UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD

 

“The scripture says Noah lived 350 years after the Flood (Genesis 9:28). He lived to see Abraham’s day – Abraham being among the tenth generation of Noah’s descendants! During those ten generations extending over 350 years Noah saw many of his descendants re-establish the wicked abominations of the pre-flood period.” (W. Clen Skousen, “The First 2,000 Years” p 241)

It always seems to start with someone who seeks for power and in Noah’s day it was his great-grandson Nimrod. His message to the people he sought to control was not denial of God but rejection of God as he proclaimed: “Depart from the religion of Shem, and cleave to the institutes of Nimrod! (ibid)

It’s worth noting what these institutes were because some of them persist to this day:

1.      Placing man above God: Nimrod did this well by making a seat for himself in imitation of the seat of God in the tower of Babel…and as he sat upon it, all nations came and paid him divine homage. (Ginzberg, L., “The Legends of the Jews”, Vol. 1, p 1788)

2.      Elevating animals above humanity: “In many cases animal life was made more sacred than human life, and humans were sacrificed to animal gods. The curse of animal worship and the false philosophy associated with it survive to this day among large segments of humanity.” (“The First 2,000 Years” p 243) One such nation is India which considers cows sacred and links them to various gods, including Shiva (whose steed is Nandi, a bull) and Krishna, a cowherd.

3.      Astrology and Zodiac signs: The idea that human beings are somehow influenced in their daily actions by the sun, moon and stars destroys the concept of free agency and their horoscope predictions reflect divination and sorcery. Astrology crept into Israel’s idolatry and played a big part in replacing the worship of Jehovah in Jeremiah’s day (Jeremiah 10:2).

Heathen religions were popular because they were devoted to the stimulating and satisfying of human passion. They institutionalized immorality. Heathen’s religious practices, namely sexual perversions, mutilation of bodies and child sacrifices were so satanic in nature that they are too confronting to human sensibilities to be mentioned here in detail.

This is the most interesting part. Modern day historians attribute these degenerate religious practices to the ‘primitive minds’ of yesteryear and seek to excuse idolatry with its perversions to be an ‘upward reach of man’ and a means of expressing the ‘instinctive desire to worship’. (“The First 2,000 Years” p 246).

The truth is these heathen religions were promoted in contradiction of God’s truth which was already upon the earth. They were the means for man’s ‘instinctive desire to grasp for power’. We all know who is behind this power.

So much in our world is designed to addict us to ‘the natural man’ through the ways of the world which promote power, greed, self-gratification and self-promotion. The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us to keep ourselves unspotted from the world and to ‘come out from the wicked, to be separate and touch not their unclean things’  (Alma 5:57; 2 Cor 6:17; James 1:27; D&C 59:9).

It’s a gospel of love….for God, for our fellowman, for the eternal within us and for everything that is true, noble and good….

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: The Gospel of Light by B. Laura Wilson) 

UNSPOTTED IN A WORLD OF SIN

 

There is a scripture in Section 36 of the Doctrine of Covenants which issues a challenge to the members of the Church to have an aversion to sin. This is a tall order considering we live in a fallen world with the inclinations of the natural man.

This scripture says we are to ‘come forth out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted with the flesh’ (v 6). This has reference to Jude 1:23 and this is a clearer explanation of it:

“To stay the spread of disease in ancient Israel, clothing spotted by contagious diseases was destroyed by burning (Lev. 13:47-59; 15:4-17). And so with sin in the Church, the saints are to avoid the remotest contact with it; the very garments, as it were, of the sinners are to be burned with fire, meaning that anything which has had contact with the pollutions of the wicked must be shunned” (Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3:428).

Again I ask, is it possible to be in total control of the inclinations of the natural man? Well, it would appear so. When King Benjamin delivered his address, his people were so overcome that they viewed themselves in their carnal state and begged for the Atoning power of Christ to purify their hearts and grant them forgiveness of their sins (Mosiah 4:2).

It didn’t stop with forgiveness though. Because of their willingness to believe in Jesus Christ and in His power, this willingness led to His spirit working a ‘mighty change’ in their hearts to such a point that they had no more disposition to do evil but to do good continually (Mosiah 5:2).

The key to a sinless state then has to be ‘a mighty change’ for our hearts to become like Christ’s, devoid of desire to sin. The thing is, the Saviour did not come to this fallen world immune to sin and temptation. It was His choice to be sinless.

“Christ was perfect because he wanted to be. It is important to remember that Jesus was capable of sinning, that he could have succumbed, that the plan of life and salvation could have been foiled, but that he remained true.

“Had there been no possibility of his yielding to the enticement of Satan, there would have been no real test, no genuine victory in the result. If he had been stripped of the faculty to sin, he would have been stripped of his very agency. It was he who had come to safeguard and ensure the agency of man [hence] He had to retain the capacity and ability to sin had he willed so to do…..

“He was perfect and sinless, not because he had to be, but rather because he clearly and determinedly wanted to be. As the Doctrine and Covenants records, “He suffered temptations but gave no need heed unto them (D&C 20:22).”  (Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, p 4; see also Jesus the Christ, p 134)

The Saviour did not overcome sin for himself, He resisted it. No painful repentance needed because no sin was committed. We might argue that because of His divine nature it was easy for Him to resist His temptations but that is not so. Every temptation has to equal the stature of the man, otherwise it is not a temptation. It has no substance if it does not carry with it potential power to destroy.

