I've spent a lot of time on the first few chapters of Mosiah. It makes sense to do so, at least to me, since this is my favorite part of the Book of Mormon. What a great experience it must have been for the people to listen to the leader of their country as he gave his farewell speech and to have his farewell speech be so profound as to make them fall to the earth and cry for forgiveness. And little wonder that they did, because Benjamin had just related to them the angelic message that Christ would come to the earth and atone for the sins of the world.
Benjamin proceeded to tell them what they needed to do in order to receive the miracle of forgiveness that the atonement of Christ provided. The final words of chapter 4 were all-encompassing: "...if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not" (Mosiah 4:30).
At this point, Benjamin wanted to know if the people believed his words. He sent his ministers out among the throng to ask them this very thing. The response? "...they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. And we, ourselves, also, through the infinite goodness of God, and the manifestations of his Spirit, have great views of that which is to come... And it is the faith which we have had on the things which our king has spoken unto us that has brought us to this great knowledge, whereby we do rejoice with such exceedingly great joy. And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will, and to be obedient to his commandments in all things that he shall command us, all the remainder of our days..." (Mosiah 5:2-6).
This was precisely what Benjamin had hoped for. His response: 1) He revealed the new name for them that he had promised. 2) He held them to their commitment, recording the names of those present during that spiritual event.
1: New name:
Benjamin said to the people: "...the covenant which ye have made is a righteous covenant...because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters. ...this is the name that I said I should give unto you that never should be blotted out, except it be through transgression; therefore, take heed that ye do not transgress, that the name be not blotted out of your hearts. Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his..." (Mosiah 5:6,7,11,15). From that time forward, Benjamin's people (and now Mosiah's people) would be known as the Children of Christ. This is the new name that he gave them once they committed to live God's commandments. There is a lesson here for us. Many people SAY they are Christians... but do their words prove them out? I once heard this said: If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? We need to live the admonitions that Benjamin gave his people in order to be true Children of Christ. Only then are we worthy of being called that name. Have you truly committed yourself?
Here's a thought that just popped into my head: Benjamin said: "whosoever shall not take upon him the name of Christ must be called by some other name; therefore, he findeth himself on the left hand of God" (Mosiah 5:10). This reminds me the when the Lord came to the Nephites. He told the disciples, when they said there were disputations about what to call the church, " ...the Lord said unto them: Verily, verily, I say unto you, why is it that the people should murmur and dispute because of this thing? Have they not read the scriptures, which say ye must take upon you the name of Christ, which is my name? For by this name shall ye be called at the last day; therefore ye shall call the church in my name... And how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in Moses’ name then it be Moses’ church; or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel" (3 Nephi 27: 4-5, 7-8)
The name "Mormon" is truly a sacred name; it comes from two places in the Book of Mormon; one from the Waters of Mormon, where many of the people converted by Alma the elder were received into the fellowship of the saints of that day by baptism. The other is the great prophet/general of the conclusion of the Book of Mormon, he who abridged the Nephite records into the account we read in the Book of Mormon. It is a good name. But if we are truly disciples of Christ, perhaps we should call ourselves that. We should be people who are striving to be Children of Christ; striving to be worthy of being called members of the Church of Jesus Christ. I think my point is that whatever we call ourselves should reflect the way we live our lives, and the way we live our lives should make us worthy to be called by His name.
After thinking this through, I think that when I am asked if I am a Mormon, I am going to respond "I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". I may even say "I am trying to be the kind of person that Jesus would be happy to call His son". I don't mean to come across as a self-righteous snob or some better-than-others kind of snoot. I just think that it is better to known as a person trying to live a Christ-like life than to be known as someone who is living the culture of a group of people. Enough said...
2: Commitment:
Before everyone left the gathering, Benjamin recorded the names of everyone who had made the covenant with God, spoken of in chapter 5. It must have been very satisfying to the king to find that "...there was not one soul, except it were little children, but who had entered into the covenant and had taken upon them the name of Christ" (Mosiah 6:2). Records are kept of who enters into a covenant to take Christ's name upon themselves in this day as well. At baptismal time, these records are kept by our Church, just as in ancient times, as shown here in Mosiah. It is interesting to note that records are also kept by the angels of these things, and we are judged by the records here and in heaven.
Benjamin did one more thing for the people. He "...appointed priests to teach the people, that thereby they might hear and know the commandments of God, and to stir them up in remembrance of the oath which they had made..." (Mosiah 6:3). Why does the church have everyone participate in callings? For this very purpose: to teach us about the God's commandments and to remind us of the covenants we have made to keep them. As we serve we remind those we teach, as well as ourselves, of the things we need to do in order to be more Christ-like. We learn to be worthy of being called His children.
What a great experience Benjamin and his people had. How fortunate we are to have a record of the proceedings of this gathering! We are fortunate as well to have the proceedings of each of our modern day general conferences. We should show our appreciation by studying the words of the modern day prophets and applying them to our lives.
Don
No comments:
Post a Comment