Tag: symbols

Mosiah 3: 14-15

When the Lord’s people wanted religion, but were unwilling to accept the fullness, He accommodated their desire and gave to them the “law of Moses” to keep them busy. (Mosiah 3: 14.) It is the nature of “stiffnecked” people that they prefer religious ceremonies, and endless repetition of rituals to coming into the Lord’s presence. (Id.)

King Benjamin is reminded by the angel that the purpose of the “law of Moses” was not to redeem anyone. It was merely a way to keep the people busy.

In addition to the law of Moses, the Lord gave “signs and wonders” and also many “types and shadows” to acquaint the people with the fact of “his coming.” (Mosiah 3: 15.) These were not ends. They were all means.

Why give the law of Moses?

Why give “signs” and “wonders?”

The people confused the symbols with the real thing. They thought through the symbols they were chosen, elect, and holy. They thought they were a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood. Instead, what they should have thought was that they were poor because the Lord was not dwelling among them, they considered themselves rich because they had “types and shadows.” They preferred the symbol to the reality. The true religion was only symbolized by the rites. By worshiping the symbols and not recognizing the truths which were their foundation, they became mere idolaters. It is one of the constant risks faced by God’s people, because the devil is always looking to convert the holy church of God into something perverted and evil. (See Mormon 8: 33-38.)

They could rejoice in their laws, rites, ordinances and rituals. They could consider themselves better than the nations around them because they had God’s program for salvation. All the program did was “harden their hearts” because they were proud rather than humble.

These religious and proud people did not understand that all their endless rites “availeth nothing” because it was the Lord alone who could redeem them. (Mosiah 3: 15.) They took their eyes off the Lord, and put them on the religion. They did not understand the religion was nothing, if it failed to point them to the Lord.

How oft might the Lord have gathered them, indeed! It is astonishing that men would prefer religion to God; prefer pride which alienates them from God to humility which could bring them into His presence.

Signs, wonders, types, shadows are nothing if they fail to get you to look at the underlying reasons for them. They are not the real thing. They merely point to the real thing; for that, it is left between you and the Lord.

Some few will see it as it really is. They will not be limited by the failures of the generation they live in. They can be saved in any generation because they see beyond the Lord in His types, shadows, signs and wonders. (Alma 12: 10.)

Salvation is and always has been individual. This is why there are prophets. Some will lay hold on the promises which others refuse to see.

2 Nephi 31: 6-7

2 Nephi 31: 6-7:
“And now, I would ask of you, my beloved brethren, wherein the Lamb of  God did fulfill all righteousness in being baptized by water?  Know ye  not that he was holy? But notwithstanding he being holy, he showeth unto  the children of men that, according to the flesh he humbleth himself  before the Father, and witnesseth unto the Father that he would be  obedient unto him in keeping his commandments.” 
  
Although Christ was the one mortal upon whom death could make no claim  (He being holy), He nonetheless obeyed the same conditions as  everyone else.  Notwithstanding His holiness, His right to face judgment  and not be condemned, He set the example. No one else could face  the judgment and pass. Therefore, everyone other than Him would require  baptism for repentance and remission of their sins. He did not. He determined to obey anyway so everyone could see the strait path by  which they can obtain hope.
He was flesh. He was mortal. He could (and did) die. Though death  could not claim Him, He was to die. Baptism is the great symbol of  death and resurrection, and He is the resurrection. He lived the symbol as well as the reality, so all others could  have part in that victory. The symbol to point the way. The reality to open the way. We are in  turn “shown the way” by what He did.
He also “witnesses” before “the Father that he would be obedient unto Him.”
Think about the command of understanding Nephi is exhibiting  here. He is telling us that Christ’s mortal ministry would include  these very specific events for these very specific reasons. This was  what he was permitted to tell us. What other information was within his  knowledge which he was forbidden from sharing? Does this level of  understanding by Nephi tell you something about what can be learned from  the Lord if you are diligent in following His path? Why, if you can  see what may be available, would you not be willing to do whatever is  asked of you in order to receive something similar in your own life?
Well, the foundation of the “doctrine of Christ” begins by seeing  Christ’s example, learning of the necessity of baptism and obedience to  the will of God.  That is where everyone must begin. If you start  right, you are likely to continue in the right way. But if you do not  begin aright, then you are not likely to have any ability to return and  find the right way. You cannot enter in by some other way. If you  enter in the right way, you will begin to recognize the True Shepherd’s  voice. (John 10: 1-5.) This is the beginning. It is as important to  the doctrine of Christ as all that will follow.
  

2 Nephi 31: 5

2 Nephi 31: 5:

“And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfil all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water!”

This is a missionary proof text, used to persuade everyone to get baptized. They used it on me. It worked. I got baptized.

How undeniably essential is baptism as a result of this argument? Does it seem to you that if Christ Himself needed to be baptized that without it it would not be possible for anyone to please God? If Christ needed it, then undoubtedly all of Christ’s inferiors need it as well. The only exception seems to be those children who are not accountable, and for whom Christ’s atonement will be applied because of the justice and mercy applied to such unaccountable young souls. (See Moroni 8: 20-22.) They need no baptism. But all of us do. Without it we have no hope for redemption.

It is indisputable from this verse that baptism is essential. But the question remains “why?” Why would this ordinance be required for residing in God’s presence in the eternal worlds? We know, of course, that all such matters were ordained before the foundation of the world, and cannot be changed now. (D&C 130: 20-21.) But that does not answer the question of “why?”

