, Jesus the Christ, the Holy Messiah, who soon will come in power and great glory to destroy the wicked, save the righteous, usher in the millennium and rule and reign.

Jesus Painting - Jesus is the Christ The Holy Messiah who soon will come in glory by Richard W Linford
Jesus is The Christ, The Holy Messiah – painting by Richard Linfordhttps://fineartamerica.com/featured/jesus-is-the-christ-the-holy-messiah-who-soon-will-come-in-glory-richard-w-linford.html

Source: James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, Chapter 3, The Need of a Redeemer, verbatim quote.

1.      We have heretofore shown that the entire human race existed as

spirit-beings in the primeval world, and that for the purpose of making

possible to them the experiences of mortality this earth was created.

2.      They were endowed with the powers of agency or choice while yet but

spirits; and the divine plan provided that they be free-born in the

flesh, heirs to the inalienable birthright of liberty to choose and to

act for themselves in mortality.

3.      It is undeniably essential to the eternal progression of God’s children

that they be subjected to the influences of both good and evil,

that they be tried and tested and proved withal,

“to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God

shall command them.”[29] Free agency is an indispensable

element of such a test.

4.      The Eternal Father well understood the diverse natures and varied

capacities of His spirit-offspring; and His infinite foreknowledge made

plain to Him, even in the beginning, that in the school of life some of

His children would succeed and others would fail; some would be

faithful, others false; some would choose the good, others the evil;

some would seek the way of life while others would elect to follow the

road to destruction.

5.      He further foresaw that death would enter the

world, and that the possession of bodies by His children would be of but

brief individual duration.

6.      He saw that His commandments would be

disobeyed and His law violated; and that men, shut out from His presence

and left to themselves, would sink rather than rise, would retrograde

rather than advance, and would be lost to the heavens.

7.      It was necessary

that a means of redemption be provided, whereby erring man might make

amends, and by compliance with established law achieve salvation and

eventual exaltation in the eternal worlds. The power of death was to be

overcome, so that, though men would of necessity die, they would live

anew, their spirits clothed with immortalized bodies over which death

could not again prevail.

8.      Let not ignorance and thoughtlessness lead us into the error of assuming

that the Father’s foreknowledge as to what _would be_, under given

conditions, determined that such _must be_. It was not His design that

the souls of mankind be lost; on the contrary it was and is His work and

glory, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”[30]

9.      Nevertheless He saw the evil into which His children would assuredly

fall; and with infinite love and mercy did He ordain means of averting

the dire effect, provided the transgressor would elect to avail himself

thereof.[31]

10.   The offer of the firstborn Son to establish through His own

ministry among men the gospel of salvation, and to sacrifice Himself,

through labor, humiliation and suffering even unto death, was accepted

and made the foreordained plan of man’s redemption from death, of his

eventual salvation from the effects of sin, and of his possible

exaltation through righteous achievement.

11.   In accordance with the plan adopted in the council of the Gods, man was

created as an embodied spirit; his tabernacle of flesh was composed of

the elements of earth.[32]

12.   He was given commandment and law, and was

free to obey or disobey–with the just and inevitable condition that he

should enjoy or suffer the natural results of his choice.[33]

13.   Adam, the

14.   first man[34] placed upon the earth in pursuance of the established

15.   plan, and Eve who was given unto him as companion and associate,

16.   indispensable to him in the appointed mission of peopling the earth,

17.   disobeyed the express commandment of God and so brought about the “fall

18.   of man”, whereby the mortal state, of which death is an essential

19.   element, was inaugurated.[35]

20.   It is not proposed to consider here at

length the doctrine of the fall; for the present argument it is

sufficient to establish the fact of the momentous occurrence and its

portentous consequences.[36]

21.   The woman was deceived, and in direct

violation of counsel and commandment partook of the food that had been

forbidden, as a result of which act her body became degenerate and

subject to death. Adam realized the disparity that had been brought

between him and his companion, and with some measure of understanding

followed her course, thus becoming her partner in bodily degeneracy.

22.   Note in this matter the words of Paul the apostle: “Adam was not

deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”[37]

23.   The man and the woman had now become mortal; through indulgence in food

unsuited to their nature and condition and against which they had been

specifically warned, and as the inevitable result of their disobeying

the divine law and commandment, they became liable to the physical

ailments and bodily frailties to which mankind has since been the

natural heir.[38]

24.   Those bodies, which before the fall had been perfect

in form and function, were now subjects for eventual dissolution or

death.

