Last weekend was both Pascha (Easter) and General Conference, making it a weekend doubly full of spiritual blessings. One of the most powerful talks given was Elder Jeffrey R. Hollands discourse “Not as the World Giveth,” he addresses the problems of the world – its violence, hatred, and contention, all of which originate in Satan and wicked influences – and explains how we can find solutions to these problems can be found in the Covenant of Peace – the concepts, teachings, and ordinances that can only be fully found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the world we find wars and rumors of wars, rape, murder, greed, anger, social division, isolation, oppression, mockery, corruption, riots, mobs, and every excuse humans can think of to despise one another, kill one another, and hate our blood. Elder Holland then goes on to talk about the solutions to these problems and mentions three Christian principles that, if fully realized, would end all the problems of the world. These are Faith, Hope, and Charity. In this article I breakdown each of these principles and doctrines of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and show how they hold within themselves the power to truly transform the world into the place of peace, love, and liberty that we all wish it was already. Within these three principles is the key to world peace, to Zion.
Tag: martyr
The Apostasy From Peace
Having just spent the last month demonstrating the historical fact that Christians practiced a form of what we would today call nonviolence, rejected being in the military, and taught the importance of loyalty to the universal church of Christ over and beyond all worldly political authorities and powers all as part of fulfilling Christ’s commandments to love and serve our enemies and to do nothing but good, even to those who evil to us, we are still left with a singular, important question.
What happened?
How did we get from that to where we are today? How did we get from a faith focused on self-sacrifice, love, and service to one that justifies violence, war, and subservience to the powers of the world in all their evils? How did we go form Christians being literally kicked out of church for joining the military to Christians treating the military as some sort of sacred calling?
This article not only explains how this occurred, but also how this process robbed Christianity of one of its most radically Christ-like and powerful truths and how reclaiming that truth is essential to transforming the Earth and establishing the Zion of Christ.
Nonviolence in Early Christianity, Part 3
In the Fourth Century we continue to see the doctrine of Christ that teaches us to abandon all violence and war is carried forward as Christian leaders continue to preach against paganism and prove the superiority of Christianity through its embrace of nonviolence. Martin of Tours provides a marvelous example of exactly what a Christian should do if ever he (or she) is forced into military service. Athanasius teaches that the way you can tell the difference between a true Christian and an idolater is how they approach violence and war, accurately pointing out the true source of all ideologies that promote contention and conflict. Likewise, the great Christian orator John Chrysostom draws the dividing line between Christian sheep and the savage wolves of the world. And no less than the Council of Nicaea and the Christian manual The Testament of Our Lord both outline the exact punishments to be levied against Christians who engage in military violence or who willfully join the military. Along the way the Latter-day Saint can find direct relationships between the teachings of these ancient Christians and the modern teachings of our church.