In 3 Nephi 20:8 Christ said "He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled."
A couple things I notice are the verbs eating and drinking, it's actively partaking of the sacrament. Probably actively taking upon us the name of Christ, and living to have his spirit to be always with us. I don't believe the scripture is meant to imply that if we partake of the sacrament once, that we can passively sit by, and let our spirit be filled without any action on our part. But only through constant feeding and drinking is our spirit nourished, and we should do so that it never hungers. Much like eating food every 2 hours. If we ate food every 2 hours, our bodies would never be hungry. Our bodies would ever be filled.
Unfortunately 3 Nephi seems to plagiarize the words of Jesus in John 6 where Jesus says to eat His flesh and blood as a synonym for simply believing in Him to have eternal life. What Jesus said was simple, to believe in Him, as simple as eating and drinking, has been made complex. Jesus said, "He who believes has eternal life." Not "He who believes and partakes of sacrament and is baptized and tithes and does temple duty has the possibility of entering the celestial kingdom."
ReplyDeletePeace