New Era, “Why and What Do I need to Confess to My Bishop?” October 2013; “Many youth feel more comfortable confessing their mistakes to their parents or youth leaders. Although your parents and leaders can provide necessary support and counsel, the Lord has declared that the bishop is a common judge in Israel (see D&C 107:72, 74). He has the responsibility to determine the worthiness of the members of his ward.
As a servant of the Lord, he will be kind and understanding as he listens to you. He will then help you through the repentance process. He is the Lord’s messenger of mercy to help you become clean through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” – C. Scott Grow
Revelation 5:11-12; “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; 12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing”.
Colossians 2:16-18; “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. 18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.”
I Googled the word “worthiness” and came across an incredibly cool website I have to share with you! It’s called He is Our Strong Tower. When I saw the URL I immediately thought of the Christian song of the same name and wanted to share with you some of their insight into this word.
Worthy means something to be praised or praiseworthy, having worth or merit, honorable, admirable, etc.
As the author of this site stated God sees us as worthy because He looks at us through the blood of His Son. Of course when we think of worthiness in this manner, then our thoughts go back directly to what He has done because as John the Apostle and Revelator said, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain” – Revelation 5:11-12.
While listening to a sermon last night about angels on the radio by John MacArthur he realized the number of angels in verse eleven amounted to 100 million angels! Can you imagine?! Who of us is worthy of such adoration such as this? No one but Christ Jesus of course!
Just as God looks at us through a filter of the blood of Christ, we all judge people and things through a filter as well.
What filter is the bishop using? We know man is sinful so obviously the bishop is using a flawed filter. When you go in for a temple worthiness interview (especially a young teen) how do you know you’re getting an impartial judgment?
What if he just had an argument with his own teenage child? And what if his kid is friends with the teenager he’s judging? Is that impartial?
The Bible is so comforting. When we read passages from the one above we see God’s protective manner towards us. He doesn’t want us to subject ourselves to a manmade system like the one we see in Mormonism or any other “ism” for that matter. He also reminds us of this in 1 Corinthians 4:4-5; “For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”
Our judge is God, not man!
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