Come Follow Me LDS- 1-2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon Part 1

'Fables & Jangling'

- Fables and Looking Beyond the Mark

- Paul focuses on The Doctrine of Christ

- Adam then Eve, Eve then Adam

- Why & What are superior to Who, When, Where & How

 

 

LDS Mormon New Testament Bible

 

in this episode we're going to learn

about fables and jangling here we go all

right in this episode of quick media

come follow me we're going to cover

first Timothy this is the first of three

epistles first Timothy second Timothy

and Titus that are called the pastoral

epistles what that means is that Paul

apparently because there is some dispute

about the authorship here but as there

are with many of these epistles but Paul

apparently is kind of giving some advice

to how to be a good church leader and

Timothy apparently is very young and so

he's kind of helping him saying look

this is how you need to operate this is

how you administer here and then again

he's trying to put together a culture of

the church that is imperative to keep it

to try to keep it going of course it

doesn't end up working out but he knows

that this culture has got to be put in

here and again the difficulty of putting

this together with the Jews and with the

Gentiles is a very difficult thing to do

so you should always look at his

suggestions from that point of view

right what is he trying to accomplish

what are the problems not just spiritual

problems but cultural problems because

just as we've talked about previously

where we have the roles of men and the

roles of women in the family he is

putting together a hierarchy and an

order here that he wants to see followed

but he's also trying to bring these two

cultures together and there are some

difficulties there so as you read these

really they're suggestions on how to

live and how to run the church keep that

in mind he is he's trying to it's

usually a reaction

right it's usually a reaction as we

really should read the scriptures it's a

reaction to what's happening and so he's

trying to put something in place that

says hey this is why you need to do this

this is why this is important he starts

off here in chapter 1 in verse 4 and

says neither give heed to fables and

endless genealogies which Minister

questions rather than godly edifying

which is in faith so do so two things

here he's talking about fables which are

basically myths as we would use the term

myths today and endless genealogy

so why does he need to say this well you

need to say this because of what's

happening there and what you have on the

Jewish side there is a tendency to

follow certain rabbinical stories and

teachings that are not necessarily

rooted in Scripture and so a lot of what

happens right when you don't have the

fullness of the gospel is you have these

stories and ideas and doctrines that

start to develop in the church and

that's what happened with the Jews and

so you end up with kind of this

additional interesting but very much

infused with philosophy ideas of

religion that pull further and further

away from the doctrine of Christ

they're very intellectual right they're

very intellectual and very appealing to

intellectuals especially and there's a

lot of wisdom in them oftentimes if

you've read for example gone into the

Kabbalah

and to other mystery type of teachings

within different religions the Kabbalah

is associated with the Jews there

there's some real truth in there but

there's also a lot of myth as we would

use the term right there there's a lot

of other stories that are

not rooted ultimately in the doctrine of

Christ and this is what he's got to get

in there the second point is the

endless genealogies well what does that

well imagine as they're building the

church and you have the Jews on one side

and you have the Greeks and you know the

Gentiles on the other that in the Jewish

culture and of course Paul is very

very familiar with this and would have

been a part of this previously it's very

important to where you come from it's

very important which tribe you are in

it's very important do you tie yourself

back to certain prophets to certain

important individuals because this

really is in some sense right

well not in some sense it is it's very

tied to the Jewish religion obviously

because you're using the same scriptures

and you have then the Greeks and the

Gentiles here there that are coming in

and they're not a part of that they

can't go back and look back at their

genealogies and say yeah this is I tie

this back to so-and-so in in the Exodus

or I'm part of this tribe that doesn't

mean that it's not important for the

Jews to do that obviously I mean we

teach genealogy in the church very much

room to tie yourself back to your

forefathers but when you use it as hey

I'm special and you're not you can see

where this would be a real problem in

the church for Paul and so that's what

he's talking about he's reacting to what

looks like that kind of a conflict in

the culture there and trying to

avoid this he's trying to put everybody

on an even playing field as much as

possible and part of doing that again is

we've talked about the role of charity

and how Paul really focuses on this

again think about what his teachings are

throughout the epistles it's about

different people's it's about the Jews

and the Gentiles specifically here and

about reaching

across to each other and how do you do

that you do that through charity which

