1 - 3 John & Jude

                                                      “Jehovah Creates the Earth” by Walter Rane

Messages: God is Light. God is Love. God is Truth.

"This article is an attempt to step beyond the merely symbolic understanding of light to see if “the glory of God” might be found in a familiar setting, at least provisionally. “Easter in ordinary,” as one scholar has put it, suggesting that the sacred may be inscribed in the commonplace." David A. Grandy, "Physical Light and The Light of Christ." https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/physical-light-and-the-light-of-christ/

 “. . . the word ‘light’ is often used in a symbolic fashion in the scriptures.” I certainly agree, but it strikes me that behind its symbolic meanings, light is something in and of itself. At least that is the intuition that motivates this article, and if this intuition is correct, it would seem that the study of light should be spiritually rewarding, particularly in view of the profound significance that scripture ascribes to light. For example: “The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth” (D&C 93:36).” 

David A. Grandy, "Physical Light and The Light of Christ." https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/physical-light-and-the-light-of-christ/

We have experienced seeing or feeling the light of Christ in others—How much spiritual energy does it take to exude His light? What does it take to have that spiritual energy?

"When the gift of the Holy Ghost is obtained, we have within us access to the complete source of spiritual energy to bring the Light of Christ to its full brightness in our soul; thus making us like God, who is light (see 1 John 1:5). Once the Holy Ghost is with us and powering radiation from the Light of Christ, the only thing keeping us from turning into our own spiritual spotlight is our “natural man” (Mosiah 3:19), which causes resistance to God (analogous to the resistor in the light bulb circuit). We need more faith, obedience, submissiveness, and, most succinctly, we need to have our “eye single to [God’s] glory” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:67). Drawing closer to God reduces our resistance to the Holy Ghost and increases the brightness of the Light of Christ radiating from within us."

Franklin, Aaron D.. The Spiritual Physics of Light: How We See, Feel, and Know Truth (p. 55). RSC, BYU, and Deseret Book Co. Kindle Edition.

“God has created man with a mind capable of instruction, and a faculty which may be enlarged in proportion to the heed and diligence given to the light communicated from heaven to the intellect; and . . . the nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views, and the greater his enjoyments, till he has overcome the evils of his life and lost every desire for sin; and like the ancients, arrives at that point of faith where he is wrapped in the power and glory of his Maker, and is caught up to dwell with Him.” Joseph Smith.  (History of the Church, 2:8).

https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/teacher-of-gods-truth?lang=eng

James

 BIBLE PROJECT VIDEO THE BOOK OF JAMES

https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/james/

JAMES 1:5 AND JOSEPH SMITH

“During a religious meeting he was pointed to the scripture that changed the way he read the Bible. He was looking for the method to forgiveness in the Bible. He was hoping for clear directions.

After reading James 1:5, he realized that the Bible is not an archive of all the answers to every question. It is a book about people who asked God for wisdom and received. It is a book that shows how to seek and receive answers from God. And when he gets that it changes everything.

Northing is more consistent and more poignant in Joseph’s first vision narrative than the epiphany of James 1:5. He comes back to that all the time. That first revelation that he could read the Bible differently and go to God himself was a huge shift in his thinking. It was not coming out of his culture. He had to get that from God and the Bible on his own.”

Steven Harper, The First Vision: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast, Episode 2

WISDOM

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

Various Authors. Zondervan NIV Study Bible: Updated Edition (Kindle Locations 94011-94019). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

“In the Garden story, good and evil are found on the same tree, not in separate orchards. Good and evil give meaning and definition to each other. If God, like us, is susceptible to immense pain, He is, like us, the greater in His capacity for happiness. The presence of such pain serves the larger purposes of God’s master plan, which is to maximize the human capacity for joy, or in other words, ‘to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.’ He can no more foster those ends in the absence of suffering and evil than one could find the traction to run or the breath to sing in the vacuum of space. God does not instigate pain or suffering, but He can weave it into His purposes. God’s power rests not on totalizing omnipotence, but on His ability to alchemize suffering, tragedy, and loss into wisdom, understanding, and joy.”

Givens, Terryl; Fiona Givens. The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life . Deseret Book Company. Kindle Edition

Life is hard. Trials and hardships are paradoxical gifts which can produce endurance and shape our character.

God can do amazing work inside our suffering and help us become perfect.

He wants us to live an integrated life. Most of us live fractured lives and are more compromised than we want to admit.

God’s mission is to make us whole and begins with the gift of wisdom which is the ability to see hardships through a new perspective.

When we realize our humble and frail place before God we are forced to chose between anxiety and trust.

True wisdom is choosing to believe that God is good despite circumstances.

TRANSFORMATIVE STRUGGLE

“The worst thing is to live life in a way that requires no transformative struggle from ourselves and that makes no difference for good in the lives of others.”

