Come Follow Me LDS- Helaman 7-12 (Aug 24-30)

'Spiritual Famine'
- Nephi calls for repentance from the garden tower
- He preaches that all of the prophets including Abraham, Moses and Isaiah, prophesied of the coming of Jesus Christ.
- Nephi prophesies of the murder of the Chief Judge.
- It's politics that "stirs us up".
- Nephi is given the power to seal on earth and in heaven

 

 Raw Transcript

 all right welcome to
this come follow me episode we are
covering
hilum in chapters 7 through 12 this week
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going directly to helium 7 here this is
a new introduction here by mormon where
he calls this
the prophecy of nephi the son of helaman
and what is he prophesying about well
the same thing the prophets have always
prophesied about it is about
the savior right about jesus christ and
it's about their destruction
if they don't repent i want to put out a
reminder here
on the idea of repentance because you
know when we
read the scriptures or there are
artistic
representations through video or movies
or
or other things about the idea of
prophets preaching repentance
we lose something oftentimes i believe
in understanding that what they're
really preaching about is jesus christ
right when there is repentance that is
being preached
well how do you gain that repentance
remember that
all of the dissenters that have gone
from the nephites
over to the lamanites they
dis they discard
the doctrine of christ right because
if you discard the doctrine of christ
you're able to discard judgment
and and you can live beyond
a need for repentance so when a prophet
is preaching repentance that prophet is
preaching about jesus christ because the
only way that you get
repentance to work is to put your faith
in jesus christ
as a quick example lehi right and i've
brought this up before but you know
that's the reason that lehigh
is kicked out of jerusalem is not
because
primarily of him saying
that jerusalem is going to be destroyed
and because they need to repent that's
not
the issue the primary issue
is jesus christ he's preaching about the
doctrine of christ
that's why they're going to kill him now
everything else goes along with that
we're going to see that here in the next
chapter
but the primary focus here as it should
be
is about preaching about jesus christ
and this prophecy
from nephi here the son of helaman is
centered on
the doctrine of christ so nephi here has
gone to these other lands up north and
he's
been preaching about the doctrine of
christ
and about the gospel and he has no
success so he goes back to zarahemla
and here in zarahemla he is at a garden
that he has apparently that is more
toward the outskirts of zara
hamlet perhaps hugh nibley talks about
this how there would be several
gardens that might be toward the
exterior areas of
a large city and here in this garden he
has a
tower and perhaps representative of
going to a mountain
and praying and communing with god nephi
goes up on this tower one thing to think
about i don't know the answer to this
is that is this a common thing do
profits have
towers i mean if you see it here why
would that not happen elsewhere
right so he's on this tower that is on a
major highway that means a walkway that
goes to a major market
so there's a lot of traffic he knows
where he's going
this would be a place where he'd be able
to know
beforehand that he would be able to be
in front of a large amount of people a
lot of traffic
but he's up there pouring his heart out
for
zara hemline for the land of the
nephites because they're so wicked
and people notice him and they go out
and tell others and then
a large crowd begins to gather around
him
and seeing what he's doing and he's
crying out apparently
verbally feeling the burden of the
iniquity
of the people upon him and
wishing that he actually lived more in
the times of lehi and nephi
originally right that's his and his
brother's namesake
wishing that he lived back then when
there seemed to be so much more
righteousness and
adherence to the word which is probably
true but
grass is always greener on the other
side it's not like they didn't have
problems
and so down here in verse 19 he's
addressing this crowd that has gathered
around him
and he says and behold instead of
gathering you
except ye will repent behold as being
the lord
he will he shall scatter you forth
that ye shall become meat for dogs and
wild beasts
this is reminiscent of jesus talking
about i i would gather you as a hen
gathers her chicks but that's the idea
with
the church is a gathering right like we
talk about
today especially a primary message of
president nelson is
a gathering of israel that idea of
gathering is crucial to the gospel to
the church to all churches actually
elder bednar recently in a uh
a presentation to the law school at byu
talked about how crucial that idea of
gathering is and how
it's very difficult with covid right
it's kind of a legal issue
he's worried about government pushing
back
on the ability to gather for religious
purposes
because this gathering is central to the
idea of religion
of organized religion so he says to this
crowd look instead of
remembering the lord you've turned
instead
to trying to get gain getting the praise
of men
right popularity or even approval think
about our social media today
is it more important for you to get more
likes and
retweets and whatever it might be than
it is to
really stop and think about what you are
putting out there
is it the praise of men that you want or
is it
the praise of god i think that's
becoming a bigger and bigger issue with
social media and then he says also and
this is also important this seems to go
with this theme often he says
in 22 and for this cause woe shall come
unto you
except you shall repent for if you will
not repent behold this great city
and also all those great cities which
are round about
which are in the land of our possession
shall be taken away
so going back again to the time of lehi
remember that layman and lemuel
also needed to repent right and what
would they be repenting on that
how would they repent they would need to
put their faith in jesus christ they had
a real issue with the doctrine of christ
if you look
closely at that lehi's primary focus as
a prophet of god is
jesus christ layman and lemuel had an
issue with that
but the other thing the other issue that
they had was this kind of
this nationality right this hyper
nationality
around jerusalem and the people there
the kingdom of judah
right they said there's no way that this
city is going to be destroyed
even though lehigh and jeremiah were
prophesying that that's exactly what was
going to happen
and where else do we see that we see
that with the priests of noah and king
noah right
that where abinadi was saying that they
were going to be destroyed
but that's not what happened where we
might have seen that also is in the last
116 pages
going back to grandpa mosiah when they
were in the land of nephi where