25.   The arch-tempter through whose sophistries, half-truths and

infamous falsehoods, Eve had been beguiled, was none other than Satan,

or Lucifer, that rebellious and fallen “son of the morning”, whose

proposal involving the destruction of man’s liberty had been rejected in

the council of the heavens, and who had been “cast out into the earth”,

he and all his angels as unbodied spirits, never to be tabernacled in

bodies of their own.[39]

26.   As an act of diabolic reprisal following his

rejection in the council, his defeat by Michael and the heavenly hosts,

and his ignominious expulsion from heaven, Satan planned to destroy the

bodies in which the faithful spirits–those who had kept their first

estate–would be born; and his beguilement of Eve was but an early stage

of that infernal scheme.

27.   Death has come to be the universal heritage; it may claim its victim in

infancy or youth, in the period of life’s prime, or its summons may be

deferred until the snows of age have gathered upon the hoary head; it

may befall as the result of accident or disease, by violence, or as we

say, through natural causes; but come it must, as Satan well knows; and

in this knowledge is his present though but temporary triumph.

28.   But the purposes of God, as they ever have been and ever shall be, are

infinitely superior to the deepest designs of men or devils; and the

Satanic machinations to make death inevitable, perpetual and supreme

were provided against even before the first man had been created in the

flesh.

29.   The atonement to be wrought by Jesus the Christ was ordained to

overcome death and to provide a means of ransom from the power of Satan.

30.   As the penalty incident to the fall came upon the race through an

individual act, it would be manifestly unjust, and therefore impossible

as part of the divine purpose, to make all men suffer the results

thereof without provision for deliverance.[40]

31.   Moreover, since by the

transgression of one man sin came into the world and death was entailed

upon all, it is consistent with reason that the atonement thus made

necessary should be wrought by one.[41]

32.   “Wherefore, as by one man sin

entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all

men, for that all have sinned … Therefore as by the offence of one

judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness

of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.”[42]

33.   So taught the apostle Paul; and, further: “For since by man came death,

by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die,

even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”[43]

34.   The atonement was plainly to be a vicarious sacrifice, voluntary and

love-inspired on the Savior’s part, universal in its application to

mankind so far as men shall accept the means of deliverance thus placed

within their reach. For such a mission only one who was without sin

could be eligible.

35.   Even the altar victims of ancient Israel offered as a

provisional propitiation for the offenses of the people under the Mosaic

law had to be clean and devoid of spot or blemish; otherwise they were

unacceptable and the attempt to offer them was sacrilege.[44]

36.   Jesus Christ was the only Being suited to the requirements of the great

sacrifice:

37.   1–As the one and only sinless Man;

38.   2–As the Only Begotten of the Father and therefore the only Being born

to earth possessing in their fulness the attributes of both Godhood and

manhood;

39.   3–As the One who had been chosen in the heavens and foreordained to

this service.

40.   What other man has been without sin, and therefore wholly exempt from

the dominion of Satan, and to whom death, the wage of sin, is not

naturally due?

41.   Had Jesus Christ met death as other men have done–the

result of the power that Satan has gained over them through their

sins–His death would have been but an individual experience, expiatory

in no degree of any faults or offenses but His own. Christ’s absolute

sinlessness made Him eligible, His humility and willingness rendered Him

acceptable to the Father, as the atoning sacrifice whereby propitiation

could be made for the sins of all men.

42.   What other man has lived with power to withstand death, over whom death

could not prevail except through his own submission? Yet Jesus Christ

could not be slain until His “hour had come”, and that, the hour in

which He voluntarily surrendered His life, and permitted His own decease

through an act of will.

43.   Born of a mortal mother He inherited the

capacity to die; begotten by an immortal Sire He possessed as a heritage

the power to withstand death indefinitely.

44.   He literally gave up His

life; to this effect is His own affirmation: “Therefore doth my Father

love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man

taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.

45.   I have power to lay it

down, and I have power to take it again.”[45]

46.   And further: “For as the

Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in

himself.”[46]

47.   Only such a One could conquer death; in none but Jesus the

Christ was realized this requisite condition of a Redeemer of the world.

48.   What other man has come to earth with such appointment, clothed with the

authority of such foreordination?

49.   The atoning mission of Jesus Christ

was no self-assumption.

50.   True, He had offered Himself when the call was

made in the heavens; true, He had been accepted, and in due time came to

earth to carry into effect the terms of that acceptance; but He was

chosen by One greater than Himself.

