Honoring Jesus the Christ The Holy Messiah who soon will come in glory
by Richard W Linford
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Title
Honoring Jesus the Christ The Holy Messiah who soon will come in glory
Artist
Richard W Linford
Medium
Painting - Acrylic On Paper
Description
Honoring Jesus the Christ the Holy Messiah who soon will come in glory, acrylic on paper
1. JESUS THE CHRIST, JAMES E. TALMAGE.
2. CHAPTER 2.
3. PREEXISTENCE AND FOREORDINATION OF THE CHRIST.
4. We affirm, on the authority of Holy Scripture, that the Being who is
known among men as Jesus of Nazareth, and by all who acknowledge His
Godhood as Jesus the Christ, existed with the Father prior to birth in
the flesh; and that in the preexistent state He was chosen and ordained
to be the one and only Savior and Redeemer of the human race.
5. Foreordination implies and comprises preexistence as an essential
condition; therefore scriptures bearing upon the one are germane to the
other; and consequently in this presentation no segregation of evidence
as applying specifically to the preexistence of Christ or to His
foreordination will be attempted.
6. John the Revelator beheld in vision some of the scenes that had been
enacted in the spirit-world before the beginning of human history. He
witnessed strife and contention between loyalty and rebellion, with the
hosts defending the former led by Michael the archangel, and the
rebellious forces captained by Satan, who is also called the devil, the
serpent, and the dragon. We read: "And there was war in heaven; Michael
and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his
angels."[4]
7. In this struggle between unembodied hosts the forces were unequally
divided; Satan drew to his standard only a third part of the children of
God, who are symbolized as the "stars of heaven";[5] the majority either
fought with Michael, or at least refrained from active opposition, thus
accomplishing the purpose of their "first estate"; while the angels who
arrayed themselves on the side of Satan "kept not their first
estate",[6] and therefore rendered themselves ineligible for the
glorious possibilities of an advanced condition or "second estate".[7]
8. The victory was with Michael and his angels; and Satan or Lucifer,
theretofore a "son of the morning", was cast out of heaven, yea "he was
cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him".[8] The
prophet Isaiah, to whom these momentous occurrences had been revealed
about eight centuries prior to the time of John's writings, laments with
inspired pathos the fall of so great a one; and specifies selfish
ambition as the occasion: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,
son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst
weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascent
into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit
also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I
will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most
High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the
pit."[9]
9. Justification for citing these scriptures in connection with our present
consideration will be found in the cause of the great contention--the
conditions that led to this war in heaven. It is plain from the words of
Isaiah that Lucifer, already of exalted rank, sought to aggrandize
himself without regard to the rights and agency of others. The matter is
set forth, in words that none may misapprehend, in a revelation given to
Moses and repeated through the first prophet of the present
dispensation: "And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That
Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is
the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me,
saying--Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem
all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it;
wherefore give me thine honor. But, behold, my Beloved son, which was my
Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me--Father, thy will be
done, and the glory be thine forever. Wherefore, because that Satan
rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I,
the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine
own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should
be cast down; and he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of
all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his
will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice."[10]
10. Thus it is shown that prior to the placing of man upon the earth, how
long before we do not know, Christ and Satan, together with the hosts of
the spirit-children of God, existed as intelligent individuals,[11]
possessing power and opportunity to choose the course they would pursue
and the leaders whom they would follow and obey.[12] In that great
concourse of spirit-intelligences, the Father's plan, whereby His
children would be advanced to their second estate, was submitted and
doubtless discussed. The opportunity so placed within the reach of the
spirits who were to be privileged to take bodies upon the earth was so
transcendently glorious that those heavenly multitudes burst forth into
song and shouted for joy.[13]
11. Satan's plan of compulsion, whereby all would be safely conducted
through the career of mortality, bereft of freedom to act and agency to
choose, so circumscribed that they would be compelled to do right--that
one soul would not be lost--was rejected; and the humble offer of Jesus
the First-born--to assume mortality and live among men as their Exemplar
and Teacher, observing the sanctity of man's agency but teaching men to
use aright that divine heritage--was accepted. The decision brought war,
which resulted in the vanquishment of Satan and his angels, who were
cast out and deprived of the boundless privileges incident to the mortal
or second estate.