is basically it's love right that

supersedes your genealogies and

roots you back into what Christ did

which is all about charity it's all

about the law of love or of charity and

that puts everybody on the same playing

field if you can get there so in verse

five he says now the end of the

commandment is charity that's ultimately

where you need to get and that's where

he's trying to get everybody to but he

says that some have pulled away from

that right in talking about this thing

again I think he's talking about the

Jews here specifically because he says

in verse 6 from which some have swerved

away from charity have turned aside into

vain jangling so jangling here bow

jangling they're jangling jangling

that's talking about things that aren't

important these fables and hey look at

this knowledge that I have which is

built off of this scriptures in my

Jewish culture and look at all this that

I can educate you on and I've got this

knowledge and you don't and he's saying

look that stuff is all vain it's all in

vain it's not important what's important

is charity and then it proceeds down

here Paul is going through this sequence

here he says that they desiring to be

teachers of the law so again that's what

their power is right in a sense as the

Jews it's like I know the law right

Paul knows the law really well and so

he's saying look just because you desire

to know the law then that doesn't make

you better because you know it so well

and again the law is now superseded by

the law of mercy of charity of Christ

now he says again here we've gone over

this several times but in verse eight we

know that the law is good right if a man

use it lawfully so it's good and it's

basically made for those

are not righteous so again let's look at

those two levels here that we've talked

about we're on the top level we're gonna

bring up the law of Moses and that's

primarily what he's talking about here

but the principle applies to all of us

the principle of the law of God he's

talking about the law of Moses and he

says look the law is good but it's

for sinners and he and he runs off all

the different ways we can be sinners

because what does it do it makes you if

you follow it makes you become more

righteous it makes you what it's

supposed to do is guide you toward

Christ guide you to the higher law of

charity that he is talking about but

that's not the focus and it's not for us

either right though we it's so easy for

us just like water runs downhill and

takes the path of least resistance for

all of us the easiest thing for us to do

to say that we are good right is to obey

and show everybody else that we obey a

little bit of virtue signaling right is

is easy to permeate any culture

including the culture in the church so I

can say look I'm obedient and I can and

even if I'm not putting that out there

for myself I can make myself feel better

if I just say that I'm obedient and

that's crucial obviously it's very

important but the reason we do that and

we're the reason it's easier to focus on

that and thank goodness we do have that

but the reason it's easier to focus on

this because it's measurable it's easily

measurable and the problem with that is

that that means we can easily measure

other people at least in our eyes right

it leads to easy judgment with the law

does come judgment and it makes us

it very easy for us to judge others and

to wrongfully at times to judge

ourselves remember how remember the

first principles of the gospel it's not

repentance first right which would go

along with a law and obedience to the

and that that's not the first law our

first principle the first principle is

faith if you follow through the last

several episodes you'll see that what

faith is tied to is not the law it's

tied to Christ it's tied to charity and

mercy and to his sacrifice so that's the

primary place we need to go the rest of

that through the law and obedience still

is us reaching up to God and it's

crucial and we have to have it because

we're trying to become like him but the

first principle is faith in Jesus Christ

and the second principle then is

repentance and we should be obeying and

repenting consistently because of the

faith that we have first in the Savior

not just in that we can be forgiven we

focus in on that a lot and

rightfully so but also so that we can

understand that we're gonna follow the

path that he is already trail blazed

which is taking on suffering taking on

adversity taking on the pains of

mortality in every sense and beating it

like he did right that's faith in the

Savior not just not just for repentance

sake but the bigger picture there is who

are we going to become and how do we

follow the example of what Christ did

through the sacrifice and atonement and

Paul includes himself in all of this

showing that he was a blasphemer that he

was persecuting the church and that he's

a sinner and he was focused on the law

right so he's saying look I was

like you I was like some of these people

that would easily just focus in on the

law and not focus in on the higher law

and in 15 he says worthy and in 15 he

says that Jesus Christ came into the

world to save sinners

of whom I am chief right in other words

I'm the top sinner on the top dog

center here and I include myself in

that but that is why Christ came into

the world so all of this focus on myths

of rabbinical stories of your

genealogies and not being able to pull

