Tag: Nicodemus

2 Nephi 28: 6

“Behold, hearken ye unto my precept; if they shall say there is a miracle wrought by the hand of the Lord, believe it not; for this day he is not a God of miracles; he hath done his work.” 

This lack of faith in receiving answers to prayer from God leads to skepticism about any other manifestation by God. If the leader isn’t having any experience with God, then they distrust claims by anyone else. Everyone is a fraud, if the leader can’t receive an answer to prayer.

The root of this is jealousy and envy. But it is completely unfounded. Revelation received by another person has no limiting effect on what personal revelation you can receive. The Lord is willing to share with all. However, it is predicated on the same principle. If the leader were willing to humble himself and seek in the prescribed manner, he would receive the same result. Everyone is invited. No one is excluded. 

Nicodemus came to Christ in the dark, and Christ taught him the same way He taught others. There are some sources which suggest Nicodemus was ultimately converted. If he was, there is little doubt that after his conversion, the spiritual life he had as one of the Lord’s disciples was greater than that of a member of the Sanhedrin. The Lord was not unwilling to share with the Sanhedrin, but they were unwilling to receive Him. When one (Nicodemus) changed his heart, the Lord came to him.

This seething distrust and accusation of any who claim to experience the miraculous leads in turn to denouncing the gifts of God. When denounced, such gifts depart from us. We no longer hear about miracles, healings, visions, tongues, visitations, or other gifts experienced by those we read of in scripture. Therefore, when the presence of the gifts end, the record of scriptures ends. There is nothing to add, and so nothing is added.

Eventually the end of this spiritual journey into the dark is to denounce all things coming from the “hand of God.” No “miracle wrought by the hand of God” will be acknowledged, but will be denounced instead. The position becomes unalterable:  “God is not a God of miracles anymore.” You must trust leaders and leadership.  You will be deceived if you profess revelation or the miraculous. And so the approach into hell is carefully laid by argument, emotion and fear.

Nephi foresaw this. He is warning us against it. We should not be seduced into thinking God has finished His work. He hasn’t. He is in the middle of fulfilling promises made generations ago to the “fathers.” We inherit from the Lord the promises He made to them. Now is a great day of miracles, visits, visitations, dreams, and healings. The heavens are open, if you will ask with a sincere heart having real intent, He will manifest the truth unto you. God remains the same. His blessings remain predicated upon the same conditions.

Seek. Ask. Knock. It will all be unfolded to you. He is no respecter of persons.

Nicodemus

When Christ taught publicly and could be heard daily, there was no need to approach Him at night in private.  However, Nicodemus, a Pharisee member of the Sanhedrin, came to Jesus to examine Him “by night” without his peers knowing that he was making this contact.  Christ knew the heart of Nicodemus, and put the matter squarely to him:
 
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  (John 3: 3.)
 
The assertion made here is: 
 
“Verily, verily”–meaning that Christ was capable of announcing truth.
 
“I say unto thee”–meaning that Christ was capable of making commandments, establishing conditions, announcing the requirements for salvation.  Indeed, Christ was putting Himself into the position of Moses, becoming a lawgiver.
 
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.” –meaning that if Nicodemus intended to see heaven, Christ was declaring the condition for entry.  Becoming a new creature was essential.  Without newness, new birth, a new approach to life, all things which Nicodemus followed would lead away from the kingdom of heaven.

Nicodemus responded: “How can a man be born again when he is old?  Can he enter the second time into the mother’s womb, and be born? ” (John 3: 4.)
 

This isn’t a rhetorical or meaningless question, nor does it announce ignorance.  Nicodemus is testing Christ.  If this is a new lawgiver, and possessed the capacity to announce conditions for entry into heaven, then He needs to explain His meaning.  This is a Pharisee Rabbi, asking a young, new Rabbi to set the matter plainly.

Christ responded: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  That which is born of flesh is flesh: and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”  (John 3: 5-8.)


Now it is put plainly:
 
Born as a new man, by water (baptism) and Spirit (receive Holy Ghost) is required to “enter into the kingdom of God.”  Without receiving these new ordinances from the new officiators (John the Baptist and Christ), the old ordinances will no longer be accepted.  This is a call to Nicodemus to receive the new prophets then preaching. Without accepting these new prophets, he could not enter into God’s kingdom.
 
Flesh is just flesh. What is required to be able to go where God is will require every person to receive a new Spirit, new life, and become connected with heaven.  
 
Heaven is unruly, unpredictable and blows without predictability.  The Spirit is unruly, requiring things which men do not anticipate.  It takes you places you have not been before.  You cannot just sit within the councils of the Sanhedrin and reason with men’s understanding.  You must become inspired by a higher source.  You must accept that new direction from above, or you will never enter into God’s kingdom.

Brilliant.  Christ taught the teacher.  Now the matter is put to him: Will he receive a new life, and leave the old one?  Will he become born again.

How hard it must have been for a man in Nicodemus’ position to approach Christ.  The fact he came at night testifies to the discomfort of his circumstances.  Yet Christ, in patience, told him how to receive eternal life.

What a revealing encounter.  We are the richer in our understanding for it having occurred.