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.
