Have We Not Reason to Rejoice?

I still rejoice in the wonderful spirit we felt as we sang together this morning:

These words by Brother William W. Phelps are quite a contrast to the world’s tendency to focus on bad news. It is true, we live in a time foretold in the scriptures as a day of “wars, rumors of wars, and earthquakes in divers places” (Mormon 8:30), when “the whole earth shall be in commotion, and men’s hearts shall fail them” (D&C 45:26).

But how does this affect us as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Are we living with apprehension, fear, and worry? Or have we, amidst all of our challenges, not reason to rejoice?

We all go through different life experiences. Some are filled with joy, and others with sorrow and uncertainty.

I remember a time when things didn’t look good for our family when I was a child. It was in the winter of 1944, one of the coldest during World War II. The war front was approaching our town, and my mother had to take us four children, leave all our possessions behind, and join the millions of fleeing refugees in a desperate search for a place to survive. Our father was still in the military, but he and Mother had agreed that if they were ever separated during the war, they would try to reunite at the hometown of my grandparents. They felt this place offered the greatest hope for shelter and safety.

With bombing raids during the night and air attacks during the day, it took us many days to reach my grandparents. My memories of those days are of darkness and coldness.

My father returned to us unharmed, but our future looked extremely bleak. We were living in the rubble of postwar Germany with a devastating feeling of hopelessness and darkness about our future.

In the middle of this despair, my family learned about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the healing message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. This message made all the difference; it lifted us above our daily misery. Life was still thorny and the circumstances still horrible, but the gospel brought light, hope, and joy into our lives. The plain and simple truths of the gospel warmed our hearts and enlightened our minds. They helped us look at ourselves and the world around us with different eyes and from an elevated viewpoint.

My dear brothers and sisters, aren’t the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and our membership in His Church great reasons to rejoice?

Wherever you live on this earth and whatever your life’s situation may be, I testify to you that the gospel of Jesus Christ has the divine power to lift you to great heights from what appears at times to be an unbearable burden or weakness. The Lord knows your circumstances and your challenges. He said to Paul and to all of us, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” And like Paul we can answer: “My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

As members of the Church of Jesus Christ, we may claim the blessings promised in the covenants and the ordinances we received when we accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news, glad tidings, and much more. It is the message of salvation as repeatedly announced by Jesus Christ and His apostles and prophets. It is my firm belief that all truth and light originating with God is embraced in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God, our loving Father in Heaven, has said that it is His work and glory “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). God the Father is the author of the gospel; it is a key part of God’s plan of salvation, or plan of redemption. It is called the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the Atonement of Jesus Christ that makes redemption and salvation possible. Through the Atonement all men, women, and children are unconditionally redeemed from physical death, and all will be redeemed from their own sins on the condition of accepting and obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ (see D&C 20:17–25; 76:40–42, 50–53; Moses 6:62).

Christ’s gospel is the only true gospel, and “there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ” (Mosiah 3:17; see also Acts 4:12).

The core elements of the gospel message are found in all the holy scriptures but are most clearly given to us in the Book of Mormon and in the revelations to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Here Jesus Himself plainly declares His doctrine and His gospel, with which God’s children must comply to “have eternal life” (D&C 14:7; see also 3 Nephi 11:31–39; 27:13–21; D&C 33:11–12).

The gospel is clear and plain. It answers the most complex questions in life, yet even a young child can comprehend and apply it. As Nephi said: “My soul delighteth in plainness; for after this manner doth the Lord God work among the children of men. For the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding” (2 Nephi 31:3).

The Prophet Joseph Smith followed the same pattern of clarity and plainness when he explained to the world in a very concise way “the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel” (Articles of Faith 1:4), which we must accept to receive the eternal blessings of the gospel:

First, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—believing in the Redeemer, the Son of God, “with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save” and then “[pressing] forward with a steadfastness in Christ, . . . feasting upon the word of Christ” (2 Nephi 31:19–20).

