Come Follow Me LDS- Ephesians Part 1

'Father & Son, Jew & Gentile'
- Paul, time and again distinguishes between the beings of The Father and The Son
- The Temple Imagery of 'The Footstool'
- Isaiah 52:7
- Written to the 'Gentiles'
- The Temple Imagery of the Jews and the Gentiles by Paul
- What was understood about the Gentiles receiving the gospel in ancient times?

 

 

Come Follow Me

LDS Mormon New Testament Ephesians Bible

 

in this episode we talk about father and

son Jew and Gentile here we go alright

in this episode we're gonna cover

chapters 1 2 & 3 of the Epistle of

Ephesians Ephesians is a one of the

epistles that is disputed among scholars

as to whether or not it was actually

Paul that wrote it or someone who wrote

it after the tradition of Paul or a

disciple of Paul and some scholars even

wonder if this was actually written to

the Ephesians but it's written mostly to

Gentile converts not as much to the Jews

and we can see that throughout the

letter where there is a focus on the

uncircumcised which are the Gentiles

Ephesus is a large city that is a major

hub for Christianity in the first

century John the writer of the Gospel of

the John and of the book of Revelation

helped build up the community in Ephesus

after the time of Paul and it's very

likely that he actually wrote the Gospel

of John in the latter platter portion of

the first century in Ephesus and that's

an interesting point because you get a

lot of times from people that believe in

a closed Canon of the Bible where toward

the end of the book of Revelation which

is the last book inserted into the Canon

of the New Testament it says something

to the effect of and do not add to these

things anybody who adds to these things

or to this gospel and you think yourself

okay well I'm reading a book here in

chronological order and at the end of

the very last book it says do not add to

these things and that's something that's

brought up a lot to people that believe

in it which is the majority of

Christians who believe in a closed Canon

the problem

is that the book of Revelation written

by John was written way before the

gospel of chime so John actually writes

his gospel after the Gospels of Matthew

Mark and Luke the synoptic Gospels and

wants to add his own take on things and

his own perspective but he writes it way

after the book of Revelation is written

and in fact he writes it with the

knowledge of that vision that he had in

the book of Revelation so that

completely discounts discredits the idea

that at the end of the book of

Revelation that do not add to these

things John himself writes the book of

John after the book of Revelation and of

course what he's really talking about in

the book of Revelation is adding to the

gospel or changing the gospel not to

mention the fact that each one of these

letters and books are separate they're

not bound together until many many many

years later and something that we see in

Paul's letters typically are this

distinction between Jesus Christ and God

the Father and the Holy Ghost and he's

really pretty blatant about it actually

even in the King James Version it

doesn't take that much to really study

to see that he is always talking about

two separate beings he starts off the

book of Ephesians here with Paul an

apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of

God to the Saints which are at a thesis

and to the faithful in Christ Jesus he's

talking about two separate talks about

God typically he's talking about L who

would be God the Father and then Jesus

Christ here and in verse two

grace beats you and peace from God our

Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ so

again here it doesn't take a whole lot

of stretching here and mental gymnastics

to see that he's talking about two

separate beings he also brings up the

pre-existence he talks about here in

verse 4 according as he hath chosen us

in him before the foundation of the

world that we should be

holy and without blame before him in

love he's talking about the members of

the church that they had been Oh for

ordained for this time to be members of

the church and to have this knowledge

and to help spread the gospel and live

the gospel he follows up with the same

in verse 5 talking about predestination

which we would really call for

ordination and then in verse 10 he

starts talking about the higher in the

lower law as the ironic priesthood of

the Melchizedek Priesthood but he

doesn't mention these things here's what

he says he says that in the dispensation

of the fullness of times now we use that

phrase a lot that this right now is the

dispensation of the fullness of times

another way to read that is in the

administration of the fullness of times

and so think about the administration

what does the administration how is the

administration carried out of the

fullness of times in which at that time

would have been a fullness of times in

the sense that it is has the fullness of

