Trinitarian creeds

 

Matthew Watkins

@ATrueMillennial

Here's how a conversation between a thoughtful Trinitarian and a thoughtful Latter-day Saint always goes: The Trinitarian brings up the Creeds. The Latter-day Saint says "I don't accept the Creeds as authoritative because they are unscriptural and unauthorized." The Trinitarian insists they are simply restatements of truths taught in scripture. This starts the back and forth from the Bible, mainly from the New Testament. The Trinitarian brings a verse saying, "I and my Father are one." The Latter-day Saint explains that "oneness" of the Godhead members doesn't necessarily imply a full Trinitarian consubstantiation. After all, Jesus also said husband and wife ought to be "one." And He prayed for His disciples to be one even as He and the Father are one. Surely that doesn't mean we all become consubstantial entities in the Trinity? Then the Trinitarian side talks about "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one." Then the Latter-day Saint responds with "Let us create man in our own image." Then the Trinitarian brings up "Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father" and other verses. The Latter-day Saint then brings up verses about the express likeness: "this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ," the Gethsemane prayer—"not my will, but thine, be done," the baptism of Jesus, "why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God," "the Father is greater than I," and the idea that the Father knows the timing of the Second Coming but not the Son, etc. Then the Trinitarian responds with, "Well, He's carefully crafting His words for the people and it's the Person of the Son speaking, so in a sense it's true," and brings up "Before Abraham was, I AM," indicating Jesus is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. And the Latter-day Saint says, "Yes, we believe that, too. But that doesn't mean He is the same as the Father." Also, what of the first, second, and third-century disciples—some of whom walked with Jesus Himself—who didn't hold a Trinitarian formulation? Were they not Christian? And they go round and round, pulling up the Greek and the Aramaic, and both come away at the end more sure of their own positions than that the other's is the correct understanding. At the end of the day, an honest neutral observer of this discussion knows one thing: the Trinitarian theory is not self-evident from the Bible alone. As the Harper Bible Dictionary itself states, "the formal doctrine of the Trinity as it was defined by the great church councils of the fourth and fifth centuries is not to be found in the [New Testament]." There is ample room for an intelligent person to interpret the text either way, and neither is proven correct. The best a Trinitarian or Latter-day Saint can say about the Bible is "my position is evident to me." But through all this back and forth, the Latter-day Saint has been debating with one hand tied behind his back. Because although we love the Bible and accept it as the word of God, we are not reliant only on the Bible. We believe God has given additional clarification on the ambiguity of His inspired but imperfectly translated earlier words in the Holy Bible. God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith. And just as they appeared to the martyr Stephen, they appeared as two distinct Personages, with Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Then in the Book of Mormon and subsequent revelations, Jesus explicitly and directly set forth His nature, removing all ambiguity. And these truths are confirmed to us by personal revelation from God Himself. This is not a contradiction of the Bible, just a contradiction of the Creedalist understanding of the Bible. We respect our Catholic and Protestant brothers and sisters who read the Bible through a different lens and understand the verses differently than us. Even though their understanding is opposed to what we believe is substantiated in Holy Scripture, we recognize their efforts to follow the Savior to the best of their ability and wouldn't dare call them un-Christian for what we see as a mistaken view. And we respectfully ask others recognize the Bible is not self-evident on these matters and grant us the same grace we extend to them.

Multiplication through thanksgiving

 

Tevin Macharia Mukabana

@TevinMacharia

·

23h

The story of Jesus Christ with the Two Fish and Five Loaves that he used to feed 5000 Men ,I hope someone can get this . There is a mystery many believers overlook, yet Jesus Christ demonstrated it so clearly. When there were two fish and five loaves, it looked insignificant in the hands of men… but in the hands of Jesus, it became more than enough to feed thousands. The disciples were worried. They were calculating lack. They were seeing impossibility. But Jesus asked a powerful question: “What do you have?” Not what is missing. Not what is insufficient. But what is available. This is where many of us miss it. We wake up thinking: “I don’t have enough money…” “I don’t have rent…” “I don’t have connections…” “I don’t have opportunities…” But heaven is not moved by what you lack. Heaven responds to what you present. God will never ask you for what you don’t have. He will always ask, “What is in your hand?” That small business… That skill… That little income… That connection… That idea… That strength you still have… That is your starting point. The mistake is this: we keep complaining about the little, instead of committing the little. And here is the deeper mystery— Before multiplication happened, Jesus did something powerful: He gave thanks. Not after the miracle. Not after abundance came. But in the middle of insufficiency. This is the formula of the Kingdom: Gratitude before multiplication. Many people pray like this: “God, I don’t have rent… I don’t have money… I don’t have this…” But in this Kingdom, we don’t approach God from a place of lack—we approach Him from a place of thanksgiving. The Bible says: “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.” Thanksgiving is not just a reaction. It is a spiritual key. It is your access code. It is your alignment. It is your declaration that God is still faithful even when things don’t look like it. When you give thanks, you are saying: “Lord, I may not have everything I want, but I recognize that what I have came from You… and it is enough for You to work with.” And that is when multiplication begins. Because God does not multiply complaints. He multiplies what is surrendered with gratitude. So instead of worrying today… Pause and ask yourself: What do I have? Then lift it up to God with a grateful heart. Thank Him for the food you have. Thank Him for the roof you have. Thank Him for the strength you have. Thank Him for the life you have. Because when gratitude rises, lack loses its voice. You may have little—but with God, little is never small. And just like Jesus showed us, what you place in His hands with thanksgiving… He will multiply beyond your imagination.