Second, repentance, which includes a change of mind, offering up “a sacrifice . . . [of] a broken heart and a contrite spirit”; giving up sin and becoming meek and humble “as a little child” (3 Nephi 9:20, 22).

Third, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins and as a covenant to keep the commandments of God and take upon us the name of Christ.

Fourth, laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, also known as baptism by fire, which sanctifies us and makes us “new creatures,” born of God (Mosiah 27:26; see also 1 Peter 1:23).

The gift of the Holy Ghost, given to us by our Heavenly Father and administered by one having authority, includes the merciful promise: “If ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do” (2 Nephi 32:5). Through the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, every member of the Church can receive “the words of Christ” directly (2 Nephi 32:3), at any time or place. This personal divine guidance helps us to remain valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ and endure to the end of our days. Isn’t this wonderful!

The scriptures teach us that once we have received the ordinances of baptism and confirmation, our task then is to “endure to the end” (2 Nephi 31:20).

When I was a young boy, “endure to the end” meant to me mainly that I had to try harder to stay awake until the end of our Church meetings. Later as a teenager I progressed only slightly in my understanding of this scriptural phrase. I linked it with youthful empathy to the efforts of our dear elderly members to hang in there until the end of their lives.

Enduring to the end, or remaining faithful to the laws and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout our life, is a fundamental requirement for salvation in the kingdom of God. This belief distinguishes Latter-day Saints from many other Christian denominations that teach that salvation is given to all who simply believe and confess that Jesus is the Christ. The Lord clearly declared, “If you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God” (D&C 14:7).

Therefore, enduring to the end is not just a matter of passively tolerating life’s difficult circumstances or “hanging in there.” Ours is an active religion, helping God’s children along the strait and narrow path to develop their full potential during this life and return to Him one day. Viewed from this perspective, enduring to the end is exalting and glorious, not grim and gloomy. This is a joyful religion, one of hope, strength, and deliverance. “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25).

Enduring to the end is a process filling every minute of our life, every hour, every day, from sunrise to sunrise. It is accomplished through personal discipline following the commandments of God.

The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is a way of life. It is not for Sunday only. It is not something we can do only as a habit or a tradition if we expect to harvest all of its promised blessings. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

Enduring to the end implies “patient continuance in well doing” (Romans 2:7), striving to keep the commandments (see 2 Nephi 31:10), and doing the works of righteousness (see D&C 59:23). It requires sacrifice and hard work. To endure to the end, we need to trust our Father in Heaven and make wise choices, including paying our tithes and offerings, honoring our temple covenants, and serving the Lord and one another willingly and faithfully in our Church callings and responsibilities. It means strength of character, selflessness, and humility; it means integrity and honesty to the Lord and our fellowmen. It means making our homes strong places of defense and a refuge against worldly evils; it means loving and honoring our spouses and children.

By doing our best to endure to the end, a beautiful refinement will come into our lives. We will learn to “do good to them that hate [us], and pray for them which despitefully use [us]” (Matthew 5:44). The blessings that come to us from enduring to the end in this life are real and very significant, and for the life to come they are beyond our comprehension.

My dear brothers and sisters, there will be days and nights when you feel overwhelmed, when your hearts are heavy and your heads hang down. Then, please remember, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the Head of this Church. It is His gospel. He wants you to succeed. He gave His life for just this purpose. He is the Son of the living God. He has promised:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

“For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee” (3 Nephi 22:10). “I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer” (3 Nephi 22:8).

My dear friends, the Savior heals the broken heart and binds up your wounds (see Psalm 147:3). Whatever your challenges may be, wherever you live on this earth, your faithful membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the divine powers of the gospel of Jesus Christ will bless you to endure joyfully to the end.

Of this I bear witness with all my heart and mind in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

>If henotheism means believing there are many gods but worshipping only one (or in the Mormon case I guess, 2?) then it applies.

That is not LDS doctrine. The LDS Church does not claim that there are NO other gods that exist other than the God of Abraham. But it DOES claim that God the Father claims he is the only God for us. Period. There are no others.

