Original title: "I will give you"...more work!; Self-reliance or Christ-reliance?

In this episode, Brendon and Skyler discuss the twelfth lesson in the LDS Come, Follow Me sunday school manual. This week (Mar. 13-19) covers Matthew 11-12, and Luke 11 - and is titled "I Will Give You Rest".

We invite you to worship with us on any Sunday - either at First Baptist Church of Provo or Christ Presbyterian Church in Magna. We welcome visitors!

Note 1: Scholar R.T. France notes that animal yokes are to be distinguished from human yokes, "which are worn by a single person" - and argues (though some disagree) that "it is more likely the single human yoke which is in view." Later on, he points out that the "beneficial effects of Jesus' yoke derives from the character of the one who offers it." (pp. 449-450; more below.)

LDS Sources:

Matthew 11:28-30; Mark 2:23-3:6 (Sunday School Manual)

Bear Up Their Burdens With Ease (David Bednar)

The New Testament Made Easier by David Ridges

A Rational Theology by John A. Widtsoe

Brigham Young: JD 8.206-207

D&C 130:20-21

Note: D&C 130 was also a source of the expectation among LDS leaders that Jesus would come back in around 1890:

• Prophet/President Wilford Woodruff, alone, predicted British LDS would remain on earth "until the coming of Christ" (Jan. 26, 1840); told the LDS in northern Arizona "There will be no United States in the year 1890" (June 28, 1879); stated (by revelation) that the second coming was "nigh at the door" (Jan. 26, 1880); promised LDS in Manti "that thousands of the children...would not die but would live to see the Saviour come" (Aug. 14, 1881); told LDS in St. George that "there were thousands living in [the] mountains at [that] time that would see the son of God come and many would not taste death" (Mar. 20, 1881) - and similar predictions on Dec. 31, 1885, and then on Feb. 16, 1886. And that is just one of the early apostles/prophets! (As a Thief in the Night by Dan Erickson, pp. 83, 187-88, 190-191, 197)

It should be noted that this is the context for the Manifesto on polygamy - esp. in light of Wilford Woodruff (then senior apostle!) even prophesying in the Manti Temple that "we are not going to stop the practice of plural marriage until the coming of the Son of man." (ibid., p.200, also here)

The Vanishing Lamanites (Jason Wallace)

The Mound Builder Myth: Fake History and the Hunt for a "Lost White Race" by Jason Colavito

Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? by Jerald and Sandra Tanner (esp. ch.'s 5-6,13, and 24)

Temple Made With Hands? (Jason Wallace)

Divinity School Address (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

The American Religion by Harold Bloom

Resources:

Definition of Chalcedon (Sinclair Ferguson)

• The Defense of the Faith (esp. pp.37-39); or Christian Apologetics (esp. pp. 46-51) by Cornelius Van Til
• The Incarnation of God by John Clark and Marcus Johnson (ch. 1)

Saved By Grace Through Faith (White Horse Inn; also here)

What is the Gospel? (Voddie Baucham)

Christianity and Liberalism; The Person of Jesus by J. Gresham Machen

Christless Christianity by Michael Horton (also here and here)

Another Gospel? by Alisa Childers (also here and here)

The Ten Commandments of Progressive Christianity by Michael Kruger

Matthew (The Expositor's Bible Commentary) by D.A. Carson (also here)

Cultish: Debunking the Cosmic Christ of the New Age (Part 1, Part 2)

Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

The Gospel of Matthew (NICNT) by R.T. France

Kenneth Bailey on Luke 15.11-24

Note 2: A pattern we have consistently noticed is the stating of a sentence with Jesus mentioned - and then the repeating of the thought in a more honest way without Jesus being mentioned (whether consciously or unconsciously). Here are three examples:

• "'Is the load I am carrying producing the spiritual traction that will enable me to press forward with faith in Christ on the straight and narrow path and avoid getting stuck? Is the load I am carrying creating sufficient spiritual traction so I ultimately can return home to Heavenly Father?'" (Elder Bednar)

Notice: it is the load one is carrying that produces the traction - with apparently not even a desire to try to articulate how faith is any part of that process. The second sentence is more honest in that way, since Bednar doesn't even try to shoehorn "faith in Christ" into the middle of it. His teaching more naturally flows without those three words, anyway.

• "The Lord loves effort, and effort brings rewards. We keep practicing. We are always progressing as long as we are striving to follow the Lord. We keep climbing our personal Mount Sinai. As in times past, our journey does indeed take effort, hard work, and study, but our commitment to progress brings eternal rewards..." (President Joy D. Jones)

Notice: it is ultimately a commitment to "progress" which brings the rewards, and in the third sentence - it is more honest in not trying to shoehorn "follow the Lord" into the sentence. The concept truly doesn't even need those three words, anyway.

• "By cleaving to the Lord of hosts, who is mighty to save, and by cleaving to those holy principles of life and power which he has revealed. The more the floods of iniquity surge up against us, the closer let us cling to those principles, for they will bear us off victoriously to exaltation and glory in this world and in the worlds to come. The same principles have exalted out Father and our God to his present state of glory and power, and they will exalt you and me and all who will abide them in the scale of human existence and eternal progression." (President Daniel H. Wells)

Notice: it is by "cleaving" to "those principles" that one is progressing and exalting. The second subsequent sentences are more honest that way, since those principles are the necessary part of the teaching, without trying to shoehorn "cleaving to the Lord of hosts" into the sentence. The concept truly doesn't even need those six words, anyway, let alone that bit about him being "mighty to save". Save from what? It's by applying the principles that one is exalted.

Note 3: This R.T. France comment deserves to be quoted in full: "'You will find rest for your souls' echoes the Hebrew text of Jer. 6.16..., where it is the reward Yahweh offers those who find and walk in the good way. That Jesus now issues the same promise under his own authority says much for the christology underlying this extraordinary pericope. As in the beatitudes of 5.3-10, there is no doubt an eschatological dimension to the rest which Jesus offers, but that does not mean that the offer has no relevance to the problems encountered by disciples in this life, it is for the present as well as for the future, just as the 'sabbath rest which still remains for the people of God' in Heb. 4.1-11 is nonetheless one which its readers are exhorted to enter 'today'." (p. 450)