Unexpected Answers from the Savior in the Scriptures
Here are the notes from our December 12th meeting:Topic: Unexpected Answers from the Savior in the Scriptures
Seven Gospels by Adam Miller and Rosalynde Welch - How Mary was approached by the angel parallel to Nephi’s experience in understanding God - more to it than what we see or take from Mary’s experience -
Can we become new creatures with this information?
Do we include ourselves in the parallels of what we learn in the scriptures?
Aren’t we all called on to make sacrifices?
Adam Miller - Mormon pg. 36, 37
“The world is perpetually passing away because it is, simultaneously, perpetually beginning. The end of the world is ongoing because God’s work of creating the world is ongoing. God not only created the world (in the past tense), he is continually creating the world (in the present tense). New lives and forms of life surge forth and old lives and forms of life pass away, each dependent on the other.
Given that there is no end to God’s work and glory, his creative work may never conclude. In this case, the world will only continue to grow from one grace and glory to the next—with the flip side being that, for as long as God continues to re/create the world, the world will also continue to end. Every new act of creation will, at minimum, impose itself as the partial loss of what came before. every new world will unfold, inescapably, as the passing away of the old. We will always find ourselves, at least in part, in the same position as Mormon: witnesses to the end of the world.
Christian discipleship is the work of willingly participating in the re/creation of the world. It’s the work of willingly participating in the world’s passing away. And this willing participation is what consecrates the world’s passing and renders it sacred. A disciple’s job is to continually inherit the new worlds that God is creating (now, today) by continually sacrificing (again) our claims to the old.”
The above quote is a good reason to stop resisting endings
Resistance causes more suffering
Woman - adultery
Jesus balances truth - calls things what they are but doesn’t condemn
De-escalates the situation by bending down and drawing in the sand
How to apply in our life—when others make a mistake, recognize the behavior but do not let it define the person
Elder Gong - Why remember Scrooge as Scrooge when he made changes in the end
Doubting Thomas - Judas -
Savior’s response to the money changers - showed emotion and anger because of price gouging and hurting the poor - we see a variety of emotions from the Savior —
“Touch me not” to Mary - maybe she had touched him before (if they were married)
The man at the pool of Bethesda - John 5:2 -
Savior would be sad but also more joy than we imagine
How often He had to go away by himself to be restored or re-energized
Silence can make people squirm
Never have looked for an answer in the scriptures—they come when reading unrelated scriptures
Scripture study creates questions
A question on her mind, and the answer was right there as she read the scripture
Wendy Nelson - President Holland - have urged us to call upon angels by names
We have more access to angels than we know or use
Favorite Christmas books: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever - Christmas Eve 1914 - The Father Christmas Letters (Tolkien) - The Christmas Carol -
Tangent - We went off on a tangent about the "Ninefold of the Celestial Hierarchy," which I had recently learned about, and so I shared the following information presented at Institute:
Ninefold of the Celestial Hierarchy: Principalities (definition - Oxford dictionary)“(in traditional Christian angelology) the fifth-highest order of the ninefold celestial hierarchy.” Oxford Reference. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100346109
Three divisions of angelic beings (each comprising three orders) in the ninefold celestial system described in a 4th-century work formerly attributed to Dionysius, the Areopagite
Highest orders:
Seraphim · Cherubim · Thrones ·
Middle orders. Dominions · Virtues · Powers ·
Lowest orders. Principalities · Archangels · Angels.
Seraphim Doctrine & Covenants 38:1 Thus saith the Lord your God, even Jesus Christ, the Great I Am, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the same which looked upon the wide expanse of eternity, and all the seraphic hosts of heaven, before the world was made;
Book of Mormon - 2 Nephi 16:2 and 6 Bible Dictionary: Seraphim in Isaiah Probably fiery beings. Angelic beings mentioned in the account of Isaiah’s vision (Isa. 6:2). They are represented as winged and partly human in form. They are attendants in Jehovah’s court, the ministers of the heavenly sanctuary, joining in adoration before the throne.
Cherubim - Bible Dictionary CherubimFigures representing heavenly creatures, the exact form being unknown. They are found in the Holy of Holies, on the Mercy Seat of the Ark (Ex. 25:18, 22; 1 Kgs. 6:23–28; Heb. 9:5), and in the visions of Ezekiel (Ezek. 10; 11:22). In the account of the Fall, cherubim are represented as keeping “the way of the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24).
Principalities According to The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, the Principalities (Latin: principatus), also translated as "Princedoms" and "Rulers", from the Greek archai, pl. of archē (see Greek root in Eph 3:10), are the angels that guide and protect nations, or groups of peoples, and institutions such as the Church. The Principalities preside over the bands of angels and charge them with fulfilling the divine ministry.
Study Helps - Topical Guide: Principality your principalities shall come down, Jer. 13:18. nor principalities, nor powers, Rom. 8:38. Far above all principality, and power, Eph. 1:21. now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known … the manifold wisdom of God, Eph. 3:10. not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, Eph. 6:12. principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, Col. 1:16. head of all principality and power, Col. 2:10. having spoiled principalities and powers, Col. 2:15. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities, Titus 3:1. principalities and powers, shall be revealed, D&C 121:29. principalities … not by me … shall be thrown down, D&C 132:13. shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, D&C 132:19.
Jesus certainly participated in the creation of all created things—but He worked with preexisting chaotic materials. The angelic ranks of "thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers" were also created by Christ, for these beings did not assume their angelic status or form without divine creative power, even though some aspect of their "intelligence" pre-dated God's creative acts in their behalf.https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Question:_Does_Colossians_1:16_teach_that_Jesus_created_all_things_out_of_nothing%3F
Angels are of various types and perform a variety of functions to implement the work of the Lord on earth. They exist as a part of the whole family in heaven. All people, including angels, are the offspring of God. There are several types and kinds of beings, in various stages of progression, whom the Lord has used as angels in varying circumstances.
Same site, Jerry C. Giles: Dionysius, who purports the existence of nine angelic orders called choirs, one of which is called archangels. In the literature of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an archangel is a chief angel, holding a position of priesthood authority in the heavenly hierarchy. Discussion of specific positions or functions in the celestial hierarchy beyond the scriptures cited above is conjectural. Angels in Encyclopedia of Mormonism by Oscar W. McConkie.https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/node/534
An angelic government within the Kingdom of Heaven? Doctrine and Covenants 132:19 “and shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths” - possibly an order of angels