In my interactions with people it appears that rare is the person who is willing to lay everything upon the altar so to speak in pursuit of truth and who is willing to accept the consequences and sacrifices for following it. The pull of our traditions, our factions our religions is so strong that it takes a great deal of effort and anguish to be willing to accept that many of the things we believe and have incorporated into our paradigms are actually incorrect or at the very least incomplete. The cognitive dissonance of this concept makes the very act of accepting divine truth a most valiant and noble accomplishment for any who walk this earth. The concept is described by Jesus as losing your life but only those who do can truly find their lives and the true purpose thereof. This is my feeble attempt at describing this process.
In his final hours of mortality Jesus proclaimed what the purpose of His life was:
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then?
Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.
Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. (John 18, selected)
Here was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords submitting to an earthly authority magnitudes his inferior in order to fulfill two purposes: 1) To personify what true Kings (and Priest’s) unto to the most High God actually do; they sacrifice, they condescend on behalf of their subjects so that their subjects can one day receive everything that they have attained. They serve those who don’t merit it because of the love that they have for their fellow man. 2) He came to this earth to bear witness unto the truth and to gather together those who are “of the truth”. The rightful king of this earth submitted so that the righteous work of his Father could be done which is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of mankind. Only in Christ’s mission could this be done.
His whole mission included the truths that he taught, the path that he marked for us to follow and the ultimate sacrifice that he willingly undertook in order for us to have the opportunity to be in a real sense un-damned. If we compare our potential destination of eternal progression to a river naturally flowing in its course, then being damned is simply being stopped in our progression much like a river is stopped by a damn. The only way to reverse the damning or stoppage of our progression is by this one man’s effort who is Christ. This is the only way. This is why the mission of the Messiah is so essential to every person who has ever lived or ever will live in this world. He effected an opportunity to be at one with His Father just like He was. This is the at-one-ment or atonement.
I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)
No one else in the history of the world made such seemingly preposterous claims to truth; Not Muhammad, not the Buddha, not Socrates, nor plato; not Isaac Newton or Einstein or John Calvin neither Martin Luther. No Pope, no Apostle no Priest or King; nobody did and taught what Jesus did. Nobody accomplished what He accomplished yet who has believed this report? That He is the door of the sheep and anybody claiming what He claimed either before Him or after is a a thief and a robber (see John 10); A thief who is trying to get into the fold by another way, a robber of light and truth that God would have us know. Either Jesus was a deluded megalomaniac or maybe he actually was teaching to the world pure truth, things as they really are, as they really were and as they are to come. That is the sword that he brought down upon the earth; The sword of truth and we either are found on one side or the other. We accept the gift or we reject it. We believe that He is Truth or we reject it. There is no middle ground once the sword comes to you.
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 12:12)
Truth is a gift and is completely free however this does not mean it is without effort on our part. It takes effort to seek for something better; it takes humility and becoming like a child to recognize we are in need everyday of more; more light and more truth to supplant the false traditions that every person living in this world has accumulated. It takes more of a transformation of our very lives into the image of Him who paid such a high price in providing opportunities for us to ascend higher. It takes faith, it takes diligence, it takes an honest and upright heart or at the very least a desire for this to take place in our life.
For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift. (D&C 88:33)
There have been and will be plenty of false Christs and false prophets as it must needs to be. One has to only experience the real thing to discern the imposters. Only in Him was the sacrifice so complete because He was the Lamb of God, without blemish, without sin who was offered up for any who will receive it. This was taught by many true messengers and witnesses before His birth and one of them, Amulek who lived in the century before Christ bore testimony to this fact and we have his witness:
8 And now, behold, I will testify unto you of myself that these things are true. Behold, I say unto you, that I do know that Christ shall come among the children of men, to take upon him the transgressions of his people, and that he shall atone for the sins of the world; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
9 For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made.
10 For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice. (Alma 34:8-10, Book of Mormon)
Only the Christ was able to satisfy the universal demands of justice which requires a penalty be paid for a broken law. It required an infinite and eternal sacrifice. No other human was worthy to effect a sacrifice for sin. He is the sacrificial lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. If we will repent and receive Him then He will become our adopted spiritual Father in a sense to help us truly become sons and heirs, daughters and heiresses of His Father, the Most High God. Everyone who is of the truth will hear His voice and will learn from Him.
