ENTRY 16 THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST

The Doctrine of Christ is for everyone.  It is not a something that can be owned by an institution.  It cannot be franchised, nor managed, nor controlled.  This is for the simple reason that the Doctrine of Christ is about your personal relationship with God.  No one stands between you and the Lord.  He will speak to you directly.  He will visit with you personally. This is both desirable and necessary.  It is not some unattainable event to be realized in another existence.  It is meant to occur in this life.  It will require patience and it will require personal sacrifice and it will require that your eye is single to the Glory of God. 

Remember that in the beginning the Word was with God and the Word was God.  This is not so ambiguous as it appears to the modern reader.  Notice that Christ was able to speak, and the elements obeyed him.  This is how he was the word.  His word alone was power.  This was given to him by God.  There is power given to men to act and not to be acted upon.  They are free to choose, but they are limited in their capacity to act.  Men have limits imposed upon them because of the impurity of their hearts.  This is to limit the scope of their damage when they choose unrighteousness.  Men’s words do not have power.  Jesus Christ was given a capacity to act without limits, so much so that His very words have power.   Christ, having formerly proved himself worthy of a greater scope of ability to act has been given power to act even by His spoken word.  He received this because He seeks only to do the will of the Father.  His power to act was given further opportunity to increase by what He did when He came to this earth and overcame death.  He overcame by suffering the unjust death and for this He was given the power of resurrection.  It was necessary that He endure what He did in order to receive this power.  It is not given to any other soul upon this earth to receive the power of resurrection as Christ did.  We are completely dependent upon Him for that.  For that power, in another time and another sphere, some may be given the same path that Christ did if they are to receive it.  However, there is a measure of greater increase available to all who are in this life…if they will receive it.    In a former world, Christ became a son of God.  In doing so, he was born as the Son of God in this world.  By following his voice, he will lead all men who will listen to become a son of God in this world and thus provide an opportunity to be the Son of God in another.  But who has ears to hear it?  Who has a heart to understand it?

The cleansing of any sin comes through the Atonement of Christ.  The cleansing does not come by the strategies of men.  Confession does not cleanse the soul of sin.  Abstinence does not cleanse the soul from sin.  A tidy list of Ten Commandments does not cleanse the soul from sin.  Doing really great things does not cleanse the soul from sin.  The end of the carnal life and also the end of the religious life is like awaking from a dream to the real world and finding that all these things have left the soul empty and thirsting for more.  It leaves us begging the question, what is it that will truly apply the Atonement of Christ and cleanse the soul from sin?  It is to have an eye single to the glory of God.  It is to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit before God.  It is to recognize His voice in this world and follow only His voice.  That is your part. 

His part is to repair and mend that which has failed in you.  His part is to lead you in the direction that will bring you into the presence of God the Father, in whose presence you are made a son of God.  Christ’s suffering for your sins provides the covering before God the Father that allows the Father to pardon those failings that were formerly found in you.  Those failings are weaknesses that are actually given to you by God that you may turn your heart to Him.  He makes the weaknesses into strengths.  You cannot make the weaknesses into strengths by your own will.  It must be done according to His method, His way, and His timetable.  It requires that you recognize His voice and follow His guidance.  You will hear his voice and recognize his guidance when you surrender your life and have an eye single to the glory of God.

When you awake to your failings and come to the Lord in humility, He will provide a path for you to return.  This path is initiated by an action that you undertake to symbolize a new birth.  That action is Baptism.  For a new birth to occur there is a death of the old life.  The Baptism represents the laying down of the body in the grave and the rising of the body into a new life.  This is the act you can take to represent the laying down of the sinful life and the rebirth into a new life devoted to doing the will of God.  If this is done with the pure intent of having repented of all sins, the Lord will accept the baptism.  The Lord (Jesus Christ) accepts your baptism of water by placing you into the baptism of fire.  The Baptism of Fire is a distinctively real experience of light and joy and peace that transcends any previous mortal experience.  You will know when you have experienced this.  It is neither ambiguous nor difficult to recognize.  It is not “emotional”.  It is a tangible experience occurring within the soul.  It is recognizable to the soul who experiences it but will be unrecognizable to anyone else. 