the gospel it has the higher law it has

a mystic priesthood but what is it that

effectuates the administration of the

higher law and the lower law and the

fullness of the gospel well it's the

priesthood obviously and this is what he

says fullness of times he might gather

together in one all things in Christ

both which are in heaven and which are

on earth even in him so the

administration of the fullness of those

things that are in heaven that's the

mystic priesthood is that what

administers heavenly in spiritual things

and those things that are on earth which

is the Aaronic priesthood right it is

the in the beginning God created the

heavens and the earth and so these two

are brought into one it's part of the

atonement it's part of the idea of

separation and then bringing everything

together to be at one or at-one-ment or

atonement that is covenant separation

and then bringing things together as

individual things but back together as

one

that's the whole creation story that's

the whole story of the Garden of Eden

that's the whole story of the plan of

salvation and it's the ironic priesthood

and the Melchizedek Priesthood that

administer these two sides and help

bring them together that's why we must

have them both and they must be distinct

and in verse 17 again just a distinction

between the Father in heaven and Elohim

and Jehovah or Jesus Christ here the

Lord says in verse 17 that the god of

our Lord Jesus Christ who's the god of

our Lord Jesus Christ the father of

glory it says right there is a God of

the Lord Jesus Christ somebody that he

submits to there is a hierarchy and just

as I've explained oftentimes you must

have hierarchy in place Jesus even

Christ must have somebody that he looks

up to he must have someone that he is

humble to that he respects that he holds

in reverence and that he can be an

advocate for he can't do that for

himself he can't advocate for himself he

cannot be a mediator to himself and us

he is a mediator between the father and

his children so again over and over

again two separate beings here by Paul

and then we get a little bit of temple

imagery here that I like he says in

verse 20 which he wrought in Christ when

he raised him from the dead he's talking

about the father so again to supper

beings and set him at his own right hand

how can you be on the right hand of

yourself you cannot in in the heavenly

places so Jesus is placed on the right

hand of God verse 21 far above all

principality and power and might and

Dominion and every name that is named

not only in this world but also in that

world which is to come so basically

we're talking about a coronation here

and an exaltation and then verse 22 and

hath put all things under his feet so

God the Father has put all things under

Jesus Christ's feet and gave him to be

the head over all things to the church

so what is this mean what is the imagery

here again when we think about different

symbols that we're talking about here

it's not just some nebulous thing there

is something behind this and whenever we

read the scriptures one of the ways we

want to look at that one of the

interpreters that I use is temple

imagery and drama when Abraham and in

fact similarly number three is placed on

the throne of Pharaoh right he would

have something he would put his feet on

and it would be a footstool and we know

that the earth here is the footstool of

the king of Christ so not only in Egypt

but in the temple of Solomon when the

king or the high priest even might be

placed on the throne of God and is

sitting on the throne of God below him

would be the Ark of the Covenant and the

Ark of the Covenant would become the

footstool and that Ark of the Covenant

also could represent the benben stone of

Egypt or the primordial earth that rises

out of the Seas from the creation story

that is the mountain that is brought up

and it is the footstool and so here we

have temple imagery with Christ he is

being crowned and sitting upon his

throne and the earth is his footstool

all things are under his feet and I

believe and this is not mentioned very

often and I think it is mistranslated

personally that this has everything to

do with Isaiah 52 7 which really seems

to be what the whole Book of Mormon is

about it is all wrapped around Isaiah 52

7 to 10 it is what a been a die fights

with the priests of Noah and it is

at the center of what all of the Isaiah

scriptures that are brought into the

Book of Mormon represent Isaiah 52 7 is

the one that more or less I'm

paraphrasing says blessed are those

whose feet are upon the mountaintops

that publish good tidings or that

publish piece right that would be those

that are chlorinated that would be those

of the Melchizedek Priesthood of the

priesthood of Christ that would be

Christ himself that would be the

prophets and that would be everybody

else

members of the church because men and

women are brought in through the

Melchizedek Priesthood through the

temple to eventually be coronated so we

