125. The Blessing of Every Nation Only If
Of Jacob It Is Said
"And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou
shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to
the south: and in thee and thy seed shall
all the families of the earth be
blessed." ~ Genesis 28:14
Of Abrham It Is Said
"I sought for mine appointment unto the Priesthood according
to the appointment of God unto the fathers concerning
the seed." ~ Abraham
1:4
"Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty
nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?" —
"And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou
hast obeyed my voice." ~ (Genesis 18:18 & 22:18)
Of Enoch, Noah and the People It Is Said
"And the Lord said: Blessed is he through whose
seed Messiah shall come; for he
saith—I am Messiah, the King of Zion, the Rock of Heaven, which is
broad as eternity; whoso cometh in at the gate and climbeth up by me shall
never fall; wherefore, blessed are they of whom I have spoken, for they
shall come forth with songs of everlasting joy."
Moses 7:53 (28-67)
This covenant blessing was that which pertained unto the birthright from
Adam to Enoch to Noah and thence to Abraham, Isaac and on now through Jacob
that the families or nations of the earth would be blessed 'in thee and in
thy seed'. And that 'seed' was to be Jesus Christ through and by and in whom
all may be so blessed, and in,
and by, and through none other; for only by the name of Jesus Christ does
salvation and exaltation come. And yet this is the very blessin which those
of Ephraim, of the birthright of the latter-day, do take to all the earth
that the gospel blessing are taken and given unto all the world; by, in and
through that latter day covenant blessing which does but reside in Ephraim
and his fellows today.
But how is it by Ephraim if Christ by who it comes is not also of Ephraim.
Does Ephraim trump Christ? Nay! The blessing of the earth is by Ephraim,
he to whom the birthright did remain through Joseph (D&C 27:10 (9-11) & 1
Chronicles
5:1-2) as Jacob had obtained it because Esau despised the birthright (Genesis
25:29-34) and Jacob had sealed it upon Ephraim the son of Joseph (JST Genesis
48:5-11 & KJV Genesis 48:13-20).
And it is said that they will 'bow down' 'unto the fruit of thy [Joseph's]
loins for ever' meaning unto the Messiah of Joseph for ever (JST Genesis 48:10)
And exactly like in prophetic parallel chiasm, that all the earth
is blessed by that adoptive birth or 'rebirth' of water baptism, so was
Christ so adoptive of the family of Ephraim according to the Law of God. The
parallel is beautiful. The ancestry of Jesus was of Ephraim by the levarite
law of marriage in raising up seed to the dead performed by Boaz in behalf of
Mahlon, that Ephrathite to who Obed was the seed of the House of Joseph and
Ephraim. So also may all the ends of the earth be the adoptive seed of Christ
by that order and Law of God of baptism of the water and spirit, and NOT of
flesh and blood; but adopted through Christ, Jesus into the House and Kingdom
of God.
The Articles of Adoption
"It is one thing to see the kingdom of God, and another thing
to enter into it. We must have a change of heart to see the kingdom of God,
and subscribe to the articles of adoption to enter therein." ~ HC 6:58/Discourses
of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 171
Exactly What Are the Articles of Adoption?
"THEREFORE leaving the principles of the
doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not lying again
the foundation of repentance from dead works, and faith
toward God, Of the doctrine of baptism, and of laying on of hands, and of
resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment." ~ Hebrews
6:1-2 (see also Ether 3:14, Mark 3:31-35, John 3:3-5, 2 John 1:9 & 2 Nephi
31:2-16)
In part to understand the parallelism of Christ's adoptions and our adoption
unto him, it is helpful to comprehend our position before God and that
absolute need that we all have to be so adopted according the what Joseph
Smith the Prophet has termed the 'articles of adopttion'. It ought not to
come as any great surprise that these 'articles of adoptions' do have a
direct relevance to those first principles and ordinances of the Gospel. But
first, to understand the need we have to be so adopted unto God in and through
Jesus Christ who when we are so adopted becomes our 'Adopted Father', even
our very Eternal Father of the Covenant in this respect to the covenant. Not
that we are no longer the Spirit sons and daughter of God the Father of
Spirits, but that we have additionally become the Sons and Daughters of
Christ through our adoption unto him.
