JOHN 5:39 Ye THINK Ye Have Eternal Life

John 5:37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. 38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.

39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. 41 I receive not honour from men. (bold, italics added)

 

The Jews to whom Jesus was here speaking wanted Him dead because He had indirectly declared He was equal to God:

John 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

It was to this belligerent audience that Christ spoke “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life.” But the truth is, the Scriptures, as valuable as they are, do not in and of themselves provide us with eternal life – coming to Christ gives us a chance – note he says “might” rather than “will.” In other words, both are required – searching and following the Scriptures and following the precepts of Jesus.

Notice that Jesus does not say “that ye shall have eternal life,” but rather “that ye might have eternal life.” Confessing Christ to be the Savior is a good start, but if we stop there, it will not take us across the finish line. We must also follow Jesus.

 

Matt. 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. (also quoted in Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; see also John 12:26; (bold added)) 

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (bold, italics added)

 Jesus did not say “read about what I said” but rather “hear” my voice. How to hear Jesus? He is talking about inspiration, about personal revelation.

John 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

What does it mean then to follow Jesus? We do what He did – we do his works.

John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. (bold added)

 We must continue to receive inspiration:

John 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; (bold added)

Remember that the word, in the which we continue, is the word we hear and then do.

Conclusion:

·      Searching the Scriptures can give us direction and knowledge of Christ, because they testify of Him, but that direction and knowledge alone will not save us;

·      Coming to Christ, or following Him, offers us a chance to have [eternal] life;

·      Following Christ means we believe on him, and do His works;

·      We must not seek our own will, but rather the will of the Father who sent Christ.

·      We must endure to the end, to continue in doing Christ’s inspiration. Then are we His disciples indeed, and then we have eternal life. All we need to do to obtain eternal life is listen for the promptings of His spirit, and follow them. Those promptings guide us to repent, believe on Him, hear His word (guidance to do good) through inspiration, continue (don't give up), and to be at peace with ourselves knowing that we are his disciples indeed!

·    Added thought: Churches that have as their foundation study, scholars, degrees, learning, consensus on the correct translations of the many varied ancient Biblical manuscripts, and mere confession of Christ’s divinity, thinking  therein they have eternal life, are missing the mark. Among the churches that rely on prophets, inspiration and revelation, thinking and doing good rather than just hearing, there might be found the correct path.

A Review of “Starting at the Finish Line” by John B Wallace – Part 1

At the invite from an Evangelical acquaintance, I have started reading a book titled “Starting At The Finish Line” by John B. Wallace, a former Mormon.

My acquaintance also requested my response to the book. He was undoubtedly hoping that I will join other LDS members who have been hoodwinked into apostatizing, not convinced that my testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel as presented by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints long ago surpassed faith into the realm of pure knowledge. Of course, there are many areas of the Church which I accept based on faith, but my root testimony the Church is THE true Church of the Living Christ is one of knowledge and not one of mere belief.

It did not take long before I ran into, what I consider,  some gross falsehoods, and which in my opinion should not be left unchallenged. This article is to be the first of what I expect will be a larger number of challenges to the misrepresentations made in his book.

I skipped over Chapter 1 wherein he explains his history, and part of Chapter 2 “She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not.” But further into Chapter 2, p.14 he states: “As for the identity of this devious church, which according to verse 26 [in 1 Nephi ch13] is ‘most abominable above all other churches,’ the LDS Church definitely identified it as the Roman Catholic Church – that is until 1966, when Elder McConkie was asked to remove this designation from his encyclopedic work, Mormon Doctrine.”

Stephen E. Robinson, an associate professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, voiced his opinion on the subject of this abominable church, in a thorough article “Warring against the Saints of God” (Jan. 1988):

“Some Latter-day Saints have erred in believing that some specific denomination, to the exclusion of all others, has since the beginning of time been the great and abominable church. This is dangerous, for many will then want to know which it is, and an antagonistic relationship with that denomination will inevitably follow.”

An analogous concept in the Book of Mormon is the “great and abominable church” (1 Ne. 22:13) which must fall and the “great and spacious building” which must likewise fall and the fall was “exceeding great.” They are the same thing. Is it a real church, or something that is worshipped and in that respect is a “church?” The Book of Mormon (1 Ne. 11:36) answers: “the great and spacious building was the pride of the world; and it fell, and the fall thereof was exceeding great. … Thus shall be the destruction of all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, that shall fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” (bold added)

So it is clear from the Book of Mormon that the Roman Catholic Church cannot be correctly isolated as the abominable church, but rather the abominable church is pride! Pride that exists in the form of those who contend against the true Church – against the true teachings of the original twelve apostles, whose teachings we find in part in the Bible.

To my knowledge, the Church has never officially declared the Roman Catholic Church as the “abominable church.”

With regard to Bruce R McConkie’s statement in his book Mormon Doctrine, in the first 1958 edition of it, the Church correctly had him revise it. We should note that Elder McConkie was an apostle of the Church and not the President of it. In his book Mormon Doctrine, he clearly states in the Preface: “For the work itself, I assume sole and full responsibility.” In other words, the opinions he expressed in his book are his and not the Church’s.

Further, in Mormon Doctrine, we read “President Joseph Fielding Smith [of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles] has said: ‘It makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed, we can set it aside. My words, and the teachings of any other member of the Church, high or low, if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them. Let us have this matter clear. We have accepted the four standard works as the measuring yardsticks, or balances, by which we measure every man’s doctrine. You cannot accept the books written by the authorities of the Church as standards of doctrine, only in so far as they accord with the revealed word in the standard works.” (p.609, second edition).

Therefore, Mr. Wallace’s claim, by referring to Elder McConkie’s statement as the “LDS Church definitely identified it as the Roman Catholic Church” is false!

The truth: an apostle in this dispensation wrote in a book he published something that might be regarded as unnecessarily inflammatory against a great institution, the Roman Catholic Church, which was incorrect. The leaders of the Church asked him to correct it. He complied and the incorrect doctrine was removed. Unlike Paul, McConkie did not behave as Paul did when he confronted Peter, boasting in a letter to the Galatians: “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.” (Gal. 2:11), but rather he submitted to authority and corrected his oversight.