Secret Combinations Among the Jaredites
READ Ether 8:7-13
What
does Jared’s lust for the kingdom and glory of the world or Akish’s lust for
the daughter of Jared make them vulnerable to?
Being controlled.
A person with a vice is a person
you can make money from and/or control in exchange for enabling their addiction.
What
secret plans is the daughter of Akish referencing?
The Master Mahan covenant that
Satan instituted with Cain (see Moses 5: 29-34; Moses 5:49-52).
The covenant is “life for money or
power”.
To murder and get gain; to sin and
not be caught; you are not responsible for any sins you’ve enabled in another
person.
What
are the similarities and differences between Akish’s oath with his people and
the question the Lord asked Mahonri before revealing Himself to him (see Ether
3:9-13)?
Similar: both are asking for the
listener to commit to exercise faith in the individual before they know what
the individual will say to them; “do you believe the words I will speak?” and
“will you do what I will ask you to do”?
Difference: besides the fact that
one is administering a saving ordinance (the Second Comforter) while the other
is administering a damning act (secret murder), the Lord asks us to believe Him
regardless of what He will say, while the man asks his people to do what he
asks or to be obedient to his will, regardless of what it is; while these may
sound similar, the Lord is asking for our openness to considering His words,
but we still retain our agency regarding what we will do with them once we’ve
heard them (we can still betray ourselves by failing to do what we believe is
right) while with Akish’s oath, his followers are promising to forgo their
agency and do his will regardless.
Ether 8:14-19
How
do you gain power in this world?
The world is populated almost
completely by “natural” men and women who are enemies to God and are carnal,
sensual and devilish (see Mosiah 3:19).
Satan is the “god of this world”.
Covenanting with Satan and each
other in a secret brotherhood or “priesthood” pierces the veil and allows dark
entities to work in the physical world.
The only way to gain power in a
wicked, fallen world is to serve the god of this world and leverage his power
and tactics, which bind men to your will; serving Christ will not gain you
power in this world, although you will be able to leverage His power as you do
His will in this world – but that won’t give YOU power here.
One of those tactics to gain power
in this world is to flatter people, another is to make “fair promises” (they
get more than they deserve or they acquire rewards unfairly) to them in
exchange for their assistance, a third is to enable and placate their vices,
and a fourth is to rule by fear, blood and horror.
This will be the case until Christ
comes in glory and changes the earth to a Terrestrial kingdom.
What
does it mean that the Lord “worketh not in secret combinations”?
The Lord may hide things, but they
are hidden in plain sight.
The Lord makes His will and plans
known via revelations and prophecies.
The Lord has the power to get His
work done on earth; He does not need a secret group to His work or a group to
do His work in secret.
The Lord is a God of Truth; things
are usually secret because a) they are untrue or evil in some way and if they
were not done in secret, these facts would be known and thus less effective, or
b) they require an initiation (training and testing) at the hands of the Lord
to understand (knowledge), to handle (power), and to use only in strict
accordance with the Lord’s will (submission and becoming one).
READ 8:20-26
What
does it mean to “suffer” secret combinations to “get above you” and what
happens if they do?
Suffer = to allow, to permit, to
not forbid or hinder; to sustain, to be affected by; to undergo; (see Webster’s
1828 Dictionary).
Implied is that we allow secret
combinations and can stop them if we choose.
To “get above you” implies to get
out ahead of you so that they cannot be controlled or stopped; usually this
happens through leadership being effected (political, economic, ecclesiastical,
etc.) or a pervasive culture of wickedness and addictive vice enabled or
provided by the secret combinations.
But it is the word of God and
repentance that can stop them most effectively, not the “sword or anything
else”, including compulsion, even for “righteous” purposes (see Alma 31:5;
D&C 121:34-46).
What
happens to any nation which upholds secret combinations and why?
They will be destroyed…by the
wicked; either by an external force or through internal deceit or civil war.
It is like the “Sith” from Star
Wars, they always turn on each other to wrest power from each other since that
is their driving desire.
The Lord enables the natural
consequences to happen so that His saints can be avenged.
What
is Satan’s endgame in enabling people to gain power through these secret
organizations?
To overthrow the freedom of all
lands and nations and put them under his control.
To destroy his own mortal servants
spiritually (those with whom he covenants, see Ether 9:6) and as many innocents
as they can impact – all people, if possible.
Why
do we have this record of the Jaredites?
At the direct command of the Lord
to Moroni.
To warn us that we are heading down
the exact same path as we have the same condition among us; as he has seen our
day and knows us intimately, he can really testify and warn us if we will
listen.
READ Ether 10:9-13
How
did Morianton gain power?
Initially through a military
revolution; he “gathered together an army of outcasts”, so he must have had the
ability to influence people around a cause.
After he had established himself as
the king through war, he “eased the burdens of the people” meaning the taxes
and other obligations that were perceived as unfair or caused undue suffering
and won the people over to the point that the people actually wanted him to be
the king.
It does not say he flattered the
people or enabled them to sin, which are two ways that wicked men have used to
win over the people, but he did make their lives easier/better by reducing
their burdens.
What
does it mean that Morianton did “do justice unto the people but not unto
himself” and what is implied?
He was a good or just king; he
administered the kingdom well and they prospered and enjoyed freedoms because
of the way he governed.
But he hurt himself spiritually
with his immoral behavior and although he helped the people, he cut himself off
from the presence of the Lord through his unrepented life of sin.