get a great piece of temple imagery here

and then in verse 8 he follows up with

what he one of his themes is which is

coupling grace and faith right we talk

about works on one side works in the law

on one side that is obedience that is

the commandments that is repentance for

choices and our agency it is the

individual it's us right and then on the

other side we have grace that's what God

does for us that is the atoning

sacrifice that is charity the love of

God the pure love of Christ that comes

to us and the difference with faith is

is that even though faith is what might

drive our agency if we let it and might

drive our repentance and might drive our

works and our service it's the faith in

the grace of God it's the faith placed

in his sacrifice that is crucial and

more important than what we do with the

commandments I'm not lowering the

commandments from where they should be

I'm saying that what Paul is saying is

you cannot be justified you cannot be

saved by works alone you can't get there

from merit you must always be in debt

that's the only way it works and so it's

the faith in the atoning sacrifice of

Jesus Christ that has to come first and

then comes repentance just like in the

first principles and ordinances of the

gospel that Joseph Smith is laid out he

knew exactly what he was doing it's

faith that comes first and is the most

important and then repentance and

obedience etc now of course we know that

the more obedience we have the greater

our faith will

where they work with each other but the

first principle of the gospel is faith

and that's primarily focused in the

atonement of Jesus Christ and then in

chapter 2 of Ephesians we dip down here

to verses 8 & 9 and we get the follow up

to what I was just saying about faith

and grace compared to works and the law

he says here in verse 8 for by grace are

ye saved through faith and that not of

yourselves it is the gift of God so you

have nothing to do with it and in verse

9 not of works lest any man should boast

so here is a great let's say traditional

especially Protestant point of view

where you look at these two verses and

you say look it has nothing to do with

how you act it has nothing to do with

you or what your behavior is but rather

it is Grace it was through grace that

you are saved so let's understand what's

being said here that is true but we need

to understand why right again the lower

law the idea that we are going to

through works earn our way to salvation

is not possible we can't do that we are

not perfect and we are completely

indebted to God so we say specifically

that you do not you are not saved by

works you can't do it so that that's

true so that's true in that sense

however when we say that you are to obey

the commandments and that you need to

repent what are we saying we're saying

that you need to work with the law of

God why because it has everything to do

with who you are becoming that's the

whole point and for you to try and

correct yourself to try to improve

yourself that requires obedience and

repentance that's all it is right the

commandments are a but not of just a

bunch of don't do this and don't do that

they're a handbook to how to grow and

progress through the eternities that's

all they are

so I'll be

to the commandments and going

through the process of repentance to

improve yourself to get rid of that

baggage that's holding you back is

absolutely necessary to who you're going

to become so you need both you can't

be saved by works alone

but you need works you need to try and

reach up to God that's what atonement is

it's not one-sided it is at one mint it

is bringing ourselves back together with

God and we are participants in that it's

just like we're told in James faith

remember we're tying that to grace faith

is dead without works right it's not

just the idea of what faith does it's

the idea of the law being dead too so

your faith even in the atonement is not

worth anything without your works you

need both and then down in verse 11 we

see exactly why this epistle here is

written to the Gentiles written to the

pagans he says here wherefore remember

that ye being in time past Gentiles in

the flesh and the flesh would mean the

lower law right in that during the law

who are or not being a part of the

promise of the gospel who are called

uncircumcision by that which is called

the circumcision in the flesh made by

hands so when we say by the flesh we're

talking about the law and we're talking

about mortality we're talking about the

lower law and mortality so we see it

twice here so looking again here in

times past Gentiles in the flesh that

means without the fullness of the gospel

there were the pagans who are called

uncircumcision who's calling them

uncircumcised by that which is called

the circumcision by the Jews who are

converted they're calling so the

converted members of the church who are

Jews are calling the Gentiles

uncircumcised right again circumcision