It is theory that God the Father may have a Father just as his Son has a Father.

Dear Zakeet,

“However, any way we want to split theological hairs, Mormons aren’t Christian. No way. No how.”

I would say it more cautiously, that the LDS is not a Christian organization, and that the god of LDS theology is not the God of Christianity, or of Jesus Christ.

Catholics believe in baptism of desire, including implicit baptism of desire, and it is beyond my capacity to read the hearts of individual members of the LDS to know whether or not this has happened.

I will say that members of the LDS who have never been baptized in a Christian community are not formally incorporated into the Body of Christ through baptism, and thus are not formally Christians.

sitetest

From the Book of Mormon:

>And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.

Does that sound similar to your view on God?

I wish you well in your quest to justify that LDS are Christians, I profoundly disagree.

In catching up on this thread this morning, it seems that there is one important issue being overlooked: The LDS church officials in SLC have DECREED that the Christian community is by golly going to accept the LDS church as Christian, come hell or high water.

As one who has followed and taken part in these discussions for months, it has been obvious that any and all reasoned, factually-based statements to the contrary are to be ignored and those presenting the arguments are to be scoffed at and denounced.

There are several apologists, (you will know to whom I am referring) who are experts in the construction of straw men and circular arguments. I encourage the continued practice of presenting the facts, not with the aim of convincing the apologists, but with the aim of keeping the truth front and center for those who read these threads.

Right, about Mormons not being Christian. Mormons don’t even understand God, much less the working out of God’s plan, the nature of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Satan; everything was skewed by Joseph Smith and his desire for power and women. I understand Joseph Smith. I was like him as a teenager and young man . . . power and women, power and women . . . that’s what I wanted. Lots of people pull the trigger and actually form cults to get what they want.

The reason I like the word henotheism is that it fits Mormons if you go deeper into the meaning of the term than the dictionary abbreviation of its meaning. The Mormons primary weapon in apologetics is obfuscation and using terms that have different meanings for their faithful than for everyone else, so I think any term that clarifies is useful. Continue to explain that the Mormons are polytheists since everyone knows what that means outside the Mormon fold. But inside the fold, their apologists have dealt with that. “No we aren’t,” they say, “we worship one god.” The faithful Mormon follows authority, the debate is ended, they are not polytheists in their own mind, so the Christian labeling them that is “ignorant” or a “bigot” in the Mormon mind. But the core definition of polytheism is “belief in or worship of more than one god.” Polytheism doesn’t require worship . . . just belief in “or” worship . . .

Dear tortdog,

I haven’t researched it extensively, but I know a little.

The roots of the doctrine go pretty much back to the early Church before the time of Constantine.

A fundamental principle regarding baptism of desire is that God is not bound by the sacraments. God can save whom He pleases, with or without the sacraments. When we say "baptism of desire," we use the word "baptism" analogously. "Baptism of desire" is not the same as the Christian sacrament of baptism, but rather, is the action of God that provides the graces to the recipient that he would receive through the sacrament of baptism.

In the early Church, Catechumens who were martyred before receiving baptism by water were said to have been baptized in blood. Not having received the sacrament of baptism, they had not been formally received into the Church. Yet, they were nonetheless counted as saints, and thus, as part of the Church, the Body of Christ.

During the Middle Ages, the concept of baptism of desire was developed further. The concepts of both explicit and implicit baptism of desire were explored, although most theologians posited an explicit baptism of desire, that God would reveal the fundamental truths of the faith to those who would receive it. St. Thomas Aquinas, in the 12th century, speculated thusly.

As Europeans explored Asia and the new discoveries of the New World, they encountered upright persons who didn’t receive an explicit divine revelation, and to account for their possible salvation, the concept of implicit baptism of desire drew more of a following.

I notice that you didn’t answer any of the questions in post 210.

sitetest

All this back and forth has lead me to think of an analogy.

There is a child. All her life, this child has been told she is beautiful by those in her family. Indeed they believe she IS beautiful.

