Testimony of Jesus Christ

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February 12, 2024 at 8:53 pm #213354

Anonymous
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Everyone. I watched a movie recently and it was a mainstream adventure (low budget). In it, a former hero, non-believer, and tough guy gives his life to Christ.

It got me thinking about my testimony of Christ. It’s very weak. My minister, a non-Mormon denominational minister, got me believing in God at 15 by teaching me prayer and giving me spiritual experiences in his office as he taught me about God. This was four years before I joined the Mormon church.

Through this minister’s leadership, I had spiritual experiences — powerful ones — when I prayed that convinced me there was a God.

But when I confided in him about my lack of understanding about the necessity of Christ, he sort of chastised me saying “Why are you confused????” and then giving me reasons to believe in Christ that didn’t resonate with me.

It was only when I read about the law of Justice and Mercy in the Book of Mormon that I understood why Christ was even important — from an intellectual perspective.

However, I don’t think I ever gained a testimony of Christ, not even as I taught the Gospel on a mission. I even shared this with my mission president who reacted with incredulity. He said, “But that’s the core of our message!!!!”. I dropped the concern with him and continued working off my faith in God, and the smaller testimony I gained during prayer of the truthfulness of the LDS church. But I had issues with Christ, and Joseph Smith.

I still do to this day.

So, I have a question. If you have a testimony of Jesus Christ, what caused it? How does it affect your day-to-day life?

February 13, 2024 at 5:08 pm #344712

Anonymous
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My testimony of Jesus Christ is complicated. I do mostly like the Jesus portrayed in the four gospels and my testimony of Jesus comes from there. It is mostly pretty much along the lines of the “He Gets Us” ads. The universalist in me believes that.

However, like you SD, I’m not totally convinced there is a need for a Savior or that Jesus is that Savior. I don’t necessarily believe Jesus was the direct offspring of God but is only the son of God in the same way all of us are children of God. I do not really believe Jesus was/is a God (and I don’t believe early Christians believed/taught that). If there really were miracles as portrayed in the NT, I think those stories were embellished (and it’s mostly or all embellished). I do believe Jesus was a radical reformer/rebel and that he taught good things and brought hope to the repressed people of his time and place.

And while I don’t fully believe in the standard Christian (or Mormon) Jesus, I do think it’s important that some people do. I think that faith brings hope to those who do believe in that Jesus.

February 13, 2024 at 7:20 pm #344713

Anonymous
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What DarkJedi said.

I am open to differing possibilities, and my main “issue” is how some views are so radically different (and even opposed to) the actual ministry and teachings we have recorded as being from Jesus, of Nazareth.

February 15, 2024 at 4:59 pm #344714

Anonymous
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I believe in the power of belief.

I love the idea of the creator of the universe condescended to be born as a helpless babe to live among us and to learn better how to help us in our weaknesses. I love that our God knew in advance the sacrifice and indignity that He would have to endure but that He did so willingly out of love.

February 15, 2024 at 9:40 pm #344715

Anonymous
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~~Roy wrote:~~

I believe in the power of belief.

I love the idea of the creator of the universe condescended to be born as a helpless babe to live among us and to learn better how to help us in our weaknesses. I love that our God knew in advance the sacrifice and indignity that He would have to endure but that He did so willingly out of love.

This prompts a clarification of my previous statement. I had said that I don’t necessarily believe Jesus to be God. That’s from the LDS standpoint of Jesus being the literal Son of God and a separate and distinct being from God the Father. I am indeed open to the Christian idea of Jesus being God incarnate, as described by Roy and I believe there is Biblical evidence to support the idea.

February 16, 2024 at 12:52 pm #344716

Anonymous
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I don’t have a testimony of Jesus Christ.

With select individuals, I label myself as a “non-Christian”, a “heretic”, a “non-believer” [they are active Christians, so while they recognize that intellectually as an accurate label, they don’t like it].

Mostly, I “hope” that there is a good of entities in the universe identified as “God” and I “hope” that they aren’t out to get me. I “hope” that one of those has the level of connection and understanding of the human condition that we escribe to Jesus Christ [really a divine equivalent of Daniel Jackson’s (from Stargate SG 1) cultural translation skills and empathy]. I don’t “bet the farm on it” metaphorically anymore – but sometimes that “hope” has been helpful.

DISCLAIMERS: I am about 20 episodes into watching “Stargate SG1” with my husband and teenager.

[I’ve seen enough to talk as if I know a decent amount about the show].

Daniel Jackson:

– talks to people of all walks and all species in as close to their language as possible.

– translates alien cultures to the human SG-1 team on the fly.

Depending on who you talk to, “God” is a different, more advanced species distinct from humans on Earth. Even if you follow the “Adam-God” narrative where God is an evolved species of human (that Adam was first of here) – God “condescends” towards us, and “God’s ways are not human’s ways”. We really need a divine translator on God’s team:)

February 16, 2024 at 4:57 pm #344717
Anonymous
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Maybe my thoughts align with DJ’s thoughts, we’ll see.

Who Jesus was and what Jesus did is certainly open to interpretation but I find one interpretation a bit ironic.

When Jesus died, the veil in the temple was torn in two. I see this as symbolic, if the veil shields man from god’s presence, rending the veil symbolizes removing a barrier (if you will) between god and man. What is this barrier between man and god? Any number of things.

Death and sin. The more orthodox Christian view of Jesus’ mission.

Religious systems of authority. The Law of Moses, the Pharisees, the Sadducees.

The temple itself. Yeah, I went there. In Jesus’ day only certain people could be in certain areas that were proximate to the temple/god. Tearing the temple itself down, in effect, tears down those physical barriers. If there’s no temple, there are no Courts of the Gentiles, Courts of Women, Courts of Israelites, Holies of Holies, etc. to dictate how close a person can or cannot be to god. There is simply the individual and god.

In that sense, I see Jesus as a spiritual reformer. A figure that tried to bring god to the masses without the middlemen that we erect as barriers. We are children of god, denoting a personal relationship that’s more unfiltered and unhindered than the surrounding religious environment of his day.

I feel the irony comes in because man made Jesus a literal Son of God, establishing him as another middleman religious system of authority. Entirely missing the point of Jesus’ ministry of waking people up to their own divinity. Jesus tried to free us from religious trappings and then we turned Jesus himself into a religious trapping.

It’s part of a repeating pattern. It was brought up in another thread that was recently bumped. Mormonism started with a spiritual awakening, cracked some of the barriers people had erected, only to have all the new growth harden back into another barrier that needs cracking.

Back to Jesus. If you don’t consider that Jesus was a literal Son of God you can go many directions. You could say that it brings Jesus down to our level (which is interesting in that it fits with the more orthodox belief in the condescension of God). You could also say that it raises us up to his level (which is also interesting in that it fits with the more orthodox belief that Jesus saves us).

I don’t find much value in defining Jesus as a demigod or object of worship. I feel like people have let those aspects of Jesus outshine his actual teachings.