117. Day of Recognition and Acceptance

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.