51.   The burden of His confession of

authority was ever to the effect that He operated under the direction of

the Father, as witness these words: “I came down from heaven, not to do

mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”[47]

52.   “My meat is to do

the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”[48]

53.   “I can of

mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just;

because I seek not mine own will but the will of the Father which hath

sent me.”[49]

54.   Through the atonement accomplished by Jesus Christ–a redeeming service,

vicariously rendered in behalf of mankind, all of whom have become

estranged from God by the effects of sin both inherited and individually

incurred–the way is opened for a reconciliation whereby man may come

again into communion with God, and be made fit to dwell anew and forever

in the presence of his Eternal Father.

55.   This basal thought is admirably

implied in our English word, “atonement,” which, as its syllables

attest, is _at-one-ment_, “denoting reconciliation, or the bringing into

agreement of those who have been estranged.”[50]

56.   The effect of the atonement may be conveniently considered as twofold:

57.   1–The universal redemption of the human race from death invoked by the

fall of our first parents; and

58.   2–Salvation, whereby means of relief from the results of individual sin

are provided.

59.   The victory over death was made manifest in the resurrection of the

crucified Christ; He was the first to pass from death to immortality and

so is justly known as “the first fruits of them that slept.”[51]

60.   That the resurrection of the dead so inaugurated is to be extended to every

one who has or shall have lived is proved by an abundance of scriptural

evidence.

61.   Following our Lord’s resurrection, others who had slept in the

tomb arose and were seen of many, not as spirit-apparitions but as

resurrected beings possessing immortalized bodies: “And the graves were

opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of

the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and

appeared unto many.”[52]

62.   Those who thus early came forth are spoken of as “the saints”; and other

scriptures confirm the fact that only the righteous shall be brought

forth in the earlier stages of the resurrection yet to be consummated;

but that all the dead shall in turn resume bodies of flesh and bones is

placed beyond doubt by the revealed word.

63.   The Savior’s direct

affirmation ought to be conclusive: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The

hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the

Son of God: and they that hear shall live…. Marvel not at this: for

the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear

his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the

resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the

resurrection of damnation.”[53]

64.   The doctrine of a universal resurrection

was taught by the apostles of old,[54] as also by the Nephite

prophets;[55] and the same is confirmed by revelation incident to the

present dispensation.[56] Even the heathen who have not known God shall

be brought forth from their graves; and, inasmuch as they have lived and

died in ignorance of the saving law, a means of making the plan of

salvation known unto them is provided.

65.   “And then shall the heathen

nations be redeemed, and they that knew no law shall have part in the

first resurrection.”[57]

66.   Jacob, a Nephite prophet, taught the universality of the resurrection,

and set forth the absolute need of a Redeemer, without whom the purposes

of God in the creation of man would be rendered futile.

67.   His words

constitute a concise and forceful summary of revealed truth directly

bearing upon our present subject:

68.   “For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of

the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the

resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the

fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen,

they were cut off from the presence of the Lord; wherefore it must needs

be an infinite atonement; save it should be an infinite atonement, this

corruption could not put on incorruption.

69.   “Wherefore, the first judgment

which came upon man, must needs have remained to an endless duration.

70.   And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its

mother earth, to rise no more. O the wisdom of God! his mercy and grace!

71.   For behold, if the flesh should rise no more, our spirits must become

subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the eternal

God, and became the devil, to rise no more.

72.   And our spirits must have

become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be

shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of

lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our

first parents; who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and

stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder, and

all manner of secret works of darkness.

73.   O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way

for our escape from the grasp of this awful

monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of

the body, and also the death of the spirit.

74.   And because of the way of

deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I

have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which

death is the grave.

75.   And this death of which I have spoken, which is the

spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is

hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell

must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its

captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored

one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy

One of Israel.

76.   O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand,

the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and

the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the

body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and

immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like

unto us in the flesh; save it be that our knowledge shall be

perfect.”[58]

77.   The application of the atonement to individual transgression, whereby

the sinner may obtain absolution through compliance with the laws and

ordinances embodied in the gospel of Jesus Christ, is conclusively

attested by scripture.

78.   Since forgiveness of sins can be secured in none other way,

there being either in heaven or earth no name save that of

Jesus Christ whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men,[59]

every soul stands in need of the Savior’s mediation, since all are

sinners.

79.   “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”, said

Paul of old,[60] and John the apostle added his testimony in these

words: “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the

truth is not in us.”[61]

80.   Who shall question the justice of God, which denies salvation to all who

will not comply with the prescribed conditions on which alone it is

declared obtainable?

81.   Christ is “the author of eternal salvation unto all

them that obey him”,[62] and God “will render to every man according to

his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for

glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: but unto them that are

contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness,

indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man

that doeth evil.”[63]

82.   Such then is the need of a Redeemer, for without Him mankind would

forever remain in a fallen state, and as to hope of eternal progression

would be inevitably lost.[64]

83.   The mortal probation is provided as an

opportunity for advancement; but so great are the difficulties and the

dangers, so strong is the influence of evil in the world, and so weak is

man in resistance thereto, that without the aid of a power above that of

humanity no soul would find its way back to God from whom it came.

