The Events of Testimony Lead to the Events of Conversion
by kenh » Sun May 12, 2013 5:38 pm
The Events of Testimony lead to the Events of Conversion
Alma 12:10,11
10 “And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full.
11 And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell.”
The lesser portion of the word and the greater portion of the word together constitute the fulness of the gospel.
The Lesser portion of the word -The events of testimony
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
Repentance
Baptism
Gift of the Holy Ghost
Melchezedek Priesthood
Washing and Anointing
Endowment
Temple Marriage
The Greater portion of the word - The events of conversion
Purification
Baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost (This cleanses us of all sin and we no longer desire to sin at all.)
Born Again (No longer struggling to overcome the natural man. Spiritually begotten sons and daughters unto Christ. Mosiah 27:25,26)
Fulness of the Priesthood By God’s own voice (Helaman 10 D&C 50:26-30 JST Gen:14:28-31)
Personally know Christ face to face (D&C 93:1)
Sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise (The Father tells you that you are going to be exalted)
Calling and election made sure
Sanctification (and by the blood (of Christ) ye are sanctified) Truly becoming a saint.
Church of the Firstborn (Lds members who are prepared for exaltation and those who are already exalted are members of this church)
Possible translation
The above events can happen in any order that the Lord chooses them to happen. These could be even years apart from each other. Testimony gets one through the temple where promises of becoming converted are made. The events of conversion take place as the blessings of the promises made in the temple become realty in this life. When we are washed and are promised to become clean in the initiatory session of the temple it becomes fulfilled when the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost make those promises reality in this life. “And by the Spirit ye are purified.” Thus the Holy Ghost becomes a “purifier”. And thus we are made pure by fire, an interesting play on words. Now to let us speak of the Holy Priesthood of God. We have a man confer it upon us but we, when we become truly converted, receive the fulness of the Priesthood from Christ Himself by His own voice. Testimony alone will not save us. Those members of the church who only have a testimony, (the lesser portion of the word) who do not become converted, (i.e. those who harden their hearts) will fall away. These are the future tares and the unwise virgins. Elder Bednar’s comparison of the Ten Virgins wherein he states that the lamps represent testimony and the oil in the lamps represents conversion is wonderfully true. Only those who become truly converted to the Lord survive the cleansing of the church. The following is from Heber C. Kimball of the necessity of becoming converted unto the Lord.
"Let me say to you, that many of you will see the time when you will have all the trouble, trial and persecution that you can stand, and plenty of opportunities to show that you are true to God and his work. This Church has before it many close places through which it will have to pass before the work of God is crowned with victory. To meet the difficulties that are coming, it will be necessary for you to have a knowledge of the truth of this work for yourselves. The difficulties will be of such a character that the man or woman who does not possess this personal knowledge or witness will fall. If you have not got the testimony, live right and call upon the Lord and cease not till you obtain it. If you do not, you will not stand.
The time will come when no man nor woman will be able to endure on borrowed light. Each will have to be guided by the light within himself. If you do not have it, how can you stand? Do you believe it?
How is it now? You have the First Presidency, from whom you can get counsel to guide you, and you rely upon them. The time will come when they will not be with you. Why? Because they will have to flee and hide up to keep out of the hands of their enemies. You have the Twelve now. You will not always have them, for they too will be hunted and will have to keep out of the way of their enemies. You have other men to whom you look for counsel and advice. Many of them will not be amongst you, for the same reason. You will be left to the light within yourselves. If you don't have it you will not stand; therefore seek for the testimony of Jesus and cleave unto it, that when the trying time comes you may not stumble and fall." [Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, pp.450-451]
The phrase that President Kimball uses,“and cleave unto it” means becoming converted totally to Jesus Christ. Only Christ can save us. Let me explain further in greater detail.
The need to be blessed with seeing and knowing for ourselves.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught,”A man can only be saved as fast as he gets knowledge.” The Doctrine and Covenants section 76:117 states,“To whom he grants this privilege of seeing and knowing for themselves.” How does a desire to believe become knowledge that saves?
Knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ lives begins with a desire to believe. This desire to believe must be tested to see if we really want to believe. Once tested, we then believe. But with this new belief we feel that it is not enough just to believe. We desire to have faith. This desire to have faith must be tested to see if we really want true faith. Once we have passed those tests, then we can claim hold upon faith. Now faith is the assurance of things unseen, yet true. Only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints teaches the complete truth concerning the doctrines, nature and characteristics of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Exercising faith IS following the Light of Christ (Obeying our conscience-the voice of Christ-Choosing the right) and obeying the promptings of the Holy Ghost. They are unseen, yet are true messengers speaking the truth to us. This is what is meant by hearkening unto the voice of the Lord in the scriptures. By consistently exercising faith we desire to know the truth perfectly. This desire to know must be tested, in many ways we are tested far more than the previous tests on our upward climb toward perfect knowledge because knowing with perfect knowledge is one of the greatest gifts that God can give, for it will lead to the greatest gift God can give - eternal life. (John 17:3) Everyone at this point must gain heavenly help like never before. Ironically, we have all had a desire to believe, then believed, we have had a desire to have faith, and through much effort acquired faith and now as if we had been climbing a mountain we cannot see the peak just yet but the incline is very steep before us, shrouded in dense clouds and we say to ourselves,“I can see from here the beautiful valley below. I wonder what I will be able to see from the summit. But I cannot see how to get there. I will just settle for this view that I have now.” This is what the Lord calls, ironically, our unbelief. We have a testimony, but we are not yet truly converted. We keep telling ourselves with Satan’s help that we are not able to know Christ personally in this life. “The prophets were able to climb to the summit and were blessed with seeing and knowing and others such as the people in the 11th chapter of 3rd Nephi were blessed to come to know Christ, but alas, this is as far as I can climb. Maybe when I die, I will meet the Savior after I pass beyond the veil.” We cannot cast off our unbelief and gain the strength to climb through the clouds and reach the summit and thus know Christ in this life without divine help. We must accept fully that we are equally loved as any prophet who has come before us. We must accept God as a God who is no respecter of persons. Only God can empower us with that understanding and strength needed to remove from us our unbelief and then and only then we will become truly converted to Christ. We cannot do this alone. Once these tests to desire to know are passed then we come to know perfectly by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus lives. What once started out as a desire to believe has become perfect knowledge essential to our eternal happiness. We are on our way to becoming truly converted and not just a person with a testimony.
Repentance of all of our sins is required by all. Gaining forgiveness for our sins brings us peace and joy as we draw nearer to God, our Eternal Father, through His Son, our Redeemer and Savior, Jesus Christ. But forgiveness of our sins is not enough to qualify us for eternal life. We must be cleansed of all sin. We enter the holy temple to make covenants with God that if obeyed fully will not only convert us completely to Christ but make possible for us to gain eternal life. We get washed and anointed in the temple. One of the promises is that we will become clean of the blood of this generation. The watery baptism and the baptism of the Holy Ghost - The laying on of hands to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost - unlock the power of the Atonement of Christ. But we are not yet born again nor truly converted until we experience the last baptism, the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost and become spiritually begotten sons or daughters unto Christ. (Mosiah 25:26,27) The promise of becoming clean in the initiatory session of the temple is fulfilled with the reception of the event know as the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. Then we ARE truly cleansed are all sin and become spiritually begotten of Jesus Christ and without this wonderful event we cannot gain eternal life. Repentance is another event of testimony that leads to true conversion of our souls to Christ. Yes, there are instances when people, like Cornelius in the New Testament, and the 300 Lamanties who sought the lives of Nephi and Lehi in the Book of Mormon experienced the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost before they were baptized by water and the baptism of the Holy Ghost - the gift of the Holy Ghost. But for us latter-day saints the process usually runs in the prescribed order.
The endowment in the temple is where we make certain eternal covenants. These sacred covenants are two way contracts with God. We promise God that we will obey fully the requirements of these sacred covenants. He promises us that we will become truly converted and come to know Jesus Christ and God the Father in this life. As we progress in the ceremony, we are drawing nearer to the veil that separates us from the presence of the Lord. If we keep these covenants fully, and as mentioned above with God’s divine help in casting off of our unbelief, we can have Christ step through the veil and be in His presence in this life.
The events of testimony are designed to inspire us and lead us to the events of conversion. God does not want us just to have a testimony that could be denied when trials and tribulations come. For the winds will blow and the rains will descend and beat upon our house as the Savior said and if we only have a testimony built upon sand (the lessor portion of the word) we will not stand. But sand can become stone. Through the forces of nature sand must be pressed together with tremendous pressure and become chemically changed in order to solidify into sold rock. So must our testimonies pass through the spiritual processes of trials and obedience and with divine help surmount the summits of doubt and unbelief to produce a soul that is truly converted, truly changed within, truly built upon a foundation of sold rock which is Jesus Christ. This foundation of rock is knowledge that He lives and that we, because of Him, know that we are blessed with the events of conversion in our lives and that when the trials and tribulations descend upon us and all others, that we will not stumble and fall but stand, standing firm in the knowledge that only comes through the process of true conversion to Christ, the Lord. May we all become converted and so blessed by Him who mighty to save, in Jesus name, amen.
