Visiting Teaching Message February 2015

28 January

Visiting Teaching MsgThis month’s Visiting Teaching Message is another installment on the attributes of the Savior and this time around they’re highlighting Jesus as the only person who lived without sin. Not surprisingly, they recycled the same verbiage they used in last month’s message.

Last month they said following Jesus’ example of obedience increases our faith and this month they’re saying our faith is increased when we understand that Jesus lived a sinless life.

Yeah, okay…

Let’s take a look at what they said to see if they’re biblically sound –

‘Our Savior, Jesus Christ, was the only one capable of making an atonement for mankind. “Jesus Christ, the Lamb without blemish, willingly laid Himself on the altar of sacrifice and paid the price for our sins,” said President Dieter F. Uchtdorf…’

That all sounds great doesn’t it?! Ah, but just where is that altar Mr. Uchtdorf’s talking about? Well, in a minute we’re going to find out, but for now let’s get their take on who Jesus is and how He can help us.

‘Understanding that Jesus Christ was without sin can help us increase our faith in Him and strive to keep His commandments, repent, and become pure.’

There’s nothing in their statement explaining how or why Jesus was sinless or how it helps us increase our faith. The blasphemous statement that we can strive to become pure shouldn’t be overlooked. If we must do the striving, then why pray tell, did He die for me? Are my works better than His?

Having a proper understanding of who Jesus is takes precedence over all other things. If you believe He’s a created being who just so happened to go through life without sin, you’ll always be faced with a major problem, and the ever present guilt trip for not doing what Jesus did.

A true understanding of who Jesus is can only be found in accepting He is God (Col 1:13-17). Anything short of that is blasphemous and whatever He did will never be fully understood or appreciated. This Mormon teaching is nothing but a charade.

‘Jesus was … a being of flesh and spirit, but He yielded not to temptation (see Mosiah 15:5)…’

Oh dear. He was just a being eh? Come now! How could he have not yielded to sin if He was just a being of flesh? The hearts of all men are evil is what the Bible says (Jer 17:9), so  how could this Mormon teaching be true? Furthermore, Mosaiah 15:5 suggests that Jesus is God incarnate and this is something the Church vehemently denies.

They complicated things further in the next statement…

‘…We can turn to Him … because He understands. He understands the struggle, and He also understands how to win the struggle. …’

The Bible says no one understands and no one can know man’s heart but God. How could an ‘elder brother’ do this if He wasn’t God? From where did he receive this power?  How does Jesus understand what I’m going through today with a killer headache, deadlines that must be met and all the other stuff going on in life?

‘…The power of His Atonement can erase the effects of sin in us. When we repent, His atoning grace justifies and cleanses us (see 3 Nephi 27:16–20). It is as if we had not succumbed, as if we had not yielded to temptation.’

You know, the Church has said a lot of crazy stuff in their day, but this ranks right up there with the most stupid. God isn’t some magician who makes things disappear on command. He forgives and remembers our sin no more (Is 43:25), but making the effect of your sin go away is ludicrous. The Bible is clear the effects of our sins are apparent (Romans 7).

If their statement is true, PLEASE, explain the whole Garden of Eden thing to me.

Furthermore, our measly act of repentance doesn’t cleanse us. The only thing that cleanses us is His blood that was shed on the cross. I repent and ask for forgiveness because I know He paid the price for my sin and when I repent of my rebellious act I can go to Him. Repentance is the effect of being justified, not the cause.

‘“As we endeavor day by day and week by week to follow the path of Christ, our spirit asserts its preeminence, the battle within subsides, and temptations cease to trouble.”’

Okay, now that I’ve picked myself up off the floor… Asserting your preeminence? Wow, dude, you might want to rethink that. Yikes.

Not long after I got saved a visual kept coming to mind where I pictured myself in heaven with everyone else. I saw myself in the very back corner of a beautiful, huge room on my face praising Jesus because He allowed me a space in the corner so I could be in His presence. I am so grateful He saved me of all people, and I still say that every single day.

Clearly, they have no concept of who He is or what He’s done to secure our salvation. Empty are the halls of reasons why we need someone to intervene on our  behalf and tragically, being humble is virtually non-existent within the realm of Mormon doctrines. The statement that our spirits are preeminent is proof the battle is still raging on!

The Mormon Church loves to portray they’re a church of laws, but where are the laws? Specifically, what laws and ordinances from the Bible are they adhering to? The echoing sound emanating from their canon is deafening.

And lastly, the altar they spoke of in the beginning of their lesson went unmentioned, but we all know they believe Jesus paid for sins in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Where in Gethsemane is the altar?

They referenced all of three verses from the Bible and they were; Matthew 5:48 (be ye perfect), John 8:7 (ye w/out sin cast the first stone), and Hebrews 4:15 (we have a high priest who feels our infirmities).

Those three verses were clumped together at the end of their article with the simple statement ‘additional scriptures’. There were no other references to them, nor was there any mention of them in the body of their message.

Again, there’s no in-depth explanation of why Jesus was sinless, rather, this was all about telling members they need to be sinless like Jesus was. How will they know how to do that even if they could?

Oh, please pray for them won’t you?

With Love in Christ;

Michelle

1 Cor 1:18

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