84.   The need of a Redeemer lies in the inability of man to raise himself from

the temporal to the spiritual plane, from the lower kingdom to the

higher.

85.   In this conception we are not without analogies in the natural

world.

86.   We recognize a fundamental distinction between inanimate and

living matter, between the inorganic and the organic, between the

lifeless mineral on the one hand and the living plant or animal on the

other.

87.   Within the limitations of its order the dead mineral grows by

accretion of substance, and may attain a relatively perfect condition of

structure and form as is seen in the crystal.

88.   But mineral matter, though

acted upon favorably by the forces of nature–light, heat, electric

energy and others–can never become a living organism; nor can the dead

elements, through any process of chemical combination dissociated from

life, enter into the tissues of the plant as essential parts thereof.

89.   But the plant, which is of a higher order, sends its rootlets into the

earth, spreads its leaves in the atmosphere, and through these organs

absorbs the solutions of the soil, inspires the gases of the air, and

from such lifeless materials weaves the tissue of its wondrous

structure.

90.   No mineral particle, no dead chemical substance has ever been

made a constituent of organic tissue except through the agency of life.

91.   We may, perhaps with profit, carry the analogy a step farther.

92.   The plant is unable to advance its own tissue to the animal plane.

93.   Though it be the recognized order of nature that the “animal kingdom” is dependent

upon the “vegetable kingdom” for its sustenance, the substance of the

plant may become part of the animal organism only as the latter reaches

down from its higher plane and by its own vital action incorporates the

vegetable compounds with itself.

94.   In turn, animal matter can never

become, even transitorily, part of a human body, except as the living

man assimilates it, and by the vital processes of his own existence

lifts, for the time being, the substance of the animal that supplied him

food to the higher plane of his own existence.

95.   The comparison herein

employed is admittedly defective if carried beyond reasonable limits of

application; for the raising of mineral matter to the plane of the

plant, vegetable tissue to the level of the animal, and the elevation of

either to the human plane, is but a temporary change; with the

dissolution of the higher tissues the material thereof falls again to

the level of the inanimate and the dead.

96.   But, as a means of illustration the analogy may not be wholly without value.

97.   So, for the advancement of man from his present fallen and relatively

degenerate state to the higher condition of spiritual life, a power

above his own must cooperate.

98.   Through the operation of the laws

obtaining in the higher kingdom man may be reached and lifted; himself

he cannot save by his own unaided effort.[65]

99.   A Redeemer and Savior of

mankind is beyond all question essential to the realization of the plan

of the Eternal Father, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal

life of man”;[66] and that Redeemer and Savior is Jesus the Christ,

beside whom there is and can be none other.

100.          NOTES TO CHAPTER 3.

101.          …

102.          “Our Heavenly Father has a full knowledge of the nature and disposition of each of His children, a knowledge gained by long observation and experience in the past eternity of our primeval childhood; a knowledge compared with which that gained by earthly parents through mortal experience with their children is infinitesimally small. By reason of that surpassing knowledge, God reads the future of child and children, of men individually and of men collectively as communities and nations; He knows what each will do under given conditions, and sees the end from the beginning. His foreknowledge is based on intelligence and reason. He foresees the future as a state which naturally and surely will be; not as one which must be because He has arbitrarily willed that it shall be.”–From the author’s _Great Apostasy_, pp. 19, 20.

103.          Man Free to Choose for Himself.–“The Father of souls has endowed His children with the divine birthright of free agency; He does not and will not control them by arbitrary force; He impels no man toward sin; He compels none to righteousness. Unto man has been given freedom to act for himself; and, associated with this independence, is the fact of strict responsibility and the assurance of individual accountability. In the judgment with which we shall be judged, all the conditions and circumstances of our lives shall be considered. The inborn tendencies due to heredity, the effect of environment whether conducive to good or evil, the wholesome teachings of youth, or the absence of good instruction–these and all other contributory elements must be taken into account in the rendering of a just verdict as to the soul’s guilt or innocence. Nevertheless, the divine wisdom makes plain what will be the result with given conditions operating on known natures and dispositions of men, while every individual is free to choose good or evil within the limits of the many conditions existing and operative.”–_Great Apostasy_, p. 21; see also _Articles of Faith_, iii:1, 2.