Alma 12:10,11
10 “And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full.
11 And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell.”
The lesser portion of the word and the greater portion of the word together constitute the fulness of the gospel.
The Lesser portion of the word -The events of testimony
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
Repentance
Baptism
Gift of the Holy Ghost
Melchezedek Priesthood
Washing and Anointing
Endowment
Temple Marriage
The Greater portion of the word - The events of conversion
Purification
Baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost (This cleanses us of all sin and we no longer desire to sin at all.)
Born Again (No longer struggling to overcome the natural man. Spiritually begotten sons and daughters unto Christ. Mosiah 27:25,26)
Fulness of the Priesthood By God’s own voice (Helaman 10 D&C 50:26-30 JST Gen:14:28-31)
Personally know Christ face to face (D&C 93:1)
Sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise (The Father tells you that you are going to be exalted)
Calling and election made sure
Sanctification (and by the blood (of Christ) ye are sanctified) Truly becoming a saint.
Church of the Firstborn (Lds members who are prepared for exaltation and those who are already exalted are members of this church)
Possible translation
The above events can happen in any order that the Lord chooses them to happen. These could be even years apart from each other. Testimony gets one through the temple where promises of becoming converted are made. The events of conversion take place as the blessings of the promises made in the temple become realty in this life. When we are washed and are promised to become clean in the initiatory session of the temple it becomes fulfilled when the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost make those promises reality in this life. “And by the Spirit ye are purified.” Thus the Holy Ghost becomes a “purifier”. And thus we are made pure by fire, an interesting play on words. Now to let us speak of the Holy Priesthood of God. We have a man confer it upon us but we, when we become truly converted, receive the fulness of the Priesthood from Christ Himself by His own voice. Testimony alone will not save us. Those members of the church who only have a testimony, (the lesser portion of the word) who do not become converted, (i.e. those who harden their hearts) will fall away. These are the future tares and the unwise virgins. Elder Bednar’s comparison of the Ten Virgins wherein he states that the lamps represent testimony and the oil in the lamps represents conversion is wonderfully true. Only those who become truly converted to the Lord survive the cleansing of the church. The following is from Heber C. Kimball of the necessity of becoming converted unto the Lord.
"Let me say to you, that many of you will see the time when you will have all the trouble, trial and persecution that you can stand, and plenty of opportunities to show that you are true to God and his work. This Church has before it many close places through which it will have to pass before the work of God is crowned with victory. To meet the difficulties that are coming, it will be necessary for you to have a knowledge of the truth of this work for yourselves. The difficulties will be of such a character that the man or woman who does not possess this personal knowledge or witness will fall. If you have not got the testimony, live right and call upon the Lord and cease not till you obtain it. If you do not, you will not stand.
The time will come when no man nor woman will be able to endure on borrowed light. Each will have to be guided by the light within himself. If you do not have it, how can you stand? Do you believe it?
How is it now? You have the First Presidency, from whom you can get counsel to guide you, and you rely upon them. The time will come when they will not be with you. Why? Because they will have to flee and hide up to keep out of the hands of their enemies. You have the Twelve now. You will not always have them, for they too will be hunted and will have to keep out of the way of their enemies. You have other men to whom you look for counsel and advice. Many of them will not be amongst you, for the same reason. You will be left to the light within yourselves. If you don't have it you will not stand; therefore seek for the testimony of Jesus and cleave unto it, that when the trying time comes you may not stumble and fall." [Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, pp.450-451]
The phrase that President Kimball uses,“and cleave unto it” means becoming converted totally to Jesus Christ. Only Christ can save us. Let me explain further in greater detail.
The need to be blessed with seeing and knowing for ourselves.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught,”A man can only be saved as fast as he gets knowledge.” The Doctrine and Covenants section 76:117 states,“To whom he grants this privilege of seeing and knowing for themselves.” How does a desire to believe become knowledge that saves?
Knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ lives begins with a desire to believe. This desire to believe must be tested to see if we really want to believe. Once tested, we then believe. But with this new belief we feel that it is not enough just to believe. We desire to have faith. This desire to have faith must be tested to see if we really want true faith. Once we have passed those tests, then we can claim hold upon faith. Now faith is the assurance of things unseen, yet true. Only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints teaches the complete truth concerning the doctrines, nature and characteristics of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Exercising faith IS following the Light of Christ (Obeying our conscience-the voice of Christ-Choosing the right) and obeying the promptings of the Holy Ghost. They are unseen, yet are true messengers speaking the truth to us. This is what is meant by hearkening unto the voice of the Lord in the scriptures. By consistently exercising faith we desire to know the truth perfectly. This desire to know must be tested, in many ways we are tested far more than the previous tests on our upward climb toward perfect knowledge because knowing with perfect knowledge is one of the greatest gifts that God can give, for it will lead to the greatest gift God can give - eternal life. (John 17:3) Everyone at this point must gain heavenly help like never before. Ironically, we have all had a desire to believe, then believed, we have had a desire to have faith, and through much effort acquired faith and now as if we had been climbing a mountain we cannot see the peak just yet but the incline is very steep before us, shrouded in dense clouds and we say to ourselves,“I can see from here the beautiful valley below. I wonder what I will be able to see from the summit. But I cannot see how to get there. I will just settle for this view that I have now.” This is what the Lord calls, ironically, our unbelief. We have a testimony, but we are not yet truly converted. We keep telling ourselves with Satan’s help that we are not able to know Christ personally in this life. “The prophets were able to climb to the summit and were blessed with seeing and knowing and others such as the people in the 11th chapter of 3rd Nephi were blessed to come to know Christ, but alas, this is as far as I can climb. Maybe when I die, I will meet the Savior after I pass beyond the veil.” We cannot cast off our unbelief and gain the strength to climb through the clouds and reach the summit and thus know Christ in this life without divine help. We must accept fully that we are equally loved as any prophet who has come before us. We must accept God as a God who is no respecter of persons. Only God can empower us with that understanding and strength needed to remove from us our unbelief and then and only then we will become truly converted to Christ. We cannot do this alone. Once these tests to desire to know are passed then we come to know perfectly by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus lives. What once started out as a desire to believe has become perfect knowledge essential to our eternal happiness. We are on our way to becoming truly converted and not just a person with a testimony.
Repentance of all of our sins is required by all. Gaining forgiveness for our sins brings us peace and joy as we draw nearer to God, our Eternal Father, through His Son, our Redeemer and Savior, Jesus Christ. But forgiveness of our sins is not enough to qualify us for eternal life. We must be cleansed of all sin. We enter the holy temple to make covenants with God that if obeyed fully will not only convert us completely to Christ but make possible for us to gain eternal life. We get washed and anointed in the temple. One of the promises is that we will become clean of the blood of this generation. The watery baptism and the baptism of the Holy Ghost - The laying on of hands to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost - unlock the power of the Atonement of Christ. But we are not yet born again nor truly converted until we experience the last baptism, the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost and become spiritually begotten sons or daughters unto Christ. (Mosiah 25:26,27) The promise of becoming clean in the initiatory session of the temple is fulfilled with the reception of the event know as the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. Then we ARE truly cleansed are all sin and become spiritually begotten of Jesus Christ and without this wonderful event we cannot gain eternal life. Repentance is another event of testimony that leads to true conversion of our souls to Christ. Yes, there are instances when people, like Cornelius in the New Testament, and the 300 Lamanties who sought the lives of Nephi and Lehi in the Book of Mormon experienced the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost before they were baptized by water and the baptism of the Holy Ghost - the gift of the Holy Ghost. But for us latter-day saints the process usually runs in the prescribed order.
The endowment in the temple is where we make certain eternal covenants. These sacred covenants are two way contracts with God. We promise God that we will obey fully the requirements of these sacred covenants. He promises us that we will become truly converted and come to know Jesus Christ and God the Father in this life. As we progress in the ceremony, we are drawing nearer to the veil that separates us from the presence of the Lord. If we keep these covenants fully, and as mentioned above with God’s divine help in casting off of our unbelief, we can have Christ step through the veil and be in His presence in this life.
The events of testimony are designed to inspire us and lead us to the events of conversion. God does not want us just to have a testimony that could be denied when trials and tribulations come. For the winds will blow and the rains will descend and beat upon our house as the Savior said and if we only have a testimony built upon sand (the lessor portion of the word) we will not stand. But sand can become stone. Through the forces of nature sand must be pressed together with tremendous pressure and become chemically changed in order to solidify into sold rock. So must our testimonies pass through the spiritual processes of trials and obedience and with divine help surmount the summits of doubt and unbelief to produce a soul that is truly converted, truly changed within, truly built upon a foundation of sold rock which is Jesus Christ. This foundation of rock is knowledge that He lives and that we, because of Him, know that we are blessed with the events of conversion in our lives and that when the trials and tribulations descend upon us and all others, that we will not stumble and fall but stand, standing firm in the knowledge that only comes through the process of true conversion to Christ, the Lord. May we all become converted and so blessed by Him who mighty to save, in Jesus name, amen.
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