Scripture Blog

This weblog is my personal online scripture journal. I try to read the scriptures each morning as I exercise on my cross-trainer. It has a great impact on my life and my testimony of the Savior and his restored church. The journal is really for my own benefit but I have set it up as a web log in hopes to benefit anyone else that may be interested. "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost..." 1 Nephi 10:19

Monday, November 15, 2010

D&C 115

In Far West, Missouri, the Lord revealed -

"And also unto my faithful servants who are of the high council of my church in Zion, for thus it shall be called, and unto all the elders and people of my Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, scattered abroad in all the world;
4 For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 115:3 - 4)

As the Lord asked the Nephites -

"...how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in Moses' name then it be Moses' church; or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel." (Book of Mormon | 3 Nephi 27:8)

This in latter days, the Church is called by His name and is built upon His gospel. But what is also of great significance is the Church of Jesus Christ is also comprised of saints. Elder James E. Talmage commented on the meaning of "saints" -

"...what does the word 'Saint' mean? By derivation, by acceptation, and by the best authority in the language, it means directly, used as an adjective, 'holy,' and when used as a noun, 'a holy one,' and we, therefore, profess to be a body of holy men, holy women. We proclaim ourselves in the name of Jesus Christ to be the holy ones of the last days, a significant proclamation, blasphemous in the extreme if it be not justified. . . .

What should it mean to you and me, to be thus called a holy man, a holy woman? As thus applied, the term does not mean that the one who bears it is necessarily without weakness or devoid of blemish. An authorized usage of the term 'holy' is that it shall apply for exclusive service in the cause of God, and such we profess to be, set apart amongst men and nations as the people of God." (James E. Talmage, CR, April 1922, p. 72.)

The emphasis is that we as members of the Church should be striving for holiness. Is there any wonder the Lord follows with -

"Verily I say unto you all: Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations..." (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 115:5)