ENTRY 8 ONE ETERNAL ROUND

The Lord works in one eternal round:

“ For God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he vary from that which he hath said, therefore his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round. “(D&C 3:2)

The Lord is a God of Justice:

“Now it is better that a man should be judged of God than of man, for the judgments of God are always just, but the judgments of man are not always just.” (D&C 29:12)

We are on probation:

“32 And it came to pass that I said unto them that it was a representation of things both temporal and spiritual; for the day should come that they must be judged of their works, yea, even the works which were done by the temporal body in their days of probation.” (1 Nephi 15:32)

Consider these three aspects of God for a moment.  If we are under a test in mortality and God is a God of Justice, wouldn’t the test be the same for each one of us?  Wouldn’t the grading criteria be the same?  And if the test and grading criteria are the same and God works in One Eternal Round then would not the test given to ancient people be the same for modern people?  If those who succeeded in the past did so under certain conditions, would not our success require that we meet the same conditions?  And if those who failed in the past failed for certain characteristics and flaws, would not we fail in the same manner if we do the same?

It would be vanity to think that we can enjoy the same blessings and privileges as the righteous without passing through the same trials and demonstrating the same qualities as they.  Would we expect to receive the same reward as Adam, Enoch, Noah or Abraham without overcoming the same trials of Faith as they did?  They sacrificed everything to do the will of God.  Wouldn’t it be foolish for us to expect that we do not have to sacrifice everything, but that we can still have the same reward?  (Lectures on Faith 6:8)

This applies to individuals and this applies to groups who gather together.  If the City of Enoch is the example of a city succeeding through the Lord and being lifted up into heaven, then what did they do to receive that reward?  If the People of Moses wandered in the wilderness for forty years and failed to build a City like unto Enoch’s then what caused their failure? Which pattern are we truly following today as a People?  Are we following the example of the people of Enoch who were taken in to heaven?  Or are we following the example of the people of Moses who were driven into the wilderness?

As a church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we are a people who are keenly aware of the ability of churches to apostatize.  We explain to others that soon after Christ established His church in the meridian of time, the people turned away from the Gospel and fell into apostasy.   It required a restoration directly from God to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ back to the earth again.  This restoration was given through a fourteen year old boy who had no more authority and dignity than a sincere desire to seek for God’s will in his own life.  But the people rejected his message because he was obscure, without education.  He did not have any authority that the world could recognize.  His authority came directly from God, not from a line traceable back to Peter like other well established denominations may have claimed.   So if we acknowledge that other denominations in the past have fallen from God, wouldn’t it be possible that we might do same?

“And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say:  All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well – and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.” (2 Nephi 28:21)

Zion in this context is referring to a church body.  The admonition is that we do not take comfort in being a “member of The Church”.  Even if the church is prospering, it is still not a sign of the Lords approval.  Here we find the warning that it is possible for The Church to fail or for it to apostatize as an organization, just as The Church claims other organizations have done.  If other groups missed the mark, it is entirely possible for this one to do the same.  See D&C 63:62-63.  See also D&C 84:5-57.

Consider for a moment the following scriptural prophecies that declared ancient Israel’s apostasy.  We must read these with a humble heart, recognizing that we stand in danger every day of making the same mistakes as our progenitors did.  Notice how remarkably similar the description in these verses is in comparison to our situation:

“1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.
3 O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.
4 And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.
5 ¶Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.” (Jeremiah 17:1-6)

The Lord gives the people a heritage which the people lose.  Their hearts had departed from the Lord. They had angered the Lord by trusting in the arm of flesh.  The heritage is spoiled.  “Spoiled” means to be stolen away by an enemy through acts of war.  They serve their enemies in a new land, a land they “knowest not”.  The last line quoted is the most interesting.  They are compared to a heath in the desert.  A heath is an open area of uncultivated land with coarse grasses.    And the land they are driven to is a parched place in the wilderness.  This wilderness is no less than a “salt land”. Doesn’t that sound a lot like Utah when the pioneers settled there?