104.          The Fall a Process of Physical Degeneracy.–A modern revelation given to the Church in 1833 (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 89), prescribes rules for right living, particularly as regards the uses of stimulants, narcotics, and foods unsuited to the body. Concerning the physical causes by which the fall was brought about, and the close relation between those causes and current violations of the Word of Wisdom embodied in the revelation referred to above, the following is in point. “This, [the Word of Wisdom] like other revelations that have come in the present dispensation, is not wholly new. It is as old as the human race. The principle of the Word of Wisdom was revealed unto Adam. All the essentials of the Word of Wisdom were made known unto him in his immortal state, before he had taken into his body those things that made of it a thing of earth. He was warned against that very practice. He was not told to treat his body as something to be tortured. He was not told to look upon it as the fakir of India has come to look upon his body, or professes to look upon it, as a thing to be utterly contemned; but he was told that he must not take into that body certain things which were there at hand. He was warned that, if he did, his body would lose the power which it then held of living for ever, and that he would become subject to death. It was pointed out to him, as it has been pointed out to you, that there are many good fruits to be plucked, to be eaten, to be enjoyed. We believe in enjoying good food. We think that these good things are given us of God. We believe in getting all the enjoyment out of eating that we can; and, therefore, we should avoid gluttony, and we should avoid extremes in all our habits of eating; and as was told unto Adam, so is it told unto us: Touch not these things; for in the day that thou doest it thy life shall be shortened and thou shalt die.

105.          “Here let me say that therein consisted the fall–the eating of things unfit, the taking into the body of the things that made of that body a thing of earth: and I take this occasion to raise my voice against the false interpretation of scripture, which has been adopted by certain people, and is current in their minds, and is referred to in a hushed and half-secret way, that the fall of man consisted in some offense against the laws of chastity and of virtue. Such a doctrine is an abomination. What right have we to turn the scriptures from their proper sense and meaning? What right have we to declare that God meant not what He said? The fall was a natural process, resulting through the incorporation into the bodies of our first parents of the things that came from food unfit, through the violation of the command of God regarding what they should eat. Don’t go around whispering that the fall consisted in the mother of the race losing her chastity and her virtue.

106.          It is not true; the human race is not born of fornication. These bodies that are given unto us are given in the way that God has provided. Let it not be said that the patriarch of the race, who stood with the gods before he came here upon the earth, and his equally royal consort, were guilty of any such foul offense. The adoption of that belief has led many to excuse departures from the path of chastity and the path of virtue, by saying that it is the sin of the race, that it is as old as Adam. It was not introduced by Adam. It was not committed by Eve. It was the introduction of the devil and came in order that he might sow the seeds of early death in the bodies of men and women, that the race should degenerate as it has degenerated whenever the laws of virtue and of chastity have been transgressed.

107.          “Our first parents were pure and noble, and when we pass behind the veil we shall perhaps learn something of their high estate, more than we know now. But be it known that they were pure; they were noble. It is true that they disobeyed the law of God, in eating things they were told not to eat; but who amongst you can rise up and condemn?”–From an address by the author at the Eighty-fourth Semiannual Conference of the Church, Oct. 6, 1913; published in the Proceedings of the Conference, pp. 118, 119.

108.          Christ Wrought Redemption from the Fall.–“The Savior thus becomes master of the situation–the debt is paid, the redemption made, the covenant fulfilled, justice satisfied, the will of God done, and all power is now given into the hands of the Son of God–the power of the resurrection, the power of the redemption, the power of salvation, the power to enact laws for the carrying out and accomplishment of this design. Hence life and immortality are brought to light, the gospel is introduced, and He becomes the author of eternal life and exaltation. He is the Redeemer, the Resurrector, the Savior of man and the world; and He has appointed the law of the gospel as the medium which must be complied with in this world or the next, as He complied with His Father’s law; hence ‘he that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.’ The plan, the arrangement, the agreement, the covenant was made, entered into and accepted before the foundation of the world; it was prefigured by sacrifices, and was carried out and consummated on the cross. Hence being the mediator between God and man, He becomes by right the dictator and director on earth and in heaven for the living and for the dead, for the past, the present and the future, pertaining to man as associated with this earth or the heavens, in time or eternity, the Captain of our salvation, the Apostle and High-Priest of our profession, the Lord and Giver of life.”–John Taylor, _Mediation and Atonement_, p. 171.

