The Revealed Word and Modern Revelation

This is a story from the Talmud I came across while listening to some lectures on Philosophy and Religion in the West. It was being used to illustrate the extent to which Jewish scholars revere the Torah.

The Rabbis of the first century considered the status of an oven invented by an entrepreneur named Achnai. Rabbi Eliezer, the patrician elder statesman of the academy, declared the oven pure. But his colleagues demurred and overruled him.

Rabbi Eliezer offered every argument. But his colleagues would not budge. The oven was declared impure.

Enraged that neither his stature nor his argument could sway the debate, Rabbi Eliezer produced a miracle: "Let the carob tree prove it!" he thundered. The earth shuddered and the carob uprooted itself and rocketed into the air.

"No proof can be brought from a carob tree," the scholars retorted.

"Let the stream of water prove it!" Whereupon the stream flowed backward.

"No proof can be brought from a stream."

Rabbi Eliezer, now boiling with frustration, turned to the walls of the Academy and commanded them to fall in upon the assembled scholars. But his counterpart, Rabbi Joshua, arose and addressed the walls: "When scholars are in debate, what right have you to interfere?" And so, the walls did not fall.

Finally, beyond all restraint, Rabbi Eliezer invokes the highest authority. "If I am right, let it be proved by Heaven." Whereupon, reports the Talmud, a Heavenly Voice called out: "Why do you dispute Rabbi Eliezer? In all things, the law agrees with him!"

At that moment, Rabbi Joshua arose again, and quoted a verse from the Torah: "It [the Torah] is not in heaven!" (Deut 30:12). What did he mean by this? Rabbi Yermiah explained: "The Torah has already been given on Mt. Sinai. Therefore we pay no attention to a Heavenly Voice."

Rabbi Edward Feinstein explains that according to Jewish tradition, "Once the Torah was given, God is no longer revealed in miracles and voices, but in human intelligence and conscience."

As a person who believes in personal revelation this seems like a strange stance to take. God revealed His words once and then was completely done communicating with mankind? All other instruction, insight, and information must come from human reasoning?

My view can be summed up in a couple scriptures:

 20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 

 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
(2 Pet 1:20-21)

And:

 3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.
(2 Ne 32:3)

Revelation (either through a prophet or personal revelation) is received by the Holy Ghost speaking to an individual. Those words must be understood and interpreted using that same Holy Ghost. It is as if the Holy Ghost speaks its own language and we must learn to speak that language in order to properly understand it. Thus having the Holy Ghost with you as you read scripture will allow you to truly understand the meaning. This is not to imply that there is only one true meaning for any given passage of scripture, but that the through personal revelation, God can reveal to you certain meanings that will be of most benefit to you at that particular time. As we continue to read and study the scriptures, we will learn "line upon line, precept upon precept." (D&C 98:12) Relying on human reasoning to understand God's word seems self-contradictory. If a message was received by revelation, would it not be best to understand it by revelation?

God Himself has said that every word He speaks is important:

 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
(Matt 4:4)

In that verse, Jesus is quoting Moses:

 3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.
(Deut 8:3)

Is not revelation from God, God's word? If we should live by every word that God speaks, shouldn't we continue to listen to new messages from heaven? So why would the Rabbis ignore the voice from heaven? That is my confusion.

In regards to modern revelation, some might argue that there are no modern prophets and no modern revelation from God. It seems to me that there are two simple things that refute this.

The first is that God answers prayers. I think most (if not all) Christians would agree with this premise. If God answers prayers that means we are communicating with Him and He is hearing us. Otherwise how would He know what we are asking for? Sometimes those answers are in the form of miracles (healing, etc), but other times those answers are in the form of inspiration. For example, an idea suddenly coming to your mind that answers the question you were asking of God. That is revelation. God is speaking to you through the Holy Ghost and revealing information to you.

The second thing is this scripture:

  8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
(Heb 13:8)

If God is still speaking to His children through revelation, which was shown through the example of prayer, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, why would He not still be speaking to prophets like He did in the scriptures? I believe that He is still speaking to prophets. And I believe that we need to listen to and study those words of God just as we do the scriptures. "Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Ancient and modern. We should not reject new revelation as the rabbis in the Talmud story did. We should "feast upon the words of Christ", with the Holy Ghost's help to understand them. That will provide us with the guidance we need to live in a way that will bring us peace and happiness, and ultimately to bring us back to our Heavenly Father.