is a huge part of the identity to the

Jews and they believe that's part of the

Covenant it's hard for them to get past

that so there's a divide between the

Jews and the Gentiles here

and this is primarily written to the

Gentiles being sympathetic to them and

saying hey I understand I understand

what's happening here but he calls the

circumcised the Jews in the flesh made

by hands in other words it's not of the

fullness of the gospel their

circumcision that the Jews have is of

the lower law only also that's in the

flesh that's a temporal thing it is not

of the higher law it is not of grace and

of faith and so in 14 he wants to talk

about bringing both the Gentiles and the

Jews together and he says for he is our

peace talking about Jesus Christ who

hath made both one and hath broken down

the middle wall of partition between us

so once Christ has died on the cross

then the fullness of the gospel is put

out here for everyone so that the

Gentiles can receive the gospel through

the mystic priesthood and he's using

temple imagery here again when I say

temple imagery I'm talking about here

not just the creation story but the

story of the Garden of Eden in 15 he

says having abolished in his flesh

that's Christ's flesh the enmity even

the law of commandments right again we

have Commandments and the law are the

lower law that's the lower law contained

in ordinances like circumcision for to

make in himself of Twain right that's to

one new man so making peace and 16 and

that he might reconcile both unto God in

one body by the cross having slain the

enmity thereby so I believe what he's

doing here is easy because he refers so

much for the creation story and to the

Garden of Eden throughout his letters

what he's saying here is he's using the

idea of enmity of the adversary remember

that there is that the God places

enmity between Lucifer or Satan and the

seed of the woman right that is placed

between them they are adversaries and

here he's not

calling one the adversary he's just

saying that the Jews and the Gentiles

are adversarial toward each other there

is enmity there and that that needs to

be broken down we can also think about

as Jesus died on the cross here as we

see here in verse 16 that the partition

between them in a sense is brought down

it's brought down between God and man

just like between behind the guard the

the veil and in front of the veil

remember when Christ died on the cross

what was rent right what was rent it was

the veil of the temple was rent so in

other words that event basically opened

up the partition between heaven and

earth right heaven being the things in

the Holy of Holies behind the veil and

earth being things out in front of the

veil and so here he's talking about a

partition or a veil same thing that is

being dropped between the Gentiles and

the Jews just like the veil would be

would fall right and bringing these two

things back together into one and he

talks about the body here being one body

one man remember what happens in the

Garden of Eden story right Adam is

separated from the rib the rib is

separated and then you have Eve and then

they are told Adam is then told to leave

his parents and cleave on to Eve so that

they might be one flesh right

same thing exact same thing that he's

talking about here this is covenant and

covenant is explained incredibly well

and Illustrated incredibly well by the

idea of the Jews and the Gentiles still

today it's the same thing and then down

in verse 20 quickly he says here that

the members of the church are built upon

the foundation of the apostles and

prophets Jesus Christ Himself being the

chief Cornerstone he's talking about

building a building and part of

are the Apostles and the prophets now

technically when they talk about the

apostles and the prophets they're using

words that mean something that may not

mean in office and you'll have in it

certainly in generally speaking in

biblical scholarship when they see this

verse what they're thinking about are

people that might be inspired to just go

out and start preaching or to go out and

be missionaries to go out and prophesy

to others and there's some truth to that

and you'll even have a lot of

classically-trained will say LDS

scholars that will say the same thing my

contention here is that you don't know

if these are offices here or just

generally speaking you know what are

these words really mean it's kind of

like now we have the seventy right well

were there 70 before whether it was

there actually an office of the seventy

before I believe there was during the

New Testament times what about in the

Old Testament was there an office of the

seventy at that time well there were 70

elders that went up partway up Mount

Sinai

there was a representation of seventy or

perhaps 72 that went and compiled the

Septuagint that's the old Greek Old

Testament is this just a representation

of 70 being a representation of all

of the world or is this an office and

