Come Unto Christ
READ Jacob 1:4-6
Why did Jacob and Nephi receive so many revelations?
· They searched anxiously for them – they greatly desired revelation and sought after it
· They were motivated by a love for these people – they had already come unto Christ in the flesh and wanted all their people to do the same – similar to Moses (see D&C 84:23-24)
READ Jacob 1:17-18
What is the difference between being anointed by a man with authority to a priesthood or calling, and obtaining an “errand from the Lord”?
· Receiving a “consecration” or calling from a man in an organization enables one to function in that institution – it brings order and sets expectations regarding duties
· Receiving a priesthood ordination to enable the fulfillment of a calling gives “authority” to minister within that organization but not power from God to minister
· Receiving one’s “errand” from the Lord bestows priesthood power – it cannot be controlled by men or an institution (see D&C 121:36) – God alone controls who His High Priests are and confers that power on them as He sees fit (see JST Genesis 14:27-32)
READ Jacob 1:7-8, 19
What is Jacob’s desire for his people?
· To persuade them to come unto Christ…
· And partake of the goodness of God…
· That they might enter into His rest
What does it mean to come unto Christ and what happened to the Children of Israel in the Wilderness?
· It means to come into Christ’s presence again in the flesh and partake of the goodness of God or redemption through the atonement (see Ether 3:13), that you might enter into His rest (which is the fullness of His glory – D&C 84:24)
· The Children of Israel were invited up Mount Sinai to enter into the actual presence of God but they would not go (see D&C 84:19-26), so they lost their opportunity…
· To “come unto Christ” is not calculus – you do not come “closer” and “closer” to Christ but never reach Him in this life; that is like ever learning but never coming to a knowledge of the Truth
· You come unto Him or into His presence in the flesh – and you must come now so that you might enter into His glory again in the eternities because you have been sealed up to do so and can abide or endure that level of glory
How did Jacob “labor diligently” to persuade his people to come unto Christ and why?
· He did not and could not compel them or control them
· He preached repentance of their sins by plainly laying them out before them
· He shared with them his experience and testimony of the living Christ so that they could have faith that the same things could happen to them because God is no respecter of persons
· He taught with long suffering, meekness, love (see D&C 121:41-44)
· Why? Because he loved his people (family) and because he had been given a responsibility from the Lord to do everything he could to help them back into His presence – if he did not do his best, their sins and inability to be saved would be his (Jacob’s) fault
READ Jacob 4:4-6
Why does Jacob want the Remnant (and us) to know that they (Jacob, Nephi and Lehi) knew of Christ and had a hope of His glory?
· If Jacob and his people could have faith, how much more faith should we have with all the records we have been given – all the witnesses we have? (See LoF 3:54-56)
· Jacob’s experience is proof that the Remnant can have the same experiences with Christ, especially as they will come AFTER His mortality and will have the testimonies of so many more people of His life and mission
What does it mean to “obtain a hope” (in Christ)?
· Since it comes by having “many revelations” or “witnesses” from beyond the veil to confirm expectations, and the “spirit of prophecy” which is The Testimony of Jesus (see Revelation 19:10; D&C 88:75), it refers to obtaining a promise from God of your exaltation
· This kind of promise or “hope” leads to unshaken faith since God Himself has given you the promise and being a God of Truth, He cannot lie without ceasing to be God, so His pronouncement to you, no matter how impossible it might seem to you, will happen
· It bends reality as we know it because it allows a higher power to intervene in the lives of people holding such a hope or promise; their faith invites and allows Christ to intervene on their behalf or according to their agency
What does it imply to be able to command in the name of Jesus and the physical world obeys?
· Jacob is teaching us that the hope of eternal life is given with the sealing power which comes with the High Priesthood After the Order of the Son of God; to be sealed up to eternal life is also to be made a “son of God” and given this sealing power/High Priesthood – they are not separated (to stand in God’s presence, you must hold this priesthood – see D&C 84:18-22)
· It shows the link between how God’s will in heaven is obeyed and how His will can also be done on earth – through the agency of one with this level of faith and submission to God’s will
READ Jacob 4:7
What is the relationship between our weakness and God’s grace and condescensions?
