'Stephen & Stones'
- Stephen as an Abinadi figure
- Abraham's Lech Lecha
- The Creation Story as a temple script
- Harming in the name of God
in this episode we're gonna talk about
Steven and stones and a little about
Abraham and a little about Moses here we
go alright so setting the stage here as
you recall last week we had a number of
different conversions that we're talking
about several thousands of individuals
were converted to the gospel to the
fullness of the gospel and that is a
trend that has continued and we're
talking about really about the first few
years after the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ and the gospel the
church is expanding very very quickly
and of course that is cause for growing
pains and certainly the leaders of the
church here the Apostles end up having
some of these problems and so he's
recalled in last week we had a
discussion about the law of consecration
and right off the bat here in the next
chapter starting with chapter 6 acts 6
we see a concern here already about
what's happening with a law of
consecration right here in verse 1 it
says and in those days when the number
of the disciples was multiplied there
arose a murmuring of the Grecians
against the Hebrews this would be Greek
speaking Jews the Hellenists as compared to
probably those that are in Judea or in
the surrounding areas of Judea because
their widows were neglected in the daily
ministration so the daily administration
would be temporarily taking care of them
so of all things that should be taken
care of in the church you would think it
would be the widows especially in
ancient times when it was very difficult
for them to be able to find say for
example employment right and so
they're failing at this already and you
can see already how the law of
consecration here I think this is just
kind of a notice that it's we're being
put on as the readers here that the law
of consecration is going to go through
very difficult times and is not going to
last it's not going to make it and so
they start going through something
similar to what Moses went through where
you recall back in the time of Moses
he's trying to judge all of the
situations there he's trying to make
decisions on every conflict and every
problem and his father-in-law Jethro
finally comes them and says hey you need
to create an organization here a
hierarchical structure to be able to get
all these things down and captain's
attend and captains of 50 and captains
of 100 etc and so what they go through
here is a little bit of something like
that where the Apostles decide look pick
they say to the members of the
church pick from among yourselves seven
worthy men that can help with this
because the way they term it we can't go
around serving tables and basically what
that means is we can't take care of
every little thing where there's only
twelve of us and so the church starts to
grow the priesthood truck starts to grow
and a hierarchical structure will begin
to unfold here among the church to try
and meet its demands as struggles
continually come up and so the people
the members of the church choose seven
and one of those seven is a man called
Stephen and once these seven are
chosen then the Apostles lay their hands
on their heads and they ordain them they
call them to their positions here and
verse seven is kind of interesting it
says and the Word of God increased and
the number of the disciples multiplied
in Jerusalem greatly all right again the
church is growing very very quickly the
Jews don't know what to do there's a
major conflict happening here they're
losing people from what they believe is
the true religion the Jews and from
losing their control that they would
have over a number of these
people so again the conflict here
again we always see the major conflicts
here typically are not between just good
and bad or evil and sinners and
non centers although that is true but
the main conflict is typically one of
doctrine and control and we're
told here that a great company of the
priests were obedient to the faith so a
number of the priests that would be from
the tribe of Levi the sons of Aaron went
over to be in being were converted and
became Christians this was a common
thing actually this happened before back
in the time of Lehi when Jerusalem had
for the most part changed its doctrine
its theocracy it's its loss of Christ as
what I think happened a number of the
priests reportedly left to Jerusalem and
they went to what they termed at that
time Arabia and they ended up in fact
fighting or willing to fight with the
Babylonians against Jerusalem because
what they saw was a takeover right there
was a coup both a spiritual and
theocratic coup that took over at the
time of Lehi and a political coup that
took over and so they left and or were
kicked out and were willing to fight
against what had happened in Jerusalem
at the time so here again we see a lot
of the priests converting over to
Christianity at this time and we're told
in verse 8 that Stephen was full of
faith and he did many miracles and
wonders so he is a very impressive
person someone obviously that has is
filled with the Holy Ghost and is very
close to the Lord and is well he has a
great faith that he relies on and there
is a synagogue or at least a gathering
of people that are known as the
synagogue of The Libertines and
Cyrenians and Alexandrians
and of them of Cilicia
and of Asia disputing with Stephen so a