12. In that august council of the angels and the Gods, the Being who later
was born in flesh as Mary's Son, Jesus, took prominent part, and there
was He ordained of the Father to be the Savior of mankind. As to time,
the term being used in the sense of all duration past, this is our
earliest record of the Firstborn among the sons of God; to us who read,
it marks the beginning of the written history of Jesus the Christ.[14]
13. Old Testament scriptures, while abounding in promises relating to the
actuality of Christ's advent in the flesh, are less specific in
information concerning His antemortal existence. By the children of
Israel, while living under the law and still unprepared to receive the
gospel, the Messiah was looked for as one to be born in the lineage of
Abraham and David, empowered to deliver them from personal and national
burdens, and to vanquish their enemies. The actuality of the Messiah's
status as the chosen Son of God, who was with the Father from the
beginning, a Being of preexistent power and glory, was but dimly
perceived, if conceived at all, by the people in general; and although
to prophets specially commissioned in the authorities and privileges of
the Holy Priesthood, revelation of the great truth was given,[15] they
transmitted it to the people rather in the language of imagery and
parable than in words of direct plainness. Nevertheless the testimony of
the evangelists and the apostles, the attestation of the Christ Himself
while in the flesh, and the revelations given in the present
dispensation leave us without dearth of scriptural proof.
14. In the opening lines of the Gospel book written by John the apostle, we
read: "In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the
word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were
made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.... And
the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and
truth."[16]
15. The passage is simple, precise and unambiguous. We may reasonably give
to the phrase "In the beginning" the same meaning as attaches thereto in
the first line of Genesis; and such signification must indicate a time
antecedent to the earliest stages of human existence upon the earth.
That the Word is Jesus Christ, who was with the Father in that beginning
and who was Himself invested with the powers and rank of Godship, and
that He came into the world and dwelt among men, are definitely
affirmed. These statements are corroborated through a revelation given
to Moses, in which he was permitted to see many of the creations of God,
and to hear the voice of the Father with respect to the things that had
been made: "And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is
mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth."[17]
16. John the apostle repeatedly affirms the preexistence of the Christ and
the fact of His authority and power in the antemortal state.[18] To the
same effect is the testimony of Paul[19] and of Peter. Instructing the
saints concerning the basis of their faith, the last-named apostle
impressed upon them that their redemption was not to be secured through
corruptible things nor by the outward observance of traditional
requirements, "But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the
foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for
you."[20]
17. Even more impressive and yet more truly conclusive are the personal
testimonies of the Savior as to His own pre-existent life and the
mission among men to which He had been appointed. No one who accepts
Jesus as the Messiah can consistently reject these evidences of His
eternal nature. When, on a certain occasion, the Jews in the synagogue
disputed among themselves and murmured because of their failure to
understand aright His doctrine concerning Himself, especially as
touching His relationship with the Father, Jesus said unto them: "For I
came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that
sent me." And then, continuing the lesson based upon the contrast
between the manna with which their fathers had been fed in the
wilderness and the bread of life which He had to offer, He added: "I am
the living bread which came down from heaven," and again declared "the
living Father hath sent me." Not a few of the disciples failed to
comprehend His teachings; and their complaints drew from Him these
words: "Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man
ascend up where he was before?"[21]
…
18. When the hour of His betrayal was near, in the last interview with the apostles prior to His agonizing experience in Gethsemane, Jesus comforted them saying: "For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world again, I leave the world, and go to the Father."[23] Furthermore, in the course of upwelling prayer for those who had been true to their testimony of His Messiahship, He addressed the Father with this solemn invocation: "And this is the life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father glorify thou with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."[24]
…
19. The testimony of scriptures written on both hemispheres, that of records both ancient and modern, the inspired utterances of prophets and apostles, and the words of the Lord Himself, are of one voice in proclaiming the preexistence of the Christ and His ordination as the chosen Savior and Redeemer of mankind--in the beginning, yea, even before the foundation of the world.
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June 12th, 2020
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