· It is His power that those with the High Priesthood wield
· They wield it only according to His will (see Helaman 10:4-5)
· It is only given to those who submit completely to God
· And they do so because they see their weakness as it really is – they are less than the dust of the earth (see Mosiah 4:2)
· Though we are weak, He is strong and condescends to sacrifice for us to save us (see Alma 34:10-14)
READ Jacob 4:8-10
Why are the mysteries “unsearchable” when He has commanded us to “search deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Godliness”? (See also TPJS 409:2; 1 Nephi 2:16; 1 Nephi 10:19; Mosiah 1:3: Mosiah 2:9; Alma 12:9-10; Alma 26:22; D&C 6:7; D&C 8:11; D&C 11:7)
· Because in our current mortal state and lack of light/spirit/glory, we cannot comprehend all the things that He can comprehend (see Mosiah 4:9 and Isaiah 55:9)
· And we cannot behold all His works and glory and afterwards remain in the flesh on earth (see Moses 1:4-5)
· But this does not preclude us from the commandment to seek after them and live the commandment that we might be filled with light so we can understand them
· Because we must understand them as He does one day or we cannot be saved (see LoF 7:9)
Do we have more to learn or should we ask the Lord to stop revealing His ways to us?
· Not a trick question - yes we have lots more to learn!
· And only He can reveal it to us – no scholars can figure out the ways of God – they rely on the arm of flesh and are filled with darkness as a result – they do not go straight to God by definition, as He is an “unreliable” source to put in a bibliography
· If we stop seeking after additional revelation and growing in light, we will lose all that we have gained (see Alma 12:9-11)
· His new revelations will help us to live the “vast reservoirs” of revelation and commandments we now have – stopping His voice by saying we don’t need more is never a good idea
Gandalf used a staff and Harry Potter a wand, what is the vehicle through which God exercises His power?
· His word or command
· His voice
· He imagines or conceives His creation into existence (see Genesis 1:3 and LoF 1:13-17); He is the ultimate “observer” from the field of quantum physics
· It is an act of faith by God, as a principle of power
How might one counsel the Lord?
· By not asking Him for more revelation because you assume you have enough to be getting on with…
· By relying on scholars (experts) or opinion polls (popular sentiment) or your own will as a “leader” instead of revelation
· By constraining the Lord’s answers to one’s own will, not His – this can be done by only asking certain questions or questions in a certain way or by only accepting certain answers (I.e. Joseph, Martin Harris and the lost manuscript)
How does one take counsel from God’s hand?
· Ask Him – cry unto Him
· With real intent to do what He tells you to do
· Have faith that He will answer you, that He knows all things, and has your best interest at heart
READ Jacob 4:11-14
How are we reconciled or brought back into friendship from a state of enmity with God?
· Only through Jesus Christ and His love and sacrifice for us – through Christ’s mercy and merits
· Being reconciled requires becoming again like God; Christ enables us to be perfect “in Him” now with the hope of becoming precisely like Him later
Why attain to a perfect knowledge of Christ and His atonement?
· For the salvation of our souls (v13); it is a commandment to come unto Christ that we might attain a perfect knowledge of Him - in fact, it is eternal life to do so (see John 17:3)
· A perfect knowledge is only gained one-on-one (see 3 Nephi 11:14-15) – through feeling the tokens in His body, seeing the vision of His ministry, atonement and resurrection, and hearing Him declare to the Father that you are clean and have received the “great and last promise” of eternal life (see D&C 88:75)
· And unless we obtain that knowledge, we will “grow weak in our minds and faint” (see LoF 6:2-4) because we will come to know how impossible a task it is for us otherwise, and the ramifications of what will happen to us when we inevitably fail
Jacob has been preaching to us that we must come unto Christ and receive the Second Comforter ourselves, like he has done, and that he and Nephi have taught this to us in plainness – so what does it mean to “seek for things we cannot understand” and “look beyond the mark”?
· Clearly it doesn’t mean to not delve deeply into the mysteries of Godliness so that you can stand in the presence of God in the flesh!