couple of things here The Libertines
this is probably freed slaves people
that would have been in bondage at some
point and they've been freed another
thing to look at here is these are not
people from Jerusalem or maybe
originally they were but these are
groups from other areas from the
Diaspora Jews that live in other parts
and perhaps this is where they meet at
times or their representatives here in
Jerusalem from other places or they
return from those other places and they
gather together here in this synagogue
or at least in this this assembly this
group we might say so they've got
disputes with Stephen and what he's
saying and with what he's doing
Stephen is obviously not out just
helping with the widows he is preaching
the Word of God and performing miracles
and making a fuss with a lot of the
Jews in the area this is that they were
not able to resist the wisdom and the
spirit by which he spoke we might think
about a been a die in this circumstance
think of Stephen going out and preaching
about Jesus as being resurrected as
being divine in the Son of God and that
he is the Messiah that Isaiah spoke of
this is what a Bennett I did with King
Noah and the priests it's a very similar
type of a situation and in ever a number
of these people here came together and
said listen we spoke we've listened to
Stephen and he has spoken blasphemous
words and this is interesting
against Moses and against God this is
important to understand the way that
this is being set up Luke here is is
giving us a clue as to what the
theocracy theology of the Jews is at
this time and what their priorities are
we've spoken many times about this where
there is a conflict between Moses and
Jesus this is how it works this is what
is going on the Jews had removed Christ
not Jesus they didn't know who Jesus was
obviously but centuries before they had
removed
a divine Redeemer from their theology
from their doctrine they had lost
it
because obviously they had it before and
in place of that of course something
something has to be at the top
you can't just remove something and
everything just stays the same something
has to move to the top and what moved to
the top was Moses and so Moses obviously
with the giving of the law the lower law
is what made sense to have come up to
the top for them and so they're pretty
upset if somebody's dissing on Moses
because to them Moses is the guy he's as
if he was a Christ-like figure and maybe
the only person that you could blaspheme
against besides God or Jehovah and so
these individuals stir up the people and
the elders and the scribes and they came
upon him and caught him and brought him
to the council and they end up setting
up false witnesses to accuse him again
of speaking blasphemous words against
the holy place and the law so looking at
this as a holy place this is just like
King Noah and his priests did the same
thing they believed they were a
righteous people and against the law
remember about Bennett I goes through
and he talks about the whole law of
Moses and the Ten Commandments and how
they really didn't believe in it they
didn't even follow it themselves that
they don't even get the rest of it which
is the higher law but even the lower law
because there's no higher law around is
corrupted and it's wrong and they and
they don't follow it that's what Stephen
is saying here it's the exact same thing
that I've been and I was doing with King
Noah and these individuals make the
accusation against Stephen in verse 14
for we have heard him say that this
Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this
place and shall change the customs which
Moses delivered us so that's true both
of those things are true but when you
are so religiously fanatic and
ideologically possess
you cannot keep an open mind if you have
been given information especially when
it's religious it goes down into your
core and you have certain beliefs when
people go against that you start to
believe that any means are justified for
an end that supports your doctrine in
your beliefs this happens in politics
all the time by the way if you are so
ideologically possessed on the left or
on the right then you start to believe
any means are necessary you lose
civility you then can go beyond that you
could get physical and you do things
because you've allowed it to
become such a core part of you this
ideology this is the same type of thing
it's how and where do we put our beliefs
in our belief systems and last down here
in verse 15 we get another parallel to a
vein and I says and all that's sad in
the council looking steadfastly on him
saw his face as it had been the face of
an angel so just like Abinadi his face
is basically shining right same thing
happened with Moses as he came down from
Sinai and so then the high priests in
charge here in this council they come
back and they say hey Stephen is this
true
are you blasphemy against Moses and
against God and against our land and
against the law of Moses here and this
is what Stephen does which is pretty
interesting he's going to go into a
little bit of a biography of Abraham and
then a biography of Moses now why these
two well think about what they've been
talking about here that he's been
blaspheming against Moses he wants to
explain himself so he's gonna back up to
the two greatest prophets that they've
had and he's going to explain a couple
of things and he's going to show how the