 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

 27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
(John 14:26-27)

Source: Valley Beth Shalom

Grace vs Works

I have long been intrigued by the debate in Christianity on Grace vs Works. The arguments on both sides are compelling and interesting. Of course the stakes are high, with (theoretically) eternal life on the line.

I have been listening to a series of lectures entitled Philosophy and Religion in the West, which has caused me to think a lot about this topic lately. I freely admit that I am not a scholar of philosophy, but here is my understanding in a nutshell.

During Martin Luther's time there was a heavy emphasis on the Works side of things - obeying God's commandments, participating in church sacraments, doing penance when one committed sin, paying money for indulgences, etc.

Luther believed that individuals just needed to confess to God and that He would forgive them of their sins, instead of confessing to a priest or anything else. His reasoning was that if we believed (had faith in) God's promise that He would forgive us, then we were forgiven and that was the end of it (see John 3:16 and Rom 1:16). This eliminated the need for any of the "actions" then common in the Catholic church. Thus faith and the Grace of God alone were enough to gain salvation. Luther emphasized that the outward ordinances and sacraments of the church were still valuable because they represented the faith of the individual in God's promise. If you lost your faith, you could lose your salvation.

John Calvin took this even further by introducing the idea that we cannot even choose salvation. God has chosen His "elect". Those who are chosen by God for salvation are given Grace and salvation regardless of their actions or inaction. And those who are not elected for salvation cannot gain it no matter how well they follow the teachings of Jesus.

On the Works side of the argument, in my mind, are the many teachings of the Savior and His disciples which talk about the need to "do" things. When the rich young man asked Jesus what he needed to do in order to gain eternal life, the Savior said he should give away all that he had to the poor. Jesus followed that up by saying, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God (Mark 10:25)." He seems to say that baptism is a requirement for salvation (John 3:5). He also commanded us to be perfect (Matt 5:48). And there are numerous scriptures which talk about us being judged according to our deeds (like Rev 20:12-13). If all one needs to do is have faith, why would the Savior teach these things?

These two seemingly contradicting ideas have been the source of my confusion. I believe that the idea of Grace and salvation being a free gift from God is true. To a certain extent what we do has no impact on our salvation. The easiest way to defend this stance to me is to remove the Savior's Atonement from the equation. If there had been no Atonement then it would not matter what we did in this life. We absolutely could not be forgiven of our sins. We all commit sin, and no unclean thing can dwell with God. So we would be eternally excluded from returning to heaven to live with God. However, I disagree with the Calvinist view that we are predestined to salvation or damnation regardless of what we do. I do believe that individuals can choose to have faith in Christ and accept His forgiveness and thus partake of salvation.

With that being said, I have also always believed that Works are a necessary component to a certain extent. Not that they can "earn" us salvation, but because when Jesus paid the price for our sins, our individual forgiveness was conditional upon our acceptance of His gift through covenant.

I still could not really explain the relationship between Grace and Works, but this morning as I was listening to the discussion on how the idea of Grace developed in Christianity, the words of Joseph Smith came to my mind.

“A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation; for, from the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly things” (Lectures on Faith, 6:7).

So here is my new understanding. Works are necessary because without them one would not have sufficient faith to enact God's Grace. Yes, Grace is free, but Martin Luther was correct that faith is necessary. However, faith is not a Boolean value - it is not just Yes or No. We can have faith in Jesus Christ without having enough faith for salvation. The ordinances and performances of the gospel and obedience to the Savior's teachings are important because they help to foster and build enough faith so that one can enjoy the fruits of Christ's Atonement.

I believe that James lays this out very clearly.

 14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 

 15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 

 16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 

 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 

 18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 

 19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 

 20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 

 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 

 22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
(James 2:14-22) 

One needs to "perfect" one's faith in Christ in order to have faith sufficient for salvation. By entering into a covenant with God at baptism, an individual declares their acceptance of Christ's terms for salvation and begins upon the journey of faith and obedience. At that point, the individual's faith is as small as a mustard seed, but through obedience it will grow and produce the fruits of salvation.