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Showing posts from December 16, 2012

A Liar, a Lunatic, or the Son of God (C.S. Lewis)

Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among Pantheists, like the Indians, anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would be nothing very odd about it. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world, who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips. One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim to forgive sins: any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a

the Love of Christ (Romans 8)

35  Who shall separate us from the  a love  of Christ?  shall  b tribulation , or distress, or  c persecution , or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?   36  As it is written, For thy sake we are  a killed  all the day long; we are accounted as  b sheep  for the slaughter.   37  Nay, in all these things we are  a more  than  b conquerors  through him that loved us.   38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,   39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to a separate  us from the  b love  of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39

the merits, mercy and grace of the Holy Messiah (2 Nephi 2:8-9)

Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God,  a save  it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who  b layeth  down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the  c resurrection  of the dead, being the first that should rise. Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make  a intercession  for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved. 2 Nephi 2:8-9

That which is of God is light (D&C 50)

  24  That  which  is  of  God  is  a light ;  and  he  that  b receiveth   c light ,  and  d continueth  in  God,  receiveth  more  e light ;  and  that  light  groweth  brighter  and  brighter  until  the  perfect  day.   25  And  again,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  and  I  say  it  that  you  may  know  the  a truth ,  that  you  may  chase  darkness  from  among  you; Doctrine and Covenants 50:24-25

an acquaintance with the divine attributes of the Father and the Son (Holland/Joseph Smith)

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught in the  Lectures on Faith  that it was necessary to have "an acquaintance" (that's his phrase) with the divine attributes of the Father and the Son in order to have faith in them. Specifically he said that unless we believe Christ to be "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, long-suffering and full of goodness," that unless we can rely on these unchanging attributes, we would never have the faith necessary to claim the blessings of heaven. If we could not count on "the excellency of . . . character" (that is also his phrase) maintained by the Savior and his willingness and ability to "forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin," we would be, he said, "in constant doubt of salvation." But because the Father and the Son are unchangeably "full of goodness" then, in the words of the Prophet, such knowledge "does away [with] doubt, and makes faith exceedingly strong" ( Lectures on Faith