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Behind the Veil: The Purpose of Religion, The Purpose of This Life

July 31, 2014/0 Comments/in Insights & Ramblings/by MormonBox

-the movie wizard of oz teaches a deep truth, that all which the masses perceive as reality is really just fire, smoke and mirrors and that there is an intelligent transdimensional man behind the curtain who is really creating the illusion.

-the movie ‘the matrix’ teaches this same lesson but with a slightly more dark perception about the reality behind the illusion. ‘Reality as we know it is an illusion’, and for the sincere seeker of truth there is a path to see behind that illusion and by understanding the principles which govern it, you may ascend to the same level as those who are currently managing the illusion or matrix.

-the deep truths concerning the purpose of life, the purpose of government and religion. why we are here, and where we are going are hidden, from all but the diligent seeker. The platitudes given by culture, organized religion and government are part of the play.

The divisive purpose of this round of progression
The telestial world (current 3rd density) has one primary purpose, and that is to polarize/divide people in order to create an energy potential. In LDS terms we have all heard how there “must be opposition in all things”, or how we must taste the bad in order to prize the good. However I think we seldom realize all the implications of this; how without the somewhat hellish aspects of this telestial life, there would be no motivation for existence. As an example in physics, if we wish to do work with a charge or electricity, we must first create an electric potential by polarizing charge. We must polarize/separate a positive and negative charge and then establish a conduit (wire) or pathway with which to release the built up electric potential. The creation drama in the bible teaches this commonsense principle that in order to create, you must divide. Divide matter from space, separate ocean from sky, divide land from ocean, separate man from woman and lastly separate good from evil. The “Fall” in fact could better be termed, the “separation” or division or polarization.

This telestial life then has been created in order to separate any and every possible aspect of the human psyche in order to create a potential which will be released or used up in the next two rounds of existence (4th & 5th density/terrestrial & celestial existence). Here we are divided against each-other and divided against ourselves. Those who oversee the division process use whatever means possible to make people feel “different” than other people, and believe it or not religion is one of the most effective means used to do this. If one group of people can be made to feel better or superior or worse or inferior or any feeling of “otherness” compared to another group then the goal is accomplished. Thus the creation of a “peculiar people” who are “separate” from Babylon and the “only” true church or people is an effective condition created and egged on by the overseers of separation. (Also note that a yin and yang paradox exists wherein partial unity causes separation and total separation brings ultimate unity).

Everyone is allowed to choose how long and how far they will polarize (or be turned against ) themselves and others. As a general rule, polarization/separation is painful and unity or at-one-ment is pleasurable; and as already mentioned, in the next two phases of existence we will use up our polarity in a much more pleasurable reality (generally pleasurable for the selfless who were pained here, generally painful for the selfish who were pleasured here) . As a universal example of how this works picture the polarization of gender. In youth, by separating the genders and stressing their differences a psychological potential is created. Furthermore by clothing/hiding our bodies and keeping genders apart an even greater physiological potential is created. After each individual has on a subconscious level decided they have polarized enough, they begin the process of releasing that stored potential and the joys of sexual union are experienced. It might surprise many that the intensity of sexual pleasure is highly different to different people and it is dependent upon the created/stored potential. Some people even after having physical sex are still psychologically potentiating instead of releasing, experiencing painful relationships and subconsciously saving themselves for a better situation in which they can release the psychological stored potential and reap the consequential pleasure.

In the LDS Temple ceremony the Higher Gods oversee the separation of matter, plants, animals and even man and woman. But they leave the division of the human psyche in hands of a lower earthbound angel named Lucifer. We like to demonize Lucifer and call him the bad guy, but to a large extent he is simply an archtype of the divisive aspects of ourselves & creation (with a horrible temper mind you). Since separation causes pain it is easy to see this aspect of creation as “bad”. However, the very act of demonizing someone or calling something “bad” as opposed to “good” is divisive. Thus as we demonize or hate on Lucifer we effectually become Lucifer (or at least play that part with him in the great drama). As we demonize groups with different perspectives than us, we all play the part of Lucifer. (Watch Megamind the movie for a great treatise on how self-righteousness creates evil) That is the great paradox of religion, and the key taught in the LDS temple ceremony. It is Lucifer that gave organized religion to the world, dividing them from themselves in order to create a potential. But if we demonize either religion (or its opposite) we do the same thing. We are all potentiating in this world to some extent and when we decide we have had enough, we will die and pass to the next phase of experiencing the joy from releasing the stored potential. (There are many sub-cycles, and death for most simply continues the dramas of this life. Most must wait for the resurrection to experience release of stored potentials.)

All religions fit together in my worldview. Each seems to be a different perspective on pieces of the big picture.

Hundred of pages could be written on the scriptural archetypes concerning this paramount concept of separation or division and redemption or unity. The “first man Adam” is also a primary archetype of division in the Hebrew philosophical system. He watches and oversees his division from God’s presence (symbolized by the garden and the grave), the division of his children Cain and Abel, the division of the land, languages, peoples, religions, and the body from the spirit in death. It is the last man Adam or Christ who is the archetype of unity. He is the God of unity, redemption and reunion. He watches and oversees the reunion of man to god, child to father, brother to brother, and the resurrection/reunion of body to spirit. It is through finding Christ or the unconditional love that he stood for that man creates a conduit to re-unite the broken/separated aspects of his psyche. Truly finding Christ is reuniting and harmonizing all the opposites in our lives. It is finding peace by solving all conflicts of interest and will. Thus the lower aspects of religion, politics and priesthood divide, but the higher aspects of religion, politics and priesthood unite. This three pillared drama of creation/destruction, through fall and division, and destruction/creation through atonement and unity is what makes life worth living—and the foundation for existence.

These principles are difficult to teach in writing. When I get glimpses into the reality behind our current reality– I try to write them only to find that they will inevitably be misunderstood. In some ancient traditions (as well as in the LDS temple tradition) it was forbidden to try and teach the “mysteries” or higher laws in writing because it was known that all men would distort them to fit their own egocentric perspectives. This is in fact why all organized religion, and written/organized religion “etched in stone” is part of the lower law. (Governed by heavenly beings of the “temporal” Aaronic priesthood of D&C 84 & 107, in LDS scriptural symbology) The “mysteries” aren’t really so “mysterious” they are simply the common sense principles of why things are the way they are, how the differing dimensions relate to each other, how to live good selfless lives without rigid laws or religious or political organizations as well as the secrets of how heaven and priesthood work in governance for those not ready for a higher law. But selfish people tend to take any knowledge and use it to selfishly control or hurt others through manipulation, psychological hegemony, sexual coercion and gratification or violence. Because of this most mortals are governed either politically or religiously by the lower law until they can show they are unselfish enough to raise their consciousness to the emancipated levels. Some good hearted “apostates” who leave the church have done just that. This process of growing into higher levels of goodness in freedom continues throughout life and after death. It could be said that the higher law has only two rules, love God and love your neighbor along with yourself. It is a very free system. The lower given to Moses had ten commandments, to which hundreds were added because the people wanted and needed them. The same is typical of every dispensation. “Higher” god’s give the two eternal commandments and if the people can’t handle it, the lower gods give them more; to which humans continually multiply until God finally has to overthrow their oppressive political and religious systems.

Origins of organized earthly religions
-all churches started by “true messengers” or prophets of the higher beings which lead us have the secrets of their lower nature hidden within their teachings as well as guide posts pointing to the source of “true religion” (James 1:27). The true seeker will see these messages and learn that he must see past the visible, lower aspects of organized religion if he wants to learn “truth”.

Diagram of the spirit world by J.S.M. Ward

In Mormonism it is made quite obvious in the temple ceremony. When Adam (representing all mankind) wants more truth, who sends it to him? Lucifer comes and says in essence, I hear you asking God for truth… well if you want religion, I will give you religion and it will be the philosophies of men mingled with scripture (truth). Only after Adam doesn’t believe what is taught by the organized religions of the world, do the higher beings (symbolized by Jehovah and Elohim) send him truth by way of true messengers who DO NOT give Adam (mankind) any organized religions, but instead give him personal (secret) tokens and signs symbolizing the stages & ideals of a true marriage relationship (the analogous relationship between the gods and their people as explained in other articles on this site). It is unfortunate that many of the even more blunt aspects of relationship between Lucifer and organized religion have been taken out the Mormon Temple Endowment perhaps leaving many Mormons to believe the LDS Church Hierarchy is where one should turn if he wants light and knowledge from God (even though they, like Peter James & John, are true light bringers to a certain extent). Anyway, I doubt the reason for their exclusion was purposeful deception and the general gist is still there, and I don’t say any of this to demonize Mormonism, Mormon leadership or organized religion. In Mormonism, Lucifer is the archetype of the left-hand or negative path, which is unity through force & control. He is the antithesis to Christ or an “anti-Christ”. His doctrine of autocratic government, force, manipulation and violence is thoroughly embedded in most the political and religious systems in this world. His doctrines are deeply embedded into the revelations of the Old testament and as the New Testaments teaches of the Law of Moses, are “a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ”.

Just as “it is by the wicked that the wicked are punished” (Mormon 4:5), it is also by the “wicked” that the wicked are ruled. (“Wicked” only by human standards. Celestial beings do not take sides, they simply maintain the balance/justice in the universe. But they also don’t go around killing people, it is negative terrestrial gods like lucifer & his priesthood who do this.) People are ruled by the level of heaven they are ready for, and for those who reject the higher laws and priesthood as both the Children of Moses and early saints did, they are passed down to heavenly beings who rule more autocratically and with less mercy. Oahspe, J.S.M. Ward, Swedenborg and a host of other material have a lot information to help a Mormon see their place in God’s great plan. The LDS Church has so much truth, and God’s hand was so involved in its creation. But there comes a point in our eternal progression where in order to keep ascending toward oneness an LDS member must stop calling themselves a “Mormon” and start calling themselves a “Christian” (That doesn’t mean you leave the church, it has more to do with one’s point of view). Furthermore, as a greater degree of unity is sought, one will give up the “Christian” title and join hands with all men calling themselves simply children of God— this egoless and self sacrificing, nondiscriminatory unity is indeed what Christ came to teach. (see above diagram) It is only for the purpose of preserving agency that all organized religions are given a good amount of scriptural and traditional material which seems encourages avenues of increased self-righteousness, isolation, elitism and service to the self and ego.

-one need only look to the founding of most lasting religions to see more evidence of the lower nature of organized religions. Neither Moses, Buddha, Christ or Joseph Smith really started their respective religions. They more properly revealed truth, and “gave the people what they wanted”, mingled with what they needed; and then left the scene completely unfinished, allowing their successors to construct the organized, structural part of the religion according to the wants and desires of the people of the time. Levi, Joshua, Peter, Paul, and Brigham were not bad people, but they were all blinded in part by cultural bias and personal selfishness and created systems with a balance of mixed material (good & bad) which preserve people’s agency by giving them a “fast-tracked” avenue to exaltation through the negative (selfishness) or positive (unselfishness) paths. As the Law of One states

This Ark [of the Covenant & Tabernacle] was designed to constitute the place where from the priests… could draw their power and feel the presence of the One Creator. However, it is to be noted that this entire arrangement was designed, not by the one known as Jehovah, but rather was designed by negative entities preferring this method of creating an elite called the Sons of Levi.

It became an object of power in this way and, to those whose faith was untarnished by unrighteousness or separation, this power designed for negativity became positive and is so to this day, to those truly in harmony with the experience of service. Thus the negative forces were partially successful but the positively oriented Moses, gave to your planetary peoples the possibility of a path to the One Infinite Creator which is completely positive.

This is in common with each of your orthodox religious systems which have all become somewhat mixed in orientation, yet offer a pure path to the One Creator which is seen by the pure seeker.

Christ came to show the path to those who start to see behind the veil of organized religion & politics. As shown more clearly in restored gospels such as The Aquarian Gospel of Christ, he realized at an early age that much of Judaic religion was more influenced by Lucifer and the Gods of separation and force than the Gods of Unity and freedom. But he also realized that psychologically harmonizing the dark and the light was the gateway to exaltation. He travelled the world to learn the depths of all the great religions and he harmonized all their truths into one whole. He saw behind the symbols and unified his consciousness with that of the “Fathers”. He did not “leave” Judaism even though it “looked beyond the mark” and was essentially controlled by Lucifer. He was excommunicated, but still sought to teach others how to exit the illusion of telestial glory and the domination of its mind-controlling political and religious lower priesthood. He allowed himself to be martyred, not to bring non-Jews (ie non-mormons) to repentance. But to help the jewish people see that their religion was corrupt and devilish. To free those captive to both sin and Judaism. To quell the tide of self-righteous revolutionist and give the nation of Israel 40 more years of warning before destruction. And most of all, he died as a symbol pointing toward a much larger sacrifice that plays out in the terrestrial arena. Where terrestrial positively oriented groups self-sacrifice themselves in order to neutralize the unquenchable desire of negative service-to-self groups for galactic power, authority and control.

The Lower & Higher Priesthoods

December 27, 2013/0 Comments/in Insights & Ramblings, works in progress/by MormonBox

This article is convoluted. Rewrite.

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction... (James 1:27)”

Introduction

Organized earthly religion is a schoolmaster or preparatory gospel that tries to bring us up to a higher form or truer, heavenly religion; which is essentially a harmonic, balanced life which is at-one or unified with all of creation. The truths of this principle are hidden in the scriptures and symbols of all earthly religion–but more especially in the LDS Church and temple ceremony. Most LDS members are well aware of the offices, functions, duties and responsibilities of the two main divisions of the priesthood–the Aaronic and Melchizedek. However, many may not realize the important principles that the liturgy concerning these priesthoods is trying to convey. Were these concepts better understood, many of the problems inherent in organized religion could be resolved. In fact, all of the issues surrounding the apostasy of medieval Christianity and needed reformation and restorationism movements are dealt with in this symbolism.

Organized religion’s goal is to create a people who do not need organized religion. To create a people who can live in zionistic harmonious communities led directly by personal revelation from the creator with no need for intermediate kings, priests, popes, rituals, principalities, rigid laws, armies, prisons or presidents. A people who are in all ways one with eachother and one with God. This is the blessed state of those in the highest heavens who we call god and the destiny which all the worlds religions (and especially mormonism) teaches in their creation dramas, priesthood organizations, scriptural stories and a myriad of other ways.

The Lower & Higher Priesthoods

The LDS Doctrine and Covenants describes things well in D&C 84 when describing the differences and symbolism behind these priesthoods. In v. we see that the “higher” priesthood holds the keys to the mysteries of the knowledge of God and seeks to help man “see the face of God”. Through learning the principles of these mysteries Moses was able to regain God’s presence and talk with him face to face—and he sought to help the Children of Israel do so as well. But because Israel was unbelieving, hard-hearted, and simply not ready God gave them a “lower or preparatory priesthood” and religion to help them along their spiritual journey. And so it is with all earthly organized religion. It is a lower or preparatory system devised to help people learn to re-enter God’s garden; a schoolmaster as Hebrews puts it, to bring us up to Christ.

The higher priesthood essentially has one goal; to re-unite us with God. By descending into flesh mankind has forgotten who God is and what he stands for. Passing through the veil we forget that our source is God and our destiny is God. We were a part of God and we will be a part of Him again once we raise our consciousness and ‘overcome’ the psychological obstacles which keep us from Unity with the divine. Religion is not God, nor is it expressly his organization. The

A few of the most prominent religious symbols showing the dualism of a higher and lower law, power or energy. Volumes could be written on the meanings behind the dualities.

Differences between the Lower and Higher Priesthoods in mormonism.
Lower Priesthood	Higher Priesthood
-Called the Aaronic or Levitical Priesthood<br> -Deals with Temporal (earthly) things <br>-Administers the “outward ordinances” of the Church	-Called the Melchizedek Priesthood or Holy Order after the Son of God <br>-Deals with “spiritual” (heavenly) matters<br> -Administers the inward faith or things of a personal spiritual nature

Outline.

In the Mosaic Law

-aaron built an idol, so god made him a priest of the lower priesthood to give israel the idol they desired.

In the Temple Drama

-the garden drama symbolizes this also, lucifer offered adam and eve ‘the law’ which is the knowledge of good and evil. This kabalistic tree of knowledge, stands in opposition to the tree of life. To be fully redeamed is to be ‘one’ with god, or in his presence. When we obtain knowlege from a mediator, we become blinded by him and he becomes our god. We are blinded because mediators take us away from the higher god (kicked out of the garden and god’s presence). In the LDS creation drama & temple depiction Satan becomes very angry when he is ‘cursed’ for giving knowledge of the law (good and evil) to adam and eve. Why do you think he is so mad, when he is simply excersizing his ‘priestly right’, doing what is done ‘in other worlds’? Because he thought he was being righteous and doing the will of the Father! Much like Aaron & his posterity, when many in religion find they are cursed for spending so much time and energy ‘giving religion’ to the posterity of Adam and Eve (doing what they thought was God’s will) they to may get angry and rebel.