All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. (Matthew 11:27, KJV)
In his condescension for us he wore out his life bearing witness of the truths and doctrine of His Father. The truths He taught are universal and for every person ever born, now living and who is to come in the future including those who identify at Muslim, Shinto, Buddhist, heathen, atheist, Jew, gentile, Christian, LGBQT, conservatives, socialists, agnostic, secularists etc. But before salvation can be attained we must know the rules or the laws by which God is operating and has given to us.
34 And again, verily I say unto you, that which is governed by law is also preserved by law and perfected and sanctified by the same.
35 That which breaketh a law, and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment. Therefore, they must remain filthy still. (Doctrine & Covenants 88)
We either abide by God’s laws or we remain unclean and barred from God’s presence, it’s that simple. God is not trifling with us in any way. He has caused His truths and laws to be able to reach many people in the past from the first man onwards. In our dispensation he is causing these truths to be able to reach all peoples upon the earth so that none may be left without excuse. And in order to know the rules or laws that God instituted for the salvation of the human family we must have a messenger or a witness as to what these laws are. God’s word is distilled down to mankind via people who, like Christ have condescended to earth to help brings souls to the truth. When these people have actually received the word of the Lord and teach it, then it behooves us to hearken to what they say.
What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same. (D&C 1:38)
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10)
It is a blessing to the inhabitants of the earth to have the Lord’s true servants and those whom He has sent to teach His laws. We have some of their words filtered down to us in the limited scriptures of traditional Christianity. We have even more of the Lord’s true witnesses’ words recorded in restoration scripture including The Book of Mormon, The Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine & Covenants. All these are words which came from people inspired by God to teach His truth to the inhabitants of the earth. When one reads the word of the Lord with an open heart and mind then the portion that is actually true and transmitted correctly will penetrate our very hearts and will begin to enlighten us and we will grow closer to God in knowledge, wisdom, attributes and character. Moroni, a prophet in America around 400 AD testifies that:
13 But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.
14 Wherefore, take heed, my beloved brethren, that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil.
15 For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.
16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God. (Moroni 7, Book of Mormon)
Now that same light and spirit and truth that inspired the prophets and apostles of old can and does inspire people on the earth today. There are people on the earth today who have received enough of the light and truth and spirit of the Lord so as to qualify to teach these truths to others as a witness and servant of Christ. There are 12 apostles of Jesus Christ on the earth today as well as the Presiding High Priest of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who can teach the truths of God. I suspect there are others sprinkled throughout the earth who are not circumscribed by the LDS faith who also have attained this calling from God. The difficult part is to discern who is a true witness and even more important is to discern all the truths of God that they can teach you. Everybody would claim that their religious leaders in their faith traditions are these true witnesses and messengers so there must be a better way to discern. Here’s a concept that might help, instead of trusting in the messenger solely because of station, calling, position, standing or authority, maybe a better way is to discern God’s truth from their message and by their fruits. This takes work. This takes a humble and willing heart to be able to “see” correctly. Our eye needs to be single to the glory of God.
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6)
No man can receive the gift that Christ gives without repentance, which in the original Hebrew and Greek means to completely change course and direction, to change our minds, our knowledge, and the very essence of who we are and to turn around and face the source of light and truth and to receive it into our lives. It is to trust God completely. This very act presupposes that the course we were on before was not correct. Therefore as soon as we can exercise enough faith to believe Christ and in the salvation that He offers our first reaction will be to fall down and recognize how wrong we are, how stubborn, how prideful, how our ways are so much lower than His ways; what we thought was true was so far off base of what is actually true; and we correct course and face the source of the light and truth for us, who is Christ.