READ Ether 11:20-22
Why
did the secret society and wicked abominations cause the people to reject the
words of the prophets regarding their coming destruction unless they all
repented?
The leaders of the nation (members
of the secret society) and chief priests (perpetrators of the wicked
abomination) flattered the people by
telling them that they had no need to repent but were God’s chosen people
living in His Promised Land and the great riches they had were proof of God’s
blessings – “all is well in Zion!”
Moroni’s Lecture on Faith and Hope
READ Ether 12:1-5
What
is implied by the fact that Ether “came forth” to prophesy?
He was not in an official Church
capacity to prophesy; so he was probably not a priest or church leader.
He could not help or constrain
himself from prophesying because the Spirit was urging him on to such a degree;
possibly implied is that he had had spiritual manifestations and visitations
previously but had kept them to himself for a time – but something changed with
regards to the Lord’s mission for him or his perspective regarding what he was
seeing and he couldn’t stop himself from speaking out.
What
does Ether mean that “all things are fulfilled by faith”?
Faith is the principle of action in
all intelligent (light) beings (see LoF 1:9).
Belief in things that have not
happened yet or have not yet been seen causes people to act; if they didn’t
believe those things were possible, they wouldn’t act in alignment with them –
they wouldn’t even hedge their bets as they would see no reason to expend the
energy to do so, believing there was absolutely no chance of whatever it was
happening (see LoF 1:22-24).
Things are done or completed or
“fulfilled” by faith because if there was no faith, no one would do anything
and nothing would be done.
What
is and is not hope, as used in the scriptures?
Hope is not a preference based on
an unlikely outcome (i.e. “I hope that Aston Villa can win the League!”).
Hope is a promise obtained from God
Himself through covenant – hope is something that can and must be believed in
and acted on because of the assurance one has received from God.
But things “hoped for” are
necessarily in the future, and usually reside on the other side of a great
trial or two.
How
does “hope” come from faith and how does that help us understand how hope is
different from faith?
Faith in Christ comes first and
causes people to act in a way that enables them to find Christ and know Him
with a perfect knowledge, such that their faith in His existence and calling is
dormant.
When one has exercised their faith
in Christ to the extent that they have reentered His presence in the flesh and
know Him with a surety (see 3 Nephi 11:10-17), He gives them a promise of a place
at the “right hand of God” (see D&C 88:75).
This promise or “hope for a better
world” is something they can and must now exercise faith in.
They know Christ lives and was
resurrected, but now they must exercise faith (or act in alignment with the
belief…) that He can enable poor, wretched them to become precisely as He is,
and nothing else, or they cannot be saved (see LoF 7:9, 15-16).
What
does it mean that those who believe in God might “with surety hope for a better
world”?
Surety = security; foundation of
stability; evidence, ratification, confirmation; a bond which requires payment
of debt.
If Christ speaks something, He
speaks the truth and cannot lie or will cease to be God (see Ether 3:12).
A promise from the mouth of Christ
is a surety – it will happen regardless of how impossible it looks at the time.
But we must exercise faith in
it! Because everything God says to us is
a covenant – meaning that we must accept the terms and live in alignment with
it or in other words, exercise faith in His words.
If Christ does not give you the
promise of a better world Himself, or an assurance that the course you are
pursuing is agreeable to His will (see LoF 6:3-6), you will not have a promise
or hope that you can exercise faith in with a surety, and will ultimately doubt
and fail in the face of the seeming impossibility of the task (see LoF 6:12).
How
is hope an “anchor to the souls of men” making them sure and steadfast?
If you have received this hope or
promise from Christ Himself, it is an anchor or rock in the face of all the
adversity that this life or any other can throw at you (see Helaman 5:12;
D&C 122:5-9) because you know in whom you trust (see 2 Nephi 4:16-35) –
meaning you know Him (that He lives and is the true God of this world) and can
do what He says He can do.
In fact, you will be asked to
sacrifice all things to lay hold on the promise or hope you have been given
(see LoF 6:7), and show by your faith (i.e. belief and action) that you trust
and love God before all else.
How
does hope cause us to be “abounding in good works” and “glorify God”?
When we have received such a
promise or hope from Christ, we are filled with such love for Him that all we
want to do is to abide by His commandments and be about His business doing His
works (see John 14:15-23; 1 John 4:16-21; Matthew 25:31-40).
We are so filled with love and
gratitude for His mercy and greatness that we glorify or praise or worship Him
actively and in our hearts all the day long in everything we do (see 3 Nephi
11:14-17; Moroni 5:2).
READ Ether 12:6
If
faith is in things which are hoped for and not seen, what would you call things
that are seen?
Having a perfect knowledge or
surety.
Again, he is using the word “hoped
for” to mean a promise given to you directly from God regarding your standing
and future state.
Why
is there no witness until after the trial of your faith?
We are here on earth for the
opportunity to gain light through obedience to Eternal Law (which are codified
in God’s commandments and will, because He has completely aligned Himself with
Eternal Law to become a God) in a place where we have full use of agency,
outside of God’s presence, and in situations where there is opposition.
As faith is the principle of action
and power in all intelligent beings, one must believe in something that is true
but unseen or in the future, and act on that belief, as if it was a surety;
which, if one does, the witness or reward will come because one’s faith has
been tried and found to be strong.