And why have we the need to become the adopted sons and daughters of Christ?
In our First Estate we were but Spirit Beings, yet imcomplete in comparision
to the exalted state of God the Father of Spirits. It would needs be that
we were to come into this Second Estate of Temporal Mortality to obtain our
tabernacle of flesh and bone, that housing which would in the resurection
become one with our spirits to form a completed being, and eternal and
importal being of spirit and body in one. Now our spirit is and was of God,
we being his Spirit Children. But our temporal body was created from the
'natural realm' and it was Christ, who under the direction of the Father
who formed the physical bodies which would first house the spirits of Adam
and Eve and we through being the temporal sons and daughters of Adam and Eve
in the flesh, would also become a being of spirit housed in this temporal
and mortal body of flesh, bone and blood. This condition of our Second Estate,
we are told, is and was esential to our eternal progression, to become even
as our Father in Heaven and now Jesus Christ is so 'complete' and 'perfected'.
But the natural man is an enemy of God in the natural estate of being
influenced and potentially controled by those things of the flesh. Yet is
was to be our experience to so become such creatures in order to have an
oposition of such in all things. And thence to so exercise our agency to the
extend of learning to so control the 'creature' according to the direction
and influence of the Spirit. And to this end are the 'articles', 'principles'
and 'ordinances' of the Gospel. They are so designed that man of this world
might so return to the presence of God by the adoptive process, of faith in
Jesus Christ and by our hope in him to seek to obtain eternal life, to
repent of the failings of the natural man, to enter into that death of the
natural man with Christ as so represented by our baptism, being born of the
water'; and our further being 'born of the spirit', by which the Spirit of
God' may enter in and so sanctify the mortal being of man into becoming the
totally righteous celestial being of an exalted soul, body and spirit,
becoming one in, through and with God and God's love and perfection. This is
why be must be so adopted, there being no other why for man of the mortal
creature to 'return' or so 'obtain' the celestial glory of God but by why of
this adoptive process.
For Christ only was begotten of the flesh of the Father, His Only Begotten
Son. And only through Jesus' infinite atoning sacrifice may man be justified
and so by the adoptive order of water and spirit baptism according to the
Law and ordinance of God. And only in and throuh Joseph and Ephraim is that
offered unto the world, who obtained the name of Israel from Jacob by
Ephraim's own adoptive process of becoming Jacob's and the Lord's own
firstborn. (Jeremiah 31:9).
And now, ONLY and IF, Jesus is of Ephraim can Ephraim of the latter day
so be the firstborn of the birthright to take the gospel of Jesus Christ
to all the earth to the blessing of every nation, kindred, tongue and people
who ever have lived, passed, present and future upon the earth which the Lord
did create for the purpose of bringing to pass the immorality and eternal
life of man (Moses 1:39). For, for Ephraim to hold the birthright of the
firstborn unto the completion of taking the blessings of the covenant of
the fathers, of Abraham, to all the earth; Christ must be of Ephraim for only
in and through him are they truely blessed and do they truely come to bow
themselves down before him for ever as the fruit of Joseph, even Messiah ben
Joseph.
Understanding the Doctrine of Adoption
Central to God's Plan of Salvation stands the Doctrine of Adoption or the
Doctrine of being born again if you will. And perhaps only in having a full and
complete understanding of this Doctrine of Adoption can one have a true
feeling for the significance of the type and foreshadowing of it in Christ's
own parallels of Adoptive status, of his own 'second births' and being not
only dual in personality, God and Man, but also so being of two families, of
two houses.
The Nature of the Being: Man is dualistic in his
very nature. Being born into temporal mortality the spirit of man has taken
upon himself 'the creature', 'the natural man', that 'body of flesh and blood'
which makes him an enemy to God as long as he does follow after the basic
instincts of his physical being over that controled guidance of the Spirit.
In animated features this is often visualized by placing upon the two shoulders
of man a devil and an angel, one on each shoulder. These two influences over
man's actions depict that internal war of the spirit of man, which is from
God, wrestling with the physical beast of the mortal natural make of nature's
instincts. Not that these 'instincts' in and of themselves are necessarily bad,
for they do serve a meaningful purpose in the joint nature of man's being,
his soul, which we will here define as the spirit of man jointed together with
that physical tabernacle of flesh and bone. Only when the 'primedial' nature
of man rules over and control's the spirit of man, are these natural instincts
considered to be performing in the realm of being against the nature of God.