This was fulfilled by the ancient Israelites in their day.  The Lord, who always works in one eternal round, may have provided the same test to the church of the Gentiles (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints).  The same errors may have been committed and the same punishment received.  The same pattern may have been followed.  History is written by the victors and the victors justify their choices in their histories.  But if we look at the history with a humble heart, what do we see?  The Church was given the land of Nauvoo as an inheritance, a place of green trees and waters (D&C 124:45).  The people trusted in the arm of flesh and delayed building the temple.  Instead relying upon their own business ambitions, they built up the city first.  They practiced abominations by using the Lord’s name to engage in whoredoms, calling it polygamy.  The Lord was angry with them and allowed them to be driven out of Nauvoo into a wilderness, an uncultivated land surrounded by desert.  They were driven to a place that was so much a land of salt that they gave it the name of Salt Lake City.

At least that is one way to see the history.  If we consider what the Lord has done with other generations by comparing our story to the stories in the Bible, we find remarkable similarities.  If we can recognize the similarities, it can stir us up to repentance.  Instead of singing “All is Well!  All is Well!” (Hymn 30), we might wake up to the awfulness of our situation and amend our ways (Ether 8:24). 

Consider also these words by Jeremiah.

“ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

2 Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.
3 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.
5 For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;

6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:

 7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

8 ¶Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.”  (Jeremiah 1:1-11)

“Stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered” is a description of how the people used their temple to justify their iniquities.  The people of ancient Israel built the temple, and preached the temple repetitively.  “Come to the temple of the Lord, Come to the temple of the Lord, Come to the temple of the Lord”, they preached.  They were a temple building people and believed that their ordinances in the temple had sealed them up to the eternal life.  Yet they oppressed the poor, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.  They built a den of robbers by building up a monetary system that supported the leaders by taxing those without prominence and ignoring the pleas of the poor.  They even built a market place at the entrance of the temple which Christ would cleanse twice during his mortal ministry.

We might read this description and think about how foolish it was for the ancient Israelites to do such things.  We might think that…or we might consider the wisdom of our own choices.  Have we acted wisely as a church body with the tithing?  Have we given it to the poor?  Or do we invest it and roll it over into profit yielding corporations?  Do we have charity for the sick and afflicted?  Or do we turn them away?  Should our general leadership receive a stipend for their church service?  Should mission leaders receive a home, car, health insurance, college tuition and maid service while children of record are malnourished?  Should our top leadership receive CEO salaries?  Should we build shopping malls at the entrance of the temple?  Is this how the city of Zion was built by the people of Enoch or was this how the people of Jeremiah offended God?  

The Lord, working in one eternal round, gives to us the fates of others to read so that we may understand our own predicament in our day.  We lose the value of those warnings if we read the stories and imagine ourselves as if we are in the position of the heroes.  We would be better off if we read the scriptures with a humble heart, recognizing that the enemy has been within our own hearts all along.  We are the antagonists of the scripture stories.  We are the ones who are being called to repentance.  Now is our time to make the same sacrifices as the fathers who actually did receive the promises, if we want to receive the same end as they. 

ENTRY 7 AVOIDING DECEPTION

“67 And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.

 68 Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.” (D&C 88:67-68)

How can we avoid being deceived?  There are a lot of voices out there with a lot of contradictions and a lot of errors.  But in this verse we find a simple key to understanding how to avoid being deceived.  If our only purpose is to glorify God then God will fill the whole of us with light because we are filled with light, we then understand all things.

God looketh upon the heart.  There is no deceiving God.  We may deceive our neighbors and our friends and our family.  We most certainly may deceive our own self.  But God has a way of setting life up so that we are forced to confront our own hypocrisy.  If we will just have a humble heart to look for our error, He will point it out to us in the circumstances of our lives. 

How do we know if there is any amount of error left in us?  The answer is also given in D&C 88:68.

“68 Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.” (D&C 88:68)

Your effort must be focused on sanctifying your mind that your eye is single to His glory.  He will do the rest to teach you and fill you with light so that you have true understanding. When He at last has unveiled His face unto you then you will know that you have at last fully repented.  Until that moment you see His face, you remain under some form of deception.  There is something left undone in your heart that He is waiting for you to sanctify. 

