The Lamb and the Lion
The moment when the “Lamb” and the “Lion” lay down together is the time of His great return. He is both. A Lamb to those who are prepared at His coming. A Lion to those who are not prepared, for whom judgment will be poured out.
When you see that painting of the Lamb and Lion lying down together (we have one in our Stake Center), you are seeing the two great symbols of the Lord’s Millennial reign.
The Lamb and the Lion
The moment when the “Lamb” and the “Lion” lay down together is the time of His great return. He is both. A Lamb to those who are prepared at His coming. A Lion to those who are not prepared, for whom judgment will be poured out.
When you see that painting of the Lamb and Lion lying down together (we have one in our Stake Center), you are seeing the two great symbols of the Lord’s Millennial reign.
The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl
“dried up with thirst”
God of Truth
I was asked about the meaning of the statement in scripture that “God cannot lie.” It is an important concept and it has a highly specific application. I have dealt with it at length in the book Beloved Enos. I would suggest reading the discussion there. If there are still questions, send me another inquiry.
Cycles
“As I said unto you that I would prophesy, behold, this is my prophecy– that the things which this prophet Zenos spake, concerning the house of Israel, in the which he likened them unto an unto a tame olive tree, must surely come to pass.” (Jacob 6: 1.) That’s it. His great prophecy: What Zenos said will happen!
Spring baseball
Believe it is possible
President Packer’s Testimony
I believe President Packer means it when he says his testimony was “the same as I might have in a fast and testimony meeting in my ward.” When someone in a position of Church leadership has an audience with Christ, we hear about it. Joseph Smith told us. Oliver Cowdrey told us. Sidney Rigdon told us. So did President John Taylor, President Joseph F. Smith and David B. Haight. Their calling is to bear a witness of Him. When they have an actual audience, I believe they tell us.
The calling of the Twelve is to “bear witness” of Christ. (D&C 107: 23.) Because of that calling, they must proclaim they have a “witness” even if it could be more correctly described as a testimony born of the Spirit. I accept their “witness” of Christ and believe it is authoritative. However, I do not read into their testimony what they do not put there themselves.
I accept the “witness” of the living Apostles, although it is a rare exception when one has an audience with Christ. In recent talks Elder Scott has gone to some length to testify and describe his own spiritual experiences. I trust in them. I trust him. I believe him to be an Apostle. It is not necessary for an Apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to have a personal audience with Christ.
Years ago Elder Mark Peterson said he did not think it possible for a gentile to receive an audience with Christ. He thought that was confined to pure-blooded Israelites. Since he was a gentile apostle to a gentile church, he did not believe it possible for him to receive such an audience. As I understand it, that is the general view among the brethren. The charge given by Elder Oliver Cowdrey to the Twelve (telling them they must receive an audience with Christ for their ordination to be complete) was discontinued in 1911 by President Smith. It was discontinued because so few had received that audience. But that does not make these men any less apostles.
I trust President Packer. I accept his testimony. I believe it is enough to qualify him for the work, just as President McKay told him. I am impressed with his humility in explaining his testimony in General Conference. It increases my trust in him as a servant of the Lord.
Process Not Event
A great deal of the scriptures have been written by those who have been through the process, and who are trying to give us instruction to repeat it in our own lives. “Events” which occur are in the scriptures, as well. But we will never arrive at the “events” unless we first realize there is a process and we begin to participate actively in that process.
The first chapter of Abraham, second and third verses, describes a lengthy process. It took decades to unfold. It was not merely that Abraham determined to do something and then it happened. He’s giving a recitation of the process whereby he became at last a “rightful heir” and a “prince of peace” who had “received instructions” and “held the right belonging to the fathers.”
His quest began in “the land of the Chaldeans.” His ordination would not occur until he was transplanted nearly a thousand miles to the place where Melchizedek would at last ordain and endow him. (D&C 84: 14.) Shem was the “great high priest” we know as “Melek” (king) and “Zadok” (priest) or in other words Melchizedek. (D&C 138: 41.)
The Lord lives in a timeless state. (D&C 130: 7; Alma 40: 8.) We live inside time. When the Lord shows things to prophets from His perspective, it takes a while for men to comprehend what they have been shown. It is a process. Our effort is also required.
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Joseph’s First Vision
The account in the Pearl of Great Price (written in 1838) omits any mention of this detail.
Adoptionism
Now the adoptionist theory was contrary to this. They held the view that Christ was just another man and got adopted to become the Son of God. He was God’s Son solely as a result of that adoption and not in any other way. I reject that idea. But I accept that He needed, just as everyone else needs, to be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, proceed through the ordinances of the Gospel, and ultimately receive His calling and election made sure. He said He needed to “fulfill all righteousness” and He did all that was required of any of us. God acknowledged Him as His Son. This is required for anyone to be saved. Christ showed the way and walked the path. So in that sense He, just as all of us, needed to be “adopted.” Him because He was mortal. Us because we are conceived in sin.
The Word of God
God says: “You are my son, this day I have begotten you.” (Psalms 2:7) When that occurred, it was enough to make a man a son of God. I don’t know if we even believe that possible now.
Today we assume if it is to happen at all it will be in the afterlife. To the ancients, the person to whom this promise was made was instantly a son of God, even though he may have to live out a life in mortality before entering into the kingdom promised him.
The “king-making ceremonies” of the Egyptians, for example, made the Pharaoh a son of Horus and a God. He was a God on earth even though everyone knew that he needed to eat and breathe to survive. He would eventually die and be buried. He was a mortal – but he was a God. The promise was everything. The words of the ceremony, the effect of the anointing, the commitment to the man was enough to make him a God.
This concept of man becoming God hails from a different culture and time. One untainted by the “head of gold, arms of silver, belly of brass, etc.” It is from a time when the Eastern mind, (words are eternal, everything here is temporary and an illusion) was in place among those who are talking with God.
Christ took the Father’s words so seriously that Christ became the literal embodiment of God the Father’s words. He, Christ, was known as the “Word of God” because He remained true to every word spoken by the Father. If you want to know what the Father said, look to Christ.
So believing/accepting the words of God are critical to getting the true reality of what this life is all about.