Jesus is not a Teddy Bear. In his talk, President Holland describes a masculine, bold, protective, and charitable man who is tethered to truth and the will of His Father.
We should not "dumb down" the image and character of Jesus Christ.
When you remove justice, you remove grace.
Charity may not be what you think it is.
Christ not what we often times get at least culturally with as I term it a a a a
teddy bear Jesus right it's it's this is much more robust and and and I as one
really appreciate what he goes over here from this October General Conference now
uh this episode is brought to you by go and do travel I their official spokesperson and this episode is brought
to you by the gospel on the Nile uh I've been doing this for a while now Egypt is incredible it is safe uh it is a once in
a lifetime experience uh we see so many of the amazing ruins and places where
Abraham and Moses and Joseph of Egypt were and you know so you really can dip
into the scriptures and and be a part of unbelievable history and then of course
just knowing that uh what you're going to see all over the ruins is the temple
right the ritual embrace the abrahamic Covenant the Washings and anointings it's it's all over the place and it's
it's really something you're going to learn more about the temple there than you will anywhere else except for of course in the temple itself you can go
to quick media.com that's CWC media.com go up to trips and events and scroll down to gospel on the Nile couple spots
left in March of 2025 and then we've got September of 2025 available as well here
we [Music]
go so here we have the conference talk from president Holland called I am he I
I love the way he starts this out it's it's just bold and strong and of course
he gives so many incredible talks about the Savior right just rich and and um
you know for me anyway it seems to be the number one place to go to for the apostles right now to to get a a talk
about Jesus Christ and his life especially in mortality so I want to go
over this he's gonna give a broad spectrum of traits of of Jesus Christ
and of course he's going to focus very much on charity right the Pure Love Of Christ but he's going to tell you what
it is it is not love is love right it it is it is it
is it is charity and truth it must be tethered it is a tethered empathy and it
is a righteous compassion that uh are Tethered to truth and just Justice and
and it's easy for us as a culture to start moving away from that I don't just mean within the church I mean even more
broadly right that that untethered empathy and and malevolent compassion
are are what are drawing us into several ideologies today number one that are
dangerous that is the carrot that that creates a new morality for us to be
drawn in and yet there's no truth to it there's no anchor to it and so he covers
that strongly I think here in this talk with the characteristics and a full uh robust
profile and of of character with with Jesus Christ here so I am here uh we can
see here he he's going to open up with this is the title he's going to end with this to conclude the talk but I am he is
is something that Jesus specifically says on a portion in the gopel El of
John of Jesus's account of his life of the last week of his life that we don't
usually hear and and that is also something that is very pleasant to to
hear so here's what the subtitle is Right Christ's
charity but then it's this evident in complete loyalty to Divine will
persisted and continues to persist and so again he's taking love
the Pure Love Of Christ and and he's tethering it to the Divine will right
and he'll show you that this is the Divine will of the father so let's open up with this here where where he sets
the stage right consider this scene from the last week of Jesus's mortal life a
multitude had gathered including roban soldiers soldiers armed with staves and strapped with swords it gives you an
idea of the force that is coming for him as he is is just over
uh his experience in Gethsemane led by officers from the chief priests who had torches in hand
the car the earnest company was not off to conquer a city tonight they were
looking for only one man a man not known to carry a weapon receive military training or
engage in physical combat at any time in his entire life so in other words an
overpowering Force coming for this one man as the soldiers approached Jesus in
an effort to protect his disciples stepped forth and said whom seek ye so I
love the way he's bringing this up on how this event happens in the Gospel of John right as the so soldiers approached
it's Jesus in an effort to protect his disciples now imagine this and I had
this discussion with Matthew Watkins if you've ever ever checked out his podcast on on general conference talks he gives
the image in that interview he did with me of of Jesus coming down out from
Gethsemane in his robes full of blood and again imagine this he he has
just gone through the atoning sacrifice and taking on the sins of the world in
the garden and and as he comes back down he he he he comes back to to Peter James
and John he comes back probably to the other disciples down a little bit further and and and here he
