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This is interesting, but I also like where Jesus says: “You wicked and slothful servant, you knew that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strawed.” (Matt 25:26) I have always felt that even if he had sent the slothful servant far away to think about what he had done, he was so wicked that it probably wouldn’t help.
Jared’s comments are spot on regardless of his background. Keep the commandments, “be ye therefore perfect as your Father in heaven and I are perfect”. Makes sense to me!
Matthew, read the context. Becoming perfect is the result of cultivating compassion and love for all. Cross ref Matt 25, the teaching of sheep and goats. Plus, it matters very much who the teacher is. That’s the principle behind the fruit of the poison tree doctrine. Wolves eat sheep.
Jared ignores much of what John Gee set out. For example, the following: “Jesus pushes the punishment to the next life. Church members are to discern true from false prophets by their works — though both will claim, and probably think, they are doing the will of God — but it is at the final judgment that the false prophets will discover, to their horror, that they were not doing the will of God after all.” Jared has chosen, unfortunately to follow Denver Snuffer and thereby away from the community of Saints.
Since, as Jesus said plainly (JST Matthew 5:21-22), the teaching and actual execution of his commands as given in the Sermon on the Mount would save us, while breaking and teaching others to break even the least of his commands in the Sermon bars us from the kingdom of Heaven, fruits meet for repentance would be the keeping and the teaching of his law and commandments as contained in the Sermon.
Such commandments as these:
1. Give to every man who asks of you.
2. To those who smite you, turn the other cheek to be smitten again without reviling your assailant.
3. Yield whatever you are sued for to your opponent without a fight, and do not forbid him from taking more besides.
4. Lend to all comers, including your enemies, without asking to be repaid.
5. Do not ask for your stuff back from whomever takes it.
6. Do not lust after any woman.
7. Do not be angry with others, neither revile them.
8. Do not build up stores of food / money / goods / toys for yourself, but give your substance above your immediate needs to the poor.
9. Give alms and do not report them on your tithing or tax forms or to others so that they’ll know about your humanitarian efforts.
10. Do not judge others, including when you give alms, for the same standard of judgement you use to determine your giving to or withholding from others shall be used to judge what is given to you when you ask.
And so on.
One of the primary purposes of the Book of Mormon is to testify that all mankind must do all these things, and all other things contained in the Sermon on the Mount, or they cannot be saved (1 Nephi 13:40-41).
These are the fruits mete for repentance, as one can see by the responses of John, the Baptist, to the people who came to his baptism (JST Luke 3:12-3:21). Every last thing you wish others would do to you, do those exact same things to others. This is the law and the prophets.
The Lord changes not; maybe we should be up and doing in preparation for his coming, lest we be burned.
Jared:
Your comment does not address the paper written by John Gee. I wondered why you opined as you did. The explanation seems to be that, as a former Latter-day Saint, and now a follower of Denver Snuffer, you may have seen an opportunity to strike out at your former faith. It is still possible to repent and leave Snuffer’s ideology. Doing so would be a genuine fruit of repentance.
Louis,
If you will re-read John’s essay, including the final paragraph, and then re-read my response, you will find that I am addressing how to go from treating the Sermon on the Mount as a merely academic matter to making it a reality, that you may bring forth fruit meet for repentance, or, as Alma termed it, the works of righteousness (Alma 5:36). Bringing forth good fruit is as simple as doing what the Lord said to do.
Believing and doing all things whatsoever the Lord commanded in the Sermon is repentance. Repentance is how we learn to be more wise and cease bringing forth sour grapes.
Jared Livesey
This is from Jared Levesey’s blog:
“My name is Jared Livesey, and I reside in Bakersfield, CA. I am an inactive member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (‘LDS Church’). I have been baptized again outside the auspices of the LDS Church because I believe Denver Snuffer has truthfully reported that Jesus Christ renewed the commandment to be baptized and so-called ‘rebaptism’ is no longer a service that the LDS Church provides for members.”
One ought to read his remarks as an expression of his having become a follower of Denver Snuffer. Those who join Snuffer’s “church” are not merely “inactive” Latter-day Saints. Jared’s remarks are a kind of Snuffer style opposition to the community of Latter-day Saints.
Many thanks to Bro Louis for his diligence in detecting a wolf among sheep. The siren sound of the secret gnosis that makes the professor feel superior is likely as old as the Accuser himself.