There is also the quantum physics
principle of the observer at play here – as at that level elements react
differently depending upon the intent (or faith) of the observer and align
their behavior with that person’s will, as the elements are intelligences to be
acted upon while the observer has the intelligence to act on other things.
READ Ether 12:7
What
is implied by the fact that Christ did not show Himself unto the Nephites until
they had faith in Him?
They controlled, to some respect,
His appearing to them – at least they actively prevented it until they
displayed or manufactured or chose to exercise enough faith in Him.
That Christ desires to show Himself
unto people but cannot because of their lack of faith – including you and I
today.
READ Ether 12:8-10
What
is the “heavenly gift” and how can you become a “partaker” in it?
The heavenly gift is what is given
to you when you receive the hope or promise of salvation from Christ Himself.
The heavenly gift is what enables
you to receive the visit from Christ in which you receive the hope or promise;
it is ordination by the voice of God to the Holy Order of God which enables you
to see the face of God and live (see D&C 84:19-25; JST Genesis 14:25-40).
The heavenly gift cannot be passed
from individual to individual through earthly ordination but must be given to
each person directly by God, as it is His right alone to give them the ability
to stand in His presence, be pronounced clean, receive a promise of salvation,
and be made His son or daughter through adoption (see D&C 88:75; Psalms
2:7).
READ Ether 12:11-12
If
God has all power, why can man’s lack of faith prohibit God from doing miracles
among them?
God will not violate our agency or
suspend our probation by “forcing” miracles upon us until everything is wrapped
up and our probation is completely over and we have entered the “night” where
we can no longer perform “work” – i.e. be
obedient to commandments outside of God’s presence (see 3 Nephi 27:33).
But when He comes in glory, it will
be the end for those who lack faith – they will seem Him as He comes but will
be utterly wasted by His glory as they cannot abide it; after they are dead
they will all see and acknowledge Him for who He is – every knee will bow and
tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ and the doer of miracles, at that day
(see Philippians 2:10-11).
READ Ether 12:13-18
What
do we learn from both Nephi II and Ammon’s acts of faith?
Their faith wrought (worked, formed
by labor, effected, performed, produced, actuated, guided, influenced,
prevailed on – see Webster’s 1828 Dictionary) the miraculous changes upon the
hearts of the Lamanites they ministered to, including the baptism with fire and
the Holy Ghost (see Alma 17-24; Helaman 5).
This shows that the power of one’s
faith can enable great spiritual changes in someone else to the degree that
those others cannot disbelieve the words which are being spoken (see 3 Nephi
7:18-20), although the agency of the individuals being wrought upon does count
for something as while the wicked Lamanites being ministered to by Ammon and
Nephi II, respectively, repented and received the baptism of fire, the Nephites
at the time of Nephi III did not; perhaps this is why the Lord said that some
of the Nephites were among the most wicked people in the world as they were
sinning against light they knew to be true because of the power of Nephi III’s
faith (3 Nephi 9:9) and his words which they couldn’t deny and yet still chose
to sin against.
READ Ether 12:19-21
What
is the “eye of faith”?
It is seeing things which cannot be
seen by the natural eyes or are yet in the future but which are true, and
seeing them in one’s mind or with one’s “spiritual eye” (Hindu) or “mindscreen”
as Lakota medicine man Fools Crow called it (see Alma 5:15-18; Alma 32:40).
Alma talks about using the
“imagination” to visualize the future – “looking forward with the eye of faith”.
The eye of faith enables you to
clearly see what will happen if you pursue a certain course of action.
How
does one “see” with the “eye of faith”?
It requires God enlightening or
“quickening” your “eye” or your “understanding” – what you see in your mind;
(see D&C 58:3; D&C 88:11, 67-68).
It is not just visualization or
imagination of what is not true because that will lack the faith to promote the
degree of action that must take place for what is seen with the eye of faith to
become reality.
So it requires being filled with
the glory or light or foreknowledge of God so that all things can be
comprehended and the truth is revealed for you to have faith in – God must open
your eyes; (see Matthew 6:22; Moses 4:11; D&C 76:12).
But it begs the question, does
imagination or visualization play a beginning role – trying to see or
comprehend that something is even remotely possible – might that be the first
step as we ponder and reflect deeply upon the things of God that we have been
studying about? (see Alma 5:15-18; JSH 1:11-13).
We can also see from this verse
that the Lord helps us along the journey – He makes promises to us or gives us
counsel through the Holy Spirit speaking in our minds or hearing His voice or
from angelic messengers, which we can “exercise” faith in or “imagine” coming
to pass and then acting in accordance with a belief in those promises (see
Ether 3:25-26).
What
is the role of an ordinance in helping us to “see with the eye of faith”?
The ordinances of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ are more than hollow gestures and rituals. They are
deeply communicative and expressive rites. They prepare people for the visions
of eternity. Contained in them is the substance of what you will see behind the
veil; they put into your mind things you might not otherwise conceive of (see
D&C 84:19-22).
Rites and
ceremonies are necessary for anyone to be able to see the face of God. They are
an indispensable prerequisite to the veil parting. In fact, they are the
ceremonial equivalent to having the veil part.
First you must see
these things for the truths they contain. When you can accept them for what
they are in symbolic meaning and ascribe to them the holiness and virtue they
are intended to convey, then you are prepared to encounter the reality which
they reflect; first you see with the eyes of faith, then you see the reality
which your eyes of faith had witnessed first. Promises and covenants enacted in
ordinances precede the reality – they introduce ideas to the mind,
foreshadowing what can come after if pursued with faith.
