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.