Hebrews- Joseph Smith's Priestly Trio- Melchizedek, Abraham & Jesus Christ (Facebook Live)

Melchizedek, Abraham and Jesus Christ makeup a priestly trio that Joseph Smith highlights in from the Book of Hebrews, JST Genesis 14 and Alma 13.

This was a presentation done for Come Follow Me Principle Challenge Live on Facebook Live.

LDS Mormon New Testament Hebrews

Joseph Smith Melchizedek Abraham Jesus Christ

all right well hopefully we are live

here and ready to roll I wanted to go

over a trio here of priests that Joseph

Smith really focuses on here and I think

that a lot of the fountain of this comes

out

excuse me out of the book of Hebrews and

so we have a Melchizedek and Abraham and

we have Jesus Christ and if we look at

three different places really four but

let's focus on three here we have

Hebrews the book of Hebrews we have the

Joseph Smith translation of Genesis 14

this is where Melchizedek and Abraham

meet after Abraham has gone after a lot

he's gone go and get laud and go to war

with the Canaanite Kings to go get

locked back and then he meets with

Melchizedek and he pays tithing to this

Melchizedek figure we don't hear a lot

about Melchizedek throughout the

scriptures and there's a reason for that

I think I think that you if you go

through and you see there

seems to be somewhat of a suppression on

this of a Melchizedek tradition and so

it it's not very apparent who this

Melchizedek is or probably more

importantly what he represents however

with Joseph Smith he's gone in and

really in one of the places of the Bible

where he is put in one of his most beefy

sections of his translation it's in

Genesis 14 and it's not a coincidence

right because he's going to go in and

he's gonna focus in on Melchizedek and

Abraham and talk about this milk acidic

order and this milk acidic priesthood

that both Melchizedek and then

eventually Abraham have

and what is required of it in what it

represents the other place we look at is

in the Book of Mormon in alma 13 where

we get a good description of the order

of the Son of God the order of

Melchizedek and that's an important

thing to understand the title of the

priesthood and what the monistic figure

represents we get a much greater

understanding of the book of Hebrews if

we understand the titling here and look

at these things as titles and not just

descriptions for example the order of

the son of God right the priesthood

after the order of the son of God is a

title this is a title that for example

when John wrote his gospel which was

written after the other synoptic Gospels

of Matthew Mark and Luke he had already

had his vision of the book of Revelation

which is at the end of the New Testament

and he much later writes the gospel and

he gives his reason for writing it at

the very end and he says it's because of

his testimony and to testify of the Son

of God that is not just saying about

Jesus Christ in my opinion looking at

that it is a title that he's talking

about the same title that is used over

and over again especially right up front

in the book of Hebrews where we see the

son of God and the only begotten Son

this represents something Alma does the

same thing where we have this order of

of the son of God

and he and he talks about that we also

have it in Genesis 14 verses 29 and 32

32 after the order of the son of God

again in Mosiah I believe it's 13 or 14

a Bennett I gives us a description of

really titles of why Jesus Christ is the

father and also how he is the son so

these are titles

given to Jesus Christ and he says that

Jesus Christ is the son because of his

condescension because he came down to

earth was born of a woman and took on

the sins of the world right and lived a

mortal life that's what the Melchizedek

priesthood is really all about it is

about heaven coming down to earth and

reaching down and so it would be the

condescension of Jesus Christ the

condescension of God and that's what the

Melchizedek Priesthood represents it's

all things that are spiritual we learned

that in sections 84 and 107 and so the

focus of this trio here of Melchizedek

and Abraham and Jesus Christ are brought

together in these three basic areas of

of the book of Hebrews Joseph

Smith translation Genesis 14 and Alma 13

and the principle that brings them

together is that of faith and Hebrews

makes it very clear as does the other

two references that faith and when they

talk about faith they are specifically

talking about faith in the sacrifice of

the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ

that's what brings everything together

so if we were looking at Hebrews 1:1

starting right off with faith and Alma

13/4 and Genesis 14 verses 29 and 32 we

see that it is faith in Jesus Christ's

atoning sacrifice that is what the

Melchizedek Priesthood is all about and

we've gone through all the epistles in

the New Testament we see the difference

between what faith represents which is

in the core the grace of God and what

works represent down here which is in

