Watch this video. It’s indicative.

The British philosopher Bertrand Russell once wrote that “the trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.” Also, Sir Charles Darwin observed, “ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.”
This same zealous ignorance can be observed scripturally in several instances.  The Lord himself was routinely questioned and tested by the Law givers who felt their standing and authority to be superior, though the Lord deftly dealt efficient blows to their flawed logic.  Peter and John too astounded supposedly learned men with their ability to perform miracles that they could not.  Though Peter and John were believed to be “unlearned” and “ignorant” they were shown to be the superior masters of the Jedi’s spiritual arts (acts 4).

In a recent study on percieved competance in several areas, the following was found:

“Participants scoring in the bottom quartile (of competance) grossly overestimated their test performance and ability, and analysis confirmed that this miscalibration was due to deficits in metacognitive skill (the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error). Those who were incompetent tended to suspect that their abilities were unequal to the tasks, but the suspicion often failed to anticipate the magnitude of their shortcomings. As predicted, training the participants on the subjects in question increased their metacognitive competence, and allowed them to better recognize the limitations of their abilities.

Also interestingly, the top performers tended to underestimate their own performance compared to their peers. The researchers found that those participants fell prey to the false-consensus effect, a phenomenon where one assumes that one’s peers are performing at least as well as oneself when given no evidence to the contrary.”

At a time in history where sarcasm and narcism are not considered core-competancies I often find it amazing that the Cliff Claven’s of the world (you know, CHEERS?) are impressively ignorant, though they steadily spew homogenous thoughts for the world to digest.  while at the same moment the men I respect most are often the quietest and most humble, starkly contrasting the others in the room, speaking with wisdom, though not nearly as often.

I’m wondering to myself, applying this to our spiritual realm of contemplation, if this is what we observe amongst true-blues and “apostates”?  It seems that the further along the path I find myself, the closer to God I feel, the more willing I am to question my testimony and test the fruits of my actions.  Likewise, looking backwards at myself  and at those now in my life who are very zealous about the ‘trueness’ of the LDS church organization I see a very concrete stalwartness, dare we say obstinence, to confrom and mold the minds of themselves and all those around them to fit the proper mold of the moment.
If this isn’t being ‘cocksure’ I’m not sure what is.  The Jews of the merdian era were so cocksure of their testimonies that they used the ‘Law’ to persecute, try and kill the most Holy Man of men.  Like Mahonri, Moses, Abraham and Nephi, when men of God come closer to true knowledge they remove there shoes, humbly bow, shake in fear of retribution and generally become babling fulls in complete conscious ignorance.
So I ask you now, how competent are you in Spiritual matters, in being an arrow in the Lords Quiver?  How competent do you view those around you?
I believe satan uses our supposed “knowledge”.  He calls it a sure testimony and therefore leads us carefully down to hell.  Nibley reffered to this in his article, “zeal without knowledge”;

…the Latter-day Saints, who lean too far in the other direction, giving their young and old awards for zeal alone, zeal without knowledge-for sitting in endless meetings, for dedicated conformity and unlimited capacity for suffering boredom. We think it more commendable to get up at five a.m. to write a bad book than to get up at nine o’clock to write a good one; that is pure zeal that tends to breed a race of insufferable, self-righteous prigs, and barren minds. One has only to consider the present outpouring of “inspirational” books in the Church that bring little new in the way of knowledge: truisms and platitudes, kitsch and clichés have become our everyday diet. The Prophet would never settle for that.

A testimony of the “church” today is measured by ones ability to do all the things that a stalwart Mormon would do.  once you’ve reached this plateau of zealousness, finding it within yourself to question the dogma of a leader is just as hard for that individual as it was for peter and the disciples in Matt. 15. Though the Pharisees were merely teaching the doctrines and laws of men, the testimonies the disciples had of them caused them to waiver when the Lord himself spoke in opposition.

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My mind is contemplating the ridiculousness of the term “the true church”.  What we have done by dogmatically asserting over and over that this is the true church is to set all things, individuals, programs etc which pertain to that ‘true’ organization on a pedastal which begs for worship.  Though all those things are controlled by men, the work of their hands is blatantly idolized.  So, in ignorance we serve with blind Zeal, putting down and ignoring any knowledge that doesn’t accord with those paradigms.

Then, to a world of men in a culture of dog eat dog corporations, it SEEMS that the ‘testimonies’ of the devoutly dedicated are founded in stone and getting stronger, being rooted wholy on the confines of indiviualistic group think.  The classic pharisaic downfalls of seeking after the high seats in the synagogue and speaking out loud so as to win and hear the approval of your peers (testimony meeting?) are readily apparent amongst us to the honest observer.

However, in a “world where satan rulles and decieves by appearance” the truly gifted among us often appear to be waivering, weird, insecure etc in their testimonies…

Accordingly, a real testimony of a true church would not describe a physical structure and organization but rather the ideals and fruit that can be observed by an individual who belongs to it.

The most humble feel ever more ignorant and less sure.  Like a man climbing a mountain, the higher he goes the more he sees of the sweeping panarama, the more he becomes aware of land he has not seen.  Whereas the man in the low land thicket may be positive he understands all around him, not even knowing how to climb.

This war is getting pretty crazy, you know the one south of the border?  And the biggest bunch of violence is in large part on our border.   Will this spread to america?  Will arizona and california be fighting this war soon?

In section 101 we just covered the fact that we the covenant people have rejected the covenants and commandments which allowed us to have claim on the land as an inheritance for zion.

Speaking of this land of promise the Lord stated,

“And if it so be that they shall ^dkeep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their ^einheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever.”   (2nephi 1:9)

But, this gentile people having rejected the covenant the lord proclaimed,

“Verily I say unto you, concerning your brethren who have been afflicted, and ^apersecuted, and ^bcast out from the land of their inheritance”  (DC 101:1)

Notice the parallel between the two verses.   The Lord promises that there will be none to molest them and the will keep the land if they keep the commandments.  But, in the D&C verse we find that they were persecuted and cast out of the land of their inheritance.

In 2 Nephi, what is the rest of the promise to those who do not keep those covenants?

“Yea, he will bring ^aother nations unto them, and he will give unto them power, and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and he will cause them to be ^bscattered and smitten”

This is of course in line with all lands of promise, the Israelites too were replaced and scattered for rejecting the commandments of God.   This being so, who is coming to inherit this land?  Some (Joes) are already here, though the work of destruction might be coming soon from their brothers down south.

5 But if they will not turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, I will suffer them, yea, I will suffer my people, O house of Israel, that they shall go through among them, and shall ^atread them down, and they shall be as salt that hath lost its savor, which is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of my people, O house of Israel.

Salt that has lost its savor is men who once had the gospel and priesthood but lost it (DC 103: 9-11).  From our example above, it is more than evident that the Gentile people on this continent who had the gospel but lost it as salt that has lost its savor, is us Gentiles now today.

The Lord promised that the next step is, ” …I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them. And then will I ^aremember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them.“

The shift will happen.  But, as part of that shift violence will be on our doorsteps, from the House of Israel in our midst, in the above verse we are told that we will be tread down by them.  being more explicit the Lord promised the people of Nephi in 3 Nephi 20,

And I say unto you, that if the Gentiles do not ^arepent after the ^bblessing which they shall receive, ( we certianly have not, its up to individuals now to be worthy to join israel) after they have scattered my people-Then shall ye, who are a ^aremnant of the house of Jacob, go forth among them; and ye shall be in the midst of them who shall be many; and ye shall be among them as a lion among the beasts of the forest, and as a young ^blion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he goeth through both ^ctreadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.

We have met the conditions of degeneracy.  There is a war at our doorstep involving the house of Jacob, threatening to come amongst us who are many.  Will this prophecy be thus fulfilled?  If so our only deliverance is meeting the qualifications of israel,

“For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall ^ainherit the ^bGentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.”  (3 Nephi 22:3)

In reading through this weeks sunday school lesson I have been dismayed again.  This time it is to learn that the very purpose for section 101, 103, 105-which is to reveal what needs to be done and what will happy to see Zion redeemed, will be largely skimmed.   The parable that is referred to and read in section 101 is entirely left out.

So, I want to include here a few breif thoughts from a dear brother who has past on.   These parables are worth a read and ponder for anyone who thinks that where the LDS stand today is on solid ground…

PARABLE OF D&C 101:43-62

43 And now, I will show unto you a parable, that you may know my will concerning the redemption of Zion.

44  A certain nobleman had a spot of land, very choice; and he said unto his servants: Go ye unto my vineyard, even upon this very choice piece of land, and plant twelve olive-trees;

45 And set watchmen round about them, and build a tower, that one may overlook the land round about, to be a watchman upon the tower, that mine olive-trees may not be broken down when the enemy shall come to spoil and take upon themselves the fruit of my vineyard.

46  Now, the servants of the nobleman went and did as their lord commanded them, and planted the olive-trees, and built a hedge round about, and set watchmen, and began to build a tower.

47  And while they were yet laying the foundation thereof, they began to say among themselves: And what need hath my lord of this tower?

48  And consulted for a long time, saying among themselves: What need hath my lord of this tower, seeing this is a time of peace?

49  Might not this money be given to the exchangers?  For there is no need of these things.

50  And while they were at variance one with another they became very slothful, and they hearkened not unto the commandments of their lord.

51  And the enemy came by night, and broke down the hedge; and the servants of the nobleman arose and were affrighted, and fled; and the enemy destroyed their works, and broke down the olive-trees.

52  Now, behold, the nobleman, the lord of the vineyard, called upon his servants, and said unto them, Why!  what is the cause of this great evil?

53  Ought ye not to have done even as I commanded you, and—after ye had planted the vineyard, and built the hedge round about, and set watchmen upon the walls thereof—built the tower also, and set a watchman upon the tower, and watched for my vineyard, and not have fallen asleep, lest the enemy should come upon you?

54  And behold, the watchman upon the tower would have seen the enemy while he was yet afar off; and then ye could have made ready and kept the enemy from breaking down the hedge thereof, and saved my vineyard from the hands of the destroyer.

55  And the lord of the vineyard said unto one of his servants: Go and gather together the residue of my servants, and take all the strength of mine house, which are my warriors, my young men, and they that are of middle age also among all my servants, who are the strength of mine house, save those only whom I have appointed to tarry;

56  And go ye straightway unto the land of my vineyard, and redeem my vineyard; for it is mine; I have bought it with money.

57  Therefore, get ye straightway unto my land; break down the walls of mine enemies; throw down their tower, and scatter their watchmen.

58  And inasmuch as they gather together against you, avenge me of mine enemies, that by and by I may come with the residue of mine house and possess the land.

59  And the servant said unto his lord: When shall these things be?

60  And he said unto his servant: When I will; go ye straightway, and do all things whatsoever I have commanded you;

61  And this shall be my seal and blessing upon you—a faithful and wise steward in the midst of mine house, a ruler in my kingdom.

61  And his servant went straightway, and did all things whatsoever his lord commanded him; and after many days all things were fulfilled.

This faithful servant Is Joseph Smith who will,  as a  resurrected being, return to complete his ordained mission of restoration. He is the head of this the dispensation of the fulness of times. D&C103 & !05 unequivocally identify Joseph as that faithful servant.

D&C 103:15-22

15  Behold, I say unto you, the redemption of Zion must needs come by power;

16  Therefore, I will raise up unto my people a man, who shall lead them like as Moses led the children of Israel.

17  For ye are the children of Israel, and of the seed of Abraham, and ye must needs be led out of bondage by power, and with a stretched-out arm.

18  And as your fathers were led at the first, even so shall the redemption of Zion be.

19  Therefore, let not your hearts faint, for I say not unto you as I said unto your fathers: Mine angel shall go up before you, but not my presence.

20  But I say unto you: Mine angels shall go up before you, and also my presence, and in time ye shall possess the goodly land.

21 Verily, verily I say unto you, that my servant Joseph Smith, Jun. is the man to whom I likened the servant to whom the Lord of the vineyard spake in the parable which I have given unto you.

22  Therefore let my servant Joseph Smith, Jun. say unto the strength of my house, my young men and the middle aged—Gather yourselves together unto the land of Zion, upon the land which I have bought with money that has been consecrated unto me.

D&C 105:9-16

9  Therefore, in consequence of the transgressions of my people, it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion—

10  That they themselves may be prepared, and that my people may be taught more perfectly, and have experience, and know more perfectly concerning their duty, and the things which I require at their hands.

11 And this cannot be brought to pass until mine elders are endowed with power from on high.

12  For behold, I have prepared a great endowment and blessing to be poured out upon them, inasmuch as they are faithful and continue in humility before me.

13  Therefore it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait for a little season, for the redemption of Zion.

14  For behold, I do not require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion; for, as I said in a former commandment, even so will I fulfil—I will fight your battles.

15  Behold, the destroyer I have sent forth to destroy and lay waste mine enemies; and not many years hence they shall not be left to pollute mine heritage, and to blaspheme my name upon the lands which I have consecrated for the gathering together of my saints.

16 Behold, I have commanded my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., to say unto the strength of my house, even my warriors, my young men, and middle-aged, to gather together for the redemption of my people, and throw down the towers of mine enemies, and scatter their watchmen;

The vineyard (Zion) has not yet been redeemed. Joseph must yet return to fulfill his ordained mission and the above prophesies  This is where we are now standing and this is where III Nep 16:10-15 comes into play: Joseph will be back or perhaps he is already back, perhaps with those people we must become numbered with. In accordance with III Nep 16:10-15.

III NEP 16:10-15

10  And thus commandeth the Father that I should say unto you: At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations; and if they shall do all those things, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them.

11  And then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them.

12  And I will show unto thee, O house of Israel, that the Gentiles shall not have power over you; but I will remember my covenant unto you, O house of Israel, and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my gospel.

13  But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel. (Where are these people and how are we to be numbered among them?)

14  And I will not suffer my people, who are of the house of Israel, to go through among them, and tread them down, saith the Father.

15  But if they will not turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, I will suffer them, yea, I will suffer my people, O house of Israel, that they shall go through among them, and shall tread them down, and they shall be as salt that hath lost its savor, which is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of my people, O house of Israel.

We LDS are the Gentiles who must repent and return to the Lord. Return implies having once been there. The question at this point is How does this transition occur?  How do we do it? Joseph was well aware of the fact that we LDS need deliverance since we failed to redeem Zion.

“Methodists have creeds which a man must believe or be
asked out of their Church. I want the liberty of thinking
and believing as I please. It feels so good not to be
trammelled.”

- Joseph Smith

A quick thought that has been on my mind……

The editors of the Book of Mormon were inspired men who lived by the word or God, literally fulfilling the terms “the Holy Ghost shall tell you all things what you should do”.  I have had moments in my life, even a few periods, where I could say it was that constant.   But all too fleeting, they were.  How it would feel to live in that spirit constantly!  I’m getting off track…

The Writers of the other various scripture were likewise divinely inspired.  They also wrote most of what they wrote in hindsight, with 20/20 vision.  What they didn’t write in hindsight, the wrote in prophecy, with perfect vision as things are.

I believe this has some odd effects to those who are now reading and studying those words.   If they are read not in the spirit, rather as a rote action, line be line, they are not read with even close to perfect or 20/20 vision, more like vainly squinting through Paul’s dark looking glass, learning what the manual told you to learn.

One of the paradigms that we tend to read into the script, which was likely not intended for us to misread is the term “false prophet”.

The misread is likely because of what Samuel recognized;

“…as the Lord liveth, if a prophet come among you and declareth unto you the word of the Lord, which testifieth of your sins and iniquities, ye are angry with him, and cast him out and seek all manner of ways to destroy him; yea, you will say that he is a false prophet, and that he is a sinner, and of the devil, because he testifieth that your deeds are evil.

“But behold, if a man shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth—and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is a prophet.” (Helaman 13:26-27)

It is our natural inclination to exalt those who pander to us, knowingly or not.  However, there arises a problem here, as the Lord stated in 3 Nephi 14, “Beware of ^afalse prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves”.   The False prophets look just like the sheep, do what the sheep are doing, etc… So, we exalt them as a ‘prophet’, as Samuel said would be done.

At the decline of the wonderful but short civilization of Utopian 4 nephi, new doctrines and leaders rose amongst the people.  Wolves in sheep’s clothing slyly began to deceive, and Mormon wrote of them, “Nevertheless, the people did harden their hearts, for they were led by many priests and ^afalse prophets to build up many churches, and to do all manner of iniquity.”  “the people” that hardened their hearts were the same people who belonged to a once Utopian society, as far as church organization goes.  They were led by priest and false prophets who looked for the things of this world.  They rose up amongst the leadership amongst the people.  They were ‘us’, the every man mingling in the group of LDS society.

But, Mormon had the advantage of hindsight.  So, he termed them false prophets.  The fact of the matter is, nobody in their right minds would follow a ‘false’ prophet that they identified as such.  So, the people at the time of the supposed false prophets’ tenure, labeled them simply prophets.  To go against the word of a prophet is heresy to any follower of that prophet.

Yet, in hindsight I think we have a tendency to look at these Prophets and think, oh but they were false prophets.  We stereotype these false prophets into a box.. a Korihor box we’ll call it.   In the Korihor box we put all of the people that are termed false prophets.  We label them this way for Identification purposes.  We know that a false prophet will always draw attention to himself, rationalize his sins and disclaim Jesus.  He will come from nowhere, not amongst the church proper, not a priesthood leader, etc.  After-all, he is a false prophet.  Yet it may do some good to read the scriptures as they are written.  As in the instance of the Zionists of 4 Nephi false prophets more often than not emerge as leaders in the church itself.  They often are amongst the sheep doing sheep things.  They are leaders in their duly appointed and called  (though not chosen) positions.  They are heads of the high priesthood, prophets and leaders of isolated groups and leaders of the church itself.  They teach doctrines very similar and soothing.  The attractiveness of these doctrines draws people in, eventually blinding them as they step off the path entirely.  Ezekiel, Isaiah, the Lord, Nephi and Mormon amongst all the others knew who were and who weren’t prophets.  But, can we tell the same today, with only the prophets of the past to tell us who they are?

This is obviously one of the main focuses of this blog, though not the only one.  The prophets of the past have gone way out of their way to identify false prophet fruits for us.  As such, we can apply labels more closely to how mormon did, with the term false on the back of some who wear the word prophet on their lips in the front.  Just remember that when we read the scriptures, what to Nephi in hindsight or foresight was a False prophet, to the people at the time was a true prophet.  When Prophets rose up amongst them, they were delighted to have some who they felt taught good wholesome right things.  those were good men, prophets to follow.  They obtained leadership and eventually steered the entire group to the bottom of the pride cycle.

Even there at the bottom, it takes the observations of Mormon to identify their problems, in order for us to see them as such.  Then, we have to do an even harder thing and put ourselves in the sandals of the people at the time and realize that their paradigms were not unlike ours now. worldly education, influence and prosperity being the signs of a righteous people.  We too, like they then, are flourishing and thriving with our numbers growing at an incredible rate.  We have great doctrines which tell us the purpose of life and we have prophets who tell us what is good to believe.

But, at some point the present time period will be history and written down.   “and they that are not prophets and not apostles shall be known.”  Will we then see that we applied the same label as the future editors of our history will label?  Will we realize that we saw our babylonian bondage today for what it is?  Applying the fruit of the scriptures, the prophecies speaking of today, we will and can.  Without reliance on them though we see no further than the prophets at our lead tell us to see.

It has often been said that the most efficient way to destroy an organization is by working from inside the organization and while inside, weakening it’s resolve and diluting it’s purposes. The fall of Rome did not come with fire, but long before that, with the subjection of the Roman people to the moral slavery of their government. The Fall of the early Christian church did not come because of the wickedness of those persecuting them, but because of the wickedness of the members and leaders of the Christian movement.

If this is truly a pattern for the destruction of organizations then it would be wise for all of us to not stand idly by and allow it to happen to our church today. If the Adversary has been successful using this method before he will surely use it again, and what better target for his efforts then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

Clearly many readers will have the belief that it is impossible for the church to “fall”, that the Lord has promised us that the truth will never again be taken from the earth. While discussing this viewpoint would require a separate paper all by itself, I will instead leave that for another day and simply ask this question. “Whether the church can fall or not, do you think that Satan will try to make it fall?” The answer is clearly that Satan will try to cause the church to falter and fall, just like any other Godly organization. What we need to do is to recognize the signs of his working, so that we can see them for what they are, should they ever appear in our organization.

First we must decide what it is about the church that keeps us safe, what do we have that can delay, or refute the attacks of the adversary? There are many answers to this question, including prayer, fasting, and revelation. However, the aspect of our church I want to focus on for this paper is the Iron Rod, the holy word of God, the scriptures.

The Scriptures

Joseph F. Smith said the following:

the Standard Works of the Church are the measuring rods the Lord has given us by which we are to measure every doctrine, every theory and teaching,  and if there is anything that does not conform to that which is given to us in the revelations, we do not have to accept it. Whether I say it or anyone else says it, whether it comes through the philosophy of men, or whenever a statement is made, that is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed, you should know what course to take.

So, President Smith is basically saying that the Standard Works (Bible, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants) are the standard that we hold everything else that is said up to and that if something is out of line with those works, then we should reject it as a people.

This brings me to what clearly must be Satan’s purpose, to minimize, and eventually do away with our reliance on the scriptures as a church. As we become less and less comfortable with the scriptures, it will be easier and easier for Satan to gradually pull us away from God’s truth, and get us to waste our time chasing after things and “teachings” that do not influence our eternal salvation.

How could Satan pull us away from the scriptures?

This leaves Satan with a difficult purpose, to get members of a church that claims to believe that the standard works are the “measuring rods”, to voluntarily do away with those same measuring rods. It is not a purpose that he would be able to reach overnight but rather a gradual process, akin to boiling a frog alive by gradually turning up the heat on a pot of water.

Step one:

Satan would first need to create dependence between the lay members of the church and the leadership of the church. The lay members would need to be taught and believe that their leaders, while “capable” of misdirection and misunderstanding, would not be “allowed” to do so by the Lord, and that the Lord would “take” them before he would allow them to unintentionally or intentionally lead the people astray. This belief, properly accepted by the whole would place in the hearts of the people an unnatural dependence on whoever is/are their current leaders.

Joseph Smith himself spoke of the follow of such dependence in the church during his time when he said (as quoted by Eliza R. Snow):

The people should each one stand for himself, and depend on no man or men, in that state of corruption of the Jewish church- that righteous persons could only deliver their own souls…- said if the people departed from the Lord they must fall- that they were depending on the prophet, hence were darkened in their minds.

When we begin to rely on the words of a living man it is easy to justify not spending quality time in the scriptures. Even if we find ourselves still reading them, our reading will be rote and uninfluencial because we will not be looking for truth, simply checking off a daily “to do” list. It is easy to feel that “the prophet will tell me what I need to know, it is more important that I follow the prophet then read the scriptures”. Don’t think this happens today? How many Mormon’s do you know that have actually read the Bible from cover to cover? I would guess that less than 1 in 200 have done so. I would guess that less than 50% of Mormons have ever read the Book of Mormon all the way through and less than 5% have done it in the last year.

To get us to leave the scriptures, and rely on the words of another, is the first step in Satan’s corrupting this church. It is so easy, it takes so much less work to have weak scripture studies, studies that do not push our minds and understanding and then to justify such weak studies, just listen to the “prophet” tell stories twice a year.

Step two:

Once dependence is created between lay members and their leaders, Satan would begin to teach that every teaching dealing with doctrine that was spoken by these leaders was true, and therefore doctrinal, and equal in importance to the scriptures. He would teach that when a leader says something out of harmony with the standard works, that the fault lies with our interpretation of the standard works, not in what the leader said. (This is a tricky element because sometimes this is true, but Satan would teach that it is always true).

He would hold up the writings of the modern leaders and the standard works and say “These are both scripture”, but the truth of the matter is that they are not.

Step Three:

Now that Satan has created a dependence on the arm of flesh and he had created a type of “pseudo” scripture every time a leader speaks, Satan would now begin to replace our standard works with the modern words of our modern leaders.

He would do this with the following purposes:

1. Gradually, as our church becomes more mainstream, our leaders would begin to say things that are not scriptural, but instead “Philosophies of men, mingled with scripture”.
2. Base the teaching of the modern church off of these “philosophies” instead of the standard works (aka Iron Rod)
3. This is easily done because as a whole we will all believe that whatever these men said is true.

Step Four:

The replacing of the standard works with modern teachings would best be done by creating “manuals” containing the words of the “modern leaders” along with the words of the Standard Works. Over time as the manuals are updated there will be less and less of the standard works, and more and more of the statements of modern leaders.

Eventually we will get manuals that are nothing but the statements of the modern leads of the church, absent of almost all scriptural reference.

We will begin to treat the words of these modern leaders in every way as scripture. We will motivate each other to replace our reading of the standard works with challenges to spend our time reading the statements and teachings of the modern day leaders.

When people are asked to speak in church instead of being given a “subject” to speak on, they will be given a “talk” given by a modern leader to speak on (Elder So and So’s talk on _______ on page ___).

While this dependence might seem harmless at first, I cannot stress how dangerous this road is. We are beginning to already see the fruits of a church that neglects the standard works for modern interpretations and in time those fruits will become more and more clear to us in their destructive nature.

Conclusion:

The Lord has given us the standard works as a yardstick to measure truth by. He has also given us prophets to revel additional truth but that additional truth will not contradict the standard works. Nothing Joseph ever taught contradicted true teachings in the Bible or Book of Mormon.

No man is saved in ignorance yet almost all of our modern “saints” are living in ignorance. We have been taught not to search the mysteries (although the scriptures tell us to search them), we have been taught to rely on the arm of flesh in the form of a leader (although the scriptures tell us not to).

Over time, as we continue to sustain leaders that have less and less the spirit of God, and more and more the spirit of the world, we will come to see the great tragedy that Satan truly has already worked in our church as we begin to see good, kind members thrown about by every wind of doctrine because they are so busy following the teachings of men that they neglect the more weightier teachings of the Lord.

Here is to the belief that one day as a church we will go back to our scriptural roots, that we will not be scared to question teachings that are not scriptural no matter who they come from, that we will have the knowledge to recognize non scriptural teachings, that we will stop caring how the world sees us and that we, as a people, may once again be found worthy in the sight of the Lord.

Pick up your standard works, put down your magazines and come to know God.

TuNeCedeMalis

7  O ye hypocrites! will did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

8 But in vain do they worship me, teaching the doctrines and the commandments of men.

9 And he called the multitude and said unto them, Hear, and understand.

10 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth the man.

11 Then came his disciples and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?

12 But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

13 Let them alone; they be blind leaders of the blind; and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

(JST Matt. 15:7-13)

In other posts, we have covered the idea that those “elect” or “few” who are humble followers of Christ will be in a ‘church’ in geographically the same place, worshipping together, with the degenerate majority. That this place of worship is called the Holy church of God (Mor. 8).  There, the wheat and tares are growing together, with tares choking the wheat.  The wheat are taught the precepts of men (2  Nephi 28).  Taught for doctrine the commandments of men (matthew 15).  They “Err in many instances because they are taught by Priestcraft, corrupt minds…(DC 33)”.

The terminology I want to focus on for this post is what the Lord used in Matthew 15, “But in vain do they worship me, teaching the doctrines and the commandments of men.”  It is true then, according to prophecy, that we teach for doctrine the commandments of men.  That we are taught by the precepts of men.  It is apperant and observable also, that these doctrines exist.  We have pointed discrepancies of a few of them, showing that some have crept in for doctrine.

Knowing these doctrines do exist amongst us I believe it imperative to identify those fruits, that we be not deceived.  Or at least establish a pattern of a few, in order to help us find others that do exist and root them out.  For what cause? As Paul put it in Titus 1, “Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth”.  This being the pattern in the Lords day, in Paul’s day, during Isaiah’s time, through out the Book of Mormon, at the commencement of this dispensation(JSH 1:19) and even documented in the Doctrine and Covenants as being amongst us now-let us begin in finding true plants and rooting the rest out.  As the Lord put it above, “Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up”.  So which plants are they and where do they grow.

Sticking first off in the chapter I chose for this heading, MAtt. 15, the Lord points right off to three things that men command, though the Lord doesn’t agree.  First he puts down foolish tradition of their fathers and does so by using the scriptures, always the handbook.  Second he points to the fallacy of declaring food and the manner that it enters the body as worthy of specific order and command.  Lastly he directs the disciples to the not relying on Men for leadership, in elders for guidance.  Lets dissect these three and how they stand today in our midst (we have emulated the Jews to amazing degree).

Firstly, the Lord attacks the Traditions of their fathers.  The Scribes and Pharisees (who interpret and teach the law) sat on the seat of Judgment, Moses’ seat.  The Lord himself states this in Matthew 23.  They were the recognized chair, the leading authority for the ‘church’.  Similar to our ‘brethren’  today, they were in the high position of intpreting Law and teaching it to the masses.   In like manner, it would have been their job to confront doctrines and men who disobeyed “the Law”.  As such we find them here, the priesthood leaders of the people, going to confront the new rogue independent teacher of scritpure and law, the Lord himself/  They are  traveling all the way from Jerusalem in a group of Priestly Authority just to meet Jesus.

In quoting the Law as they understand it, accusation is pointed at  the disciples of christ, and presumably christ himself, that they are breaking the Law of Moses.  The Lords response is quite instructive.  As he makes  a habit of doing, the Lord quickly turns the tables on the men by quoting a Law in scripture and accusing them of not following it.  HE then shows how their tradition contradicts scripture, thus making the scripture or command of God of no worth while simultaneously elevating the Laws of men  (Matt 15:3-8).   By so doing he instructs us in the manner of Judgment.  Godly lawr, revelation in scripture, is the test to put commandments up against.

The second one is an interesting one.  The tradition had become law amongst “godly” men, wherein hands were washed in a rote set of ritual in cleansing, prior to eating.  It had become ‘law’ in that it was part of the ‘law of moses’.  The person than who did not ritually clean his hands in that manner was than unclean and defiled himself.  Leaving him then alone, unable to worship without repentance.  The Lord rebukes this on these grounds, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth the man.”

We have today a set of commandments and laws that fit this odd category to a tee.  Most would know it as the word of wisdom.  When this section (dc 89) was received, it was given “not by way of commandment”.  Perhaps it is odd that he would give us a revelation but not as a command.  The W.o.W. being a set of Ideals on what to eat and drink and how to live temporally, it fits precisely into the category of things that he rebuked the Scribes and pharisees for attempting to control by means of law.  It is all about what we put into our mouths.  Since he had instructed us that we could not be defiled by what goes IN our mouths, the W.o.W could not be given as a command.  Yet here we sit today fulfilling the same course of events that the Priestly elders of Christ’s day performed.  We have a set of rote principles that must be observed in order to worship in the house of the Lord.  These principles have set men to be unclean if they put certain things in their mouths, though the instruction was not given by the Lords mouth as a command and though it is the act of putting something into our mouths.  Today we even have a list of things that cannot be consmed in order to worship in the house of the Lord (very Jewish like).  That list though actually includes beer as a negative thing, though the revelation itself makes exception for it, whether it is made of barley, wheat or any other grain (vs 17).   The list includes coffee as bad, though the command is only against strong drink.  We have also now included the use of illegal drugs and coffee by name.

Using the scriptures to test our modern day rules for what goes in our mouth we can see the commandments of men.  In exactly the same manner as the Jews of old we have created strict traditions which must be obeyed or the loss of ability to worship is threatened.  What we put in out mouth can now defile us.  A commandment has been made out of a revelation given, “not by way of commandment”.  Thus we can know as the Lords disciples were instructed, here we have a commandment of men.

Thirdly we find the great fallacy of leader worship and blind following.  In hearing the publicly denounce ideas that were well known to be law at the time, the disciples came to him worried.

“11 Then came his disciples and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying”

The mental picture here is kind of comical to me.  The disciples are actually afraid of what the Pharisees might think in opposition, though they have the Lord himself in their presence.  Their tie to the Leaders of the Priesthood as the giver and interpreter of law is so tight that they cannot comprehend the true authority then in their presence.

12 But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

13 Let them alone; they be blind leaders of the blind; and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

The message here is clear!  They may be the Priesthood leaders.  The seat of Judgment may be filled by them, the very same one that moses himself taught.  Yet, any doctrine or law that is put forth by any man that is not true, remains such.  Evil doctrines do not become Good just because the church had adopted them.  Though the people respected the authority of the scribes and pharisees as the end-all, the doctrine of truth has more sway.   The Lord states that if the revelation did not come from the father, it will be uprooted, regardless of the authority then espousing it.

So, in order the Lord quickly gives us three keys by which we can know if a doctrine we now espouse is not of God but merely one of the commandments of men we were promised we’d hear.  They are:

1. is it a Tradition of men not in scripture.  Traditions which have evolved over time, but no longer posses the purity of the original doctrine are wrong.
2. The Scriptures are the test for commandments received.  Put the above traditions, or commandments, to this test.
3. The authority or position a man holds in the priesthood, even if that place is the judgment seat and interpreter and giver of law ( i.e. the president of the high preisthood) makes no difference if the commandment is not in accordance with scripture of prior revelation.

Using these test it becomes quickly obvious, which are the commmandments of men and which are the commandments of God.

The Word of Wisdom we have already covered.  Interestingly consecration is a commandment, yet today its practice is largely missing to no ill effect of those who continue to worship and make the covenant over and over again.  The doctrine that “a prophet cannot lead a person astray” has been thoroughly shown to fail this test.  The doctrine that we have covenanted to attend every church meeting (as you will hear in a temple recommend) also fails it.  We have shown that nearly all of the biblical prophets, Joseph and others recently, missed Sunday gathering fairly often.   How about the need to be clean shaven, white shirt and tie to be a proper priesthood holder (more of our jewish side coming through).   We have recently been instructed by a couple of different elders that long prayer and fasting aren’t any more effectual than short heartfelt ones.  Does that pass the scripture test? Ask the Lord and enos among many others…  We no longer gather to zion, but rather misread a verse in the DC and preach the need to scatter to our various countries.  Polygamy is now a hated principle, even being called no t doctrinal by our president, though at one time is was taught to be essential for the salvation of a man and his family.  The list continues and grows largely semi-annually.

So, those Commandments of Men do exist amongst us.  It is imperative and our prerogative as those who bear up that priesthood that we point out error where it is, to uproot all the commandments not made of God.  We have turned things around as a people, good evil and evil good.  We need to recognize those things that are not commandments of God and live by every word that proceeds from his mouth.  This does not mean we have to persecute or accuse the brethren but only to point out error when we see it that the whole might be edified.  Sustain those above you by assisting in the work of uprooting evil and establishing the cause of Zion amongst this people.  This is what the Lord did in Matthew 15.  IF the Pharisees took offense, that’s their call.

A little more here, with the Gileadi portion thrown in.

2 Nephi 3:17

“And the Lord hath said: I will raise up a Moses; and I will give power unto him in a rod; and I will give judgment unto him in writing. Yet I will not loose his tongue, that he shall speak much, for I will not make him mighty in speaking. But I will ^awrite unto him my law, by the finger of mine own hand; and I will make a ^bspokesman for him.”

The Significance of this is that the Book of Mormon is replete with types, shadows, prophecies etc…of this Davidic Servant who will come with a Spokesman. That Spokesman will declare the words of the Lord to the Gentiles at the end of their times, and according to Isaiah only a tithe of a tithe will hear and follow. Joseph Smith himself, as one who will return to finish his work as Christ will, served than as a type of shadow for what is about to happen to us. Brigham Young testified at conference that the Gentiles will miss the second coming of Christ like the Jews did the first, looking past the mark. Joseph tried to warn the people that he would come here to perform this work, before taking the Gospel from us to Israel by prophesying. “The coming of the Messiah among this people will be so natural, that only those who see Him will know that He has come, but He will come and give His laws unto Zion, and minister unto His people. This will not be His coming in the clouds of heaven to take vengeance on the wicked of the world. (The White Horse Prophecy, found in Prophecy — Key to the Future; Crowther pp.318-31)

Joseph was sold into Egypt, and while there turned the tied for Israel, and saved their Bacon. The seed of Joseph and Jacob on this continent today is now in the middle of Egypt (Isaiah’s keyword for Babylons heart, America), and will be the saving grace for the rest of Israel, as Christ declared in 1 nephi 13, “And the time cometh that he shall manifest himself unto all nations, both unto the ^aJews and also unto the Gentiles; and after he has manifested himself unto the Jews and also unto the Gentiles, then he shall manifest himself unto the Gentiles and also unto the Jews, and the ^blast shall be first, and the ^cfirst shall be last”. Perhaps a look into what ancient Israel missed, and what they are still looking for. For that, I turn to Brother Avraham Gileadi, who is also an Isaiah Scholar (Hugh Nibley said he was the best, the “only latter-day saint fully qualified to comment on ancient Israel and Isaiah), Rabbi …

What sets the Book of Mormon expectation of the Messiah apart from the Jewish one is that the Messiah will be the Lord God himself, the “Holy One of Israel,” as Isaiah often describes him (2 Nephi 1:10; cf. Isaiah 41:14; 54:5). The Jewish idea of the Messiah, on the other hand, centers around one who will “restore the kingdom to Israel” (Acts 1:6).

Israel’s prophets had taught that “God himself should come down among the children of men, and take upon him the form of a man, and go forth in mighty power upon the face of the earth” (Mosiah 13:33–34; cf. Luke 24:27; Helaman 8:13–20). His earthly mission as Israel‘s “Redeemer” would consist of saving his people from their sins (2 Nephi 2:6–7; cf. Isaiah 43:25; 44:22).

To that end, the Lord would “manifest himself unto them in the flesh” and suffer death for their sake (2 Nephi 6:9; cf. 1 Nephi 19:10; Isaiah 53:7–10). In offering himself as a sacrifice to atone for humanity’s transgressions, he would be called the “Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world” (1 Nephi 10:10; Alma 7:14; cf. Isaiah 53:7, 10). He would be known as “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning” (Mosiah 3:8; 4:2; cf. Matthew 1:21; Alma 5:48; 6:8).

(The name “Jesus Christ” is itself a compound of Jesus [Hebrew yeshua], meaning “Salvation,” and Christ, a derivative of the Greek term for “Messiah” or “anointed one.” The noun “salvation” is a name Isaiah gives the Lord God, who, in his role as Savior, personifies salvation [Isaiah 12:2; 33:2; 62:11]. The name “Jesus Christ,” therefore, properly translates as “Salvation, the Messiah,” or “Salvation, the Anointed One.”)

One reason Book of Mormon prophets understood the saving role of Israel‘s God so well was that they had a personal witness or vision of his earthly mission. Lehi sees both him and the prophet who would prepare the way before him coming six hundred years after Lehi leaves Jerusalem (1 Nephi 1:9–11, 19; 10:4–11). He notes, “The Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall” (2 Nephi 2:26).

Nephi sees Jesus’ birth and earthly ministry and also the prophet who would prepare the way before him (1 Nephi 11:18–24, 27–33). A main reason for Nephi’s quoting the words of Isaiah was “that I might more fully persuade them [his brethren] to believe in the Lord their Redeemer” (1 Nephi 19:23). Isaiah saw his Redeemer, he says, “even as I have seen him” (2 Nephi 11:2).

Nephi’s quoting of Isaiah to support the premise that the Messiah is none other than the God of Israel helps clarify confusion. Once that idea is firmly established in our minds, we will be less likely to draw our own opinions about messianic persons and roles but instead rely on the scriptures themselves. Jewish expectations of a Messiah, to this day, for example, center around three temporal roles as formulated by Maimonides that are based on Old Testament prophecies. The Jews will recognize their Messiah when he 1. reestablishes the political kingdom of Israel; 2. gathers the twelve tribes from exile; and 3. rebuilds the temple in Jerusalem. Moreover, his name will be David, and he will be a descendant of King David .

Several Hebrew prophets, in fact, express these very expectations. Hosea says that in the latter days “the children of Israel [will] return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king” (Hosea 3:5). “The children of Judah and the children of Israel [will] be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head [leader]” (Hosea 1:11). Jeremiah predicts that in the latter days the Lord will restore Judah and Israel from exile, at which time they will “serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them” (Jeremiah 30:3, 9–10, 24).

Ezekiel says the Lord will gather his people from exile and bring them into their own land. At that time, the Lord will “set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them” (Ezekiel 34:13, 23–24; 37:21–22, 24–25). Zechariah describes a man called the “Branch,” who will “build the temple of the Lord” (Zechariah 6:12–13). Malachi speaks of a “messenger,” who will “prepare the way before me” (Malachi 3:1).

The Prophet Joseph Smith echoes the substance of these prophecies when he says, “The throne and kingdom of David is to be taken from him and given to another by the name of David in the last days, raised up out of his lineage” (TPJS, 339; cf. 14–15). That event implies the restoration of the political kingdom of Israel in the land of Israel. Moreover, as King David was called the “anointed one” or “Messiah” of Israel (1 Samuel 16:12–13; 2 Samuel 22:51; 23:1), it also implies messianic status for his latter-day descendant and heir.

The roles of reestablishing the political kingdom of Israel, gathering Judah and Israel to the lands of their inheritance, and rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, however, are all preparatory roles that must be fulfilled before the Lord—the divine Messiah—comes again. When the prophets assign these same preparatory roles to a “servant” of the Lord, therefore, that servant is not to be confused with the Lord himself; the Lord cannot be both himself and his servant. No servant of the Lord, moreover, takes anything away from the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel, who is the Savior of the world. Rather, a servant is one who is commissioned by God to fulfill an important part of God’s plan, whether anciently or in the last days.

The Lord thus appoints messianic roles to others, such as the Prophet Joseph Smith and one who prepares the way before him, in the last days as anciently (cf. Isaiah 40:3; 57:14; 62:10–11). In speaking of the period immediately preceding the destruction of the wicked and deliverance of the righteous, for example, Jesus predicts that his “servant” will bring forth his words to the Gentiles and be “marred,” presumably by those who reject them (3 Nephi 21:10–11).

The full complement of Jesus’ words to the Nephites, however, which are recorded on the plates of Nephi, are still to be revealed to the Gentiles, pending their fully believing the Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 26:6–11; cf. Ether 4:13). The event of the “marring” of the Lord’s servant originates in the book of Isaiah and necessitates the servant being “healed” (Isaiah 52:13–15; 3 Nephi 21:10; cf. Isaiah 57:17–19). These, and many concurrent events, such as the restoration of the house of Israel (Jews, Lamanites, and Ten Tribes), the new exodus out of Babylon, and the building up of the New Jerusalem, still await fulfillment (3 Nephi 21:22–29).

The question is, Are we willing to search the scriptures and believe what they tell us concerning who is the Messiah and about the several messianic roles they describe? Or do we assume we know all there is to know? If so, could Brigham Young be talking about us when he said the Gentiles would be just as mistaken about the second coming of Christ as the Jews were about his first? (end of Gileadi)

Prophecy of this servant is a constant throughout our scriptures. He is something we largely miss out on today, which will make his “test”, his “strange act” all the more effective, as the members of the covenant Gentile nation are forced to hear and follow the Servant, the words of Christ, in the face of all odds, and against the majority vote. The wheat will then be gathered out, while the vast majority of members are left in the field to burn. The feast will commence, the Goats and Sheep separated, the wedding will begin, as Ancient Israel is finally redeemed, and the Times of the Gentiles ends.

This will come with signs in our church. It will come with prophecy, and things that seem bizarre. It will require all men to be as close to their God as they can get, in order that they “be not deceived”. For who will survive? Only he that is weaned from the breast.

I left the last post off on a sort of, what if, thought process.  As a follow up I wanted to illustrate a take on the who and how of the servant.  This is in know way me telling you how it is, as if to be some sort of authority.  Rahter, it is to illustrate an idea on the WHO which would no doubt fulfill all the roles, types and shadows that need be during this forthcoming event.  I had an hour or so on my hands, and this topic is increasingly on my mind.  So, I am writing a little on the subject for you.  The following suppostions can be thought entirely to be mine and are in no way authoritative.  The thoughts of others used herein are therefore used to fulfill this purpose, not necessarily to demonstrate that the original author felt the same way as is here ssserted.  Thank you to Dewey Olsen for the Moroni commentary and other various portions, and Avraham Gileadi for filling the gaps.  Hopefully, this is just the start on this subject.

The Servant

The most important thing to us and any people is to know God. To know His voice, to Know His attributes, to know his personality, and to know HIM. For this is life eternal. This will also prove to be the saving grace for those who survive the time and times and a half of tribulation, desolation and abomination and the cup of fury of the wrath of God now being poured on the nations. 2 Nephi 3 got me thinking, that I have not addressed this topic directly with my family. We are on the edge of some perilous times, perhaps within a month or two now. Within these times the Lord through his Davidic Covenant has made preparations for those of his people not prepared to survive, and all those who are and are ready to lead and follow, by preparing a man to lead us who will tame the demons and lead the coming exodus. Heber C. Kimball, and later J. Golden, declared that “a test…a test is coming” concerning this people, and who would hear the words of the Lord. Considering this test, Brother Heber also said, “But the time will come when the Lord will choose a people out of this people upon whom He will bestow His choicest blessings.” (Deseret News 9 Nov 1865). Brigham referred to this time of testing when he stated “Brethren, this Church will be lead on to the very brink of Hell by the Leaders of this people, then God will raise up the One Mighty and Strong spoken of in the 85^th Section of the doctrine and Covenants to save and redeem this Church. (Provo Church Conference, 1861)” That section specifically states that this One Mighty and Strong will come  to set in order the house of God. The Lord, in speaking of this test he will ask of us, declared that he would perform his “strange act”, and work his “strange work”. Christ spoke to the Nephites and declared to them that the Gentiles would be given the gospel, and then they would sin against it, and at that time the Gospel would be taken and given to Israel. At the end of the times of the Gentiles a strange test would be asked of his people, wherein those who hear the voice of the man that declares unto them the words of Christ from the sealed portion would be saved (as was just shown in the last post). The others would be “cutoff” from amongst his people. In doing so, Heber’s words are fulfilled that a people will be called out of this people. That remnant will be jealous of good works, and carry the Israelites on their shoulders. If they are worthy, they will be counted as the house of Israel themselves.

The entire book of Isaiah is centered around this momentous occasion. Josephm and all he did here, have prepared a foundation, from which a marvelous work can happen to the restoring of Israel to their fathers. “My servant David” is declared in Isaiah to be the ‘savior’ of Israel in these last days. He is the Right hand of the Lord, whom the Lord will bare in the Latter days. He is that Prophet and Seer who will come to tread and to conquer, finally providing for the saving and gathering of Israel. He will have a Rod, a spokesman, as Moses had Aaron in the first exodus to perform his work amongst this continent, as will John and others perform a work amongst the tribes and Jews.

MORONI.

Than there is the Moroni thing…. Ask any member of the Church who appeared to young Joseph four separate nights, giving many 3 hour lessons, (they were all nearly verbatim) they would know that Moroni did. Now, ask what he said, what was the point of his message, and you might get a verse in Malachi quoted or something along those lines. I would contend though that his whole message was about the coming Davidic Servant (one like unto Moses), and the servants, or rods,that he would use (one like unto Aaron). I have made an attempt here to summarize and treat the message he brought.

Summarizing Moroni‘s Message

• The Father will send Jesus Christ to prepare the way before Him (Malachi 3:1; 3 Nephi 24:1).
• We have not kept the Lord’s ordinances (Malachi 3:7).
• Elijah will reveal the Priesthood (Malachi 4:5).
• Jesus Christ is the stem of Jesse (D&C 113:2).
• The rod of Jesse will be a servant and spokesman for Christ who will come forth out of Christ (Isaiah 11:1; D&C 113:4; 2 Nephi 3:17).
• The root of Jesse is Jesus’ latter-day mission (Isaiah 11:10; D&C 113:6; Romans 15:12; Revelation 5:5, 22:16).
• Jesus will set his hand again the second time to recover his people (Isaiah 11:11).
• Jesus is the prophet like Moses (Acts 3:22; JSH 1:40).
• Everyone who will not hear Jesus will be destroyed (Acts 3:23; JSH 1:40).
• In 1823 the time had not yet come for Jesus to do this work, but soon would (JSH 1:40).
• Calamities will engulf the earth (Joel 2:30-31).
• Zion will be redeemed (Joel 2:32).

Now for those who want to study what the angel Moroni said I am including a few pages from “The coming of the Holy one of Israel‘ which explain the two servants.

Joseph Smith History 1:33

Joseph’s Second Vision: The Appearance Of The Angel Moroni.  It had been over three years since Joseph’s first vision when the Father and the Son appeared to him. Then on the night of September 21, 1823 Moroni visited Joseph Smith three times, repeating the same message each time. Then, Moroni appeared to Joseph the next day, once again repeating the same message. For the sake of our subject we are interested in the scriptures which Moroni quoted to Joseph. We begin with verse 36 in the Joseph Smith History:

36 After telling me these things, he commenced quoting the prophecies of the Old Testament. He first quoted part of the third chapter of Malachi; and he quoted also the fourth or last chapter of the same prophecy, though with a little variation from the way it reads in our Bibles. Instead of quoting the first verse as it reads in our books, he quoted it thus 37 For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as stubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 38 And again, he quoted the fifth verse thus: Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. 39 He also quoted the next verse differently: And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their Fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming 40 In addition to these, he quoted the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, saying that it was about to be fulfilled. He quoted also the third chapter of Acts, twenty-second and twenty-third verses, precisely as they stand in our New Testament. He said that that prophet that was Christ; but the day had not come when “they who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among the people”41 He also quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the twenty-eighth verse to the last. He also said that this was not yet fulfilled, but was soon to be. And he further stated that the fulness of the Gentiles was soon to come in. He quoted many other passages of scripture, and offered many explanations which cannot be mentioned here. (JS-H 1:36-41)

To better understand the message which Moroni revealed to Joseph, we will now quote the same scriptures in their order, beginning with Malachi 3.

Moroni Quotes from Malachi Chapter 3

In 3 Nephi Jesus also quoted these words of Malachi (see 3 Nephi 24 and 25). Jesus knew that the Bible would be had by the people of God in the last days, so why did he repeat Malachi? Why did Moroni repeat Malachi? We will now look at these two chapters of Malachi, which were quoted by Jesus and Moroni, beginning with Malachi 3:1:

1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, (_-all suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, a shall come, saith the LORD hosts (Malachi 3:1)

Mormonism has inherited the traditional belief that this verse refers to Joseph Smith, who prepared the way for Christ’s second coming. Speaking of this verse, Bruce R. McConkie has written:

Before both the first and second comings of our Lord, he sent a messenger to prepare the way before him. In the meridian of time that messenger, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:23; Isa. 40:3), was John the Baptist. In the dispensation of the fulness of times that messenger was the Prophet Joseph Smith, to whom John came giving the authority of the preparatory priesthood. (D. & C. 13: Mal. 3:1; Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, pp. 191-195.) The gospel or message of salvation restored through the Prophet has also been sent to be a messenger before the Lord’s face to prepare the way before him.(D. & C. 45:9.) (Mormon Doctrine, p.488)

Nevertheless, Malachi 3:1 says nothing about the Prophet Joseph Smith. This is a simple matter to prove, for Jesus quoted this verse in 3 Nephi. Mormon tells of Jesus’ words as follows:

1 And it came to pass that he commanded them that they should write the words which the Father had spoken unto Malachi, which he should tell unto them. And it came to pass that after they were written he expounded. And these are the words which he did tell unto them, saying: Thus said the Father unto Malachi - Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts. (3 Nephi 24:1)

So Jesus said, Thus said the Father unto Malachi. Therefore, we are to understand that it is the Father who is speaking in first person to Malachi, not Jesus, saying: ‘Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the_. Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts.”

This verse is consistent with previous conclusions we have drawn from our study. Joseph Smith did come as a “messenger” to “prepare the way before” the Lord Jesus Christ, but this is not the subject of this verse at all. The Father says, “I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.” Speaking of His Son, the Father says that preparatory to his coming “the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple.

Jesus will “come to his temple.” We now know that the “temple” he will “come to” is his body. Jesus will be “the messenger of the covenant,” as we have already seen, and he will ‘prepare the way before” his Father’s coming. He will restore the Abrahamic covenant. ‘Behold he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.”

2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:3 And he shall sit as a refiner’s and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against them sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the falsie swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling ‘ his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob] not consumed.7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? (Malachi 3:2-7)

38 And again, he quoted the fifth verse thus: Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

39 He also quoted the next verse differently: And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers( the prophets, this messenger will help us understand the old prophets <fathers>). If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming. (I believe the context is the Fathers coming to the earth)

40 In addition to these, he quoted the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, saying that it was about to be fulfilled. He quoted also the third chapter of Acts, twenty-second and twenty-third verses, (There is the Moses link that says this messenger will rise up from his brothers.) precisely as they stand in our New Testament. He said that that prophet was Christ; but the day had not come yet come when “they who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among the people.

41 He also quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the twenty-eighth verse to the last. He also said that this was not yet fulfilled, but was soon to be. And he further stated that the fulness of the Gentiles was soon to come in. He quoted many other passages of scripture, and offered many explanations which cannot be mentioned here. (JS-H 1:36-41)

To better understand the message which Moroni revealed to Joseph, we will now quote the same scriptures in their order, beginning with Malachi 3.

Moroni Quotes From Malachi Chapter 3

In 3 Nephi Jesus also quoted these words of Malachi (see 3 Nephi 24 and 25). Jesus knew that the Bible would be had by the people of God in the last days,

so why did he repeat Malachi?

Why did Moroni repeat Malachi?

We will now look at these two chapters of Malachi, which were quoted by Jesus and Moroni, beginning with Mal ch 3:1:

1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. 3:1)

Mormonism has inherited the traditional belief that this verse refers to Joseph Smith, who prepared the way for Christ’s second coming. Speaking of this verse, Bruce R. McConkie has written:

Before both the first and second comings of our Lord, he sent a messenger to prepare the way before him. In the meridian of time that messenger, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:23; Isa. 40:3), was John the Baptist. In the dispensation of the fulness of times that messenger was the Prophet Joseph Smith, to whom John came giving the authority of the preparatory priesthood. (D. & C. 13: Mal. 3:1; Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, pp. 191-195.) The gospel or message of salvation restored through the Prophet has also been sent to be a messenger before the

The reason that all things must be restored, as we have certainly seen they shall be, is because “from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them.” As we saw in the last chapter, Isaiah also knew that “‘ we like sheep have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6). Therefore, the need for   a “restitution of all things” still exists today.

8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. (Malachi 3:8-15)

Here, the Lord has told us how we have gone astray. But those “that feared the LORD” obeyed His commandments and were blessed:16 Then they that feared the LORD sake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it and a book of remembrance was written -before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon I name.17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spare his own son that serve him.18 Then shall ye, return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. (Malachi 3:16-18)

1 For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as stubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.5 Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. 6 And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming. (Malachi 4:1-6; see JSH 1:37-39; see 3 Nephi 25:2)

Speaking of the calamities which shall overcome the wicked in the last days, God says, “the day cometh that shall bum as an oven, and all the proud, yea and all that do wickedly shall bum as stubble.” But those who ‘Fear” God shall be preserved, for “the Son of righteousness [shall] arise with healing, in his wings.” In other words, Jesus will arise to save his people from destruction, both temporal and spiritual. It is the priesthood keys which Elijah holds which will authorize Jesus to restore the covenant and Church of the Father. This is why Elijah must reveal the priesthood. If the priesthood were not restored, then the great and marvelous work would be of no effect, and “the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.

Moroni Quotes Isaiah Chapter 11

After Moroni quoted Malachi, Joseph said that: “In addition to these, he quoted the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, saying that it was about to be fulfilled” (JSH 1:40):

1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. (Isaiah 11:1-5)

Joseph Smith inquired of the Lord concerning the meaning of Isaiah chapter 11 and recorded the following:

1 Who is the stem of Jesse spoken of in the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th verses of the 11th chapter of Isaiah?2 Verily thus saith the Lord: It is Christ. D&C 113:1-2)

From this we learn that Jesus Christ is the ‘stem of Jesse” spoken of in Isaiah 11:1-5. So,

“the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon” Christ, and he shall possess “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.” This “shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.”

These verses in Isaiah 11 refer to the latter-day mission of Jesus Christ and the great and marvelous work he will perform. After learning that verses 1 through 5 speak of Jesus Christ, Joseph asked:

3 What is the rod spoken of in the first verse of the 11th chapter of Isaiah, that should come of the Stem of Jesse?4 Behold, thus saith the Lord: It is a servant in the hands of Christ, who is partly a descendant of Jesse as well as of Ephraim, or of the house of Joseph, on whom there is laid much power. (D&C 113:3-4)

From these verses we learn that the “rod of Jesse” is a servant in the hands of Christ:” It is also interesting that the Choice Seer, would be Jesus, will have a servant who is referred to as a “rod:”

16 Yea, thus prophesied Joseph: I am sure of this thing, even as I am sure of the promise of Moses; for the Lord hath said unto me, I will preserve thy seed forever.

17 And the Lord hath said: I will raise up a Moses; and I will give power unto him in a rod; and I will give judgment unto him in writing. Yet I will not loose his tongue, that he shall speak much, for I will not make him mighty in speaking. But I will write unto him my law, by the finger of mine own hand; and I will make a spokesman for him. (2 Nephi 3:16-17)

This modern Moses we now know to be Jesus Christ. God “will give judgment unto him in writing.(HERE IS A HINT: HE WILL NOT BE AN IMPRESSIVE SPEAKER, BUT IT WILL BE HIS BOOKS OR HIS WRITING THAT HIS GIFT WILL BE MANIFESTED) Yet I will not loose his tongue, that he shall speak much, for I will not make him mighty in speaking.” But God “will give power unto him in a rod,” and ‘Make a spokesman for him.” It appears that the “rod of Jesse” will be “a servant in the hands of Christ” who will be Christ’s “spokesman.” This picture we have just drawn exactly parallels Moses and his spokesman, Aaron (see Exodus 4:14-17). We encounter an interesting aspect of this rod of Jesse. Inserting the Lord’s answer to Joseph as to who this individual will be, verse 1 reads:

1 And there shall come forth [a servant in the hands of Christ, who is partly a descendant of Jesse as well as of Ephraim, or of the house of Joseph, on whom there is laid much power] [and he shall come forth out] of [Christ], and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: (Isaiah 11:1 with D&C 113:4)

From this we learn that the “rod of Jesse” will “come forth out” of Christ. Does this mean that this “servant” and “spokesman” for Christ will be his literal descendant? Will the ‘rod” be a descendant from Christ’s children that he had in the meridian of time?

Continuing with Isaiah 11:6:

6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den.9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of The LORD, as the waters cover the sea.10 And there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. (Isaiah 11:6-10)

Verses 6 through 10 indicate the glorious condition which will exist because of Christ’s latter-day great and marvelous work

In verse 10 we encounter another individual called the “root of Jesse.” Joseph Smith also inquired and was told about this ‘root of Jesse:”

5 What is the root of Jesse spoken of in the 10th verse of the 11th chapter?6 Behold, thus saith the Lord, it is a descendant of Jesus – as well as of Joseph, unto whom rightly belongs the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom or an ensign and for the gathering of my people in the last days. (D&C 113:5,6)

Now we will repeat verse 10, which speaks of “the root of Jesse, “using Joseph’s interpretation from D&C 113:

10 And in that day there shall be a [descendant of Jesse, as well as of Joseph, unto whom rightly belongs the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign, and for the gathering of my people in the last days], which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. (Isaiah 11:10)

There is no question as to the identity of this latter-day servant. Isaiah, here, says that it is the “root of Jesse” “unto whom rightly belongs the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign, and for the gathering of my people in the last days.” As we have repeatedly seen, it is Jesus Christ ‘unto whom rightly belongs the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign, and for the gathering of my people in the last days.”

The Apostle Paul, in the book of Romans, speaks of the root of Jesse:

8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:9 And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.10 And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.11 And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.12 And again, Esaias saith, Where shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust. (Romans 15:8-12)

Here, Paul tells us that it is Jesus Christ who is the “root of Jesse,” and to whom the Gentiles should look. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says: ‘And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust.” Paul’s meaning is clear, for there is only one who “shall rise to reign over the Gentiles.” Jesus Christ will “reign over the Gentiles” in the last days, and the unrepentant among them will be destroyed.

Paul is not alone in telling us that Jesus Christ is the “root of Jesse.” John the revelator saw that there was a book which was “sealed with seven seals” (Revelation 5:1). John explained; 2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to oven the book, and to loose the seals thereof. 3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereof. 4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. 5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.7 And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:2-10)

John was told that only one was worthy to open the book: behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof.. And when he had taken the book the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb… Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.” From this passage of scripture we see that there is no doubt that the “Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David,” is Jesus Christ himself. The angel who revealed the vision to John later quoted Jesus as follows:

16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. (Revelation 22:16)

The “root of Jesse” is synonymous with the “root of David.” David was Jesse’s son, and therefore, Jesus is also “the root and the offspring of Jesse (see Ruth 4:22).

Returning now to Isaiah 11:11:

11 And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.

15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry-shod. (Passover language)

16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. (Isaiah 11:11-16)

These verses speak of Jesus’ latter-day mission when he “shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people.” In gathering his people, Jesus “shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”

Moroni Quotes From The Book Of Acts

Joseph then tells us that Moroni quoted from Acts chapter 3: “He quoted also the third chapter of Acts, twenty-second and twenty-third verses, precisely as they stand in our New Testament” (JSH 1:40). These verses are familiar to us, for they speak of Jesus’ coming as the prophet like Moses:

22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.

23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. (Acts 3:22-23)

Joseph then says that Moroni told him who this ‘prophet” like Moses was going to be: ‘He said that that prophet was Christ but the day had not come when `they who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among the people,’ but soon would be) (JSH 1:40). Moroni has quoted from Malachi and Isaiah about the latter-day servant’s mission and now he quotes Peter to tell us that Jesus will indeed be this prophet of the last days.

‘He also quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the twenty-eighth verse to the last” (JSH 1:41):

28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

30 And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. (Joel 2:28-32)

He also said that this was not yet fulfilled, but was soon to be. And he further stated that the fulness of the Gentiles was soon to come in. He quoted many other passages of scripture, and offered many explanations which cannot be mentioned here” (JS-H 1:41).

From Joel we learn that after Jesus Christ is raised up to the world, and “every soul; which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people,” then God “will pour out [His] spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.” God “will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood.” ‘And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call”

AGAIN; Summarizing Moroni‘s Message

• The Father will send Jesus Christ to prepare the way before Him (Malachi 3:1; 3 Nephi 24:1).
• We have not kept the Lord’s ordinances (Malachi 3:7).
• Elijah will reveal the Priesthood (Malachi 4:5).
• Jesus Christ is the stem of Jesse (D&C 113:2).
• The rod of Jesse will be a servant and spokesman for Christ who will come forth out of Christ (Isaiah 11:1; D&C 113:4; 2 Nephi 3:17).
• The root of Jesse is Jesus’ latter-day mission (Isaiah 11:10; D&C 113:6; Romans 15:12; Revelation 5:5, 22:16).
• Jesus will set his hand again the second time to recover his people (Isaiah 11:11).
• Jesus is the prophet like Moses (Acts 3:22; JSH 1:40).
• Everyone who will not hear Jesus will be destroyed (Acts 3:23; JSH 1:40).
• In 1823 the time had not yet come for Jesus to do this work, but soon would (JSH 1:40).
• Calamities will engulf the earth (Joel 2:30-31).
• Zion will be redeemed (Joel 2:32).

My I.T. dept has finally recovered from the recent technical difficulties.  We are back and better than ever!  Sorry for the delay, spread the word. 

Meanwhile, back at the waters of Mormon….

So we have Abinadi being sentanced to death and this time he says, fine.  But, before you do…he testifies of the things that will happen to them.  He prophesies again.  They will be driven, experience famine and disease, and finally the leaders will be burned by fire.  Rosy outlook.  The Davidic covenant is removed in the leaders being burned and protection forgotten, and the wrath of the Abrahamic covenant is fulfilled by taking away their land, their protection and their food in consequence of distracted idolatry.

In the midst of this final discourse we see an interesting thing that wicked people try to do.  They stated this, “For thou hast said that ^aGod himself should come down among the children of men; and now, for this cause thou shalt be put to death unless thou wilt recall all the words which thou hast spoken evil concerning me and my people.”

They say the charge is what he said about God (interestingly, what he said doesn’t exactly fit with our current ideology either).  But they want him to recall what he had said about them to get deliverance.  Still not willing to admit that they have been offended by him and that is the sole charge against puttin him to death, they put a trumped up charge on him saying it is worthy to death.  Its obvious here though what the real charge is, “recall all the words which thou hast spoken evil concerning me and my people”.   The wicked take the truth to be hard indeed.

In this chapter is where we see the latter-day servant change roles.  On the one hand he has been playing the Prophet Martyr and will be marred for it (Abinadi).   On the other he becomes the deliverer, announcing the judgments on the heads of those who rebel and fleeing into the wilderness with the remnant in tow.  Alma of course is the deliverer.  HE was a young man, one of the priests, he believed and ran to the wilderness.  He attracts a following (chapter 18) by preaching in private.   Eventually, that remnant is drawn to the waters of Mormon in the Forest of Mormon, in a place that was once inhabited by wild beasts.  There the people repent.  They play the role of the last-days Gentile covenant people by repenting of their past sins and being re-baptized in the name of Christ by one with true authority, becoming part of Israel again.   This event for us is  recounted by Nephi and Isaiah but the Lord put it like this:

“IF they… ^ereject the fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them…But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be ^anumbered among my people, O house of Israel. (3 Nephi 16:10-13)”

The Gospel here is removed from the people of Noah, but a repentant portion of that people repent and return (return not just turn, go back to where they were) and are eventually numbered amongst the free fold of the Nephites.

In order for them to do this they had to recognize the Servant, who is no personified by Alma.  They had to see in him someone with authority who had the right message.  They had to leave the ‘church’ with Noah and the High priests at the helm, forsake their idolatry and incorrect beliefs and go after a true servant.  A true servant who had recently been ostracized by the present leadership and had fled.  A true servant who was poor and living on what the Lord could provide in the wilderness.   They had to “come ye out from the wicked, and be ye ^bseparate (alma 5:57)”, “Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the ^bChaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter to the end of the earth (1nephi 2o:20)”.  And to us in the latter days that Lord declared,

“Go ye out from ^aBabylon. Be ye ^bclean that bear the vessels of the Lord…Yea, verily I say unto you again, the time has come when the voice of the Lord is unto you: Go ye out of Babylon; ^agather ye out from among the nations, from the ^bfour winds, from one end of heaven to the other…Go ye ^aout from among the nations, even from ^bBabylon, from the midst of ^cwickedness, which is spiritual Babylon.(DC 133:4,7,14)”

Immediately in Mosiah 18, upon the people accepting the convenats again and leaving Babylon they recieve proper instruction, are converted and warrant the protection of God, “Alma and the people of the Lord were ^aapprised of the coming of the king’s army; therefore they took their tents and their families and ^bdeparted into the wilderness.”

They left!  The time came and the people of the Lord were made aware of the coming destruction and left to the wilderness, a scene that has been played out regularly by Gods people since Enoch and will be seen again soon in our day.   They were delivered.   Those who believed the unorthodox beliefs of the wild man in the desert warranted proetection.  Those who stayed with the powers that be, refused to give up their present way of life and the teaching of their present leaders, were burned at the stake, diseased and bound into true servitude.

This is a perfect type for our day; will we hear and accept the report of the Servant, the Words of Christ, remove ourselves from Babylon before the world sees the obvious need and warrant his protection through the keeping of covenant?

Those who remained with Noah, who at the time did not see the need, eventually were let down.  Noah was not on his tower when the time came , when the lamanites came to destroy them.  He did not have the foresight, though  their testimonies were that he did have it and could protect them.  The president of the High priesthood was caught seeking his own desires and not the peoples-at the time of need.  They were brought into bondage and Noah burned by his own people.

Meanwhile, back at the forests of Mormon, the people of Alma had exited and escaped the judgements just in the nick of time.  They were unified, lived TURE tithing (as opposed to what we are taught today), “Alma commanded that the people of the church should impart of their substance, ^aevery one according to that which he had; if he have more abundantly he should impart more abundantly; and of him that had but little, but little should be required; and to him that had not should be given.”  Their Priest Labored for their own support, and the people all had things in common wants and needs.

This is the Marvelous Work in a nutshell.  This is the strange act in 9 chapters.  I believe it to be a succinct account given to us to tell US (the apostate covenant people) about US, more than as a history of a prior people.  This is the pattern of Isaiah and the Book of Mormon.  Books about me.

Abinadi now starts into the meat of his message.   AT the beginning, he is viewed as a threat and similar to Nephi, he tells them not to touch him, for the Lord is protecting him.   Though he is speaking words of peace he states, ” Yea, and my words fill you with wonder and amazement, and with anger.”    He then states the Mission Statement of the whole scene now being unfolded to us, not just to those priest but more importantly for us the Latter-Day reader, ” But I finish my message; and then it ^amatters not whither I go, if it so be that I am saved.   But this much I tell you, what you ^ado with me, after this, shall be as a ^btype and a shadow of things which are to come.”

The Lord is allowing them to pick thier fate.  What ever they do will be fulfilled in prophecy upon their own heads.  As David wrote in the seventh Psalm and as is promised to the King of Assyria, the Last Days tyrant in Isaiah, ” His mischief shall ^areturn upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.”  After his warning he goes through and gives them a masterful and lengthy discourse, which they are obliged to hear.

As they message here is important but I don’t want to cover it all in depth, I am going to cut to the chase of it, pertaining to us and this theme.    If you go to this link, a synopsis of the Chiasm of the Book of Mosiah can be found. The center of the Chiasm is the important part here.  It happens to fall in the middle of Abinadis message, and with a message on the latter-day servant no less.

The Whole Book of Mosiah
is a Chiasmus

h)  People Limhi in bondage, Ammon put in prison
(7:15)

i)  The 24 gold plates (8:9)

j)  The record of Zeniff begins as he leaves
Zarahemla (9:1)

k)  Zeniff prevails against the Lamanites
(9:14-10:20)

l)  Noah and his priests (11:1-15)

m)  Abinadi persecuted and thrown in prison
(11-12)

n)  Abinadi reads Isaiah’s prophecies
of Christ (13-14)

n’)  Abinadi make his own prophecies
of Christ (15-16)

m’)  Abinadi persecuted and killed (17:5-20)

l’)  Noah and his priests (18:32-20:5)

k’)  Lamanites threaten the people of Limhi
(20:6-26)

j’)  Record of Zeniff ends as Limhi’s people leave
the land of Nephi

i’)  The 24 gold plates (21:27, 22:14)

h’)  People of Alma in bondage (23)

g’)  Alma leaves the land of Nephi for Zarahemla (24)

At the heart of this Chiasm is Isaiah 53.  Below are Gileadis thoughts on that subject.

1 ¶ WHO hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

***The revelation is talked about in chapter 28. There it was a question whether people would go on from the lesser portion of the word of God to the greater portion – in other words from the fundamentals (milk) to the deeper topics (meat), including direct revelation and divine instruction.  (see 28:9)  Most people are no receptive to this higher instruction that is offered to them.  There is a dichotomy between those who do accept and those who don’t.  In Isaiah, it is always the few that do and the many do not accept revelation and divine instruction.

***So it is here.  “Who has believed our revelation?”  Some yes, but very few overall.  Some go on and accept divine revelation from God and hold fast to those things.  They keep the laws of God and all things that he has revealed through his servants, the prophets.  But most do not.  The majority of the people are in an apostate or descending mode, descending down the spiritual ladder, and don’t come back up.  That’s why the judgements of God come upon them.  They are even losing what they had.

***The pairing of these two ideas – who has believed our revelation and on whose account has the arm of the Lord been revealed – the paralleling of these two ideas tells you that those who believe the revelation are those on whose account the arm of the Lord has been revealed.  In other words, the arm of the Lord is revealed to those who believe the revelation.  This implies that those who don’t believe God’s revelation don’t accept the arm of God.  They do not understand what the arm of the Lord represents.  It is a person.

***The two arms of the God seen in 51:5 are righteousness and salvation.  Salvation is the Lord himself.  Righteousness is the servant or forerunner who establishes righteousness so that salvation may come.  These are the two arms that judge the people.  In this case, we are talking about the arm of salvation.  However, if you don’t accept the one arm, you won’t accept the other.  If you don’t accept the forerunner and all the preparatory work he does, you will not be in a position to accept the other.

***In this case, the arm of the Lord appears to be talking about the suffering person who is the Lord Himself.

Isaiah 53:2

2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him.  (Like a sapling he grew up in his presence, a stalk out of arid ground.  He had no distinguishing appearance that we should notice him; he had no pleasing aspect, that we should find him attractive.)

***The sapling and stalk idea is similar to chapter 11:1, which talks about the stalk of Jesse (shoot, stalk, branch, graft).  Those are messianic titles.  These are all metaphors that describe the messianic individual.  Jeremiah literally calls the Lord’s Servant the branch.

***Growing up in his presence and out of arid ground is a contrast.  Arid ground implies a cursed state.  This, in turn, implies wickedness or apostasy by people in general at the time of his growing up.  Yet, he himself grows up in the presence of the Lord, meaning that he himself has access to God; he is not cut off from his presence as most of the people are cut off because of their wickedness.  This is quite a contrast between him and the people with whom he grows up.  He is not a charismatic personality that is a natural charmer, statesman or very popular.

***While there are many word links throughout Isaiah to other parts, these 10 verses are different in that there are very few links to other parts of the book.  While the Servant is marred in chapter 52 and healed in chapter 57, this person in this chapter dies.  However, 52:1 also tells us that he awakes and arises.  He is part of the same structure of the Zion motif that awakes and arises, therefore he is also resurrected.

Isaiah 53:3

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

***In Isaiah’s context, the majority of the people are already rejecting God.  Therefore, when this person appears, he represents what they oppose.  This person comes from God and reflects God in all that he does.  Yet he is met with disdain and rejecting.  His lifestyle is a contradiction to their own.  He gets very bad treatment here from those who should have welcomed and sustained him.  This reiterates the suffering and humiliation he encounters.  However, from Isaiah’s structures, this is a necessary prelude to salvation.  There is no exaltation without a prior humiliation.  There is no salvation without prior suffering.  The higher you go on the spiritual ladder, the more humiliation and suffering you have to go through.  From Isaiah’s context, this person descends below them all.

Isaiah 53:4

4 ¶ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

***We thought he was under some kind of curse of God because he couldn’t seem to come out from under this problem.  Yet, what was actually happening was that he was enduring the curse that was ours and he took upon himself.  This person is not guilty of any sin or transgression that would cause covenant curses to come upon him.  So these adversities are not through his own fault.

Isaiah 53:5

5 But he [was] wounded (…pierced…) for our transgressions, [he was] bruised (…crushed…) for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him (: the price of our peace he incurred…); and with his stripes we are healed.

***This person is some kind of proxy for the rest of us.  Note the pronouns: “our transgressions,” “our iniquities,” ”we did esteem him stricken.”  There is a spokesman (speaking on behalf of God’s people) who is speaking about him.  It is no longer the Lord speaking about the Servant; it is the Servant speaking about the Lord.  There is a person who really knows this person and what his life is all about, what happened to him really.  Whereas, we at the time it happened were not aware.  This person is now pointing out what really happened.

***The piercing and crushing indicate what happens to him.  This links to the suffering of Christ on the cross with the piercing of the nail to his hands and feet and the spear to his side.  He was crushed on the way to the cross.  This occurred not for any iniquity of his own.

***The difference between transgression and iniquity.  Transgression of the Laws of God is a sin to the person performing the act.  Iniquity is the sin that is passed down from generation to generation.  These can include behavioral patterns, etc. that are the results of sin.  They are cumulative.  They result in covenant curses that are also passed down, causing the people to labor in adverse situations.  These are passed on from generation to generation.  He took all of this upon himself.

***Peace is a word link to other parts of Isaiah.  It is the Lord himself who brings about peace in Isaiah.  Also, being healed is synonymous to salvation.  The main theme of this verse is that he is suffering these things for our salvation.  He is doing this as a proxy, for us.  Those who receive peace for whom he pays the price are the righteous, those who repent of their transgressions.  This implies that there is only salvation for those who do repent.  He suffers for their transgression.  This is part of the law of justice.  Under the law of justice, someone must pay the price for transgression.  He does this, enabling mercy to take place for those who repent.  This also implies that for those who don’t repent, there is no mercy.  There is no peace for the wicked.  They themselves must suffer under the law of justice.

Isaiah 53:6

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

***Again the pronouns “we” and “us.”  “We” are identified as sheep.  Sheep are kosher animals and elsewhere in Isaiah, the Lord’s people are referred to as his flock.  This is talking about the covenant people of the Lord, not the gentiles.  Those who receive this peace or salvation are His own covenant people.  This suggests that those who are not His covenant people do not inherit peace and salvation.

***We are all gone astray, going in different directions, straying away from God and the law and the covenant, and the Lord brought together on him the iniquity of us all.  We are all scattered and he gathers them all up and dumps them all on him.  This includes the iniquity of even those who don’t repent.  All they have to do is repent, and he already suffered their iniquity.  Whether they repent or not, he still suffered for their iniquity.

***Each of us going our own way implies that we have all left God’s way.

Isaiah 53:7

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

***Twice it states that he opened not his mouth.  He could have opened his mouth and defended himself.  He chose not to speak up because that is what God wanted him to do.  He was to be submissive.  God then inflicted him with harassment, slaughter, arrest and trial, being pierced, being crushed, bearing our sufferings, being shunned, and being to be worth nothing (when he was of most worth).  The lamb led to slaughter is a sacrificial idea.  It appears again in verse 10 as an offering for guilt.  In Hebrew it is “asham” (aleph shin mem) which in anciently sacrifice under the Law of Moses that must be offered when a man transgressed.  The lamb led to slaughter reminds of the Passover lamb and is another metaphor.  The Passover lamb was proxy for the firstborn of Israel, that they would not die.  Here, he is proxy also for the firstborn of God’s people who will not die spiritually or physically.  He is led to slaughter, meaning he dies.

***He comes before the people of God, his sheep, the covenant people.  He is sheared, indicating his clothes are taken away.

Isaiah 53:8

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. ?  (By arrest and trial he was taken away.  Who can apprise his generation that he was cut off from the land of the living for the crime of my people to whom the blow was due?)

***This again reinforces Isaiah’s indication of this man as our proxy.  He dies for his people’s crime.  Note the “my people” which is the covenant formula.  For their transgressions, justice needed to be done.  He suffered for their transgressions.

***This also implies that it was done formally, by trial and arrest.  He wasn’t just mugged in a wood.  He went through an official execution.

***”Generation” implies more than just the covenant people.  It suggests almost a dynasty, possibly his lineage.  In verse 10 it talks about his having lineage, offspring.  Being cut off from the land of the living almost happens to Hezekiah, but he is healed.  The same with the Servant.  However, this person dies and his death is part of his suffering and humiliation.

Isaiah 53:9

9 And he made his grave with the wicked (He was appointed among the wicked in death…), and with the rich in his death; because (…yet…) he had done no violence, neither [was any] deceit in his mouth.

***In the Masoretic text, these first two lines are reversed.  The Servant/Tyrant parallel helps to identify that they were reversed.  He was not appointed among the wicked in his burial, nor among the rich in his death, but just the reverse, being among the wicked in death and rich in his burial.  Christ of course dies between two thieves and was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimethea, a wealthy man.

***The word “appoint” is also used with the Lord’s Servant.  Both are appointed by God, one higher on the spiritual ladder than himself, who is his Lord.  Each one has his Lord who is above him.  To us, Jehovah is our Lord.  Yet, on his wrung of the spiritual ladder, there is one above him.  We also know that the first two lines of verse 9 are reversed because the wicked to violence and the rich are deceptive.

Isaiah 53:10

10 ¶ Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put [him] to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.  (But the Lord willed to crush him, causing him suffering, that, if he made his life an offering for guilt, he might se his offspring and prolong his days, and that the purposes of he Lord might prosper in his hand.)

***To crush is like to crush the life out of something or to crush his spirit.  The Lord willed that.  In order to bring about the redemption of the world, whoever gives him their covenantal allegiance can obtain salvation and peace and healing for the sake of so many people in their lost and fallen state.  For their sake, the Lord willed to crush him, that he made his life an offering for their guilt (not his own).  On the higher levels of the spiritual ladder, one does not suffer for ones own sins, but for the sins of others.  He could not be a proxy for others if he himself was a transgressor. The higher you go on the spiritual ladder, the greater or more effective is the proxy role you can perform.  Hezekiah’s offering his life only merited deliverance of his people from the besieging Assyrians.  Those on the seraph level, can merit more than that.  On the level of the spiritual ladder where the Lord himself suffers and dies, all sins and iniquities can be taken away.  This is the highest proxy function known in Isaiah.

***Note the mention of offspring here and burial in verse 9.  Both these are covenant blessings.  In the tyrant parallel, the tyrant has no offspring or burial.  All the tyrant’s people are destroyed and his corpse lies unburied.  In other words, the king of Babylon suffers from covenant curses while this person enjoys covenant blessings.  One may argue that the offspring referred to here is adopted or spiritual offspring.  However, in Isaiah, the literal meaning is always the first one that applies.  If he did not have literal offspring, he would be under a curse.  But God has provided that he is not under a curse because he is innocent.

***Days are prolonged when you honor father and mother (fourth commandment).  In the Old Testament, if you honor father and mother, your days are prolonged on the land by your offspring.  Abraham has his offspring as the sands of the sea, etc., where as the King of Babylon has his offspring cut off.  (see chapter 14)

***That the purposes of the Lord might prosper in his hand is referring to his right hand, the Servant.  This is transitioning to the next section of text.  This can also apply to any of the Lord’s servants.  They cannot be empowered if the whole thing rests on a false foundation.  The Servant himself, along with all the rest of us, are sinners and have need to repent of our transgressions of the law of God.  When we do, we are forgiven because he is our proxy and has taken our guilt and transgressions upon himself.  If he had not done this, the purposes of the Lord would not prosper in us.  The Lord has done this, provided this proxy atonement for our sins, and based on that foundation, we can function as his servants.

Isaiah 53:11

11 He shall see of the travail (…toil…) of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.  (…:and by bearing their iniquities, shall my servant, the righteous one, vindicate many.)

***Who will see the toil of whose soul?  The second “his” is referring to the Servant, the one who establishes righteousness.  He too suffers.  Anyone on the spiritual ladder who performs a messianic or proxy role suffers.  They don’t suffer as much as Christ suffered, but they suffer.  Again, not for their own transgressions, but for others.

***Now the Lord Himself is speaking.  He has done his work of atonement, his proxy salvation, now he talks about the Servant again.  Between the end of chapter 52 and here, there is a chiasm of sorts – a-b-a – where the middle part of the chiasm is the Lord Himself.

***The Servant also goes through humiliation and exaltation.  His appearance is marred beyond human likeness – he appalled people – yet he became exceedingly eminent and highly exalted.  (see 52:13-14)  Like King Hezekiah, he has toil of soul.  When the person endures this well and suffers in humble submission and the Lord sees it, there comes a point where it is enough and the Lord is satisfied.

***Knowledge is a covenant term.  It implies knowledge of the covenant as well as knowledge of God and His ways.  He knows that according to the terms of the covenant, if he intercedes on behalf of others and pays the price for their transgressions, he through his sacrifice can merit others deliverance.  In Hezekiah’s case, that is limited to physical deliverance.  In the Lord’s case, it includes all deliverance.

***Knowledge is parallel with “bearing their iniquities.”  Because of his knowledge of the terms of the covenant, he is willing to bear their iniquities.  The Lord does this.  The Servant has seen the Lord do this and does the same thing on a lesser level.  This servant is the one who personifies righteousness.  He is the model of righteousness for us to follow.  Because of his knowledge of the terms of the covenant, he knows that he can do this for them.  Because of this, they do not have to suffer death of the besieging Assyrians or other calamities, but because of the Servant’s intercession, they can be delivered.

Isaiah 53:12

12 Therefore will I divide him [a portion] with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

***The Lord Himself does this in the early part of the chapter.  Here, however, the Lord is speaking of his Servant who does the same thing on a lower scale.  The Servant emulates the Lord.

***Every one of these sentences has a type in Israel’s history.  Caleb received an inheritance among the great (when the Israelites came into the Promised Land) because he was one of the two spies sent out who remained faithful to the Lord when they came back.  Joshua and Caleb gave a true report.  They were the only ones who came out of Egypt who inherited the Promised Land.

***David divided the spoil with the mighty in his war with the Philistines.  David provides a type for this person.  Hezekiah is also a type, pouring out his soul unto death.  David was also number with criminals after being anointed by Samuel.  Christ was numbered with criminals.

***Job bore the sins of many (his children).  Job was smitten.  However, we see that in his proxy role, Job was only paying the price for others sins, not his own.

***Moses made intercession for the entire nation when they made the golden calf.

***The Servant is like a lot of these heroes of the Old Testament, performing many of the same functions.  All the major events in Israel’s history are roles that the Servant assumes.  He would have to be on the same spiritual level as those characters of the Old Testament were.

In Chapter 15 Abinadi gives his Testimony of the mission of the Savior.  We must remember that though the Savior came and went in the meridian of Time, the Atonement is Eternal and so is the redemptive mission HE is to perform.  Mixed into this testimony, Abiandi gives a couple of Last Days antidotes.   The Isaiah verses he started off with are first reiterated.  He then gives the spiritual interpretation of that verse.   As we have earlier given the Last Days interpretation, we’ll let it rest.  But, he closes this chapter with this,

“Yea, Lord, ^athy ^bwatchmen shall lift up their voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.  The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the ^asalvation of our God”

This quote is heavily Last Days. The day of the redemption of Zion (which we must wait for a little longer and will be done by power sec 101).  The Lord hath made Bare His ARM!  His Arm is of Course the Latter Day servant we are waiting for.  The Salvation of God we shall soon see as he saves all Israel, making them separate.

These last to center piece chapters begin and end with thoughts on the servant.  It began like this,

“Who hath ^abelieved our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground; he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him.”

As pure blood he is the Root, but he grows up in Dry ground, amongst the Gentiles.  He will not be desired, even rejected in disguise (how appropriate Abinadi!).  His work will be a Revelatory event, indeed the words of Christ will be the Dividing point of the wheat and tares; and who will believe that report?  Who will recognize the Servant in disguise?

And this discourse ends having preformed that strange act of power and redeeming Zion, “The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the ^asalvation of our God”

The focus of His message to those he was speaking was that of atonement, and fulfillment of the Law they then lived.  The message to us is that and bigger, A Servant will be sent and fulfill the types.  He will judge and redeem us as the Lords mouthpiece and the deliverer of Zion.  To paraphrase the end of Abinadis message, Mosiah 16:14,

” Therefore, if ye teach the ^alaw of Moses, also teach that it is a ^bshadow of those things which are to come—Teach them that redemption cometh through Christ the Lord, who is the very ^aEternal Father. Amen.”

“Behold, I say unto you, the ^aredemption of Zion must needs come by power; Therefore, I will raise up unto my people a man, who shall ^alead them like as Moses led the children of Israel.”   DC 103: 15-16

Next we will discuss what happens to the Servant for his message.

Chapter 12 of Mosiah starts with one of the classic blunders of blind faith.  I find it a tad humorous anyway.  Having been ousted and banished from living amongst  Noah’s people because of his prior message, Abinadi came back in disguise.  As soon as he gets there, he goes back to prophecy and the first thing he says is,  “the Lord hath commanded me saying, Abinadi…”.  He uses his name, while in disguise.  Though, it obviously still worked, as when they took him to Noah they just said, we have a man.  Not Abinadi necessarily, though Noah have previously called him by name.

Anyway, to his message.

Abinadi goes through and recounts the covenant blessings of a people who are following him according to the abrahamic covenant.  He will remove their leadership in king Noah.  He will remove there food via pestilence, hot weather, plague and insects.  He will remove their bodily help and protection by allowing them to become slaves and allowing diseases to be amongst them.  Finally, if they still do not turn and repent, he will allow the vultures and dogs to devour their flesh and destroy them from the face of the earth.  Of course, this is exactly the same as the prophecies laid before us in the last days by  Nephi and Isaiah as well as the Lords word in 3 Nephi.

Noah has him brought before himself and his priests, and the church trial begins.  In an interesting twist, the first question they rise is out of Isaiah, about the introduction of the Latter-Day servant .  I am reading this section of the Book of Mormon as if it is a prophecy and a type that tells us about us and our deliverance.  For this reason, the verses and thoughts that are raised here from Isaiah and other sources will be read in a latter-day context, though Abinadi was applying them to the people and priests at the time.

First question that is brought to Noah is, “What meaneth the words which are written, and which have been taught by our fathers, saying:”

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him ^bthat bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth;Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion Break forth into joy; sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem;  The Lord hath made bare his holy ^aarm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God?

Of course, we dogmatically apply this to the savior and only the savior, though very little of these questions apply to him and that time period.  He did not publish peace, he brought the sword (matt. 10:3-4).  Neither did he bring good tidings, he brought destruction.   He did not speak to Zion, he spoke to a decayed Jerusalem and left.  He did not redeem Jerusalem!  He redeemed the world of sin, sure, but Jerusalem was not redeemed, it was left cursed to be destroyed.  Oh Jerusalem!  He did not bare his arm to all nations, only the Jews, leaving the apostles to attempt the rest.

However, the Servant will do this things.  When the ends days come, a man will show who will declare and establish Zion.  He will establish peace amongst a people, when the world at large is at war.  He is the Arm of the world, and will be made bare to all the world as he decries their sins.  He will demonstrate the salvation of God.  He will be a root in dry ground, starting with the Gentile covenant people he will remove the fullness from them and take the Gospel to all Israel.  When he does that all the watchmen of the world, Gentile, Israel, etc… will see the gospel eye to eye, in union, allowing Zion to finally be established.

Intriguingly, though the discussion between the priests and Abinadi starts with this verse, Abinadi avoids it entirely.  He simply says,”are you ^apriests, and pretend to teach this people, and to understand the spirit of prophesying, and yet desire to know of me what these things mean?”

Leaving this thought first in the narrative, but not really discussing it amongst themselves, gives us food for thought.  Was it included here to set us, the latter-day reader, on a proper foot?  Was it included to direct our thoughts toward that time of redemption when we will have that Arm raised to us, as Abinadi was being bared here?  I believe it was.  It’s showing to us, that the Priesthood at the time (and thus our own in shadow) didn’t recognize Abinadi for what he was, didn’t understand prophecy or the words of Isaiah and would reject that servant when he stood in front of them.  It shows us the manner of men who will serve as the servants of God and how they will be perceived and presented to the world.  It then becomes imperative to us to understand the spirit of prophesying, to APPLY our hearts to understanding and wise about what we have learned  (vs. 27)

Finishing Chapter 12 Abinadi expounds a bit of truth to them.  A bit of truth I find particularly applicable to us.

They are accused of spending their strength with harlots and whoredoms, setting their hearts on riches and not understanding the law they teach.  Then, what commandments does he cite to show their guiltiness concerning these things?

• “Thou shalt have no ^aother God before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing in heaven above, or things which are in the earth beneath.”

Are we committing the same sins?  Do we spend our strength and time seeking after riches?  Intriguingly the “New Era” is sitting next to me here, April 2009 edition.  On the front page reading, Education:  Learning and Earning“.  How obvious do we have to make it?  Spending our time learning Babylonian ways so that we might earn Babylonian wages.  Committing a whoredom with a false God.  What do we spend our strength with?  Are we seeking after Zion and the cause of Christ or are we regularly distracted, the majority of our time, on whoring after the work of our hands?  Knowing who OUR God is and seeking him first and always is the very first and largest thing we are accused of.  We keep not the very first law, teach against it and pretend to know and understand the Law.

The Lord has always found issue with people who do this and will continue to when those accusations are brought to us by Abinadis shadow.

Prophets in scripture have a  compelling role.  Starting at the beginning or commencement of the Book of Mormon we have father Lehi.  He’s sent out to be a prophet to the people in Jerusalem.  From what we know, he was no more than a father, though at least a bit wealthy.  What does the prophet do?  Tells people to repent.   He delineates the degeneration of those he has been instructed to speak to.  He warns them starkly of the consequences of their present course of action.  He prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem, though it is a mighty city and the place of Gods own people. He is persecuted a bit, receives instruction and takes his family out.  Interesting how he was of no apparent priesthood standing, just a righteous man, yet  whom God used as a prophet and the bearer of Josephs bloodline.

On the other end of the portion of the Book of Mormon we have been given we find Mormon and Moroni.  Again as prophets they have the undesirable position of standing out in the crowd, describing the sins of a people and foretelling disaster.  Is there a real prophet anywhere in scripture that doesn’t fit this mold?  Is every prophet in scripture persecuted on some level because of his actions against the status quo?

Also of note is how often in our cannon those prophets were seemingly regular joes, “church” status wise.  Nathan we made mention of earlier, it was his unenviable job to tell David of his errors and of the future.  Moses grew up in Egypt, as did Joseph.  Joseph Smith didn’t even belong to a church, spent his time warning of the evils of others and eventually started a new church.  So we see Abinadi next in our study.

Indeed it is thought that we should all be prophets. Paul told us to covet that gift.  If we were all prophets would the role of a prophet change?  Would his persecution cease?  Sure, but as long as Babylon prevails, whose captivity is presently choking to the point of drunken asphyxiation, prophets will stick out like a sore thumb.  As in the scripture, they will be different.  They will do different things, say different things and contrast  society starkly temporally and spiritually.  After all, that is their job, that’s what they do.  Until society bends to their edicts they will be the odd man out.   There is no evidence in our present LDS society that we are separate from those around us in goals, focus, way of life, types of residence or communal aid.  Even amongst us, prophets are weird.  I dare you to prophecy in your synagogue on Sunday, trust me, it goes over like an anvil over Wile E Coyote.

The point of this line of thought is-What does it mean when we have a “prophet” in our midst?  When we live as we do now, amidst the chains and shackles of Mahan’s dream and the communion of an increasingly degenerate community-When the advice we are receiving from our leaders is reliance on man in every facet-When we fit in most terms the description of Gomorrah, ancient Babylon and Egypt….the message of a prophet will never be a good one.  True prophets don’t declare that all is well is Zion, they don’t prophecy unto us smooth things, they don’t engender good feelings amongst the children of men. Their message comes to divide as a two edge sword, as the word of the Lord always does.  It will come to tell us of our wrongs and exhort us to repent.  His (the prophet) very presence means the existence of spiritual atrophy on a depressing level within the sheep’s fences, as the scriptures attest and Joseph testified.

“The world always mistook false prophets for true ones, and those that were sent of God, they considered to be false prophets, and hence they killed, stoned, punished and imprisoned the true prophets, and these made to hide themselves in deserts and dens, and caves of the earth,” and though the most honorable men of the earth, they banished them from their society as vagabonds, whilst they cherished, honored and supported knaves, vagabonds, hypocrites, impostors, and the basest of men.” (History of the Church 4:573)

Abinadi

Mosiah 11 vs. 20 is our first recording of this mighty prophet.  His resume was short but spectacular.  He came, did his job and left.  Along the way Abinadi provided an extraordinarily efficient shadow of the role of a prophet.  In a more narrow mindset peculiar to our present purpose, Abinadi serves well as an illustration of the Mighty and Strong voice of a latter day servant.  Alma later plays the deliverer.  Abinadi here plays the Sealer of Fate, a rather piquant task.

He enters the scene with this entry, ” there was a man among them whose name was Abinadi, and he went forth among them, and began to prophesy”.    I’ve given this thought in a past post which was given to me by someone else (though I can’t recall who)  but-Was Abinadi a member of Zeniff’s High Council?  That would make sense but either way he comes out of relative obscurity.  He is not one of the 12 consecrated priests, he holds no priesthood office in official church hierarchy that we are aware of.  Just a guy whom the Lord decided to use.  A man of spiritual strength and discernment, which gifts were dwindling amongst those he comes to.  The first thing he does on the scene is to prophesy, amazing how ‘prophets’ do that.    As Nephi describes the latter day type, “there shall rise up one mighty among them”, similar to the language here used of Abinadi being one “among” them.

His Message- He tells us that the Lord commanded him to come to them using the words, “Go forth, and say unto this people, thus saith the Lord”.

The Lord, using words, told him to say, Thus saith the Lord.  No still small voice here?  This is a direct command, not subtle in the least.  Abinadi knows exactly what his message is.  Its rather short in this chapter, though as stated above, incredibly efficient.  however, from the moment he begins his address, he states his authority in doing so.  When a blessing is given by the priesthood, that authority is declared for God, Angels and all the witness to know.  Same for a prophet and Abiandai begins by doing so.  The Lord told me to say this, he commanded me to tell you that “thus saith the Lord” so that you would know where this was given from…After all thats what prophets do. Lets look at some examples:

• Jacob 2  For behold, thus saith the Lord: This people begin to wax in iniquity
• 2 Nephi 6  And now, these are the words: ^aThus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles
• Alma 8  They do study at this time that they may destroy the liberty of thy people, (for thus saith the Lord) which is contrary to th ^astatutes,
• Hel 10  I command you, that ye shall go and declare unto this people, that thus saith the Lord God, who is the Almighty: Except ye repent ye shall be smitten, even unto ^adestruction
• 3 Nephi 20  For thus saith the Lord: Ye have sold yourselves for naught, and ye shall be redeemed without money.
• D&C 132 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Joseph

We could go on as there are 239 chapters in the scriptures that state this authority with those words and more which use derivatives of it, but alas the point is, in order to give revelation and prophecy, a man of God will declare that that knowledge comes from God and let you discern to follow.

He starts right off with “repent”.  After that he moves to, unless you do…you will go into bondage at the hands of your enemies.   Seems like an odd decree to me.  The reason is, the presence of Abainadi and the need for his message means that they are presently under spiritual bondage.  Because of those around Abinadi, he cannot live Zions laws as they require a community of good doers.  Not only that, but they are already in a sort of physical bondage as a people.  If you recall, like the Lord’s last days people in Isaiah’s prophecies (chapter 28) who “have made a covenant with death, and with hell are at agreement”, Zeniff had forgot discernment brought his people into bondage under the hand of the Lmanaite.

As a people today our church is governed by the Government via our becoming a 501(c)3 corporation, tax free and also free of living our religion and declaring it how the Lord sees it.  Presidcnt Mckay bent to the whims of of his own will and the advice of Church lawyers, signing us inot bondage.  No we are only allowed to preach and worship within the increasingly narrow confines that defines those corporations defined as Tax-exempt, 501(c).  Talk about bondage!  Our church as it exists is a fusion of Babylonian principles and desires and a struggle to understand revelation past.  The doctrines of men mingled with scripture has come to define the bondage we are now in.   The government won’t allow ‘radical’ organization from a 501c corporation.  The FLDS can’t be tolerated!  The government made the terms of our becoming a corporation, and we agreed for financial reason.   Zeniff made a similar mistake amongst his people, falling for the deceptive words of Laman, he moved his people into bondage, though he meant well.

So, here is the people in Noah, in a spritual bondage and a physical bondage already, having Abinadi tell them they shall be “brought into ^abondage; and they shall be afflicted by the hand of their enemies”.  I see this as the law of the sower, a karmic event of sorts.  The people willingly put themselves in bondage of a physical sort, they willingly choose to follow decay into spiritual bondage and the Lord tells them if they don’t repent they will receive bondage at his hand instead of their own.  The Lord’s bondage is much more real though.  The people wake and  know they are in bondage when its the Lord’s version.  But alas, at that point its too late.  They are afflicted at the hand of their enemies.  and for what?  Incredibly its because they had walked down a path of becoming like their enemies.  For that reason the Lord will turn his back from them (repent means to turn around) and only those who likewise turn from that course will escape the awful judgment.  May that day soon come!

In vs 23-34 of Abinadis message he gives us another result of having entered into bondage willingly as a people.  Those who remain and repent only after the scourge and harvest are happening, the Lord will “be slow to hear their cries”, suffering them to be punished for a time before hearing them.  Whereas those that repent and hear the message of Abinadi immediately will receive a mode of deliverance at the moment of wrath.  Lastly, the final group who never repent, “, I will not ^bhear their prayers”.   He has entirely turned his back, went with the people of God and you are left to the God you chose.

So the Lords message from Abinadi to the people this time encompasses six short verses Mosiah 11:20-25.   They are told to repent and what will happen if they don’t or do.  This short little discourse itself is written in Chiasm.  The central theme lets us know the abomination, the wickedness, the whoredom that they are committing.  ” they shall ^aknow that I am the Lord their God, and am a ^bjealous God”.  It is Idolatry, their whoredoms, as with our people today, are that they enter covenants and seek after other Gods.  The “know” in a covenantal sort of way, Idols.  They “seek” those idols with their hands.  They are full of abomination, dragging these gods and practices into their congregations.  They have vomit on al l tables that there is no place clean, as Isaiah told us.   those who make Zion there Goal and God their God, will turn there backs on the present situation as the Lord has done.

In 26 Josephs words above are fulfilled concerning true prophets.  he spoke the word of the lord and they sought his life for it.  As was promised of his people, the Lord protected him.   Noah responds, ” ^aWho is Abinadi, that I and my people should be judged of him, or ^bwho is the Lord, that shall bring upon my people such great affliction?”   It kind of sounds like he knows him?  or at least of Him?  Possibly another reason why he might have been in Zeniffs inner circle.  Not understanding that HE and the people are the cause of the affliction brought, he blames the Lord for their condemnation.  As always wicked people blame others.  Sounds like pharaoh here, speaking to Moses.  Again, the line is drawn between Abinadi and the latter day servant who like Moses declares the message to the people and then delivers them.  Like Pharaoh, Noah says “Who is the Lord to do this to us”?  Like Pharaoh he hardens his heart.  Abinadi, though he in this story is only the sacrifice delivering the message to seal fate, is likened unto the deliverer of Israel standing before Pharaoh.  Alma Later actually plays that role and delivers.  But, since this is a msesage to US today, the editor and the Lord are telling us that in our context, in the event that will happen to us, the Servant will stand and cry to the people and likewise deliver those who are living separate of the world.