is and and what is his first reaction to this overpowering
military force that's coming toward him and his disciples right
as president Holland says he steps forth in an in in an effort to protect his
disciples this is who he is very this is a very masculine profile
here of of him stepped forth and said whom seek ye and they replied Jesus of Nazareth
and Jesus said I am he thus the title of the talk just bold comes right out I am
he as soon as he had said unto them I am he they went backward and fell to the
ground so this is a scene that we don't usually see you know where there is a
it's not just a healing strength it's just not not just a comforting strength
right that that he's offering here there there is a boldness to him there is a I'm going to
protect and and this I am he affects the soldiers and those there so much they
step back and they fall to the ground now we can think a little bit about what the
countenance of Jesus may have been as he has just gone
through Gethsemane and maybe it's two-sided and one is how unbelievably
worn out he would be and here are not yet the marks that would be on his body from the cross but the marks of the
blood certainly that bled from every poor in
Gethsemane and at the same time so so what I'm saying is that he would be
exhausted overwhelmed with what he has just gone through and yet his first thought is I'm going to protect my
disciples from this military force and on the other side of this perhaps this
is nothing this is nothing compared to what he has just gone through and and he has changed and and I
think we should understand that right he he wasn't what he was just before that he has
changed a perfect being has now gone through an experience that he had not gone through
before and so perhaps there is immediately here some type of strength that he
has having taken on the sins of the world to in a sense protect all of
mankind from judgment if we choose and then coming down from the
Mount of Olives to protect his disciples from this military force but I just love that he starts off
with this example and and I think he's trying to say something here about the
robust full spectrum character of God of of of Jesus
Christ I'm going to move on here to the uh to the next paragraph it says president Holland here says to me that
is one of the most stirring lines in all of scripture among other things it tells
me straightforwardly that just being in the presence of the Son of God the great
Jehovah of the Old Testament and Good Shepherd of the new who hears no who
Bears no weapons of any kind that just hearing the voice of the this Refuge
from the storm this Prince of Peace is enough to send antagonists stumbling
into Retreat piling them in a jum jumble making the whole group wish they had
been assigned kitchen duty that night that's that's a pretty funny line but
again what is he saying about this and I think that sometimes you know we focus so much on kind of
this you know I I this compassionate being that has no
tethering to truth and to justice that doesn't take anything away from The Compassion it it makes it righteous that
it is Tethered to truth and to Justice down here to the next paragraph he says just a few days
earlier the last week of Jesus's life is just it's incredible it's so rich
president Holland goes on just a few days earlier when he had entered the city triumphantly all the city was moved
the scripture says asking who is this I can only imagine that who is this is the
question that muddled soldiers were now asking the answer to that
question could not have been in his looks for Isaiah had prophesied some
seven centuries earlier that he hath no form nor comeliness when we shall see
him there is no beauty that we should desire him it certainly wasn't in his
polished wardrobe or his great personal wealth of which he had neither it could
not be from any professional training in the local synagogues because we have no evidence that he ever studied at any of
them that's an interesting point though even in his youth he could confound superbly prepared scribes and lawyers
astonishing them with his Doctrine as one having Authority you know you have
to wonder to yourself how does he know all of these things I had a recent podcast with nol Reynolds and he was
talking about uh uh we were talking about the scribal tradition of the Manasses perhaps all of Joseph uh but of
the bassit and and I wonder if there is some scribal training here for Jesus
that may go well beyond what the judahite training is in in in the
scribal schools he may be pulling from again as Jeremiah calls it or I love is
the Old Paths and and pulling from a little bit more of a a broader tradition
would make sense to me a broader tradition that is steeped in the josephite tradition of of the scribal
schools how that would pass down to him I don't know but at 12 years old why
does he know all of these things I think that we get this idea in our mind that he's born because he's God and he's uh
automatically just knows everything the the the veil has to be pulled back here and certainly for