together in love and charity and then

looking at the law primarily that's not

what it's all about it's all about the

Savior it's all about Jesus Christ and

mercy and charity and make sure that

you're focusing in as you teach everyone

Timothy on the doctrine of Christ

everything else is subordinate to that

and then in 19 and 20 he says holding

faith and a good conscience which some

having put away concerning faith have

made shipwreck in other words they've

made their faith a shipwreck so you can

imagine being out on a on a ship as Paul

has many times and has landed up as a in

a shipwreck I think two or three times

he compares that to your faith and some

have taken their faith and have been

blown off course and have ended up and

it you know against the rocks and on the

shore and a shipwreck because they did

not stay the course with their faith and

he says of those he gives a couple of

examples here of Hymenaeus and

alexander who Paul says I have delivered

unto Satan that they may learn not to

blaspheme well he's looking for them to

learn on this so what can we deduce from

this well it looks to me like they're

probably excommunicated right and that's

what he means by giving over to Satan

he's basically disfellowshipped them

excommunicated them so that they can

learn right to not blaspheme so perhaps

they were taking some of these myths

perhaps they were pompous about their

genealogies perhaps they kept going back

to the law and not focusing on Christ

and or teaching others to do the same

it's well-known

that early Christianity almost didn't

survive because of Judaism because what

would happen is there was always a

constant pulled back to the way things

were the status quo within Judaism so

you can see here over and over again as

Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles

how he keeps trying to pull that back

pull that back out of the current

culture and teachings of Judaism while

still obviously being tied to it through

the scriptures and the heritage and the

culture of the past with the prophets

etc very very very difficult to do and

in reality the church the Christian

Church never really pulls away from that

and in fact you know the earliest

transcripts we have of the current Old

Testament of the Masoretic text which is

what the Jews end up using is in like

the 800 night hunt nine eight or nine

hundreds ad right after the Common Era

and the church the Christian Church ends

up capitulating to Judaism in using this

Masoretic text so that they have a

common pass to go to but the Masoretic

text is not what was used at the time of

Paul right there using the Septuagint a

Greek text and they have other Hebrew

texts that have been used previous to

this but not the Masoretic text the

Masoretic text comes in later and so

even though there are changes in that

Masoretic chat text that we know of

especially a number of them that focus

on scriptures and verses that the

Christian church used as proof texts

that the prophets of the Old Testament

were talking about Christ some of those

have been changed some of those are

different you can look at the Dead Sea

Scrolls that were around at the time of

Paul and you can see changes that were

made here and there that are in the

current Masoretic text and we use the

Masoretic text now today that's our Old

Testament right the King James Version

and all the new translations of the Old

Testament all come from the for the most

part all come from the Masoretic text

some still can pull from the Septuagint

but they're using the Masoretic text for

the most part so they never really pull

away from that and away from the culture

and doctrine in a sense of Judaism and

then in chapter 2 we get an insertion

from the Joseph Smith translation here

and if you look at verse 4 it says who

will have all men to be saved and to

come unto the knowledge of the truth

talking about Jesus Christ

so he's following up here with what he

had stated in chapter 1 about the

doctrine of Christ but Joseph Smith says

it differently he says who is willing to

have all men saved and come unto the

knowledge of the truth which is in

Christ Jesus who is the only begotten

Son of God so what we're getting there

is a clarification of the title of the

Son of God and again that is part of the

doctrine of Christ what that means is

it's going against what the Jews are

claiming have claimed here for a number

of years about the about the Messiah

that God is the Messiah that's what Paul

is saying here

God is the Messiah he is the Son of God

because he was born to Mary and came

into mortality and lowered himself this

is such a crucial point that we can

easily miss about how Paul has to go

against his Jewish roots and what the

Jews believed imagine the difference in

a religion where you have God Jehovah

actually being born into mortality and

then suffering your sins

lowering God humbling himself lowering

himself below you who are pathetic and a

sinner and well below God

yet that is Christianity so he's Joseph

Smith inserts this here showing that

Paul is talking about the son of God

that's who the Messiah is that's who

Jesus Christ is and then in verse five

he clarifies the two separate beings

here for there is one God that is L that

is God the Father and one mediator so he

puts in this role here of Christ as the

mediator for us between God and men the

man Jesus Christ

so again following up with what Joseph

Smith puts in in verse four as the only