After this experience, trials and testing will go on.  You must be tried in all things to see if you will keep your eye single to the glory of God.  One of the remarkably difficult temptations of life to overcome is the test of self-aggrandizement; and especially self-aggrandizement through the gifts of God.  The gifts of God are real and he provides gifts to all who will seek Him.  When this gift is recognized and utilized there will be gratitude of course, but soon there will be an opportunity for the adversary to provide an opposition equal to the gift.  That opposition will begin with the temptation to cease from the humble and contrite spirit that brought about the gift in the first place.  The temptation to believe that one is now worthy of the gift itself will be presented to your heart.  The temptation to believe that one is more worthy than others because of the gifts from God will enter into the mind.  Or even that others will need to come to the one with the gift to receive more, rather than directly to God will also present itself as a temptation.  This is all part of the testing and if you will study the life of any prophet of any generation, you will see this same pattern.  The prophet’s message that all may come unto God is subverted and hijacked by the people.  The people teach that all must come to the one with the gift, the prophet.  And yet all true prophets declare that they would have it that the people themselves, as individuals, would go to God directly for their own sake and receive their own gifts. 

When a person turns to God directly, relying on Christ, Christ will lead them through such trials as this, and especially through this singular temptation, the temptation to use the gifts of God for self-fulfillment, rather than for service unto others with an eye single to the glory of God.  Indeed there will be many trials.  The Lord demonstrated this in His own life, but it is He that will get your through the trials. No one else can.  Nothing else can.  You get through the trials by coming unto the Lord and asking, “What lack I yet?”  He will tell you what it is you must sell to free you up and follow Him.

You will need to hear His voice as it is delivered to you through a variety of sources.  He will teach you.  In His own way and in His own time, he will provide the experiences, the tests, and the guidance.  In His own wisdom He will determine when you are ready and He will appear to you.  Those things which He teaches you, shall you observe to do.  It is upon Him, that is Jesus Christ, that you must rely.  Any other substitute will fall short of the intended destination.  That destination is to be a son of God by following the voice of The Son of God.

This is the Doctrine of Christ as I have understood it.  This is my attempt to explain what I have understood as the Book of Mormon’s explanation of the Doctrine of Christ.  I would recommend that you read 2 Nephi 31 and also, 3 Nephi 31-39.  Notice in these readings the phrase “doctrine of Christ” or “this is my doctrine”.  These phrases are found at the beginning and at the end.  These act as opening and closing statements to encompass the definition which is provided therein.

And then, having read these passages, I would ask you to pray regarding their meaning.  Ask the Lord, “What lack I yet?” If during that prayer, you also feel a determination to receive the Doctrine of Christ by Baptism as described in the definitions contained in these scriptures; then I ask you “What have you against being baptized?”  Please come to the waters of Baptism and receive the gifts offered by Jesus Christ. 

Before doing so, please understand that this is not a baptism into a church.  This does not obligate you to any group of men or organizations of men which seek to control or manipulate you.  You are free to attend any other church you find gives you an opportunity to provide meaningful service to others in your community.  You are to pay absolutely no money unto any man that offers baptism.  Tithing should not be given to build up churches.  Tithing should go strictly to the poor, directly from your hand to the hand of the poor with no middle management to siphon off a portion of it.  When men teach of Christ, they should receive no worldly reward in their service of God if they seek to serve God with pure intent.  Therefore, this baptism is not to place a man or an institution between you and the Living God who is Jesus Christ.  This baptism is only for the purpose as described above which has been an attempt to summarize the scriptural passages referenced.  Once you have received this baptism, you are to go your way relying upon Christ to direct your path and guide you.  He is the iron rod that you must hold fast to as you make your way to the love of God.  This is because Christ is the Word of God.

I invite you to receive this baptism.