The ordinances are
a blueprint for the actual event.
What
does it mean that Mahonri could no longer be kept within the veil?
The veil enables us to be tried and
tested in what we think is a private area, away from God’s presence; it enables
us to fully exercise our agency but it separates us from God.
When one has obtained a perfect
knowledge of and trust in God, the need for the veil separating man from God is
removed and the individual cannot be kept within that “veil of unbelief”.
It is a veil of unbelief (believing
in something that is false) because God is all around us in the elements of our
bodies and every physical thing on earth, as well as the fact that we are
surrounded by spiritual beings (of both varieties) that we cannot see; if we
actually believed what was truly there, we could see through the veil or could
no longer be kept within it.
READ Ether 12:22-26
How
have the Gentiles mocked the Book of Mormon?
By taking it lightly and being
condemned thereby.
With the exception of Hugh Nibley,
Mormons took the Book lightly until the rebuke that came from President Ezra
Taft Benson in 1986.
The world has always mocked the
book – from Mark Twain to the current “Book of Mormon Musical”.
Why
is Moroni fearful that the Gentiles will mock the Book of Mormon?
He’s dead – it’s not for fear of
personal shame.
He’s afraid for us and his part in
our destruction – if we mock the book because of his mistakes, we will be damned.
How
and why did the Lord make Moroni mighty in speaking but Mahonri mighty in
writing?
The reference to being “made to be
mighty” means that they received spiritual gifts above their mortal
capabilities.
The Lord gives a diversity of gifts
so that various people can contribute in different ways to His work; and so
that all have weaknesses to keep them humble.
Moroni’s weakness is writing, so
the Lord commands Him to write a book that could help to save an entire people…
he must rely on the Lord in his weakness.
Mahonri’s strength is writing, so
the Lord hides up his writing until there is a people ready to receive it –
i.e. they are like Mahonri in their faith and experiences with God – they are
filled with sufficient light to be able to comprehend his words without being
“overpowered” by them.
Why
do fools mock and why will they mourn?
They mock because they do not
comprehend the mind of God, His ways are not their ways, and they are focused
completely on physical earthly success (as they define it – wealth, power,
pleasure); everything else is “foolishness” to them because it is a waste of
time and resources.
They will mourn when they see the
truth – things on this earth and in heaven as they truly were, are and will be;
they will mourn that they did not listen to the Spirit which was given to them
to guide them back to God; they will mourn the irony that they didn’t perceive
that the things that they thought were foolishness were actually the only
things that mattered.
Why
will the meek take no advantage of Moroni’s actual mistakes?
Meek = easily entreated and imposed
upon.
They are filled with love for their
fellow-beings and appreciate them, forgive them and intercede on behalf of them
with men and Gods rather than desire to point out their weaknesses and put
themselves above them; they understand the paradox that men are absolutely nothing
but also have the potential to become like God.
The meek will judge Moroni against
the same standard they also wish to be judged by – a low one! They are well aware of their own weaknesses
and, unlike the Unjust Steward, want to extend the merciful forgiveness they’ve
received to others (see Matthew 18:21-35); they see Moroni as a person with
strengths and weaknesses, and assume some level of positive intent and inherent
capability as a mortal tool in God’s hand.
Why
is Christ’s grace sufficient for the meek?
Christ gives grace (undeserved
blessings) to those who put others before themselves (the meek).
The meek will not claim blessings
and honors but will serve and sacrifice for others, as anonymously as possible;
they deflect the glory to God; these are those who are becoming more like their
Lord and He will, paradoxically, reward them with blessings they don’t deserve
because they are seeking to bless others.
READ Ether 12:27-28
Why
does the Lord say “weakness” and not “weaknesses”?
Weakness is the state or condition
of being weak; it is our fallen nature.
We are all fallen, prideful,
natural men and women, enemies to God, separated from His presence because we
can’t abide it (see Mosiah 3:19).
The weaknesses or various
propensities for sin we have (or “thorns in the flesh – see 2 Corinthians
12:7-10) come as an effect of the fall.
Our “weakness” or fallen natures
can be overcome in this world but our various weaknesses won’t be overcome
until we receive some kind of transformed or resurrected body.
What
is the difference between weakness and affliction?
Weakness is something defective
within you.
Affliction is something bad that
happens to you from the external environment.
Both can be the catalyst for
humility, but recognizing one’s inherent weakness is more likely to enable that
humility to be lasting and transformative.
People may harden their hearts and
“curse God” for putting them through a terrible trial or chose to humble
themselves in the face of afflictions; but weakness doesn’t happen to you, it
is you – you must come to grips with who you are and how far you are from being
precisely as God is.
Weakness is not “bad things
happening to good people” but “fallen” or “bad people” finally admitting their natural
state and the fact that they cannot extricate themselves from it, and then
surrendering to God – begging for clemency or mercy.
Why
does the Lord give weakness or “burdens”?
To break our hearts with regards to
the desperation and futility of our quest to be perfect due to our ignorance
and inabilities.
Because it is inherent in our
mortal, telestial state – weakness is the natural condition or starting point.
To convince us to seek Christ in
humility.
To provide us with perspective; to
raise our understanding, to encourage humility, to teach us something.
Weakness (and weaknesses) are gifts
from God to stretch us into something greater.
To help us become like Him.