Fasting and feasting

Maybe both? 

John Hajicek 

esSnrodotpht1l3t2f 6uM  0Pmai3098Mhh0c 43a72:4c65h06a914r670 ·

This week the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that its members in the United States are invited to observe a nationwide fast connected with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In the letter from its First Presidency, members are invited “to participate in a unified fast to express gratitude for religious liberty and to pray that it be strengthened throughout the world.” That is backwards.

In unity, I certainly share the interest in remembering the religious liberty that made the Restoration possible. The church that arose in 1830 was a rebellion against a state religion and an established church; it came from religious itinerants, seekers, revivalists, restorationists, millennialists, and dissenters who at last printed freely. It is precisely that world which for 45 years has driven me to collect our rarest books, early newspapers, lost ephemera, and record books and letters from 1776 to 1876.

For that reason I broadly support the effort to remember and celebrate American independence and the liberties that came with it: religious liberty, certainly; but also economic liberty, a free press, the right to defend one’s family, the right to privacy, the right to keep what one produces, and the general independence of conscience that allows both faith and enterprise to flourish.

That announcement nevertheless caught my attention because the language of Scripture draws a very different distinction between fasting and feasting. In the Bible, fasting accompanies repentance, danger, humiliation, or national calamity. Nineveh fasted when judgment was threatened. Ezra proclaimed a fast when the people faced peril. Joel called the people to fasting when they were summoned to mourning and repentance. The empty table is the sign of lamentation.

Feasting, by contrast, is the sign of gratitude. When God grants deliverance, peace, and abundance, the Scriptures speak not of sackcloth but of tables prepared and cups running over. Ecclesiastes counsels a blessed people to eat their bread with joy and to drink with a merry heart, because God has accepted their works. In the biblical imagination, thanksgiving appears at the full table.

For that reason the announcement sounded inverted to my ear. Independence, liberty, and freedom from tyrants do not resemble the circumstances in which Scripture calls a nation to afflict its soul. They resemble deliverance. They resemble blessing. They resemble the moment when a people stand upright rather than bowed down.

Accordingly, I will not be fasting to commemorate the birth of American independence. The Bible does not teach a people to mourn their deliverance.

For my part, I will commemorate the founding of this nation the way Scripture commemorates blessing: with thanksgiving. Not sackcloth, but the table. Not lamentation, but gratitude.

So break out the grills: the hamburgers and all-beef hot dogs; the Kansas City and Jackson County beef ribs and brisket from the American cattle trails. Let the smoke rise and the tables fill, because liberty is not a national sorrow to be fasted over. It is a blessing to be celebrated with barbecue: the steer and the heifer, the goat and the lamb, the drumsticks and wings of the skies, and the clean fish and scallops of the waters. Smoke it all.

If the occasion marks the birth of freedom and religious liberty, then the fitting response is not the empty stomach of lamentation. It is the feast of thanksgiving. I will post photos in July.

_____

5 Behold, this is wisdom in me; wherefore, marvel not, for the hour cometh that I will drink of the fruit of the vine with you on the earth, and with Moroni, whom I have sent unto you to reveal the Book of Mormon, containing the fulness of my everlasting gospel, to whom I have committed the keys of the record of the stick of Ephraim;

6 And also with Elias, to whom I have committed the keys of bringing to pass the restoration of all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began, concerning the last days;

7 And also John the son of Zacharias, which Zacharias he (Elias) visited and gave promise that he should have a son, and his name should be John, and he should be filled with the spirit of Elias;

8 Which John I have sent unto you, my servants, Joseph Smith, Jun., and Oliver Cowdery, to ordain you unto the first priesthood which you have received, that you might be called and ordained even as Aaron;

9 And also Elijah, unto whom I have committed the keys of the power of turning the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, that the whole earth may not be smitten with a curse;

10 And also with Joseph and Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham, your fathers, by whom the promises remain;

11 And also with Michael, or Adam, the father of all, the prince of all, the ancient of days;

12 And also with Peter, and James, and John, whom I have sent unto you, by whom I have ordained you and confirmed you to be apostles, and especial witnesses of my name, and bear the keys of your ministry and of the same things which I revealed unto them;

13 Unto whom I have committed the keys of my kingdom, and a dispensation of the gospel for the last times; and for the fulness of times, in the which I will gather together in one all things, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth;

14 And also with all those whom my Father hath given me out of the world.

15 Wherefore, lift up your hearts and rejoice, and gird up your loins, and take upon you my whole armor, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all, that ye may be able to stand.

(Doctrine and Covenants 27:5–15)