here how do you know that this is not an

office how do you know that these are

not the prophets and apostles that have

been given an office I don't think we

know that there's very very little

available written about the early

organization of the first century Church

like practically nothing so maybe think

about it in both ways are these the

actual offices well perhaps not but that

doesn't mean that they're not and then

in chapter 3 he talks about the mystery

that had been revealed to him and that

mystery is about the Gentiles they are

to be a part of the fold of God and he

brings up a couple of pretty interesting

things here that we can think about

as to what was understood about this

even anciently about having Gentiles as

part of the members of the church and

within the Covenant and within the

priesthood so here's what he says here

he says in verse 3 how that by

revelation he may being God the Savior

he made known unto me the mystery as I

wrote a for in few words and then in

five which in other ages was not made

known unto the sons of men as it is now

revealed unto his holy apostles and

prophets here we have whole apostles and

prophets again by the spirit and by the

way what makes them holy and what gives

them the right to get the spirit in this

to me that is a calling and in verse 6

he says what it is he says that the

Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of

the same body and partakers of his

promise that is the exaltation in Christ

by the gospel so okay he's saying that

this has not been known in other ages

now all other ages or just some other

ages because if you read Isaiah and many

of the other prophets you get a lot of

mention especially Isaiah about all of

the Gentiles and if you go to the Book

of Mormon and you understand what the

theme of that Book of Mormon is when

they're talking about the gospel going

out to the world they have a very clear

idea that that gospel is going to go to

the Gentiles and Nephi and many of the

prophets thereafter or all of the

prophets thereafter understand this

remember Nephi has the vision after the

vision Lehi had of the Tree of Life

after he sees that he has the vision of

what's gonna happen to his seed into

Laman and Lemuel seed and how this whole

thing comes together with the Gentiles

you have all of Jacob 5 about the olive

branches and the allegory of the olive

trees so they have a great understanding

at that point well where are they

getting that from maybe it's just new

revelation but they're

interpreting Isaiah he

they can see what is happening with

Isaiah some will tell you that they're

just likening that unto themselves I

don't think so this is something that

comes to them through vision and very

much then should be prophetic from

people like Isaiah that were living over

a hundred years before the time of Nephi

so was this never known did Abraham

never have a revelation about this the

whole idea of Abraham not having an heir

right and that he only had at first

alias r who was his servant who was

going to be his heir and then Ishmael

and then finally Isaac that is all a

play on the Gentiles to me right

Elias our would have been adopt and

adopted son as his servant he's the one

that goes and finds Rebekah for Isaac so

you have this interplay between a

lineage of Abraham and then those that

might be adopted by Abraham and who

would come first and who would come last

and Ishmael and Isaac so it's hard to

say exactly what was known previously

but at a minimum the Nephites knew

exactly what Isaiah was talking about

and how to interpret that the Jews had

the Book of Isaiah obviously how are

they interpreting that how are they

interpreting how the Gentiles would play

a part in covenant and in the plan of

salvation in this temporal period here

on earth but again Paul's focuses so

much as he's building this new church up

right his focus is on these attributes

of faith hope and charity and how they

apply to the spiritual gifts right and

how that charity brings different

peoples together and that's what this is

the partition is falling here and it is

the Gentiles and the Jews that come

together in covenant or should come

together in covenant it was probably a

big part of the fall of the church and

the first shall be last and the last

shall be first and today it is the time

of what we might call Ephraim or

of the gentiles and the responsibility

of the gentiles is to bring the gospel

to the world that is what is happening

that partition is again falling but it's

coming from the other side it's coming

from the Gentiles to Israel and to the

rest of the world to Manasseh in Latin

America and who knows who else through

lineage here throughout the world it's

all about the plan of salvation it's all

about Jacob 5 in the allegory of the

olive tree it's all about covenant and

charity and how at the center of all of

this is the atonement or the atoning

sacrifice of Jesus Christ I'll talk to

you next time