The Atonement of Jesus Christ Faith in the Saviour Christian Works Obedience to the Father and Christ Continuing

Faithfulness & Enduring to the End Lead to Eternal Salvation

By Ronnie Bray Mormonism 101

The Atonement of Jesus Christ, Our Faith in the Saviour, Good Works, Obedience to the Will of the Father and the Commandments of Christ, Continuing Faithfulness, and Enduring to the End Lead to Eternal Salvation
By Ronnie Bray

What did Saint Paul have in mind when he wrote: " Why, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputing: That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the middle of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world [Philippians 2:12-14] Are these mere empty words without meaning or force for Christian adoption and exercise? Paul says that what is working in us is God. Therefore, if we do not do the works that God commands Christians to do it is because God is not in us. And what are we to say to those that deny God and his works and their place in the lives of the faithful that are willingly obedient to God, whose commandments,

according to Jesus Christ, we must keep if we are to enter the kingdom of heaven? Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:21-23) It is an old and well worn tirade that is trotted out time after time as if it were relevant that Mormons seek to earn their salvation by works, yet nothing could be further from the truth. Mormons are not simpletons, nor are they ignorant of what Jesus and the apostles teach in the Books of the Holy Bible, but they do not fall prey to the minimalist heresy of choosing which passages of the Bible to accept as divinely imposed on believers, at the expense of neglecting all other passages making demands on their obedience to God as if they did not exist. Mormons believe in the complete picture as expressed by generations of prophet and apostles that is set out in a core of essential beliefs and practices that establish necessary doctrines and rites and observances for those that would please God and be made partakers of the salvation wrought by the atonement of Jesus Christ and dispensed by the

Grace of God to those that do the will of the Father in heaven. To do less than this, to believe less than this, is to set at nought the things of God, and those that do so can not hope to please God or be made partakers of the divine nature as joint heirs with Christ of all that the Father has. No one can please God without faith. Whoever goes to God must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6) Seeking God requires activity on our part, and that activity is rewarded by the gift of faith and knowledge that God lives. For he that cometh to God - In any way - as a worshipper. This is alike required in public worship, in the family, and in secret devotion. He that cometh to God - The man who professes that it is his duty to worship God, must, if he act rationally, do it on the conviction that there is such a Being infinite, eternal, unoriginated, and self-existent; the cause of all other being; on whom all being depends; and by whose energy, bounty, and providence, all other beings exist, live, and are supplied with the means of continued existence and life. He must believe, also, that he rewards them that diligently seek him; that he is not indifferent about his own worship; that he requires adoration and religious service from men; and that he blesses, and especially protects and saves,

those who in simplicity and uprightness of heart seek and serve him. This requires faith, such a faith as is mentioned above; a faith by which we can please God; and now that we have an abundant revelation, a faith according to that revelation; a faith in God through Christ the great sinoffering, without which a man can no more please him, or be accepted of him, than Cain was. (Clarke's Commentary on the Bible) This reward is not referred to our merits, but to the free promise. [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:20-25) Likewise, Latter-day Saints obey God because God commands, and whoso is not obedient to Gods guidance neither worships him, or believes in his promises. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:16)

Latter-day Saints obey God in whatever God commands. The scriptures give no leave for uninspired man to determine anything contrary to the revealed will of God whether in olden times or in modern days, unless God himself so directs. It was not Peter that removed the herem on animals adjudged non-kashrut under the Levitical Code of Purity: it was God that revealed that the herem was removed, signalling also that the Gospel of Christ could be shared with the nations, whereas previously it had been almost exclusively presented to those of beit-yisrael. Jesus Christ does not offer salvation to those that do not obey him. "[Jesus Christ] being made perfect, became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him" (Heb. 5:9) Salvation, then, comes by not only having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but by obeying Christ. To those that do obey Christ, God grants the gift of the Holy Ghost. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. (Acts 5:32) The gathering together of several essential principles is granted to the obedient.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To Gods elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. (1 Peter 1:1-2) The foreknowledge of God, our obedience to Jesus Christ, the blessing of what his atonement accomplishes in remitting our sins, and the Grace of God are bound together inseparably, but not to the exclusion of other necessary things, as blessings to those that come to Christ and are perfected in him. Peter continues to impress on us the necessity of conforming our lives to the pattern of holiness established by the God of Israel. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. (1 Peter 1:13-16) The need for Christians to keep themselves from sinning is emphasised often, and conformity to this rule established beyond dispute. This is not the righteousness that one Christian seeks, in his error seeking to be the master of