· It is to NOT focus on these things – to NOT focus on the Doctrine of Christ that leads us back into His presence but to look beyond Christ to something else; Christ IS the mark! Anything more or less than what He has given us is looking beyond the mark - it is the philosophies of men – it is scholarship or opinion polling without revelation
· It is to ask God things that He, in His wisdom, does not want to tell us now because it will not help us rend the veil and be redeemed from the Fall – but we “counsel Him” and demand that we know what’s best and He ends up honoring our desires and giving us whatever it is we want – like the Children of Israel, like the Jews, like Sidney Rigdon and the early Saints’ desire for a New Testament church instead of a restoration of the “Ancient Order of Things” that God was trying to reveal through Joseph Smith – going back to Adam not just Peter – and we stumble and fall
READ TPJS 391:2
“Here, then, is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power. And I want you to know that God, in the last days, while certain individuals are proclaiming his name, is not trifling with you or me.”
What is the difference between “obtaining a resurrection according to the power of the resurrection which is in Christ” and going from “grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead”?
· The former is referring to the absolute need we have in this eternity for salvation through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior
· The latter is referring to the task you have before you if you want to learn how to be a god yourself, the same as all other gods have done before you
Sins of Wealth and Pride
What might stop us from coming unto Christ? Jacob’s people had some of the same problems that may be stopping us.
READ Jacob 2:4-10
What does it mean to “labor in sin”?
· Although it is primarily mental (thoughts), they are really working or laboring on their sins – they are creating justification and rationalization;
· They are thinking a lot about the sins they would like to commit – making plans to carry their sins out or at least fantasizing about them
· But the action of sin (not just the thoughts) is also part of the labor; they are working at it – they have worldly aspirations and are acting on them to accomplish them by any means necessary, perhaps while still appearing “virtuous” to others
Why has Jacob been commanded by God to call the men to repentance in front of their wives and children when it will only cause more hurt to those listening?
· It puts the reality of the sins that the men are committing on the table for all to see – it is setting community-wide expectations of the standard of righteousness
· No longer can the men tell their wives and children that they are justified in their sins – that they have received some secret counsel from leaders or confirmation from the Holy Ghost
What are the effects of hearing the word of God and why?
· The word of God can be pleasing because it heals the wounded soul or gives hope to the broken hearted
· Or the word of God can pierce you to the very center and cause your heart to burn (see 3 Nephi 11:3)
· The latter action can either be a positive or a negative too, depending upon whether or not you are in covenant with Christ – for those who are, it is enlightening and edifying, but for those who are not, it can have one of two effects:
· If you are a sinner but are convicted of your sins: it will humble you, causing you to see that you are less than the dust of the earth (see Mosiah 4:2)
· If you are a sinner but want to remain in your sins: you will take the truth to be hard and you will try to justify yourself (1 Nephi 16:2)
· If you are the victim of the sins of others, the word can still be difficult to hear because it rehashes something you may prefer to forget or it helps you to realize you’ve been sinned against (in the case of an abusive man who has convinced his family that what he does is not a sin)
READ Jacob 2:11-13, 16-17
What does Jacob point to as the problem of riches? How do we avoid that problem?
· The pride that comes from it is the problem – you suppose you are better than others who have not obtained the wealth you have
· You think you have obtained more than others because you are either smarter, or more hard working, or more righteous and blessed (the hand of God has “smiled” upon you) than they are
How does listening to the Lord’s commands keep us from pride?
· If we listen and follow God’s commands through the Holy Spirit, He will guide us to be as He is – meek and humble
· The Spirit will also teach us that we are all children of God with the same divine destiny, if we will submit our whole souls to Christ
· The Spirit will show us our weakness(es) and our complete dependence upon God, even to keep us alive from day to day (see Ether 12:27-28 and Mosiah 4:21)
How does pride destroy our souls?
· We will not humble ourselves to “awake and arise” to our awful state of need for Christ (see Mosiah 2:40)
· We will not offer our whole souls as a sacrifice (see Omni 1:26)
· We will end up being called by “some other name” – either Satan’s name or our own - and thus will not be saved (see Mosiah 5:9-13) and our souls will be “destroyed” or filled with darkness, not fulfilling the measure of their creation
What does it mean to think of our brothers and sisters like ourselves (verse 17)?
