39o - In Ancient America, Jesus, in giving the Same Basic Sermon He Gave as a Mortal in Palestine, Now Has His Father's Full Power!

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TODAY'S THEME

I will continue Today's Theme of this post after I have finished updating you on the Relief Effort Launched by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the island nation of Haiti about which I wrote in my just previous blog post. Please feel free to scroll down to that if you have not yet read it, or desire to review it before reading this update!

UPDATE ON LDS CHURCH RELIEF EFFORT IN HAITI

Help for Haiti: a long-term effortWelfare manager outlines Church's humanitarian aid
By Sarah Jane Weaver Church News staff writer
Published: Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010

Latter-day Saint help and support in Haiti will be a long-term effort, said Dennis Lifferth, managing director of Church Welfare Services.

Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret NewsRESponse Doctors and volunteers unload water sent by the Church on Jan. 24 for earthquake victims.

Speaking to the Church News two weeks after a Jan. 12 earthquake leveled much of the Caribbean island nation — and more than a week after Church medical teams arrived in the country to offer help — Brother Lifferth said the next steps for Church relief in the devastated country are being developed "at this very moment."

"The Area presidency is considering how to help rebuild, how to help the members with employment and how to provide additional medical support," he said, noting that the Church will also work with the United Nations and other relief organizations to formulate long-term recovery needs and rebuild schools, hospitals and infrastructure.

"This will not end in the next week or two," he added. "This will be a long-term effort."

That, he explained, is one of the benefits of the Church's involvement. "They tend to take a long-term view," he said.

For example, the Church is still providing support in Indonesia and Peru years after disasters devastated those areas.

"The Church will be in Haiti for a long time, providing the help that is needed to rebuild," he pledged. Brother Lifferth said that already the Church response, led by the Caribbean Area Presidency, has been remarkable. In the two weeks following the disaster — which killed as estimated 200,000 (including 20 Latter-day Saints) and left more than a million homeless — the Church:

*Distributed more than 1 million pounds of food, water and other necessities to thousands of people. Five planes carrying relief supplies were sent to the country immediately. Another two planes are scheduled to arrive in Haiti this week. In addition, the Church purchased food locally. In total, the Church's contribution thus far equates to 25 truckloads, each carrying 40,000 pounds of food and other supplies.

*Shipped more than 2,000 tents for families forced to leave their homes. More than 1,000 additional tents are en route to the country.

*Provided medical doctors, medicine and wheelchairs for the injured. In the first few days after the initial quake, the Church called on 14 doctors and nurses and a pair of licensed social workers to participate in humanitarian aid. A half-dozen of them spoke Haitian Creole or French.

*Opened the doors of nine meetinghouses located in and around Port-au-Prince to provide shelter to members and their neighbors. According to a Church welfare report, the number of individuals taking refuge at meetinghouses continues to decrease slowly as people return to their homes or find better locations for refuge.

*Partnered with other charitable organizations, including Food for the Poor, International Relief and Development, American Red Cross, Islamic Relief, CARE and United Airlines. In addition, the Church is working closely with the United Nations to coordinate relief efforts on the ground.

*Organized priesthood leaders in Port-au-Prince to assess the needs and provide the direction for relief efforts. Local leaders organized the members and missionaries to load and unload the trucks carrying the supplies, to help and care for the injured, feed the people, and clean local meetinghouses and grounds. In addition, local leaders have offered hope and encouragement.

*Coordinated the donations of thousands of Latter-days Saints, who made "significant contributions" online and through Sunday contribution forms to help with relief efforts in Haiti.

*Purchased four additional vehicles for use in delivering supplies and moving aid workers, according to a Church welfare report. In addition, the former mission home is being renovated for use by the local priesthood emergency response committee and as a base for medical response.

Brother Lifferth said day by day, the conditions in Port-au-Prince are slowly improving. Traffic is flowing better. Commerce is slowly increasing and more food appears to be available on the streets. Medical clinics are functioning again.

"We are very pleased and grateful for the remarkable progress in Haiti," Brother Lifferth said.

The Caribbean Area Presidency has two major goals, Brother Lifferth noted. "The first is to provide relief to those who have been displaced or injured or are otherwise suffering from the effects of the earthquake. The second is to help the people continue along the path that leads to self reliance and self worth."

Brother Lifferth said the Church's quick response in Haiti was made possible because the organization had the needed supplies already stored in warehouses across the United States and could quickly assemble and have them ready to ship.

Second, he said, quick response was possible because of the number of friends and relationships that have been established by the Church over the years in emergency response. Specifically in Haiti, he added, the Church had established friends that made large warehouses and compounds available to the Church, where relief supplies could be held before they were distributed.

And finally, local priesthood leaders helped the Church assess the problems and immediately communicated needs.

"We are seeing a unique level of cooperation among all interested parties working together to help the Haitians solve their problems," he said. "It is remarkable."

Brother Lifferth said medical teams returning to headquarters reported "how profoundly grateful [the Haitians] are for the tremendous outpouring of support they have received."

Now we go back to Today's Theme: In Ancient America, Jesus, in giving the Same Basic Sermon He Gave as a Mortal in Palestine, Now Has His Father's Full Power!