109.          Redemption from the Effect of the Fall.–“‘Mormonism’ accepts the doctrine of the fall, and the account of the transgression in Eden, as set forth in Genesis; but it affirms that none but Adam is or shall be answerable for Adam’s disobedience; that mankind in general are absolutely absolved from responsibility for that ‘original sin,’ and that each shall account for his own transgressions alone; that the fall was foreknown of God, that it was turned to good effect by which the necessary condition of mortality should be inaugurated; and that a Redeemer was provided before the world was; that general salvation, in the sense of redemption from the effects of the fall, comes to all without their seeking it; but that individual salvation or rescue from the effects of personal sins is to be acquired by each for himself by faith and good works through the redemption wrought by Jesus Christ.”–From the author’s _Story and Philosophy of ‘Mormonism,’_ p. 111.

110.          FOOTNOTES:

111.          [29] P. of G.P., Abraham 3:25. For a fuller treatment of man’s Free

112.          Agency, see the author’s “Articles of Faith,” iii:1-10, and the numerous references there given.

113.          [30] P. of G.P., Moses 1:39; compare 6:59. Note 1, end of chapter.

114.          [31] Note 2, end of chapter.

115.          [32] Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:7; compare P. of G.P., Moses 2:26, 27; 3:7; Abraham 4:26-28; 5:7.

116.          [33] Gen. 1:28-31; 2:16, 17; compare P. of G.P., Moses 2:28-31; 3:16, 17; Abraham 4:28-31; 5:12, 13.

117.          [34] Gen. 2:8; compare statement in verse 5–that prior to that time there was “not a man to till the ground”; see also P. of G.P., Moses 3:7; Abraham 1:3; and B. of M., 1 Nephi 5:11.

118.          [35] Gen. chap. 3; compare P. of G.P., Moses chap. 4.

119.          [36] See “Articles of Faith,” iii:21-32.

120.          [37] 1 Tim. 2:14; see also 2 Cor. 11:3.

121.          [38] Note 3, end of chapter.

122.          [39] See page 7.

123.          [40] Note 4, end of chapter.

124.          [41] Note 5, end of chapter.

125.          [42] Rom. 5:12, 18.

126.          [43] 1 Cor. 15:21, 22.

127.          [44] Lev. 22:20; Deut. 15:21; 17:1; Mal. 1:8, 14; compare Heb. 9:14; 1 Peter 1:19.

128.          [45] John 10:17-18

129.          [46] John 5:26

130.          [47] John 6:38

131.          [48] John 4:34

132.          [49] John 5:30; see also verse 19; also Matt. 26:42; compare Doc. and Cov. 19:2; 20:24.

133.          [50] New Standard Dictionary under “propitiation.”

134.          [51] 1 Cor. 15:20; see also Acts 26:23; Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5.

135.          [52] Matt. 27:52, 53.

136.          [53] John 5:25, 28, 29. A modern scripture attesting the same truth reads: “They who have done good in the resurrection of the just; and they who have done evil in the resurrection of the unjust.”–Doc. and Cov. 76:17.

137.          [54] For instances see Acts 24:15; Rev. 20:12, 13.

138.          [55] For instances see B. of M., 2 Nephi 9:6, 12, 13, 21, 22; Helaman 14:15-17; Mosiah 15:20-24; Alma 40:2-16; Mormon 9:13, 14.

139.          [56] For instances see Doc. and Cov. 18:11, 12; 45:44, 45; 88:95-98.

140.          [57] Doc. and Cov. 45:54.

141.          [58] B. of M., 2 Nephi 9:6-13; read the entire chapter.

142.          [59] P. of G.P., Moses 6:52; compare B. of M., 2 Nephi 25:20; Mosiah 3:17; 5:8; Doc. and Cov. 76:1.

143.          [60] Rom. 3:23; see also verse 9; Gal. 3:22.

144.          [61] 1 John 1:8.

145.          [62] Heb. 5:9.

146.          [63] Rom. 2:6-9.

147.          [64] No special treatment relating to the Fall, the Atonement, or the Resurrection has been either attempted or intended in this chapter. For such the student is referred to doctrinal works dealing with these subjects. See the author’s “Articles of Faith,” lectures iii, iv, and xxi.

148.          [65] A comparison related to that given in the text is treated at length by Henry Drummond in his essay, “Biogenesis,” which the reader may study with profit.

149.          [66] P. of G.P., Moses 1:39.

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Jesus Christ is the Great I AM the Great Jewish Messiah who soon will come in POWER and GREAT GLORY. So repent and get ready.