Have you ever inquired to know why? It is not answered in scripture. It is only implied. Sometimes the best place to look for an answer is to go back to the beginning. Reading the account of Adam’s baptism (who was the first to receive the ordinance in mortality) we find a few things. By the water we keep the commandment. (Moses 6: 60.) The first man was taken by the Spirit and baptized, put under the water and brought forth out of the water again. (Moses 6: 64.) After he had been buried in the water and brought forth again, he was told he had been born again of the Spirit. (Moses 6: 65.) Before any of the ordinance happened, however, Adam was told this: “behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me.” (Moses 6: 63.) Did you catch that?

Just before Adam’s baptism the Lord explains to Adam that the reason for “all things” being as they are is “to bear record of me [meaning Christ].” Baptism is designed to bear testimony of Christ. How so? In what way does baptism tell us about Christ?

Christ died, was buried, and on the third day arose from the dead. (D&C 20: 23.) He said He would do that before His crucifixion. (Mark 8: 31; Luke 18: 33.) His disciples did not understand this prophecy. (Luke 18: 34.)

Baptism is a reenactment of Christ’s death and resurrection. Once you have been placed under the water you are cut off from the breath of life. If you remain under the water for too long, you will die. While there, you are only able to survive by holding your breath. You retain the power to live, if you return to the surface soon enough, but your life is dependent upon the one performing the ordinance. They must lift you back to return you to life. Just as Christ needed the power of His Father, we also need the power of the officiator to raise us back to life. It is as if the life of Christ has been beautifully choreographed. Christ was sent to lay down His life and take it up again. That is what He did. As Joseph Smith explained in the King Follett Discourse: “The scriptures inform us that Jesus said, as the Father hath power in himself, even so hath the Son power—to do what? Why, what the Father did. The answer is obvious—in a manner to lay down his body and take it up again. Jesus, what are you going to do? To lay down my life as my Father did, and take it up again. Do you believe it? If you do not believe it you do not believe the Bible. The scriptures say it, and I defy all the learning and wisdom and all the combined powers of earth and hell together to refute it. Here, then, is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.”

First we receive an ordinance which shows us the way by symbols. We are shown the way back to redemption and resurrection, but must see it with the eyes of faith, before we behold it as it truly is. (Ether 12: 19.) If we are to rise from the dead and have eternal life in Christ, we must first enact that event through the ordinance which points to the reality of our future rise from the dead.

Ordinances are the preliminary act, designed to bear testimony of the real event. They are not the real thing, but a “type” of the real thing. They must be seen through the eyes of faith (Ether 12: 19) to allow us to gain the faith necessary to obtain the real thing. Before you are resurrected in a whole, complete and glorified fashion you must first voluntarily agree to enact that future event, looking forward in faith to that future day. Before you enter into the Lord’s presence, you must first enact that in the Temple, looking forward in faith to that future day.

All things point to Christ. However, only those who have the faith to see within them the underlying reality with the “eyes of faith” will obtain to the final promises and covenants intended for all of us to obtain.

3 Nephi 21: 12-14

“And my people who are a remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, yea, in the midst of them as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he go through both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. Their hand shall be lifted up upon their adversaries, and all their enemies shall be cut off. Yea, wo be unto the Gentiles except they repent; for it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Father, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots;”

Notice again the distinction between the gentiles and the remnant.

The “remnant” will behave in a way which will “tread down and tear in pieces” the gentiles. As they do this, “none can deliver” the gentiles.

Unlike the previous slaughter of the remnant by the gentiles, this time it is the gentiles who are slaughtered at the hands of the remnant. Those who are “enemies” to the remnant will all be “cut off.” What does “cut off” mean?

The woes of that coming time can all be avoided by the gentiles – predicated upon their willingness to “repent.” So we return again to the recurring question of what it means to “repent?” How can “repentance” be the only means by which the gentiles survive the slaughter? What is it about gentile repentance that spares them from the wrath that is to be otherwise poured out upon them?

What symbol comes to mind when you think of “horses?” What does cutting out the horses symbolize?

Does the symbol of the “horses” and the symbol of the “chariots” go together? That is, does cutting out the horses and destroying the chariots express a single thought? If it does, what do the horses and chariots symbolize? How vulnerable is the American military might to destruction? What effect would symbolically destroying the horses and chariots of the American population have?

If the United States is to be engulfed in domestic violence, will it continue to have foreign military influence? Economic influence? Social and cultural influence?

Assuming the gentile population is swept away, trodden under foot and torn in pieces, what culture and social influence will remain?

What symbol does the lion among the beasts of the forest suggest? The young lion among the sheep? What is the difference between the beasts of the forest and the sheep? If both beasts and sheep are gentiles, then are the beasts different than the sheep? What sort of person called a gentile “beast” will be swept away? What kind of person called a gentile “sheep” will be torn in pieces? Why would both gentile beasts and gentile sheep need to “repent?” Does repentance of a “beast” and repentance of “sheep” take the same form? Why would both need repentance when they are so remarkably different in symbol? Is it enough alone to be a gentile sheep?

What message is being sent by this warning?

Godliness

I was asked about godliness.

The ordinances are helps, symbols and requirements. “Helps” in that they establish milestones that memorialize passage from one stage of development to the next. “Symbols” in that they point to a deeper meaning or spiritual reality almost always grounded in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. “Requirements” in that they mark the defined route taken by Christ as a mortal to fulfill all righteousness.

The power of godliness is tied to opening the heavens and receiving assignments, confirming revelation, or blessings from God. Promises given to others are not promises to you. Men are rarely reliable sources from which to attain the Word of God. It is the unfortunate condition of mankind that, so soon as the are given a little authority they begin to use unrighteous dominion. Heaven, on the other hand, does not dictate, abuse, misuse authority or entice you to do evil.

All power is tied to heaven. When the powers of heaven are withdrawn from someone, then their authority comes to an end and they have no power.

The ordinances as symbols point to the real thing. The real thing is Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

If you want to have the power of godliness in your life, it must be gained through Jesus Christ; access to whom is available to all men on equal terms.