In Paul’s Teachings

-Paul was all about teaching this lesson. Law worketh death, spirit breatheth life.

In Joseph Smith’s Teachings

Joseph Smith compared the gospel program to building a temple (find quote, sprit of elias, spirit of elijah is cap stone). Essentially we are building an idol or a making a sacrifice and in the end we are going to have learned a lot about ourselves and eachother, and then we will set it on fire and watch it burn. Just like any of our earthly posesions and creations, those who can’t let go will arrrest thier own progress and quite possibly turn into bitter enemies of god. We must learn that God can not be housed in buildings built by human hands, but only in our hearts. His law cant be held by tablets of stone, but by tablets of our hearts. We will etrnally rise, but our church organizations will fall. (song, we’re going to let it burn, burn, burn)..

-true religion is this, to feed the hungary, visit the fatherless…

-start by talking about the symbolizm of the two priesthoods

[make chart comparing two priesthoods, showinging temple spires symbols, etc..] -there is a lower and higher priesthood. these are symbolized by the LDS aaronic and melchezidek. the aaronic is over the “outward ordinances” of the law, the melchezidek is over spiritual things. “outward ordinances” are things meant to point people toward the inward or true meaning of the law or ‘spirit’ of the law. It is a schoolmaster.

-this relationship is symbolized by the ‘temporal’ (earthly) and ‘spiritual’ (heavenly) aspects of these priesthoods (ref). Thus earthly religion and most especially all physical ordinances and ritualistic aspects of religion are part of the lower law or priesthood.

-these two priesthoods also symbolize the terrestrial and celestial. The earthly religions are ruled by terrestrial beings, and since the terrestrial glory has mixed polarity, it is administered by both positive and negative beings. God and Lucifer.
-the higher law has two counsels, love god and love your neighbor. The lower has a mutitude of ‘shalls and shall nots’

-once you chizel a law in stone, it looses much of its redemptive power.

-organized religion, is not true religion. The tao tries to teach this… the tao that can be named, is not the true toa, etc… (quote this)

-one of christ’s temptations was to make himself a political king, the other was to make himself a religious leader.

-D&C 121 shows this paradox ‘no power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood’. Well to fully live that there can be no ‘visible’ priesthood. If you have a structured governmental prieshtood organized which regulates through laws and strictures then you have a priesthood which is maintaining power or influence by virtue of priesthood organization.
TAKE AWAY POINT.
As soon as you stand between god and man, you block man’s view of god–unless you are invisible or exactly like god. This is the symbolism that the trinity is trying to teach (that christ is in the express image of the father), but the truth is that all mediators distort the light. like a prism dividing the light into 7 or 12 colors. they try to ‘bring us up to’ the father, but in reality they distort the light (oahspe quote on religion).
-Start with the mystic cosmology? (from Aquarian gospel?) In the beginning there was only unity, this unified singularity was God. From the one came two, and the two bore a son who was the third. From these three came the seven and from the seven all that is. It was only after the seven (symbolized by the seven Elohim and seven creation periods) that good and evil was born. Before the Fall of Man there was no good or evil… all was of God and all was good.

INTEGRATE AND DELETE THESE ARTICLES.

https:/565/the-aaronic-melchizedek-priesthoods/

https:/57/the-lower-priesthood-of-aaron/

https:/788/the-priesthood-and-the-power-of-oneness/

-These two polarities of good and evil can be pictured on a continuum… t In their most primal sense, good is that which tends to unity and harmony. Evil is that which tends toward disharmony, entropy and chaos. Let’s define “progression” as the paths that tend toward unity.

-On the path of progression to the destination of unity, there are two roads; service to self (selfishness) and service to others (selflessness). These are the left and right hand paths.

-these are symbolized by the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods; the universal governance structures.

-they can be visualized as side by side or as one leading to the other.

-Each form of government exists on a continuum epitomized by these paths at the extremes. These two paths are explained well in the “Law of One” material, but proven in human history. They are symbolized by the Lion and the Lamb of scripture. (The Lion of Judah and Lamb of Joseph, the Lamb of Christ and Lion of the pseudo-Christ).

On one side is service-to-others governments. This is a government where freedom and agency are respective above all. It is rule of law by love and freedom. It is consensus driven system where all energy, resources and power are equally shared. This is the law Christ brought and in its purest form requires that all participants be at least 51% selfless, or willing to put another’s will above their own in any confrontation of wills. Even one selfish person can destroy this government (because all the selfless will submit their wills for his/her desire for power and resources). This does not exist on telestial earth but is the government of the upper heavens and the goal of all true Christians. Democracy on earth tries to emulate this government as much as possible according to the grade of selfishness/selflessness of the people. In this government people are so selfless that they are all equal and unified in all things. It has no need for a king or leader (like Israel during the reign of the judges), and if one is appointed he stays equal in power, authority and wealth with the people. In fact no one would allow themselves to be made a king or master for fear of what this would do the balance of power and self-determination of others. It is a hard concept for those on telestial earth to grasp because it is not possible in the telestial glory. In this realm the governments and religions have to have aspects of top-down governance in both our political and religious systems in order to regulate the selfish populace.

On the other extreme is service-to-self governments. These are top down governance systems which put force over agency. Since in it’s purest form everyone puts themselves above all others this government is epitomized by the law of the jungle. The government structure which naturally forms among brutish beasts who have no concept of selfless giving. A hierarchy naturally forms where the strong rule over the week, the many over the few. The lions (elite) rule from a position of power and all the nations wealth/resources flow to them. They are dictatorships and monarchies. The head is tyrant and usually an egomaniac of which people like Hitler, Stalin, Mao are good examples. They believe themselves to be Gods and wish to be worshiped as such. When they die they often become false-gods ruling in the lower heavens. They deny the existence of any beings higher than them, calling themselves the “most high god”, when in fact they are at heart atheists. They rule by force with armies and in heaven become Lords of Hosts.

-the true God of this world (who in fact is more of a quorum or ruling body) always acknowledges the existence of the Father. The Father is a symbol of the infinite nature of conscious beings in the universe on top of being an actual representative from the star system currently nurturing us.

-the current true God of this world (who works on a scheduled rotation as Oahspe and the D&C teaches, allows people to chose which Gods they will follow, as he allowed the children of Israel to chose at the Mount of Sinai.

-the lower priesthood is a governmental structure ruled by lower more selfish gods, all of which follow the father in their own egotistical distorted ways.

-it is by the wicked that the wicked are punished, and similarly it is by the wicked that the wicked are ruled.

-when the children of Israel rejected the higher rule of the Melchizedek priesthood, they were given over to the lower Aaronic priesthood. Which is administered by much harsher Gods, who although regulated by earth’s “most high” God. Are themselves a bit tyrannical, but that’s what they wanted so that’s what god gave them.

-the God of the old testament is not a very nice guy. people who haven’t come to terms with that either haven’t actually read the old testament (or an understandable translation of it), are deluded (put me in this category) or they didn’t give any thought to what they were reading. The God of the old testament constantly threatens to kill off all of Israel. He institute laws where not only are perpetrators executed, they are brutally executed by their piers with stones. He wages an ethnic cleansing campaign against the inhabitants of the Holy Land. We justify that they were wicked, but really, so was Israel. (it is by the wicked that the wicked are punished). Curious where the principle of jihad comes from? Read the conquest of Joshua. The God of the old testament uses every governance principle used by the earth’s most nefarious dictators. From genocide, to infanticide. From a personality cult to a religious and political caste system. Their laws were often brutal and their freedoms few… all because this is what they wanted. It is all Israel was ready for.

-Aaron gave the people what they wanted… they wanted a god that could be seen, an idol like the Egyptians had.. so he gave it to them. He became their idolatrous priest, so God gave/cursed his posterity with the job of being idolatrous priests. The wanted the blood of scape-goats to cleanse them from sin, so God gave them the idolatrous law of sacrifice.

-the mosaic law was a lower law led by lower gods and lower priests, but it was a schoolmaster to lead them to the higher law.

-two towers of temple are symbols of two priesthoods (also symbolized by upper and lower chakras.)

Other articles on the priesthood
https:/788/the-priesthood-and-the-power-of-oneness/

see The Difference Between the Priesthood & Prophets https:/326/the-difference-between-the-priesthood-prophets/

Also this artilce I found written by an anonymous individual in
https:/54/the-doctrine-of-the-priesthood/

Also an article on the lower, temporal, Aaronic priesthood https:/57/the-lower-priesthood-of-aaron/

Women and the Priesthood

December 17, 2012/0 Comments/in Insights & Ramblings/by MormonBox

——–under construction————- finish later

I think it is appropriate to compare the issue of Women and the Priesthood to Blacks and the Priesthood. I think there is a lot in the church that is essentially “traditions of men” carried over from Gentile Christianity. I think that Joseph Smith was incredibly progressive in trying to break some of these long held traditions with revealing principles such as a “heavenly mother”, and the role of “prophetesses” among the church. I think most the church and its leaders are largely ignorant of the precedences set by Joseph Smith in essentially giving both Blacks and Women the priesthood in his day… a progressive move that the religious world was simply not ready for at that time. But what is so sad is that those things never caught on in his day because the world wasn’t ready for it—but now the world has passed the church in its views of equality and righteousness! Modern prophets have always been about revealing progressive ideas of equality and righteousness to a world entrenched in outdated cultural and religious dogma. But what has happened to our prophets? They show very little difference from the religious leaders Joseph & god started Mormonism to escape.

I for one have often wondered how my wife and I can be set apart to be “priests and priestesses” in the temple without us both holding the priesthood. I’v really felt that it wasn’t “my priesthood” anyway, but “our” priesthood. I believe this is why positions above bishop call for a man to be married. Because an unmarried man does not hold the entirety of the higher priesthood… because the highest expression of the priesthood can only be expressed in one who is celestially married. (So I say shame of bishops who don’t include their wives in the decision making processes. They are cheating the ward of blessings.) For the last few years I’v often felt like it would be entirely appropriate for my wife to join me in giving blessings to my children.

The priestess is not only an important aspect of the LDS temple ceremony, but also of many ancient religions predating the apostasy.

I see the symbolism involved in the “hidden” aspect of God which a woman or our mother-God or the feminine aspect of God seems to represent. (the Holy Ghost/Spirit is feminine in most ancient traditions, and all mystic traditions Iv encountered.) But at the same time I’v thought we’re a bit cheated in the church by not having the equality of women more visibly represented. I’v often wondered if women hold the positions of preeminence in the Spirit World (God knows they probably greatly out number the men in the higher regions of paradise).

I think that as the Times of the Gentiles draws to a close in the coming few decades, and the new age begins, we will see the abolishment of many of the “traditions of men” that have been adopted by the church from the Gentile Church. I think we’ll see a greater equalizing of the relationship between church leaders and lay people of the church (I don’t think the church hierarchy or apostles ever wanted to have the “god-like” status and control that many members give them or that utah’s social perceptions have given them). Hopefully we’ll see the Stake presidency and high council given the equal perception of authority and power that D&C 107:24–37 say they should have.

I think we’ll see a greater utilization and acceptance of the gifts of the spirit such as the gift of prophesy (for ANY individual, regardless of age or gender… that would mean far more prophetesses). And who knows… maybe we’ll see women formally given the priesthood, so they can visibly stand in their temple ordained positions of priestesses. I surely would welcome that… because in my mind its already a hidden reality… Perhaps I’ll never be a bishop because of it, but I would sure tell my ward that the bishopbric was a calling shared between me and my wife and I would involve her in all decisions (unless she didn’t want to be involved). And every ward should know that, as Julene has reminded me, that its the relief society president who really keeps a ward functioning anyway.

I would hope that the only reason men stand visibly as the leaders in the church, and not women, is to protect women from the bad-talking and condemnation that inevitably goes with visible leadership… but if a woman wants to be the visible leader… is a man really justified to hold her down even if its in the name of protection?

Issues to Doctrinally Address.

-Blessings of health and comfort are not priesthood ordinance. The laying on of hands to administer to the sick is not a priesthood ordinance. It is a gift of the spirit. To forbid women to do it is wrong.

-Prophesy is not solely a function of the priesthood. To make women feel bad about doing it is wrong.

-dig up the articles and links to show evidence of joseph giving priesthood to blacks and women.

-men have always feared the physical and spiritual power women have over them and over men in general. they seek to subjugate that power. This is not to be in the new age… men are to empower women and gender equality is to be based on principles of freely given self sacrifice, not manipulation or subjugation.

Women are culturally programmed to see their primary role as being breeders in the home. Those who do not embrace this role are made to feel inferior in various ways.
Strong family and gender roles are obviously important for a balanced and healthy society. But when we manipulate people into a certain lifestyle at young ages using threats of “not making it to the celestial kingdom” we do more harm than good. Using manipulation instead of appealing to an individuals sense of wisdom, selflessness or humanity often backfires. D&C 131:1–4 is taken out of context and used in manipulating people who may be unready for marriage or family to jump in because of social/religious pressure. Women have been made to feel like having more children or children sooner makes them more “righteous” even if it is not the path of wisdom. Once again, instead of pointing out the advantages and disadvantages or wisdom in certain paths, women are manipulated with truisms, homilies and threats of eternal consequence and relegation.
Women are culturally programmed to feel they play a religiously subservient role to males or the male priesthood.
Both women and men in Mormonism are taught to respect and “honor the Priesthood” in an attitude of humility and submission. Respect for authority and power structures is also an important part of a healthy society and national organization. But throughout most of history women have been excluded from those power structures in both religious and political organizations? Why? Because their “place is in the home”? The subtle difference in the idealized active and passive characteristics of men and women should certainly be taken into account when making cultural decisions on gender roles; but it is my belief that historically POWER has always ruled (law of the jungle) and this is the main reason for why women have FAR less frequently held positions of government and religious authority. Maybe they don’t have the stomach for it, or maybe its because of gender domination, be what it may, my point is that inequality brings sickness and gender balance IS the path of wisdom and greatest self actualization. We as a society and as a church do not understand what we are missing by not empowering our women to be equals in intelligence and authority. I suggest that as with the blacks and the priesthood the disunity caused by this subtle inequality a large part of the reason why the Church was and is still being chastened and must wait to “be redeemed” (D&C 105:4–9).

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A good thought on Mormonism and Women and the Priesthood….

You may have heard about the big to-do over a group of women that organized a “wear pants to church day” movement which was held this weekend. The goals of this movement are assumed by many, but few people it seems, took the time to really understand what it was all about. This was evidenced by the many comments that were made on the Facebook page which was set up to help organize the movement. After only a few days the creators decided to take the page down, because of the many vulgar, demeaning and even life-threatening comments made on the page (see http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/12/16/women-who-want-to-wear-pants-to-church-outrage-mormon-traditionalists/ for more information).

It’s really quite sad that people, likely Mormon people, would stoop to this type of intimidation to stop something that they do not understand or agree with. In addition to these outrageous examples though, there are others that were kind but said they didn’t agree with the premise or how it was being conducted. I respect these people’s decisions. Though upon talking to many people that I know, I found that few understood even the basics of what was happing. Once I explained a bit of it, they often agreed with what was being done. It is for this reason that I want to address a few of the misconceptions on this whole matter, and the Mormon feminist movement in general.

First off, I want everyone to know that I am an active, fairly conservative male member of the Church. I hold a current temple recommend, I served a mission, and I do my home teaching fairly well. I do however, feel it important that when faced with an intellectual issue, that I don’t just repost what someone else said on Facebook, that I don’t go to the opposition to find my facts or that I don’t make assumptions based only on what I have heard from others. I think it is important that each of us “prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21), that we seek after those things that are “honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous” wherever they come from (Articles of Faith 1:13).

The most common problem people have with the wear pants to church movement that I have heard is that church, specifically sacrament meeting is not a place to protest, it is a place to worship our Savior. I and the organizers of the movement 100% agree with this. In 1971 the First Presidency of the Church said it had no position what people wear to church. In an official statement made by the Church spokesman Eric Hawkin this was further explained that people should wear nice clothes as a sign of respect, but that the Church would not dictate what that was (see http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-mormon-women-pants-facebook-20121214,0,3860687.story).

This is further emphasized by the fact the people wear whatever they can all over the world. Many investigators I worked with on my mission in a very affluent area of the United State wore things that might be considered inappropriate simply because they did not know any better. In many countries people wear rags to Church, but they are the best rags they own. Would those same people receive demeaning and even life-threatening comments? Everyone that wore pants was encouraged to wear their nicest, most respectful pants they owned. One prominent blog even said: “not jeans, or sweats, or yoga pants, but dress pants. Tailored suits and flowing shalwars and holiday-appropriate black velvet. Pants that are modest, elegant, and feminine, and not at all out of place in a church house” (see http://www.ldsmag.com/article/1/11915).

What were they trying to accomplish by wearing pants to church? (And as a side note wearing purple for men or women that did not want to wear pants). The goal was a sign of solidarity. It is sign that many faithful members of the Church are comfortable with the changing in women’s roles in the Church. Perhaps that needs some explaining on its own.