begotten Son of God talking about being

born in a mortality he calls Jesus

Christ here the man Jesus Christ and in

verse six he who gave himself a ransom

for all to be testified in due time so

he's focusing Timothy in on this look

all this other stuff around here all

this other noise this myth all of this

heritage we've had as Jews all this

stuff here you need to move aside and

focus in on the doctrine of Christ and

then he starts off here once he's laid

down this this doctrine of Christ again

then he goes through his hierarchy that

he goes through so many times and the

other epistles and if you look for it

you'll see it he says here in verse

eight I will therefore that men pray

everywhere lifting up holy hands without

wrath and doubting so for men he has

them looking up to God and praying to

him and putting their hands up toward

him and then immediately he goes into

verse nine here talking in like manner

also that women adorn themselves in

modest apparel so he's got the men here

and then he's got the women and he's

talking about this again if we think

about Paul writing in a reactionary

state that's typically what the prophets

are doing if you look for that we can

get an understanding okay well this is

something that must have been happening

at that time so if he's saying that

women adorn themselves in modest apparel

then we can imagine that perhaps they

weren't with shamefacedness and sobriety

not with braided hair broided or braided

hair

or gold or pearls or costly array so

this was probably happening now why

braided hair because this was probably a

statement having the braided hair was

probably a cultural societal statement

of hey this is the level I'm at in

society and so it's not that braided

hair in and of itself is wrong someone

could come in and say how ridiculous you

can't have braided hair no it's

what kind of a statement is this making

we all make statements by what we wear

how we look what we do and Paul is

saying hey we've got a touchy situation

here where we don't want to light the

match here and have everything go we

don't want to be making societal

statements and putting in different

classes and separating Jews and Gentiles

and so he's trying to extract all of

these cultural behaviors that would do

that he's trying to bring everybody

together he also says in verse 10 here

but which becometh women professing

godliness with good works he seems to

talk about actually clothing women with

good works instead of with costly

apparel or immodest clothing there's

something there that I haven't quite put

my finger on about that coupling of good

works and women and then we go into the

things that we've gone into before about

women being in silence and not a serpent

and seems kind of patriarchal and maybe

it is in in their time and what they had

here or also and this is what I would

suggest again he's reacting to what

might be happening here and this could

be more of a Gentile issue here more

than likely because it wasn't as much of

a Jewish issue but it might be that

women were oftentimes a surfing the

authority of those that were given the

priesthood and put into leadership

positions and perhaps the women with the

background with where they're at were

trying to assert the authority there and

so he's reacting to that but at the same

time he is he puts in this hierarchy of

God man woman child etc at least in a

priesthood hierarchy is what he's

looking at

not in a value hierarchy not in a worthy

hierarchy but in perhaps a leadership

hierarchy and that could be just

cultural or it could be doctrinal I

don't know it's different ways to look

at this and he and he covers this again

remember he's done this before and I

think this is important because we seem

to be in the last 10 15 years we've gone

completely to another view culturally in

the church about the Adam and Eve story

and I've covered this before but just

briefly here let me let me bring this up

here he goes down when he talks about a

surfing Authority and he actually gives

the story of Adam and Eve and this is

the traditional view in Christianity

about Adam and Eve right Eve particular

fruit first and therefore she was the

first transgressor and then Adam took of

it therefore men have the priesthood or

you know whatever and that the woman

needs to look to the man because of that

then that's the reaction that God has to

Adam and Eve after they have both were

taken to the fruit and then he gives

the reference to the Garden of Eden and

he says in 13 and 14 for Adam was first

formed then Eve right so he's using that

as a principle and the church has always

done that and I say the church I mean

the Christian Christianity has always

done that and Adam was not deceived but

the woman being deceived was in the

transgression so again that was probably

there were echoes of that in the church

all the way up to about I would say 10

15 years ago where now that's kind of

almost going away the problem with that

going away is that there are so many

examples in the scriptures of both

implicit and explicit teachings about

the order of the

and about the Garden of Eden so I think

my belief on this is that there are two

ways to look at it and there's no reason

why both of these can't be looked at

simultaneously right and that is that

both Eve kind of let out in both

transgressing and in launching humanity

right I think that's what the story is

saying that that she did transgress

