Saturday, January 28, 2017

agency-accept the atonement

3 Nephi 2:19
Accept the atonement-Agency
He will find you
Because He loves you, He will find you. He will place you upon His shoulders, rejoicing. And when He brings you home, He will say to one and all, “Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.”3

What

 19 And thus ended the fifteenth year, and thus were the people in a state of many afflictions; and the a of destruction did hang over them, insomuch that they were about to be smitten down by it, and this because of their iniquity.

Why
Iniquity brings destruction. “wicked never was happiness” prophecy is being fulfilled.


Pattern

Alma 60:29
29  Behold it is time, yea, the time is now at hand, that except ye do bestir yourselves in the defence of your country and your little ones, the sword of justice doth hang over you; yea, and it shall fall upon you and visit you even to your utter destruction.

Hel. 13:5
5  And he said unto them: Behold, I, Samuel, a Lamanite, do speak the words of the Lord which he doth put into my heart; and behold he hath put it into my heart to say unto this people that the sword of justice hangeth over this people; and four hundred years pass not away save the sword of justice falleth upon this people.

3 Ne. 3:3
3  And it seemeth a pity unto me, most noble Lachoneus, that ye should be so foolish and vain as to suppose that ye can stand against so many brave men who are at my command, who do now at this time stand in their arms, and do await with great anxiety for the word—Go down upon the Nephites and destroy them.

Isa. 1:20 (19–20)
19  If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20  But if ye refuse and 
rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Punish, Punishment

  • Cain said … My punishment is greater than I can bear: Gen. 4:13 . ( Moses 
  • hurt a woman … he shall be surely punished: Ex. 21:22 .
  • Lord will smite thee … with the scab: Deut. 28:27 .
  • man shall be put to death for his own sin: 2 Kgs. 14:6 .
  • false witness shall not be unpunished: Prov. 19:9 .
  • if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured: Isa. 1:20 .
  • I will punish the world for their evil: Isa. 13:11 . ( 2 Ne. 23:11 . )
  • Lord shall punish the host of the high ones: Isa. 24:21 .
  • accordingly he will repay: Isa. 59:18 .
  • time of their visitation they shall be cast down: Jer. 8:12 .
  • I will punish all them which are circumcised: Jer. 9:25 .
  • Lord, correct me, but with judgment: Jer. 10:24 .
  • bear the punishment of their iniquity: Ezek. 14:10 .
  • soul that sinneth, it shall die: Ezek. 18:4 .
  • son shall not bear the iniquity of the father: Ezek. 18:20 .
  • they that take the sword shall perish with the sword: Matt. 26:52 .
  • blaspheme against the Holy Ghost … in danger of eternal damnation:Mark 3:29 .
  • I punished them oft in every synagogue: Acts 26:11 .
  • deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh: 1 Cor. 5:5 .
  • punished with everlasting destruction: 2 Thes. 1:9 .
  • how much sorer punishment … shall he be thought: Heb. 10:29 .
  • unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: 2 Pet. 2:9 .
  • suffering the vengeance of eternal fire: Jude 1:7 .
  • driven out by our fathers, do ye suppose that they were righteous: 1 Ne. 17:33 .
  • by the spiritual law they … become miserable forever: 2 Ne. 2:5 .
  • punishment … is in opposition to … happiness: 2 Ne. 2:10 .
  • torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone: 2 Ne. 9:16 .
  • where there is no law given there is no punishment: 2 Ne. 9:25 .
  • spake of hell … and of eternal punishment: Jacob 7:18 .
  • they punished according to their crimes: W of M 1:15 . ( Mosiah 29:15 . )
  • receiveth for his wages an everlasting punishment: Mosiah 2:33 .
  •  2 We believe that men will be apunished for their bown sins, and not for cAdam’s transgression.
Christ

Hebrews 10:29

29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
 30 For we know him that hath said, aVengeance belongeth unto me, I will brecompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall cjudge his people.

