The First of the Pair of the Required Ordiances | ||
They Are A Match Pair
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Just as shoes come in a matched pair of two
so do the first set of two required Ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
They have been referenced to as the baptisms by water and by fire. They are
given separately but to be fully functional unto man's attainment of eternal glory they
are both required. Jesus stated unto Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5)
There is a straight and narrow way that man must walk to obtain Heaven and the shoes of
these two required ordinances are those in which that man or woman must walk.
The earth itself hath a spirit and was submerged and covered and cleansed by the waters of the universal world wide flood of Noah. And thus also is Baptism by immersion that is required of man to conform to as a sign, covenant and ordinance of God and man.
As set forth in the inspired version of the Bible, that is the Joseph Smith Translation, and in the book of Moses, Adam and his seed after him that were righteous were baptised and had the gospel of Jesus Christ among them. It was also the gospel unto which Abraham did conform and the Nephites of the Book of Mormon had that same gospel and baptism among them as well.
In the meridian of time John the Baptist prepared the way before the Lord, baptising all that would come unto God and repent of their sins and accept the true word of God. Even Jesus Christ conformed unto the ordinances of the gospel being first baptised by John the Baptist in showing the way by which all men must come unto the Father by way of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Some attempt to draw a line between the Everlasting Covenant Received by Noah and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no such division. Before the flood of Noah, Noah and his son were preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that all men must come unto the Lord God by way of the ordinance of Baptism.
"And Noah and his sons hearkened unto the Lord, and gave heed, and they were called the sons of God. ... And it came to pass that Noah continued his preaching unto the people, saying: Hearken, and give heed unto my words; Believe and repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, even as our fathers, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost, that ye may have all things made manifest; and if ye do not this, the floods will come in upon you; nevertheless they hearkened not." ~ Pearl of Great Price | Moses 8:13 & 23-24
And sinful man was cleansed and washed from off of the face of the earth by the waters of the flood of Noah, which was the baptism of the earth and the cleansing thereof my water.
Now the symbolism of baptism is this, that the old man of sin is turned and is to be changed by the cleansing waters of baptism. The natural mand, who is an enemy of God in its carnal desires, is to be as it were to experience his death and be buried with Christ in the waters of baptism. And thus as he come up out of the waters of that baptism, he is symbolizing a new birth and cleansing by the waters that he has had his carnal nature washed away and is now to be a new born son of God.
And while the actual processes of time may spread this renewal over a lifetime and perhaps more, the single event of a man's baptism is an outward sign that man has committed himself unto the process by which he may become a new man in Christ. Even the perfectionists Saul who is the same as Paul the Apostle and Nephi of the Book of Mormon, were not without sin and they pained themself that they still had the weakness of man that was was not totally perfected in Christ whilst still being a man of the flesh. Paul had petitioned the Lord three times to remove his imperfection from him. And both had declared that but 'wretched' men they were. And as Jesus explained to Paul, it was not meant for the natural man of the flesh to be totally cleased while in the flesh, but that it was to be trought the grace of Christ's atoning power that sufficient to that end thereof. (See Romans 7:21-25, 2 Corinthians 12:6-10 and 2 Nephi 4:17-19)
Thus though man commit himself unto the path of righteousness and be baptized unto such in purpose and in intent, none be perfected as was Christ in the flesh. Man in his weakness but walks the path to Godhood and in the end is lefted up by that further grace of the atonement of Christ unto such a height. For he that says he is without sin, the truth is not in him. But man might have in him the intent and the desire and the commitment inspite of his weakness of the natural man. And that commitment unto God is openly displayed by the outward ordinance of man's willingness of commitment in his baptism by the water unto his cleansing of all his sins from him. He who is not so committed unto God to enter in there at will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
A Doctrinally Solid Basic Plan of Salvation Article
by Elder Robert D. Hales
by Elder Robert D. Hales
There are many perspectives of the Everlasting Covenant ~ The Promises of God to His children:
My House Is a House of
Order and Ordinances
My House Is a House of
Order and Ordinances
Somewhere over that rainbow of promise does man's covenant end come. Man is to commit and stive and in the end be lifted up unto the glorious end of entering in unto the Kingdom of God. But not yet oh wretched man whilst still in the flesh. It be but when Christ's mercies are fully extented unto thee in thy death and resurrection that it will be.
For step by step in those pair of shoes does man but turn and tread the path to where the glorious brightness of God's sought after treasure does reside. That pot of gold over the rainbow's end, that ladder by rung, and by line and by precept won and only by the gift of God be found.