Another Testament of Jesus Christ (Book of Mormon - Week Two)

First things first, I feel I should explain this post.

I'm in Brother Griffin's Book of Mormon class here at the Y. So far I LOVE his class. I get so much more out of it than I did in my seminary classes in high school. One of his assignments is to talk about something we learned about the Book of Mormon this week. We can either write an email or a blog post. You can expect a post like this once a week, probably on either Sunday nights or Monday mornings.

If you aren't of the LDS faith, I encourage you to look at both mormon.org and LDS.org for more information, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions at all! I also know two guys in white shirts who would love to be of assistance if you'll have them. :)

So basically, we have this book of additional scripture called the Book of Mormon. You've probably heard of it. Ignore any of the weird things you've heard about it and hear this - the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. Hear that? Another, meaning it is partnered with the Bible, not something to be studied in lieu of the Bible. If there is interest in the very basics of the Book of Mormon, I can write a post for that (let me know if you're interested). But for now, I'm just going to write for those who are already of the LDS faith.

The Book of Mormon took on an additional few words to its title in 1982 - "Another Testament of Jesus Christ." I like that it gives mention to Jesus Christ in the very title, declaring to the world that we, as members of the LDS faith, are indeed Christians (depending on how you define Christian - here I am defining "Christian" as one who believes in Christ and strives to be a disciple of Him in word AND deed).

After outlining this, Brother Griffin told us a story. Long story short, he was asked to write lesson plans for an online seminary class (religious class, for those of you who aren't familiar with this), and after review, he was told that he had emphasized too much on Christ. He was perplexed - this in indeed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, how could he have emphasized Christ too much? Is there such a thing as too much emphasis on Christ?

But then Brother Griffin said something very significant to me - what is Jesus Christ's purpose? To bring people back to Heavenly Father and His plan.

And that was his issue with the lesson plan. He had talked about Jesus Christ multiple times throughout every lesson, but not once did he mention Heavenly Father.

This is a big concern, not only in the LDS church, but throughout many Christian churches, and I didn't realize it until Brother Griffin pointed it out to me. Heavenly Father has delegated Jesus Christ to many wonderful things. I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, not the Church of Heavenly Father. The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, not of Heavenly Father. One primary song says, "I'm trying to be like Jesus," not "I'm trying to be like Heavenly Father." I'm not undermining what Christ has done for me. It is through His mercy and sacrifice that I can ever attain even the smallest measure of true happiness. He is my older brother and best friend. He loves me so much that He suffered and died for my sins and pains personally, not just the overall sins and pains of the world (He did that for you too, by the way, whether you consider yourself religious or not). What I'm saying is that Heavenly Father has given Christ delegation over many things because Jesus Christ's main purpose is to bring us back to Heavenly Father and what He would want us to be, and we need to remember that.

Also, the fact that Christ has been delegated so many things really emphasizes how important the very few things Heavenly Father has reserved for himself are - namely prayer. We pray to Heavenly Father in Jesus' name. God gave Christ delegation over many things, but because He loves us so much, God wouldn't give up our chance to communicate with Him. He allowed Christ to be involved, but God still delegates over prayer. Next time you think twice about saying your prayers, or find yourself mumbling the words out of habit, think about that. Heavenly Father wants to hear from you so badly that He has reserved the power of prayer for himself, despite all of the great things He gave to Christ. Let Him really know what's going on with you.