I AM: Sacrament, Gethsemane, Calvary, Garden Tomb, Resurrection. Second Coming, Messiah

The nine “I AM” statements of Jesus from the NT Book of John:

1. I AM the Bread of Life/Living Bread—Jn. 6:35, 48, 51.

2. I AM the Light of the World—Jn. 8:12; 9:5.

3. Before Abraham was, I AM—Jn. 8:58.

4. I AM the Door—Jn. 10:7, 9.

5. I AM the Good Shepherd—Jn. 10:11, 14.

6. I AM the Resurrection and the Life—Jn. 11:25.

7. I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life—Jn. 14:6.

8. I AM the True Vine—Jn. 15:1, 5.

9. I AM He—Jn. 18:5-6.

John continued this theme in the Book of Revelation:



1. I AM the Alpha and Omega—1:8, 11; 22:13.              


2. I AM the Beginning and the End—1:8; 22:13.


3. I AM the First and the Last—1:11; 22:13.                   


4. I AM He Who Lives and was Dead—1:18.


5. I AM He Who Searches the Reigns and Hearts—2:23.   


6. I AM the Root and Offspring of David—22:16.


7. I AM the Bright and Morning Star—22:16.

https://mountaineagle.com/stories/the-uniqueness-of-johns-gospel,18660

He is the Beloved Son of God the Father.

He is the second member of the Godhead.

Like His Father, He is a glorified, resurrected perfect being.

He is God the Son.

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When He Comes Again!Jesus Christ is Yeshua. He is Jehovah, the Son of God the Father, the Great Messiah, the Savior of the World who soon will come in glory to usher in his Millennial Reign as King of kings and Lord of lords, the holy prince of peace who soon will come to judge the earth! So repent of your sins and get ready.

When He comes again …

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Jesus Christ is Yeshua. He is Jehovah, the Son of God the Father, the Great Messiah, the Savior of the World who soon will come in glory to usher in his Millennial Reign as King of kings and Lord of lords, the holy prince of peace who soon will come! So repent of your sins and get ready.

Jesus The Living Christ The Suffering Mortal Messiah Now The Resurrected Messiah Who is Coming Soon by Ricardo Richard W Linford
Ink and Watercolor. Ricardo (Richard W Linford).

Jesus Christ was and is Jehovah.

See: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/jesus-christ-and-the-everlasting-gospel-teacher-manual/lesson-5-jesus-christ-was-jehovah-of-the-old-testament?lang=eng

  1. “In testifying of the Savior Jesus Christ, modern prophets have declared: “He was the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament” (“The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles,” Ensign or Liahona, Apr. 2000, 2).
  2. Jesus Christ, as Jehovah, established Heavenly Father’s everlasting gospel on the earth in every dispensation of time in order to gather in every one of God’s children who were lost.
  3. Our faith in Jesus Christ can be strengthened as we come to recognize His unchanging nature and His everlasting gospel.

4. See Exodus 3:11–146:2–3John 8:52–53, 56–5918:5, 83 Nephi 15:5Abraham 1:162:8

5. Jesus Christ was Jehovah of the Old Testament

6. Read John 8:52–53, 56–59 silently. Then ask yourself:

  • What questions were the Jews asking the Savior?
  • What do you think Jesus meant by His response, “Before Abraham was, I am”? (verse 58).

7. To define the phrase “I am,” read Exodus 3:11–146:2–3, looking for how the God of the Old Testament identified Himself. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • According to these verses, what names did the God of the Old Testament use to identify Himself? (The Joseph Smith Translation of Exodus 6:3 reads, “I am the Lord God Almighty; the Lord JEHOVAH. And was not my name known unto them?” See also Abraham 1:16.)
  • How do these verses clarify the significance of Jesus Christ’s statement, “Before Abraham was, I am”? (Students should recognize that Jesus Christ was Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament and the great I AM.)

Elder Bruce R. McConkie

8. “This is as blunt and pointed an affirmation of divinity as any person has or could make. ‘Before Abraham was I Jehovah.’ That is, ‘I am God Almighty, the Great I AM. I am the self-existent, Eternal One. I am the God of your fathers. My name is: I AM THAT I AM’” (Apostle and Elder Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1965–73], 1:464).

9. Jehovah is “the covenant or proper name of the God of Israel. It denotes the ‘Unchangeable One’” (Bible Dictionary, “Jehovah”).

  • Why is it important to know that Jesus Christ was Jehovah of the Old Testament? (Answer: God has always administered His gospel through His Son, Jesus Christ. See also 3 Nephi 15:5, which records the Savior’s teaching that He was the giver of the law.)

10. You may want to read aloud the following statement by Apostle and President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972):

President Joseph Fielding Smith

“All revelation since the fall has come through Jesus Christ, who is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. … The Father [Elohim] has never dealt with man directly and personally since the fall, and he has never appeared except to introduce and bear record of the Son” (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [1954–56], 1:27).