Melissa Inouye, Sacred Struggle: Seeking Christ on the Path of Most Resistance

A LOST SHEEP by Melissa Inouye

https://www.wayfaremagazine.org/p/a-lost-sheep

Hebrews 7 - 13

 Hebrews

Author: Don’t know. Apollos, Barnabas, and Priscilla are the names mentioned.

Audience: Expected to have a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures and stories. Jewish Christians. This community was facing persecution because of their belief in Jesus. 

Message: To early Church members who faced persecution, the author of Hebrews gave two important messages that can help us when we are afraid: stay confident, and remember past miracles.

Jesus is superior to all—to ancient prophets, to angels, to Moses, and to Aaron and the priestly succession descendants from Aaron. Jesus is sufficient for all.

Not written as a letter but more like a sermon or essay.

Written 62-70 AD 

John Hilton: The author of the Book of Hebrews wrote to a group of Christians who had endured extreme persecution because of their belief in Christ. For example, an ancient Roman historian recorded that in 64 AD, “[The Emperor] Nero . . . inflicted the most exquisite tortures on . . . Christians. . . . Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt.” https://johnhiltoniii.com/teaching-helps-for-come-follow-me-hebrews-7-13/

David Holland: “What Jesus said to those disciples is you have to be spiritually prepared to be a leader and a source of divine power in the lives of the people that you serve. Well, the whole message of the restoration, that is this dispensation, is that this is applicable to all of us. One of the most beautiful symbols in this regard is the symbolism of the endowment. There was once an era for much of God’s work in the world where there was one High Priest on the face of the earth. One High Priest designated by certain vestments and certain clothing items, and we live in a dispensation when every woman and man who passes through the temple wears the robes of the High Priesthood and is ordained to be a priestess or a priest. So you take this sort of ancient world in which these gifts were reserved to a very small number, and the restoration just blows that up. And we wrestle as a people, and we wrestle for good reason; we have our own painful history with how expansive we have been with those offerings of authority and leadership. And we are still in the middle of that; we are still in that process. But at the core of it, something remarkable has happened with the restoration where that singular High Priest is now represented by women and men across the kingdom.” 44:14 - 45:57

David F. Holland, BYU Maxwell Institute Podcast - November 17, 2020 (related to Holland’s work on Moroni).  https://mi.byu.edu/mip-bti-holland/

Hebrews 10:17-25, 32, 35-36, 38-39

The first message was to stay confident. We read, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. . . . Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. . . . Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. . . . We are not of them who draw back. 

Multiple times the author of Hebrews says, “Don’t let your fear cause you to give up. Yes, things are hard; yes, it looks bad now; but don’t quit. Things will work out.”

“Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions” Hebrews 10:32

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. . . .

. . . If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. . . .

. . . We are not of them who draw back unto perdition. [Hebrews 10:35–36, 38–39

The One High Priest

The office was usually a lifetime calling and, when rightly appointed, was by revelation from God, “as was Aaron.” 

The office was filled by 28 different men between 37 B.C. and A.D. 68. Since the latter year the office has ceased to exist among the Jews, but they were in apostasy long before that time.

The epistle to the Hebrews discusses at some length the manner in which Jesus Christ is the great High Priest, of whom all the others were pre-figures.

Bible Dictionary

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bd/high-priest?lang=eng

https://architecturerevived.com/clothing-ancient-israels-sacred-temple/

Priest's Vestments: The priest’s vestments consisted of four parts — headpiece, sash, tunic, and linen breeches. The high priest’s vestments consisted of eight pieces — the four belonging to the priest plus an ephod (or “special apron”), a robe of the ephod, a breastplate, and a golden plate of the headpiece (see Exodus 29:5–6). The Exodus text does not mention footwear. The texts may suggest a possible order of putting on clothing for the priests (see Leviticus 8:13) and the high priests (see Leviticus 8:7–10).

The scriptures disclose several symbols that are attached to the sacred vestments worn by priests and high priests in the ancient temple. Each piece of clothing used a variety of symbols to point individuals toward divine actions and attributes. When the symbols of the sacred vestments are considered as pieces of a whole, it becomes clear that they serve as a path of increased spirituality, ultimately pointing individuals toward a greater understanding of and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ.

https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/ancient-sacred-vestments-scriptural-symbols-and-meanings/

“Your garment is symbolic of the veil [of the temple]; the veil is symbolic of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when you put on your garment, you may feel that you are truly putting upon yourself the very sacred symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ—His life, His ministry, and His mission, which was to atone for every daughter and son of God.”

President Russell M. Nelson

Allen D. Haynie

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/allen-d-haynie/meeting-jesus-in-the-house-of-the-lord/

“When we see the temple garment, we can see a piece of clothing that we commonly wear. Or we can see a coat of skins, representing Christ’s Atonement. Or we can see the veil of the temple, a symbol of the sacrificed body of Jesus Christ. When we see the Savior in our temple garments, it can change the way that we view and treat them. It can also increase the power we feel from the Lord in our daily lives.”

