READING FOR MARCH 3
3 Nephi 22-26
LAST CLASS OF THE YEAR WILL BE APRIL 28
JESUS INSTITUTES THE SACRAMENT
“We are left to ponder where the bread and wine came from.Was it a New World variation of the five barley loaves and two small fishes that expanded to feed the five thousand in the Old World? Was there some kind of divine intervention, as when Jesus was seized in Nazareth to be thrown from the brow of a hill,‘but he passing through the midst of them went his way?’ Whatever the answer, the writer presumed that future readers would understand that such things happen, and how they happen probably cannot be written, but in every case these are manifestations of divine involvement and assistance in the work of the Lord’s church.”
Jeffery R. Holland, Christ and The New Covenant, 283
“In the context of the covenant traditions of Israel, it seems a natural thing to suppose that this was a covenant meal after the pattern of the one recorded in Exodus 24 where Moses,Aaron, Nadab,Abihu, and the seventy princes or elders of Israel went up on the side of Sinai (symbolically the holy place) and there saw God and “did eat and drink” (Exodus 24:11).This text is almost universally understood as referring to the eating of a covenant meal by the representatives of Israel in the presence of God on the holy mountain. One commentary notes:‘By means of the meal,Yahweh takes the whole community, represented by the clan elders, into his family.The meal is the assurance and support given by the superior, Yahweh, to the inferior, Israel.’ The idea of two parties eating and drinking together to formally ratify a covenant is common to both the Bible and the customs of the ancient Near East. To eat together was to be bound together by mutual obligation.The meal was a seal of the alliance whereby “the weaker is taken into the family of the stronger,” who provides the meal.
The Old Testament and the Book of Mormon occasions have obvious similarities.The place of the meal in both cases is the temple or the holy mount, which represents the temple. Both meals are in the presence of the God of Israel.The occasion in both instances is the introduction of a new gospel dispensation. Symbolically, both represent a ratifying seal of the covenant the people have made.
After the three-day ministry in the Americas, it appears that the more traditional sacrament observance became the order of the day. Indeed, we read that Christ continued to appear to His disciples on many occasions to break bread and bless it for them (see 3 Nephi 26:13).”
Joseph Fielding McConkie, https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/doctrine-covenant-people-0
“One of the invitations in the sacramental ordinance is that it be a truly spiritual experience, a holy communion, a renewal for the soul.”
Jeffery R. Holland, Christ and The New Covenant, 283
THE HOLY SPIRIT/THE HOLY GHOST
“During the Middle Ages, Christian translators created a way to make the English Bible reflect their belief that the Holy Ghost was not the Holy Spirit.
These theologians coined the phrase ‘Holy Ghost’ to designate the Third Person of the Trinity. In contrast, they used ‘Holy Spirit’ to refer to the Spirit of God or Spirit of the LORD encountered by the Hebrews and Jews in the Old Testament.
Then, in the 16th century, Bible printers reinforced this distinction by introducing capital and small letters. In the OT they used ‘spirit' and ‘holy spirit.’ In the NT they printed ‘Spirit' and ‘Holy Ghost,’ but with subtle distinctions.
These translation and printing differences do not exist in the Bible itself, in either Hebrew or Greek.
They are invented theological biases imported into the (English) Bible.They provided both verbal and visual validation for the already existing conviction that Christianity must be separated from its Hebraic/Jewish foundations.”
http://www.hebrew-streams.org/works/spirit/spirit-to-ghost.html
THE COVENANT OF THE FATHER
“Christ acknowledged that these people of Lehi were emphatically of the house of Israel and that they were to be favored twice by God in a special way. In the meridian of time they were the first of scattered Israel to receive the resurrected Christ after his ascension into heaven, and in the last days they would be the first of the Israelites to receive Christ when he restored his gospel in the dispensation of the fulness of times.”
Jeffery R. Holland, Christ and The New Covenant, 285
“It is most comforting to note that one of the principal benefits stemming from our promises made to God is that in a world of affliction, pain and trouble, the Father sends the Son ‘to bless [us],’ to turn every one of us and posterity away from iniquity—and this simply, lovingly, because ‘[we] are the children of the covenant.’”
Jeffery R. Holland, Christ and The New Covenant, 285
“These familiar passages, written first by Isaiah but spoken of and inspired by Jehovah himself, are often applied to anyone—especially missionaries—who bring the good tidings of the gospel and publish peace to the souls of men.There is nothing inappropriate about such an application, but it is important to realize—as the prophet Abinadi did—that in its purest form and original sense, the psalm of appreciation applies specifically to Christ. It is he and only he who ultimately brings the good tidings of salvation. Only through him is true, lasting peace published.To Zion, in the old and new Jerusalems, it is Christ who declares,‘Thy God reigneth!’ It is his feet upon the mountain of redemption that are beautiful.
At the time of recognition, all will be astonished that Christ’s ‘visage [is] so marred, more than any man and his form more than the sons of men,’ referring undoubtedly to the physical impact of the suffering and the scarring of the flesh that accompanied Christ’s atoning sacrifice.”
Jeffery R. Holland, Christ and The New Covenant, 286-7
ANOTHER TESTAMENT BY MARK MABRY
https://youtu.be/PT9_0DdhJnk
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