To learn that they shouldn’t be
indulged; they should be overcome – that is why they were given to us.
He will help us to overcome them,
if we permit Him to do so.
What
is implied by the fact that Christ must show unto us our weakness?
We can’t see it otherwise; we are
blind to our actual state (see 2 Nephi 9:32).
We don’t see the truth – things as
they really were, are or will be; particularly about ourselves; we must first
be “born again to see” or awake before we can be “born again to enter” or arise
(see John 3:3-5; D&C 93:24) from our inherent weakness or natural state.
How
does Christ make weak things become strong unto us?
Christ suffered the same kind of
“infirmities” or weaknesses of the flesh either in His own mortal life or
through the atonement.
As a result, He has acquired the
understanding and knowledge necessary to heal, improve, repair and overcome them
all.
He will help us if we allow Him to –
He stands at the door and knocks but will honor our agency by waiting to see if
we will open to Him.
He will help us if we will come
unto Him and offer our whole souls in humble offering – a broken heart,
contrite spirit, our will and desires – He can correct these things in us; in a
supreme act of irony, that weakness that afflict us, if we allow it to bring us
to our knees, will be exactly the motivating factor we need to offer our whole
souls in sacrifice – to cry out to God in the deepest anguish of our souls to
be rid of the weakness and be healed, but then He gives us so much more in
addition!
He knows what is needed to confront
and defeat each of the infirmities we face. He faced them and conquered them.
As a result, He knows how to guide each of us in our struggles with weakness
and infirmity – to succor us (see Alma 7:11-16); He can and will replace them
with strength; but it is not “fairy dust”, as ultimately it will require us
becoming precisely as He is, as long as that may take to do (see TPJS 390-393;
D&C 93:12-14; Alma 13:2-9).
What
is the connection between weakness on the one hand and faith, hope, and charity
on the other?
Finally seeing our complete and
utter need for Christ or our “weakness” leaves us with two choices: either we
exercise faith in Christ, receive a hope or promise of salvation and show forth
charity as He did, becoming like Him in the process OR we despair, curse God
and die, separating ourselves further from God because we cannot and do not
want to dwell in His presence and yet tormenting ourselves with what might have
been if we had offered our whole soul to the Lord when confronted with our
moment of “great alarm” (see Alma 36:12-22).
READ Ether 12:29-34
Why
is it a comfort to know that God works with men according to their faith?
Comfort = relief from pain; ease
from distress of mind; support or consolation under calamity; what which gives
strength or support in infirmity; gives security from want.
It means that our belief in Christ
and His wisdom, goodness and love for us means that we help to enable our best
interest by exercising faith in Christ, that His will is done.
It is not that we can control
Christ (towards a “comfortable” result of our choosing) through our faith
because He cannot be controlled by man (for one, He is completely submissive to
God’s will, so if what mankind wants is different from God’s will, all the
“faith” in the world won’t make any difference – in fact, it’s not faith at all
but blind hope without a promise).
The comfort is in knowing that we
can enable His will to happen in this mortal world by obtaining it, having
faith in it and acting in accordance with that faith – thereby making it happen;
and the fact that His will translates into the greatest blessings for us
because of His love for us and infinite wisdom.
What
had the Lord promised Moroni with regards to his afterlife?
He has promised him a house – “even
among the mansions” of the Father.
Moroni is remembering that promise
in v 32.
What
is the connection between “hope” and the afterlife?
The Lord will give a “more
excellent hope” or promise to man about their place in the afterlife, as He did
with Abraham and Moroni – an inheritance.
Our expectations for the afterlife
are influenced by the faith we acquire here, through sacrifice (see LoF 6;
D&C 138:11-18); faith in the promises of God to us and the lives of
obedience and light we lived as a result, after which God sealed those promises
with the “Holy Spirit of Promise” while we resided here on earth (see D&C
132:7-8, 18).
Who
prepares an afterlife for mankind?
Christ Himself does.
Through His atonement, He has
redeemed all the elements and living souls who abided upon this earth but were
lost to death and hell.
Why
does Christ say “mansions” and what is implied?
There are different sorts of houses
or mansions in heaven – not a single mansion for everyone.
Some residences will be better than
others in heaven.
A mansion is a large residence; it
suggests multiple people living there, or in other words, a family.
Why
do God’s commandments focus us on receiving a Celestial residence when “few
there be that find it” (see also 3 Nephi 14:14)?
His work and glory is our
immortality and eternal life (see Moses 1:39).
He wants us to live near Him – to
abide with Him; He wants to take up His abode with us.
He wants us to become His family –
adopted into His House and like Him such that we can abide His glory because we
also share in it, as we are one with Him.
What
does it mean that mankind “must hope, or he cannot receive”?
It means that what we hope for or
what we exercise faith in, is tied to what we can and will receive.
There is a link between our present
expectation and our future inheritance; looking forward now (with the eye of faith,
which feels intangible) to a concrete reality to come.
For there to be a hope that we can
have true faith in, it must be an assurance based upon a promise or covenant
given to us directly by God, who cannot lie (see D&C 1:38) and as a result
of many witnesses, revelation and the spirit of prophesy, which is the
testimony of Jesus (see Jacob 4:6; D&C 88:75).
It becomes unshakable (see LoF 6)
because of the belief within the individual that the promise must surely come
to pass – it bends reality as we know it because it permits a higher power to
intervene freely in the lives of people holding such hope.
