Jesus and the Three Divinities Born Again

"V Marks of the Divinity of Jesus Christ," Ensign, Dec. 2001, 8

There are primal truths about our Lord which we must believe if we are to consider ourselves truly His disciples. I likewise warn you lot about some of the heresies that are sponsored by those who would undermine His holy mission. If I have i desire for you, … it would exist that you will be valiant in your testimony of Jesus Christ.

The First Mark of His Divinity Is His Divine Nativity

The near primal doctrine of true Christianity is the divine birth of the child Jesus. It is a doctrine not comprehended by the globe, misinterpreted by [many] Christian churches, and even misunderstood by some members of the true Church.

The paternity of Jesus Christ is ane of the mysteries of godliness. It may only be comprehended past the spiritually minded. The Campaigner Matthew recorded, "Now the nascency of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When equally his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was plant with child of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. ane:18). Luke renders a more plain pregnant to the divine formulation. He quotes the angel Gabriel proverb to Mary: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore as well that holy thing [being] which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke i:35; accent added). Alma's testimony, given fourscore years before the Savior'south nativity, beautifully reconciles the testimonies of Matthew and Luke: "He shall exist born of Mary, … she existence a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and excogitate past the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God" (Alma 7:x; accent added).

Some 600 years earlier Jesus was born, Nephi had a vision. He saw Mary and described her every bit "a virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins." He and so saw her "carried abroad in the Spirit for the space of a time." When she returned, she was "bearing a kid in her artillery, … even the Son of the Eternal Father" (1 Ne. xi:15, 19–21).

Thus the testimonies of appointed witnesses leave no question every bit to the paternity of Jesus Christ. God was the Father of His fleshly tabernacle, and Mary, a mortal woman, was His mother. He is therefore the merely person born who rightfully deserves the title "the Only Begotten Son of God."

We must continue in listen who Jesus was before He was born. He was the Creator of all things, the great Jehovah, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was and is the Holy One of Israel.

An angel of the Lord who appeared to Nephi used a discussion to describe the willingness of the Holy One of Israel to step downwardly from His throne divine and make flesh His tabernacle. That discussion is condescension. It means to descend or come downwards from an exalted position to a identify of inferior station. This our Savior did. In fact, He Himself has testified, "The Son of Man hath descended beneath [all things]" (D&C 122:viii; see also D&C 88:half dozen; emphasis added). [Here is] the testimony of King Benjamin concerning our Lord's condescension: "The Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come downward from sky among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay" (Mosiah three:v; emphasis added).

When the Corking God of the Universe condescended to exist born of mortal woman, He submitted Himself to the infirmities of bloodshed, to "suffer temptations, and pain of torso, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man tin suffer, except it exist unto death" (Mosiah three:7). These infirmities He inherited from His mortal mother. But because His father was God, Jesus Christ had powers which no human had before or since. He was God in the flesh—fifty-fifty the Son of God. These powers enabled Him to reach miracles, signs, wonders, the great Atonement, and the Resurrection—all of which are boosted marks of His divinity.

From the time of His heaven-heralded birth there have crept into the Church heresies which are intended to dilute or undermine the pure doctrines of the gospel. These heresies are, past and large, sponsored by the philosophies of human being and in many instances are advocated by so-called Christian scholars. The effort is to make Christianity more than palatable, more reasonable, and and then they attempt to humanize Jesus and give natural explanations to those things which are divine. An instance is Jesus' birth. At that place are those who would seek to convince u.s.a. that the divine birth of Christ as proclaimed in the New Attestation was not a divine birth at all—nor was Mary, the virgin girl, a virgin at the fourth dimension of Jesus' formulation. They would have you believe that Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, was His physical father, and that Jesus was therefore homo in all His attributes and characteristics. They appear generous in their praise of Him when they say that He was a not bad moral philosopher, maybe even the greatest. Just the intent of their endeavour is to repudiate the divine sonship of Jesus, for on that doctrine residual all other claims of Christianity.

I am bold to say to you, … Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the most literal sense. The body in which He performed His mission in the flesh was sired by that same Holy Being we worship as God, our Eternal Father. He was non the son of Joseph, nor was He begotten by the Holy Ghost. He is the Son of the Eternal Father!

The Second Mark of the Divinity of Christ Is His Ministry building

The entire ministry of the Principal was characterized by His voluntary subordination to His Heavenly Begetter'southward volition. "For I came downwardly from heaven, not to practise mine own will, simply the will of him that sent me" (John half dozen:38). As the Messiah, He fully understood His atoning mission and the will of His Begetter. He testified:

"My Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross … , that I might draw all men unto me. …

"… Therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged co-ordinate to their works.

"And information technology shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the cease, behold, him will I agree guiltless earlier my Father at that day when I shall stand to gauge the world" (three Ne. 27:14–xvi).

He came to restore the fulness of a gospel which had been lost past apostasy. He came non to repeal Moses simply to subordinate Mosaic police force to the higher police of Christ. In guild that His own people would know that He had authority to do and then, He proclaimed His messiahship with words and metaphors which they could non fault: "I am that bread of life" (John 6:48). "I am the good shepherd" (John x:14). "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). "I am the resurrection, and the life" (John eleven:25). "I am the manner, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).

The hallmark of His ministry, equally prophets before Him testified that information technology would be, was many mighty miracles—"healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases" (Mosiah 3:5). One of the greatest of these miracles was the raising of His friend Lazarus from the dead. When Jesus received word that His friend Lazarus was ill, He deliberately delayed coming to Bethany to government minister to His friend. It was a custom among the Jews to bury their deceased on the aforementioned twenty-four hours they died. It was also a superstition amongst them that the spirit lingered around the body for three days, only on the fourth day it departed. Jesus was very familiar with their beliefs. He therefore delayed His arrival in Bethany until Lazarus had been in the grave for four days. In that way there would be no question about the miracle He was to perform.

On arrival outside of Bethany He was met past Martha, sister to Lazarus. She said, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother Lazarus had non died." Jesus said, "Thy brother shall rising once again." Not understanding, Martha replied, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Then Jesus proclaimed, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were expressionless, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die" (see John 11:21–26). Jesus was then taken to the place of burial, a cave with a stone in front of it. He allowable them to remove the stone, subsequently which He offered up a prayer to His Male parent. He so cried in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come along" (John eleven:43). Here is the Apostle John'south record of what took place: "And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was jump almost with a napkin" (John 11:44).

That miracle was such irrefutable proof of the messiahship of Jesus that the Sanhedrin determined Jesus must die because, they said, He "doeth many miracles" which volition cause the people to believe (encounter John 11:47). Sadly, however, John also recorded, "Merely though he had done so many miracles before them, yet [the people] believed non on him" (John 12:37).

Today there are unbelievers among us who would spread seeds of heresy that Jesus could not cast out evil spirits, did not walk on the water or heal the sick or miraculously feed 5,000 or calm storms or raise the dead. They would have you believe that such claims are fantastic or that there is a natural explanation for each alleged miracle. Some take gone so far as to publish psychological explanations for His reported miracles. … Merely I say, Jesus' unabridged ministry was a marking of His divinity. He spoke as God, He acted as God, and performed works which simply God Himself tin practice. His works carry testimony of His divinity.

A Third Marker of His Divinity Is His Corking Atoning Sacrifice

Were information technology non for the power that Jesus inherited from His Male parent, His great Atonement would not have been possible. You are all familiar with the facts. On the night Jesus was betrayed, He took three of the Twelve and went into the place chosen Gethsemane. It was there He suffered the pains of all men, which suffering, He said, "caused myself, fifty-fifty God, the greatest of all, to tremble considering of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both trunk and spirit—and would that I might not drink the biting cup, and compress" (D&C 19:18).

In spite of that excruciating ordeal, He took the cup and drank! He suffered equally merely God could suffer, bearing our griefs, carrying our sorrows, existence wounded for our transgressions, voluntarily submitting Himself to the iniquity of u.s.a. all, simply every bit Isaiah prophesied (run into Isa. 53:4–6). Information technology was in Gethsemane where Jesus took on Himself the sins of the earth, in Gethsemane where His pain was equivalent to the cumulative brunt of all men, in Gethsemane where He descended below all things and then that all could repent and come up to Him. The mortal heed fails to fathom, the tongue cannot limited, the pen of human cannot describe the breadth, the depth, or height of the suffering of our Lord—nor His infinite honey for us.

Nevertheless in that location are those who arrogantly declare the most pernicious heresy, that the claret which extruded from the physical trunk of our Lord on that dark had no efficacy for the redemption of man. They would have y'all believe the but significance to Gethsemane was that Jesus made His determination there to go to the cantankerous. They say that any suffering Jesus endured was only personal, not redemptive for the whole human race. I know of no heresy more than destructive to religion than this, for the individual who and then accepts this mirage is beguiled to believe that he can achieve exaltation on the basis of his own merit, intelligence, and personal endeavour. Never forget … that "information technology is by grace that we are saved, after all we tin do" (ii Ne. 25:23).