Am I saying you are deceived right now?  Yes, somewhere, somehow you remain under that deception.  You can recognize it by the measuring stick in these two verses.  Have you seen His face yet?  No?  Than your eye is still not single to His glory, and your whole body is not yet filled completely with light.  One follows the other.  First eye single to His glory; then filled with light; then comprehension of all things then in His own due time (which is testing your patience to test your heart and determine if you truly desire the will of God) then he will unveil His face unto you.  One follows the other.  Anything less than this is leaves room for some amount of darkness within us.  Within the darkness, we cannot see clearly and we stumble and fall.  This is deception.

Socrates spoke the truth when he observed, "I am the wisest man of all because I know that I am unwise.  My wisdom is in knowing that I am unwise." 

His point being that he was teachable.  He recognized his own lack of knowledge and was willing to learn more and learn from anyone at anytime.  By making the assumption that he did not KNOW, he was able to open his mind up for correction and improvement.  This follows the same pattern

ENTRY 6 FALSE PROPHETS

“15 ¶Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matthew 7:15-20)

Christ gives a warning in the Sermon on the Mount.  He tells us to Beware of False Prophets.  And he provides a test we can apply to determine if the prophets are true or false.  The very fact that He gives a test to determine the validity of anyone claiming to be a prophet is proof that we must examine the claims of men and determine the validity of the claim.  There are true prophets and there are false prophets.  You and I are under a charge by the Lord to determine the truth of their words.

Christ in the Sermon on the Mount continues with the following:

 “21 ¶Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

These false prophets claim to speak in the name of Christ.  They claim to cast out devils in the name of Christ.  These false prophets claim to do many wonderful works in the name of Christ.  We know that a house divided against itself cannot stand therefore if there be any prophesy it comes from Christ.  And if there be any casting out of the devil, it is by the power of Christ.  And if there is any wonderful work done, it is by the power of Christ.  But the spirit of God may descend upon a man and not tarry with him.  So it could be that these false prophets simply claim to accomplish something that they never did, or it could be that in a moment of true humility and faith, they received by the power of Christ these miracles, but then took the glory of the miracle upon themselves and lost the favor of God.  But to test the prophets, we know this much by the Lord’s counsel, their claims of prophecy, their claims of miracles, their claims of many wonderful works are not the measuring scale we are to use.  It is their fruit, specifically it is the fruit of iniquity we are to beware of.

What is Iniquity? 

It is In-Equality or the establishment of unequal treatment among the people.

Iniquity is setting ones-self up to be greater than another, to make yourself higher than another rather than making yourself equal to the other.  

Therefore, do the prophets set themselves up at the height of a hierarchical pyramid?  Do they place themselves between the members and God?  For example, do they insist that only their revelations can be accepted as the word of God and no one else is permitted to speak outside the bounds of the stewardship they the leaders have established?  Do they refuse to listen to the least of these their brethren even when the least of these speaks the words of truth? Do they use the tithing to support themselves?   Do they know when to diminish their ministry that they may make way for the Lord as did John the Baptist?  If they fail this test, then we have a prophet who is practicing Iniquity and is a False Prophet. 

King Noah is a good example of a False Prophet.  Notice that he organized the priests (Mosiah 11:5).  Notice that he was a temple building leader (Mosiah 11:12).  Notice that he built a very fine podium from which to give direction to the people (Mosiah 11:9).  They called their podium a throne.  Notice that the people prospered under his leadership (Mosiah 12:15) and had many victories and much success (Mosiah 11:19). 

Now the Book of Mormon does not acknowledge him as a prophet because he was a false prophet.  But the people of Noah surely acknowledged him as such.  Review Mosiah 12:20-24 to read a description of how his people viewed their leader.   “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that publisheth peace!” 

The priests interrogating Abinadi asked the question, “What meaneth the words of these scriptures?”  Why would they ask this question of Abinadi, a nobody who brought a message of repentance? We don’t have the rationale behind their thinking when they asked this question, because the account is written by the faithful.  What we do have is Abinadi correcting their errant thinking and teaching them the true meaning of these verses.  But ponder this question for a moment, why did the priests, these lawyer types, ask that question?  We know that a lawyer never asks a question which he does not already know the answer to.  These priests knew perfectly well the answer to their question that they hoped Abinadi would give.  They already knew the interpretation of those verses.  That is to say they knew the interpretation that the people of their kingdom taught among themselves.  Those lawyers knew that the people of King Noah believed King Noah himself was the fulfillment of the prophecy in those verses.  “How beautiful upon mountain are the feet of King Noah!”  King Noah will never lead the people astray, just look at how the kingdom has prospered under his hand.  He is the fulfillment of the scriptures!  And they knew the people believed that because they were the ones who taught them.  This is why they asked Abinadi.  They knew Abinadi would contradict that belief.  Abinadi would blaspheme that “sacred truth” and contradict what everyone else just knew to be true, and therefore in their minds, Abinadi’s death would be warranted.

