Jesus
the Christ, by James E. Talmage#
This classic of Mormon literature was authored in the Salt Lake
Temple by an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints. It is part of the `Missionary Library'---the set of books
recommended to be read by missionaries. It is available for free
online in audio format
from lds.org.#
I find these comments on the state of religion during Jesus'
time very interesting---particularly for their comparison with the
time of the Restoration.#
The religion of the time was a matter of ceremony and
formality, of ritual and performance; it had lost the very spirit
of worship, and the true conception of the relationship between
Israel and Israel's God was but a dream of the past [p. 65]
Many generations had passed in Jewry since any visible
presence other than mortal had been manifest within the
temple, either in the Holy Place or the Holy of Holies; the
people regard personal visitation of heavenly beings as
occurrences of the past; they had come almost to believe that
there were no longer prophets in Israel. [p. 72]
This is a very succinct description of the purpose of Satan's
temptation of Christ, and I think it contains lessons about the
roll of faith and miracles in our own lives.#
Hungry as Jesus was, there was a temptation in Satan's
words even greater than that embodied in the suggestion that
He provide food for His famishing body---the temptation to put
to proof the possible doubt implied in the tempter's "If." The
Eternal Father had proclaimed Jesus as His Son; the devil
tried to make the Son doubt that divine relationship. Why not
prove the Father's interest in His Son at this moment of dire
necessity? [p. 121]
Related is the peccability of Christ---if he could be
tempted.
A really honest man will neither take nor covet his
neighbor's goods, indeed it may be said that he cannot steal;
yet he is capable of stealing should he so elect. His honest
is an armor against temptation; but the coat of mail, the
helmet, the breastplate, and the greaves, are but an outward
covering; the man within may be vulnerable if he can be
reached. [p. 127]
I really enjoyed this explication a particular statement of
Christ's:#
To Simon and Andrew Jesus said: "Come ye after me, and I
will make you to become fishers of men." The contrast thus
presented between their former vocation and their new calling
is strikingly forceful. Theretofore they had caught fish, and
the fate of the fish was death; thereafter they were to draw
men---to a life eternal. [p. 186]
The relation between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Mosaic
Law:#
The gospel may be said to have destroyed the Mosaic law
only as the seed is destroyed in the growth of the new plant,
only as the bud is destroyed by the bursting forth of the
rich, full, and fragrant flowers, only as infancy and youth
pass forever as the maturity of years develops. Not a jot or a
title of the law was to be void. [p. 218]
A lesson on truth being in all things:#
Take a lesson from even the dishonest and the evil; if they
are so prudent as to provide for the only future they think
of, how much more should you, who believe in an eternal
future, provide therefor! [p. 432]
An explanation of the parable of the fig tree:#
The leafy, fruitless tree was a symbol of Judaism, which
loudly proclaimed itself as the only true religion of the age,
and condescendingly invited all the world to come and partake
of its rich ripe fruit; when in truth it was but an unnatural
growth of leaves, with no fruit of the season, nor even an
edible bulb held over from earlier years, for such as it had
of former fruitage was dried to worthlessness and made
repulsive in its worm-eaten decay. The religion of Israel had
degenerated into an artificial religionism, which in
pretentious show and empty profession outclassed the
abominations of heathendom. As already point out in these
pages, the fig tree was a favorite type in rabbinical
representation of the Jewish race, and the Lord had before
adopted the symbolism in the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree,
that worthless growth which did but cumber the
ground. [p. 490]
(BTW, this is Talmage at his most critical of the Jewish
religion and not par for the course.)
On Caesar and God...#
One may draw a lesson if he will, from the association of
our Lord's words with the occurrence of Caesar's image on the
coin. It was that effigy with its accompanying superscription
that gave special point to His memorable instruction, "Render
therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's." This was
followed by the further injunction: "and unto God the things
that are God's." Every human soul is stamped with the image
and superscription of God, however blurred and indistinct that
line may have become through the corrosion or attrition of
sin; and as unto Caesar should be rendered the coins upon
which his effigy appeared, so unto God should be given the
souls that bear His image. [p. 507]
The thoroughness of this book is amazing. Less than a hundred
pages of Gospel have been turned into almost 800 pages of
commentary guided by other scriptures and histories. It's quite
incredible.#