Jesus Is The Christ
Have you ever wondered how you’d respond had you lived during the days of the restoration? If a Mormon missionary bearing the news that the heavens were no longer sealed were to offer you a new bible bearing the unfamiliar name of Mormon, would you have listened?
I testify that the Book of Mormon was true before it was ever translated. The Lord teaches His children through many different methods, one of which is through symbolism called types. A type is a person or thing that exemplifies something or somebody else.
Through the eyes of a Hebrew mind, here are my points of reference testifying of the verity that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.
· The golden plates were found in a tomb of stone. Jesus was buried in a tomb of stone.
· The rolling away of the stone covering the tomb of (the BM and Jesus) was overseen by an angel.
· The plates were taken out of the tomb by Joseph. Jesus was laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.
· The 1st to see the plates (Jesus) was forbidden to touch.
· Gold never loses its luster. The light of Christ will never dim.
· 12 witnesses to BoM and JC.
· The Book of Mormon is the keystone to the church of Jesus Christ of Ladder-day Saints. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone to the millennial and modern-day church.
· The sealed portion of the Book was taken away waiting for another day to come forth.
· Jesus was taken away and we await His 2nd coming.
Now consider your position had you been born 2,000 years ago and had heard news that a new prophet was afoot in the land, healing the blind, walking on water, casting out demons, and most dramatic of all, healing a leper, something that hadn’t been done since the days of Moses. Would you have listened? Would you have believed? Would you have followed?
I testify that Jesus fulfilled all prophecy at His birth, however, allow me to testify how His death further seals Him as the Only Begotten of the Father.
Moses 6:9 “In the image of his own body, male and female, created he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam…”
God called both male and female Adam. Hebrew tradition indicates that man means the keeper of the memory of the name.
Genesis 2:24 “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
God gave mankind the commandment to be married and to be one in the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 1:28 “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth…”
God commanded the married couple to have children.
Moses 5:2 “And Adam knew his wife; and she bare unto him sons and daughters…”
The husband was intimate with his wife and she was with child.
John 16:21 “A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come, but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.“
After a certain period of time, usually 9 months, the woman goes into labor. She has carried her child, sacrificed her own body, and now she is about to risk her life so the child may have life. The labor is intense and through an emission of blood and water, a new life is born.
John 17:1 “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come: glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.
On the eve of His arrest, the hour of the atonement had come. The magnitude of what was to transpire started to weigh increasingly greater upon the frame of God’s Only Begotten. He was now in labor for the eternal souls of mankind.
John 17:3 “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
In an act of kindness and instruction, the Savior, during His intercessory prayer, teaches us that eternal life can only be attained by knowing God and His Son. It is the same root word that He used when He commanded Adam and Eve to multiply and replenish the earth: yada, to know someone intimately.
John 17:20-22 “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That they all may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.”
Adam was commanded to become one with Eve, even one flesh, yet also one in purpose. The apostles were commanded to become one as a body and one with Christ. Both are types and commandments to us.
As Jesus concludes His intercessory prayer, He departs the upper room and commences to walk, past the temple, through the Holdah Gates, or perhaps He walked onto the Temple mount, past the Temple, and out the Golden Gate down into the Kidron Valley and up the slopes of Olivet into the Garden of Gethsemane.
The garden is situated as a mirror image of the Temple as it looks across the Kidron valley onto the Temple mount. Jesus had his 11 apostles, among others with Him. He leaves 8 of them nearest the Garden Gate and walks deeper into the garden. Here He leaves Peter, James and John with the same instruction given to the others, pray for me and watch.
Jesus was now deep into His labor and was very heavy. This was a new experience for Him. Though He was perfect, meaning without sin, He had not experienced all that the Father required of Him for the exaltation of man, including His own.
(Matthew 26:39) “And he went a little further and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
The Bitter Cup, the symbol of death for a bride taken in adultery. Rather than the bride drinking the Bitter Cup and paying for her sins, the Bridegroom, even Jesus, following the pattern from the Law of Substitution, is about to partake. Israel, has gone after another God, a spiritual adultery, and she is stands in judgment of her Bridegroom.