But even with that promise from
God’s lips, one must exercise faith in that hope through the seemingly
impossible trials and afflictions of mortality, because despite the promise, the
realization of the blessing has not happened yet but is in the future – it
requires trust and confidence in God in the face of all the world and the devil
himself.
What
is charity?
The love Christ has for the
children of men.
The love which motivated His
condescension to earth and the laying down of His life for the world so He
could take it up again (see John 15:13) to prepare a glorious afterlife for
mankind.
Which love, we must also have or we
cannot inherit a place in the Father’s kingdom; we must be “precisely like Him”
or we cannot be saved (see LoF 7:9, 15-16).
What
is the connection between faith, hope and charity?
Faith comes from obedience and
sacrifice, which are choices which come as a result of one’s initial learning
about God and desire to love Him.
Hope comes from the promise given a
person by God, which their faith has secured for them.
And charity comes as those exercising
faith and receiving a hope seek to have all others share in the same
promises. The greatest gift you can give
another is eternal life. All those who
have such a promise from God want everyone else to have a similar promise for
themselves. Those who have such promises
for themselves long, hope, pray and preach to bring every other soul back to
God to dwell with Him in Celestial glory.
(see Moses 1:39; D&C 18:11-16; 1 Nephi 8:12, 15)
There is an interesting
relationship here – it all starts with a love of God (which comes as a reaction
to His first loving us, see 1 John 4:19) and ends with a God-like love of
others, which is another way of saying: the Love of God – unconditional,
perfect love which leads to the laying down of one’s life for one’s friends
(see John 15:13).
READ Ether 12:35-37
What
do the Gentiles need?
Charity, the pure love of Christ.
They need to exercise faith,
receive a hope, and wish to share it.
What
does it mean to “prove” the Gentiles?
Give the Gentiles an opportunity to
show charity, to see if they will demonstrate it or not.
Implied is that there will be a
need to show charity, or that there will be weaknesses, mistakes,
misunderstandings, etc. in the book for the reader to have to “prove” their
charity by choosing to feel it towards the writers (and translator?) when it
would be easier and perhaps more just to condemn them.
How
will the Lord take away the Gentiles’ talent and give it to another?
He will take the Fullness of the
Gospel from the Gentile Church and give it to the Remnant of Jacob or Lehites
(see 3 Nephi 16:10).
He will allow the Gentile Church’s
rejection of the Book of Mormon and its doctrine (the Fullness of the Gospel)
to progress to its natural conclusion – the loss of light, the adding in of the
philosophies of men, the changing of the ordinances, and breaking of the
covenant – leading ultimately their destruction (see Alma 12:10-11; Isaiah
24:5; D&C 93:39; 2 Nephi 28:5-6; D&C 84:49-59; D&C 112:23-26).
How
do we know that Moroni has charity?
He is crying unto the Lord,
interceding on behalf of us (the Gentiles), for grace or undeserved blessings,
that we might be given charity, that we don’t lose the talent or Fullness of
the Gospel.
What is most interesting is that he
knows that if we lose the Fullness of the Gospel, it will be given back to the
House of Israel or the Remnant of Jacob, the descendants of his people, but he
can’t bear to watch us lose our spiritual lives, regardless of the blessing to
his people – that is charity.
What
does grace have to do with charity?
Charity is not a feeling but a
spiritual gift from God (see Moroni 7:48).
Grace is undeserved blessings from
God.
God can choose, through His grace,
to extend the blessing of charity upon people or not – they cannot earn charity
as it is a spiritual gift, and God has no obligation to give us any blessings
as we are inherently unprofitable servants who have not earned any of what
we’ve been given (see Mosiah 2:21).
Why
will the Lord not give Gentiles His grace, even with Moroni interceding on our
behalf?
The Lord cannot give the Gentiles
grace because it would abrogate both the law (grace for grace – see John 1:16;
D&C 93:12-14, 20), and our agency, because we are free to choose.
Implied is that we, the Gentiles,
received the restoration of the Fullness of the Gospel through Joseph Smith
without any promise of grace from God (undeserved blessings); our acceptance of
that gospel and obtaining of its blessings is completely up to us – it is our
choice (3 Nephi 10:4-7; 3 Nephi 16:13).
Must
we see our weakness to be made strong and what does this mean?
Yes. We must awake to our awful situation – our
desperate need for Christ, so that we will be willing to offer the only
acceptable sacrifice: our whole souls (see Alma 36:12-21; Omni 1:26; 3 Nephi
9:19-20; 2 Nephi 1:13-14; Mosiah 2:40; 2 Corinthians 7:10).
What
does “sitting down” in the mansions of the Father imply?
Sitting down on a throne in God’s
presence – becoming a joint-heir (see D&C 76:50-70; Romans 8:17).
One that “sits at meat” is greater
than those who serve (see Luke 22:27); the irony is that the only way to sit
down in the mansions of God at a future day is to serve humbly and meekly on
earth now AND in heaven (see Matthew 16:25) as the Father’s work and glory is
our immortality and eternal life which requires sacrifice and condescension on
the part of the Gods as much as it requires faith and obedience on the part of
mankind.
READ Ether 12:38-41
Why
are Moroni’s garments not spotted with our blood?
Because he has testified the truth
unto us in plainness and boldness – it is up to us to accept his witness or
reject it, but he has done all he could do for us as the gospel is shared by
persuasion not by compulsion.
