Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 9:15-22

15 And he brought the people’s offering, and took the goat, which was the sin offering for the people, and slew it, and offered it for sin, as the first.

16 And he brought the burnt offering, and offered it according to the manner.

17 And he brought the meat offering, and took an handful thereof, and burnt it upon the altar, beside the burnt sacrifice of the morning.

18 He slew also the bullock and the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings, which was for the people: and Aaron’s sons presented unto him the blood, which he sprinkled upon the altar round about,

19 And the fat of the bullock and of the ram, the rump, and that which covereth the inwards, and the kidneys, and the caul above the liver:

20 And they put the fat upon the breasts, and he burnt the fat upon the altar:

21 And the breasts and the right shoulder Aaron waved for a wave offering before the Lord; as Moses commanded.

22 And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them, and came down from offering of the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and peace offerings.

In the last section Aaron performed the offerings for himself, with the help of his sons, and next he performed the offerings for the general population of Israel. Once again, his sons assisted by presenting the blood for sprinkling. Now, at last, everyone had been sanctified. Everyone had been committed to the Lord.

Admittedly, Moses was perhaps an outlier in this moment. I suppose he could be considered part of the body of Israel, a subject of this general offering that Aaron just completed. On the other hand, we could definitely say that his sanctification and purification had already transpired during one of his visits to the mountain. He did appear once with a shining face after all, which sounds pretty sanctified! Thus, by one way or another, Moses, Aaron, the priests, and all the Israelites were now one in God.

Aaron commemorated this moment by pronouncing a blessing upon the people. We do not read the words that he said, but this further shows the fatherly relationship he had to the great Israelite family.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Faith vs Works- The Problem

A Seeming Contradiction)

Jesus taught, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven,” (Matthew 7:21). Clearly, simply confessing Jesus as your savior and relying on faith is not sufficient to be saved. As Jesus says, we have to do the will of his Father. We must rely on good works.

Oh wait, but in the very next verses Jesus says, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity,” (Matthew 7:22-23). In these verses, the people are describing the good works that they did in his name, yet they too are rejected. So maybe the works aren’t that important?

It does occur to me, that Jesus might possibly be describing two different groups of people here. Perhaps he saw our very day, where we have people that claim salvation by faith alone, and other people who claim salvation by their works, and in these verses, he calls both out as hypocrites and refutes both their theologies.

It certainly does not seem a good thing how this faith vs works debate has divided believers for thousands of years. Could it be that Satan fosters divisions such as this between the believers, goading each side to entrench more firmly on their own false belief, while all the while there was a simple truth that could have unified both camps?

Both Essential)

In this study, I will consider the scriptures that have caused the most confusion and division on the matter, the insufficient attempts that have been made to reconcile them, and finally I will illustrate how the LDS practice of proxy ordinances for the dead fully accounts for both views. I should point out that not every reader will be able to accept that solution, due to theological differences. Even so, I do think it will still be instructive for those readers to dive into this conundrum and start to wonder whether it is possible for there to be some solution to it.

I do believe that God’s word is true, and that if Jesus and his disciples made two different assertions, then we should assume that both of those assertions are true. If the two assertions seem contradictory, then rather than assume that one of them is wrong, we should assume that it is our perspective and interpretation of them that is off. Perhaps we need to think bigger, or change our view, or look through a different lens, that we may properly see how the two truths align in one.