The Resurrected Jesus' Sermon at the Temple in the Land Bountiful -by John Scott



The Sermon on the Mount in Palestine -by Carl Heinrich Bloch 



As you have no doubt just discerned, the teachings of Jesus in each of these two different sets of scriptures are identical in many ways! However, in verse 25 of 3 Nephi 13 we will find that the Lord begins specific instructions to his Twelve Apostles whom he has chosen there in Ancient America among the Nephite-Lamanite people. It appears to me that the shift from teaching the members of his church to teaching his apostles was, for some unknown reason, left out of verse 25 of Matthew, Chapter 26.

Certainly the instructions given in verses 25 through 27 in both scriptures weren't meant to apply to the general membership of his church, but only to his full-time apostles who serve him constantly and don't have the time to earn a living.

However, as you would have learned from my post 39l there are other significant differences between what is recorded in Chapter 12 of 3 Nephi (from the Book of Mormon) and in Chapter 5 of Matthew: Here is just one of a good number of such examples of significant differences:

AND BEFORE THAT, IN PALESTINE: As you would have learned from my Post 39l, it is very understandable that Jesus changed his words which he had spoken to his followers in Palestine, by adding the words, "even as I" in his same basic sermon he gave to the Nephites in Ancient Central America, near their temple.

It was logical and very informative for Jesus to add those words, "even as I" to his same basic message he was delivering to another portion of his flock who lived in a different part of the world, after his resurrection from the dead and glorification, or in other words: after having become fully perfect!

One thing that helps us know that Jesus had become fully God and equal to His Father in Heaven, is that he was able to tell the Nephites the following when he first spoke to them from the air after the great destruction had taken place in Ancient America among the more wicked portion of their nation: I would now like you to listen to that which the Lord told the Nephites out of the sky above them. III Nephi 9.

Sermon on the Mount

As promised in my just previous post, I will continue reviewing in this post that which the Lord told the Nephites (and all readers of the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ) which I began in my post, 39m, in 3 Nephi, Chapters 13 and 14 from the Book of Mormon and then compare them to Chapters 6 and 7 of Matthew in the New Testament. I will not cover all of it in this post. It will be continued to at least the next post, "Post P" and perhaps beyond.

This post is planned as a follow-up to the comparison I made in my Post, 39l of that which was recorded in 3 Nephi, Chapter 12 to what was recorded in Matthew Chapter 5.

Please read the following quotation from Chapter 14 of 3 Nephi in which the Resurrected Jesus Christ delivers a sermon which he also gave in Palestine during his mortal ministry which you can read in Matthew, Chapter 6. I'm sure you'll agree with me that were we to live by Jesus' guidance given then in Ancient America, which was also given to those who heard Him teach in Palestine during His earthly ministry, that we would be at great peace with our God and ourselves. Now here are the same verses from Matthew, Chapter 6:

3 Nephi, Chapter 13: 24 ¶ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

25 And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he looked upon the twelve whom he had chosen, and said unto them: Remember the words which I have spoken, For behold, ye are they whom I have chosen to minister unto this people. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

24 ¶ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

3 Nephi 12:48 Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect. (emphasis added)

Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

I suggest you use the Listen feature when this scripture is on your screen.

3 Nephi 9:1-22

I would like you to now focus on several passages which you have just read and listened to in Chapter 9 of 3 Nephi:

3 Behold, that great city Zarahemla have I burned with fire, and the inhabitants thereof.

4 And behold, that great city Moroni have I caused to be sunk in the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants thereof to be drowned.

5 And behold, that great city Moronihah have I covered with earth, and the inhabitants thereof, to hide their iniquities and their abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come any more unto me against them.

6 And behold, the city of Gilgal have I caused to be sunk, and the inhabitants thereof to be buried up in the depths of the earth; (emphasis added)

As shown so clearly above, The Lord Jesus Christ, after his glorification, is fully God, inasmuch as it appears that only then was He able to bring judgements on the wicked and has become equal in all aspects to his (and our) Heavenly Father's intentions and abilities. Clearly, Jesus, during his mortal mission would have been out-of-role if he had said that which is quoted just above!

Some very uninformed people who certainly could not have carefully compared such scriptures as we have above and much more extensively in my Post 39l, claim that the Sermon at the Temple as recorded in 3 Nephi of the Book of Mormon was simply a matter of plagerism!

As I have demonstrated in this post and other recent posts there are significant differences between the recorded words of Jesus before and then after, his atonement, crucifixion and resurrection, when he had become glorified! This is so because after glorification he became fully equal in his godly abilities to his (and our) Father in Heaven.

In my next post I will continue comparing the words of the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon at the Temple so you will be more fully informed about this very important matter.

I Neil Birch, know personally by the witness of the Holy Ghost, that the Book of Mormon stands side by side with the New Testament as the word of God, written by one of His holy prophets, Mormon, using the records of many other prophets who preceded him, and finished by his faithful son, Moroni, who hid the golden plates, upon which the Book of Mormon was written, in New York State (U.S.A.) in a place where he led young Joseph Smith, Jr. to view them and then a few years later to take them out of their many centuries long hiding place in order to translate them, by the special means of help which God had prepared centuries before by a Nephite father (Mormon) and his son (Moroni.
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Here is a video I invite you to view.

In watching this video you will notice that the present Prophet, Seer and Revelator (President) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Thomas S. Monson, is speaking to you and me about service to others. Look for the word, Haiti, on some of the boxes of goods which are being sent to the needy. I tell you that knowing that you have been reading earlier in this post about the service this church is providing to the victims of the huge earthquake and aftershocks that took place very recently in Haiti, along with the service of many others.

Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?
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Neil Birch