Conference
APRIL 1988 Atonement, Agency, Accountability
Boyd K. Packer Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Before the Crucifixion and afterward, many men have willingly given their lives in selfless acts of heroism. But none faced what the Christ endured. Upon Him was the burden of all human transgression, all human guilt.
And hanging in the balance was the Atonement. Through His willing act, mercy and justice could be reconciled, eternal law sustained, and that mediation achieved without which mortal man could not be redeemed.
He, by choice, accepted the penalty for all mankind for the sum total of all wickedness and depravity; for brutality, immorality, perversion, and corruption; for addiction; for the killings and torture and terror—for all of it that ever had been or all that ever would be enacted upon this earth.
In choosing, He faced the awesome power of the evil one who was not confined to flesh nor subject to mortal pain. That was Gethsemane!
How the Atonement was wrought, we do not know. No mortal watched as evil turned away and hid in shame before the light of that pure being.
All wickedness could not quench that light. When what was done was done, the ransom had been paid. Both death and hell forsook their claim on all who would repent. Men at last were free. Then every soul who ever lived could choose to touch that light and be redeemed.
By this infinite sacrifice, through this atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.
And they were restored. In the Book of Mormon the word atone in form and tense appears fifty-five times. I quote but one verse from Alma: “And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also” (Alma 42:15; italics added).
Only once in the New Testament—fifty-five times in the Book of Mormon. What better witness that the Book of Mormon is indeed another testament of Jesus Christ?
I seldom use the word absolute. It seldom fits. I use it now—twice. Because of the Fall, the Atonement was absolutely essential for resurrection to proceed and overcome mortal death.
The Atonement was absolutely essential for men to cleanse themselves from sin and overcome the second death, which is the spiritual death, which is separation from our Father in Heaven. For the scriptures tell us, seven times they tell us, that no unclean thing may enter the presence of God.
Those scriptural words, “Thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee” (Moses 3:17), introduced Adam and Eve and their posterity to all the risks of mortality. In mortality men are free to choose, and each choice begets a consequence. The choice Adam made energized the law of justice, which required that the penalty for disobedience would be death.
But those words spoken at the trial, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above” (John 19:11), proved mercy was of equal rank. A redeemer was sent to pay the debt and set men free. That was the plan.
...I readily confess that I would find no peace, neither happiness nor safety, in a world without repentance. I do not know what I should do if there were no way for me to erase my mistakes. The agony would be more than I could bear. It may be otherwise with you, but not with me.
An atonement was made. Ever and always it offers amnesty from transgression and from death if we will but repent. Repentance is the escape clause in it all. Repentance is the key with which we can unlock the prison from inside. We hold that key within our hands, and agency is ours to use it.
How supernally precious freedom is; how consummately valuable is the agency of man.
And the Passover would be commemorated forever as the sacrament, in which we renew our covenant of baptism and partake in remembrance of the body of the Lamb of God and of His blood, which was shed for us.
It is no small thing that this symbol reappears in the Word of Wisdom. Beyond the promise that Saints in this generation, who obey, will receive health and great treasures of knowledge is this: “I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them” (D&C 89:21).
I cannot with composure tell you how I feel about the Atonement. It touches the deepest emotion of gratitude and obligation. My soul reaches after Him who wrought it, this Christ, our Savior of whom I am a witness. I testify of Him. He is our Lord, our Redeemer, our advocate with the Father. He ransomed us with His blood.
Humbly I lay claim upon the atonement of Christ. I find no shame in kneeling down in worship of our Father and His son. For agency is mine, and this I choose to do!
APRIL 2016 He Will Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home
By President Dieter F. Uchtdorf Second Counselor in the First Presidency

Just as the Good Shepherd finds His lost sheep, if you will only lift up your heart to the Savior of the world, He will find you.
Because He loves you, He will find you. He will place you upon His shoulders, rejoicing. And when He brings you home, He will say to one and all, “Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.”3 As we increase in faith, we also must increase in faithfulness. Earlier I quoted a German author who lamented the destruction of Dresden. He also penned the phrase “Es gibt nichts Gutes, ausser: Man tut es.” For those who do not speak the celestial language, this is translated as “There is nothing good unless you do it.”10
You and I may speak most eloquently of spiritual things. We may impress people with our keen intellectual interpretation of religious topics. We may rhapsodize about religion and “dream of [our] mansion above.”11 But if our faith does not change the way we live—if our beliefs do not influence our daily decisions—our religion is vain, and our faith, if not dead, is certainly not well and is in danger of eventually flatlining.12
Obedience is the lifeblood of faith. It is by obedience that we gather light into our souls.
But sometimes I think we misunderstand obedience. We may see obedience as an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. Or we may pound the metaphorical hammer of obedience against the iron anvil of the commandments in an effort to shape those we love, through constant heating and repeated battering, into holier, heavenly matter.
No doubt about it, there are times when we need a stern call to repentance. Certainly, there are some who may be reached only in this manner.
But perhaps there is a different metaphor that can explain why we obey the commandments of God. Maybe obedience is not so much the process of bending, twisting, and pounding our souls into something we are not. Instead, it is the process by which we discover what we truly are made of.
We are created by the Almighty God. He is our Heavenly Father. We are literally His spirit children. We are made of supernal material most precious and highly refined, and thus we carry within ourselves the substance of divinity.

You Are Worthy of Rescue

My dear brothers and sisters, my dear friends, I testify that God sees us as we truly are—and He sees us worthy of rescue.
You may feel that your life is in ruins. You may have sinned. You may be afraid, angry, grieving, or tortured by doubt. But just as the Good Shepherd finds His lost sheep, if you will only lift up your heart to the Savior of the world, He will find you.
He will rescue you.
He will lift you up and place you on His shoulders.
He will carry you home.
If mortal hands can transform rubble and ruins into a beautiful house of worship, then we can have confidence and trust that our loving Heavenly Father can and will rebuild us. His plan is to build us into something far greater than what we were—far greater than what we can ever imagine. With each step of faith on the path of discipleship, we grow into the beings of eternal glory and infinite joy we were designed to become.
This is my testimony, my blessing, and my humble prayer in the sacred name of our Master, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Hymns
children



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