LDS.org - Ensign Article - The Pattern of Our Parentage - The Diigo Meta page

• 19 Jul 08
  

  Cherice Montgomery

  An excellent article that lays out fundamental gospel truths re: the scriptures very clearly, simply, and convincingly.

  scriptures truth revelation obscurity mysteries church talks

  • First: instruction vital to our salvation is not hidden in an obscure verse or phrase in the scriptures. To the contrary, essential truths are repeated over and over again.

      

    Second: every verse, whether oft-quoted or obscure, must be measured against other verses. There are complementary and tempering teachings in the scriptures which bring a balanced knowledge of truth.

      

    Next: there is a consistency in what the Lord says and what He does, that is evident in all creation. Nature can teach valuable lessons about spiritual and doctrinal matters. The Lord drew lessons from flowers and foxes, from seeds and salt, and sparrows and sunsets.

      

    Fourth: not all that God has said is in the Bible. Other scriptures—the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price—have equal validity, and they sustain one another.

      

    Fifth: while much must be taken on faith alone, there is individual revelation through which we may know the truth. “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.” (Job 32:8.) What may be obscure in the scriptures can be made plain through the gift of the Holy Ghost. We can have as full an understanding of spiritual things as we are willing to earn.
  • And I add one more conviction: there is an adversary who has his own channels of spiritual communication. He confuses the careless and prompts those who serve him to devise deceptive, counterfeit doctrine, carefully contrived to appear genuine.

  • Doctrinal truths are interrelated. There is an old saying that if you pick up one end of a stick, you pick up the other end as well.

      

    If you concede that we are His children, you must allow that God is our Father.
  • For even a four-year-old knows that a chick will not be a dog, nor a horse, nor even a turkey. It will be a chicken. It will follow the pattern of its parentage.
  • If a species ever does cross, the offspring cannot reproduce.
  • The theory of evolution, and it is a theory, will have an entirely different dimension when the workings of God in creation are fully revealed.
  • Anyone who believes and teaches of God the Father, and accepts the divinity of Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, teaches a plurality of Gods.
  • verses which seemed to oppose one another have harmony.
  • no one will ever ascend above Him; no one will ever replace Him. Nor will anything ever change the relationship that we, His literal offspring, have with Him.
  • The Father is the one true God. This thing is certain:

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