Fullness

2009-6-30 06:56:00

Dennis writes:

"I've always had this question. I think I have the answer after much fasting, praying, asking, seeking, pondering and knocking. The question is: It says in the BM introduction, the DC 20:9 and DC 42:12 that both the Bible and the BM contain the fullness of the gospel. What is the fullness of the gospel? If our present BM and Bible do contain the fullness then why would we need more BM yet to be translated in the future?

"Maybe the fullness isn't what I think it is. To me the fullness is like a full glass of water. If we drop one more drop into the glass then a drop must fall out. The reason I'm asking this is I have come to a halt of learning more."

JJ:

Let us take two doctrines from the LDS [Latter-Day Saint - Mormon] church.

The first is the one you just mentioned. Using the standard definition of the fullness of the Gospel it would seem that all the seeker has to do is accept Jesus and his salvation and his quest will be over. Since the person's cup is full then there is nothing else necessary to do or to learn.

The second doctrine is that of eternal progression as taught by Joseph Smith. This teaching says there is no end to progression that we move "from exaltation to exhalation" and we move onward "worlds without end."

Do you see a problem here? If the standard definition of "fullness of the gospel" is true then there is no eternal progression. On the other hand, if there is eternal progression then there is something wrong with the orthodox idea of the fullness.

Every seasoned seeker knows from a testimony within that there is eternal progression. This means we need to take a closer look at the meaning of "fullness of the gospel."

What does the word "gospel" mean?

I talk about the meaning of the phrase "everlasting gospel" that is found in The Archives.

(Begin Quote)

Exactly what would that (the everlasting gospel) be? The English word "gospel" comes from a combination of two Anglo-Saxon words, "God" and "Spell" which together basically means "to tell about God," or "God's story."

To help us understand better let us examine the more ancient Greek word for Gospel found in the Biblical text, which is, EUAGGELION. You have probably heard that this word means "good news." The disciples went forth and preached the "good news" of the resurrection of Jesus and this was the basis for its use.

Actually, Jesus used the word regularly before the resurrection when he was walking the earth. He often talked about the gospel of the kingdom of God and if one reads the context they will see that "good news" is a questionable meaning.

EUAGGELION comes from the two Greek words EU and AGGELIA. EU means "good, happy or pleasing." AGGELIA is the Greek word for "angel" and means "messenger" or "the carrier of a message." Rather than "good news" it would be more accurate to call it a "good message" or a "good or sound doctrine, teaching or philosophy."

The meaning is further enhanced by being called the "everlasting gospel." The word "gospel" in the Bible is used in relation to the teachings of Christ, who is also called "The Word" by John. Thus the everlasting gospel could be called the eternal teachings, or "Eternal Words," or as Jesus called them, "words which shall not pass away." Thus we are told that the disciple penetrates the veil between heaven and earth and ascends in consciousness to the realm of Spirit, sees eternal principles and brings them down to earth. When words of Spirit are thus brought to earth they will not pass away for they came from timelessness or eternity.

(End Quote)

Source: The Everlasting Gospel, (2006-03-16)

The Book of Mormon and Bible thus contain the fullness of the gospel in that they contain eternal words, words that shall not pass away. They also take the consciousness of the reader to an understanding of true principles that shall not pass away.

Do the Bible and Book of Mormon give us all the fullness, or eternal words that God has for us?

No.

They give us a few, but there are many more we shall gather as we eternally progress.

A flaw that exists in every religion is that they all teach of a point which, when reached, is the end of the journey. For the typical Christian it is accepting Jesus; for the Mormons when they have the supposed fullness; for the Buddhist when they reach Nirvana, and so on. The truth is that we are on a journey with no end and no beginning.

And who wants it to end? If there were no more mountains to climb life would become so boring we would want to go into non existence. If we do not want that to happen then we had best move forward and learn the true joy of stretching ourselves and ever progressing forward.

"If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it!"
-- Jonathan Winters