![\"Detail](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/01\/Fra-titusbuen.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cChurch Issues Statement Following Tragedy in Australia\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 For what it\u2019s worth, my wife and I know the area just a bit. \u00a0I\u2019ve been there a few times. \u00a0I believe that we\u2019ve walked across the specific bridge from which the two gunmen were firing.<\/p>\n I was, sadly, not at all surprised to learn that the shooters at Bondi Beach bear Muslim names, but I was very pleased to discover that the heroic man who disarmed one of them<\/a> is named Ahmed el-Ahmed. \u00a0The owner of a fruit shop and the father of two, Mr. el-Ahmed was evidently shot in the arm and in the hand, but he probably saved several lives. \u00a0\u201cWe saw the action of a brave person,\u201d commented Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, \u201cand it turns out it was a brave Muslim, and I salute him for stopping one of the terrorists from killing innocent Jews.\u201d \u00a0Here is my translation of Qur\u2019an 5:32:<\/p>\n That is why We ordained for the children of Israel that whoever takes a life \u2014 unless as a punishment for murder or for spreading corruption in the earth \u2014 it is as if he had killed all of humankind, and whoever saves a life, it is as if he had saved all of humankind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The headlines from Australia and from Providence, Rhode Island, have been discouraging, as so much of the news in this fallen world so often is. \u00a0But today is the first day of Hanukkah, and Hanukkah is about the triumph of light over darkness. \u00a0This is expressed (during the darkest time of the year) in the lighting of the menorah candles, symbolizing victory over oppression and the ultimate triumph of spirituality over materialism. \u00a0It is about spiritual resilience, about faith, about how the cumulative addition of small lights dispels great darkness, and about perseverance against overwhelming odds.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m unaware of any Jewish readers of this blog, but I\u2019ll say it to everybody: \u00a0Happy Hanukkah!<\/strong>\u00a0 I was hoping to put our menorah up tonight in any case, but now I\u2019m absolutely determined to do it.<\/p>\n There was great glee and guffawing in certain circles when, at the conclusion of October\u2019s semi-annual General Conference, President Dallin H. Oaks announced no new temples. \u00a0Maybe, some hopefully said, this would be the end of Latter-day Saint temple-building, at least for a while. \u00a0However, the pause has turned out to be rather short-lived. \u00a0And the announcement suggests a new approach to announcing the construction of temples: \u00a0\u201cTemple to Be Built in Portland, Maine: The temple will be the 383rd worldwide and the first in Maine\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I\u2019m absolutely delighted.<\/p>\n The quotation from C. S. Lewis in the image above is a close paraphrase of similar statements that have often been neglected but that are widely distributed across ancient Christianity. \u00a0It is well known that Latter-day Saints teach a doctrine of \u201cexaltation\u201d or human deification. \u00a0And I want to suggest here, in line with Brother Lewis, that the doctrine of exaltation is intimately related to the event commemorated at Christmas \u2014 and also that it was present, if not yet articulated, from the earliest days of the Restoration.<\/span><\/p>\n For example, 2 Nephi 32:2-3 seems to suggest an implicit doctrine of human deification in the Book of Mormon \u2014 a text from which, critics have alleged, the supposedly Nauvoo-period teaching of human exaltation is wholly absent:<\/span><\/p>\n Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost?<\/p>\n Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n A far clearer passage in that respect,, though, is 3 Nephi 28:10, where the Nephite disciples are promised that \u201cye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I see this as a close analogy to the transitive property of equivalence known from mathematics \u2014 according to which, if a<\/em> = b<\/em> and b<\/em> = c<\/em>, it necessarily follows that a<\/em> = c<\/em>. \u00a0 Thus, if the disciples will be like the Son, and the Son is like the Father, the disciples will be like the Father.<\/span><\/p>\n And there can be no disputation about the fact that a doctrine of human deification is present in the written account of Joseph Smith\u2019s and Sidney Rigdon\u2019s vision of the three degrees of glory in February 1832, less than two years after the founding of the Church and more than twelve years prior to 7 April 1844, when Joseph gave his famous King Follet Discourse in Nauvoo:<\/p>\n They are they into whose hands the Father has given all things\u2014They are they who are priests and kings, who have received of his fulness, and of his glory; and are priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the Only Begotten Son.<\/p>\n Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even the sons of God\u2014Wherefore, all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ\u2019s, and Christ is God\u2019s. \u00a0And they shall overcome all things. \u00a0(Doctrine and Covenants 76:55-60)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I think that it\u2019s an appropriate time for me to share with you a favorite poem by Sir John Betjeman, who served as poet laureate of England from 1972 until his death in 1984. \u00a0It\u2019s entitled \u201cChristmas\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n The bells of waiting Advent ring, The holly in the windy hedge Provincial Public Houses blaze, And London shops on Christmas Eve And girls in slacks remember Dad, And is it true, And is it true ? For if it is, No love that in a family dwells,<\/a><\/a>\n
\n
<\/a>
\nThe Tortoise stove is lit again
\nAnd lamp-oil light across the night
\nHas caught the streaks of winter rain
\nIn many a stained-glass window sheen
\nFrom Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.<\/p>\n
\nAnd round the Manor House the yew
\nWill soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
\nThe altar, font and arch and pew,
\nSo that the villagers can say
\n\u2018The church looks nice\u2019 on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n
\nCorporation tramcars clang,
\nOn lighted tenements I gaze,
\nWhere paper decorations hang,
\nAnd bunting in the red Town Hall
\nSays \u2018Merry Christmas to you all\u2019.<\/p>\n
\nAre strung with silver bells and flowers
\nAs hurrying clerks the City leave
\nTo pigeon-haunted classic towers,
\nAnd marbled clouds go scudding by
\nThe many-steepled London sky.<\/p>\n
\nAnd oafish louts remember Mum,
\nAnd sleepless children\u2019s hearts are glad.
\nAnd Christmas-morning bells say \u2018Come!\u2019
\nEven to shining ones who dwell
\nSafe in the Dorchester Hotel.<\/p>\n
\nThis most tremendous tale of all,
\nSeen in a stained-glass window\u2019s hue,
\nA Baby in an ox\u2019s stall ?
\nThe Maker of the stars and sea
\nBecome a Child on earth for me ?<\/p>\n
\nNo loving fingers tying strings
\nAround those tissued fripperies,
\nThe sweet and silly Christmas things,
\nBath salts and inexpensive scent
\nAnd hideous tie so kindly meant,<\/p>\n
\nNo carolling in frosty air,
\nNor all the steeple-shaking bells
\nCan with this single Truth compare \u2013
\nThat God was man in Palestine
\nAnd lives today in Bread and Wine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/a>