This is the beginning of my religion class at BYU-I and I would love to share some of the things I am learning from the new testament. So to start off I'd like to tell you that this is the first time I'm actually studying the new testament. I have "read" through it before but this time I'm using some study skills to better understand it. This week I chose to use "cause and effect" which means:
Cause and Effect”
Transcript
[Jeff Chapman:]
Welcome to the study scripture skill, cause and effect. Do you remember as a little child, “Don’t run into the street without looking both ways, you might get hurt!” Or “don’t touch the stove, it’s hot!” These were ways our parents were helping us to learn that we live in a world with cause and effect. Pick up one end of that stick and you pick up the other end. It shouldn’t be surprising, then that our Heavenly parent wants to teach us that relationship which governs our choices. That any choice has consequences.
In scripture, this cause and effect relationship can be found looking for the words “if…” and “then…” For example, in Isaiah 58:13–14 we read, “If thou turn thy foot away from the Sabbath from doing pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight… then shalt thy delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to rise above the high places of the earth…” In other words, cause: if I honor the Sabbath in the Lord’s way and try not to focus on my way then effect: He has some delightful blessings to share with me. By the way, it would be worth your time to discover the rest of that verse, what the Lord means by feeding us with the heritage of Jacob, and I’ll send you on that search.
Sometimes, instead of using “if then” statements, the scriptures will just use “if” and then you have to fill in the “then” as in John 7:17. “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.” Cause: if you do His will, affect: you will know the doctrine is of God. Sometimes the scriptures use other words as markers to get our attention, words like “inasmuch” or “because.” For example, Matthew 25:40. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Cause: if you do these acts of charity unto others who really are members of our family, effect: it’s as if you did them unto me, to the Savior. What a humbling thought.
Sometimes in scripture, “if then” and “cause effect” are more implied, and you have to tease it out. Like here in D & C 84:61: “For I will forgive you of your sins with this commandment— that you will remain steadfast in your minds in solemnity and the spirit of prayer, in bearing testimony to all the world of those things which are communicated unto you.” Notice how you can find cause and effect by adjusting the order of the phrasing. Cause: if you will remain steadfast in solemnity and prayer and bearing testimony to all the world, then the effect: I will forgive you of all your sins. Cause and effect is a wonderful way for the Lord to teach us blessings and consequences that he has in store for us.
So this week while reading in Mark 1 Versus 23-27 – Jesus casts out evil spirits and the evil spirits cry out and ask why? What business is it of yours what we do? And Jesus answered saying he doesn’t want evil spirits bearing witness of him, and when the unclean spirit had shaken him and cried out loud, he came out of him (people who were possessed) All the people were amazed and questioned themselves asking why do the evil spirits listen to him?
Cause – Jesus helped the people who were possessed with evil spirits to rid them of the evil spirits and the effect is that the evil spirits left on demand and the people had questions to why the evil spirits listen to Jesus.
I invite you to pick a scripture passage read it, ponder it, and then see if you can see the "cause and effect"
God Bless and have a good week.
Janette
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