He hears me when in the
Solitude of my darkest nights
On Him I call.
He hears me when in silence
My heart tries to hide
My fears that I might fall.
He hears me when in crowds
My mind wanders and doubts
Begin their insidious call.
He hears me whether
I cry to Him or not
Because He knows my very soul,
He knows it all.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Those of
you who read my posts will be aware that I base a lot of my knowledge on the
scriptures. I don’t profess to know it all but over the years I have followed suggestions
and instructions from several Church leaders on how to study and understand the
scriptures.
Every once in a while I will get a reader who
will challenge what I write. In one of my recent posts titled “A Clear View” I
attempted to prove that Christ has known everything from His very beginning,
including the extent of the suffering He would go through during His Atonement,
thanks to the Inspired Version which points out that it was the disciples that
were ‘sore amazed’ in Gethsemane and not the Saviour (JST Mark 14:36).
One reader pointed
out the scripture in Matthew 24:36 that quotes the Saviour saying that only His
Father knows the day and the hour of His Second Coming, so in his opinion, the
Saviour doesn’t know everything……this in spite of me citing two references in
the Doctrine and Covenants where the Saviour said that only men and angels don’t
know the day or the hour indicating that He knows too (D&C 39:21; 49:7).
I don’t
need to tell you how aghast I was that a member of the Church considered His
opinion of Christ to be more accurate than what the Saviour has said of Himself,
namely that He knows the end from the beginning (Abraham 2:8); that all things past,
present, and future are before Him continually (D&C 130:7); and that He
knows all things and there is not anything that He doesn’t know (2 Nephi 9:20).
To me, the
Matthew scripture is either mis-translated, as Joseph indicated in his
teachings about certain errors in the Bible (Teachings, p 327) , or the Saviour
was saying to His disciples, ‘I know also but I am not going to tell you the
day and the hour because no man is supposed to know…..as when I come I will
come quickly, meaning suddenly, as a thief in the night so all I will give you
are the signs to watch for’ (Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual commentary
for 34:7-12).
In my mind,
the Saviour didn’t need to spell out that He knows when He will come. He is not
some junior apprentice in the Celestial Kingdom who has to be told what to do
and when to do it. He is a God and He is one with the Father (D&C 50:43;
93:3; 3 Nephi 11:27; John 14:9-11). What the Father thinks, the Saviour thinks,
what the Father knows, the Saviour knows, what the Father wants, the Saviour
wants. He is in all and above all and through all, the light, the truth, and
the way. Why would He not know when He is supposed to come the second time?
My point is
this. How can we have faith in a God who doesn’t know everything? It doesn’t
make sense to me….so it behooves us to know Him like we have never known
anything or anyone before. And this is how we can know Him: “Search the
scriptures……..they are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39; 3 Nephi 23:5).
And in
Joseph’s words: “Search the scriptures – search the revelations which we publish,
and ask your Heavenly Father, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, to manifest
the truth unto you, and if you do it with an eye single to His glory, nothing
doubting, He will answer you by the power of His Holy Spirit. You will then
know for yourselves and not for another. You will not then be dependent on man
for the knowledge of God, nor will there be any room for speculation. No, for
when men receive their instruction from Him that made them, they know how He
will save them.” (History of the Church, 1:282)
Daily I stand in my holy place
As I feast upon Thy word,
Ever hopeful I will meet You there,
Thy Spirit to embrace
And the cares of this world to
arrest.
I reach for You in darkness
And step up to heaven’s door;
I am bathed in light
And am granted entrance to Your
heart.
Over the years as I have studied the
scriptures, I have become extremely grateful for the spiritual gift of
translation that was given to Joseph, the Prophet of the Restoration. As much
as I love the Old Testament and the Bible in its entirety, I am more than
grateful for the brilliance of the Book of Mormon because of its singular
process of translation.
This is something Joseph said that I have come
to have a testimony of: “Certain errors had crept into the Bible through ‘ignorant
translators, careless transcribers, or designing and corrupt priests” (Joseph
Smith Teachings, p 327). For this reason, I have been very invested in Joseph’s
translation of the Bible passages that have given me a much clearer view.
Sometimes it is just a word that has been
corrected that has made so much difference to my understanding. Consider these
few:
-
Speaking
of Jezebel, wife of King Ahab, who introduced the worst form of idol worship
and caused the downfall of the northern kingdom of Israel, Revelation 2:22
says: I will cast her into a bed….the JST corrects that to read, I will cast
her into a HELL.