someone like this it would you know he would have the an under a great understanding very quickly I would
imagine but he still has to be taught these things so where where is that
training coming from just just a thought president
Holland continues from that teaching in the temple to his triumphant entry into
Jerusalem and this final unjust unjustifiable arrest Jesus was routinely
placed in difficult often devious situations in which he was always
triumphant victories for which we have no explanation except Divine
DNA and then we get to what what to me is the Crux of this talk here in in this
paragraph here he says yet down through history many have
simplified even trivialized our image of him and his witness of who he was and and I think
we're in Jeopardy of doing this we've done this on the other side of the spectrum before but now the pendulum is swung to a very different side here they
have reduced says president Holland they have reduced his righteousness to Mere
prudishness his Justice to Mere anger his Mercy to Mere permissiveness right
tolerance we must not be guilty of such simp simplistic versions of him that
conveniently ignore teachings we find uncomfortable we don't like when things
are hard we don't like when there is adversity we don't like when there are trials that we need to go through this
dumbing down he says has been true even regarding his ultimate defining virtue
his love again I to me described in our
culture today of how we are looking at Jesus is as a an untethered empathy and
a malevolent compassion so so kind of you know creating bumper sticker ideas
of his character and of who he is and don't get me wrong we can go all the way to the Other Extreme also right where he
is just this judgmental Jesus that uh um is going you
know he's going to be our judge and and therefore you better do this and you better do this or else you know fire and
brimstone type of a thing but that's that's not really where we're at today is it and that's not where our culture
is today you have a few of the the the pastors perhaps out there and other teachers that are that are still going
you know with that fire and brimstone really hard uh which is
unfortunate but for the rest of Christianity and and I would say
culturally within the church that we we have moved on the pendulum pretty far to
the other side of just kind of Grace without judgment
and and mercy right W without uh truth right and and and so and and
that's not the gospel that is not the gospel and and we want to change the gospel we want
so therefore we want to change God into our own image we want things to be simple and easy and judgment needs to be
removed if at all possible the problem is is that this is where we always get
into trouble as a people this is where the Israelites constantly got into trouble this is where all of the
dissenters got into trouble in the Book of Mormon is they began begin to change
perhaps the the character of Jesus or of the coming of the Messiah and and they do this through the
reduction the siphoning away of judgment and and when you remove judgment you
remove Mercy you remove judgment you remove Grace you remove judgment you
remove charity you remove judgment you remove the Savior and the need for
him and so we want the gospel itself and the
meaning of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ needs to reflect that full
breadth of the Gospel the full breadth of of what we are doing and what what
the need is here for us to grow to overcome to
become and we do that through repentance and of course again without
an atoning sacrifice how do you repent how does that work and and are you
driven to a point where you must rely on the Savior and his
sacrifice if if there is no repentance I think personally I think think that
there is a uh I think that this is part of the
plan I know you know in the in the in the premortal world we have the plan and
and and you have Lucifer who is I believe working with a an untethered empathy and a malevolent
compassion at first about the disparity of the outcome of the plan he doesn't like it and and then he wants to remove
agency so there is no disparity and and he wants to take all the glory for himself in order to accomplish this
because it only happens through through tyranny he wants to take the father's glory and and we we see this plan and we
think oh okay well there's a substitute here for our our sins and Jesus is going
to make that sacrifice so that we can go I don't think that's all there is to it I I don't think that's all it is I I
think that the relationship built through faith from us
toward the Savior and our heavenly father is an absolute
must I think the process of repentance is an absolute must that's why we as Latter-Day Saints
believe there must be a fall there must be a savior right it was never a backup plan
it is the plan and and and part of that plan is to
build the relationship through faith and repentance the first to principles of the Gospel we don't have those just
because look out we are in a fallen State we're Fallen man and woman so we
better put these principles in place no those are the principles that allow us to become who