the law or working toward justice that's

what we bring to the table is our works

we can't make our sell it work ourselves

wait back to God and we're always in

debt to him

and so it's grace that ultimately saves

us and gives us the opportunity to

return to God but the mystic priesthood

is about that grace and about the faith

in that atoning sacrifice the Son of God

is really you think about you know

another place we can look at for a

tradition of Melchizedek is the Essenes

and the Essenes were a Jewish sect that

lived in the wilderness in in Palestine

probably down in Egypt and they have a

milk acidic scroll and in this Melchizedek

scroll it shows that they are waiting

for the new milk acidic right now why

would they be waiting for a milk acidic

or a new milk acidic the reason is

because there is a tradition that is not

found in the Bible unless you really

look closely for it of a son of God that

would be born into the world and that it

that it would be God and that he would

be born into the world and that he would

come as a messiah and that he would

fulfill the role of Melchizedek and this

is not obviously the same person that

Abraham met with but the title of

Melchizedek is the same title or goes

hand-in-hand with the title of the son

of God these are titles that think about

a coronation where someone is given you

know even in anal the king or queen of

England and the prince and the princess

there they're given several titles when

they go in and are coordinated this is

the exact same thing about the king of

Salem which is milk acidic Melchizedek

means in Hebrew it's king of

righteousness Melchizedek and it also

then would be something similar to a

description or a title that we get of

Jesus Christ which is Prince of Peace

Salem is peace or Shalom Salem is peace

and so we get these titles around

something that would be familiar with a

figure of royalty or someone being

crowned and all of these titles come

together then in what would be similar

to a temple drama or a coronation which

would go hand-in-hand it used to be

anciently that in the temple there used

to be a temple drama we don't know much

about this what we do know is that the

Psalms are temple scriptures they come

from the temple they're founded in the

temple they're kind of garbled up they

appear to be completely out of order of

the way that they should be but we can

look through there and we can see

several things that give us an idea of

what a temple drama would have been

including a coronation of the Davidic

King that would go in to the temple

pass-through and go into the Holy of

Holies and sit on the throne of God as a

king and this would make him the son of

God as well he also went in in a role

acting as the son of God and acting as

Jehovah and we see the great thing about

in the book of Hebrews in the New

Testament is that we get this focus on

this royal figure and this high priestly

figure of Melchizedek and a high priest

a great high priest that we don't get as

much in the rest of the scriptures and

so we see that if we were looking back

at the crucifixion and we see above the

cross Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews

this is not just a mocking of him but

this is saying what he and his followers

were claiming that he was the son of God

this tradition that had been squelched

but that's who he is he is this king

that had been given a role in the temple

drama probably during the Feast of

Tabernacles along with the day of

atonement where we get a lot of that

imagery in the book of Hebrews and given

that role this is who he came and

fulfilled this prophecy and fulfilled

this role now Abraham is a big part of

this as well not only did he meet with

Melchizedek but as we read throughout

these three areas here we get this

theme on Abraham and his faith and him

waiting patiently having faith he and

Sarah having faith in Jesus Christ and

that they are going to have Isaac

eventually even though they're well

beyond their years and so this is an

expression that is used perhaps even

along with this temple drama again if we

look at these areas of Scripture a lot

of Scripture more than we might at first

notice a lot of Scripture is ritual and

so we think how is it why is it written

like this it seems strange it's not just

the translation and it's not just

because it's from a different culture

but a lot of it is something that we

don't understand because we don't know

the rituals so well but a lot of what we

have there is based on ritual especially

based on temple imagery you see that

throughout Hebrews if you saw any of my

episodes on the book of Hebrews you'll

see how it talks all about passing

through the Temple of Solomon going

through and eventually ending up being

coronated and sitting on the throne in

the Holy of Holies and so Abraham is a

big example of this that's tied closely

in with that another one is the Exodus

and being able to enter into the rest of

God which is the seventh day of creation