As I contemplate the glorious Atonement of our Lord which extended from Gethsemane to Golgotha, I am led to exclaim with reverence and gratitude:

I stand up all amazed at the dearest Jesus offers me,

Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.

I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,

That for me a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died. …

I marvel that he would descend from his throne divine

To rescue a soul so rebellious and proud equally mine,

That he should extend his great dear unto such as I,

Sufficient to own, to redeem, and to justify.

Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me

Enough to die for me!

Oh, information technology is wonderful, wonderful to me!

("I Stand up All Amazed," Hymns, no. 193)

A Fourth Mark of His Divinity Is His Literal Resurrection

I accept stood in reverent awe at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. It is history's well-nigh pregnant tomb—because it is empty!

In the 3rd day following His burial, Jesus came forth. The empty tomb was a cause of consternation to His disciples and others in Jerusalem. He appeared start to Mary Magdalene. He approached her as she was weeping in the garden. "Woman, why weepest k? whom seekest thou?" Mary, who supposed it was the gardener speaking, said, "Sir, if thou accept borne him hence, tell me where one thousand hast laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus so said, "Mary." She at present recognized His voice and exclaimed, "Rabboni," or in other words, "Master" (John twenty:fifteen–17).

Of all the marks of Jesus' divinity, none has greater support by the testimony of eyewitnesses than His literal, bodily Resurrection. Several women testified that they saw Him live. Two disciples on the route to Emmaus dined with Him. Peter proclaimed himself an eyewitness to the Resurrection. At that place were many special appearances to the Twelve. In addition to these testimonies, over 500 saw Him at once. And Paul certified that he saw the resurrected Lord. Since the day of Resurrection when Jesus became "the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. 15:20), there have been those who disbelieve and scoff. They maintain there is no life across mortal existence. Some have even written books which contain their fanciful heresies to suggest how Jesus' disciples perpetrated the hoax of His Resurrection. Simply I say, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest historical result in the earth to date. In this dispensation, commencing with the Prophet Joseph Smith, the witnesses are legion. As one of those called as a special witness, I add my testimony to those of my fellow Apostles: He lives! He lives with a resurrected body. At that place is no truth or fact of which I am more than bodacious, or know better past personal experience, than the truth of the literal Resurrection of our Lord.

The Fifth Mark of His Divinity Is His Promised Coming

He told the Twelve, "I get to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a identify for you, I will come up again" (John fourteen:2–3; emphasis added). As the time of His departure drew nigh, He took them to a place outside of Bethany. In that location He imparted His final instructions and blessing to the Twelve. He and then arose "while they beheld" and ascended to heaven, "and a cloud received him out of their sight." As the Apostles stood looking upwards, 2 heavenly messengers appeared and spoke: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall and then come in like mode as ye take seen him go into sky" (Acts i:ix–11; accent added).

Since that mean solar day, xix centuries accept come and gone. Considering He has not nevertheless come, some scoffingly say, as Peter prophesied, "Where is the hope of his coming? for since the fathers savage asleep, all things keep as they were from the offset of the cosmos" (two Pet. iii:4).

Before He comes, the testimony of the servants of God volition exist rejected, by and large. Because of this rejection great calamities volition befall the nations of the world, for the Lord Himself has alleged:

"For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the basis and shall not exist able to stand.

"And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the bounding main heaving themselves across their bounds.

"And all things shall be in mayhem; and surely, men's hearts shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people" (D&C 88:89–91).

"And at that place shall be men continuing in that generation, that shall not laissez passer until they shall run into an overflowing scourge; for a desolating sickness shall cover the land.

"Merely my disciples shall stand up in holy places, and shall not exist moved; but among the wicked, men shall elevator up their voices and curse God and die.

"And at that place shall be earthquakes also in divers places, and many desolations; yet men will harden their hearts against me, and they will take upward the sword, one against another, and they will kill ane another" (D&C 45:31–33).

The earth will present a scene of disharmonize such every bit has never been experienced earlier. Nevertheless, men's hearts will exist hardened to the revelations from heaven. Even greater signs shall then exist given to manifest the approaching peachy 24-hour interval of the Lord. "And they shall run across signs and wonders, for they shall be shown forth in the heavens higher up, and in the earth below.

"And they shall behold claret, and fire, and vapors of smoke.