For years (all the way back to Brigham Young in fact) members of the leadership of the Church prayed that men of African descent could hold the priesthood, and that all worthy members of the Church could receive all the blessing of the temple. The civil rights movement of the 60’s came and went, but still God did not grant that revelation. While it has never been said specifically why these blessings were withheld for so long, there is a growing number of people in Church academic circles that felt this was not reveled until the late 1970’s perhaps because the members of the Church were not ready to receive it (this falls in line with many other revelatory experiences found in the scripture, the Law of Moses for example). As it was, there were many that had a difficult time accepting it even after years of integration.

This idea, that things can be changing, often things that buck the cultural norms of the day, but that have nothing to do the revealed doctrine of the Church, is much the same as the “wicked traditions of the fathers” or the “traditions of men, mingled with scriptures” that have hampered so many people throughout the scriptures. Just because something is of “ancient date” does not make it God’s revealed will. Most of the things that the organizers hoped to bring to the public’s attention have nothing to do with doctrine or priesthood (granted there are a few extremists that do take it that far, but the majority do not).

A few things that I personally feel passionate about are these: Why cannot women pray in General Conference? Why do young men’s programs get nearly double the funding of young women’s programs? Why cannot women serve in many of the callings that do not require priesthood leadership? Why women as aren’t encouraged to serve missions (this seems to be changing though)? Why the priesthood is usually compared to motherhood as opposed to fatherhood? Why, with the many changes to the temple covenants over the years, do some still place emphasis on men’s position over women?

I want to end by saying that I believe that “Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose” (The Family: A Proclamation to the World). I believe that unless God says otherwise, the priesthood is men’s call to serve God’s children. I do believe that it was correct that Emma Smith, Eliza Snow and many others blessed their families in the name of Jesus Christ in the early days of the church, that women served as prophetess in the scriptures, and that women continue to this day to bless and serve in the temple in some kind of joint administration of the priesthood with their husbands and the male members of Church. I believe that our Church is lead by a prophet of God that receives revelation.

I also believe that traditions and cultural norms that blind us will need to be broken away before we can have a restitution of all things and see ourselves as God sees us.

The Priesthood and the Power of Oneness

November 29, 2010/0 Comments/in Insights & Ramblings, works in progress/by MormonBox

A Philosophical Foundation
Each world cycle is composed of two parts. A dividing era, and a unifying era. A fall/division and a redemption/at-one-ment. Our source and our destination is oneness. Before this world was, we were one with God (in a sense), and all who take part in the redemption are seeking to bring all intelligence back into that oneness. So how is this accomplished?

I think the best way to see it is to take a lesson from nature… A snowflake, as well as most minerals, need a “seed”, or nucleus around which to grow. Most scientists believe that particles of dust provide this nucleus for snow. Once water coalesces around the dust particle, it freezes and begins to grow in a fractal (see Wikipedia) pattern. The formation is a chain-reaction which pulls water from the air to grow the snow flake. It is somewhat of a miracle that somehow each part of the flake knows how to grow perfectly symmetrically. The same is true for a diamond. Once a nucleus forms, the mineral continues to grow bigger and bigger in a perfectly symmetrical crystal lattice. And somehow every atom that is incorporated into that diamond follows the same form and habit (shape) of the nucleus.

The point of all this is that Christ is our nucleus and the priesthood is the magical power that makes the mineral and the snowflake grow, and do so in perfect symmetry, harmony and purity. It might be said that it is the power “to officiate in Gods name”, but this is trivial. The temporal ordinances of the Gospel have only one purpose, and that is to bring us to Christ (or in other words to bring us into a unity of the faith with Christ). Every temporal aspect of the gospel, or “Aaronic” aspect of the priesthood has the purpose of pulling chaotic intelligence from the earth and giving it a “like-mind” with our nucleus so that we can be assimilated into his body. Just as we eat food that we might assimilate it into our bodies, and we symbolically eat Christ’s flesh and blood that we might be one with his Spirit, the purpose of all the sacraments is to make us like Christ so at some point we might be fit food, that Christ may eat us and we may be one with his body. He is the vine and we are the fruit. His goal is to draw intelligence to himself to be connected totally and equally in mind and spirit and even to a lesser extent in body.

If you picture the Solar system, and Christ is in the center of the sun and is a mineral composed of pure energized hydrogen. We could then compare the planets to dispensational heads. The Sun constantly exerts two forces on all matter in the solar system. One is a gentle gravitational pull toward itself. The other is a constant solar wind blowing non-massive (unfit) material out toward the Oort cloud. We could then compare “the devil” to an oppositely polarized comet that spends most of its time out in the darkness of the universe. When the comet comes far enough into the solar system, its opposing polarity causes both the planets and the sun to “eject” masses of matter which are too strongly polarized to stay “at one” with the bodies they come from. They may separate and become planets of their own, or they may fly out of the solar body (system) completely to become comets or chaotic masses of stellar dust. In this example, lets call the seemingly opposing forces of gravity and the solar wind the priesthood. The priesthood of the sun governs what matter is attracted to the sun and what matter is repulsed. The priesthood of the planets does likewise for themselves, at the same time being controlled and even powered by the sun in a way a bit too complicated to explain here. (In essence a charged particle traveling through an alternating magnetic field creates its own alternating magnetic field, etc). So just as with the mineral and the snow flake, this mystical “priesthood” power is the force that allows these stellar bodies to attract “like-minded” aspects of stellar matter unto themselves to continue their own growth.

So in summery, I think the best definition of the priesthood is that found in D&C 84:19. It is the power holding “the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God”. Or perhaps better put, “the key of the intelligence of God”. It is the power to make your mind & spirit (intelligence) like and one with God’s mind and spirit (intelligence). And when that occurs, your body will follow suite and become like God’s as well, which is exaltation and eternal life. This is the Heavenly City or Zion spoken of in the scriptures where all men are one, and there are no rich or poor among them.

There are other more trivial aspect of the priesthood such as the organizational characteristics of the ‘Government of God’ (see John Taylor’s book with the same name for some good material on this). Additionally there are many who refer to the Power of God as manifest in the Gifts of the Spirit as the “power” of the priesthood (see this article for more on this distinction).

The Divisions of the Priesthood
Now a second point to make in reference to “the priesthood of all believers”. Remember there are two main divisions of the priesthood in the Church (even though as Joseph Smith said, “all priesthood is Melchizedek” or all priesthood is just a different manifestation of the same power). One is Temporal or Aaronic and one is the Spiritual or Melchizedek. I believe this distinction is an earthly shadow of a heavenly principle; being that there are two main divisions of the priesthood as seen from the perspective of a “king and priest” in heaven. There is an earthly priesthood and a heavenly priesthood. The lower is held and administered by the church on earth, the other is held and administered by the church in heaven. The lower earthly priesthood, of course, is governed by the higher heavenly priesthood. Just as the local or central high council (twelve) give bishops a large degree of autonomy, so also does the heavenly priesthood give the earthly one, while at the same time just as the general authorities are really the ones who have any control in which direction the church goes as a whole, so also is only the heavenly priesthood really in control of which direction human history goes.

And here is the big point I wanted to make in the previous article… the priesthood in heaven governs more than the Mormon Church. It governs the secular and religious affairs of the whole earth. The higher one gets in the heavens (third degree of celestial kingdom for instance), the more power the priesthood (both male and female) has to govern the affairs of beings below them (including the earth), BUT the less likely they are to do so in trivial ways. The higher a being is, the more power to influence they have, but the more respect they have for agency and self determination and so the less they exert that power on others.

Priesthood Apostacy
Now in regard to the quote of “the 1,400 years of priesthood privation and absence of divine authority”. This is a difficult thing to discuss. I believe on my mission my view of things was fairly dogmatic, following pretty closely with what I read in McKonkie’s Mormon Doctrine. I believed the “truth” was taken off the earth within the first four hundred years or so after Christ and that the Catholic Church was devoid of all authority and was perhaps even the “church of the devil” mentioned in Nephi’s vision. However, the more I read about the apostasy and then prayed for understanding, the more it seemed that there was so much more to it. I believe a first big step toward understanding is seeing and studying the parallel between the Times of Israel and the Times of the Gentiles (see my article here on it). A statement such as “the priesthood was taken from the earth for X years” is true, but only in the context it is usually trying to convey, which is that a certain level of the portion of the priesthood given to Both Abraham and Peter was taken from the general assembly of both Israel and the Christian/Catholic Church at the time of Moses (~1500 BC) and Justinian (~500 AD) respectively. We might simplistically generalize that the “Melchizedek” priesthood was taken from Israel at the time of Moses as also it was taken from the Christian Church at the corresponding time of Justinian. Although true as a simplified statement, a closer look at even that statement begs the question, “Do you mean that Elijah, who held the binding power to seal on earth and heaven, and was translated to heaven without tasting death only had the lower or Aaronic Priesthood? I would dare say not. I would say that many prophets such as Elijah, Daniel, Lehi and others held a form of the higher priesthood comparable to what we call today the “Melchizedek” Priesthood, even though it was not available to Israel at large because of thier wickedness and apostasy.

So also I ask, “where did they get it?” Most of those individuals were not descendants of Aaron and so should not have even had right to the Aaronic or Levitical Priesthood. But they were a member of the house of faith and chosen seed, and thus by their purity they were given great power by God and might I suggest that like John they were “ordained by [an] angel of God at the time he was eight days old unto this power” (D&C 84:28). Is this an example of the “priesthood for all believers”? Well, to argue for or against that you have to dive into definitions and semantics which always lead one in circles. The Catholic Church has been debating the protestants for years on this issue (see here.. and here ) and the truth is that the doctrine like all dogmas approximates the truth, but the truth is what it is and can only be fully known when it is revealed by the spirit. God respects his lower earthly priesthood. But there also is a higher heavenly priesthood organization with the authority to give power to whom they will. But God’s house is a house of order even through to some mortal’s eyes it may seem like giving people like Elijah or Lehi or Joseph Smith a higher priesthood was out of order, at some point we will see how it all followed the proper order after all.

As I mentioned in another article.. Jesus submitted to John’s priesthood, even though “being without” priesthood (from the Jews perspective), he was greater than John’s priesthood. This is the lesson that the author of Hebrews is trying to get across when in Heb 7:14 he says, “For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood”. In fact, this is likely a reason why many of the Jews accepted John the Baptist and not Christ. John was the son of a/the High Priest. He was a direct descendant of Aaron and a legitimate heir to the priesthood. The orthodox Jews were waiting for a great “prophet” and just as Catholics believe any great reformer must be part of the Catholic Priesthood and many Mormons believe that any prophet must be part of our high priesthood, so also many Jews undoubtedly believed the promised “Prophet” and great High Priest must be a Levite. So when Christ came along, who was not only not a descendant of Aaron or Levi or even Ephraim, but instead was a descendant of David through his unholy fornication with Bathsheba you can imagine the self-righteous repulsion from among the orthodoxy. I believe there is a great truth being taught here. Jesus submitted to the lower priesthood, but the heads of the lower priesthood rejected him. This is repeated throughout biblical history. The ones who think they have the birth right & priesthood are rejected by God, and an unexpected one gets it instead. The first are made last and the last are made first. When the orthodoxy gets weighed down in their own dogma, God sends a reformer from the unorthodox.

So what lessons might we as Mormons take away from this? I think we would do well to remember that we should all humbly submit to the priesthood, even as Jesus did to John, Caiaphas and Pilot. But at the same time, we would be well to remember that “God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Luke 3:8). He can make any Son of God the Chosen Seed and he can give anyone His Priesthood. He follows a particular order, but we should not be so arrogant as to think we fully understand it. We should never think we know who is or isn’t God’s chosen. We should submit to earthly religion but realize that it is a schoolmaster pointing us to the higher heavenly religion (Gal. 3:24, 2 Ne. 25:25). We should heed the council spoken to us over the pulpit and written on our earthy tablets in our buildings made by hands, but we should thirst for the council whispered to us over the unhewn alter and put into the fleshy tablets of our hearts. There is a reason that the teachings of the Temple are to remain unwritten, and there is a reason why the highest teachings are to remain unspoken.

As for another in depth discussion on priesthood, see these two articles which elaborate a bit more on these principles…

see The Difference Between the Priesthood & Prophets https:/326/the-difference-between-the-priesthood-prophets/

Also this artilce I found written by an anonymous individual in
https:/54/the-doctrine-of-the-priesthood/

Also an article on the lower, temporal, Aaronic priesthood https:/57/the-lower-priesthood-of-aaron/

The Aaronic & Melchizedek Priesthoods

August 1, 2010/1 Comment/in Insights & Ramblings, works in progress/by MormonBox

work in progress…. finish this some time.
Rename this to order of the priesthood or something.

In the LDS Church the Priesthood is divided in two primary divisions, the Aaronic and Melchezidek Priesthood. LDS Scripture teaches us that the Aaronic Priesthood is a “Lower” and “Temporal” Priesthood set to preside over temporal matters; whereas the Melkezidek Priesthood is a “higher” “spiritual” priesthood designed to preside over spiritual matters. I believe that these two priesthoods were meant to be profound symbols pointing us to two distinct aspects of religion; namely that there is a “temporal”, earthly or humanistic aspect of religion, and a “spiritual”, heavenly or divine aspect of religion. The biblical record makes the existence of these two aspects of religion fairly clear.

-lower priesthood is a school master to bring us to christ. (the catholic reformation were trying to make many of the same points that Stephen and early apostolic reformers were)

-god of old testament commands israel to build him a house/temple (made with human hands), but then tries to teach israel that He does not dwell in temples made with human hands.

-god tells israel they should not have a King, because he wants to personally be their King. But they insist and so he helps them coronate a king and the result is just as the prophets foretold; oppression, repression, taxes, war, imperialism and politically influenced religion.

-god wants israel to come worship “the true god” on the mount at sinai, but they are afraid and need a god made with hands—so they have Aaron fashion a golden calf. As a punishment, god makes Aaron and his posterity priests (like the egyptians), gives them a temple (made with hands), and a “lower” religion which was a also a human construct.

-The purpose of the human aspects of religion (things like the temple, the altar, the outward ordinances) are designed to point us to the higer inward spiritual aspects of religion.

OUTLINE:
-define and explain the two aspects of the priesthood
-both these priesthood functions are related to family lines because abilities of the adept are often passed genetically. (but not necessarily!). give examples of when they were and weren’t! lehi/nephi/lanuel, david, samuel, Jesus is best example of both, had a kingly line NOT a priestly one and defied the jewish concepts of traditional priestly lines!
cover the two aspects one at a time…
-both of these functions were given to MANY different dispensational heads in early history and continue in thier seed, so mormons dont need to pridefully think we are the only ones with priesthood!
-in regards to priesthood ‘power’, the ordinances are symbolic. You do not need to be ordained to exercise god’s power. you do not need to be lds, or jewish.
-quote extensively from law of one. quote oahspe about those capable of “hearing the voice” or clairvoyance. genetic manipulation and off planet implanting might be associated with this.
-talk about it in regards to women, non-Israel, and blacks in priesthood.
-in regards to priesthood ‘authority’, it is the lower priesthood which governs this. talk about two paths.
-women hold the priesthood in many ways.
-god is like a computer network or internet which we can tap into to access power. power gives authority. the most powerful are selfless because it is a superior system.
-need to talk about the ideal masculine and feminine and how true power is achieved though balancing these. quote pearl on story of martyr couple, and androgynous adepts. also oahspe on principles of androgyny.

There is a misunderstanding in the Church, that members of the LDS Church are the only ones with any “priesthood”… This is simply not supported by restored scripture.

Firstly, it is important to realize there are different aspects of the priesthood. In Mormonism, the priesthood is “the power and authority of God given to man”. One aspect of this power or authority is the right to govern. In this case priesthood is essentially political. The second aspect of priesthood is the “power of God” in the sense of one obtaining God’s supernatural abilities. Although closely related to governance, this aspect of God’s power is done by the “gifts of the spirit”, more than by virtue of the priesthood, per se. For more information on how the gifts of the Spirit tap into priesthood power and allow any worthy individual to do healings, prophesies, miracles or other supernatural phenomenon see ‘The Difference Between Priesthood and Prophets‘.

Both of these powers are given to man in assorted ways and have many examples in scripture. This article will show that in both cases God’s priesthood is not limited to the LDS Church. Although God often restores and reconfirms priesthood power as an addendum to reconfirming his covenant with subsets of humanity, aspects of his priesthood continues within the bloodlines of those to whom it is given and serves its needed purposes outside of organized religion. Many of these rights and powers of the temporal priesthood are passed hereditarily from father to son/daughter with no need for an ordinance.

(Abraham 2:11)
11 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; and in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) and in thy seed (that is, thy Priesthood), for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal.

(D&C 84:17–18)
17 Which priesthood continueth in the church of God in all generations, and is without beginning of days or end of years.
18 And the Lord confirmed a priesthood also upon Aaron and his seed, throughout all their generations, which priesthood also continueth and abideth forever with the priesthood which is after the holiest order of God.

