The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fourth Year: The AtonementRoberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fourth Year: The Atonement
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
_6. Love:_ Love! the crowning glory of all the attributes of
God! We may revel in this attribute. "He that loveth not, knoweth not
God; for God is Love!"[A] "God is Love, and he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God, and God in him."[B] "Every one that loveth is born of
God."[C] "In this was manifested the Love of God towards us, because
that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live
through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved
us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins."[D]
[Footnote A: I John iv:8.]
[Footnote B: I John iv:16.]
[Footnote C: St. John iii:16.]
[Footnote D: I John iv:9,10.]
"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life."[A] More perfect evidence than this of love, even God cannot give.
[Footnote A: St. John iii:16.]
_7. The Harmony of God's Attributes:_ These attributes as well as
those considered in lesson XII, must be thought upon as constituting a
harmony; those with the existences as real and eternal as themselves;
these with reference to harmony within or among themselves. Thus
Justice may not deny the claims of Mercy. Mercy may not rob Justice.
Even Love may not allow God to intrude upon Justice, or Wisdom or
Truth. At the same time it must be remembered that Mercy and Love, no
less than Justice, are attributes of God and somehow and somewhere must
find entrance into the divine economy, must get themselves expressed
and that worthily; worthy of their intrinsic nature, and worthy of God
in whom they inhere. And while "all must be law" or at least in harmony
with law; all "must be love," in harmony with love--for God, from first
to last, is Love.
The attributes of God must be preserved in perfect accord if the moral
harmony of the universe is to be maintained. It is these considerations
which unite the attributes of God with the subject of Atonement.
If God's moral government of the universe is, like his physical
government, one of law, then Law, not personal, arbitrary, capricious
Will must rule.
LESSON XIV.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
THE REIGN OF LAW.[A]
ANALYSIS.
I. The Government of the Universe--Two Methods Conceived of:
1. By Unvarying Law;
2. By Special Providence.
II. Harmonization of Government by Unvarying Law, and the Existence of
Special Providence.
1. Misconception of Unvarying Law; Laws Have Their Limitations.
2. Misconception of "Miracles."
III. The New Dispensation--Its Prophet and Doctrine Committed to the
Reign of Law in Both the Physical and the Spiritual World.
REFERENCES.
Doc. & Cov., Sec. 88; also Sec. 130.
A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology (White); Conflict
Between Religion and Science (Draper); Natural Law in the Spiritual
World (Drummond).
Joseph Smith, the Prophet-Teacher (Roberts), pp. 42-49.
Studies in Religion (Fiske), pp. 158-169, 337, 338.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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