we are supposed to come and that that comes through that relationship through that Covenant
path that that binds us further and further
with Jesus Christ and and and helps us give the glory and submit to the will of
the father okay so I love that idea from president Holland of dumbing down right
it's it's that's an easy thing to do and that's kind of what a teddy bear Jesus is with the virtue that he talks about
here his love we can dumb that down let's go on with his uh next paragraph during his
mortal Mission Jesus taught that there were two great Commandments they have been taught in this conference and will
forever be taught love the Lord thy God and love thy neighbor as thyself so
there's love right if we are to follow the Savior Faithfully in these two crucial and inextricably linked rules we
ought to hold firmly to what he actually said and what he actually said was if ye
love me keep my commandments so if we're going to love
God and we're going to love our fellow man well if you love me then keep my
Commandments that is how we do it and and that would be part of the love that
that he exudes would be in US keeping those
Commandments and growing and learning that would that's what he would want for
us and then he asks this question how did Jesus love and he gives this answer
first he loved with all his heart might mind and strength
giving him the ability to heal the deepest pain and declare the hardest reality in short he is one who could
administer Grace and and insist on Truth at the
same time so that that's let's see does he go through that that he does okay so
I'm not going to cover that yet Grace and Truth you can't have one
without the other just like mercy and Justice you cannot have one without the
other very similar Concepts as Lehi said in his Blessing to his son Jacob
Redemption cometh in and through the holy Messiah for he is full of grace and
truth this is uh a statement that is made uh also in
the in the Bible right I think that if we look at uh uh there there's a book out by Jonah the barns that talks about
there being a common root or a common source for this phrase Grace and Truth
perhaps found in the brass plates that book by the way is called the key of the Keystone his love allows an encouraging
Embrace when it is needed and a bitter cup when it has to be swallowed let's say that again his love allows an
encouraging Embrace when it is needed right that's kind of the I need the
support I need the healing and a bitter cup when it has to be swallowed think
about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail he does not really get the answer that he's hoping for there so we try to love with
all our heart might mind and strength because that is the way he loves us the
second characteristic of Jesus's Divine charity was his obedience to every word
that proceeded from God's mouth always aligning his will and behavior with that
of his Heavenly Father so the the Commandments bind us in love
in two ways number one we show that we love God but secondly that that
submission to the Commandments and and and to truth and true principles makes us act as God is who is
the one that loves perfectly so how does God love that's how we should love which is based off of
obedience to Commandments and and I would say overall to truth Commandments
by the way which really are are a
manual to be like God a manual to uh to
build the character of God we'll keep going here when he arrived on the Western Hemisphere
following his resurrection Christ said to the Nephites behold I am Jesus Christ
I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the father hath given me in the which I have suffered the will of the
father from the beginning he drunk from the bitter cup and then he follows the will of the
father that was the will of of his father of the Myriad ways he could have introduced himself Jesus did so by
declaring his obedience to the will of the father that's very
interesting Christ's charity evident in complete loyalty to to Divine
will I want to back up again when we talk about loving others if it is a matter of just pure
affirmation and everything you're doing is fine or or the inability you know or
or let me just say you know tolerance for everything
then that's not charity that is not charity that doesn't mean you go to the opposite end of the
spectrum and you're all judg J ment right and all anger that that is not also as as
president Holland says dumbing down both the character of God and truth and what
is real what really is Charity but love is doing the will of
the father love is becoming like him and and helping others to do the
same and then president Holland summarizes his talk in these last two
paragraphs saying whom seek ye in quotation marks with all our
hearts we answer Jesus of Nazareth when he says I am he we bow our
knee and confess with our tongue that he is the living Christ that he alone atoned for our sins that he was carrying
us even when we thought he had abandoned us so he's putting us in the same shoes
so to speak as that military force that Roman military force that was coming and seeking Jesus instead of maybe falling
back we bow on a knee when we stand before him and see the wounds in his
