Mosiah 15

(All of my own thoughts are in red type 6/20 green 3/21 orange 6/22 Brown 2023.)

Chapter 15

How Christ is both the Father and the Son—He will make intercession and bear the transgressions of His people—They and all the holy prophets are His seed—He brings to pass the Resurrection—Little children have eternal life. About 148 B.C.

  1 And now Abinadi said unto them: I would that ye should understand that ^aGod himself shall ^bcome down among the children of men, and shall ^credeem his people. It seems to follow, that for the sake of the priests that Abinadi quoted the last chapter to teach them about Jesus Christ.
  2 And because he ^adwelleth in ^bflesh he shall be called the ^cSon of God, and having subjected the flesh to the ^dwill of the ^eFather, being the Father and the Son
  3 The Father, ^abecause he was ^bconceived by the power of God; not sure why this makes Him the Father...sounds like a thing that would make Him the Son...maybe it is because the power to atone and be resurrected came from the Father thus giving Him the authority to become our spiritual Father and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and Son—
  4 And they are ^aone God, does "they" mean Jesus as the Father and the Son are one God, or "they" meaning God the Father and Jesus, His Son are "one God"? I kind of like the meaning of the first. I have always heard they are one God as meaning the Father and Son are "one" in purpose. But what if it just means Jesus Himself is "one God" being our Spiritual Father when we "take His name upon us" and the literal physical Son of God the Father. yea, the very ^bEternal ^cFather of heaven and of earth. (continuing...) Because he created the earth, all mortals are under His salvation and rule and our "heavenly" outcome is conditioned upon our response to His Atoning Sacrifice and keeping His commandments. 
     5 And thus the flesh becoming subject to the Spirit, or the Son to the Father, being one God, again...is this the 'flesh' of Jesus being subject to the 'spirit' Jesus? or the Son Jesus being subject to the Father Eloheim?^asuffereth temptation, and yieldeth not to the temptation, but suffereth himself to be mocked, and ^bscourged, and cast out, and disowned by his ^cpeople.

Something to ponder: 
The New and Everlasting Covenant by Chauncey Riddle given at The 1989 Sperry Symposium on the Doctrine and Covenants
   “We begin with the concept of our God. We know of three beings who are our God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost  1. These three are individuals, yet they are also one, and furthermore, they invite every human being to become one with them  2. The good news of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is that God is our Father and invites us to become as he is and one with him through his son Jesus Christ.
   Though there be gods and lords many, there is but one God, and that God is the priesthood–ordered community of all the righteous exalted beings who exist. To be invited to join them by hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to receive the greatest message in the universe; to be enabled to join them by receiving the New and Everlasting Covenant is to have the greatest opportunity in the universe; to be joined with them is the greatest gift in the universe, which gift is life eternal, sharing with them all the good they have and are.
    This good which they share is righteousness. Righteousness is that necessary order of social relationships in which beings of knowledge and power must bind themselves in order to live together in accomplishment and happiness for eternity. They bind themselves to each other with solemn covenants to become predictable, dependable and united so that they can be trusted. They bind themselves to be honest, true, chaste and benevolent so that they can do good for all other beings, which good they do by personal sacrifice to fulfill all righteousness.
    The contrary of this good is evil. Evil is departing from God’s order of righteousness by twisting and/or diminishing it. Evil enables one being in a social order to fulfill his own personal desires at the expense of others, thus to be a law unto himself.”