(D&C 86:8–11)
8 Therefore, thus saith the Lord unto you, with whom the priesthood hath continued through the lineage of your fathers—
9 For ye are lawful heirs, according to the flesh, and have been hid from the world with Christ in God—
10 Therefore your life and the priesthood have remained, and must needs remain through you and your lineage until the restoration of all things spoken by the mouths of all the holy prophets since the world began.
11 Therefore, blessed are ye if ye continue in my goodness, a light unto the Gentiles, and through this priesthood, a savior unto my people Israel. The Lord hath said it. Amen.

Show that the priesthood comes through the new and everlasting covenant. And that covenant was made with MULTIPLE parties from the beginning.

Abraham received it from Melchizedek.
BUT Moses received it through Jethro’s line which began with Esaias, of whom we learn “And Esaias received it under the hand of God. Esaias also lived in the days of Abraham, and was blessed by him…” (D&C 84:12–13)

This of course was not a singular occurrence, the Brother of Jared also lived just before Abraham and we can only guess that he also received his priesthood “under the hand of God”. After all, we learn from D&C 88:22 that “without this [the authority of the priesthood] no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live” (D&C 88:22). Which brings us back to our previous point, with the question; “how then did Joseph Smith see the face of God and live, when he had not yet been ordained to the priesthood at the time of the first vision?” The answer… this scripture is deeply symbolic. But additionally Joseph was a blood descendant of a high priesthood line (Ephraim), which even through the apostasy “must needs remain through… your lineage until the restoration of all things” (D&C 86:10)

Why then was the priesthood even restored? The answer, the entire process of the restoring of the priesthood and keys through the holy ordinances is a necessary part of confirming and renewing the new and everlasting covenant. Even though the covenant was made of old, and remained through the seed of the original testators, God renews it at the beginning of each dispensation for the sake of the faith of those involved and the whole world at large. For “without the ordinances thereof… the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh” (D&C 84:21). As the Lord says…

(D&C 84:48)
48 And the Father teacheth him [the priesthood holder] of the covenant which he has renewed and confirmed upon you, which is confirmed upon you for your sakes, and not for your sakes only, but for the sake of the whole world.

Explain a bit more how he gave it to multiple dispensations heads. Abraham, Brother of Jared, Esaias, (and others we dont know about). Then he confirmed it with multiple people. Moses, Jaredites and others we dont know about). Today he has renewed it with Joseph Smith and the LDS church, but to think that he has not re-confirmed it with the other divisions of the earth is a bit narrow minded. Was not John the Revelator himself “preparing the lost tribes” (D&C 77:14, ref). Do we not think God renewed the covenant with them as well? And what of the Jews? Doesn’t the Lord say concerning both the Jews and the 10 tribes,

26 And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord; and their prophets shall hear his voice, and shall no longer stay themselves…
35 And they also of the tribe of Judah, after their pain, shall be sanctified in holiness before the Lord, to dwell in his presence day and night, forever and ever.

-explain how the Church, 10 tribes and Judah are all to be restored separately. The Jews do not need the priesthood restored to them; they will rebuild the temple and offer an acceptable sacrifice (Mal. 3:3–4, D&C 13:1) using the Levitical priesthood which has been maintained through their generations. The prophets of the 10 tribes also may have intact priesthood lines.

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Finish the article. Hit the points
-anyone can access intelligent infinity, or the ability to alter reality by our wills. it is a “gift of the spirit” and is free to any diligent seeker. However, use of this ability is guarded by higher beings on many different levels.

– It is important to understand the two paths of the Law of One; service to self and service to others. These are essentially the two ends of the spectrum concerning governance systems in our world and the galaxy in general. The service to self system is a top-down autocratic system of rule in which the few govern the many. This political/religious system exists to bring prestige, power, glory, energy, money and sustenance from the many to the god leader and his elite supporters. On the opposite side is the service to others system where there no inequality and all are entirely ONE. In this system no-one lifts themselves above another and all share power equally and serve eachother unfailingly. There is no need for a king (Samuel 8:4–22, D&C 38:21, Mosiah 29:10–32). If there is a leader appointed, they serve the people without requiring the people to serve or worshiping them. This system is only possible with a righteous selfless people, and historically when people are too selfish to establish this type of democratic system, the higher gods hand governance to the the lower gods who establish monarchies and dictatorships.

Service to the self is always inferior to service to others. It is impossible for the one to consistently defeat the many. The entropy in an inward/upward flowing political configuration is too high. Earthly and galactic history consistently shows that an outward/downward flowing political configuration is more powerful. Service to others IS the superior configuration. Show the densities; by 6th density all selfish groups switch to selflessness because there ceases to be possibility for progression otherwise.
-survival of the fittest governs the universe; even among gods. As taught to Abraham (Abr 3:16–19), the most intelligent/powerful always gains the right to govern. The “gods” who govern this world do so because they have used “intelligent infinity” or God’s power to become powerful enough to subjugate others to their wills. Man, Lucifer and lower gods do this through selfish force and violence. Higher gods have grown wise enough to see the detrimental entropy caused by the force and violence of tyranny; they instead use powers of “selfless” mental coercion and selfless service (D&C 130:36–46).
-there is a higher and a lower priesthood. An earthly and heavenly priesthood. One is essentiall selfish, the other selfless. One visible, the other invisible.
-because the selfless gods are more powerful than the self-made gods, they control our galaxy. but they allow gods of a lower order (of both paths) to rule earth and give them priesthood keys in accord with mans agency.
-priesthood power of both paths is passed through bloodlines and remains in one’s seed.
-Lucifer has priesthood and powers. As a god of this world he rules the lower priesthood and is permitted to instill and regulate the thrones, dominions, powers and principalities of this world until Christ puts this system under his feet at his coming.

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Four Fold Ministry of the Twelve.

Talk about the four-fold from gospel of the holy twelve… It is a symbol of the four divisions of the earth, and the four divisions of Israel, or God’s elect on earth and in heaven… all working independently of each-other, often without each others knowledge, to accomplish God’s purposes…

12. And from these there were called twelve to be Prophets with the Apostles, and twelve to be Evangelists and twelve to be Pastors, and their Helps were added unto them, and Deacons of the Church Universal, and they numbered one hundred and twenty. And thus was the Tabernacle of David set up, with living men filled with goodness, even as the Master had shewn unto them. [look for a type in soloman’s temple…] 13. And to the Church in Jerusalem was given James the Lord’s brother for its president and Angel, and under him four and twenty priests in a fourfold ministry, and helpers and deacons also. And after six days many came together, and there were added six thousand men and women who received the holy Law of Love, and they received the word with gladness

6. And to the Apostles were given staves to guide their steps in the ways of truth, and crowns of glory withal; and to the Prophets burning lamps to shew light on the path and censers with fire; and to the Evangelists the book of the holy law to recall the people to the first principles; and to the Pastors were given the cup and platter to feed and nourish the flock.
7. But to none was given aught that was not given to all, for all were one priesthood under the Christ as their Master Great High Priest in the Temple of God; and to the Deacons were given baskets that they might carry therein the things needful for the holy worship. And the number was about one hundred and twenty, Peter presiding over them.

I believe there are deep esoteric principles taught in this symbology which is reiterated with the symbolic use of the four and twenty elders described in Revelation 4:4,10; Rev 5:8,14; Rev 11:16; Rev 19:4) and reiterated in D&C 77:5.

The four divisions are also symbolized by Brahman man Nebuchadnezzar statue. Also four divisions in D&C 77:3, as well as 4 divisions of the earth & Noah, Japheth, Shem, Ham.

This would have to be a really long article to explain this all, but in summary. Every major religion on earth has come about through the priesthood. Hinduism and its restorationist sect of Buddhism came through Shem’s priesthood. Judaism and its two restorationist sects of Christianity and Islam came through Abraham’s priesthood (also Shem’s decedents). Japheth also has/had the priesthood and he uses it to rule China and southeast Asia (passed into Taoism and other Chinese religions). To add a higher degree of complexity the brother of Jared’s priesthood was spread to South America, Tibet and Anatolia by Heth’s great empire (not a lot revealed on this yet, see Law of One). It is very important to understand the distinctions between the lower and higher priesthoods. Organized religion has the lower “temporal” priesthood, and it is never long until this right to governance is hijacked by the selfish or self-righteous. Historically it has predominately been used by service-to-self individuals who are well-meaning but full of ego, self-righteousness and self-deception. These well-meaning individuals gravitate toward positions of power and quickly fill the ranks of most governments and churches. They are usually good people and should not be demonized but the populace should be aware that we give them power out of love so they can obtain their desires and progress. This lower priesthood is all about visible power, visible right to governance, power and prestige. It is the schoolmaster.

The higher priesthood administers in “spiritual” things and is held by those who rule in heaven. True prophets, adepts and mystics of every religion access this priesthood and by it do miracles, obtain revelation, and start systems which alter the coarse of human history. Most of this activity occurs in secret. That which is not done in secret becomes the stuff of legend and scripture. It is without “beginning of years” or “father and mother” and is not passed down hereditary like the lower priesthood. Nor does it need a visible ordinance to be conferred. The evidence of this priesthood is in the works of those who possess it.

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In this light, I believe every lover of equality, freedom and “righteousness” should be encouraged to study the breadth of the world’s political and religious systems. The political systems and empires of Communism and Democracy which grew out of the ideas revealed by these higher beings during Joseph Smith’s time are examples of the heavenly forces vying for control of our world right now. I believe political systems (religions) in heaven and the galaxy follow similar patterns to those on earth. And just as they have in the past, these heavenly and spiritual forces constantly work to win over the decision makers of all earth’s powerful organizations. As I have learned more about these heavenly organizations and forces, I am sad to see the inroads they have made in overcoming organizations which I love such as the United States government and the LDS Church.

Mormonism should be the epitome of service to others governance, where the leaders serve their people without expectation of reward.

Wishful and childish thinking will almost always try and get you to believe that the Church is either led entirely by the benevolent God of the Universe, or falsely led entirely by a devil or a bunch of old normal Joes. Through a lot of prayer and meditation, I have come to see that all earthly people and organizations are led by many voices of differing polarity. The more my understanding of the unseen higher planes grows, the more I see how phenomenally amazing the visions in the Book of Mormon are, and also how sadly poor the basic LDS understanding of our own scripture and revelation is. The LDS people (myself included for most my life so far) are blinded by our own unbelief and self-righteousness to the point that we don’t realize we are in nearly all cases associated as much with the “Gentiles” mentioned in LDS scripture as with “God’s people” (D&C 109:60, 113:10). The “marvelous work” and restoration of Israel has not yet fully come forth. The LDS Church is only a small part of a much larger work which is taking place predominately in the world’s political arena. But we are still in a probationary period at the end or fulness of the times of the Gentiles where the work of restoration and harvest has only begun. And the LDS Church, just like the “Gentile” organizations of the world will soon have to choose whether they will “repent” or change their world-views and traditions which are still largely based on distorted views of morality and negative ideologies of control and inequality.

The great and abominable Church mentioned in LDS scripture is a highly controlling organization which exists in heaven and works on all earthly organizations for the express purpose of bringing the world into bondage. The “illuminati”, an oversimplified cliche from the new age movement, are well known or secretive groups (secret combinations in the Book of Mormon) which work under varying degrees of inspiration from these heavenly forces. It is my testimony that just like much of the world’s current political and religious organizations, the LDS church has espoused many principles and ideologies of these negative forces. Much as Jesus (for good reasons) chose a spectrum of highly positive (John) to highly negative (Judas) apostles in the beginning of the Christian era, so too does our current LDS church contain a wide spectrum of positive and negative hierarchy and proponents. The primary philosophies of these positive and negative paths are fairly intuitive …

spectrum of organizational polarities from self serving to serving others. where does the LDS Church fit? Where do we fit in our families or personal responsibilities?

Principles of positivity (service to others, democratic principles)

-To forsake self and labor to serve others. To put the needs of others and the group before your own. To not put yourself above others. To expend more energy helping others than the energy others expend to serve or praise you. To give more than you receive. To be meek and humble. To seek equality for all. To warn others of danger in order to prevent suffering. To love and serve the “wicked” or those who seek to hurt you. To not label and judge others as wicked, but look for the best in others while advocating propriety. To pass praise and worship on up the chain. To break up class systems or systems of inequality. To promote freedom to all. To value common sense and each individuals right to personal inspiration over religious fanaticism or rigid legal systems of control or manipulation. To offer people positive/constructive counsel but not negative proscriptions. To rule by loving brotherhoods instead of rigid laws determined by an elite and enforced by punishment.

Principles of negativity (service to self, autocratic principles)

-To set up an elite where the few enslave and rule over the many, politically and religiously (kings & priests). To create a populace (not part of the ruling class) who is selfless and thus meek and easy to manipulate into being willingly enslaved. To create systems where the energy and resources of the many benefit and enrich you, the elite few (righteous kings & priests are rewarded). To crave or demand praise and worship. To utterly destroy the” wicked” (in other words, your enemies) and use fear and manipulation to rule and enslave your “servants”. To put yourself above others as much as possible (as a benevolent God or King or Priest), while manipulating your subjects into a belief that they are unworthy, unequal to you, subservient to you and in need of your benevolence and forgiveness. To build up class systems and psychologically, spiritually, physically and economically subjugate as many people as possible (by their own free will) in order to serve the elite. To promote religious & political fanaticism and keep people from thinking for themselves or thinking out of the box. To enforce rigid laws by manipulation, armies, imprisonment and violence.

Principles common to both.

-To work toward unity, in order to increase the groups power. To seek wisdom and knowledge in order to raise in power.

Extreme Examples of these Groups

In our day, North Korea in particular is a good example of how an almost purely negative governmental system works. Even before Genghis Khan, this region of the world has been a major proponent of the negative path. Much like the governments of Lenin, Stalin and Mao, North Korea one of the most closed, controlled, autocratic totalitarian governments in the world. To someone accustomed to the freedom of the west, it seems obvious that there is something inherently “evil” about their political systems. If you love control and power, then its a great place for you to be born as an elite because all control is in the hands of a small ruling class, and much of the countries resources go to supporting that elite (many capitalistic organizations use the same principles). The people have very little freedom, and are manipulated by fear and propaganda into thinking their leaders are God-like. And yet by creating a closed-minded mentality, good intelligent people in these cultures are fine with the status quo because they are almost entirely ignorant of the fact that most the world operates much differently. It’s important for members of any nation, religion or political organization to be able to look outside their little boxes, and compare the spectrum of governmental systems so they can best chose between the pluses and minuses of each.

North Korea fanfare and tribute to their “beloved leader”, Kim Jong-un. A classic example of self serving governance, where the many serve the elite few.

I’m no neophyte to Mormon doctrine or controversy. I’ve read a lot of religious material from LDS sources and most of the earth’s religious systems; and it seems the more material I read, the more I find myself having to pray and meditate for a while in order to integrate everything and figure out exactly where I think the LDS Church is right now. It is obvious to me as I’ve studied history that no earthly religion is perfect or even close to perfect. They all contain mixed and distorted material and teachings, and often when I delve into the controlling, compulsive, manipulative and occasionally deceptive aspects of LDS church doctrine and history… I worry that they are far too ingrained in the negative or service-to-self path. (see distinctions below) However, on the flip side I am hopeful as I listen to conference, see the open dialog occurring about troubling aspects of church history and feel out the general attitude of members in Utah that the Church and its hierarchy are predominantly seeking service to others by relaxing their power grip, opening their dialog, letting go of their pride and moving more and more toward the positive polarity.

The Difference Between the Priesthood & Prophets

July 22, 2010/1 Comment/in Insights & Ramblings, Prophesy/by MormonBox

It seems to me that many of us Mormons often think that because the Lord has said that “no one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this church excepting my servant [the prophet]” (D&C 28:2), that no one but the “prophet” could possibly receive revelation pertaining to the church as a whole, or anything outside of our families or callings for that matter. This is a twisting of both the scriptures and the words of ancient prophets who have spoken on the matter.

Lets look to the scriptures for some examples.

God often sends prophets to keep the priesthood in check.

God often gives the gift of prophecy to normal members to keep the priesthood in check.

-Very few of the individuals we call “prophets” in the Bible were high priests, priests, or even held the priesthood (House of Levi). Most did not even call themselves prophets (heb navi).
-The prophets were often rejected because they were either nobodies or considered a bit weird and wacky (such as Isaiah walking around naked and barefoot to get people’s attention).
-Was Anna, the prophetess from the tribe of Asher a priesthood leader when she saw the baby Jesus and “spake of him to all them that looked for redemption on Jerusalem” (Luke 1:37–38).
-Was Simeon, a man “just and devout” an officer of the priesthood when he blessed Jesus in the temple and prophesied “this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; …that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 1:25–35).
-Was Agabus a false prophet when he prophesied of the famine (Acts 11:28)?
-Was Miriam a member of the priesthood when she prophesied?
-Was Lehi or Nephi a priest (or even a Levite holding the Priesthood) when God appeared to them and told them to prophesy concerning Israel and Jerusalem?
-More than half of the Old Testament prophets were not from the tribe of Levi (and thus were not even eligible to hold Jewish priesthood). To Jews under the Mosaic law, this was nearly the equivalent of God calling non-Mormons “prophets” to prophesy against Mormonism.).

