Week, 22 -- March 2, 2020

The Blueprints of the Church of God

Hello Everyone!!

This week has been a good one!! I have been thinking a lot about The Restoration and the formation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints this week. As I have been Reading, "Saints," It has been on my mind a lot more. Also, it feels like as I have been thinking and studying about it more, I've been teaching about it a lot more as well, it seems to have been coming up a lot more in discussions (How interesting, An All-Knowing God is involved in preparing His missionaries for the people that they teach? Who knew?)

A few days ago, we were contacting in the park, and two Jehovah's Witnesses came over to us and started a conversation. We just talked for a little bit about missionary work and such, and then started to talk about our beliefs. We talked a lot about the things that we have in common, and then talked about what we believe differently.

After a while of talking to these men, we had gone back and forth about interpretations of the Bible and shared what we believe and we were starting to conclude when one of them said something that really struck my interest. He said, "Well of course we have our differences, but let me ask you a question, In the Bible, Jesus commands His followers to share His gospel (Matthew 28: 18-20,) and what religions are doing that?" And so of course, we looked at the bible in each of their hands, and the Books of Mormon in ours, and said, "We both are." He smiled and said something about how that means that we are following what Christ commanded in the Bible, and so our differences aside, we are both following Christ's church.

And he ended the conversation at that and we shook hands and left. Well, that led us to realizing how big of a loophole they'd just put themselves in. Them saying that, means that something that Jesus Christ commanded when He organized His true church two thousand years ago, would be the defining factor in which church is true nowadays. This led me to some serious bible study on, "What church did Jesus Christ organize?"

So, let's pretend we have absolutely no idea which church is true, we are not going to follow Joseph Smith's example and ask God, we are just going to go off of the Church that Jesus Christ set up in the Bible and compare it to churches today, and we will find which modern-day church follows the "Blueprints of the Church of God." (I also listened to a talk this week titled, "The Blueprints of the Church of Christ" by, Tadd R. Callister ,I learned a lot from what he said, and I would highly recommend you all read or listen to it, because he does a whole better job explaining it than I can, and goes into a lot more depth, I'm just listing scriptures.)

What did Jesus Christ have in His Church that He set up 2000 years ago?

-Living Prophets that have the authority to receive revelation from God. John 15:16

-Elders, Apostles, Patriarchs, Bishops, Teachers . Acts 14:23, Ephesians 4:11, Luke 9:1

-Quorom of the 70. Numbers 11:16

-Authority given through the laying on of hands. Numbers 27:23

-Blessings for the sick by the laying on of hands. Mark 6:5

-Becoming forgiven through repentance. Isaiah 55:7

-Baptism by immersion. Matthew 3:16 (You can't come out of the water if you were just sprinkled with it)

-Baptisms for the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:29 (You have to read the context to understand.)

-Temples. 2 Chronicles 3:1

-Small children exempt from baptism. 1 John 2:12

-Bread and Water for Sacrament. Luke 22: 19-20

-Eternal Marriage. 1 Corinthians 11:11, Ephesians 5:25.

-Garments. Ephesians 16:4

-Only one church, Ephesians 4:5

-Life before Earth. 2 Timothy 1:9

-3 degrees of glory. 1 Corinthians 15: 40-41

-Spirit world, paradise and prison. 1 Peter 3:18-19

-God is different than Jesus Christ. Mark 13:32

-Word of Wisdom in a sense. Leviticus 10:9

-Jehovah is our Lord. Isaiah 12:1-2

-Fasting for things when we are mourning. Nehemiah 1:4.

That is honestly just a few of the things that are part of the Church that Jesus Christ created. Every single one of those scriptures are from just The Bible. I would like to invite anyone to research and look for what churches have every single one of those things. I am willing to bet a whole lot of money that you'll only find one church. Also how interesting that the one church you'll be able to find happens to have the name of The Church of Jesus Christ! How fitting!!!

I only listed a few of the things, and with just scriptures, for reals, you should listen to the talk,"The Blueprints of the Church of Christ" by, Tadd R. Callister , it has so much more information!!

My purpose for all of this isn't to bash on any other religion! I genuinely believe that anyone who tries to strengthen their relationship with God according to their knowledge will be blessed. My purpose for doing this is to show that sure, maybe there are things we don't understand sometimes about God's Church. Maybe it's hard to believe that a 14 year old boy saw The Father and The Son and then went on to translate the Book of Mormon and Restore God's Church. But, if you believe in Christ and the church He organized, after some study, you will not be able to deny that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only church on the planet that follows exactly the same "blueprints" of Jesus Christ's ancient church.

I know with all of my heart that this church is true. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, The Book of Mormon is true. God's church has been restored on the Earth. There is nothing that could ever make me doubt this. How grateful I am for the sacrifices and the incredible faith of the early saints, how grateful I am for the opportunity I have to share God's perfect gospel with His children. I love God and I love His Church. In the name of Jesus Christ, my Savior, Amen.

-Elder Boden

Pictures!!

1. Beautiful hike last Preperation Day