Anointed One Archive
by Jacob L., member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and student at Brigham Young University (BYU).
Often in testimony meeting, we hear members say how they are grateful for the love of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Indeed, we have all felt and do feel God’s love for us as we draw nearer to him by obedience to His commandments, and even when we feel we are undeserving of His love. But as I read and reread Enoch’s vision of God, I learned more of the nature of God the Father and Jesus Christ than ever before. Indeed, learning about God our Father that He is magnificent and glorious, that He has passion and eternal feelings, that He can at times feel devastated when we don’t love our brethren and choose to neglect Him. The other piece of doctrine that I have learned from analyzing Moses 7 is that of God’s law in dealing with His people collectively. I will compare the land of Canaan with the people of Enoch.... Read the rest of this entry »
Why is Jesus Christ called the Son of Man? While others in the Scriptures (particularly the Old Testament) who are called “son[s] of man” (Jeremiah 49:18, Ezekiel 4:16, Psalms 8:4), the word “son” is uncapitalized. Elder James E. Talmage, a Biblical scholar, sheds light on the answer in his renown work, Jesus the Christ. He says,
“In applying the designation to Himself, the Lord invariably uses the definite article. ‘The Son of Man’ was and is, specifically and exclusively, Jesus Christ. While as a matter of solemn certainty He was the only male human being from Adam down who was not the son of a mortal man, He used the title in a way to conclusively demonstrate that it was peculiarly and solely His own. It is plainly evident that the expression is fraught with a meaning beyond that conveyed by the words in common usage. The distinguishing appellation has been construed by many to indicate our Lord’s humble station as... Read the rest of this entry »
The evening before the Lamb of God was to be crucified for the sins of the world and hours before He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus was sitting with his Apostles in a “large upper room” (Mark 14:15). It was here that He first instituted the sacrament: “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples,” (Matthew 26:26). Then He said, “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me” 1 Corinthians 11:24). Then, “After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25). Thus, the purpose of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is to look back and remember Jesus the Christ and what He has done for each of us. Everything points “to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice [is] the Son of God, yea,... Read the rest of this entry »
The atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ “embraces, sustains, supports, and gives life to all other gospel doctrines. It is the foundation upon which all truth rests and all things grow out of it and come because of it.”1 “The wondrous and glorious Atonement was the central act in all of human history.”2 Because of these statements, all things also point to Christ and His atonement. Those who lived before Christ looked forward to Him and His infinite and eternal sacrifice. Those who live after Christ look back to this greatest of all events and “remember what was done.”3
There were many different ways in which the blood sacrifices before Christ were types and shadows of the great and last sacrifice. Note a few of the details:
First, like Christ, the [sacrificial] animal was chosen and anointed by the laying on of hands. (The Hebrew title Messiah and the Greek title Christ both mean “the Anointed One.”) Second, the animal was to have... Read the rest of this entry »
In the first verse of the first gospel as it appears in our New Testament, Matthew calls Jesus Christ “the son of David” as if it were a sort of preface to the genealogy he is about to write, and perhaps, a preface to Matthew’s entire testimony of the Savior. Following this preface is the line of royal descent from Joseph, Mary’s husband, back to David, King of Israel (Cf. Matthew 1:1-16). Because Joseph is listed as a descendant of David, Joseph can also be called a son of David.
Joseph treated Jesus as if He were his own son, and by those who knew not of His divine origin Jesus was presumed to be “the son of Joseph” (Luke 3:23), or “the carpenter’s Son” (Matthew 13:55). It may be said, then, that Jesus is the adopted son of Joseph. However, Joseph was not Jesus’ literal Father. As James E. Talmage explained,
“That Child to be born of Mary was begotten of Elohim, the Eternal Father, not in violation of natural law but in... Read the rest of this entry »