John Hilton

https://johnhiltoniii.com/teaching-helps-for-come-follow-me-hebrews-7-13/

Hebrews 1-6

PAUL

“The life of the Apostle Paul is a part of the history of the world, and cannot be detached from it. We cannot explain that history without admitting the fact that he lived, and that he exerted an important influence in making the world what it has been, and what it is, and what it is to be. No great mind is ever made which does not affect and mold the future. Homer still sings; Demosthenes still pleads for liberty; Socrates still speaks to men; Solon and Lycurgus still live in the laws of nations; and even the ancient warriors still affect the destiny of mankind. Saul of Tarsus has influenced more minds than they; and any one of them would be less missed in the history of the world than he would be. If all the results of his living could be taken into the account, it would probably be found that no man of that age—orator, soldier, philosopher, statesman, poet, or legislator—did as much to affect the permanent condition of the world in future times as he did. The influence of most of those who were his contemporaries was limited to a particular country; his influence has extended far already over the nations of the earth, has been augmenting constantly since his death, and will live on to the end of time. When their names shall all die away, his will remain in fresh and ever-enduring and ever-enlarging vigor. In eighteen hundred years, there has not been a generation which has not been influenced by him.”

https://www.biblestudytools.com/classics/barnes-scenes-in-life/death-of-the-apostle-paul.html

HEBREWS THEME AND PURPOSE

“The author’s purpose is to persuade the audience not to turn from Christianity toward Judaism or toward a more conservative Jewish Christianity but to endure hardship, recognize the superiority of Jesus Christ, rely on him as sacrifice and high priest, draw on the examples of faith found in the Old Testament, and avoid apostasy.”

Lincoln H. Blumell, Frank F. Judd Jr., and George A. Pierce https://rsc.byu.edu/new-testament-history-culture-society/hebrews-general-epistles

CONDESCENSION OF JESUS

“The wonder of the Lord’s condescension is most meaningful when we contemplate how far He descended. The irony of the Jews’ rejection of Him pierces more deeply when we contemplate who He had been for them before He came to earth.

For example, before the Lord Omnipotent came to earth, He was known as the Creator of all things from the beginning. Contrast that with the Jews’ query, ‘Is not this the carpenter?’ The Creator of all things became a carpenter.

Similarly, consider the contrast between ‘Shepherd’ and ‘Lamb.’ In the Old Testament the Lord was called the ‘Shepherd of Israel.’ Isaiah described Him as the One who gathers His lambs with His arm. In His earthly life, that lamb-gathering Shepherd became God’s Lamb, sacrificed for Israel and for the whole world.

Consider this difference. Before Jesus came to earth He was called ‘the Father of heaven and earth.’ On earth He was mistaken as ‘the son of Joseph.’

When the Israelites were finally ready to enter the promised land, it was Jehovah who stopped the River Jordan and made it stand in its place so His people could cross on dry ground. Contrast His power in performing that miracle with His humility when, as Jesus of Nazareth, He was immersed by John in the same River Jordan.

In ancient Israel, Jehovah spared thousands and thousands of firstborn sons on the night of the Passover. When He came to earth in the flesh, Jesus raised from the dead the only son of a widow.”

https://site.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2011/12/the-condescension-of-jesus-christ

MORALISTIC THERAPEUTIC DEISM

As Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton explained, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism "is about inculcating a moralistic approach to life. It teaches that central to living a good and happy life is being a good, moral person. That means being nice, kind, pleasant, respectful, responsible, at work on self-improvement, taking care of one's health, and doing one's best to be successful." In a very real sense, that appears to be true of the faith commitment, insofar as this can be described as a faith commitment, held by a large percentage of Americans. These individuals, whatever their age, believe that religion should be centered in being "nice"--a posture that many believe is directly violated by assertions of strong theological conviction.

In addition, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism presents a unique understanding of God. As Smith explains, this amorphous faith "is about belief in a particular kind of God: one who exists, created the world, and defines our general moral order, but not one who is particularly personally involved in one's affairs-- especially affairs in which one would prefer not to have God involved. Most of the time, the God of this faith keeps a safe distance."

Consider this remarkable assessment: "Other more accomplished scholars in these areas will have to examine and evaluate these possibilities in greater depth. But we can say here that we have come with some confidence to believe that a significant part of Christianity in the United States is actually [only] tenuously Christian in any sense that is seriously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition, but is rather substantially morphed into Christianity's misbegotten step-cousin, Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism."

They argue that this distortion of Christianity has taken root not only in the minds of individuals, but also "within the structures of at least some Christian organizations and institutions."

How can you tell? "The language, and therefore experience, of Trinity, holiness, sin, grace, justification, sanctification, church, . . . and heaven and hell appear, among most Christian teenagers in the United States at the very least, to be supplanted by the language of happiness, niceness, and an earned heavenly reward."

https://albertmohler.com/2005/04/11/moralistic-therapeutic-deism-the-new-american-religion-2