  6 And after all this, after working many mighty miracles among the children of men, for our day it's important to see that even while people were choosing evil, He still showed mercy by performing miracles for the humble and believing among them...he shall be led, yea, even ^aas Isaiah said, as a sheep before the shearer is dumb, so he ^bopened not his mouth. I love that they had Isaiah too...
  7 Yea, even so he shall be led, ^acrucified, and slain, the ^bflesh becoming subject even unto death, the ^cwill of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father.
  8 And thus God the Father? breaketh the ^abands of death, having gained the ^bvictory over death; giving the Son sounds like this goes with the "God" first named...power to make ^cintercession for the children of men—Jesus got his power from God His Father. 
  9 Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion towards the children of men; standing betwixt them and justice; having broken the bands of death, taken upon ^ahimself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and ^bsatisfied the demands of justice. The effect of atoning for our sins on Christ was compassion not vengeance. Why then, do we want justice so much for other sinners but mercy for ourselves? I think if we really understood each person, we would look upon their sins with compassion. We were all born innocent children. Imperfect things happen to that perfect child to shape their beliefs and reactions and responses to life. If they act badly, and you traced it back, you would find an innocent child that understood their imperfect life and circumstances incorrectly, through no fault of their own. The “traditions of their fathers” are passed on. Jesus meets all that with perfect understanding and compassion and willingly atoned to make ALL of it perfect in the end, IF we come unto Him and repent and believe on His name. One should also consider the premortal soul's condition and level of commitment and faithfulness, I would think. How does that translate here on earth?
 10 And now I say unto you, who shall declare his ^ageneration? This is from Isaiah... Behold, I say unto you, that when his soul has been made an offering for ^bsin he shall see his ^cseed. And now what say ye? And who shall be his seed?
 11 Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the ^aprophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, this could be a reference supporting the idea that being born again is an event ("that day") I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the ^bkingdom of God. If we want to become heirs of the kingdom of God, then we need to become His seed (be born again) and we do that by hearing and acting on the word of God; believing that we can repent and have our sins remitted and actually repenting. I can only imagine how Christ must feel when we refuse to repent for sins He already atoned for. We need to believe that we need to seek Him diligently until we are born again.
 12 For these are they whose sins ^ahe has borne; these are they for whom he has died, to redeem them from their transgressions. And now, are they not his seed?
 13 Yea, and are not the ^aprophets, every one that has opened his mouth to prophesy, that has not fallen into transgression, does this say that some prophets have fallen into transgression or can, meaning they are not infallable? I mean all the holy prophets ever since the world began? I say unto you that they are his seed.
 14 And these are ^athey who have published peace, who have brought good ^btidings of good, who have ^cpublished salvation; and said unto Zion: Thy God reigneth!
 15 And O how beautiful upon the mountains were their feet! the prophets
 16 And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace! living prophets
 17 And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who shall hereafter publish peace, yea, from this time henceforth and forever! future prophets
 18 And behold, I say unto you, this is not all. For O how beautiful upon the mountains are the ^afeet of him that bringeth good tidings, that is the founder of ^bpeace, yea, even the Lord, who has redeemed his people; yea, him who has granted salvation unto his people; Abinadi is just now answering the priest’s original question - "Who was Isaiah talking about when he said, “how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that bringeth good tidings.”
 19 For were it not for the redemption which he hath made for his people, which was prepared from the ^afoundation of the world, I say unto you, were it not for this, all mankind must have ^bperished. Abinadi is speaking and Alma is converted and it is his son Alma that has the experience of being in the 'gall of bitterness' to know what it feels like to 'perish'. I wonder if some of the anguish that caused Alma to pray for his son was about his fear that he would ultimately 'perish' without redemption....I have always thought of Alma having his son Alma the younger after he was converted. But what if he was already a young man and then his father converted, but he did not? That would explain more easily why he was acting the way he was. He was raised under the wicked King Noah's rule and cultural deceptions. 
 20 But behold, the bands of death shall be broken, and the Son reigneth, and hath power over the dead; therefore, he bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead.
 21 And there cometh a resurrection, even a ^afirst resurrection; yea, even a resurrection of those that have been, and who are, and who shall be, even until the resurrection of Christ—for so shall he be called.
 22 And now, the resurrection of all the prophets, and all those that have believed in their words, or all those that have kept the commandments of God, shall come forth in the first resurrection; therefore, they are the first resurrection.
 23 They are raised to ^adwell with God who has redeemed them; thus they have eternal life through Christ, who has ^bbroken the bands of death.
 24 And these are those who have part in the first resurrection; and these are they that have died before Christ came, in their ignorance, not having ^asalvation declared unto them. And thus the Lord bringeth about the restoration of these; and they have a part in the first resurrection, or have eternal life, being redeemed by the Lord.
 25 And little ^achildren also have eternal life.
 26 But behold, and ^afear, and tremble before God, for ye ought to tremble; for the Lord redeemeth none such that ^brebel against him and ^cdie in their sins; yea, even all those that have perished in their sins ever since the world began, that have wilfully rebelled against God, that have known the commandments of God, and would not keep them; ^dthese are they that have ^eno part in the first ^fresurrection.
 27 Therefore ought ye not to tremble? For salvation cometh to none such; for the Lord hath redeemed none such; yea, neither can the Lord redeem such; for he cannot deny himself; for he cannot deny ^ajustice when it has its claim.
 28 And now I say unto you that the time shall come that the ^asalvation of the Lord shall be declared to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. If I take this literally, then something will happen so that the 7.5 billion people on the earth (or whatever number are alive at the time this happens) will all have the truth declared to them so that they can either accept or rebel before the great and final cleansing of the wicked on the earth.
 29 Yea, Lord, ^athy ^bwatchmen shall lift up their voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Perhaps this "time" will be linked to the establishment of Zion. How else can the prophecy be fulfilled that "he who will not lift up his sword against his neighbor must flee to Zion" if they don't know what/where/who Zion is?
 30 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
 31 The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the ^asalvation of our God. Again...when is this day? Is it before the Second Coming? And is “his arm” a person or the “arm” of His power?