Saturday, November 25, 2017

The Authority Must Come from Christ

   No more issue is more important than how to get back to heaven. Donald Trump, the national deficit, climate change -- none of these are so important as what we should do in this life to ensure that we end up in a good place in the hereafter.
   And, what church to ascribe to is a large part of that.
   I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have often thought that the world should be studying this church, as there are stark indications it is God's church. Now, a person can start a church, and if he or she is intent on honoring God, I would think that starting a church is a good thing. And, belonging to any church that sincerely seeks to serve God is a good thing
   But, even with all these churches started of men, God should be free to start his own. And, if belonging to any Christ-centered church is good, how much better is it to belong to the one Christ, Himself, started?
   The Church of Jesus Christ teaches that there are certain things you must do to get to heaven, or to attain the highest degree of exaltation. You must be baptized, you must repent and keep the commandments, you must be married eternally, you must be sealed to your parents -- who are sealed to their parents, who are sealed to their parents in a chain going back to Adam and Eve.
   I should probably go back to the first requirement I mentioned: being baptized. If a member of a biker club were to say, "Oh, they say you need to be baptized? I can do that for you. Come on over and I'll dip you in the river out back," would that count as being baptized?
   Obviously not. Obviously, if you are being baptized into a group of followers of Christ, the person doing the baptizing needs to be authorized to do so by Christ, which makes this Church of Jesus Christ so important. Is it the only one that says God sent down angels giving authority to baptize? I know of no other such church, other than, perhaps, off-shoots of this Church of Jesus Christ.
   It is almost as if there is not even another church on the face of the whole earth that even claims to have the authority necessary to perform baptism. If baptism is necessary, and if authority is needed to baptize, there might be but only one church that even claims that authority has been been transferred from those of old to those of our day. And, how about the Catholics, you ask? They, too, might claim a line of authority, I do not know. I think to study on it, but it is late. But, the point remains this: You either need to have an unbroken line of authority from Christ's day to ours, or you need a restoration: an angel who held the authority bestowing it upon someone in a later day.

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