higher law and Christ are what Abraham
and Moses were following and that what
he has converted to Stephen
here into what would later be
called Christianity this sect of Jews
was simply trying to live by the
restored gospel and identifying Jesus as
Jehovah and as the Messiah so he starts
off by saying the god of glory appeared
unto our father Abraham when he was in
Mesopotamia I'm not sure if that's true
and Mesopotamia by the way but that's a
side note before he dwelt in is this
here Quran which is it basically it's
her on and said unto him get thee out of
thy country and from thy kindred so this
is the luckily right you've got to be on
the road get out from thy kindred and
from my people from my country which is
something that all of us have to do we
all have to leave where we're at and
this is kind of what Steven and the
Apostles and the new Christians are
doing exactly what Abraham did they had
to leave a place because of idolatry
they had to in other words where the
values weren't set properly where Christ
had been removed and something else was
put up in its place many other things
eventually were put up in its place in
the place of the true idea of a
suffering servant of a suffering god of
the atonement so leca leca which is
move on or leave or walk away is
something that the original
Christians had to do and all people with
the truth especially brand new a
bringing following of the truth is gonna
require this the leca leca so a
parallel is set here by Stephen from
about Abraham and about the new
Christians that's I think is what he's
trying to get across here to start off
with and so Stephen proceeds to go
through kind of this biography of
Abraham where he leaves her on he goes
into the toward the promised land he
then has to sojourn down into Egypt and
he speaks of Abraham being given the
covenant of circumcision which Joseph
Smith ties with baptism and then he
begets Isaac and Isaac begins Jacob and
Jacob has the
twelve patriarchs or the twelve the
heads of the 12 tribes of Israel and
they go all into Egypt during a time of
famine and find Joseph who's been sold
there by his brothers who is in charge
and who is second only to the Pharaoh in
the land of Egypt and they live there in
peace until a new Pharaoh comes along
that does not know Joseph and his people
and then they're put into bondage and
then eventually comes Moses this is what
it says about Noah Moses which is kind
of interesting you would Stephen
says he says in verse 20 here and which
time Moses was born and was exceeding
fair and nourished up in his father's
house three months I don't think that
Stephen really cares to talk to the
council here about how Moses's looks
were about how you know he was a really
good looking dude that's not what
they're saying here think about what is
said about Mary especially in the Book
of Mormon where Nephi has his vision of
Mary the Virgin Mary and then of Jesus
Christ being born to her we're told that
she was exceedingly fair and white this
has nothing to do with her appearance to
be honest with you her skin color may
have been darker than any Europeans it
has nothing to do with her skin it has
nothing to do with race it has to do
with the spirit it has to do with the
way that they used to talk about those
that may have had the spirit with them
or that were noble and virtuous and
living uprightly that's what they're
saying about Moses here then we get the
biography the biography of Moses where
he lives forty years there and knows the
ways of Egypt which definitely helped
him when he took the Israelites out of
Egypt and helped him with the temple
honestly helped him with administration
helped him with leadership etc and then
he comes out after 40 years and he kills
the man that is beating one of the Jews
one of the slaves and both the Jews
reject him and the Egyptians want him
and so he flees out of Egypt
I believe he knew exactly where he was
going and he went to Midian where he
found Jethro who became his
father-in-law and Moses ends up marrying
his daughter Zipporah but you get this in
this story right here with a slave
that is being beaten and with Moses
killing the Egyptian you get already
here a an allusion to Moses as being the
one who is going to free them from their
captors and yet be rejected for quite
some time by the Israelites anyway
that's kind of what happens there with
that story
he is freeing them from his oppressors
and the Jews aren't happy about it and
that theme carries on throughout the
entire Exodus in verse 30 we get a
little nugget here that's important it
says and when 40 years were expired
there appeared to him in the wilderness
of mount Sinai an angel of the lord in a
flame of fire in a bush
if you read Deuteronomy you're gonna get
the idea that not only did the people
were they not allowed to see him that
was by choice by the way but the Moses
could not see God he couldn't actually
see him and there was just the burning
bush we get something different right
here where it says that the angel of the
Lord which is the Lord was there in a
flame of fire in a bush you can also
think about the symbolism of the Tree of
Life here but that's an important thing
to understand this is different from
what the Jews would have believed at
this time they would not believe that
there was actually a personage that
would represent Jehovah they did not
believe that Moses or anybody else could