· For most people, other people are objects not humans, as they are; but they’re objects to be used as tools or removed as barriers or ignored as irrelevant; we should recognize the sacredness in each other – the inherent worth of a soul
· In a life threatening situation, many people only focus on themselves; if we think of our brothers and sisters as ourselves or as “people”, we will feel as much of a natural impulse to preserve their lives – physical and spiritual – as we feel for our own
· It is the opposite of the Master Mahan principle of life for money – we are our brother’s keeper as we are our own keepers; in fact, we are willing to lay down our lives for our sheep (see John 10:14-15;
· It is interesting that Jacob doesn’t say “treat others as your brothers and sisters” or as family; but says “treat those family members as if they were you”
What does it mean to be familiar with all?
· It means to treat ALL others as your brothers and sisters – to see all others in an “I-thou” relationship instead of “I-it”
READ Jacob 2:18-19
We’ve already discovered that obtaining a “hope in Christ” means gaining a promise or assurance from God of your exaltation (see also 2 Nephi 31:17–20; Moroni 7:3, 41); what is the implication about the relationship between riches and the Kingdom of God?
· If we can’t answer those questions about obtaining a hope in Christ, Jacob seems to say, we have no business seeking riches.
· In other words, if you have not sought for AND FOUND the Kingdom of God and received a hope in Christ or promise from God of your eternal life while you were there, you have no business seeking for riches
Why would you seek for riches after you have obtained a promise from God Himself of your exaltation?
· Only with the intent to do good
· To relieve the suffering of others
· To do some good “Terrestrial work” (as Stephen Covey used to call it)
What are the chances you will obtain the wealth you are seeking at that time?
· 100% - you “shall” obtain riches if you seek them
How much of those riches do you get to keep?
· None – not a penny
· It’s not your money
· No “modest” stipends, college tuition reimbursement, vacation homes, free first class flights, hunting preserves…
· It ALL goes to the poor, sick and afflicted – it doesn’t even go to building up the Church or buildings or anything but administering relief
So why would you seek for riches if you didn’t get to keep any of it?
· Out of love for those in need
· To give to the poor without judgement or condition
· To do the work of your Master – to the degree that money can help to heal the sick, feed the poor, liberate the captive and help those who are afflicted
· That their physical needs might be met so that they can lay those worries aside and in gracious thanks to God (not you), begin to embrace His gospel and receive their own hope in Christ (see Deuteronomy 8:18)
· Because that is who you now are, having sought for and found the kingdom of God; or in other words, having made your calling and election sure, you are filled with charity and seek only to do the will of your Master because you are becoming like Him
READ Jacob 2:20-21
What kind of things has God given you that you might be proud of?
· The “true Church” with all of its restored knowledge and covenants
· The “blessings” of our wealthy lives and country
Why does Jacob say that pride is an “abomination” as opposed to a “sin”?
· It pertains to the idea that we’ve earned any of these blessings but are not still unprofitable servants (see Mosiah 2:21)
· The idea that we’ve accomplished any of these things without the intimate help from God to do any of it, including continuing to breath and live (see Mosiah 2:21; Mosiah 4:19-23)
· And above all, the “abomination” (which implies a false religious connotation) of pride is that because of what we know and who we are (our “good behavior”, “religious lives”, and “spiritual history and prophetic legacy”) that we are better than the “heathens”, which we would call everyone else – falsely calling ourselves “Israel” and looking down on the “Gentiles” (not realizing that we are the Gentiles ourselves), the Jews and the Remnant of Lehi for having lost the truth through their wickedness; all the while, in a terrible twist of irony, it is us (the Gentile Church of “Zion” or LDS Church – D&C 109:60) that has lost the High Priesthood and are condemned and cursed through our own foolishness in not believing and accepting the invitation to come unto Christ ourselves as Joseph Smith did, laid before us in plainness (see D&C 84:19-27, 33-58; D&C 124:27-28, 40-50)
The Grosser Crime: The Immorality of Polygamy
READ Jacob 2:22-28, 31-33, 35
What are the people of Jacob doing?
· “This people begin to wax in iniquity; they understand not the scriptures, for they seek to excuse themselves in committing whoredoms” (Jacob 2:23).
