On the day my daughter had her wedding reception we cleaned up the reception quickly so I could attend a fireside at our chapel. The speaker does not do Sunday firesides, his name is Joseph Fielding McConkie, a powerful gospel scholar, and son of Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, and grandson of the prophet Joseph Fielding Smith. Brother McConkie performed the sealing I attended last year. I was moved by his words then. Last summer I attended a class at BYU Education Week presented by him, so I wanted to go to the fireside.
I arrived about 15 minutes into the fireside. I did not miss much, as we usually begin with hymn, prayer, and an introduction. He had been a mission President in Scotland and shared from experiences there and some differences between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with its Book of Mormon and Revelation, and Christianity.
[my two cents in brackets]
This is not word for word, but from notes of ideas that stuck out to me.
1. We have a Christ that Speaks.
God speaks today.
We do not believe in sufficiency (of scripture) nor that God lost His voice. Critics of the Church of Jesus Christ refuse to let God speak.
[ I say that if God is truly the same, yesterday, today and always, then if he spoke by prophets in days of old, He speaks by them today. If they claim God speaks no more, then it is by revelation, oh, but they believe God ceases to speak. Ah, perhaps it is because they presume to speak for Him, but he does not speak to them?].
Every Principle has to be revelation or it is not doctrine.
II Nephi 28:27-30
Those who believe in sufficiency lose understanding– they do not see the important things– they read with a blind eye.
Those who seal the Heavens have no priesthood or authority, they are not even on speaking terms.
There is no such thing as priesthood or to speak in God’s name without authority and revelation.
“Behold, he created Adam, and by Adam came the fall of man…and because of Jesus Christ came the redemption of man.” Mormon 9:12
There are over 400 angelic visits in the Bible.
We have a prophet. We have apostles.
I believe in the Bible.
He had this discussion with a minister that was doubting…
If Adam is a myth [as many non LDS Biblical scholars and ministers profess and believe],
then the fall is a myth,
If the fall is a myth,
then the atonement is a myth.
If the atonement is a myth, then Christ is a myth.
Easter is coming, so what are you going to teach your congregation about Christ?
[CHRIST IS NOT A MYTH!]
Their creeds are non-biblical and trace back to Plato–the God without body parts or passions. [If God has no passions, how come the scripture speak of him "hating" sin and "loving" His children? Are not love and hate passions? How could Jacob and Moses have spoken with God Face to Face, if God has no Face? If a theologian invents an answer or plausible explanation that is not there, that is not revelation. Sometimes theologians explain things away that they do not understand, because they only have a portion, and no revelation. Genesis 32:30, Exodus 33:11, Numbers 14:14, Deuteronomy 5:4, 34:10...
The traditional Greco-Roman classical education of many Christian theologians has corrupted the original view of God by a Greek sieve of philosophical Greek understanding. In my estimation, this goes back to the Jews in Jerusalem, before the early Christians that sent their children to the Greek Gymnasium to be trained in Heathen ideas, and be more acceptable to their non Jewish neighbors. Remember that many of the early Christians were in fact Jews. Many constantly plaguing the early apostles with how they felt the church should look and be run, they were called Judaizers. The Jews of Christ's had embraced the corrupting world view of the Greeks, and I feel that has something to do with why most rejected Christ as their Messiah; he was anthropomorphic and did not fit their view of a Platonic God. That God the Father and Christ were two separate beings. was certainly what Stephen testified to and was stoned for. Christ ate fish and honeycomb after his resurrection with his disciples. He even visited them in the secret room and let them handle Him and feel Him, so they would have no doubt. Man was created in the image of God, not the other way around, and resurrected beings each do have a body. Hence, the graves that opened and yieded their dead after Christ's resurrection. . When the medieval church merged with secular education they turned to Greco-Roman Classical writings, rather than the Hebrew classical thought. The medieval churchmen had their view of God was corrupted too, by their heavy reliance on Greek and Latin in their training for the ministry.]
2. The Doctrine of Divine Sonship
I Nephi 11 Knowledge of the Son of God
Alma 32 + 33 Planting and Nourishing the Seed. The seed is the knowledge of the Son of God.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The modern translations have have changed only begotten to read only son or one and only. The word literally means “only begotten–only son.”
[ I am glad I had a professor that insisted that we use the KJV and any two other translations of the Bible it helps one see archaic phrasing. In light of what they have done to John 3:16, I grow distrustful of new translations. Of course, we are reading modern English translations that come through man's interpretations, based on man's worldview. These are not original texts or the original language. Even with Hebrew, Greek, and Latin at our finger tips, we only have transcriptions that are of a late date, far for the time they were originally recorded. There is no such thing as a word for word translation from Hebrew to English. Hebrew words have more than one meaning. None the less, I am endeavoring to learn these languages. Yet, without revelation, all we have is the arm of flesh to pick and choose what will be translated into English.
If God worked by revelation, angels, prophets, and apostles in times of old, He does today].
3. The Doctrine of Revelation
The Bible does not define resurrection. It is not in the Old Testament.
Alma 11:45 45 Now, behold, I have spoken unto you concerning the death of the mortal body, and also concerning the resurrection of the mortal body. I say unto you that this mortal body is raised to an immortal body, that is from death, even from the first death unto life, that they can die no more; their spirits uniting with their bodies, never to be divided; thus the whole becoming spiritual and immortal, that they can no more see corruption.
In Matthew 3 Christ was baptized. [if he was sinless, then why?]
The Book of Mormon tells us why. “II 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!
6 And now, I would ask of you, my beloved brethren, wherein the Lamb of God did fulfil all righteousness in being baptized by water?
7 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.”
He could not say come follow me, if he did not lead the way, even with baptism.
His religion was a “Do It” religion, get up and follow me!
Joseph Smith said, “If a man gets the fulness of the priesthood of God, he has to get it the same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that was by keeping the commandments and by obeying all the ordinances of the house of the Lord.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 308).”
4. The Doctrine of Gathering
We gather Israel through the waters of baptism. They are gathered to the true church and then they are entitled to the lands of their inheritance. [I Nephi 19-14-17]
5. The Law of Witnesses
“II Nephi 29:7 Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?”
God never intended the bible to be his last or only word.
II Nephi 3 Joseph the seer.
II Nephi 21 Unless they get their testimony through Joseph Smith they will be cut off. [It is through Joseph Smith that the marvelous work was brought forth and is available to us today].
Christ
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Peter, James, and John
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The Joseph Smith
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Three Witnesses
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us
Without this we will be left without root or branch.
The Lord leads people to prepared missionaries. [ kind of like what Bro. Davis said yesterday, when the solution is ready the problem/challenge comes. So, the way I see it is when He has a prepared missionary, He can use them to do His work. We must always be ready to give an answer I Peter 3:
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give ban answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you...].