-
In
2 Timothy 3:16 we read: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is
profitable….” Joseph’s translation takes just one word out and totally alters
the meaning. The JST reads: “And all scripture given by inspiration of God is
profitable”.
Here are a couple of examples with much
weightier matters:
-
“God
is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth”
(John 4:24). JST: For unto such hath God promised his spirit. And they who
worship him, must worship in spirit and in truth.
-
This
is my favourite and one which has almost evolved into a doctrinal theory in the
Church. It actually enrages me. In Mark 14:33 we read that the Saviour was sore
amazed at the suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane. This has caused some
prolific writers in the Church to elaborate on how the Saviour knew cognitively
what He must do but not experientially. The theory is that He had no idea how
bad it was going to be. I would like to challenge this belief.
In JST Mark 14:36, we read: “And they came to a
place which was named Gethsemane, which was a garden, and THE DISCIPLES began
to be sore amazed….” Yes, He admitted He wished the cup to be removed because
it was so bad but He never said He was caught unawares (D&C 19:18-19).
This is why I discredit this theory of Him not
knowing. When did we start to believe that a God didn’t know something??? When the
pre-mortal Christ introduced himself to Abraham He said: “I am Jehovah and I
know the end from the beginning….” (Abraham 2:8). A god who creates worlds
without number cannot possibly be lacking in something. It’s unfathomable to
me.
I also believe that Jesus was apprised of the
exact torture of the Atonement during his 40 days of fasting at the onset of
His ministry. Scripturally, “number 40 represents a period of trial, testing,
probation, or mourning” (Gaskill, “The Lost Language of Symbolism”, 137). Think
about that.
The Saviour was a God before His mortal life.
He was not someone who got caught up in the enthusiasm of the Plan of Salvation
so He volunteered! Saying that He didn’t understand something until He
experienced it is like bringing Him down to humanity’s level. This is just an earthly view that excludes godly capability. His godly
knowledge in pre-mortal life makes His voluntary suffering and death even more
worthy or our gratitude, adoration and worship. I bow before such a God….the
lover of my soul…..
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: In Him Is All Wisdom and Knowledge by Greg Collins)
The Saviour
is the epitome of the most perfect, obedient, and admirable son there could
ever exist. We very seldom focus on this. When we speak and think of Him it is in
most cases about His role as our Saviour.
There is an
important role however, that the Christ fulfilled perfectly upon this earth and
continues to do so as He guides His Church. It is the authority given Him by
the Father to speak and act in the first person of the Godhead, as though he
were the Father. This is called ‘divine investiture of authority’. (“The Father and the Son: A Doctrinal
Exposition by the First Presidency”, in Talmage, Articles of Faith, pp
465-73)
The
scriptures prove this to the letter. Often it can be confusing to read: “Listen
to the voice of Jesus Christ” and shortly thereafter to come across a reference
to “mine Only Begotten Son” (D&C 29:1, 41-46).
Elder Bruce
R. McConkie explains it this way: “Since Christ is one with the Father in all
of the attributes of perfection, and since he exercises power and authority of
the Father, it follows that everything He says or does is and would be exactly
and precisely what the Father would say and do under the same circumstances” (Mormon
Doctrine, p 130)
Think about
this for a moment. Does this not testify of the incredible closeness the
Saviour has with the Father, to know His every wish, His every thought, His
every intent??? And most of all, does this not tell us that the Saviour’s whole
purpose is to redeem the Father’s children and to bring Him glory? (Moses 4:2).
During His
visit to the Americas, I counted the Saviour made 163 references to the Father.
Fifteen of them were references of His obedience to Him (3 Nephi 15:14-16,18,19;
16:3,10,16; 17:2, 18:14,27; 20:10,14,46).
“To come to
earth with such a responsibility, to stand in place of Elohim – speaking as He
would speak, judging and serving, loving and warning, forbearing and forgiving
as He would do – this is a duty of such staggering proportions that you and I
cannot comprehend such a thing. But in the loyalty and determination that would
be characteristic of a divine child, Jesus could comprehend it, and He did it.”
(Jeffrey R. Holland, The Grandeur of God, October 2003 General
Conference)
I stood in the
shadow of Your heart today
And saw
obedience to the Father there;
I saw the Son
You are and more
I saw the God
that I adore
I stand in awe…..
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Artist Unknown)