But Noah was filled with Iniquity, that is to say In – Equality.  He taxed the people.  He lived off their taxes.  He set up a hierarchy of priests to rule over the people.  If anyone dared to challenge the leadership they were not just driven out, they were put to death.  He lifted himself up to be the fulfillment of their scriptures.  This is Iniquity and is the fruit of the false prophet.

Contrast that with the fruit of a true prophet found in the example of another King.  King Benjamin is another leader-prophet but who was a true prophet.  Notice that he organized the leadership as well (Mosiah 6:3) but the philosophy of that leadership style was to surrender the rights to rule for the cause of the Lord (Mosiah 28:10).  And he served the people (Mosiah 2:17-18).  He labored himself, he did not live off the taxes of the people (Mosiah 2:14).  He built temples as well (Mosiah 2:1), but his podium was a temporary structure rather than a permanent throne (Mosiah 2:7).   

King Benjamin’s works by which we can know him is in his lack of iniquity found in his actions.  Notice that he did not set himself up to be the one who could never lead the people astray, rather he acknowledged his own infirmities (Mosiah 2:10-11) and pointed the people to Christ (Mosiah 4:11).  He did not receive a stipend for his support (Mosiah 2:14), and he ensured that the poor would be cared for (Mosiah 4:16-27).  In fact, he did not judge the poor for asking nor turn them away if they did ask (Mosiah 4:22).  He received messages from True Messengers which are Heavenly Beings (Mosiah 3:2) and he was not ambiguous about acknowledging the true source of his message (Mosiah 3:23) because he indeed received words which the Lord God would have him deliver to his people.  King Benjamin was a true prophet.

We can learn a lot from the examples of these two prophet-leaders in the Book of Mormon.  One false and one true.  Their examples are given to us today so that we may use the same measuring stick to beware of false prophets in our day and receive and accept messages through real prophets in our day.

As a side note, notice that prophets do not have to be leaders of the congregation.  Abinadi is evidence that prophets can come from obscure places.  As was Samuel the Lamanite who delivered his message and then departed.  John the Baptist who lived in the wilderness and made it clear that his leadership must diminish.  And let us not forget the women called prophets of our Old and New Testaments. 

Leadership position never determines an individual's capacity to be a prophet.  Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.  True Words!  But when the call is received from a man who holds a higher office, does the man dare to call himself God?  Let God call His own prophets by His own voice. Let man be humble in his claims of authority.

Again from the Sermon on the Mount, Christ tells us the following:

 24 ¶Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

 28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:

 29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

He spoke this analogy in relation to the subject of prophets.  Prophets speak His words.  False prophets teach the things that are pleasing to the people to win favor of the people.

We cannot reassure ourselves that everything spoken by a prophet is a message from God, we must determine which messages are true and which are not.  Christ has warned us to beware of false prophets because they do not deliver His words.  Accepting the words of a false prophet is likened unto building our house on sand. 

And on the other hand, we cannot dismiss every message delivered just because there are false prophets among us.  We are reminded that true prophets will speak the word of the Lord and if we do those things that Christ teaches us through those true prophets, we will build our house upon the rock. 

The lump of truth that people just can't seem to swallow is that God will let that false prophet and that true prophet reside in the same person.  But it is so.  When a prophet does not step down and diminish at the appointed time, God delivers him over to the people.  The people use the man to uphold their own iniquities by forcing the man from behind to serve as their prophet and king.  We see this in the failings of Moses who was certainly a prophet without question.  If we look carefully, we may recognize this in the patterns of our own day.  For that purpose, always hold to the messages of truth delivered by any man and always know when to let go of the man in his ministry that you may draw closer to the Lord who is Jesus Christ.

We must necessarily decide which messages are false and which messages are true.