Lest we feel totally disheartened because we are not sinless….we can have the power to become so. Because of His Atonement, the Saviour overcame the effects of sin for the natural man and can give us strength beyond our own to keep our garments unspotted from the world through the enabling power of His grace.

This power is ours for the asking, and seeking, and longing to keep our garments unspotted from ‘the flesh’ of this world:

“….I will be merciful unto you; he that is weak among you hereafter shall be made strong.” (D&C 50:16)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Return to the Fold by Greg Sargent)

GRATITUDE BEYOND MEASURE

 

 

I imagined this morning during my reverie, how I would feel seeing the Saviour at the completion of my earthly life. I saw myself bowing before Him in my mind and an immense magnitude of His Atonement flooded my soul. I wept with gratitude at the understanding that I did not really know the impact this life would have on me before I was born, even though I was so supportive of The Plan…..but now I understand.

I have been what you would call a ‘good girl’ my whole life. I have never committed a ‘big’ sin of any kind but I am very aware of my ‘lesser’ sins, of every unworthy thought, feeling and action that might have been offensive to God. In other words, the natural man I am experiencing here.

Whilst bowing before the Saviour in my mind, all the earthly scars of my experience flooded me and I really and truly understood the impact the Atonement will have on my life on Judgment Day….how it will cover all my un-godlike behaviours and wipe away all my embarrassments and godly sorrow I have because of them.

I understood so well the blessing of the sanctification process I will go through. And all because of the suffering of one man who will step before me on Judgment Day to answer for my sins. This is the power of mediation, the power of intercession, the power of advocacy of a God who volunteered to save my soul.

I bow now and will bow always before the magnitude of such power and love…..all glory be His now and forever and ever…..

 

With what heavy steps

You approached the garden’s gate!

You suffered, You atoned,

You hung lifeless on the cross,

As you met Your appointed fate.

 

I waited for my turn on earth

And watched with angels

Your rise from the darkened tomb

That could not contain

The magnitude of You.

 

I saw Your glory that shone so bright

Defeating death and making all anew

And I wept for the greatness of hope

That rose with You.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Encircled In The Arms of His Love by Eva Koleva Timothy)

A SACRED GIFT

 

 

Have you ever heard someone say: “It’s my life and my body and I’ll do with it as I please”??? Never a bigger falsehood has been said than this. In his efforts to impress upon his people their indebtedness to God for all that they owned and were, King Benjamin expressed it this way:  “Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you” (Mosiah 2:25). The truth is, this mortal life is a gift of grace and our mortal bodies are not our own but are on loan from God (Elder David A. Bednar, Ye Are the Temple of God, Ensign Sept 2001, p 18).

The sad thing is that most of us very seldom view our bodies as sacred or special. We are either in a tug-o-war with it, abuse it, let us serve us or seduce us. Here is the stark truth: “In my practice as a psychologist, I have seen talented, righteous Latter-day Saint women who despise themselves because their bodies do not look like what they see in movies or magazines. Many say they are no good unless they look good. Other clients have been so seduced by pornography that they view the body as a thing to be consumed and exploited. Often, they eventually feel duped, trapped, and degraded themselves, since along with a loss of respect for the body and for others comes an inevitable loss of respect for oneself” (Diane, L. Spangler, The Body, A Sacred Gift, Ensign July 2005, p 14-18)

Diane Spangler goes on to say that ‘one foundational gospel truth about the body is the principle that having a physical body is a godlike attribute, that we are more like God with a body than without’ and the ‘second truth the scriptures offer about the body is the clarification of its nature as a sacred gift from God’ with ‘the purpose of the body to help us learn, progress, serve, and glorify the Giver of the gift who is God’. It can be an overwhelming thought considering we are so utterly subject to the ‘natural man’ which King Benjamin called ‘an enemy to God’ (Mosiah 3:19). Consider what Elder Bednar says about the natural man: “We live in a fallen world. The very elements out of which our bodies were created are by nature fallen and ever subject to the pull of sin, corruption, and death. Thus, the Fall of Adam and its consequences affect us most directly through our physical bodies”.

But here is a twofold hope: 1. “And yet, we are dual creatures, for at the same time that we inhabit a physical body that is subject to the Fall, we also have a spirit that represents the eternal part of us” (Elder Bednar, p 17 of abovementioned article) and; 2. President Brigham Young said that even though the body is of the earth and is subject to the power of the devil, “the spirit is pure, and under the special control and influence of the Lord” (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widstoe [1941], 70). This should give us hope that we can rise to the responsibility of being responsible…..

We are not only indebted to God for His grace of creation but because we are a purchased people: “For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:20).  Our agency was exercised when we upheld and supported the Plan of Salvation in pre-existence and when the Saviour hung on the cross for it. This is the price that was paid for the sacred gift that is our body. It’s a body we will possess forever. If we are not viewing it this way now, maybe we need to begin for we are valued by the highest price that was ever paid…

A life laid bare in selfless giving

For man’s purpose of salvation

Crimson drops were spilt like roses

On the hill of His creation. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Rose of Sharon by Yongsung Kim)