In fact, in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 Paul lengthily exhorts all members of the church to seek (“covet” in fact) the gift of prophecy that the Church might be edified. In part he says,

Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. [for] he that prophesieth edifieth the church. …Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. (1 Cor 14:1–4,39)

What we must remember is that there is a big difference between a prophet as one who has the gift of prophecy, and the priesthood. The president of the high priesthood (who we often call “the prophet”) as well as all the twelve apostles are set apart to be “prophets, seers and revelators” (D&C 107:92); but they certainly are not the only ones to have right to these gifts. All of these are gifts of the Spirit, and as the D&C tells us.. “and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God” (D&C 46:11). Paul reiterates this saying “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal” (1 Cor 12:7). Both Moses Numbers 11:29 and Joseph Smith in D&C 1:20 suggest that God wants all his people to be prophets and speak in his name.

To suppose that one must hold the priesthood or even be a member of the church in order to have this gift of the Spirit is to fall under the warning given by Moroni in the Book of Mormon,

7 And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever.
8 And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them.

24 And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth—that if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief.
25 And wo be unto the children of men if this be the case; for there shall be none that doeth good among you, no not one. For if there be one among you that doeth good, he shall work by the power and gifts of God.(Moro. 10:7–8, 24–25)

Now perhaps where the misunderstanding comes in, is that the priesthood is given the keys to govern the gifts of God. That all things might be done as Pauls said “decently and in order” (1 Cor 14:40), God has ordained the priesthood to be the “head” of the body of Christ (Church). The priesthood holding the “keys” which administer and govern the gifts of the Spirit is to look over and direct their usage that “that all may be profited thereby” (D&C 46:12).

26 And all these gifts come from God, for the benefit of the children of God.
27 And unto the bishop of the church, and unto such as God shall appoint and ordain to watch over the church and to be elders unto the church, are to have it given unto them to discern all those gifts lest there shall be any among you professing and yet be not of God…
29 That unto some it may be given to have all those gifts, that there may be a head, in order that every member may be profited thereby (D&C 46:26–29)

So the bishop of each ward is given the keys and responsibility to “discern” the gifts of the spirit to aid people in knowing whether a ward member or some other christian who claims to have the gift of prophecy or tongues, etc. (which they certainly could have) really does have the gifit or not. Additionally it is given to certain members of the high priesthood to hold the keys to, and in fact possess “all those gifts” or in other words to have all the gifts of the spirit so that they can better administer and discern their usage in the church and the Christian Community. This right and authority belongs to the Melchizedek priesthood, and is most certainly held by the presidency of the high priesthood (First Presidency of the Church).

8 The Melchizedek Priesthood holds the right of presidency, and has power and authority over all the offices in the church in all ages of the world, to administer in spiritual things.
91 And again, the duty of the President of the office of the High Priesthood is to preside over the whole church, and to be like unto Moses—
92 Behold, here is wisdom; yea, to be a seer, a revelator, a translator, and a prophet, having all the gifts of God which he bestows upon the head of the church.
(D&C 107:8,91–92)

Even outside of the Mormon Church, Christians may seek and obtain spiritual gifts. We should not think that healings, prophesies, or other miracles done by other churches are somehow of the devil least we be like John saying “Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us”, whom Jesus rebuked saying “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.” (Luke 9:55)

Just as Christ gathered all believers in One as he descended to teach the Nephites and Lamenites, exhorting them not to “contend” one with another, so also is it the Mormon Church, and the restored priesthood which is charged with gathering and directing all Christians in one during this the dispensation of the fullness of times. We certainly cannot do this if we think our “prophet” (president of the high priesthood) or simply only members of our church are the only one with right to the gift of prophecy, seership, healing or other spiritual gifts. We might well remember Paul’s council,

3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. (1 Cor 12:3–6)

Needed Reformation

Part of my reason for writing this article is my belief that there is some needed reformation and repentance among Mormon people. In both the bible and Book of Mormon we are told that there were times that God “covered” the prophets or took the gift of prophecy out of the midst of certain people because they had no faith in them. During these times God did not take the “president of the high priesthood” from their midst—there will always be someone to fill that throne—but he took the gift of prophecy, revelation and seership from the masses. I fear this has occurred in Mormonism to some degree because of our false belief that that if God is going to speak to Mormons, it will be through the “prophet” (President of the High Priesthood) or the “twelve apostles” (travelling twelve).

We love to point the finger at other people and religions for their “rejection” of the prophets, instead of searching ourselves for error. When was the last time you searched out the prophets (and not just the high priests)?

7 And again I speak unto you who deny the revelations of God, and say that they are done away, that there are no revelations, nor prophecies, nor gifts, nor healing, nor speaking with tongues, and the interpretation of tongues;
8 Behold I say unto you, he that denieth these things knoweth not the gospel of Christ; yea, he has not read the scriptures; if so, he does not understand them

8 And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them…
9 For behold, to one is given by the Spirit of God, that he may teach the word of wisdom…
13 And again, to another, that he may prophesy concerning all things;
14 And again, to another, the beholding of angels and ministering spirits…
24 And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth—that if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief.
25 And wo be unto the children of men if this be the case; for there shall be none that doeth good among you, no not one. For if there be one among you that doeth good, he shall work by the power and gifts of God. (Moroni 9, 10)

See this article for a little more information about modern misconceptions about ancient Israeli prophets.

for more authoritative information see the books: Karel van der Toorn’s Scribal Culture and Joseph Blenkinsopp’s A History of Prophecy in Ancient Israel

The Doctrine of the Priesthood

June 8, 2010/in Insights & Ramblings/by MormonBox

DOCTRINE OF THE PRIESTHOOD

A. Definition.
1. A priest is a member of the human race who represents some
portion of the human race before God. He was always a male until this
dispensation, never an angel or female.
2. A priest must partake of the nature of the persons for whom he
acts or represents. Heb 7:4–5, 14, 28, 10:5, 10-14 all state that a
priest must be a member of the human race. Heb 5:1–6, “For every high
priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things
pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for
sins; he is able to moderate his feelings with regard to the ignorant
and misguided, since he himself also is subject to weakness, and
because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins as a
substitute for the people, and so also for himself. And no one takes
the honor for himself, but receives it when he is appointed by God,
even as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become a
high priest, but He who said to Him, [Ps 2:7 `You are My Son, today I
have begotten You’; just as He also says in another Scripture [Ps
110:4], `You are a priest forever according to the order of
Melchizedek.'”
a. We do not offer gifts and sacrifices for sins because our
High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ offered himself as the one sacrifice
for sins.
b. A priest had to be a human being. This is how we know
that our Lord Jesus Christ prior to His first Advent was not
Melchizedek.
3. There were three categories of priesthood in the Old Testament
and one category in the New Testament. All four priesthoods are
mentioned in the book of Hebrews.
a. The patriarchal or family priesthood in which the
patriarch of the family functioned as the priest for the family. This
operated from Adam to Moses. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are examples of
this priesthood. They built altars, offered sacrifices, purified and
consecrated themselves and their households, Gen 12:7; 13:18; 26:25;
23:30; 35:1-2.
b. The Old Testament king-priest is represented by
Melchizedek.
(1) The historical pattern is found in Melchizedek, a
king who was the head of his family and a priest, Heb 7:1–3. He was
the king of Salem, which later became the city of Jerusalem. He was
both a king and a priest with no emphasis on his genealogy. He was a
priest as the head of his family, not by birth. He was a Gentile
believer-priest living in the time of Abraham. The relationship
between Melchizedek and Christ are what we would classify as type and
antitype, a New Testament reality prefigured in the Old Testament.
Each was a human being, a king, and a priest. Both in their humanity
were superior to Abraham as the father of the Jewish race and are
without priestly genealogies related to Israel. Heb 7:3, “Without
father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of
days nor end of life, but having resembled the Son of God he remains a
priest perpetually.”
(a) This verse means a priesthood not based on
physical birth, a priesthood without recorded genealogy related to the
priesthood of Israel. Melchizedek also offered bread and wine, another
tie in to the Lord Jesus Christ. Melchizedek was a priest perpetually
because he was a believer with eternal life.
(b) Heb 7:12–16 interprets this, “For when the
priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change in the
Law also. For the One [the Lord Jesus Christ] concerning whom these
things are spoken belongs to another tribe from which no one has
officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord has descended
from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing
concerning priests, and this is clearer still, if another priest arises
similar to Melchizedek, and there has, Who has become a priest not on
the basis of physical requirement but on the basis of indestructible
life.”
(c) Heb 7:17 quotes Ps 110:4, “For this reason it
is witnessed, `You are a priest forever similar to the order of
Melchizedek.'” This the Father’s appointment of the humanity of Christ
to the royal status as king-priest.
(d) Gen 14:18–19, “And Melchizedek king of Salem
brought out bread and wine; furthermore he was a priest of God the Most
High.” “God the Most High” is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Then he [Melchizedek] blessed him [Abram] and said, `Blessed be Abram
by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.'”
(2) The superiority of this priesthood is noted by the
fact that Abraham was ministered to by Melchizedek with bread and wine
and Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek, Heb 7:9–11. Melchizedek had
the right to bless Abraham because he was both a priest and a king.
Abraham was only a priest, but not a king. This means that your
priesthood is far greater than the Levitical priesthood.
(3) The cross is symbolized through bread and wine as
the only ritual of the royal priesthood.
(4) The Levitical priesthood was based on natural
generation while the royal priesthood is based on regeneration. A
priesthood based on physical birth is inferior to and can never be as
effective as a priesthood based on regeneration. A priesthood based on
physical birth has no effective function related to the postsalvation
spiritual life.
(5) Rev 1:6, “He made us a kingdom of priests to God,
even His Father; to Him be glory and ruling power forever and ever.”
c. The Levitical priesthood of Israel. The concept of their
ministry in spiritual things is found in Num 16:5. “Tomorrow the Lord
will show you who is His priest and who is holy, and will bring him
near to Himself…” Aaron was chosen along with the tribe of Levi.
(1) This priesthood is limited to the Jewish Age and
the Millennium.
(2) This priesthood was perpetuated through natural
generation.
(3) This priesthood was supported by thirteen Levitical
cities, Josh 21:13–19. Plus there was a special annual tithe to the
Levites as well as the redemption money of the firstborn, Num 18:6.
(4) The spiritual function of this priesthood was
related to ritual and to the teaching the Word of God, Heb 10:1–4.
d. The one priesthood of the New Testament is the universal
priesthood of all believers after the pattern of Melchizedek. Jesus
Christ is the high priest of the royal priesthood. All the priesthoods
in the Old Testament were specialized priesthoods. In the New
Testament, there is no priesthood of a few people, that is, a
specialized priesthood like the Roman Catholic Church. A spiritual
life is no better than its priesthood. Heb 5:9–10, “And having been
made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal
salvation, being appointed by God high priest according to the order of
Melchizedek.”
(1) Having been born a king in Israel as a Jew from the
tribe of Judah, He was not even qualified for the Levitical priesthood.
(2) Both Melchizedek and our Lord were not appointed on
the basis of genealogy. Melchizedek was appointed on the basis of
regeneration. Our Lord was appointed a royal high priest by divine
decree in eternity past and at His resurrection, ascension, and
session. Therefore, Christ is a king-priest after the order of
Melchizedek.
(3) The Unique Characteristics of Jesus Christ as our
High Priest.
(a) Jesus Christ is the first and only high priest
in all of human history to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He was
filled with the Holy Spirit from birth. No one before the hypostatic
union was ever filled with the Spirit.
(b) Jesus Christ is the first high priest and the
only priest that has been resurrected. He functions as a high priest
in resurrection body, seated at the right hand of God, not standing in
the Holy of Holies as the Levitical priests. The next resurrection in
history will be the resurrection of the royal priesthood. You precede
the greatest of Old Testament believers because you have the greatest
spiritual life that has ever existed in history.
(c) Jesus Christ is the only high priest who
offered Himself as a sacrifice for sin. All other high priests offered
animal sacrifices, but never offered themselves. True spiritual life
is almost a total absence of ritual. The only ritual we have is the
remembrance of the sacrifice of our High Priest for sin.
(d) Jesus Christ is the only priest who can
provide eternal life for the human race.
(e) Jesus Christ is the only priest who is not
only perfect humanity but eternal God in one person forever.
(f) Jesus Christ is the only priest who has tested
and proved the prototype spiritual life for the Church Age. This
spiritual life is an infinitely greater spiritual life because every
believer in this dispensation is a priest.
(g) Jesus Christ as our high priest is the One who
originated this unique spiritual life in all of history. There will
never be another spiritual life like it, not even in the millennium.
There is nothing comparable to your spiritual life.
(4) As our high priest, He is the minister of spiritual
things, Heb 5:1.
(5) Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for sin, Heb
9:26-27, 10:10-14. The priestly sacrifice of Christ includes
redemption, propitiation, and reconciliation.
(6) He makes intercession as a high priest for each one
of us, Heb 7:25.
(7) He has an eternal and non-transferable priesthood,
Heb 7:20–21, 24.
(8) Christ fulfilled the necessary requirements of the
priesthood.
(a) He was qualified for the office, Heb 1.
(b) He was appointed by God, Heb 5:1–10. Heb 5:5-
6, “So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high
priest, but He [God the Father] who had spoken face-to-face with Him
[Ps 2:7], `You are My Son. Today I have begotten You.’ Just as He
said in another Scripture [Ps 110:4], `You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek.”
(c) His priesthood was a higher order than the
Levitical priesthood, Heb 5:6–10, 7:1-8:6.
(d) All functions of the priesthood were performed
by Christ, Heb 7, 9, 10.
(e) His priesthood is eternal and superior, Heb
7:25, “He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through
Him, since He always lives to make intercession as a substitute for
them.”
(f) With the ascension and session, Christ had a
new royal title, but no royal family and no priestly order. Both were
combined on the Day of Pentecost.
(g) You are in union with Christ. Therefore, you
are royalty and priests forever. We represent ourselves before God as
royal priests.
(h) Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was a priestly
sacrifice, but His high priesthood came after the resurrection.
(i) You are not designed to lean on others or to
be counseled by others, but to lean on your own priesthood, your own
spiritual self-esteem, and the Bible doctrine in your own soul.
(j) You are a royal priest and royal family of God
because of union with Christ.

B. Rebound is the basic function of the royal priest, 1 Jn 1:9.
1. Rebound is not a part of your spiritual life, but is a
function of the privacy of your priesthood.
2. You cite or name your sin to God, who forgives you and
cleanses you from all sin. At the same time you are removed from the
cosmic system. You don’t have to tell your sins to anyone else, as the
believers in the Old Testament did to the priests.

C. The Priesthood and Operation Z. Your major function as a priest is
to learn doctrine as a part of operation Z. Your positive faith
perception allows God the Holy Spirit to metabolize the doctrine taught
by the pastor. This is the basis of momentum in the function of your
royal priesthood.

D. The priesthood demands the function of prayer and intercession.

E. The Sacrifices of the Priesthood, Heb 13.
1. Separation, v.13.
2. Praise, v.15.
3. Production from momentum, v.16.
4. Enforced and genuine humility, v.17.
5. Developing spiritual self-esteem, v.18-19.