first but she also let out in to us

being able to have context and learn and

grow and have bodies and pass through

mortality she was deceived we know she

was deceived you know Satan beguiled me

she says so that does happen but she

also can be looked at I think as someone

who let out for Humanity I think we

should be looking at two of them but we

always have these tendencies to kind of

go through a cultural or even doctrinal

fad where we move from here to there

we're moving much more into a much more

of a feminized Western world right now

and so that view is easy to bring on

here where it's Eve was the leader of

this and she made the right decision and

Adam wasn't clear enough on this and so

Eve had to make the move first great

fine maybe there's a lot of truth to

that but remember you want to look at

this as a story not as history I'm not

saying this didn't necessarily happen

but that's not how it's written and

that's not why it's written it's written

for us and so the symbolism is what

counts in this and I think that we can

look at that story in both ways and I

think it's important too and then in

Chapter four we get a warning again

about apostasy in the last days it

says here in verse one now the spirit

speaketh expressly that in the latter

times some shall depart

the faith now the real word here that's

used as our phrases of Paul Stace untie

which is basically apostasy he's using

the same word you know it's the

desertion from the faith he says

giving heed to seducing spirits and

doctrines of devils so basically he's

saying that again falling away from what

they knew focusing in and those values

hierarchy that doctrinal hierarchy of

having the doctrine of Christ at the

very top and that be the most important

thing as you dilute that and lower it

and allow other things to come in

changing and altering that values or

doctrinal hierarchy then you start

getting pulled away from the doctrine of

Christ in one way or another or at least

from truth as we would we would see it

in verse 2 he says speaking lies those

that would seduce these seducing

spirits or those that would pull you

away with these other doctrines he says

speaking lies in hypocrisy having their

conscience seared with a hot iron so in

other words they're completely calloused

right their conscience is seared in

that they don't see the consequences and

I would argue that they have a lower

level of charity which would be natural

if you're pulling away from the doctrine

of charity which is the doctrine of

Christ and he gives some examples of

these false doctrines he says forbidding

to marry now this was a common thing in

asceticism which is basically kind of

like this huge denial of your body in

yourself and it leads to that idea that

everything that is physical and Paul

kind of talks about this a little bit

but don't get confused about it but that

everything that is physical is bad we

look at it very differently obviously in

that physical is something that needs

to be overcome and used and brought with

us in terms especially of a physical

resurrection and that our body actually

changes based on our spirit and our

agency our choices our behaviors

how we live and so physical is necessary

it's not just all evil and bad that's

the way most of Christianity looks at it

for us it is a part of the plan of

salvation and is necessary and is the in

fact eternal along with our spirit so

that duality of physicality of carnality

not in the negative sense but of the

flesh and of the spirit both are

necessary just like the higher in the

lower laws but forbidding to marry is

one of those so it's kind of saying you

know the sexual relationships need to be

pushed off and you'll be more pure by

denying your body any kind of physical

intimacy and there are still obviously

strains of that asceticism in some

religions today in Christianity you know

that somehow that makes you more pure

another one of those elements of

asceticism is abstaining from meats now

some people say that means all food and

it's possible but I think it's more

likely they are actually talking about

meat and of course we can look at that

and then we have to pull in the word

of wisdom and what that says there are

other scriptures as well though you

actually in the doctrine covenants to

say that you should eat meat so that's

kind of a place I'm not going to go to

right now but again the whole idea

here is something that would have been a

little more part of Gnosticism at the

time and that movement and for example

certain Jewish sects like the Essenes

and the Theraputae who were mostly

both probably anchored in Egypt but the

Essenes are the ones that had the Dead

Sea Scrolls in Palestine and they were

much more of that kind of behavior in

that ascetic behavior where they were

they would just deny everything right

and somehow that that would make them

better of course that is pulling away

from the plan of salvation and so I

remember in the 70s you'd have these

stories that would come out

and where we were even then much more of

a Christian based society in the US I

remember stories coming out of kind of

these kids that would be brought out

into these cults and they would part of

that would be not eating meats and

there was a concern over that especially

a Christian concern over that because

that's what part of what we learn in the

New Testament right is that that idea of

not eating meats is not a Christian

