INFINITE MESSIANIC PROPHECIES

 

This will blow you away….

“How many Messianic prophecies have there been? In the real and true perspective of things, ten thousand times ten thousand is not a beginning to their number. They are in multitude like the sand upon the seashore. Obviously, all the prophetic utterances about Christ and the plan of salvation were Messianic in nature. But such teachings merely introduce the subject. For instance:

“Every proper and perfect prayer uttered by a righteous man, woman or child, from the day Adam stepped through Eden’s portals into his lone and dreary habitation, to the day the angelic hosts acclaimed the birth of God’s own Son, was in fact a Messianic prophecy. The mere saying, with sincerity and understanding, of the words of the prayer itself constituted a Messianic affirmation.

“Why? Because all the prophets, saints, and righteous hosts prayed to the Father in the name of Christ, thus witnessing that they knew that salvation came through him and his atoning blood. Similarly, every true prayer today is a reaffirmation that Jesus is the Lord and that through his blood the believing saints are redeemed.

“Every shout of praise and exultation to the Lord Jehovah was Messianic in nature, for those who so acclaimed worshiped the Father in the name of Jehovah-Messiah who would come to redeem his people.

“And so with every baptism, every priesthood ordination, every patriarchal blessing, every act of administering to the sick, every divine ordinance or performance ordained of God, every sacrifice, symbolism, and similitude; all that God ever gave to His people – all was ordained and established in such a way as to testify of his Son and center the faith of believing people in him and in the redemption He was foreordained to make.”

-          Bruce R. McConkie, “The Promised Messiah” p 27-8

We, the saints of God, are living and breathings testaments of the Saviour Jesus Christ if we live in the way that was ordained for members of His Church to live: every prayer we utter, every testimony we bear, every ordinance we participate in, every sacrament emblem we take affirms our allegiance and loyalty to the Saviour.

And I would add that through every worthy thought of Him we cultivate, every worthy action in example of Him we execute, every unrighteous temptation we resist through our obedience to His commandments, we ultimately increase the spirit of belief throughout the world.  

We are the living scriptures some people will ever read.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Jesus by Joseph Brickey)

LOWLY IN HEART

 

I viewed recently some documentaries of past ruling monarchs of Europe and England. I was amazed at what devastation privileged birth can achieve. These men were out of control, spoilt, immoral and some died excruciating deaths. I could see one fiend of hell that was behind it all and that was PRIDE.

For a while now I have been pondering about the lowliness of mortality, compared to our pre mortal home. These documentaries contributed to my understanding how bringing us down to the lowliest plane of existence guarantees that we develop a ‘lowly heart’, an antidote to pride, an emotion most destructive to godliness. How Lucifer could not see that this is what robbed him of glory is beyond me. One thing he can see though: that he can destroy others by it.

I think of the Saviour’s condescension from His godly throne to the lowly, dusty roads of Galilee, devoid of riches, prestige and luxury, and I can see why ‘none is acceptable before God save the meek and lowly in heart’ (Moroni 7:44). If He can come down from His throne to the lowliest station of life, beginning with His birth, He certainly has a right to tell us: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly….” (Matthew 11:29). You cannot have a more-lowly birth than one in the stench of a stable. That’s a triumph over pride if ever I saw one.

And imagine a God who created this earth willing to sit on a donkey to fulfil the Messianic prophecy: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.  (Zechariah 9:9)

What other more spectacular proof could the creator of worlds without number have given to the unbelieving? Think about all the proof He did give them such as His miracles which failed to convince the powerful and mighty.  His lowliness, however, should have been a sure sign that He fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah would be a king who arrives humbly and peacefully, a king who is the servant of all.

This is meekness, this is greatness, that the Saviour of mankind would subject Himself to God’s requirement that ‘none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart’, including Him (Moroni 7:42-44).

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

And I stand in awe…..

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Living Water by LDS Book Store)

A TENDER PLANT

“He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground.”   (Isaiah 53:2)

“Our Lord, King Messiah – born of Mary and begotten by Elohim – grew up before His Father as a Tender Plant; as a Vine of whose fruit men may eat and never hunger more; as a Tree from whose branches the fruit of eternal life may be plucked.

“But he grew up also as a Root out of dry ground; as a Vine in arid and sterile soil; as a Tree for which there was little soil and sun and water in the dry garden where he had been planted by His Father.

“Our Lord, King Messiah, grew up in the arid soil of a spiritually degenerate society – in a Holy City that had become like Egypt and Sodom; among a people who chose darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil; and in the midst of a people who had a form of godliness but denied the power thereof.

“He grew up in the arid and sterile soil of a Judaism where the priesthood was bought and sold; where his Father’s house had become a den of thieves; where sacrifices and feasts and fasts and Sabbaths all testified of a then-unknown Jehovah.”

-        Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah Book 1, p 1

As Christmas approaches, I am always reminded that Christ came to be The Suffering Servant of the Father that Isaiah so eloquently prophesied of: a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, who had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, who was oppressed and afflicted (Isaiah 53:3-7). It makes me want to weep for that baby in the stable.

Knowing He was planted in ‘the arid soil of a spiritually degenerate society’ makes it even worse. No wonder He wept over Jerusalem, a people He led out of captivity to be a royal priesthood, the children of the covenant, a privileged people above all others, yet the only nation on earth who would crucify their God  (Luke 13:34; 2 Nephi 10:3).

I have to remind myself of the second part of the Isaiah’s Messianic Prophecy which heralds the coming of the King of Glory who shall come to assume the government of the world upon His shoulder, whose name shall be Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). This is the time I yearn for; when He shall reveal His glory to all the ends of the earth.

The Messianic Prophecy is such a significant prophecy concerning the coming of the Messiah that it can be found in all the books of scripture (see Deuteronomy 18:15-19; Acts 3:22; 3 Nephi 20:23-24; D&C 133:63; Joseph Smith-History 1:40). It fills all who cling to it with hope for the peaceful reign we have been promised. A time of no sorrow, sickness or death. A time to wait for with bated breath.

Now more than ever we need to keep our eyes on the prize. As we focus on the baby in the stable this Christmas may we see in Him the King of Glory also, coming to bless this earth with a Millenial peace such as we have never known before.

In the words of John the Revelator who responded to the Saviour’s claim that He shall come quickly:

“Even so, come Lord Jesus…..”    (Revelation 22:20)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: In Clouds of Heaven by Chris Brazelton)