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The Biblical Roots of Mormonism: Part 2

The Holy Bible teaches that God is omniscient (all-seeing), omnipotent (all-powerful),  and omnipresent (able to comprehend everything that exists = all-knowing).

Matthew 19:26
But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is
impossible; but with God all things are possible [God is omnipotent].

2 Corinthians 2:14
Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph
in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place [God is omnipresent].

Matthew 6:8
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth
what things ye have need of, before ye ask him [God is omniscient].

God the Father is the father of our spirits.  We are literally his sons and daughters.  (See Hosea 1:10; Hebrews 12:9; Romans 8:15–16; Galatians 4:6–7.)

We have been created in God’s image.  (See Genesis 1:26–27.)  God has a glorified physical body, so we have been created after His image both spiritually and physically. (See Genesis 9:6; Hebrews 1:1–3; John 5:37; John 8:17–18;  John 4:24.)

Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary and is the express image of His Father.  (See Hebrews 1:1–3.)  Some have seen God the Father and the physical nature of the Godhead has been revealed to mankind.  (See Acts 7:55–56; Exodus 24:10–11; 31:18; 33:11, 23; Numbers 22:9–12, 20; 23:4, 16; Deuteronomy
23:14; 1 Kings 9:2–3.)

The Godhead is comprised of three persons who together are one in mind, thought, and purpose.  God the Father and Jesus Christ are resurrected, glorified men, while the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit who can dwell within us.  God created all things through His Son, Jesus Christ.

The family is ordained of God both on earth and in heaven.  (See Ephesians
3:14–15.)

The Lord Jesus Christ

mormon-jesus-christChrist is eternal, as are all of us.  However, God the Father created Christ’s spirit body before He created any others, and because of this, Christ is the First-born of the Father, and His only begotten Son in the Flesh.  Spiritually, then, the Lord Jesus Christ is our elder brother (See (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:5–6; Romans 8:29.)

Acting under His Father’s direction, Christ is creator of all things, worlds without end. (See Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2.)

Once Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden, it was Christ who was the voice of God in the Old Testament, and so, in the scripture, He is referred to as LORD.

  • OT passages refer to God as the Savior and Redeemer. (See Isaiah 43:3; 45:21–22; 49:26; 60:16; 63:16;  Hosea 13:4.)
  • OT passages refer to the coming atonement.   (See Isaiah 43:25; 50:6; Malachi 3:1.)
  • OT passages call God Jehovah. (See Genesis 22:14; Exodus 6:2–3; Psalm 83:18; Isaiah 12:2; and Isaiah 26:4.)
  • God the Son spoke of Himself as separate from God the Father (Exodus 34:14).

Jesus became God the Father’s Only Begotten Son in the flesh (Luke 1:35; Matthew 1:20, 23; John 1:14; John 3:16).

The Lord Jesus Christ atoned for our sins. (See Exodus 29:33, 36–37; Romans 5:10–11; 1 Peter 1:19; Matthew 26:38–39; Mark 14:34–36; Luke 22:42–44; John 19:17–18;  Matthew 27:33, 35, 46, 50; Mark 15:22, 25, 34, 37; Luke 23:33, 46.)

Three days after His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus Christ was resurrected (Mark 16:6; Mark 16:6, 9, 12, 14; Luke 24:36–40; Luke 24:41–43; Mark 14:25; Acts 1:9–11; Acts 7:55–56.)

Jesus will come again to the earth (the Second Coming) and will destroy the wicked and gather the righteous.  He will rule in peace for 1,000 years.  (See Isaiah 11:11; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; Mark 13:32; 2 Peter
3:10–13;.)

Jesus Christ is the firstborn of all creation, the first spirit child born to Heavenly Father in the premortal existence.  The Father delegated to Jesus Christ the task of creating the world. Jesus, also by delegation, was the God of the Old Testament before coming to the earth in the flesh to be the savior of mankind.
Born of a Virgin
The spirit of the Holy Ghost came upon Mary and the power of God overshadowed her, and Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. Through God his father, Jesus, the “only begotten son of God” (John 3:18) retained his divinity; from his human mother he inherited mortality. Although little is known about his youth, we know Jesus “grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom” (Luke 2:40), and at twelve years old, he had knowledge of his divine mission (Luke 2:46–49).

Public Ministry
At about thirty years of age, Jesus was baptized “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). After his baptism, Jesus fasted in the wilderness for forty days. During this fast, Satan tempted Jesus. All of this was to prepare Jesus to begin his public ministry. During his public ministry, Christ set an example of service, performed a variety of stirring miracles, established his church, and taught the gospel to all who would hear. Although he declared himself to be “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), Jesus always referred deferentially to God the Father. Jesus proclaimed, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). Jesus said it was the will of his father “that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40).

The Atonement
At the end of his public ministry, Jesus went into the garden of Gethsemane, and there took upon himself the sins of every human who has ever lived or will ever live on the earth. It was there that Jesus endured what no other mortal could endure, saying, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death” (Mark 14:34). The pain Jesus suffered in the garden was beyond what is humanly imaginable. Though he was the very Son of God, the creator of worlds, Jesus came to a moment in which he “fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). Significant in this prayer is Christ’s expression of unwavering deference and loyalty to the Father—and to Christ’s role as savior: The deferential conditions, “if it be possible” and “not as I will, but as thou wilt,” surround the request and are clearly superior to it. There was a job to be done. Jesus was the only one who could do it. How it was to be done was left to the Father. After enduring the suffering of Gethsemane, Jesus allowed himself to be taken by the Pharisees and the Romans, physically and verbally
brutalized, and crucified on the hill of Calvary. Jesus was both God and man. He knew this. Unlike other men, he remembered clearly having been with his Heavenly Father in the premortal realm. Throughout his ministry, he testified of his Heavenly Father being with him, supporting him: “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10).

Therefore, Jesus—alone among all men—knew fully and could suffer fully in the brief interval of separation from the comforting spirit of the Father. In that moment, at his ninth hour upon the cross, Jesus sensed what it was like to die a spiritual death, to be separated from God. In that ultimate agony, he cried out with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). There could be no greater suffering. Voluntarily confined in a dying
human body and fully sensing what it was like to be separated from the divine, Jesus completed his mission. God the Father accepted Jesus’ suffering on the cross: “At-onement” between God the Father and every man and woman born into mortality was achieved.

Death and Resurrection
The body of Jesus was placed in a sealed tomb. During the three days before his Resurrection, his spirit entered the spirit world to organize and commence the teaching of his gospel to those who had died before him and would die in the future without the gospel (1 Peter 3:18–20).  After three days, Jesus was resurrected. His spirit and his body
were reunited in a perfection and glory no human could comprehend. Through the fulfillment of his mission, Jesus made it possible for every man and woman to be resurrected into immortality. He gave every person who accepts the Atonement the opportunity to be saved from spiritual death. Following his Resurrection, Jesus appeared to many individuals and groups, including his apostles in Jerusalem and people in the Americas, who were his “other sheep” (John 10:16). He taught and strengthened those in need.

The Ascension
Following this brief period on earth after his Resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the Father, serving him as he has from the beginning. Jesus Christ will come again in fulfillment of scriptural prophecies, will reign in righteousness during the Millennium, and will oversee the final judgment (TBROM, pp.  71-74).

*This article was adapted from The Biblical Roots of Mormonism by Eric Shuster and Charles Sale, 2010, Cedar Fort, Inc.

Article was written by Gale

http://youtu.be/zRfWypge13s

 

 

 

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