hands and feet we will begin to comprehend what it meant for him to Bear
our sins and be acquainted with grief to be completely obedient to the will of
his father all out of pure love for us
again that is love love is pain love is difficult love is sacrifice love is
payment we we think so much of love in our modern Western mind as being you
know this feeling we have for everybody and and certainly that's a part of your experience and your
relationships but but love how did God love us first is it just because there's a feeling in his mind and his heart or
is it because the plan committed that the son would come down to earth be born
of a woman take on mortality and and and take on the sins of the world and be
sacrificed the greatest act of love in the
universe is an act of pain and an act of Sorrow a Act of grief
an act of burdens and an act of
sacrifice and and at the same time all of those acts are an
invitation to love him back and to build a relationship with
him he goes on to introduce others to Faith repentance baptism the gift of the
Holy Ghost and receiving our blessings in the house of the Lord these are the fundamental principles and ordinances
that ultimately reveal our love of God and neighbor and joyfully characterize
the True Church of Christ two points here it's not a matter of going through
the ordinances and that somehow just doing these ordinances this little checklist is what's going to bind us to
Christ and and and bring us closer to him right that's not it the experience
is the the covenants and what we promis to do because of what he does for us and of
course going through that endowment well starting off with the Washings and anointings but going through the
endowment we understand it's all centered on Christ and and it's a matter of doing
what he does and did and it's a matter of taking on the burdens as he
did taking on sacrificed and taking on
responsibility to some degree maybe a great degree of others and then secondly he says here
again uh reveal our love of God and neighbor and joyfully characterize the
True Church of Christ I'm going to say this again because we we've
gone I think again on a swing of the pendulum about what it is to be a true
church it is the true church and you can testify of that it's in Doctrine and
Covenant section one right there to begin the doctrine of kovenant talking about the the one and
only true church and we say well the church is flawed and there's people and they're
not perfect and but the gospel's perfect and true and and and everything well no that's not all that true means true
doesn't mean perfect the church church is true because it's the Church of Christ the church is true because it has
the priesthood the church is true because it has the ordinances the church is true because
it's got the doctrine and it's something that we need to support as being
true the church is true now to say that without knowing that is is a is a
different thing do you really know that do you experience that and saying it without talking about
the gospel principles you know is probably something that's not
complete but the church is true his final paragraph here brothers and sisters I testify that the Church of
Jesus Christ of latterday saints is the vehicle God has provided for our exaltation I am so glad I'm going to go
to screen here again I am so happy that he said
that uh I I don't I don't feel like I hear it enough the the TR Church what
separates us above all from everyone else is the doctrine of exaltation what does that mean it it it
adds a a an infinite difference to the scriptures and the
gospel the atoning sacrifice and the love of God is there for
exaltation the true church and the true gospel is there for us to take advantage
of so that we can gain exaltation and the doctrines if we if we
don't bring up exaltation and talk about that then we lose the doctrines of the
plan so again for me I this makes me very happy he says the gospel it teaches is
true and the priesthood legitimizing it is not derivative I testify that Russell M
Nelson is a prophet of our God as his predecessors were and his success cessors will be and one day that
prophetic guidance will lead a generation to see our messenger of Salvation descend like lightning out of
the East and we will exclaim Jesus of Nazareth with arms forever outstretched
and love unfeigned he will reply I am he
I so promise with the apostolic power and authority of His holy name even Jesus Christ amen so what a what a
powerful you know obviously he's one of the better speakers you'll ever hear in
anything but you you feel that Spirit he has on the doctrines that he expounds on
and on the relationship and and character of Jesus here that I think is so important and I think fills so many
gaps that uh we're falling into and
not understanding the full robust character of Jesus
Christ there is no teddy bear Jesus there is also no Hell Fire damnation
Jesus there is a Jesus that brings in the Perfection of the plan and the
principles of exaltation which is Grace and Truth it's
mercy and judgment and and you can't have one
without the other thanks for listening