Describe
Moroni’s interaction with Christ; what can we learn about the Lord from this
description?
He appeared to Moroni, after Moroni
had passed through the “thundering and lightning” (see Exodus 19:16; Revelation
4:5).
They talked face to face; they had
a conversation (see D&C 50:10-12).
Christ speaks in “plain humility”
in Moroni’s language; Christ is meek and speaks to us at our level of current
understanding and in our vocabulary so that we can understand and feel
comfortable in His presence; the fact that this could be possible – that man
could get so comfortable with the Lord that he would forget exactly who he was
speaking with and be able to reason together or converse or joke or speak in
“plain humility” – in honest, plain speech as you would with a close friend
with whom you did not need to put on any airs – is AMAZING!
We should fear our weakness, sins
and ignorance – we should not fear the Lord who loves us; but ironically, we do
fear Him when we come into His presence (as we are all unprepared to do so),
until He forgives us - clothes us with His glory, covering our nakedness.
So
the Lord will not grant us, the Gentiles, grace; what advice does Moroni have
for us?
We must seek out Christ ourselves.
And beg Him to extend His grace to
us, so that we might be changed and have charity.
What
does it mean to “seek this Jesus”?
Christ spoke to Moroni in plain
humility and Moroni is now speaking to us in the same way.
Moroni is pleading with us: “seek
Jesus as I did and the prophets and apostles did – He is waiting with open arms
to receive you in the flesh – you must know Him with a surety, as I do – and if
you do this (seek after Him with full purpose of heart), He will come unto you
and grant you grace and charity, and make you His child and heir”.
Christ will give us charity if we
come unto Him; we must become like Him; it is through charity we can bless
others. We cannot bless anyone or hold priesthood designed to bless, not curse,
unless we have charity. This is never given unless the recipient is willing to
do things he would rather not do, thereby offering himself as a sacrifice to
God. No one is trusted by God to hold this honor unless he will subordinate his
will to the will of the Father.
Why
are we to “seek this Jesus?
So that we might also know, not
merely believe, that Jesus is the Christ, and was slain for the sins of the
world – this is eternal life to know God (see John 17:3).
So that we might each know with a
surety that we, individually and specially, are sealed up to eternal life –
that we have obtained a promise or hope from God’s own mouth to us – which is a
promise we can exercise faith in (see LoF 6:2-6). There is no communal salvation given to a
people (bloodline) or to a Church with “keys” – we each stand at the veil alone
with the Lord.
Why
must we “seek this Jesus” now in mortality?
To achieve a redemption from
spiritual death is our goal here in mortality; if we die without being redeemed
(unless our lives were cut short), we have wasted our probation and the Law of
Restoration will damn us; spiritual death is separation from God and redemption
is coming back into God’s presence here (see Ether 3:13).
His wounds, particularly the wound
in His side, are “death wounds”; a man cannot have sustained such wounds and
lived, and yet here He is before you, a living man that you can touch with your
own mortal fingers, as a “spirit has not flesh and bone” as you see and feel He
has; His wounds are physical tokens of His resurrection for this mortal realm –
that He is the God of Israel, and of the whole earth, and was slain for the
sins of the world (see 3 Nephi 11:10-17).
That is why you must seek Him and
find Him while you are in mortality, so that you can be a witness to all the
world that He lives; and you cannot be deceived in your experience with Him
because Satan does not have the power (lacking a body, as he does) of mimicking
those wounds in the flesh, and although he may come to you as an angel of light
to deceive you, he cannot pull off the trick because he can’t be touched by a
mortal man, while the Lord can – that’s why He extends the invitation – “feel
me and see”.
You will not have that same
opportunity to gain proof or knowledge or a surety of the reality of Christ’s
resurrection after your death while you are residing in the world of spirits in
the same way that you can here in mortality because Christ is already
resurrected and doesn’t dwell there and perhaps you cannot touch Him as He is
no longer a spirit, plus Satan does dwell there and you will no longer have the
advantage of being able to detect his counterfeit as you will be made of the
same “spirit elements” that he is at that point (see D&C 132:21-25); and if
you wait until the resurrection and judgement, it will be too late.
How
do we “seek this Jesus”?
Repent of all your sins – turn from
sin and turn to God; pray for and experience the gift of godly sorrow which
will break your heart and make your spirit contrite; this will happen when you
truly see (are shown) who you have become, the awful state you are now in
because of it, and the price that the Lord paid to redeem you.
Enter into the Gate by receiving
the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost by yielding your heart to Christ and
offering Him your whole soul.
Lay aside the ignorance and false
tradition that keeps the majority of people in this world from finding the Lord.
Seek after Him with all your heart
in worshipful, communing prayer, with the intent of spending time with Him and
obtaining His will for you.
Keep all of God’s commandments that
He has revealed to you.
Obtain further light and knowledge,
or in other words, the commandments He has not yet revealed to you, and live
them, too; if you have not yet received all of the commandments necessary to
have a habitation with God, it is because you are not yet capable of obeying
them.
Increase your ability to obey God’s
commandments by becoming more submissive to Him; ask: is there anything God
could ask me to do that I would not immediately do?
If there are things you would not
immediately do, work to overcome your hesitancy or learn to trust God more by
submitting to suffering (which is an effective teacher), by choosing to
exercise faith in the face of trial by sacrificing all things, and by looking
for and believing in the miracles that the Lord intends to send you.
