Peace on Earth, Good will towards men

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Peace on Earth, Good will towards men

• www.Kevinhinckley.com

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(No Transcript)
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President Hinckley

• A boy who came down to breakfast one
  morning and said to his father, "Dad, I was
  dreaming about you last night."     
• "You were?
• "Yes.
• "What were you dreaming?
• "I was dreaming that I was climbing a ladder to
  heaven, and on each rung of the ladder as I went
  up, I had to write one of my sins.
• His father said, "Yes, where do I come into your
  dream?
• The boy said, "As I was going up, I met you
  coming down for more chalk."

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President Hinckley

• Occasionally in times of meditation I reflect
  on that question posed by the angel in the
  vision given Nephi "Knowest thou the
  condescension of God?" (1 Ne. 1116).
• Condescend is an interesting word. It means
  to drop down to a less dignified level and to
  cast aside the privileges of rank. He was the
  very Son of God, the child of the Almighty, the
  creator of the earth under the direction of His
  divine father. John says that "without him was
  not any thing made that was made" (John 13).
• But He willingly and knowingly, as the major
  participant in the eternal plan of God, set aside
  every privilege pertaining to His divine sonship
  and came to earth under the most humble of
  circumstances. He was born among a conquered
  people, in a vassal state, into a society where
  there was much of conflict and bitterness and
  hate.
• (Gordon B. Hinckley, Teachings of Gordon B.
  Hinckley, p.281-282-)

Question Was it necessary that He condescend?
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Elder Nelson

• Caravans stayed at what was then known
  (and is still known) as a caravansary, or a
  khan
• Such a facility is typically rectangular in
  shape. It has a central courtyard for the
  animals that is surrounded by walled
  cubicles where the people rest. These
  quarters allowed guests to be elevated
  slightly above their animals with open
  doorways so that owners could watch
  over their animals.
• As a youngster, whenever I heard those words "no
  room in the inn," I assumed that No Vacancy signs
  were posted at local motels or that the
  innkeepers were inhospitable or even hostile.
  Such an assumption is probably way off the mark.
  People of that part of the world were no doubt
  then as they are now--most hospitable.
  Particularly would this have been true at a
  season when the normal population of Jerusalem
  and neighboring Bethlehem would be swollen with
  large numbers of relatives.
• At a caravansary, animals were secured for the
  night in the center courtyard. In that courtyard
  there would have been donkeys and dogs, sheep,
  and possibly camels and oxen, along with all of
  the animals' discharges and odors. Because the
  guest chambers surrounding the courtyard were
  filled, Joseph possibly made the decision to care
  for Mary's delivery in the center courtyard of a
  caravansary--among the animals. There, in that
  lowly circumstance, the Lamb of God was born.

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Elder Nelson Continues
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus
into the common hall, and gathered unto him the
whole band of soldiers. And they stripped
him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when
they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it
upon his head, and a reed in his right hand and
they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him,
saying, Hail, King of the Jews! (Matt
2727-29)

• Why was reference made twice in Luke 2 to
  His being wrapped in swaddling clothes?
  What is the meaning of those five words
  "wrapped him in swaddling clothes"?
• I sense a significance beyond the use of an
  ordinary diaper and receiving blanket. Instead of
  those five words in the English text, only one
  word is needed in the Greek New Testament. That
  word is sparganoo, which means to envelop a
  newborn child with special cloth, strips of which
  were passed from side to side. The cloth would
  probably bear unique family identification. That
  procedure was especially applicable to the birth
  of a firstborn son.
• I think that such a concept of a cloth with
  family markings might also have been relevant
  when Joseph, son of Israel, became the birthright
  son and received the unique cloth coat of many
  colors--a fabric symbolic of the birthright.

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Elder McConkie

• "Witnesses, testifying of the truth and
  divinity of any given gospel verity, prepare
  the way for others to gain the same sure
  knowledge possessed by the one who bears the
  original testimony" (New Witness 446).
• "In every dispensation, from Adam to the present,
  two or more witnesses have always joined their
  testimonies, thus leaving their hearers without
  excuse in the day of judgment should the
  testimony be rejected" (Mormon Doctrine)

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John 10

• I am come that they might have life, and
  that they might have it more abundantly.
• I am the good shepherd the good shepherd
  giveth his life for his sheep. And the
  shepherd is not as a hireling, whose own the
  sheep are not, who seeth the wolf coming, and
  leaveth the sheep, and fleeth and the wolf
  catcheth the sheep and scattereth them.
• For I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep,
  and am known of mine.

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Luke 2

• And there were in the same country
  shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch
  over their flock by night.

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Elder Gerald Lund

• One of these verses is frequently misquoted
  "Keeping watch over their flocks by night." But
  the verse does not say flocks, plural, but flock,
  singular.
• One scholar explained the significance "There
  was near Bethlehem, on the road to Jerusalem, a
  tower known as Migdal Eder, or the watchtower of
  the flock. Here was the station where shepherds
  watched the flocks destined for sacrifice in the
  temple. . . .
• It was a settled conviction among the Jews that
  the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, and
  equally that he was to be revealed from Migdal
  Eder. The beautiful significance of the
  revelation of the infant Christ to shepherds
  watching the flocks destined for sacrifice needs
  no comment.
• The flock mentioned in the scripture, then,
  apparently was the one used for temple
  sacrifices, and the shepherds thus had
  responsibility for the most important flock in
  the region.
• (Gerald N. Lund, Selected Writings of Gerald N.
  Lund Gospel Scholars Series , p.144)

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Luke 2

• And there were in the same country
  shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
  watch over their flock by night.
• And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon
  them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about
  them and they were sore afraid.
• And the angel said unto them, Fear not for,
  behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
  which shall be to all people.
• For unto you is born this day in the city of
  David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

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Elder Maxwell

• At times Nephi, like Paul, was perplexed.
  Nevertheless he modeled for us when he
  trustingly said, "I know that God loveth
  his children nevertheless, I do not know the
  meaning of all things" For us in this time of
  "distress of nations, with perplexity,"
  gospel perspective is vital if we are to
  endure it well.
• We will not always know the full meaning of what
  is happening to us or around us, but like Nephi
  we can still know that God loves us personally
  and will see us through our difficult or down
  times.
• Mary, in the midst of her wonderment at the birth
  of Jesus, needed time to ponder all that the
  visiting shepherds and others had said. So she
  trusted and pondered them in her heart" .
  Bright and perceptive, Mary still doubtless
  found, as did Alma, that she could not "speak the
  smallest part" of what she felt.
• (Neal A. Maxwell, If Thou Endure It Well Salt
  Lake City Bookcraft, 1996, 58.)

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Elder Russell Nelson

• I share comforting counsel with you today. It
  comes from section 68 of the Doctrine and
  Covenants, where we read this commandment
  from our Master "Be of good cheer, and do
  not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and
  will stand by you and ye shall bear record
  of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son
  of the living God, that I was, that I am, and
  that I am to come."
• Lovingly we cling to that promise. Difficult days
  are ahead for all mankind. Sin is on the
  increase. We live in a time of wars and rumors of
  wars. The Church and its members will come under
  attack and endure persecution.
• Jesus descended below all things in order to rise
  above all things. He expects us to follow His
  example. Yoked with Him, we can rise above all
  challenges, no matter how difficult they may be.
  Peter offered this counsel "If any man suffer as
  a Christian, let him not be ashamed but let him
  glorify God on this behalf."