have seen God that that was it that was
not allowed but it was not allowed
because they had rejected the higher law
previously where they would be able to
see God it's a representation of
actually going through the veil and
having the higher law and the higher
priesthood but that was rejected by the
Israelites at Sinai so they couldn't see
God so they have to excuse it
say it's not permitted at all and so
then Stephen makes the point here of
saying that this Moses whom the
Israelites refused who said who made
thee a ruler and a judge the same did
God send to be a ruler and a deliverer
by the hand of the angel which appeared
to him in the bush this is a theme that
Stephens about to go through that the
prophets that are sent to Israel are
rejected continually and he says right
here this is that Moses which said unto
the children of Israel this is verse 37
which said unto the children of Israel a
prophet shall the Lord your God raise up
think of the brazen serpent unto you of
your brethren like unto me him shall ye
hear so this is a very strong anchor
point for the early Christians that
Moses who the Jews Revere the most above
all people prophesied about Jesus Christ
so they bring that connection all the
time including the brazen serpent the
reference to the brazen serpent with
Moses and he gives the example then of
how the Israelites rejected Moses and
he's talking directly to them he's
basically saying to the council here you
are rejecting God just as Abraham had to
get out of Dodge
Leca leca right from his can and from
everybody else because they were idle
worshiping in other words when we say
idol worship being what the
representation of that is even though
it's true the representation of that is
is that they have removed Christ they
have moved the Son of God from their
theology and they're worshipping other
gods and other things in other words
they have put other things up in their
values hierarchy higher than a loving
suffering God that connects that with
each of them individually and gives them
an eternal potential and progression so
they've put that aside and they've
but they've elevated other things higher
than that including idols and so he
brings up the fact that they made a
golden calf and that they turned their
hearts back to go to Egypt and they were
rejecting Moses well what is Moses doing
here was exactly what he said number one
the rejection is of the higher law they
rejected the higher law and part of that
higher law is Christ and that's exactly
what Stephen is saying right here that
Christ is the one Jesus Christ is the
one that Moses spoke of and that's part
of the rejection and he's saying to the
council here this is you too this is
still the way it is and he says here
specifically in verse 40 Stephen says as
an example of Moses who says that the
people were saying unto Aaron make us
gods to go before us for as for this
Moses which brought us out of the land
of Egypt we want not what has become
become of him in other words while he
was up for forty days with his vision
and communing with Jehovah and in 42
he says then God turned and gave them up
to worship the host of heaven basically
what he's saying there when they talk
about the hosts of heaven this is not
the Lord of hosts this is the host of
heaven would be the astral God's we
would say right like we think of with
the Romans with Mars and Jupiter etc
this is what became common among all
people and then in verse 44 something is
brought up here that I think is an
important point that confirms what we've
spoken of previously with Moses Steven
talks about the temple and of course the
temple goes right in with Moses right
because this is what happened on Sinai
and Moses comes back down and eventually
they build the tabernacle which is the
first model of what they were going to
build on a temple and then eventually
hundreds of years later finally the
Temple of Solomon is built which is
built after the model of the tabernacle
but it says here in verse 44 our fathers
had the tabernacle of witness in the
wilderness that's the tabernacle of
a large tent as he had appointed
speaking unto
poses that he should make it according
to the fashion that he had seen this is
a very important point to understand the
second interpreter right that I have
that we go through his temple imagery
and drama this is important to
understand what happened on Sinai what
happened on Sinai was a vision and we go
to the beginning of Genesis what we have
there in the creation story is simply
Temple liturgy this is not a history of
the world we think that that's kind of
what's happening because we open up the
Bible and it starts off and says in the
beginning but actually what in the
beginning means is in the pre-existence
but not just in the pre-existence but it
means in the Holy of Holies that's what
they're talking about the Holy of Holies
is that representation of where God is
and so what we get through the creation
story and then with it the story of Adam
and Eve is we get a vision of the temple
of not just of how principles that that
are there about creation and about
organization and about hierarchy and
priesthood but the temple is built after
this vision day one is the holy of
Holy's day two is the Vail etc etc etc
we'll go over that another time but when
we look at Genesis it's a much easier to
understand those stories in there does
it mean some of what that is some of
that shouldn't be some of that shouldn't