The Law of Substitution, when Abraham was on the altar, an angel of the Lord saved him and another was sacrificed in his place. Sariah was saved multiple times and substituted for.
The most famous was Abraham and his son Isaac. A goat became the sacrificial lamb. How symbolic that the Son of God is the very sacrificial lamb for mankind, the Law of Substitution means Jesus must suffer for our sins so we don’t have to.
We don’t know much about what the Son of Man said during His prayer, but this we do know, He prayed for about one hour and then he would check on his disciples and apostles, exhorting them to be vigilant and to pray.
He would again return and pray, uttering the same prayer and after an hour He would again check on His followers. Sometime during the third prayer, the God of all the heavens and the earth, the Father of the Redeemer, took leave of His Son, thus inviting the full buffetings of the adversary one last attempt at thwarting the atonement of us all.
So much is written about the suffering of the Son, yet I wonder about the suffering that must have surely occurred as the Great Elohim, and His wife, left their only begotten to wiles of evil. The very entity that rebelled in the presence of God was now turned loose for a period of time. Jesus was now fully exposed and without any guard.
And as Jesus bled from every pore at the agony of it all, Michael, also know as Adam enters the garden and ministers unto His Lord. For it was Michael, who in his own garden some 4,000 years earlier, voluntarily fell that man might be. He was following His Savior’s future example.
Now in His most grueling hour, it is Michael who supports the Savior through His garden experience and again casts out the adversary from the presence of God that we might have joy.
The prayer ended, his inner garments dripping red with blood, there is a disturbance of the spring night’s air. Lanterns, torches, and the clanging of metal further disrupt the night as the light of the first full moon of the season witnesses the light of the world arrested by a party of men intent on a cloud of darkness.
Approaching the garden is a band of men. According to some experts, there could have been up to 600 soldiers along with curious onlookers approaching the garden’s gate, though the number seems unrealistic.
Jesus, having just endured an event that no human being could survive, greets the crowd with boldness:
“Whom seek ye?”
“They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth.” His answer shakes the very foundation of the earth as He proclaims: I Am! In this simple two-word phrase, those making the arrest would understand His response in full felicty.
I Am that I Am, the very one who spoke with Moses on Mt. Sinai. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. I am the creator of the heavens and the earth, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. I am He who was the Only Begotten from the beginning and I Am the King of Israel.
“As soon then as he had said I AM, they went backwards and fell to the ground.”
Can you picture 600 people astonished, reproved by Deity, and falling to the ground?
The first part of the atonement completed, Jesus must now orchestrate his own crucifixion. His death must occur in a prescribed manner as prophesied since the beginning of time. Each step along the path is now carefully scripted.
The death must be by crucifixion, no bones broken, none of the apostles arrested or killed. Peter, who was commanded to deny the Savior, lops off the ear of the High Priest’s servant in front of 600 soldiers. If fear were part of Peter’s character, as taught by many, cutting off the ear of Malchus is an interesting way of showing it.
As He is bound, a noose is tied about His neck in reference to the scapegoat ordinance performed in the Old Testament. Then He is taken to the house of Annas, the outlawed former High Priest, and father-in-law of Caiaphas, the current High Priest. These two men have been accurately depicted as the two most wicked men to ever sojourn on earth.
It should be noted that Jesus must now orchestrate his death by crucifixion and by no other means. He is not interested in proving His innocence or pointing out any illegalities. His only concern is to carry out the will of His Father and bring about the immortality and eternal life of man. The full magnitude of His condescension and love is now on display.
The wicked leaders of the Jews had already determined upon His death, but it is doubtful they comprehended the ancient prophecies they were about to fulfill to the minutest detail. Neither did they care about which means His death was arranged, so long as they remained in power and within the graces of Rome.
After the interrogations by Annas and Caiaphas, the next step for the Jewish leadership is to involve Rome. Only by having the Romans kill Jesus could they avoid the backlash of the multitudes, who loved their new prophet.