belief now today it's completely

different I have family members and

people I know well that are vegetarians

and vegans and now it's completely

accepted but I remember in the 70s

growing up that that was not the case at

that time so that's something that's

definitely changed in our culture and

then he talks about the priesthood here

with Timothy and he says directly to him

in verse 14 neglect not the gift that is

in thee which was given thee by prophecy

with the laying on of the hands of the

presbytery or the elders right so

there's our example of ordination on

Timothy so this is something that was

given to him by the laying on of hands

his office whatever that might be here

is given to him through the Spirit

through priesthood Authority by

the laying on of hands and then lastly

for this episode I'm going to skip all

the way to chapter 6 here and I want to

talk a little bit more about again some

recommendations and suggestions and

commands maybe that Paul is giving here

on to Timothy on how people should

behave in the church he says here in

verse 4 talking about those that would

not be teaching godliness he says he is

proud knowing nothing but doting about

questions and stripes of words where of

cometh envy strife railings and evil

surmisings what does that mean here's

what it means to me as I see this doting

about questions and stripes of words I

think that that's kind of trying to

parse out looking at scriptures

and what people say and maybe history

and trying to extract something that is

going to cause strife so I'll bring out

a couple of examples here that both

having to do with Joseph Smith one would

be the translation of the Book of Mormon

and the other would be the translation

of Abraham the Book of Abraham think

about how people would dote over certain

questions about how those two things

came about did he use a seer stone was

he looking into a hat did he use the

Urim and Thummim what happens is

again water runs downhill to the path of

least resistance and in a scientific

modern mind we want to know these things

naturally how did this happen instead of

looking at the fruit that was actually

there and I've learned this over time

that what strengthens your testimony and

gives you the most amount of truth in

what is most important is the actual

book The Book of Mormon and the Book of

Abraham the other things are ancillary

right there they're secondary not that I

don't have an interest in them I do but

they don't matter

not compared to what the actual

fruit of the work is so what I learn

about the Book of Mormon as I actually

look through it and read it and pray

about it study it is what matters how it

came about is secondary to me not that

it's not at all important I think it is

and we can learn things from that but

we're not gonna learn as much about

faith and as much about repentance and

much about the doctrine of Christ and

how we apply our lives to be better

people to become more like the Savior

through the process of how those things

happened I think that there is a lower

law which would be science factual

knowledge of these things that is easily

fallen to by each of us and the way I

might outline that a little bit I'll do

a podcast on this later is looking at

those major questions right what are

they how wet what when why where right

and I think that the questions of

where and when

and how are lower law questions it's not

that I can't bring something out of them

I can but what I really want to know is

why that's the spiritual meaning is the

why and then looking at the actual fruit

of what I have here is the what is

it and so what and why I would relate a

little bit more to higher law thinking

and higher law learning not that

everything else isn't important it is

and scholars are gonna scoff at this

probably a little bit because they're so

focused on the other side of that and

it's important it is important but what

is it what is the Book of Mormon

what is the Book of Abraham and why do I

have it why does it exist those are the

things that we ought to be focusing on

it so I think somebody who's doting

about questions of how and where and

when are focusing on lower law

learning and lower law questions if that

makes any sense to you

and so like most of his epistles Paul

kind of has themes that he puts through

here and one of those here is as often

is the doctrine of Christ focus in on

the doctrine of Christ so for our

ourselves in our lives don't be swayed

too far one way or the other and if you

study a lot and you study the Scriptures

it's inevitable that you're going to

kind of be drawn into different thought

processes and maybe different doctrines

a little bit you're pulled a little bit

away from the rod of iron right stay

close and grab onto it and that rod of

iron is the core of that is the

doctrine of Christ and that is what

Paul is trying to get across here to

Timothy don't wander too far away from

the iron rod because it's going to get

foggy and you're going to get into faint

vain teachings and jangling I'm doting

on questions and that inevitably invites

the fiery darts

and a lack of vision and our conscience

being seared by a hot iron as Nephi says

he loves the plain things that doesn't

mean they're not interesting but I think

what he means by that is it's very

simple at its core and that is the

doctrine of Christ it needs to be at the

center of everything I'll talk to you

next time