be taken literally but it's
not science
it is not a history it's not even a
chronology it is simply a vision a
spiritual symbolic vision that was given
to Moses remember before that with
Abraham the other example here that
Stephen is going over Abraham has a
creation story also in the Book of
Abraham why because if you read The Book
of Abraham you realize that he is having
a vision he sees the same vision that
Moses does
and he sees this vision because he's
going to need to create the temple also
and the ordinances that are within that
Abraham was at the head of a
dispensation he had to have that
information and it also explains the
crazy verbiage and cosmology that Abraham
gives with Kolob and oplish or I can't
remember exactly what the name of the
second planet is but all of these crazy
things that we read about in there this
is not some model of the universe I've
seen a number of different takes on this
it's I guess that Abraham had a an
earth-centered cosmology and this is
just based on what his understanding is
well well that part might be true but it
has nothing to do with explaining what
the universe is not in physical terms it
is a vision that he is having he is
being explained something about
priesthood about hierarchy about the
spirit and about the temple that's what
that is
and that's how we need to look at those
things it takes away the conflict of
science and evolution and geology and
creationism that we get in the Bible
understand that even though the
principles are there of creation that
this is about the temple and what as
we're told here by Stephen the temple
the tabernacle and the temple are built
after as a model of what Abraham of what
Moses and other prophets saw in this
vision that they had so an important
point and something that goes directly
to that point number two or that
interpreter number two that we follow
here of the four interpreters and then
Stephen seems to go on here but he
quotes the prophets and says he's stiff
necked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears you do always resist the Holy Ghost
you resist the higher law you're stiff
necked and you're hard-hearted as your
father's did so do ye
also talking directly to the council you
are stiff naked you are hard hearted and
you resist the Holy Ghost you resist the
higher law and in verse 52 which of the
prophets have not your father's
persecuted and they have slain them
which showed before of the coming of the
just one that would be Christ of whom
you have been now the betrayers and
murderers so what is Stephen laying out
here he's going back and he's showing
the history of here you've got Abraham
and Moses that you look up to but these
were followers of Christ and they
prophesied about Jesus Christ about
Jehovah coming down and taking on the
sins of the world and you rejected him
just like your fathers have always
rejected the prophets and this is an
important theme in the Old Testament
what happens to the prophets they're
constantly killed many of them are
stoned it said that Isaiah was cut
asunder he was cut in half by a King
Manasseh Lehi was about to be killed for
the very same reason for the same reason
that Stephen is bringing up here not
because he's preaching just against them
being wicked it's because he's talking
about the Messiah about the Son of God
that's why they're gonna kill the high
and what is the reasoning behind what
they're talking about in accusing
Stephen here it's the same thing they
were accusing Lehi of it is blasphemy
that's what laman and lemuel were
accusing their father of a visionary man
blasphemy so what's happening all over
again and he's showing this pattern and
here it is happening exactly now with
Stephen they're accusing him of
blasphemy and just like the prophets of
old they're about to stone him for the
exact same reasons because they are
hard-hearted they will not listen what
puts a people or an individual in a
position where I mean they're doing this
because they're they think they're
they're right they're justifying what
they're doing not for gain maybe
ultimately there's power and other
things that are behind this
but out in front of why they're doing
this it's blasphemy what puts an
individual what puts you what puts me
what puts a group a society of people in
a position where they are lockstep in an
ideology believing that their moral and
that they're right and that they can
justify the means of actually killing
someone
or being violent against someone so that
they can protect their beliefs and their
doctrine and do it in the name of God
that's what's happening here
and we can have that again we can have
this especially in religion this can
happen a lot of what we get in the
scriptures is not just with a good
against the evil but it's the evil
within right it is the evil within and
how easy it is to lose goodness that's
what happens over and over in the Book
of Mormon right is in it's the inward
struggle the Lamanites they always
take care of but in word it's the
breaking up of the people it's that it's
the chaos that eventually comes into the
groups of people and they all become
-ites right they become different sects
different people's this is the problem
that happened with the Catholics and the
Protestants to the point where there was
murder and there was death because of a
moral superiority that was believed in
and it was done in the name of God now
