Sunday, March 29, 2015

Mosiah 26:21 - 26:25

Mosiah 26:21 And he that will hear my voice shall be my sheep; and him shall ye receive into the church, and him will I also receive.

So whoever hears the gospel and excepts it, will be accepted into the Church and be accepted by the Lord himself.

Mosiah 26:22 For behold, this is my church; whosoever is baptized shall be baptized unto repentance. And whomsoever ye receive shall believe in my name; and him will I freely forgive.

This Church is the Lord’s. Anyone who will be baptized and repent of sins will be freely forgiven of their sins.

Mosiah 26:23 For it is I that taketh upon me the sins of the world; for it is I that hath created them; and it is I that granteth unto him that believeth unto the end a place at my right hand.

Because the Lord himself will be the one to suffer fro the sins of the repentant sinner. The Lord created the individual and therefore put into place a way to be forgiven of their missteps and return to His presence.
[I have often wondered how billions and billions of people could have a close relationship with the Lord after mortality. I think that close relationships usually means concentration of attention to the exclusion of others for a long period of time. So how could a close relationship be in place with billions of other close friends? I guess it will have to be compared to our feelings of closeness to the Lord in prayer. Maybe closeness has nothing to do with being in the presence of, meaning in the physical presence of another. Maybe it can be a connection like a computer to the internet. We can have all the attention of the internet we want at anytime and on any subject we desire. The number of users is usually not an issue at least most of the time. Here the Lord can have all the users log on and there is never an overload. This goes even if I am in one place many thousands of miles from the location of the main frame. So this can also apply to my children to me even after the resurrection, I am in one place in the universe and they are in another place. Just like it is in mortality. I am on the earth and Heaven Father is in his heaven. But I can still communicate with him.]

Mosiah 26:24 For behold, in my name are they called; and if they know me they shall come forth, and shall have a place eternally at my right hand.

They, the people, are called as king Benjamin said the children of Christ. And if they truly know the real Christ, that is, live as He will live as we should all live, we will come forth to live with Him in heaven because he is our guide and the center of our lives.
[In the Sermon on the Mount, the phrase “ … I never knew you …” is used as in 3 Nephi. However, in the JST, Joseph Smith changed it to read “..ye never knew me ..” This makes sence to me. If we don’t know Christ, we are ignorant of His ways and don’t even know what we are missing. However, Him not knowing us might infer that we were not there to help out with saving our friends and neighbors and therefore strangers to Him when we show up looking for salvation because we now see the reward for sinners. Taking upon the name of Christ means really getting to know Him. And by knowing Him, we are behaving as He behaves, that is, being loving and kind and helpful to all. If we are not that way, then we do not “know him” and He will wonder who we are when we come to Him from out of nowhere wanting in on the good times.]

Mosiah 26:25 And it shall come to pass that when the second trump shall sound then shall they that never knew me come forth and shall stand before me.

It will be this second group of people who were strangers to Christ in one way or another, that will come forth in the second resurrection to stand for judgment.

No comments:

Post a Comment