THE TEST

 

“You may wonder why we are not sharing the fun here on earth. That’s because we have been quarantined. We’ve been isolated for a special testing situation. Remember, that’s what the Lord told Enoch when he was talking about the world. He had created “worlds without number” and yet he told Enoch, “Among all the workmanship of my hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren.” (Moses 7:36) 

“So, in worlds without number, this is number one, the worst. This means when you are here, you are getting a real test.”   (Hugh Nibley, Old Testament and Related Studies [Deseret Book Co., Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies], 1986, 146)

He was one of us. He was great and mighty. He was in the bosom of the Father and in authority among us (D&C 76:25). He was also a liar and a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). And he was full of pride and unrighteous ambition and when he fell the heavens wept over him (D&C 76:26).

He is now cast to this earth, a Thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). He seeks to steal our spiritual identity, kill our faith in God and destroy our commitment to Christ, the source of our salvation, and this is his method of destruction:

HIS THREE DOCTRINES are: 1. No punishment for sin; 2. Nothing after death; 3. He does not exist.

HIS LIES THROUGH RATIONALISATION: 1. Just once won’t hurt; 2. No one will know; 3. Everybody is doing it.

HIS VALUE SYSTEM: 1. Selfishness; 2. Self-indulgence; 3. Immediate gratification.

HIS SALES TECHNIQUES: 1. Pacifying; 2. Flattering; 3. Lulling (see 2 Nephi 28:21-22)

HIS WORDLY ENTICEMENTS: 1. Power; 2. Popularity; 3. Praise.

I can see all these playing out in our society but there is something the Thief cannot do….he cannot overcome Him who came that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly (John 10:10)……the Saviour of all mankind, the Lion of Judah who keeps us in His care.

 

He was the Son of the Morning,

His pride yielded irreversible cost

In the beginning we sorely wept

When his soul was forever lost.

 

Like a thief in the night,

He now seeks to steal, kill and destroy.

He is the collector of ruined lives,

The Master of ravaged souls.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: In God's Care by Greg Collins)

CLOUDS OF GLORY

 

When the Saviour came for the first time, He came as the Suffering Servant to ‘justify many’ through His Atonement, meaning He brought back into alignment with the Father many of His children, by bearing their iniquities and declaring them innocent and guiltless (Isaiah 53:11).

“Persecuted and despised, He trod the thorny path of duty, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”; and finally condemned by His people, who clamored to an alien power for authority to execute their own unjust sentence upon their Lord, He went to death by the torturing crucifixion prescribed for malefactors.”  (James E. Talmage, “Jesus the Christ”, p 357)

When He comes again, Christ will come as the King, trading the stench of the stable with the clouds of glory, and the government shall be upon His shoulders to reign on earth a Millenium of days as the Prince of Peace. This prophecy of the Millenial Messiah can be found in the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price (see Det 18:15-19; Isaiah 9:6,7; Acts 3:22; 3 Nephi 20:23-24; D&C 133:63; JSH 1:40)

What touches my heart the most about the Second Coming is this…when He comes, the Saviour will come to His people Israel first. Unlike the first time, however, when He came to lift them out of apostasy and establish His Church through which all the nations of the earth would be blessed according to the Abrahamic Covenant, His Second Coming will be a jubilation amongst His people, who love Him, serve Him, and have accepted Him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

This will be the order of His appearances: 1. To priesthood leadership at Adam-ondi-Ahman (Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; D&C 116); 2. To His saints at New Jerusalem in America (3 Nephi 21:23-25; D&C 45:66-67); 3. To the Jews in Jerusalem (D&C 45:48; 51-53; Zechariah 12:10; 14:2-5); 4. Lastly, He will appear in glory to all mankind (D&C 45:44; 101:23; Matt 24:30; Isaiah 40:5; JST, Revelation 1:7) (see also the Institute Manual, Introduction to “The Lord’s Second Coming”, Chapter 36)

In the ‘meridian of time’ Christ was born amid obscurity to all except the faithful few who had been watching for the promised event. It is those few who recognised Him and accepted him. His second advent, however, will outnumber those few by the masses of His faithful saints. It will be a triumphant return.

Modern day revelation tells us that the coming of the Lord will overtake ‘the world’ as a thief in the night (D&C 106:4), meaning those who live in darkness rejecting the spiritual light of day will see the day unprepared and surprised.

But this is not us….as Apostle Paul tells us, that day cannot overtake us as a thief in the night because we are not in darkness…..we are “the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” (1 Thessalonias 5:2-5). We will be neither unprepared or surprised. We are Israel, children of light. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Transcendent Glory by Greg Collins)