For in God there is control over the nature of the body as the spirit which
is from God does work to shape, form and exercise its righteous dominion of
its physical house.
But herein lies the nature of the 'adoption'. In the representative form and
performance of 'baptism', the 'natural man' is symbolically put to death of
the grave, being buried in the watery grave and then to be brought forth,
body and spirit/soul, into the new life of sancitification of the spirit, being
made into a new man, still of body and spirit, but with the spirit's control
over the nature of the animal instincts of the physical being. And this beinging
accomplished according to the agency of man, so chosing good over evil, the
things of the spirit over and in control of those things of the flesh. And
this must all men do, for except a man is born of the water and of the spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And this is exactly how that physical
body of flesh is so adopted unto God in the resurrection. That body 'NOT'
being born of God, but of mortal man and its nature being foriegn to God. And
only in its adoption unto God through Christ, may it become a member of God's
family in the celestial realm of eternity to come, the flesh being sanctified
by the Spirit unto God and so making the 'being of the soul of man', body and
spirit, a child of God; the body being welded or sealed eternaly to its
spirit which it does house for the eternities to come.
Lucifer and his angels have lost this opportunity of eternal progression, for
they will never so become a united being of spirit and body as man does
become in and through Jesus Christ. For they did so reject the plan of God
and did rebel against God and His Christ, not being willing to so subject
themselves to the righteousness of the spirit from God over the flesh of the
natural man.
The Adoption Parallels:
Now having set forth the nature of man and his adoption into the family of
God by way of the baptismal covenant, just how is the adoption of Christ a
type and a shadow of this adoption? Well in that it is by the covenant that
we are so adopted unto God through Christ, so also Christ was adopted unto
the covenant by his being descended from Mahlon the Ephraimite of the
Covenant of Joseph, Joseph holding the birthright of the covenant (1 Chronicles
5:1-2, and Ephraim being the firstborn of God of the Covenant (Jeremiah 31:9),
and this by way of the Covenant Law of Moses of Leverite Marriage of Ruth
unto Boaz, Boaz so being the surrogate parent so raising up seed to the dead,
in Obed being of the family and house of Naomi, Elimelech and Mahlon. Thus
Jesus was, as we are, so adopted in to the covenant by way of the Law of God.
We by Baptism and Christ by Levirate Marriage. Christ becoming of the covenant
family of man from God and we coming into the covenant family unto God.
Christ's adoption unto the family of Man and the Covenant of God and our
adoption unto the family of God and the Covenant of God. It does set out a
parallel prophetic chiasmic type in event establishing all things being a type
of Christ and Christ being seen in them.
And this is again set forth in parallel in Christ actually being the Son of
God in the flesh, but so being the son of the man of the covenant in Joseph,
even the husband of Mary in the adoptive law of the Hebrews in his immediate
birth also. Again there being a type and shadow of being the heir of Joseph
and the covenant, even Messiah ben Joseph in his actual personal physical
birth, the son of woman, the promised seed so adopted to the covenant in like
manner in which we all are also so adopted to the covenant unto God in our
own baptism.
All Is So Foretold
"Behold, I have declared the former things from the beginning;
and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them
suddenly, and they came to pass. ... I have even from the beginning declared
it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it thee: lest thou
shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten
image, hath commanded them. ... " ~ Isaiah 48:3-7/1 Nephi 20:3-7
All things have been so fore shown and declared even those things which
so foretale and foreshadow them as a type of those things to come. This very
study and presention of all those things which point to and declare Messiah
as both being of Judah by blood and Joseph by the Law of God and covenant of
the birthright have been so foresworn. And this is evidence in 'reverse' so
to speak. For if there were not all these scriptural verses and things of
tradition which so represent it and present it prior to it being known unto
man, then one could state it to be false. But since God has so fore shown it
and declared it, this is evidence that it is as He has according to Isaiah so
proclaimed it before that man might not say it was of some other origin before
it came into being.