others to thereby impose on another Christian, but is the righteousness that the Christian imposes on himself as a worthy disciple of Christ. Christians prove their worthiness of Christ by obeying him. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:38) Worthiness means deserving, and it is evident from the Scriptures that Christian disciples must make themselves deserving of Christ and his blessings and salvation by their conduct. He that taketh not his cross - i.e. He who is not ready, after my example, to suffer death in the cause of my religion, is not worthy of me [and] does not deserve to be called my disciple. (Clarke's Commentary on the Bible) Peter says that our obedience to the truth purifies our souls, meaning that by our obedience to Christ we are made partakers of the fruits of his atonement and are thereby rendered sinless or pure. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: (I Pet. 1:22) By these few verses, and there are many more to which appeal is properly made, we see that there are several

factors that bring about the salvation of the sols of me, and who can say that one is of greater importance than another when God has caused them all to be shown to us? When Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment, he taught us that it was as found in Deuteronomy 6:5. And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. He then proceeded to teach us that the second greatest commandment was that in Leviticus 19:18. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD. Moreover, the next thing he said was, There is none other commandment greater than these are. (Mark 12:31) The intention of Jesus teaching us in this manner is to suggest that those that love God with their whole beings, show also regard and have affection for their neighbours with the same degree of affinity with which they esteem themselves. Can we justifiably suppose that those that profess with their lips to be Christians, but nonetheless neglect to obey the second Great Commandment are obeying the will of God according to Jesus? If we cannot, then what are we to make of them? What, if anything, do they make of themselves?

We might be justified in supposing that they have formed a novel and distinct religion from Christianity that neither honours or obeys the commandments that Jesus was particular to deliver to the saints, that emphasised the principle that obedience to his teachings was nothing more than obedience to the will of God, and that obedience thereto was the essential link or key to their redemption, because God has willed it so to be. The novel form of the fullness of ancient Christianity I have termed minimalism, for obvious reasons. Minimalism has, in effect, lopped off a branch here and a branch there of the original tree of Christianity that originated with Jesus and his apostles, having determined that they were not essential to the core message of redemption through Jesus Christ. Fanatical paring by minimalists has been so hard that little of the richness of New Testament Christianity is left, and so the expression of their Christianity is become a trunk devoid of roots, branches and leaves, that is chillingly stark when compared to the splendour of the Church whose record is written on the pages of the New Testament. In minimalism, Jesus Christ stands front and centre, but God the Father has been subsumed into the Christological caricature of the biblical Godhead so as to be almost nonexistent.

In the Godhead expressed variously throughout the Bible, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost stand together, firm and well defined as Creator, Redeemer, and Comforter, overlapping in their separate functions to form a unity of the kind that Jesus prayed his disciples would reach in fellowship and community, being separate persons coming together after the pattern of the Godhead being one in purpose, mission, and doctrine. Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17:21-22) There is a mutual unity of the Father and the Son, who are one in power and purpose, and in understanding and affection; which union, though it infinitely transcends any kind of union among men, or that can be conceived of by men, is here established by Jesus Christ the ideal of the saints union one with another, and of their union with the divine persons, which must be understood not as equality with the divinities, but as a similarity. There is no source of scepticism so fruitful as internecine quarrels and sectarian divisions. Paul distinguishes three essential characteristics of Christian unity as one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With

all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:1-6) Minimalism breaks of little parts of biblical theology and deals with them as if they were the whole. The dissatisfaction that separation and elevation of individual points leads to need hardly be elucidated here, except to say that it leads inexorably to an imbalance in the principles of revealed religion and thus obscures the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Elevating the Grace of God at the expense of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, as if the sacrifice of the Lamb of God was only incidental to Gods plan of salvation, is a case in point. Ignoring Christs insistence on obedience in favour of elevating faith as the means of salvation likewise harms the equivalence that discrete principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ have in the Church of Jesus Christ as fundamental doctrines by which believers are brought to wholeness through redemption, cleansing, purifying, forgiveness, and perfection, bundled as a whole and suffused by the infinite love of God for his creatures, each characteristic, individually and jointly, manifesting the Grace of God.

Distinctive principles of the gospel may be likened to the parts of the body that Paul used to teach an important lesson to warring church members. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles,

secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. (1 Corinthians 12:14-21) This lesson is one that single doctrine minimalists must take to heart if they are to recreate the beatific vision of the gospel of Jesus Christ and its many essential doctrinal parts as taught and believed by the first Christian Church, the togetherness of which, and not the elevation of one point over and at the expense of the others, illustrates the beautiful simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ that alone provides for the salvation of our souls.
Copyright 2011 Ronnie Bray ALL RIGHTS RESERVED