F. Old Testament Versus New Testament Priesthoods.
1. There never has been a priesthood in the history of the world
that required the priest to be a believer. Every priesthood prior to
the Church Age was based on physical birth not spiritual regeneration.
2. The priesthood of the Church is the only priesthood based on
being born again. Old Testament priesthoods were based on the head of
every family before Israel and then the Levitical priesthood based on
the sons of Aaron.
3. No high priest in Israel ever functioned in resurrection body
as does our High Priest–the Lord Jesus Christ. No one in history ever
had a high priest who functioned in a resurrection body. Only the
royal family of God has a High Priest in resurrection body.
4. Jesus Christ was never a high priest to Israel. He is only a
high priest to the Church. Therefore, your spiritual life is unique.
Our Lord was not even qualified to be a high priest in Israel because
He was from the tribe of Judah.
5. Our priesthood is composed of every member of the Church. You
are a member of the highest priesthood that will ever exist, including
the millennial reign of Christ. Only in the Church Age could a woman
ever be a priest.
6. The faith-rest drill gave reality to the Old Testament
believers related to their extensive ritual. The doctrines were real
because they saw them being portrayed in the ritual.
7. The humanity of Jesus Christ, as the better hope, executed the
better spiritual life of the Church Age. The better hope of Heb 7:15
in the dispensation of the hypostatic union became precedence for the
unique spiritual life of the Church Age. The better spiritual life was
tested and proved in prototype. The better hope begins when the Church
Age believer enters the door of hope on God’s agenda. We have the
unique heritage of all human history. We have a better hope, a better
priesthood, and a better spiritual life.
8. Heb 7:11–16, “If therefore, on the one hand fulfillment had
come through the Levitical priesthood but it did not (for on the basis
of it the people received the Law), what further need for another
priest to arise similar to the order of Melchizedek, and not be
designated according to the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is
changed, of necessity there takes place a change in the Law also. For
the One concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another
tribe [Judah], from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it
is evident that our Lord has descended from Judah, a tribe with
reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. And this is
clearer still, if another priest arises similar to the likeness of
Melchizedek, Who has become a priest not on the basis of physical
requirement but on the basis of indestructible life.”
a. Indestructible life is God deciding the time, place, and
manner of your death. You are going to be on this earth with your
spiritual life until your High Priest takes you out of this life. Your
indestructible life has already started now. You are guarded by the
power of God.
b. The indestructible life then goes into the eternal state
where you are absent from the body and face-to-face with the Lord in an
interim body, but still you have no resurrection body.
9. Lev 21:17–20 teaches that no man of the tribe of Levi could
function as a priest if they had physical defects. Men were also
disqualified for immorality, Lev 21:3–4, 7, 9. No one was disqualified
for being an unbeliever. Mt 27:12,41; Mk 14:1, 55; Lk 22:2; Jn 19:15
shows that the Chief Priest at the time of our Lord was trying to kill
Jesus, therefore, probably an unbeliever. No Church Age believer is
disqualified for having a physical defect.
a. The divine mandate to Israel authorized a priesthood
related to physical birth, not regeneration.
b. The divine mandate which authorizes the Levitical
priesthood carries a disqualification clause based on birth defects or
subsequent physical defects. The reason for this was that there must
be nothing that distracted the Jews when they were watching the ritual,
and physical defects are distracting.
c. There was no disqualification clause about being an
unbeliever. Therefore there were three categories of Levitical priests
who could officiate at the altar: the believer-priest, the unbeliever-
priest, and the carnal believer-priest.
10. The Levitical priesthood was authorized under the Mosaic Law,
Ex 6:18, 20; 28:1. The universal priesthood of the believer is based
on believing in Jesus Christ. For us to function under our High Priest
we must have perfect righteousness, because our priesthood can never be
nullified or rescinded.
11. The Church has one High Priest–the resurrected humanity of
Jesus Christ at the right hand of God the Father. The royal priesthood
of the Church Age with one High Priest forever is better than the
Levitical priesthood based on many high priests and physical birth.
Our High Priest is in the real Holy of Holies on our behalf. He is the
only high priest who has indestructible life and serves in resurrection
body. Our Lord will function as the only High Priest on earth during
His millennial reign after His second Advent.
12. Why all of this?
a. Ritual without reality is meaningless.
b. In the case of Israel, the unbeliever priest or
unbelievers in the congregation of Israel who witness the ritual could
not possibly profit from it doctrinally. The Jews could never profit
from the rituals representing codex two of the Mosaic Law unless they
could relate the ritual to the doctrines. Many Jews considered the
rituals as “good luck” charms. For believers negative to doctrine the
ritual was also meaningless.
c. Codex two of the Mosaic Law was fantastic for positive
believers; for they associated ritual with reality in their spiritual
life of the faith-rest drill and they developed doctrinal rationales
they could apply.
13. Heb 7:18–19, “For, on the one hand, there is a rescinding of
the former commandment [the Mosaic Law that authorized the Levitical
priesthood] because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law
brought nothing to completion), but on the other hand, there is the
bringing in of a better hope [the second door of hope for the Church
Age believer–a personal sense of destiny–by which we enter the adult
spiritual life] through which we draw near to God.”
a. The former commandment authorized the Levitical
priesthood in client nation Israel.
b. The weakness of the Levitical priesthood is that it did
not require regeneration for its modus operandi.
c. The uselessness of the Levitical priesthood was the
perpetuation through genealogy and physical birth rather than
regeneration. The Law brought nothing to completion because it takes
one High Priest who is permanently a High Priest to bring everything in
human history to completion.
d. The better hope refers to the new covenant to the Church
administered by our Lord Jesus Christ as our High Priest.
e. Our spiritual life of the Church Age is personalized.
The spiritual life of Israel under the Mosaic Law is ritualized. The
new covenant to Israel given by our Lord to Israel at the second Advent
will change that. When the new covenant to Israel is fulfilled at the
second Advent it will not be based on physical descent or physical
birth but on regeneration. The new covenant to Israel in the
millennium is different from the new covenant to the Church. The new
covenant to the Church is the greatest thing that God has ever done in
history because it relates to the angelic conflict.
f. The Law brought nothing to completion because it was only
the shadow of coming good things (Heb 10:1), but not the real image of
the universal priesthood of believers. It was not the image of the
indwelling of the Trinity.
g. Principles.
(1) The new priesthood of the Church means a new
spiritual life for believers that never existed before in history. A
new priesthood means a new modus operandi. We have a greater spiritual
life, a unique spiritual life.
(2) A priesthood based on physical birth has no
effective function related to a postsalvation spiritual life.
(3) The unique spiritual life of the Church Age is
based on the prototype spiritual life of the humanity of Jesus Christ
in hypostatic union.
(4) The Church has one High Priest, the resurrected
humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father with
indestructible life. No high priest is going to die on us as with
Israel.
(5) The royal priesthood of the Church Age believer
with one High Priest is better than the Levitical priesthood, which was
based on many high priests and physical birth.
14. A better hope demands a better covenant, Heb 7:20–21, “And
inasmuch as it was not without an oath (therefore on the one hand they
have become priests without an oath, but He [God the Son] on the other
hand with an oath through the One [God the Father] who said to Him,
`The Lord [God the Father] has sworn and will not change His mind, “You
are a priest forever.”‘).”
a. This is an oath from God the Father, which is part of the
two immutable things in the last few verses of Heb 6:18–20. The first
immutable thing is a sacred oath from God, Ps 110:4. God swears by
Himself, since there is nothing and no one greater by whom He can swear
an oath. The second immutable thing is God Himself. Our priesthood
was given under two immutable things: the oath of God and God himself.
b. There was no divine oath attached to the Levitical
priesthood because it was based on physical birth and genealogy, but
there is a divine oath with regard to the royal priesthood. Our
priesthood is the only priesthood with a sacred oath attached to it,
the only priesthood with a High Priest in resurrection body, the only
universal priesthood, and the only priesthood based on faith in Christ.
c. The royal priesthood of the Church Age serves under one
High Priest as a forever priesthood. Therefore, every royal priest of
the Church Age has forever life through regeneration. The spiritual
life must match the priesthood. The spiritual life is only as good as
its priesthood, and we have the greatest priesthood in history. Only
the royal priesthood is not stopped by death. Our death does not stop
our priesthood. We continue to be priests forever in our resurrection
body under our High Priest.
15. Heb 7:22, “to a greater degree Jesus has become the guarantee
of a better covenant.”
a. “Jesus” is the title of our Lord’s humanity. He serves
as a High Priest in His humanity.
b. The new covenant to the Church is better than the Mosaic
Law and the Levitical priesthood. Therefore, we have a better hope. A
better hope demands a better covenant. A better covenant demands a
better spiritual life. Our spiritual life is better than any spiritual
life that has ever existed or will ever exist.
16. Heb 7:23–25, “On the one hand therefore, the former priests
existed in greater numbers, because they were prevented by death from
continuing, but on the other hand, because He abides forever, He holds
His priesthood permanently. Therefore, also, He is able to save
forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives
to make intercession for them.”
a. We have and always will have only one high priest, and He
is perfect forever. His priesthood goes on forever because of
resurrection body. The only operational priesthood for all eternity is
the one given to you. You will still be a priest in eternity no matter
how you fail or succeed in time.
b. Many of the high priests in the Old Testament were bad
and it reflected in the spiritual life of the country. You have a
greater hope, a greater priesthood, and a greater spiritual life.
c. You draw near to God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You must believe in Christ to qualify for this priesthood, in order to
possess the necessary eternal life for the perpetuation of the
priesthood into the eternal state.
d. Heb 7:16–17 compared with Heb 7:25 gives an amazing
conclusion–we have an indestructible priesthood. Only one priesthood
survives beyond the grave to become operational in the eternal state.
Heb 7:16 says our Lord has “indestructible life.” Heb 7:17 says that
our Lord is “a priest forever.” Heb 7:25 says that He always lives to
make intercession for us.
17. Heb 7:26–28, “For it is fitting that we should have such a
high priest, impeccable integrity, the One who cannot do evil,
undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; Who
does not need daily, like those priests, to offer up sacrifices, first
for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this
He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the Law appoints
men as high priests who are weak, but the word of His [God the
Father’s] oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, who has
become perfect forever.”
a. Our High Priest gave us a spiritual life which is
infinitely greater than anything found in the Old Testament. Our High
Priest is unique. Jesus Christ is the only high priest who is perfect
humanity and eternal God in one person forever. He is the only high
priest who was ever sinless. He is the first high priest ever filled
with the Spirit. He is the pioneer and perfecter of our spiritual
life, Heb 12:2. He is the only high priest who offered Himself as a
unique and efficacious sacrifice. He is the only high priest who
offers eternal salvation.
(1) Our High Priest was born perfect, but was brought
to completion (the verb TELEIOO) through the function of the same
unique spiritual life given to you.
(2) In the prototype spiritual life Heb 4:15 says that
our Lord, “was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”
There never has been a temptation in the human race that was not faced
by our Lord and overcome by the same spiritual life you have. In
addition to that, He was tempted far beyond anything we would ever
face.
(3) TELEIOO is used in seven passages in Hebrews and
is translated to bring to completion. The translation “to be made
perfect” cannot apply to our Lord since He was created perfect as Adam
was created perfect.
(a) Heb 2:10, “For it became Him, for whom are all
things, and through whom are all things, in having led many sons to
glory, to bring to completion the author of their salvation through
sufferings.” Our Lord was brought to completion by the sufferings for
blessing in the advance to spiritual maturity and by the sufferings on
the Cross.
(b) Heb 5:8–9, “Although being a Son, He learned
obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been brought
to completion, He became to all those who obey Him the source of
eternal salvation.” As God there is no need for Jesus Christ to be
brought to completion, but as perfect humanity He had to learn doctrine
under the filling of the Spirit just as we must do.
(c) Heb 7:18–19, “For on the one hand there is a
rescinding of the former commandment because of its weakness and
uselessness (for the Law brought nothing to completion), but on the
other hand a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near
to God.” “The Law brought nothing to completion” means that observing
the Mosaic Law cannot save. You are saved by faith and not by the
works of the Law. The Law cannot provide the spiritual life after
salvation, Gal 3:2–3,5. The spiritual life of the Old Testament was
the faith-rest drill, not keeping the Law. You can never complete the
spiritual life without the four mechanics of the spiritual life (the
filling of the Spirit, metabolized doctrine in your soul, the ten
problem solving devices, and the execution of the protocol plan of God.
Drawing near to God is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for personal
salvation.
(d) Heb 7:28, “For the Law appoints men as high
priests who are weak, but the word of His sacred oath, which came after
the Law, [appointed] the Son, Who has been brought to completion
forever.” The high priests of the Mosaic Law were weak because some
were carnal believers or unbelievers. Our Lord was brought to
completion by His perfect execution of the prototype spiritual life, by
offering Himself once for all on the Cross, and by His resurrection.
The result was His ascension and session at the right hand of the
Father. Jesus Christ as our high priest offers completion to us in
three stages.
i. Stage one completion is salvation through
faith alone in Christ alone.
ii. Stage two completion is the execution of
the unique spiritual life of the Church Age resulting in maturity.
iii. Stage three completion is resurrection.
(e) Heb 10:1, “For the Law, having a shadow of
coming good things but not the real image of those events, can never by
the same sacrifices, which they kept on offering year by year, bring to
completion those who draw near.” The “coming good things” is the
fantastic spiritual life given to us. Jesus Christ brought to
completion the greatest spiritual life in human history during the
dispensation of the hypostatic union, and this spiritual life has been
given to you. The Law could not bring personal salvation to completion
through the animal sacrifices, nor could it bring the spiritual life to
completion through its ritual.
(f) Heb 10:14, “For by one offering He brought to
completion for all time those who are being sanctified.” The offering
of Jesus Christ on the Cross relates to the new covenant to the Church,
1 Cor 11:24–25, not to the new covenant to Israel.
i. We, the Church, are the ones being
sanctified. We are taken by God the Holy Spirit and entered into union
with Christ forever. This is positional sanctification. We share the
life, righteousness, heirship, destiny, election, and priesthood of
Christ. Experiential sanctification is the postsalvation experience of
advancing from the point of spiritual birth to maximum glorification of
God. Ultimate sanctification is the resurrection of the Church.
ii. The application of sanctification is found
in Heb 10:35–36, “Do not throw away as worthless your confidence, which
keeps on having rich distribution of blessing; for you keep on having
need of perseverance, so that when you have accomplished the will of
God, you may receive the promise [escrow blessings].”
iii. Compare 1 Pet 1:2, “According to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit,
for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by Him blood.” Believers
who fulfilling the unique spiritual life are being sanctified
experientially.
iv. Rom 15:16, “to be a minister of Christ
Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, that
my offering of the Gentiles might become acceptable, sanctified by the
Holy Spirit.”
(g) Heb 11:39–40, “And all of these, having become
witnesses through faith, did not receive the promise [resurrection],
because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us
they should not be brought to completion.”
b. A better priesthood is based on virtue and values of
perfect integrity. We have a better priesthood because we have a
better spiritual life. Our spiritual life is the highest form of
virtue and values that has ever existed or will exist in human history.
Therefore, our spiritual life is absolutely different under the
ministry of God the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine circulating in the
stream of consciousness.
c. Our priesthood has greater escrow blessings for time and
eternity.
d. Our impact as priests is better because it is invisible
heroship.
18. Heb 10:1–10, “For the Law, having a shadow of coming good
things, but not the real image of those events, was never able with
those sacrifices which they kept on offering year by year to bring to
completion those who continued to approach the altar. Otherwise, they
would not have ceased being offered. Why? Because the worshipers,
having once been purified, would no longer be having a consciousness of
sins. But in those same sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by
year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take
away sins. Therefore, when He came into the world, He says, `You have
not willed sacrifice and offering [as a solution to the problem of
sin], but a body You have prepared for Me; You have not been
propitiated by whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.’ At that
time [the virgin birth], I said, `Behold, I have arrived (in an Old
Testament scroll of a book it stands written concerning Me) to
accomplish Your will, O God.’ After saying the above, `Sacrifices and
offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not
willed as a solution, nor been propitiated by them’ (that which is
being offered according to the Law), then He said, `Behold, I have
arrived to do Your will.’ He has rescinded the first that He might
establish the second [the new covenant to the Church]. Through the
agency of which will we have been sanctified through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
a. The shadow offerings included the burnt offering–
propitiation with emphasis on the salvation ministry of our Lord, the
food offering–propitiation with emphasis on the perfect humanity of
Christ in hypostatic union, the peace offering–reconciliation, the sin
offering–rebound with emphasis on the unknown sins, the trespass
offering–rebound with emphasis on known sins.
b. These offering were offered for 1511 years from B.C. 1441
until 70 A.D.
c. God the Father prepared a human body for our Lord Jesus
Christ so that our Lord would be able to carry our sins in His own body
on the Cross. That was the end of the Levitical priesthood, but they
would not quit offering sacrifices.
d. Jesus Christ had to have a human body to be true humanity
in order to become the efficacious sacrifice for sin.
e. There are two whole burnt offering, Lev 1. The first is
a picture of the salvation work of Christ from the standpoint of
propitiation. The second is the sin offering, a picture of rebound.
f. There is a new covenant to the Church which was never
known to the Old Testament believers. You have a new covenant that was
never known before, that never existed before. This new covenant
includes a new priesthood, a new spiritual life, the filling of the
Spirit, a completed canon of Scripture with mystery doctrine now
revealed.
(1) The new covenant of the blood of Christ was
announced by our Lord at the last supper and is a part of the mystery
doctrine of the Church Age. We do not have a new will and testament,
but a living covenant. Our new covenant could not even be mentioned
during the age of Israel. The new covenant to the Church is the best
covenant because it gives the best spiritual life of all human history
to the Church.
(2) In Jer 31:31–34 the new covenant to Israel was
given. It was revealed in the Old Testament and is not a part of the
mystery doctrine of the Church. During the millennium the Jews will
offer animal sacrifices as their memorial of the Cross. The Levitical
offerings of the old covenant to Israel will be integrated into the new
covenant to Israel, which is going to be fulfilled in the millennial
reign of Christ. The new covenant to Israel takes the filling of the
Holy Spirit from the new covenant to the Church because we have a
better covenant. We take nothing from the new covenant to Israel
because we have a better covenant. The filling of the Holy Spirit in
the millennial for the new covenant to Israel is different than the
filling of the Holy Spirit during the Church Age. The filling of the
Holy Spirit during the millennium is designed to appreciate the
presence of Jesus Christ on earth.
(3) Jesus Christ became true humanity to function as a
royal high priest for the Church Age believers as a universal
priesthood, 1 Pet 2:5,9 “You also as living stones are being built up
as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” “But you are a
chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own
possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you
out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Rev 1:5–6, “And from Jesus
Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, furthermore
the ruler of the kings of the earth, to Him who keeps on loving us and
released us from our sins by His blood. And He made us a kingdom of
priests to God and His father. To Him be the glory and the power
forever and ever.” He is also the mediator between God and mankind,
Job 9:2, 32–33. He is the mediator of the old covenant and of two new
covenants.
g. Sanctification has integrated you into a new covenant
with God as a priest. You are confirmed as a priest by positional
sanctification at the moment of salvation by the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. Postsalvation experiential sanctification occurs by the unique
spiritual life of human history. Ultimate sanctification is the
extension of our universal, royal priesthood into the eternal state.
There are three agents of this sanctification: God the Holy Spirit, 1
Cor 6:11; 2 Thes 2:13; 1 Pet 1:2; God the Son, Heb 10:10; 1 Cor 1:2,30;
Bible doctrine, Jn 17:17.