"And before the mean solar day of the Lord shall come, the sunday shall be darkened, and the moon exist turned into blood, and the stars fall from sky" (D&C 45:xl–42).

I realize this is not a pleasant pic. I take no delight in its portrayal, nor practise I look forward to the day when calamities shall come upon mankind. Only these words are not my own; the Lord has spoken them. Knowing what we know as His servants, can we hesitate to enhance a warning vocalization to all who will mind that they may be prepared for the days ahead? Silence in the confront of such cataclysm is sin! Merely there is a bright side to an otherwise gloomy picture—the coming of our Lord in all His glory. His coming will be both glorious and terrible, depending on the spiritual condition of those who remain.

His first advent will exist to the righteous Saints who have gathered to the New Jerusalem. In this place of refuge they will be safe from the wrath of the Lord, which will be poured out without measure on all nations. Modern revelation provides this description:

"And the glory of the Lord shall be there, and the terror of the Lord likewise shall be there, insomuch that the wicked will not come up unto it, and it shall be chosen Zion.

"And it shall come to laissez passer among the wicked, that every man that will not take his sword against his neighbor must needs flee unto Zion for condom.

"And at that place shall be gathered unto information technology out of every nation under heaven; and information technology shall be the only people that shall not be at war one with another" (D&C 45:67–69).

The second appearance of the Lord volition be to the Jews. To these beleaguered sons of Judah, surrounded past hostile Gentile armies, who again threaten to overrun Jerusalem, the Savior—their Messiah—will appear and set His feet on the Mount of Olives, "and it shall cleave in twain, and the earth shall tremble, and reel to and fro, and the heavens also shall milk shake" (D&C 45:48). The Lord Himself volition then rout the Gentile armies, decimating their forces (see Ezek. 38–39). Judah volition be spared, no longer to exist the persecuted and scattered. The Jews will then arroyo their Deliverer and inquire:

"What are these wounds in thine hands and in thy anxiety? …

"… I will say unto them: These wounds are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. I am he who was lifted upwardly. I am Jesus that was crucified. I am the Son of God.

"And then shall they weep because of their iniquities; so shall they lament because they persecuted their rex" (D&C 45:51–53).

What a touching drama this will be! Jesus—Prophet, Messiah, King—volition be welcomed in His own country! Jerusalem will go an eternal city of peace! The sons of Judah will and so realize this promise: "The tribe of Judah, afterwards their hurting, shall be sanctified in holiness earlier the Lord, to dwell in his presence mean solar day and night, forever and always" (D&C 133:35).

The third appearance of Christ will be to the rest of the earth. Here is His description of His coming:

"And the Lord shall be ruddy in his wearing apparel, and his garments like him that treadeth in the wine-vat.

"And then groovy shall be the glory of his presence that the sun shall hide his confront in shame, and the moon shall withhold its light, and the stars shall be hurled from their places" (D&C 133:48–49).

All nations will run into Him "in the clouds of heaven, clothed with power and groovy glory; with all the holy angels. …

"And the Lord shall utter his voice, and all the ends of the world shall hear it; and the nations of the earth shall mourn, and they that have laughed shall see their folly.

"And calamity shall cover the mocker, and the scorner shall exist consumed; and they that take watched for iniquity shall be hewn downwardly and cast into the burn down" (D&C 45:44, 49–l).

Yes, come He will! He will come in a twenty-four hours of wickedness, a time when men and women will exist "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in spousal relationship" (Matt. 24:38). He will come at a time of great upheaval and tribulation when "the whole earth shall exist in commotion" (D&C 45:26). He will come up at a time when the Jewish nation is faced with extermination. He volition come as a thief in the night—when the earth to the lowest degree expects Him to come up. "But of that day, and 60 minutes, no one knoweth; no, non the angels of God in heaven, but my Father only" (JS—One thousand 1:40).

I gratefully bear testimony of the marks which bear witness to His divinity: His divine birth, His ministry, His apologetic sacrifice, His Resurrection, His promised coming. I testify of His great love and condescension for all our Male parent'southward children and His willingness to receive all who will come up to partake of this goodness and mercy. Yes, every bit the Book of Mormon testifies, "He denieth none that come up unto him, blackness and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are akin unto [Him]" (two Ne. 26:33). God bless you … to believe and to be valiant in your testimony of Him whom we declare to the earth to be our Lord, our Master, our Savior, our Redeemer, our God.

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Source: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2001/12/five-marks-of-the-divinity-of-jesus-christ?lang=eng

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