117. Day of Recognition and Acceptance
"We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now
reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important
things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." ~ Articles of Faith #9
In the days of King David in the Old Testament, Israel recognized and
understood wherein they had the greater right in King David. But since David
preferred and selected Judah over Israel and since that day when Israel
removed themselves from under the house of David in the day of Rehaboam,
Israel has steadily lost must of that understanding they once had in just
how and what that 'greater claim' in David was.
Now Judah, for the most part, would prefer to keep it as a mere matter of
David choosing his blood relatives over the military assistance which Israel
supplied David in that day in which Judah did rebel against him under his son
Absolom. We have set forth much in this text which would establish that it
was of much more a right in David that just such a preference for family
over politics, which was Israel's right in David.
Now in the Gospel Plan of God, we do understand that we are all sons and
daughters of God the Eternal Father in Heaven of the spirits of mankind. He
is that father of all the spirits who have, do and ever will come unto this
second estate. We are his children, we are sons and daughters of God, we
are children of God in that very literal respect. And while we are of the
generation of Jesus Christ, he being the Firstborn Son of the Father in the
spirit, Jesus who is Jehovah, is in the repect of the spirit relationship
our Elder Brother. Yet in a Gospel relationship, Jesus Christ becomes our
Father in many other respects apart from our spirit birth.
Jesus Christ is the Father of this Creation. He formed the bodies of men
and breathed the breath of life into them. In this he is the Father of Heaven
and Earth and all things which in them are as pertaining to the second estate
of all men who are after and according to his generation. Also, God the
Eternal Father has anointed and place Jesus who is Jehovah in a position to
act in the stead of the Father, as the Father, in all things pertaining unto
this second estate. For only those who belong and pertain to this 'second
estate' in the generation and ages thereof, may attend to and minister unto
it (D&C 130:5). Thus in this since, Jesus is the 'proxy' Father and God of
this creation in the stead of the Father, acting as mediator, intercessor,
and advocate for man to the Father and for the Father to man.
Further, Jesus Christ does also become our 'adoptive father' in the Gospel
Doctrinal Plan of Salvation. As we are born again by the baptism of water
and spirit, we take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ. And we become
his sons and daughters in the gospel. And as we do always remember him and
keep his commandments which he does give unto us, then through the atonement,
he is able to 'Father' us into Exaltation and Eternal Life. Yet this
'adoptive' process is based upon 'recognition' and 'acceptance' upon both
the part of Jesus Christ of us, and upon our part in our recognition and
acceptance of him as our God, King, Savior and Redeemer.
Further, in the relationships of the children of Israel, there is the matter
of the right of the covenant, and an adoptive recognition and acceptance
which will also need take place in respect to it. While not totally clearly
revealed, there are such scriptures as Ezekiel 37 which speak of such a
relationship between Judah and Ephraim who is of Joseph. These are the two
kingdoms which will occupy the west in Ephraim upon the Americas and the
east in Judah in the Middle East where all the lands of the east do meet.
As we have set forth in this text, both Judah and Ephraim who is Joseph,
has a claim of relationship to Jehovah who is Jesus Christ. What is of
particular interest is that neither such kingdom as such a kingdom has
yet to formally recognized and accepted Jesus Christ, the son of Mary and
God, to be of their tribal linage and in that right which belongs to them.
In this it is significant that Ephraim was the son of the covenant, of the
birthright, the firstborn of God's Israel (Jeremiah 31:9).
And while it is Judah who does claim their blood linage connection to the
Messiah, they do not recognized Jesus Christ as that Messiah. And similar
but in an opposite vain, those of Ephraim have recognized him as the Messiah,
but not as being of the covenant linage. These recognitions and acceptances
are yet to come, they are yet to be revealed. Judah's recogniztion and
acceptance in this respect will not generally come until Christ does
appear again and those associated with the Jews do witness him first hand
with the markings of his wounds so identifying him to them.
And although, it is through Ephraim that the blessings of the covenant of
Abraham is coming unto all the world through the restoration, there are still
many great and important things yet to be revealed and understood. One of
these will be Israel's recognizition of Jesus Christ as their rightful head
and king. Where as King David of old failed to recognize Israel's greater
claim in him, the King David, the Beloved of the latter day, will so turn
to recognized Israel's, the is Ephraim's and Joseph's greater claim in him,
and he will do that as Ephraim of Joseph so begins to so recognize their
King, Son and Leader in Christ.
There is a significant relationship between man's adoption to Christ as his
sons and daughters of the gospel through the rebirth of baptism of water and
of spirit; and that fact that Jesus Christ is also according to the adoptive
Laws of God, the rightful and legal heir of not only the house of David but
also of that covenant linage of the birthright of men which come thence down
from Adam to Enoch to Noah to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and thence to Joseph
and to Ephraim and which continued down to Jesus Christ through David, back
to Jesse, back to Obed, who was by God's adoption Law of the Covenant, the
son of Mahlon who was of the house of Elimelech, who were Ephrathites,
meaning Ephraimites. And they were the heirs of the covenant in their day.
Their linage had stop by natural birth as in a similar manner our linage is
cut off from the presence of God. And in both cases, it is a Law of Adoption
which so restored us to our proper covenant linage. It gives Christ the
right of heirship to the firstborn of Israel and it gives us the right and
privilage to enter back into the presence of God.
This 'joint' adoptive relationship will come out. In that day of recognition
and acceptance which lies before us all, we will come to recognized and
accept Jesus Chrsit as the rightful and legal heir not only to the royal
throne of the house of David, but to that far more royal throne of the
covenant right of man to the covenant of God through the linage of man. And
just as we are reconciled unto God by accepting Jesus Christ as our gospel
father, so is Jesus reconciled to the order of the kingdom in all
righteousness, and so we shall recognize it to be such when we see in
Christ the rightful linage of the covenant through that adoption which makes
of him a Son of Ephraim and a Son of Joseph, even Messiah ben Joseph as well
as Messiah ben Ephraim.
This I have explained as best as I am able with that which is at hand to
currently do so. That there is yet to be revealed more in this respect is
to be understood, even down to a clear and precise declaration of it before
the children of men by God and his prophets. And when it is further revealed
and establish, we will understand and appreciate all the more of it. And it
is to the end that Ephraim and Judah may be reconciled to each other. And
that day is still yet to come, with both Ephraim and Judah yet to fully
recognize and accept the fullness of the truth of the matter concerning
themselves and that true and complete relationship of God unto man.
In that day in which such adoptive relationships are fully revealed,
recognized and accepted, then the fuller extend of the prophecy of Ezekiel
37 will be fulfilled. That is we will all become one in the hand of the
Son of Man. and we will each more completely understand Christ to be our
Lord and King, one Messiah for all, even Messiah ben David who is the same
as Messiah ben Joseph and Ephraim.