The Lord now endures the physical aspect of the atonement as the vilest of creatures slap him and spit on Him. As He is taken from one wicked leader to another, the evening is cold and the blood soaked clothing no doubt dries to His skin.
Pilate’s wife has a dream during the night and persuades her husband to free this Jesus. Pilate listens to wise counsel until he proposes to release him and the pressure becomes too great.
In a moment of panic, thinking that he could garner sympathy, he submits Jesus to a scourging. The process of the scourge is simple. All clothing is stripped from the body and the person is tied to a pole, hands high over the head. As they tear the clothing from Jesus, patches of skin are torn with it.
The weapon is made up of long leather straps imbedded with glass and sharp stones. Upon impact the skin tears away from the back, then the buttocks and then the legs. Sometimes one soldier handles the process, but often there is a soldier on each side to even the beating.
After the prescribed number of lashed, salt water is poured over the wounds followed with olive oil which softens the already torn flesh.
After the scourging, Jesus is brought back before Pilate. His hoped for sympathy is met with deranged anger by the hired minions of the Sanhedrin. Pilate tries one more ploy. Jewish tradition allows for the pardon of one sinner each Passover, so Pilate has Barabbas, a known robber brought out.
Surely they will not allow this treacherous individual freedom over this poor man, whose only sin in His crazy claim to be God’s son and to be the King of the Jews. In other words Pilate cries out from his tower, “Who will you set free, Jesus bar Abbas, the robber?
In Hebrew, bar means son of, and abba means father, therefore Pilate asked, “Who will you set free, Jesus the son of his father, or Jesus the Son of the Father, the Son of God?
Another type? Absolutely! And now for the most penetrating type of all, Jesus is lead to Golgotha, just outside the North Wall. Here He is nailed to a cross, exactly as foretold. It is 9AM on Friday, April 4th, the day before Passover.
The High Priest is entering the Temple to conduct his ordinances. The savior endures the first three hours of the crucifixion as the pain continues to increase. The second three hours on the cross are known as little Gethsemane because the pain level was so intense.
As the 3 o’clock hour nears, God the Father again leaves His only Begotten for it was His Son’s life to give and the Father has sustained Him from the Upper Room, through Gethsemane, except for a short period of time, and for over five hours on the cross. Now the end was near.
As the Father turned and left, the Savior groaned and crying out exclaiming: “lama, lama, sabachtani.” My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? Then he uttered the atoning phrase “tetelestai”, meaning, it is finished.
When prisoners are thrown in jail, a board is placed over the door of their chamber with their crime written on it. Upon completing their sentence, the word “tetelestai” is written over the crime, indicating the sin has been paid for is it is now covered.
A type? Yes, most certainly. As Jesus gives up the ghost, the Sanhedrin was plotting a way to discredit the people’s martyr. They didn’t want anymore of this man’s teachings in Judea. Knowing of the prophecy that no bones will be broken they send the Roman guards to break them.
At the same time the Great High Priest, who is now in the Holy of Holies sending up incense to heaven, exits the temple, and with raised arms standing on the steps of the temple, proclaims the Hallel prayer.
As he recites Psalms 113 – 118 the veil of the temple rents. Jesus is dead and another prophecy is fulfilled with exactness.
As the Roman soldiers approach the three men still hanging, they break the shin of the first man, which causes a shock through system and results in death. They approach the man in the middle and determine that He has already passed on. To verify their summation, one of the soldiers picks up a spear and thrusts it into the side.
Blood and water emit forth, the very substance present when a mother gives birth to a new life. From a medical perspective, the presence of blood and water indicate Jesus Christ died of a broken heart, the very requirement He made of us for baptism.
And as the veil of the temple rent, Jesus gave birth to us all, that we may enter the presence of the Father as a new person, cleansed of all sin by the blood of He who freely gave His life that we may live.
I testify that Jesus is the Christ, the only Begotten of the Father, and on the third day he resurrected, completing ALL that the Father asked Him to do. I pray we do the same.