that's not the environment that we
currently live in but I think to a
smaller degree we can all be subject to
that kind of an ideology or a belief
system where we are too rigid
in our beliefs we want to be firm we
want to be faithful in steadfast but
part of that I think is always having
the Holy Ghost because we're not always
going to be right and we're not always a
hundred percent positive on maybe our
own personal beliefs and in our doctrine
and our behaviors but if we're tying
ourselves to the Holy Ghost we stand a
much better change
of not letting a situation even in a
small degree like this come up in and
and take us down the wrong path or help
us or cause us to make a wrong decision
with someone but the council here will
have nothing to do with the Holy Ghost
and he says here just like a Ben and I
in 53 you guys have received the law by
the disposition of angels and you
haven't kept it so again they're
fighting for the law and for Moses but
they don't even keep it themselves
because they can't you cannot keep a
lower law in place without the looking
forward to the higher law to Christ and
the atonement it can't work you cannot
live in just a physical world you cannot
live in just a task-oriented world you
cannot live in a world just with rules
and Commandments it will eat itself
alive and that's what has happened with
the Jews at this time and then
miraculously you know when he said these
things it says that they were cut to the
heart I love that phrase being cut to
the heart I've had that happen to me
sometimes maybe you have to it's
it's tough right the truth can be harsh
as Nephi says to his brothers sometimes
and that they gnashed on him with their
teeth but he being full of the Holy
Ghost this is verse 55 looked up
steadfastly into heaven and saw the
glory of God and Jesus standing on the
right hand of God so he has this vision
there and again why is Jesus there why
does he see Jesus there at this point
it's because that's what this is all
about just like with a Bennett eye this
is all about Christ and so here he is
coming back and saying basically thank
you for witnessing for me because that's
what he's been doing as he goes through
this biography of Abraham and his
biography of Moses and the history of
this counsels people and so then he says
as a witness now behold I see the
heavens opened
and the son of man standing on the right
hand of God then they cried out with a
loud voice and stopped their ears and
ran upon him with one Accord and cast
him out of the city and stoned him and
the witnesses laid down their clothes at
a young man's feet whose name was Saul
and then in 59 and they stoned Stephen
calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus
receive my spirit we've heard this
somewhere before and he kneeled down and
cried with a loud voice Lord lay not
this sin to their charge and when he had
said this he fell asleep or we might say
he gave up the ghost so this is very
similar verbiage to what went on with
Jesus when he was on the cross where
he's saying don't blame them which is
really very interesting it's a very
interesting concept he is being stoned
to death by them they're outraged by him
they wants to kill him they hate him
there is rage in them and he's saying
forgive them don't blame them for this
why does he say that is he just trying
to be good I really think there's a
clearer understanding to Stephen as
there was to Christ about how the world
works we don't know what we would do in
a point in history in a certainly a
circumstance with a certain environment
around us and certain teachings that
have been given to us our whole lives
somehow we are thrown into this melting
pot into this laboratory at a different
point in geography and in time and
in culture and doctrine and we're
supposed to do as best we can within
those circumstances and sometimes many
times most of the time those
circumstances are very negative and the
teachings can be very negative so he's
basically saying they're not guilty
because of Adam's sin so to speak or
they're not guilty because of their
fathers and their great
fathers and their great-grandfather sins
or at least take these things into
consideration Lord with them don't blame
them I think that's some I think it's
not only incredibly noble and beautiful
and wonderful and strong but I think
it's very tuned in to how the world
works now we mentioned Saul these
clothes were laid at the feet of someone
called Saul Saul was one of those from
Cilicia that was mentioned at the
synagogue so just like Alma was at the
trial of a Ben a die and fled here is
there is a similar type of a trial Abinadi
was burned Stephen was stoned but
with Saul slash Paul the same thing
didn't happen he doesn't flee he is
still enraged and possessed
ideologically but shortly we're gonna
learn a lot more about this man so
Stephen goes down in history as the
first martyr we know of the early
Christians and I hope we can see this
event now a little bit differently as a
pivotal point with these early
Christians like just like we would with
an invented eye or just like we would as
a Joseph Smith or somebody who is
preaching in a very poignant moment
Stephen is originally called to take
care of widows of those whose husbands
are dead who have passed on and he ends
up very quickly losing his own life for
the greatest cause that there is I'll
talk to you next time
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