· Based on David’s and Solomon’s practice of having “many wives and concubines,” they “lead away captive the daughters of my people,” taking advantage of their tender natures (Jacob 2:23–24, 33).
· In so doing, they have “broken the hearts of your tender wives, and lost the confidence of your children, because of your bad examples before them,” so that “many hearts died, pierced with deep wounds” (Jacob 2:35).
What is the Lord calling an “abomination”?
· The practice of polygamy or plural marriage
What does the Lord equate polygamy with?
· An abominable practice – taking a religious rite or principle and bending it to the service of the flesh, all the while calling it “sacred” or “of God”
· A whoredom – something that destroys the chastity of women
What is the Lord’s true principle of marriage?
· That a man should have one wife only (see also D&C 132:15-25 and Jacob 3:5) and if they live their covenant, they shall be exalted to become “gods” or become truly in the image of “God” – male and female; (see also the 1835 version of D&C 101 which reads, “Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife; and one woman, but one husband, except in cases of death, when either is at liberty to marry again.” This was the version of the D&C vouched for by Joseph Smith and sustained as scripture to the church during his life)
· That a man and woman should love each other (see Jacob 3:7) and their families
Why was Jacob’s indictment of polygamy included in the Book of Mormon by Moroni and the Lord?
· It was written for us – Moroni has seen our day and knows our doing
· And having seen our day, he knows how we made polygamy the central tenet of the LDS religion, following the death of Joseph Smith
· Likely he was warning us by using Jacob’s sermon to his people but hoping that we will understand the relevance; this is particularly true with the way polygamy is referred to as an abomination; Brigham Young made polygamy an absolute requirement for exaltation – in other words, he turned a sin into an abomination by claiming that God said the sin (polygamous adultery) was required if you were to inherit the Celestial kingdom
If polygamy is an abomination, what was Joseph Smith doing practicing it – and then lying about practicing it?
· Maybe what Joseph was “practicing” was not what we think it was!
· Brigham Young did not understand the “Law of Adoption” which Joseph Smith was revealing in Nauvoo; was Joseph’s Law of Adoption the same as Brigham Young’s central spiritual tenet of polygamy?
· Much of the information we have today about Joseph Smith’s polygamy is filtered through the lens of Brigham Young and was written down or testified about years after the death of Joseph Smith; and recall that Brigham Young ruled Saints in Utah with a great amount of fear, dominion and compulsion – who can say what physical, mental, or spiritual duress people were under when they made the claims about Joseph Smith that they made at that time? For myself, I do not KNOW the truth but the teachings given to me at the hand of Joseph Smith have brought me closer to God than anything else (i.e. they have directly enabled me to enter in by the gate by experiencing the baptism of fire), so I will give the prophet Joseph the benefit of the doubt. If you want to explore this topic further, I would recommend reading the following articles (regardless of what you might think about the authors of these documents, their perspectives on this subject are worth considering, at a minimum):
The Pure in Heart
READ Jacob 3:1-2
What does it mean to be pure in heart?
· It is the desire of one’s heart to be clean and pure (see Mosiah 5:2)
· That person offers their broken heart and a contrite spirit in sacrifice – their heart is all they can really offer anyway, that is truly theirs to give
· Which heart is then given a mighty change through the grace of Christ – and made pure and clean from sin
What does it mean to “lift up our heads” to “receive the pleasing word of God” and to “feast upon his love”?
· Lift up the head to communicate with a living Christ face to face as one person speaks with another rather than bow the head to speak in prayer to someone who is far away
· It is to “feast on the word” (2 Nephi 31: 20; 32: 3) or to “feast the Word” through partaking of the sacrament (see John 1:1-5; Matthew 26:26)
What does it mean to have “firm mind”?
· To not suffer from mental illness or demonic possession; not that the Lord cannot help someone who does suffer in these ways – but that the world will automatically assume that someone who sees the Lord in the flesh is either crazy or possessed by the devil
· To be resolute in what one knows to be true – despite what others might believe or popular opinion – to be valiant in The Testimony of Jesus (see D&C 88:75; D&C 76:51-57, 74)
· It is a prerequisite of being ministered to by angels (see Moroni 7:29-31)