which goes right along with the temple

and it's also the promised land that

children of Israel would eventually

arrive in although those that we're at

Mount Sinai did not we're not able to

get in so Joseph Smith I could kind of

see in his mind here as he is going

through this the revelation that

would be coming down to him as he's

going through the book of Hebrews having

already translated the Book of Mormon

and had Alma 13 in there and then

going back perhaps and looking at

Genesis I don't know what the order of

that was what which one he came through

first but it's you can just see the

lights turning on with him about this

Melchizedek Priesthood this is not

something that you know in the church

where we have a Melchizedek and an

ironic priesthood it's crucial that

they are separate they are different

they represent different things the

ironic priesthood is a carnal priesthood

and it represents temporal things it

represents the law it represents our

works reaching up toward God and the

milk ascetic priesthood represents again

the things that are spiritual that are

coming down from God the Holy Ghost the

sacrifice of Christ etc and so it would

have been a lot easier for example if

with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery

that you know hey Peter James and John

could have came and just given them the

fullness of the milk has decreased it

but of course it didn't happen that way

John the Baptist had to come and give

them the Aaronic priesthood first they

are separate and it's the exact same

thing with the sacrament that we have

there's a reason why it is separate why

there are two different prayers because

the bread represents the ironic or the

lower law the flesh the temporal which

needs to be quickened with a spirit and

the water or wine would represent the

things of God the sacrifice of Jesus

Christ the blood that He shed and so

they've got to be separate and so with

Joseph Smith you can just see these

the his mind turning in this revelation

this light and spirit coming down to him

is he's going through the book of

Hebrews and seeing how the

coronation and the high priestly office

is represented in this book and if you

have a look at well again imagine a

king at the Feast of Tabernacles and he

is out in front of everybody and what is

the Feast of Tabernacles it's the tents

right it's so cold they call it and so

you would have all the tents that would

be out inside the temple court perhaps

or just outside and they're

participating in this temple drama and

they have the King the Davidic King

David Solomon and others that are going

through a temple drama along with the

Queen and along with other characters

and they are going through ritual and

here you have a son of God that is the

great High Priest represented through

the Davidic King you can think of even

facsimile number three right where the

god Osiris is sitting on the throne and

Joseph Smith says that is Abraham it's a

temple drama it's a role it is they're

actors filling these roles and Jesus

Christ is the role of the son of God

that Melchizedek would have played and

Abraham would have played as well and

the Davidic Kings would have played and

so this priestly trio of Melchizedek and

Abraham and Jesus Christ are brought

together so well in Hebrews we

understand from this that Jesus Christ

is not just the Redeemer and that is

obviously the focus is his sacrifice

that is his mission but he also

was a restorer of add of the and

receiver of well a dispenser of the

fullness of the gospel and of the

priesthood keys in his time right he was

a great high priest he was a Melchizedek

priest restoring all of the gospel to

the earth which they did not have they

only had for the most part the Aaronic

priesthood for a very long time for

centuries and centuries and so Joseph

Smith if you go through these places I

highly recommend that you go back and

look at Joseph Smith translation Genesis

14 I think there's 15 or 16 completely

Joseph Smith's verses in there that go

over this and then look at Alma 13 and

then come back and look at least

looking at Hebrews 11 through 13 and

imagine the temple drama that is playing

out imagine the temple imagery that is

happening here and the representation of

a milk ascetic priesthood separate from

a neurotic priesthood and imagine why

Jesus coming through in what they called

a triumphant entry which really wasn't

triumphant he hadn't conquered anything

it's a royal procession right it's part

of the drama that's the way I see it

anyway he comes through on the donkey

comes into the gates of Jerusalem from

the outside and where does he end up he

ends up at the temple of course he does

and what does he do there just like the

high priest on the Day of Atonement he

cleanses the temple and so Hebrews is

kind of the crux that we have of this

theology there's so much LDS doctrine

found in that book highly recommend that

you take a very close look at it and

review it often I appreciate your time

thank you