G. The New Covenant to The Church.
1. There are two new covenants, one which is operational right
now–the new covenant to the Church, and one which is eschatological
and will not be operational until the millennial reign of our Lord. A
priesthood demands a covenant. We have a new covenant to go with our
priesthood. Our new covenant is based on the Eucharist.
a. A covenant is defined as God’s gracious promises and
provisions for the Church. A covenant is a contract with a favorable
disposition. The favorable disposition is our salvation, our unique
spiritual life, and our resurrection.
b. There are two parties in this covenant to the Church and
one mediator. God the Father is one party. All Church believers are
the other party. Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new covenant to
the Church. 1 Tim 2:5–6, “For there is one God, and one mediator also
between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a
ransom substitute for all, the statement brought out in testimony of
its own time.” Heb 9:15, “And for this reason He is the mediator of a
new covenant, in order that since a death has taken place resulting in
the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first
covenant, those who are being called may receive the promise of an
eternal inheritance [a priesthood in a resurrection body in the eternal
state].” Our Lord is an intermediary between two parties to effect
reconciliation and to provide special benefits [your portfolio of
invisible assets] to the ones being reconciled. A mediator is an
intermediary between two parties to effect reconciliation. Jesus
Christ has reconciled us to God the Father by removing the barrier
between God and man.
c. Your spiritual life is based on what God the Father
provided through the mediator, God the Son, and the power of the Holy
Spirit. You are insulting all three members of the Trinity when you do
not execute this spiritual life.
2. The new covenant to Israel is used as an eschatological
illustration to challenge us to our spiritual life in the new covenant
to the Church. This is an illustration for application to the Church.
a. Heb 10:15–17 quotes Heb 8:8–12 and Jer 31:33–34, part of
the new covenant to Israel. “And the Holy Spirit bearing witness to
us; for after He said [Heb 8:8–12], `This is the covenant that I will
make with them [Israel in the millennium] after those days
[Tribulation],’ says the Lord. `I will put My laws upon their hearts
and upon their minds I will write them [Operation Z], Both their sins
and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.'”
b. Heb 10:18, “Now where there is forgiveness of these
things, there is no longer an offering for sin.” Jesus Christ was the
offering for sin, and we are forgiven all past sins the moment we
believe in Christ. There is a offering for sin in the millennium, Ezek
43:19, but not in our spiritual life under the royal priesthood of the
new covenant to the Church. There is no sin offering during the Church
Age.
c. Heb 10:19–23, “Since therefore, brethren, we have
confidence to enter the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way [the unique spiritual life of the Church Age] which He
opened for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a
great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart
in full assurance of doctrine, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our body washed with pure water [rebound]. Let us hold
fast the acknowledgement of our hope without wavering, for He is
faithful who promised.”
(1) Only the Levitical high priest could enter the Holy
of Holies during the old covenant on the day of Atonement. But now
that Jesus Christ has fulfilled the Law we can enter the Holy of
Holies.
(2) We, as priests, can now enter the Holy of Holies by
a new and living way. The “new and living way” is the new covenant to
the Church. There must be metabolized doctrine circulating in the
stream of consciousness and consistent use of rebound as the new and
living way. The quote from Jeremiah is used to illustrate this.
(3) Our Lord opened the veil for us into the Holy of
Holies. Mt 27:51; Mk 15:38 says that the veil was opened at the moment
of His physical death. After the destruction of Solomon’s temple by
Nebuchanezzer the Holy of Holies was empty. There was no ark of the
covenant and no mercy seat. Jesus Christ opened the veil to let people
into the empty room. The high priest kept going into an empty room and
sprinkling blood from the time of Zerubbabel’s temple. The veil was at
least thirty feet high (Josephus says it was ninety feet high; the
Midrash says it was sixty feet high; others said it was thirty feet
high) and eighteen inches thick. Why was it empty? Because the Holy
of Holies was no longer the Holy of Holies. It was empty to represent
the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ to the true Holy of Holies in
heaven. It was empty because our High Priest is in heaven and there is
a new covenant to the Church. When the Jews came back to Jerusalem
under Zerubbabel they had to operate on Bible doctrine in the soul.
The empty room meant they did not need the furniture any longer; they
had a soul full of metabolized doctrine, an anchor in the soul.
(4) We have an absolute confidence based on the empty
room, a reminder of the importance of metabolized doctrine in the soul,
Heb 6:18–20, “in order that by two immutable things [the sacred oath of
God and God Himself], by which it is impossible for God to lie, we who
have taken refuge might have strong motivation to seize the hope
[absolute confidence in the word of God] that is set before us, which
[hope] we have as an anchor of the soul both secure and reliable, and
one which enters [the Holy of Holies] behind the veil, where Jesus, our
advanced guard, has entered for us, having become a high priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek.” We take refuge in the doctrine
in our stream of consciousness. The Bible doctrine that fills your
soul gives you a full room in the soul. The empty room behind the veil
is filled by you. The anchor inside the veil is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our High Priest does not dwell between the cherubs but is seated at the
right hand of the Father in the true Holy of Holies. The empty room is
a reminder that we will enter the true Holy of Holies in heaven at the
resurrection.
(5) The “house of God” is the true Holy of Holies at
the right hand of God in heaven.
(6) Our hope is brought to completion by eternal
security related to salvation, by the unique spiritual life of history,
and by that day when our place in heaven will be fulfilled in our
resurrection body, which is represented on this earth by an empty room.
Tit 2:13; Rom 5:5; Rom 15:4, “…that through perseverance and the
encouragement of the Scripture we might have hope.” Our absolute
confidence is that we as priests are operating out of the true Holy of
Holies.
(7) Your body is now the veil and the anchor in the
soul is the indwelling of the person of Jesus Christ. Compare Col
1:27. The anchor represents a problem solving device for the storms of
life. The anchor prevents the ship from drifting off course and
stabilizes the ship in storms.
3. Lk 22:20, “And in the same way He took the cup after they had
eaten, saying, `This cup which is poured out as a substitute for you is
the new covenant with My blood.'”
a. This is the announcement of the new covenant to the
Church, not to Israel. We provide blessing for the new covenant to
Israel. The new covenant to Israel provides nothing for us.
b. The new covenant to the Church supercedes the old
covenant to Israel.
c. The Lord’s table or Eucharist was performed after the
last passover meal and was separate from it.
d. The new covenant to the Church is signed with the Lord’s
once and for all sacrifice on the Cross.
4. The priesthood of the new covenant is explained in Heb 8.
a. Heb 8:1–2, “But in addition to what is being said the
main point is this: we keep on having such a high priest, who sat down
at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a priest
of the Holy of Holies even the true tabernacle, which the Lord has
irrevocably established, not mankind.”
(1) The session of our Lord is the transfer of the Holy
of Holies on earth to the throne room of God in heaven. This is why
the veil of the Temple was split from top to bottom to reveal an empty
room. The Holy of Holies will never be moved again or be destroyed.
The true Holy of Holies is irrevocably established in the third heaven
forever. We have the only High Priest who has ever sat down in the
presence of God the Father, compare Heb 12:2, 9:12, 7:26, 10:12. Jesus
is sitting down in the true Holy of Holies because He has done
everything He can for you until the Rapture of the Church.
(2) The new covenant to the Church is different than
the new covenant to Israel because our High Priest is seated in
resurrection body in heaven. The only priesthood that will exist in
the eternal state is the priesthood of all Church Age believers.
(3) We have a high priest who is the only savior. He
is resurrected and making intercession for us. Jesus Christ is the
high priest of the new covenant to the Church. He is never a priest in
Israel. The descendants of Zadok are the priests of the new covenant
to Israel. Zadok was the high priest in the time of David. Jesus
Christ can never be a high priest to the old covenant. Ezek 43:19,
“`And you shall give to the Levitical priests who are from the
descendants of Zadok, who draw near to Me to minister to Me a young
bull for a sin offering,’ declares the Lord God.”
(4) The new covenant to Israel fulfilled in the
millennium is an extension of the Levitical priesthood of the old
covenant. The new covenant to Israel, which is not even operational
yet, can never rescind or supercede the old covenant to Israel, Heb
7:18. The new covenant to the Church supercedes the old covenant to
Israel.
b. Heb 8:3, “For every high priest is authorized to offer
both gifts [food offerings] and [animal] sacrifices; hence it is
necessary that this One also have something that He may offer.”
(1) Our Lord cannot offer anything in the Levitical
priesthood since He is not in the tribe of Levi. He will not be a
priest functioning in Israel in the millennium. He has His own
priesthood in the millennium–you in a resurrection body. The only
thing He has to offer is Himself as a sacrifice for sin. He offers to
those who believe in Him salvation, resurrection, eternal life, a
unique spiritual life, and a unique, eternal, royal, high priesthood.
(2) There were five Levitical offerings.
(a) The salvation offerings.
i. The burnt offering, which taught salvation
with emphasis on propitiation, Lev 1.
ii. The food offering, which taught salvation
with emphasis on the unique person of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union,
Lev 2.
iii. The peace offering, which taught salvation
with emphasis on reconciliation, Lev 3.
(b) The rebound offerings.
i. The sin offering, which taught rebound
with emphasis on the unknown or forgotten sins of the believer, Lev
4:13, 22, 27.
ii. The trespass offering, which taught
rebound with emphasis on the known sins, Lev 5.
c. Heb 8:4, “If on the one hand therefore He were on earth,
He would not even be a priest, for there are those who continue to
offer gifts in conformity with the Law.”
(1) This verse shows that this epistle was written
prior to the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 A.D. Our High
Priest was not on earth, but already ascended and in heaven. Yet from
30-70 A.D. the Levitical priesthood kept on offering animal sacrifices
according to the Mosaic Law, which had been rescinded by its
fulfillment by our Lord on the Cross.
(2) Jesus Christ will never be a priest to Israel in
the millennium. He is not from the tribe of Levi and the Levitical
priesthood will be revived during the millennium, Ezek 48:9. The
priesthood of Christ is for the Church Age and eternal state only.
(3) At the time of writing of Hebrews, Herod’s temple
was still operational with its perpetual offerings. Under the old
covenant to Israel, the Mosaic Law, Jesus Christ was and always will be
the royal high priest but never a Levitical priest. The descendants of
Zadok, son of Aaron, was the operational priesthood under the old
covenant to Israel in the past and the descendants will function as the
Levitical priesthood during the millennium. Because the humanity of
Christ was not descended from the tribe of Levi, He will never be
qualified to serve as a priest in the millennial Temple. When Jesus
Christ was appointed royal high priest forever in the divine decrees
(Ps 110:14), His royal high priesthood belongs exclusively to the
Church.
d. Heb 8:5, “who have been and still are serving as a
shadow-copy of heavenly things, just as Moses was warned when he was
about to erect the tabernacle; for, `See to it,’ he says, `that you
make all things according to the pattern which was made known to you in
the mountain.'”
(1) The temple and all of its functions were a shadow
copy of our Lord seated in the Holy of Holies. Compare Heb 10:1, “For
the Law having a shadow of coming good things but not the real image of
these events.”
(2) The reality of the shadow copy is our Lord’s work
of salvation on the Cross and His session in the third heaven as the
High Priest of the royal priesthood.
e. Heb 8:6, “But as the case now stands He has gained a more
excellent high priestly office by so much as He is also the mediator of
a better covenant, which has been legally enacted on the basis of
better promises.”
(1) Jesus Christ can only perform His high priestly
office outside of and separated from Israel. Therefore, the high
priestly function of Jesus Christ is for the Church Age only.
(2) The superiority of the royal priesthood of Jesus
Christ explains why there must be a new covenant to the Church.
(3) He had to be a priest to offer an efficacious
substitutionary sacrifice on the Cross and He had to be a mediator for
reconciliation of mankind to God.
(4) The superiority of the high priesthood of our Lord
explains the necessity for a new covenant to the Church. Jesus Christ
is the only mediator between God and mankind, therefore, He is the only
savior of mankind. It was as mediator and royal high priest that Jesus
Christ provided the efficacious, once-and-for-all sacrifice, Heb 7:26-
28, 9:13-14, 10:12-14. This sacrifice had to be offered by a priest-
mediator.
(5) Why is the new covenant to Israel quoted twice (Heb
8:8-12, 10:15-16) in the book of Hebrews, which deals with the new
covenant to the Church?
(a) It is quoted to demonstrate the doctrine that
the royal high priesthood of Christ under the new covenant to the
Church provides a better spiritual life for the Jews living in the
millennium under the new covenant to Israel, which is a better
spiritual life than the Jews had in the Old Testament. The Jews in the
millennium have a better spiritual life because of the new covenant to
the Church. It is the new covenant to the Church that provides the
spiritual life for the new covenant to Israel.
(b) The unique spiritual life of history belongs
to the new covenant to the Church under the sponsorship of the
priesthood of Jesus Christ, Heb 8:6.
(c) It was the prototype spiritual life of the
humanity of Jesus Christ as a royal high priest and mediator of the new
covenant to the Church which provided the efficacious sacrifice for
sin.
(d) This same prototype spiritual life was given
to every Church Age believer as the operational type spiritual life of
the royal priesthood of the dispensation of the Church.
(e) Furthermore it was the new covenant to the
Church with its unique spiritual life which rescinded and superceded
the old covenant to Israel. The reality replaced the shadows.
(f) In rescinding the old covenant to Israel by
the new covenant to the Church we now have history in contrast to
prophecy. When the new covenant to Israel is fulfilled in the
millennium, the two power options of that new covenant to the Church
(the filling of the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine in the soul) will be
given to every born again Jew as a restored client nation.
(g) The blessing of the new covenant to the Church
overflows to the new covenant to Israel in the millennium, Ezek 39:29;
Joel 2:28–9; Zech 4:6; 12:10. We are living the spiritual life that
will be given to the Jewish believers in the millennium.
(6) Why is Jesus Christ unique as a high priest?
(a) He is the only high priest who was appointed
in eternity past, Ps 110:4. This appointment did not become
operational until the virgin birth.
(b) Jesus Christ is the only high priest in
history to be born as Adam was created–perfect in His true humanity.
This was necessary for mediatorship.
(c) Jesus Christ is the only high priest in
history to be filled with the Holy Spirit from birth.
(d) Jesus Christ is the only high priest in
history to offer one efficacious sacrifice for sin, and He did it under
three principles.
i. As a priest, His substitutionary atonement
on the Cross resulted in propitiation, which is directed toward God.
ii. As a mediator, His substitutionary
atonement on the Cross resulted in reconciliation, which is directed
toward mankind.
iii. As impeccable humanity His substitutionary
atonement on the Cross resulted in redemption, which is directed toward
sin.
(e) Jesus Christ is the only high priest in
history to be both a priest and a mediator, 1 Tim 2:5–6; Heb 8:6, 9:15,
12:24. Our Lord made the decision to be a mediator. He was appointed
as a high priest by God the Father. Priesthood emphasizes the work of
salvation. Mediatorship emphasizes the way of salvation.
(f) Jesus Christ is the greatest hendiadys of all
human history, our priest-mediator. A hendiadys is a historical
representation in which a complex idea is expressed by two words
connected by a copulative, for example, “pastor-teacher.” Another
hendiadys in this context is “shadow-copy.” Another hendiadys is Jesus
Christ as the “God-man.”
(g) Jesus Christ is the only priest-mediator who
is both perfect humanity and undiminished deity in one person forever.
The reason for His humanity was to be a priest, to be a mediator, to be
a savior, to be a son of David.
(h) Jesus Christ is the only high priest in all of
human history to have a resurrection body and to be living in the true
Holy of Holies.
5. The new covenant to the Church rescinds and supercedes the old
covenant to Israel.
a. Heb 8:7, “For if that first [covenant] were faultless but
it was not, there would have been no place sought for a second [the new
covenant to the Church].”
(1) The new covenant to the Church supercedes and
rescinds the old covenant to Israel, Heb 7:17–28. Our spiritual life
is the greatest reality in relationship to God that has ever existed.
(2) The first covenant was not faultless because it was
based on physical birth. The old covenant to Israel is rescinded and
superceded by the new covenant to the Church, Heb 7:18–19.
(3) The Mosaic Law could not bring anyone to salvation.
The Mosaic Law does not produce the filling of the Spirit, Gal 3:2,3,5.
The Mosaic Law could not bring anyone to completion spiritually. The
baptism of the Holy Spirit and indwelling of the Trinity bring us to
completion in the execution of our spiritual life in the Church Age.
b. Heb 8:8–12, “For finding fault with them, He says
`Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will bring a new
covenant to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. Not like
the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took
them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did
not persevere in My covenant, and I neglected them, says the Lord. For
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, says the Lord; I will be giving My laws for the purpose of
their thinking, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be
their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach every
one his fellow-citizen, and every one his brother, saying, “Know the
Lord,” because everyone will know Me from the least to the greatest of
them, because I will be merciful with reference to their wrongdoings
and I will remember their sins no more.'”
(1) This is a quotation from the Septuagint of Jer
3:31-34.
