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CHAPTER 1Saints foreordained to receive the gospel—Gospel to be restored in latter-days—Saints sealed by Holy Spirit of Promise—They know God and Christ by revelation. |
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1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to
the asaints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. |
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3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christa, who hath blessed us
with all aspiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ:
4 According as he hath achosen us in him bbefore the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having apredestinated us unto the badoption of children by Jesus Christ to himselfa, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. |
3a God the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ What simpler and clearer statement can be made of the
relationship between Jesus Christ and his Father, God the Father of Spirits?
The Father and the Son are two distinct and separate beings, to make else of
it is to confuse and corrupt the simple truth of it. And who is the master of
such lies but Lucifer, Satan himself, whose own self same goal was to make
himself both the Father and Son to the end that there be no other God but
himself. In denying the true nature of God the Father of Spirits and Jesus
Christ His Son who is the same as Jehovah, is to pretend to that nature of
God which Satan would make himself to be.
5a predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself Here is a short concise statement concerning the concept of the ordinances of baptism and just what it does entail. By that being born again by water and spirit we are born to be the sons and daughters of Jesus Christ, our only way by which we may again come unto the Kingdom of the Father. As Christ told Nicodemus, 'except a man be born again, born of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. By becoming the adoptive sons and daughters of Chirst, the way is open whereby we are heirs with him in the Father's kingdom and not longer fallen creatures, stangers and foriegners of this mortality. |
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7 In whom we have aredemption
through his blood, the bforgiveness of sins, according to
the criches of his dgrace;
8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all awisdom and bprudence; 9 Having made known unto us the amystery of his bwill, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: |
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10 That in the adispensation of
the fulness of times he might bgather together in one
call things in
Christa, both which are in heaven,
and which are on earth; even in him:
11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being apredestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who afirst trusted in Christ. |
10a in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ The terminology of 'The Dispensation of the Fulness of Times' is well known in Mormon Doctrine. It is the Dispensation in which we now live, the dispensation of the Restoration and Preparation for the Coming of Jesus Christ. Now the object of the Plan of God in bring to culmination all things in the end of times which is so stated here. It defines what the cause or the entrance prepartion for the Millennium and what the purpose of the Millennial reign will be. It identifies this last dispensation, as ushered in by its head Prophet Joseph Smith by the restoration of the fulness of the Gospel, as the one where all the nations of the earth whoever have lived are brought to be blessed by that covenant and those blessings of the Fathers, even the very Covenant of Abraham, which was also made with Noah, Enoch and Adam; and which was kept in force by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph (D&C 27:10). Often in the Jewish kept Bible the line of descent is ended with Jacob and usurped to have then gone thence unto Judah and Jesus Christ, thus Ephraim loses his place from the Jewish perspective. Yet that is not the case as the latter day scriptures of the restoration reveal and as the true and legal descent of the Messiah will come to be known (See Messiah ben David ~ Messiah ben Joseph). For as it so states here in Ephesians, the whole point of that last dispensation of which Joseph Smith, a pure Ephraimite is head, is to gather in one all things in Christ, Christ also being of the House of Joseph and of Ephraim. | |
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13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye
heard the word of truth, the agospel of your salvation: in
whom also after that ye believed, ye were bsealed with that
holy Spirit of cpromise,
14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. |
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15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your
afaith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glorya, may give unto you the spirit of awisdom and brevelation in the knowledge of him: |
17a the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory Rememniecent of David's statement in Paslms as so quoted by Jesus Christ is this parallel phrase which clearly sets forth the relationship between Father and Son. David says, "The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." (Psalm 110:1, Mark 12:36, Luke 20:42, Acts 2:34, Hebrews 1:13 [D&C 130:5]) And as verse 20 herein reflects, 'set him at his own right hand in the heavenely places', so it was that Christ is placed at the right hand of God the Father as seen in the vision of Stephen as well (Acts 7). | |
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18 The eyes of your aunderstanding
being benlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of
his calling, and what the criches of the glory of his
dinheritance in the saints,
19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his apower to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he araised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the bheavenly places, 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every aname that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: |
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22 And hath put aall things
under his bfeet, and gave him to be the
chead over all things to the
cchurch,
23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. |
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