If you are at the point of full
submission to God but the Lord has not yet come unto you in the flesh, then you
simply must wait on God, in faith – remembering He is a “fourth watch” God.
The Destruction of the Jaredites
READ Ether 13:1-14
What
visions did Ether see and what prophesies did he make?
The creation and fall of Adam.
Noah and the flood.
Joseph of Egypt.
Jerusalem and the defeat at the
hand of the Babylonians.
Lehi and the Nephites, the “seed of
Joseph”.
The mortal ministry of Christ.
The Gentile Church apostasy in the
latter-days.
The New Jerusalem on the American
continent, built by the Remnant of Joseph.
The Gathering of Israel in the last
days.
The end of the world and the
beginning of the Millennium.
He saw the same vision that Mahonri
and John the Beloved saw.
What
is Moroni forbidden to talk about?
The specific fates of the Gentiles
who he has just been addressing.
All he will say is that those who
dwell in the New Jerusalem are “they who were numbered among the Remnant of the
seed of Joseph”.
“Numbered among” refers to one
people being assimilated into another (see Mosiah 25:12-13; Alma 45:13-14; 3
Nephi 2:14-16) so truly repentant Gentiles have a chance of salvation in Zion,
but it doesn’t appear to be in mass and it is the Gentiles who have to be
assimilated into Israel; this is counter to the way it has been for the last
200 years where the Gentile Church have forced all others to assimilate into
their culture, leadership and organization (see 1 Nephi 14:1-2; 2 Nephi
10:18-19; 3 Nephi 16:13; 3 Nephi 21:6, 22; 3 Nephi 30:2).
How
did the Jaredites react to Ether’s prophesy and what is different about his
words than most other prophets we’ve read about?
They rejected all his words.
They cast him out from their
society.
What is different is that the
record does not say that his initial prophecies were calls to repentance but
were restoring lost knowledge to the Jaredites; but they did not want to hear
it and threatened him regardless.
READ Ether 13:20-22
If
restoring lost saving knowledge was Ether’s first mission from the Lord, what
was his second mission?
To raise the voice of warning:
repent or be destroyed.
The proof of Ether’s prophetic
message would be that the King alone (Coriantumr) would live to see the truth
of Ether’s words – proving them to the Jaredite(s); it is interesting that the
Lord is asking only for the repentance of the King and his household, in
exchange for mercy upon his whole people – and yet he/they did not believe or
act on the message.
At this point, not only is Ether
rejected and the people do not repent, but now they seek to kill him.
READ Ether 14:17-20
What
did the fear of “dear old Shiz” do to the people?
It forced them to take sides;
either to join with Shiz and his terrible army or to band together under
Coriantumr for protection from Shiz, implied is that they were not really
unified under King Coriantumr previously.
Dear old Shiz… for those fans of
Wicked… I just couldn’t help myself, seeing the wickedness of the people
here…I’ll get me coat.
READ Ether 14:24
What
motivated Shiz’s relentless attacks on Coriantumr?
He wanted to avenge the killing of
his brother, Lib, by Coriantumr.
He wanted to kill the man that a
prophet predicted could not be killed; thereby confounding the prophet and his
God.
READ Ether 15:1-7
Did
Coriantumr repent?
Coriantumr began to be pricked in
his conscience with regards to all the deaths among his own people, that he had
caused through his lack of repentance per Ether’s prophesy – almost 2 million
of his own people.
His soul mourned.
He admitted that he had been wrong.
He admitted that the prophets had
been completely right.
He offered to give up the kingdom
in return for peace.
But when the terms came back from
Shiz, he was not willing to offer his own life to stop the killing.
He repented to a point but he was
not willing to trade his life for others, even though he had cost 2 million of
his own people their lives; he was not willing to do whatever it took to stop
the effects of his wickedness.
That being said, it was not the
Lord that demanded his life but Shiz.
READ Ether 15:13-19, 22,26
How
would you describe the state of the hearts of the Jaredites?
Completely hardened.
Drunken with anger (v22).
Murderous – this was a premeditated
fight, four years in preparation.
Past feeling.
Without civilization (see Moroni
9:11).
READ Ether 15:29-34
Why
did the Lord command Ether to leave the cave and go to the site of the battle?
To confirm with a perfect knowledge
to Ether that the prophesy he had been given to say had in fact come true.
Because sometimes prophets are
called to witness terrible things (see Moses 7:43-44).
What
can be learned from Ether’s last statement?
That translation of the body is a
real possible alternative for a person who has the relationship he has with the
Lord.
That mortal death holds no fear for
such a one.
That such a person puts their life
in the hands of God.
Why
did Moroni place his farewell address to us (the Gentiles) right before his
account of Ether’s rejection by the Jaredites, and their ultimate destruction?
Surely it is not a coincidence.
Moroni has seen us, the Latter-day
Gentiles, in vision (see Mormon 8:35) and has a perfect understanding of our
character traits and weaknesses (see Mormon 8:17-41) and is not complimentary
in his assessment or our chances (see Ether 12:23-25; D&C 84:54-58; D&C
90:5).
The placing of his message to us
right before his account of the Jaredites who “did not believe” the words of
Ether but rejected them and “esteemed him as naught” (see Ether 12:5; Ether
13:2, 13) is a message of warning and foreboding to us; remember with this
discourse and Jaredite example, Moroni has now rid his garments of our blood
(see Ether 12:38).