(2) The spiritual life in every dispensation is always
a system of thinking. The spiritual life is given for the purpose of
thinking. You cannot think without prior cognition. If you cannot
think because of no prior cognition, you have no spiritual life. The
filling of the Holy Spirit is the based for the spiritual life during
the dispensation of the hypostatic union, the Church Age, and the
Millennium. All three dispensations have the two power options–the
filling of the Spirit and metabolized doctrine in the soul.
(3) Nothing of the past will ever be held against
Israel. They get a fresh start in the millennium with a new spiritual
life.
c. Heb 8:13, “With reference to what is said, `New,’ He
declares the first [covenant] obsolete. Then becoming obsolete and
growing old, it is near to the vanishing point.”
(1) The fact that the old covenant was near to
vanishing at the point of time of the writing of Hebrews indicates that
the new covenant to the Church superceded it.
(2) The basis for rescinding the old covenant to Israel
is the fact that the royal High Priest is infinitely and eternally
superior to any other high priest in history. The royal high
priesthood of the new covenant to the Church has provided a unique
spiritual life superceding any spiritual life before.
(3) We have a better High Priest, Heb 8:1–6.
(a) Jesus Christ as priest-mediator is perfect and
impeccable humanity in hypostatic union.
(b) As our High Priest, He offered Himself as the
only efficacious sacrifice, the basis for eternal salvation.
(c) As mediator between God and mankind in
conflict, He reconciled every human being in history who believes in
Him.
(d) Jesus Christ was the first High Priest in
history to be filling with the Holy Spirit.
(e) As our royal High Priest, Jesus Christ is the
first person in history to be resurrected.
(f) Only in the Church Age does our High Priest-
Mediator indwell the body of every believer, Col 1:27.
(4) We have a better covenant, Heb 8:6, 13.
(5) We have a better temple, Heb 8:6–16; 1 Cor 6:19.
(6) We have a better sacrifice, Heb 10:12, 14, “But He,
having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the
right had of God,…For by one offering He has brought to completion
for all time those who are being sanctified.”
d. The second quotation of the new covenant to Israel is
found in Heb 10:14–17, “For by one offering He has brought to
completion for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy
Spirit also bears witness to us for our advantage; for after saying,
`This is the covenant that I will make face-to-face with them after
those days,’ says the Lord. `I will put My laws upon their heart, and
upon their mind I will write them. Both their sins and their lawless
deeds I will remember no more.'”
(1) Jesus Christ is the only one qualified to offer a
sacrifice for sin. He is qualified because He was born perfect and by
the modus vivendi of His human life, living the prototype spiritual
life with temptations beyond anything we will ever face and remaining
perfect. He was qualified by the divine decrees, being appointed as a
high priest in eternity past. He was qualified by making the decision
to become a mediator. God the Father was satisfied with only one
sacrifice for sin. He was satisfied because He imputed all of our sins
to Christ for judgment. Only God the Father had to be propitiated, no
one else.
(2) Even though the believers of the millennium have
the filling of the Spirit, they do not have a sanctification in the
spiritual life such as we have. The spiritual life of the royal family
of God in the Church Age is unique. The spiritual life of millennial
believers has similarities, but our spiritual life is unique.
Millennial believers will have a similar spiritual to that of Church
Age believers, but the spiritual life of the Church Age is absolutely
unique.
(3) All believers will be brought to completion
spiritually by resurrection, whether winner or loser believer. This
quotation is given about the Jewish spiritual life in the future to
indicate that we have a present spiritual life under the filling of the
Spirit, indwelling of the Spirit, and faith-rest drill. Every believer
is sanctified (set apart unto God for the special purpose of glorifying
Him) at the moment of salvation.
(4) All past failures of Israel are blotted out forever
and they get a complete new start in the millennium. Salvation and
rebound are common to all believers in all dispensations. Everyone is
saved by faith alone in Christ alone, and everyone is restored to
fellowship by the rebound technique of 1 Jn 1:9. There is no spiritual
life apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.
e. Heb 2:8b-10, “But now we do not yet see all things having
been subjected to Him. But we see Jesus, who for a little while was
made lower than the angels, having been crowned with glory and honor
because of the suffering of [spiritual] death, that by the grace of God
He might taste death as a substitute for all. For it was fitting for
Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in
bringing many sons to glory, to bring to completion the leader of their
salvation through sufferings.”
(1) The ultimate of the spiritual life is occupation
with Christ, but first you must learn and use the power options, the
spiritual skills and the problem solving devices.
(2) Christ tasting death was His substitutionary
spiritual death on the Cross.
(3) Our Lord is the leader and originator of our
spiritual life and he brings us to completion in our spiritual life
just as He was brought to completion in His spiritual life. Being
brought to completion begins at salvation, continues in our spiritual
life, and ends in our resurrection. Compare Heb 12:2 (see below).
6. Heb 9:11–15, “But when Christ arrived on the scene a high
priest of the good things that have come, He entered through the
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to
say, not of this creation; but not through the blood of goats and young
bulls, but through His own blood, He entered the Holy of Holies once
for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats
and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those who have been
defiled, sanctify for the purpose of the purity of the flesh [and they
did], how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the agency of
the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this
reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that since a
death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that
were (committed) under the first covenant, those who have been called
may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
a. Jesus Christ is the anchor inside the veil. He has been
brought to completion by His spiritual life, by His efficacious
sacrifice for sin, and by His resurrection. He is the only human high
priest seated at the right hand of God in the true Holy of Holies in
resurrection body. The greater and more perfect tabernacle not made
with hands is the true Holy of Holies in heaven.
b. The high priest entered the Holy of Holies with the blood
of a young bull once for himself, Lev 16:11, and he entered a second
time with the blood of a goat for the sins of the people. These
sacrifices were a picture of substitutionary atonement of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Our Lord offered Himself as a willing sacrifice.
Reality replaced the Old Testament ritual.
c. The dispensation of the hypostatic union is a wall
between the Old Testament spiritual life and the royal priesthood of
the Church with its unique spiritual life. The shadow offerings are
replaced by the efficacious offering of our High Priest. The blood of
animals could not save. They could only teach the reality of the
future offering of Christ Himself as the salvation offering for sin.
d. Heb 9:1–5, “Now even the first covenant had regulations
of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle, the
first room was prepared, in which the lampstand, the table of
shewbread; this was classified the holy place. And behind the second
veil, there was a sacred room. This was classified the Holy of Holies,
having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on
all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holing the manna,
Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant. And above it
were the cherubs of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; but of these
things we cannot now speak in detail.”
e. The lid on the ark of the covenant is called the mercy
seat because of Rom 3:22–25, “even the righteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, (for there is no
distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God)
being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is
in Christ Jesus; whom God has publicly displayed a mercy seat through
faith in His blood, a demonstration of His righteousness, because of
the passing over of the sins previously committed.” (The phrase “by
the forbearance of God” belongs to verse 26.) All personal sins of
human history are passed over by God until all sins could be poured out
on Christ on the Cross for judgment.
f. The efficacious substitutionary sacrifice of our Lord
Jesus Christ on the Cross is greater than the shadow offerings of the
animal sacrifices of the Old Testament. Therefore it follows with
stronger reason that the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ has
an infinitely greater doctrinal significance. The high priesthood of
Jesus Christ has the greatest offering from the greatest power of the
greatest spiritual life that has ever existed. If God accomplished the
greater at the Cross, it follows a fortiori, that the lesser can be
accomplished in the postsalvation spiritual life of every royal priest
through the same spiritual mechanics that Christ used to endure the
Cross. If God accomplished the greater at the Cross, it follows a
fortiori, that He can provide the lesser in the unique spiritual life
of all human history.
g. Heb 12:2, “Be concentrating on Jesus, the leader-
originator of our doctrine, who because of His exhibited happiness He
endured the Cross, disregarding the shame, then He sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God.” The result is a unique and universal
royal priesthood of the Church Age. In 1 Pet 2:5 we are called a holy
priesthood, set apart unto God. In 1 Pet 2:9 we are called a royal
priesthood. In Rev 1:6 we are called a kingdom of priests. This is
why there was an empty room in the Holy of Holies in the temple in
Jerusalem.
7. The Empty Room and the Sacred Temple of the Church Age. You
are the sacred temple of the Church Age. God the Holy Spirit indwells
your body and creates a temple for the indwelling of Christ. This is
the basis for a phenomenal spiritual life.
a. The indwelling of God the Holy Spirit provides a temple,
a sacred building for the indwelling of Christ as the Shekinah Glory.
This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in indwelling.
(1) 1 Cor 3:16, “Do you not know that you are a temple
[sanctuary, sacred building] of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells
in you?”
(2) 1 Cor 6:19, “Or do you not know that your body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and
that you are not your own?” The only sacred room on earth is your body
after salvation. The only sacred room in heaven is at the right hand
of the Father.
b. The prophecy of the indwelling of Christ, Jn 14:20, “In
that day [Church Age] you shall come to know that I am with My Father
[session], and you are in Me [baptism of the Holy Spirit], and I in you
[indwelling of Christ in the body of every believer].”
(1) The Greek preposition EN plus the instrumental of
association indicates that a second party (in this case Jesus Christ)
furnishes the means by which our association with God the Father takes
place.
(2) Our Lord is not in the Father, He is with the
Father. Our high priest [the humanity of Christ] is at the right hand
of the Father in the Holy of Holies. The disciples would come to know
this because the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem remained an empty room.
(3) Jn 14:26 is the application, “But the Helper, the
Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you
all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
c. The cognition test relates to the sacred building of the
Church Age, 2 Cor 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the
doctrine; examine yourselves! Or do you not know this about yourselves
[from metabolized doctrine], that Christ is in you–unless you fail the
test?”
(1) You are a priest, which means you have a
responsibility to God that can only be fulfilled by your responsibility
to yourself. You have a responsibility to yourself to test yourself to
see if you understand Bible doctrine. You have the right in privacy to
determine your own status spiritually. The spiritual life is a private
matter between you and God. You are free to live your spiritual life
in private before God. Taking responsibility means correcting yourself
when you are wrong.
(2) In the spiritual life you have to understand
yourself and know when you failing. You examine yourself in the mirror
of the word of God in your soul. But you do not have a mirror in your
soul unless you have Bible doctrine resident in the seven compartments
of your stream of consciousness.
(3) You have to know that Christ indwells your body as
He indwelt the sacred Temple. If you do not know that you are indwelt
by Christ and the purpose for it, then you have failed the test.
d. The believer can execute the divine mandate of 2 Cor 13:5
because he is a priest.
e. From the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, our mentor
and our teacher, we learn about the indwelling of Jesus Christ, our
High Priest and Shekinah Glory, resulting in the transformation of our
lives. 2 Cor 3:17–18, “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the
Spirit of the Lord [is, there is] freedom. But we all, with unveiled
face looking into a mirror to produce a reflection–the glory of the
Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory [the
prototype spiritual life of our Lord] to glory [the operational
spiritual life of the Church Age], as it were by the agency of the
Lord, the Spirit.”
(1) The word “Lord” here is used for the deity of the
Holy Spirit.
(2) Where is the Holy Spirit located during the Church
Age? Indwelling your body to create a new Holy of Holies.
(3) You have freedom to live the spiritual life because
God the Holy Spirit indwells your body. You have a freedom as a
believer that no one can ever take from you though people may try
through gossip, legalism, and other things. Only you can destroy your
spiritual freedom.
(4) We are being transformed into the same spiritual
life which our Lord had during the Incarnation. Our spiritual life is
an image of His spiritual life.
(5) Our spiritual life is unveiled because there is no
fading glory in the spiritual life of the Church Age. If you live the
spiritual life, it is not a fading glory, but an increasing glory and
will reach its peak in the resurrection body of the eternal state.
f. There is only one sacred building or temple in the Church
Age–the believer’s body, Col 1:27, “to whom God willed to make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the absolute confidence of glory.”
g. The motivation from the indwelling of Christ is related
to the indwelling of the Spirit, 1 Jn 3:23–24.
(a) Your soul can either be an empty room with no
doctrine or it can be filled with the greatest things that have existed
in the history of the human race. The soul of the believer is the
sacred room in the Church Age. The believer is the only sacred
building during the Church Age. Jesus Christ as God indwells the body
of every believer (“Christ in you, the confidence of glory”). Your
body becomes a sacred body because God the Holy Spirit indwells your
body to make it a temple of God.
(b) Jeremiah made a great prophecy about the new
covenant to Israel concerning the ark of the covenant not being
remembered during the millennium, Jer 3:16, “`And it shall be in those
days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,’ declares the
Lord, `that people shall no longer say, “The ark of the covenant of the
Lord.” It will never even enter their minds or be remembered. It will
not be missed nor will another one ever be made.'” In the millennium
there will be a temple and a priesthood, but there will be an empty
Holy of Holies because the reality is in the person of Christ. The ark
of the covenant has not existed since 586 B.C. and will never exist
again. The ark was created by the enduement of the Holy Spirit and
could never be duplicated once destroyed.
(c) The message of Jeremiah to Israel is that in the
future they will not need the ark of the covenant. They will know the
doctrine in their souls. The new covenant to Israel is that the law of
God will be in their minds and written in their hearts. The Holy of
Holies is empty because the Jews in the millennium have Bible doctrine
in their souls.
8. The Empty Room and the Sacred Temple of the Millennium.
a. There is a new temple constructed in the millennium, but
it is not a sacred building. It is described in Ezek 40-44. It has a
Holy Place, a veil, and an empty Holy of Holies.
b. It is an empty room because believers in the millennium
will have a similar but not the same as spiritual life of the Church
Age. The empty room represents the spiritual life of the millennium.
Ezek 39:29 and Joel 2:28 explain the spiritual life and resultant empty
room of the millennial Temple.
(1) Ezek 39:29, “`And I will not hide My face from them
any longer, for I shall pour out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’
declares the Lord God.”
(2) Joel 2:28, “And it will come about after this that
I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters
will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see
visions.”
c. The Lord first pours out His Spirit on all Israel, and
then on all mankind. He can do this because every person who comes out
of the Tribulation alive will be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
d. The empty room in the millennial Temple indicates that
the spiritual life of Israel in the millennium is related to the new
covenant to Israel. The New Covenant to Israel is a prophecy that
describes the spiritual life of Israel in the millennium. We have a
unique spiritual life in the Church Age that is greater than the
spiritual life of the millennium, but we do have one thing in common–
the filling of the Holy Spirit. The empty room indicates that the two
spiritual lives a similar but not the same.
e. Heb 8:10 quotes Jer 31:33 concerning the New Covenant to
Israel, “For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after those days [Tribulation],’ says the Lord. `I will put My laws in
their minds; I will write them upon their hearts, then I will be their
God and they shall be My people.'” This explains the revival of the
Levitical priesthood and sacrifices during the millennium. This also
explains the total forgetfulness of the ark of the covenant during the
millennium, Jer 3:16. It will not be missed, nor will another ark ever
be made.
f. The true Holy of Holies of the millennial Temple is the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth as the God of Israel, as the
Shekinah Glory.

Read more: How can a man who is not a descendant of Aaron hold the Aaronic Priesthood? (Numbers 16:40; Heb. 7:13,14). | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1276097#ixzz0qIxusYN1

by John…. from http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1276097

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/17077006/19-The-Universal-Priesthood-of-the-Believer

(Compiled from scripture. as summarized from “Civilization”, By Orestes Augustus Brownson, T. Nourse, 1884)

Posts

Behind the Veil: The Purpose of Religion, The Purpose of This Life

The Lower & Higher Priesthoods

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The Priesthood and the Power of Oneness

The Aaronic & Melchizedek Priesthoods

The Difference Between the Priesthood & Prophets

The Doctrine of the Priesthood

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