Kindle Notes & Highlights
The more obedient a person is, the clearer his views become, the nearer he approaches his God, and the more he comes to know those holy Beings whom to know is eternal life.
prophets are simply members of the true Church who have testimonies of the truth and divinity of the work. They are the saints of God who have learned by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
both testimony and prophecy come by the power of the Holy Ghost; and any person who receives the revelation that Jesus is the Lord is a prophet and can, as occasion requires and when guided by the Spirit, "prophesy of all things."
Most persons with the spirit of testimony, of inspiration, and of prophecy are prophets to themselves only, or to their families. Some are called to preside over and give inspired guidance to one organization or another.
it is no surprise to spiritually literate souls to learn that the prophecies of the First Coming are but types and shadows of similar revelations relative to the Second Coming.
Scripture comes from God by the power of the Holy Ghost. It does not originate with man. It means only what the Holy Ghost thinks it means.
And as The Church of Jesus Christ is his earthly church, so The Church of the Firstborn is his heavenly church, albeit its members are limited to exalted beings, for whom the family unit continues and who gain an inheritance in the highest heaven of the celestial world.
From the perspective of him who is our Redeemer, the gospel is the atoning sacrifice which puts into full operation and makes binding and efficacious all that the Father has prepared for them that love him. It is our Lord's birth in Bethlehem, his childhood in Nazareth, his ministry in Judea and Perea. It is the miracles he wrought, the works he did, the laws he made known. It is the Garden of Gethsemane and the hill of Calvary. It is great drops of blood dripping from every pore, as he took upon himself the sins of the world. It is a Roman spear piercing a sinless side. It is an open tomb
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From the perspective of man, the gospel is a better way of life. It is light bursting forth in a wilderness of darkness. It is faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is signs and gifts and miracles. It is the eyes of the blind being opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, and the dead rising from their funeral biers. It is persecution and suffering and trials. It is learning to live as becometh a saint. It is overcoming the world until, eventually, in glorious immortality, the true saints dwell with Him who is their Friend and into whose image they have been molded.
There was no delegation of authority where the crowning creature of creation was concerned.
The question, then, is how to gain revelation from the Lord's Revelator, and the answer is easily found: Obey the law upon which the receipt of that revelation is predicated.
) To prepare men to receive revelation from the Holy Ghost, the Lord sends forth his Spirit—meaning the Light of Christ, the omnipresent Spirit that quickens the mind and enlightens the intellect, that leads and guides into paths of righteousness, and that entices men to come to the covenant of baptism and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
When the servants of the Lord preach the gospel by the power of the Holy Ghost to those who have hearkened to the Light of Christ, the persons thus mellowed and prepared receive the truth, repent of their sins, and gain for themselves the gift of the Holy Ghost.
) But all of these Biblical passages are either hidden in difficult contexts, have other matters interwoven with them which open the door to uncertainty as to their real meaning, or have a dual application; that is, they apply both to our Lord's First Coming, when he was subject to mortal men, and to his Second Coming, his glorious appearing, when all men shall be subject unto him.
) Teaching that salvation was in Christ, and then bearing testimony that such teachings were true, was the perfect missionary approach then as it is now.
The Israelites of old carried with them in the wilderness a portable tabernacle, the tabernacle of the congregation, a place of worship. To signify its use and purpose, it was named "the tent of testimony" (Num. 9:15), or "the tabernacle of witness" (Num. 17:7). Therein testimony was borne of the coming of the Messiah.
Of certain devout and honest truth seekers of Paul's day, it is written: "They received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily." (Acts 17:11.) Should our search for salvation be any less intensive than theirs?
) The issue is thus squarely put. Jehovah is the Eternal Judge of all men. None are judged by the Father, for he is Elohim, not Jehovah. Christ only is appointed to sit in judgment on all men.
) What is the mystery? It is that Christ dwells in the hearts of those who have crucified the old man of sin, and that as a consequence they have a hope of eternal glory! Such is what the Lord requires of his children in working out their "own salvation with fear and trembling" before him. (Phil. 2:12.) And it is in this connection that Paul says, somewhat caustically, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost." (2 Cor. 4:3.)
) Hidden from the world, but revealed in the hearts of those who are enlightened by the Spirit, this doctrine becomes the measuring rod by which the saints determine whether they are faithful and true. "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves," Paul directs. His standard for such self-judgment is: "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Cor. 13:5.)
And so it is that now and always—past, present, and future—for all those who have accepted the Lord as their God, the rallying cry, the slogan of slogans, the divine statement which crystallizes in the minds of men what they must do to be saved is the great Mosaic proclamation: "The Lord our God is one Lord." (Deut. 6:4.)
Implicit in his spirit birth as the Firstborn is the fact that, as with all the spirit children of the Father, he had a beginning; there was a day when he came into being as a conscious identity, as a spirit entity, as an organized intelligence.
But the full and complete meaning of the designation is that he has become eternal as an individual; he has joined the ranks of eternal beings; and he is thus described as being from eternity to eternity.
Eternity is also that existence gained by exalted beings who gain eternal families of their own that are patterned after the family of God the Father.
truth—that there were no pre-Adamites, for mortality, death, and procreation began with Adam.
That his offer was declined with power all are aware; and then burst forth that war with unrighteousness which, starting in the very heavens themselves, continues now among us here on earth.
