Brother V & Veggies and Ice Cream

If

Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash

Then

                                                        Photo by Alex Shu on Unsplash
      

Can you think of three people that have denied themselves of ALL UNGODLINESS?  We are not talking of 90%, 95%  or even 99% of ungodliness.  All means 100% of ungodliness.  Are there three people that you can think of that qualify?  Do you know three people who love God with ALL their might, mind and strength?  Again, we are not talking of those who love God with 50%, 80% or even 98%  of their might, mind and strength.  The word ALL means 100%.  If you are thinking of those three people, you can put them into Moroni 10:32.  It includes an if-then statement.  Keith Walker from Evidence Ministries compares this to an if-then statement about dinner: "If you finish your vegetables, then you can have some dessert.")  With your three, 100%, people in mind, we can read from Moroni 10:32, "...if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you,..."   When do you get the grace?  You get it after denying yourself of all ungodliness and loving God with all your might, mind and strength.  So who gets the needed grace?  Only the three people you thought of get the grace.  You may not have been able to think of anyone.
      This is the verse that Brother V. used with his revelation about grace in sacrament meeting.  In his grace revelation he learned that we cannot meet God half way.  It is not 50 - 50.  We cannot be saved by the law.  It is all about grace.  This is why Jesus was so hard on the pharasees.  They were keeping the law and trusting in their righteous works.  It was not about the law.  Jesus was accused of hanging out with sinners, gluttons and drunkards.  Obviously, they were the ones that realized they needed God's grace and mercy.  It was easy for Brother V. to find New Testament examples of God's grace and mercy.  It was harder for him to find them in the Book of Mormon.  But if you water down this verse in Moroni and twist it some, you can apply it to everyone.

Free Grace

      

Mormons have a better example of grace.  It is baptism for the dead.  The dead man or woman cannot do much.  They cannot pay tithes, pray, attend church, love others, speak kind words or show empathy.  They cannot even repent.  They can do nothing since they are dead.  When someone is baptized for them, it is simply a gift.  It is not earned in any way.  The worker does it for free for the dead person.  This is an act of pure grace.
      Brother V. had another revelation that we are not under the curse.  Now we know that you only have to kill one person to be a murderer.  You only have to steal once to be a thief.  You only have to sin one time to be a sinner.  If God is going to look into the dark motives of our heart, we are all in trouble.  Galatians 3:13 says, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, 'Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.'"  When Jesus hung on the cross, he hung there in our place.  We should have died on the cross for our many sins.  Again the Book of Mormon does not offer this to everyone.  In Alma 34, it is only for those who repent.  In Alma 34:35, an individual can choose to procrastinate repentance and wind up in hell as their "final state" of existence.
      Grace and freedom from the curse were two fine revelations by Brother V. in sacrament meeting.

Sacrament with 2 Gospels

   

  

Yesterday's sacrament meeting had two different speakers representing two different gospels.  It was a husband and wife team with two different viewpoints.  The wife spoke first.  She emphasized a pre-mortal life where we were the spiritual offspring of God in heaven before we came to this earth.  She generously said that we are all children of God.  She said that God's divinity is in our DNA.  Through the many good deeds of the members present, God was being presented.  His light or divinity shines through us as we are kind and loving.  This self-saving gospel is found in 2 Nephi 24:12-16 where an angel tried to ascend and become "like" God.  "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!  For thou hast said in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.  Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."   (This passage is also found in Isaiah 14:12-16.)
       In the Garden of Eden, Eve was also presented with this self-saving gospel.  The serpent told her that she could be like a goddess through gaining knowledge.  Genesis 3:3&4 says, "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
      Psalm 82:6&7 says, "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes."
      The second speaker, the husband, presented a gospel of grace.  He questioned why the Jesus was so hard on the Pharisees when they were the ones who were keeping the law.  This is true - Jesus was hard on them.  Jesus said to the Jews in John 8:44, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do...."  In Matthew 23:27-33, Jesus said "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.  Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.  Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.  Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"    He seemed to be saying that many were getting off track with 2 Nephi 25:23: "...it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do."  He said there is no meeting God half way.  He said you cannot be saved through keeping the law.
      He also pointed out that Jesus was accused of hanging out with sinners too much.  He said it is about grace.  He said he was drawn to the New Testament Jesus and his emphasis on grace.  I agree with the speaker.  Jesus spent time teaching the woman at the well in John 4.  She had had 5 husbands and was with a man that was not her husband.  He did not tell her to get her life cleaned up and come back in 6 months to talk.  He talked and taught her about worship right then and there.  In  Luke 18:9-14, Jesus tells us a story about a law-keeping Pharisee and a publican.  "And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee and the other a publican.  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.  I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.  And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."  What a powerful story of God's grace?!
      In Ephesians 2:8-9, the Apostle Paul wrote, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
      In regard to the first speaker, the book of Mormon does not say that we are all God's children.  It commands us to repent and become a child of God.  Mosiah 7:24-26 says, "For, said he, I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit.  And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God."
      In the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul refuted the Jews.  The Jews were pushing circumcision which represented the mosaic law.  In Galatians 1:8 Paul said, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.  As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."  
      May the Great God, the unchangeable being found in Moroni 8:18 draw us closer to Him through His Holy Spirit.  God's grace to all.