  • How does knowing that Jehovah, or Jesus Christ, is unchangeable help you to have faith in Him? (Answer: the knowledge that Jesus Christ is unchangeable helps us have faith that just as He kept His promises to the people we read about in the scriptures, He will keep His promises to us.)

11. By early post-biblical times, the Hebrew name for Jehovah (usually represented as Yahweh in literature) was considered too sacred to be pronounced. For this reason, except for a few exceptions (see Exodus 6:3Psalm 83:18Isaiah 12:226:4), the translators of the King James Version of the Bible rendered the word Jehovah as LORD (in all capital letters). In modern Judaism, it is replaced with the word Adonai, which means “Lord.”

12. See Genesis 13:14–1617:1–9Moses 6:51–52, 64–66Abraham 1:18–192:8–11

13. Jehovah established the everlasting gospel anciently

14. Read Moses 6:51–52, 64–66 and identify what Jehovah taught Adam. In verses 51–52, Jehovah was speaking on behalf of the Father. Now ask yourself:

  • What did you notice about the gospel taught to Adam? (Answer: It is the same gospel taught today. [See 2 Nephi 31:10–16 for an example of the same gospel being taught in the Americas.] Emphasize this truth by writing the following statement on a piece of paper: The gospel of Jesus Christ is everlasting and unchanging in each gospel dispensation.)

15. In a later dispensation, Jehovah renewed His everlasting gospel through a covenant with Abraham known as the Abrahamic covenant. Now study Genesis 13:14–1617:2–8Abraham 1:18–192:8–11 and make a list of the promises the Lord made to Abraham. And study Genesis 17:1–5, 9Abraham 1:192:8–11 and make a list of what Abraham was required to do in order to receive the promised blessings.

Write the following chart on your paper, leaving space to list your responses:

Abrahamic Covenant
Promises Made to AbrahamAbraham’s Responsibilities

16. Summarizing the Abrahamic covenant read aloud the following statement:

“Abraham received the gospel and was ordained to the higher priesthood (D&C 84:14Abr. 2:11), and he entered into celestial marriage, which is the covenant of exaltation (D&C 131:1–4132:19, 29). Abraham received a promise that all of the blessings of these covenants would be offered to his mortal posterity (D&C 132:29–31Abr. 2:6–11). Together, these covenants and promises are called the Abrahamic covenant. The restoration of this covenant was the restoration of the gospel in the last days, for through it all the nations of the earth are blessed (Gal. 3:8–9, 29D&C 110:12124:58Abr. 2:10–11)” (Guide to the Scriptures, “Abrahamic Covenant”; scriptures.lds.org).

17. We emphasize that from the beginning, the Father covenanted with His children to gather them together through the truths, ordinances, and blessings of the everlasting gospel.

18. The Restoration of the gospel includes the restoration of the Abrahamic covenant.

19. That is, the Abrahamic covenant is a significant part of the new and everlasting covenant, which is the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ask yourself:

  • How does knowing that we are descendants of Abraham and heirs to all that God promised to him influence the way you live?
  • How does the availability of the blessings promised to Abraham and his posterity strengthen families and guide us in the decisions we make?

20. How can you secure the promised blessings of this covenant for yourself and your families, past, present, and future.

Joshua 24:3–131 Nephi 17:23–32

21. Jehovah blessed and led ancient Israel.

22. As part of the Abrahamic covenant, Jehovah promised the blessings of the gospel to Abraham’s posterity and those who gathered with them.

23. Read Joshua 24:3–13, and then read Book of Mormon 1 Nephi 17:23–32.

24. Look for words and phrases that teach what Jehovah did for ancient Israel.

25. You may want to suggest mark what you find and share what you learned.

26. For insight into why Jehovah did some of the things He did, read Exodus 6:2–6 aloud. Ask yourself:

  • What reason did Jehovah give for doing many of the things you read about in Joshua and 1 Nephi?
  • What does this tell you about the promises the Lord has made to you? (As students respond, write the following principle on the board: If we live faithfully, the Lord will keep the promises He has made to us.)

27. Read aloud the following statement by Apostle and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf:

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

“Because God has been faithful and kept His promises in the past, we can hope with confidence that God will keep His promises to us in the present and in the future. In times of distress, we can hold tightly to the hope that things will ‘work together for [our] good’ [D&C 90:24]” (“The Infinite Power of Hope,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2008, 23).

  • How can knowing about Jehovah’s actions anciently help you during times of trial?
  • What did He do for ancient Israel that He will also do for you?

28. We testify that in every dispensation of time, Jesus Christ has blessed God’s children with the everlasting gospel.

29. Just as the covenant people anciently received promised blessings from the Lord, so can we upon condition of our obedience.

Readings

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