2.286 The Literal Visitation of Jesus Christ

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello my friends, it's great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. How literal do you take the stories of the scriptures? Welcome to a new week.

I'm excited to dive into this week. It's another one of those times where Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Mormon are going to kind of feed into each other and go hand in hand. We're reading this week Doctrine and Covenants Sections 115 through 120.

And don't get too worried about that. It sounds like it's a lot of sections, but they're not really very big sections. And then we're also reading 3 Nephi chapter 11, ding ding ding, through 14.

As we get into the coming of Jesus Christ to the Nephites, we're actually going to start our verse this week, our verse for the day I should say, inside of this week, in 3 Nephi chapter 11, because it's going to kind of set the tone of the rest of the week. So let's dive into our verse for today. It is in 3 Nephi chapter 11, verse 8.

We see that the Nephites have gathered together after all of the destruction and the change in the land and whatnot. They gathered at the temple. Verse 8 says this: And it came to pass, as they understood, they cast their eyes up again towards heaven.

And behold, they saw a man descending out of heaven, and he was clothed in a white robe. And he came down and stood in the midst of them. And the eyes of the whole multitude were turned upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, Even one to another, and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had appeared unto them.

Then as we fast forward just a couple of verses here, we find out the very first words that this being, this man descending out of heaven says is, "I am Jesus Christ." My friends, we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe in the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ. We also believe in his literal descent amongst the peoples of the American continent somewhere, right? At some point the Nephites and the Lamanites of this time in the record of the Book of Mormon.

Now why is that important to us? Well, these literal interpretations in the scriptures, these literal records of these historical events matter to us because when we turn around and go into Doctrine and Covenants and we talk about revelations given to Joseph Smith and others, we're talking about those revelations coming from the Lord literally. I know I'm using the word literally a lot inside of this episode, but it's so vital for us.

We believe that these events, the coming of Jesus Christ to the peoples of the American continent, is a literal, real event. A historical event that could be recorded in any other way that history is recording events. We also believe then that Jesus Christ is the literal head of our Church and as a resurrected being He guides His Church.

I wanted to start the week with 3 Nephi chapter 11 verse 8 because these events are not just events that we consider for anecdotal reasons. These aren't events that we look at and hope that they teach us a good moral lesson in our lives. These are events.

My friends, I hope that your faith in Jesus Christ is founded upon his literal existence, that he is real, that he has a body that is resurrected and perfect, and that as such is capable of conducting and leading the affairs of his Church today. That is an important aspect and truth that we start this week off as we dive into Doctrine and Covenants, Sections 115 through 120 later on in the week. My friends, I am grateful for the literal records we have of the reality of Jesus Christ in our lives.

I believe they are real records. I believe He is real in a literal sense and in all literal ways that we can take. I think I've said literally enough now.

I'll leave that with you today. That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave to the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt.