Iniquity in the world: people will be woken up to this through Book of Mormon

The time we live in is a day with great iniquity. Interestingly, it is the scriptures that will help people become better, leave iniquity, and become better. Also, those that fight against the righteous in Zion will not be successful despite their best efforts.

1 But, behold, in the ^alast days, or in the days of the Gentiles—yea, behold all the nations of the Gentiles and also the Jews, both those who shall come upon this land and those who shall be upon other lands, yea, even upon all the lands of the earth, behold, they will be^bdrunken with iniquity and all manner of abominations—

2 And when that day shall come they shall be ^avisited of the Lord of Hosts, with thunder and with earthquake, and with a great noise, and with storm, and with tempest, and with the ^bflame of devouring fire.

3 And all the ^anations that ^bfight against Zion, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision; yea, it shall be unto them, even as unto a hungry man which dreameth, and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty; or like unto a thirsty man which dreameth, and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint, and his soul hath appetite; yea, even so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.

4 For behold, all ye that doeth iniquity, stay yourselves and wonder, for ye shall cry out, and cry; yea, ye shall be ^adrunken but not with wine, ye shall stagger but not with strong drink.

Notice that the words of a book written by those who already died will be a witness of God's work and will help those who are iniquitous change their ways.

6 And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall bring forth unto ^ayou the words of a ^bbook, and they shall be the words of them which have slumbered.

14 Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to bring forth the words of the book; and in the mouth of as many witnesses as seemeth him good will he establish his word; and wo be unto him that^arejecteth the word of God!

The book and the prophets who represent the Book and the Church are witnesses of God and his work. Also, the book helps people pass through sin and temptation without partaking (Helaman 3:29-30)

29 Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the ^awordof God, which is ^bquick and powerful, which shall ^cdivide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and ^dnarrow course across that everlasting ^egulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked—

30 And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the ^arighthand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.

This book is a great gift to overcome iniquity and proof of God's work in our day. His words are proof of his work.

1 Nephi 1:Book of Mormon thoughts

Since we're studying the Book of Mormon in Sunday School this year, I've made the switch to studying it personally. In particular, after hearing how well people had thought through the stories of 1 Nephi 1-5 in our last lesson, I wanted to do a better job applying the Book to my life and consider why God and his prophets put the stories and the doctrinal lessons that he did in the book. I've done a lot of this thinking about a few parts of the book, but there's a lot more to do.

Here's my thoughts on 1 Nephi 1:

1 Nephi 1:

Apparently when we receive revelation, there’s sometimes more that the Lord is willing to reveal to us. Lehi shows this by having a revelation, returning to his home, and then having another grand revelation. Also, Elder Scott discusses this in a conference talk in 2010 (or 2011), in which he talks about asking God, “is that all that you want to reveal to me, or is there more?” Then he received additional revelation himself.

1 Nephi 1:14

Lehi thanks God for being merciful to those who come unto Him (here’s the phrase: “because thou art merciful, thou wilt not suffer those who ^bcome unto thee that they shall perish!”). This is significant. The message is that you don’t have to be a prophet or a “special” leader in order to 1) receive revelation or 2) be saved. Because Lehi is not a known prophet of the Bible, it shows that this mercy extends not only to the great prophets such as jeremiah but also the “lesser prophets” or perhaps to anyone.

1 Nephi 1:19

19 And it came to pass that the ^aJews did ^bmock him because of the things which he testified of them; for he truly testified of their^cwickedness and their abominations; and he testified that the things which he saw and heard, and also the things which he read in the book, manifested plainly of the coming of a ^dMessiah, and also the redemption of the world.

20 And when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had ^acastout, and stoned, and slain; and they also ^bsought his life, that they might take it away.

This is an interesting message for the Jews to get mad at. He taught 4 things: 1) they were wicked, 2) Jerusalem would be destroyed, 3) a Messiah would come, 4) the world would be redeemed.

They were either mad because 1) they didn’t think they were doing anything bad (pride), 2) they didn’t think Jerusalem could be destroyed because it was in too good of a strategic location or they had too good of an army or it had never happened before (pretty sure that’s not true), 3) they didn’t think a Messiah was necessary to save them (perhaps because they were God’s chosen people – although they assuredly knew there was a need for a Savior, but maybe they thought he would save them from others not from their own sins – sounds like a potential pride problem – he can save me from some things but not other things), and 4) they didn’t want the world to be redeemed, only themselves (other Jews only) as the Jews were the chosen people (pride).

Now, it’s not clear which of the 4 reasons is why they were upset at Lehi, but it could be any or all of the 4, and each of them is largely due to a pride issue that either existed with the leaders of the people or the people themselves. This certainly applies to members and non-members alike. For instance, it says in Jacob 5 that there is some bad fruit in the tree of the vineyard that will need to be cleaned out as the tree grows. This implies that some church members will need to be cleaned out. No need for us to be proud about the clear greatness of our church membership when the church isn’t yet what it needs to be.

1 Nephi 1:20

The tender mercies of the Lord are there for all and help to deliver his people. This is a powerful message, especially after Elder Bednar’s 2005 talk on the subject. What I’d like to focus on is the way that there were tender mercies. Consider what happened next in the story – over the next 8 years Lehi’s family journeyed in the wilderness and had many great and terrible life experiences. When looking at the stories, some might say that life was still really hard and that it doesn’t appear to be a merciful experience. However, there’s no doubt in reading that the Lord was involved. Angels were sent multiple times, the voice of the Lord intervened, Nephi was given revelation (as was his father), they had miraculous outcomes (Laban, bringing Ishmael’s family along, having the bow be good enough to get food when they were hungry), the Liahona, and on and on.

Someone could have had many of those same experiences and not recognized the Lord’s hand in them (like Laman and Lemuel for instance). What is critical is that they followed the Lord’s commands (and therefore knew he was involved) and made a record of his involvement, which likely helped them recognize that involvement. However, I emphasize that having somewhat surprising or intense or “amazing” experiences in life is often not enough to recognize that it was God’s hand involved. Also, don’t expect life to be easy because God’s involved. It won’t be. It’s not supposed to be.

Good and Bad Spoken of Joseph Smith in all the World

Yesterday I was reading the introduction to the Book of Mormon and noticed the following: “He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.

Then later in the day I noticed that a movie was being made with Ron Howard directing based on a book that talks about a couple polygamous brothers that were murders. He blames doctrine taught by Joseph Smith as causing their actions. The basic weakness in his argument is that if Mormon doctrine was likely to cause violent actions then there should be more murders among the Mormon population than others. Also, the polygamous brothers had already been excommunicated from the church and were no longer members. Unfortunately when most people read the book or watch the movie they'll likely come away with quite a negative impression of the church and the prophet Joseph Smith. That's unfortunate, but because I read the prophesy in the Book of Mormon in the morning, I wasn't upset or surprised by the movie announcement. It looks to me to be the natural course of events.

What's so remarkable about Joseph Smith's prophecy about his name being known for good and evil throughout the world is that he wrote it in 1838. There is no way he could have known what would happen to his name and fame without it being a revelation from God.

It's just another example of his being a prophet.

Here's a link to the announcement: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=16466015&nid=1016

Here's a link to the church's statement on the book when it came out: http://newsroom.lds.org/article/church-response-to-jon-krakauers-under-the-banner-of-heaven

Being close to God

I really enjoyed this verse that I read yesterday in D.C. 36:2.

2And I will lay my hand upon you by the hand of my servant Sidney Rigdon, and you shall receive my Spirit, the Holy Ghost, even the Comforter, which shall teach you the peaceable things of the kingdom;

Clearly it's great for Edward Partridge (the first Bishop in the church; the one being spoken to here) to have the Lord place his hands upon Edward's head. That's definitely a blessing to have the Lord close. However, I'd like to focus on Sidney. He gets to act as proxy for the Lord and is clearly close to the Lord in this example as well. I believe that this verse teaches that the way to guarantee a close proximity to the Lord is by doing his work. Visit someone. Do your home and visiting teaching. Invite someone to church. Help someone have a better day. Teach your kids the gospel, etc. Learn the names of everyone in the ward and talk to them sometime over the next year (all of them); obviously there's lots of possibilties (so many - brings to mind another verse - D.C. 58:28 - inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward - just do something good and you'll be fine in life; no need to do everything perfectly; besides everyone can help build the kingdom in very different ways - sorry, sidetracked again), but finding ways to be involved in God's work is the surest way to ensure we're close to Him, which is the best feeling in life.

A few other verses that show this: D.C. 84:19,20 - "in the ordinances of the priesthood the power of godliness is made manifest." My translation - you get to experience godliness in some sense when you participate in ordinances (similar to the above verse).

Also, think about Lehi's dream. In 1 Nephi 8:30 its says,

30But, to be short in writing, behold, he saw other multitudes pressing forward; and they came and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press their way forward, continually holding fast to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree.

How do you partake of fruit after having fallen down? Probably because someone handed it to you. That's our jobs, to hand the fruit.

Perhaps one last verse to illustrate this concept. Isaiah 61 is a great chapter in which Isaiah speaks Messianically (this means he speaks as if he were the Savior - Jesus - speaking). The first two verses are very meaningful speaking about his mission. Then verse 3 says the folowing,

3To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

It says that as a result of Jesus' efforts, the ashes of life will become beautiful (i.e., he'll make tough experiences turn into beautiful/useful ones - for example, the hardest area on my mission was also the one in which I had the most spiritual experience of my life), joy for mourning, and praise to replace "heaviness". Why? So that we might become "trees of righteousness". Since we know that Christ can be represented by the tree of life, this is interesting that we also should become trees of righteousness that give off our own fruit (some 30, some 60, and some 100 as told in the parable of the sower - Matthew 13:8). We are to become like him, producers of fruit and givers of love. We can become like Him by practicing the things He does, like serving, or in Sidney Rigdon's case, giving the gift of the Holy Ghost to Edward Partridge (and this principle applies to women as easily as it does to men).

A little long again. Sorry. Have a great day!