Chapter 9
Asking who sinned, the blind man before he was born, or his parents, implies some knowledge of the doctrine of pre-mortal life. You have to wonder how much doctrine the Jews had, even in their extreme apostasy, but did not understand
What the Pharisees say in verse 29 is something missionaries are confronted with all of the time. People are willing to believe in the writings of the apostles and the prophets in the Bible, but to believe that there is someone God is speaking to today is out of the question.
I love the courage of the blind man. His parents are afraid of being kicked out of the synagogue so they say, don't ask us, ask our son. But he confronts the Pharisees beginning in verse 30 and says it's amazing that a man can come among them working miracles but they, the religious leaders, have no idea who he is or where he comes from. If he wasn't of God, he couldn't work these miracles. The Pharisees are insulted that a man who had sinned before he was born would presume to lecture them. The Savior knows about all of this and when the man is cast out, the Savior goes and finds him, confirms that he is the Son of God, and the man continues to follow him.
This teaches me that we never need to be ashamed of the gospel. When the world looks on Christians as naive and lacking in intelligence, the time will come when they will be long gone and forgotten. Their comments and attitude will be of no consequence, something like a mosquito bite, irritating for a while, but then gone and forgotten.
I forgot to mention that when some one was kicked out of the synagogue, that means they were excommunicated.
2 comments:
Do we believe that people who have disabilities here on earth, have sinned in the premortal world?
Dad's Response:
We believe that those who have disabilities could very well have chosen to have them for the the purpose of helping people on earth learn sacrifice and compassion. Elder Maxwell once said that those with disabilities that we bow down to now in service, we will likely bow down to after this life for far greater reasons. So it is very likely they were among the most pure and righteous of our Father's children.
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