After we have changed course because of the knowledge of the goodness of God and His Son, we seek for a rebirth, we seek to show by token and sign that we are born again but now our Father is not of the flesh but is Christ. The sign we show is baptism by immersion. Our old life is buried in the water and we arise as new creatures. This witnesses that we are willing to keep the laws of Christ and that we are willing to do everything that he may command us to do in the future. After baptism hands are laid upon our heads and someone with authority from God confers the gift of the Holy Ghost which is akin to having a more direct connection to the mind and will of God. This was taught by true witnesses of old including Paul:
2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
3 And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism.
4 Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; (Acts 19)
Sometime during this process of exercising faith in Christ, repenting of all our sins and being baptized by water, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, there is a baptism that the Father baptizes us with which is described as by being of fire. Our sinful polluted fleshy desires are replaced by more truth and more purity as the purifying fire of God consumes the dross and impurities of our flesh. Those who have received this have no more desire to commit sin, no more desire to rebel against any truth or commandment from God. This process is what being born again means. They are born again both of water and the spirit. Jesus taught this to one of his followers nicodemus:
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God . . . Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (John 3, selected)
The first introductory part of being born again is necessary to even see that there is a better way, a kingdom if you will, that comes from above. Those in this process will recognize that there is a higher way of living and are starting to see more clearly in that the scales of deception and unbelief that is the default condition in this fallen state of mortality will begin to fall away. This leads to pursuit of greater light and truth and to a new life born of water and the spirit.
Those who attain these things are beginning to follow the doctrine of the Father which was taught by Christ and all true messengers before and after him. This is the path back to the presence of God. People at this point of their spiritual journey are at the gate of the path that leads to eternal life. A path already tread by Jesus who is our great exemplar. Now as we have entered the gate we are not finished but are just starting out our new lives as children of Christ, His disciples. We are to use the gift of the Holy Ghost to incorporate all of God’s truths into our life and to live them. This encompasses all the He taught in the scriptures especially the sermon on the mount in the Bible and His laws as taught to the ancient inhabitants of the Americas after his resurrection (see 3 Nephi 11-22, Book of Mormon) as well as anything new that He will teach you. We are called upon to press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, feasting upon His word and receiving and living by more light and truth. His grace will allow us to become more than we could ever become on our own. It allows us to continue the climb as if ascending the mountain top. When it appears that there is no more strength to carry on, when it is impossible to forgive any more or to love those who despitefully use us or to stand as a witness of truth in a world of wickedness and deception, trying to reach those who don’t care; He will lift us up even as upon eagles wings. Now those on this path will not be content to be alone in their knowledge of a Savior rather they will dedicate their time and use their influence to act as Christ did over 2000 years ago. They will sacrifice their comfort, their wills, their possessions, their good names and their very lives to bear witness unto the truth. John Jacques summed up the preeminence of truth when he penned these words:
Oh say, what is truth? ’Tis the fairest gem
That the riches of worlds can produce,
And priceless the value of truth will be when
The proud monarch’s costliest diadem
Is counted but dross and refuse.
Yes, say, what is truth? ’Tis the brightest prize
To which mortals or Gods can aspire.
Go search in the depths where it glittering lies,
Or ascend in pursuit to the loftiest skies:
’Tis an aim for the noblest desire.
The sceptre may fall from the despot’s grasp
When with winds of stern justice he copes.
But the pillar of truth will endure to the last,
And its firm-rooted bulwarks outstand the rude blast
And the wreck of the fell tyrant’s hopes.
Then say, what is truth? ’Tis the last and the first,
For the limits of time it steps o’er.
Tho the heavens depart and the earth’s fountains burst,
Truth, the sum of existence, will weather the worst,
Eternal, unchanged, evermore.
The Gospel that I bear witness of is truth, it is the fairest gem we could ever obtain, it is even a pearl of great price. This is the good news. This Gospel is the Father’s plan for all the inhabitants of the earth and because Christ was faithful and true and accomplished what he was sent to do, it is our turn to learn of Him, to walk in the meekness of his spirit and to rise up, repent, follow our master and accomplish what we were sent upon the earth to do within our own spheres of influence. Christ is Truth and is the good news that we should all be seeking for. I humbly invite you to consider these words to see if any of them resonate with you and to ask God if they are true and what He wants you to do with your life.