At the end of Chapter 11 Noah begins his outlaw declaration of Abinadi.  He paints him as an outlaw stirring up people.  False accusation are made against him.  Trumped up charges are brought and his life is sought by all those who follow Noah.  True prophets are persecuted.

We’ll continue this analysis on the  next post, in chapter 12.

From Zeniff we move to his dear son or shall we say “one of his sons”, Noah the Misdirected.  The very first inclination we get of this man is ever descriptive.  “He did not keep the commandments of God, but he did walk after the desires of his own heart.”   This is a problem because Noah was the new head of Priesthood.  Noah was now the guy who called men to positions and sat in Judgment.  He was the leader that the people were to look to.  Yet he followed the desires of his own heart.  Considering the Davidic Covenant, a very strong parallel is drawn here between this Noah and Saul.  Saul started out fine and struggled in his role but eventually followed after his own heart.  The next thing mentioned of Noah also draws a connection between Noah and Saul and David, “he had many wives and concubines.”  David was “justified” in this role to some degree, as section 132 points out, he eventually did take Bathsheba, which communion the Lord had no hand in.  Like David, Noah sat at the head of the country.  Though David himself was a revelator who spoke in the spirit, he had a Prophet sent to him to tell him of the Lords will.  Though David was of the Davidic line (obviously), sat in the Judgment seat, was a savior of Israel is several ways, was given revelations and said to be of the Lords own heart, Nathan was told to go and talk to him.  Who was Nathan?  In Israelite terms, he was a prophet.  To us, he would seem to be just another guy.  Who led Israel in lieu of the Lord?  David.  Who gave direction and made judgments in behalf of the Lords people?  David.  But, a separate prophet was sent to him.  Nathan was sent to rebuke David concerning his relationship with Bathsheba and how he dealt with Uriah.  David repented but returning to Noah, he did not.

Noah too filled the Judgment seat and sat in front of the High Priesthood.  He too, like David, took more wives than were given him and was rebuked by a lonesome prophet, Abinadi.

Use of Priesthood

Noah, at the very beginning of his time in office, did a rather auspicious thing.  “For he put down all the priests that had been consecrated by his father, and consecrated new ones in their stead, such as were lifted up in the pride of their hearts (Mosiah 11:5).”  How many times do we see that today?  When a new EQ. Bishopric of Stake Presidency is called, how often does the entire leadership change because of it?  Rather often.  IF these callings were made by the spirit, would this generally be the case (rhetorical)?  Do we put people around us because they fulfill our needs and are after what we want?  Or do we call who the Lord wants us to call?

So, one of the first things he does is to remove the High Priests of the people and set up new ones.  Anyone wonder what those old High Priests went on to do?  Perhaps this was were Abinadi originated (hearsay, I wasn’t there).

Building, taxing an the high seats

We move on and what do we find these Idolatrous misdirected Priests doing?  First thing is to change the present condition of   taxing of the people.  They charge a flat tax, even giving it to us in ratio, 1/5 of whatever you had.  What did he do with that money?  First, he supported himself and his priests with it, their luxurious lifestyles therefore justified as the preacher is worthy of his hire.  Then he took more of that money and built many fine buildings.  Spacious buildings with fine workmanship.  He even built a particularly spacious palace with his own throne from whence to do his kingly thing.

They put the seats of the High priests high above the seats of the congregation and in front.  The seats they sat on were nice, very nice it seems in comparison to to the “other seats”.  In front of those High seats, he also built a special pulpit in front of everyone else, one worthy of note, “that they might rest their bodies and their arms upon while they should speak (vs 11).”

He built the temple up, made it more ornate.   It seems odd that he would put attention toward the temple but we must remember that he was the President of the high priesthood and as such the temple was his duty.  By adding to its stature he stood to gain stature in the eyes of the worshiping public.  Men who’s hands aren’t found doing the incredible things of their fathers must find another way to be approved.  A natural fit is to do something grand like adorn the temple.  Satan rules and deceives by appearance in this world, making this a natural fit to cover the sins of an unrighteous leader of Israel.

To this point I can’t help but bring up the imagery of section 101 again.  It being over 170 years since this church was founded by the Prophet, many of the revelations given than can now be looked at as history.  In fact, I find the vast number of them and the manner of speaking that they describe our day to be perhaps the most important evidence that we are indeed bearing evidence of neglect.

Towers-Relying on Man or God

Reading therefore from section 101 we find a description of the activities of our modern day watchmen, “And consulted for a long time, saying among themselves: What need hath my lord of this tower, seeing this is a time of peace?  Might not this money be given to the exchangers? For there is no need of these things. And while they were at variance one with another they became very slothful, and they hearkened not unto the commandments of their lord.”

Considering that the Tower built by the watchmen of old was the gift of Revelation, Prophecy and Discernment, their relationship wiht their Lord-protector of Israel (2 Sam 22:3), its poignant that no need for that was felt, since this is a time of peace.  Noah, continuing the synthesis, also lacked discernment, prophecy, seership, as a result he felt the need to build a physical means of protecting his people.  He built a tower, literally, like the men in Babylon of old, that he might be on it to foresee the coming enemy.  There is utility in such a tower but only in a situation where a prophet is absent to tell of the coming evil.  Later we will see Abinadi address this issue.  We also here in section 101  find a listing that these watchmen did away with the monies of Zion, they give it to the exchangers, the merchants of Babylon.  They then became slothful and hearkened not to the commandments of God. This is of course a direct link to Noah and his priests and any church leadership who mingles the money of Zion with that of Babylon and supports themselves on that money, or any money for that matter.

Looking back to the Zeniff post, we can recall that a well meant decision was, or many were, made which carefully turned the course of the people away from Gods protection and guidance.  Now though they are thoroughly entrenched in Babylon.

Today we see the Leaders of this people engaged in the same sort of things.  A flat tax has been placed on us, in the form of a universal 10% tithe, which must be paid to stay in good standing.  This ‘tax’ is given outside of the law of consecration and is directed to be paid on the Gross income of all individuals, no matter the need else where.  Though the scriptures define tithing to be part of consecration and only expected of those who have surplus AFTER receiving an inheritance in Zion and quickening their portion.  We also see church building at an amazing rate, big grand buildings.  We see ornate temples going up all over the world also at an incredible rate.  A thing used to laud the accomplishments and ‘trueness’ of the church, which is pointed out structurally as a sign of a church seeking popularity of the world.  A grand spacious building was recently built to house the speeches of those who sit in the High Priesthood.  In this building there sit, in front of all of the ‘other’ seats of the congregation and above them, lavishly comfortable chairs.  At the top of these chairs sit the leaders.  A pulpit was built, out of a special tree, to sit in front and before all the other chairs, that the leaders might lean on them while speaking to the congregations. Finally, this building cost an astounding amount to build.  Meetings are their hold and some very prominent businessmen   successful in procuring Babylons treasures wear the uniform of Babylon (dark suit, tie) while speaking to a people considering spiritual matters.  They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing.

The intoxicating effect of Wine

In verse 15 an introducing side note of ‘ reign is mentioned.  He grows wine, in abundance.  He becomes a wine-bibber, meaning he was given to drinking too much wine, tended to get a bit drunk.  This in itself isn’t the evil, as Noah and Jesus both were accused of the same though they continued in the strength of the priesthood.  Pointing this out does though draws yet another line to ‘ prophecies of the Shepherds of Israel in the last days.  In the first and thirds verses of Chapter 28 Isaiah refers to the drunkards of Ephraim in the last days.  They glory in the works of their hands, they glory in the wonderful things that have happened to them some time in the past.  Verse seven narrows it down a bit more, saying specifically that it is the Priest and Prophets of Ephraim were speaking of. But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.  Wine-bibbers indeed these priests of Ephraim!  As was said of the priests of Noah. In chapter 56 Isaiah explains himself a bit more, “Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.”  As covered in an earlier post, the wine and strong drink is the delusion that all is well in Zion, that Zion prospers (appearances, accomplishments being the marker).  They are so drunk on the idea, that they teach the same things over and over again, eventually losing an mingling and justifying truth with error.  They are so drunk, that they vomit all over the tables of the people leaving no place clean, where they were supposed to be sitting to hear (or eat) the bread of life and law of God (Isaiah 28).

The Shepherds

The next thing illustrated to us in Mosiah 11 is about the shepherds and the sheep.  Another instance drawn from Old Testament imagery added into Is this an accident?  I doubt it.  (vs. 16-17) At first the Lamanites began to come in small numbers and just pick off the outliers, the folks and sheep in the field.  Eventually though, the numbers increased.  Lacking foresight, Noah sent his own people out there in harms way, perhaps meaning well, but those people were killed too.  Soon he had to send his armies after them.  this of course slowed things down but the peoples reaction then was to return to false peace and all is well.  They begin to say how good of a people they were.  They boasted of their accomplishments to those around them, again giving them as a sign of their blessedness.  They had won a false victory, a moment of respite in their heads.  Because of this, a prophet was sent in their midst to perform a work and seal judgment on their heads.

The Shepherds were at first unaware of the wolves in ‘ clothing.  Eventually the wolves did their job of destruction amongst the people.  It certainly isn’t finished here, but the imagery is drawn of shepherds who feel that all is well, while the enemy is preparing to destroy them.  They continuing living and glorying in their past glories (fading wreaths of Isaiah 28) while the enemy is focused on the work of destruction in the future.

Going back to Isaiah, a similar condition of the shepherds of Israel is written.  For instance,

9 All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest.

10 His ^awatchmen are ^bblind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.

11 Yea, they are ^agreedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are ^bshepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their ^cown way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. (Isaiah 56:9-11)

Like the Lamanites who came against Noahs people in the fields, the beasts here (unclean animals, not covenant people) come to devour Israel in the last days.  As with Noah they do so indiscriminately, eventually controlling an unwitting flock.  Again the watchmen are brought up.  Isaiah says the same things, similar to the Watchmen of our past and present in section 101.  They become slothful, lazy, fall asleep, take the money of Zion, greedy for more growth and prosperity.  Finally, they are Shepherds (in Jeremiah 34, perhaps the hardest hitting condemnation of leaders who lead astray, they feed themselves) who do not understand what is going on.  They lack discernment of a spiritual sort not understanding the bondage which they are under nor the destruction preparing at the door.  They are King Noah’s shepherds and priests, glorying in the present and past, unaware of the lurking danger, then responding to it in lackluster fashion.  Standing in a conference, leaning on the pulpit in fine apparel, declaring the wonders of the miracles in Kirtland and Salt Lake, recounting the remarkable numbers of ‘conversion’ of our members, givng advice for staying in Babylon, setting goals, getting an eduction at her hands, managing your money well, investing correctly and how many wonderful things they have done to help the widows.

Next,  a prophet moves into the land to seal their fate, Abinadi… (cont)

This little series of papers is meant to be an analysis of the scriptures from our ‘modern’ perspective.  In other words, taking the stories written herein as scripture, as direction for living, literally etc.  Also, to read it as a parable of sorts, a story with a morale, which applies strictly to us in the last days, whom the Book was written too.

Our story really begins in Mosiah chapter 9, with Zeniff.  He takes a remnant of Nephites and departs, kinda starts afresh.  He goes to a promised land of sorts, the land of his fathers.  Lest we think the Lord didn’t approve, he states ” Yea, in the strength of the Lord did we go forth”  and, “God did hear our cries and did answer our prayers”.  The Lord, like the Israelites of old, allows Zeniff to go to battle and slay many lamanites, in order to allow them to inherit this land and protect the people.  This is of course the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant.  They are given protection in battle and a land to inherit.  The Lord is with them and recognizes Zeniff as their leader in this situation.  Zeniff shows his willingness to follow the Lord again and that they still have the Lords protection (chapter 10) but admits that he has not discernment.  He is deceived by Laman and the people put in bondage (vs 18).  This is intriguing, looking at this story as a microcosm description.  Zeniff calls and consecrates, with proper priesthood, 12 high priests and serves as the president of that high priesthood, as evidenced by Noah removing all of his fathers high priests (Mos. 11:5).

The lord stays with the people and  answers there prayers, gives them a land in difficult circumstances and protects them in War.  All of these things lend us to the point that Zeniff was striving to keep his covenants and under the Davidic Covenant the Lord protected the people.  Yet, though he sat in the consecrated president of the High Priesthood judgment seat, he lacked discernment.  Then, we get to that point where it is his turn to appoint the next king.

This I see as that fatal moment, where the microcosm begins.  A king, though righteous in all his intents and purposes, striving to do what he should, falls short in one department.  He lacks discernment.  This had already proven the bondage of his people in prior chapters.

We too have fallen under bondage for similar reasons.  Since we are now well over a hundred years removed from the writing of the D&C, we can see our history in its prophecies.  Our watchmen have made decisions lacking discernment and we are now thoroughly in the bondage of a Babylonian lifestyle, as a result.  This history of decisions made by our watchmen today is written thus, ” And while they were yet laying the foundation thereof, they began to say among themselves: And what need hath my lord of this tower?  And consulted for a long time, saying among themselves: What need hath my lord of this tower, seeing this is a time of peace?  Might not this money be given to the exchangers? For there is no need of these things   And while they were at variance one with another they became very slothful, and they hearkened not unto the commandments of their lord (section 101:47-50)”.   In the near future Zion will be redeemed with power as section 101 declares, but we have to get to Alma for that event.

Back to Zeniff, though he meant well (as did our watchmen for the most part), though he strove to keep the commandments, though he was sustained by those who followed him, though he was the President of the high priesthood and had been supported in his leadership of the people, even in war, though he felt that the Lord had answered his prayers, he called Noah to be the next king.  Lest some say, he had too call Noah, perhaps we should reminisce for a moment. There is no mention made of this need.  Only that he called ONE of his sons.  A measly mess of pottage has come between a birthright leadership and destitution.  At other places in the Book of Mormon, sons are called to be kings though it wasn’t the eldest, for various reasons.  Here our record makes no mention of a birthright, only that Noah was “one of his sons”.  This distinction is made twice.  He was just “one of his sons”.  The one who would accept the role and whom Zeniff picked.

Lacking discernment, the decision was made and the calling accepted.  The fulcrum swung.  Things had changed.  This little story is not meant to elaborate everything that happened before this event to us, but only from this moment on.  Zeniff and his people kind of appear suddenly, their story told, and the melt back into the Nephites.  Its a simple story to relate these principles of a future event to us.  Its even all a Chiasm, perhaps we’ll cover that later.

From this  moment that a well meaning Judge in Israel judged wrongly, to the eventual cleansing and marvelous work-strange act, which God performs amongst them in power.  And so, we have Zeniff having lived amongst a righteous people and making one mistake, he swings the fate of his people.  He himself did not “lead them astray” per se.  BUT he did provide the means for that to happen, the justification against future wrongs.

This being a parable about us…when was that moment?  Alas, it has happened.  In fact, it has likely happened many times till now.