As the child grows and goes out into the world, she tells everyone she sees just how beautiful she is. Yet she hears whispers about her appearance, she overhears others saying she is deluded, that her looks are nothing special, in fact in their opinion the girl is downright plain.

How can that be? When she looks in the mirror she sees beauty. She looks at the beauty of her mother, her sisters and grandmother - they grow luscious long hairs out of the beauty marks on their noses, their mounds of voluptuous chins perfectly framing the delicacy of their perfectly down-turned mouths. She looks like them, and so she MUST be a beauty.

Aren’t her brothers and father magnificent in their display of bones. Such fine bones that protrude proudly at their knees and shoulders. What a wonderful sight to behold. Their pale skin and sunken eyes are awesome.

The child now grown into quite a plain girl in the eyes of the world, goes on her way - demanding that others see her as beautiful. She closes her eyes to their opinion. When she is shown evidence in encyclopedias or dictionaries of the meaning of the word “beauty,” she is convinced she fits the bill. She has a right to her opinion.

What she does NOT have a right to demand, is that others think of her as beautiful. She does NOT have the right to be free of the judgment of others, because what she sees as beauty, the rest of us see as a distortion of reality.

And early Jews who believed in Christ had no right to expect to not be mistreated, maligned and misrepresented by non-believing Jews.

Protestants had no right to expect to not be labeled as heretics by the Roman Catholic Church.

But many have learned to respect the faith of others. And perhaps even not try to tell a man what that man’s beliefs are.

I’m still waiting for the story of how Christ attacked the religion of the Samaritan or the Romans. I recall Christ claiming that HE was the only way.

I respect your right to believe whatever you want. In fact, I respect your right to not be physically harmed because of it.

But you Mormons are fogetting a principal that is vital to our Republic - Freedom of Speech and the free market place of ideas.

Not all ideas are equal, yet we are certainly free to discuss them. We are free to follow them OR discount them. The marketplace determines the winner. The marketplace of society gets to select the best ideas. Without and interchange, without free speech, we are left with an Orwellian society.

Traditionally it is leftist that seek to squelch free speech with the basis of their argument as “fairness.”

Life isn’t “fair.” We all get to choose (in this society) the paths we will follow, but we also must be responsible for the consequences of our decisions and take our lumps.

Do you think it was fair or easy for me to make the decision to leave behind a belief and practice of Mormonism, and sacrifice the esteem of my family, friends and community? I made the decision. My sacrifice was nothing compared to what I gained.

You can’t stop me from speaking my ideas in the marketplace, and I can’t stop you.....not if we value our Constitution. I tolerate the right of your opinion. I WILL not be forced to live it or be silenced in my dissent. Freedom of religion is precious, and so is freedom of speech.

Go ahead - follow your God, but you CANNOT insist we call you one of us.

Tort, it is you who is demanding on this thread, that we recognize Mormons as Christian.

Why do you do that?

almost like when you tell ME what MY religion teaches.

I assume you forgot that YOUR religion was also MY religion. When I speak of what Mormonism teaches, it is from MY experience, and from MY viewpoint. Obviously YOU had a different experience (or something) than I. Are you telling me I am not free to state my opinion? Really?

I’m still waiting for the story of how Christ attacked the religion of the Samaritan or the Romans.

Do you want the stories of how Jesus rebuked the Pharisees? Would that be valid for you?

I recall Christ claiming that HE was the only way.

And Christians still assert this. But Mormonism teaches that he is the only way after all you can do. He needs your help, you must prove your wortiness. Christ is the only way to enable you to perform ordinances in the Temple that will earn you Celestial glory. Is it about Christ, or is it about what you must do?

No, I do not need to proved “proof” of where I found the definition to Christianity.

(I assume you meant 'provide'.)

Yeah; they are always wanting 'proof' of something, and when asked for 'proof' of their originals of the BoM, 'the angel took it away' is supposed to be sufficient for us.

I'm glad that God did NOT 'take away' any of the stuff we rely upon.

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