nephi himself had that temple built
after the model of
the temple of solomon when mosiah took
his
group of people which was probably a
minority of people
a minority of the lamanites out and went
to zarahemla
you would have probably seen the same
idea well this this place here the
the city of nephi is never going to be
destroyed or overrun by the lamanites
but of course it is
and so they had to get out of there just
like lehi
and his band had to get out
before jerusalem was destroyed so this
is the same
argument that comes up right this is
there's this nationality
that that is a hyper emotion
that that i i believe goes right along
with that idea of
judgment right we're not going to be
judged
if we are not being judged and we're not
looking at ourselves
and the sins that we're committing here
and there's no judgment for us
then why are we thinking that anything's
going to happen to zerahimla
or to jerusalem etc or the land of nephi
so it seems to go along with that he
also brings up here that the lamanites
or
are more righteous than the nephites
and remember again when we talk about
groups that fall into iniquity
it's even though there's there's a
knowledge there obviously they've got
the light here that they are
extinguishing of the gospel
and of the doctrine of christ but
there's always a moral justification
that's the only way it works people
don't just turn to darkness
you know for the most part very few
don't just turn to darkness
and say that's what they want is the
darkness right they have to camouflage
that
the teachings the ideologies
always have to have justifications
so that you're not staring directly into
the void
and into the chaos remember that the
oaths
that the gady ant robbers take
are on the name of the maker the great
maker of god
so you know as hard as that is to
understand
it's it's it's an extreme in
justification on what they're doing
and he says straight out to them yea
we'll be into you because of that great
abomination which has come among you
and you have united yourselves unto it
yay to that secret band which was
established by gaddienton
right so for the most part right a large
group of the nephites here have either
joined that band or support it
or turn the other way right
ignore it and let it happen
and a lot of it might be fear for some
people i mean you can imagine
during the time of the nazis right i
mean if you spoke up
once there was enough power there what
were the consequences for that
would they target you the difference is
is that with the lamanites who are
more righteous than the nephites they
went out before it became too big of a
problem
and they extinguished this movement
they extinguished the gadiant robbers
eliminated them or drove them out from
their cities the nephites
either put an arm around them and and
invited them in
or looked the other way and we get this
here in 26 remember if we look again at
lehigh's vision
it is the the tree of life as the
doctrine of christ
and on the opposite end of the valley
right or of the
gulf is the great and spacious building
which is
pride so he's going to start off with
pride here you've let
pride come into your hearts and then
he's going to go here in the next
chapter and go right to the opposite
side of that valley of that gulf
which is jesus christ he says
yea woe shall come unto you because of
that pride
which ye have suffered to enter your
hearts which has
lifted you up as opposed to lifting up
the brazen serpent who is christ
right if we think about being lifted up
the brazen serpent
serpent being lifted up and there's some
hebraisms in there
some parallelism and it's referred to
often in the book of mormon
and in the new testament but what it's
saying is in a sense it's saying what
are you looking up to
you're you're inserting yourself in the
in the hierarchy
below christ below god and looking up to
him
for healing for repentance
for forgiveness instead of you being
lifted up
and then he clarifies this again we've
gotten this several times i like when
they clarify the prophets clarify this
he says behold now i do not say that
these things shall be of myself
it's not just his own reasoning it's not
just
himself right because it is not of
myself that i know these things
but behold i know that these things are
true because the lord has made them
known
unto me therefore i testify that they
shall be
so it's not just a random smart person
that is declaring
the issues here the problems here and
what's about to happen
he's making a claim that this is coming
from god himself
so as he lays down this idea of
of repentance here and and calling out
the iniquity of the people
there are a number of them kind of like
when almond amulek were in ammonia right
a number of the judges here
that belong to the band of gaddy anton
and they're angry right
and so they're going to try and do what
stir up the people
right this is all politics this is how
this works
and they say why do ye not cease upon
this man
and bring him forth that he may be
condemned
according to the crime which he has done
well what's the crime well they're gonna
they're gonna tell us
he says why see us thou this man and
here's to him revile against this people
and against our law
well what's happened with the law right
they've made new laws they've put
new laws in place with all these new
judges especially the chief judges that
are of the ba
the getty ant robbers so the laws are
laws of iniquity that are being placed
into into
their constitution right on the books
and then just like with jesus and with
john the baptist
right they want to grab him but
it says and those judges were angry with
him because he spake
plainly unto them concerning their
secret works of darkness
nevertheless they durst not lay their
hand their own hands upon him
for they feared the people lest they
should cry out against
them so this gives us an idea here right
that they are
even though there are a number of people
that might be very tightly
uh um bound to the ghanian robbers there
are a number of people here
that are still perhaps righteous or at
least
not fully supportive of the gadian
robbers
and they say the same thing as those
that would have been in jerusalem and
the priests of noah right
you know he condemns this people even
unto destruction
that these our great cities shall be
taken from us
that we shall have no place in them and
we
and now we know that this is impossible
for behold we are powerful and our
city's great
therefore our enemies can have no power
over us
it's the same argument and then he lays
this out and this is i think the key
thing here
and it came to pass that thus they did
stir up the people
to anger against nephi
this is a really easy thing to happen i
i especially i notice this now
in a political cycle right now and
regardless of where you stand
politically
in your own country right it's so easy
to get stirred up
and to get angry with those that are
opposing your views and your worldview
in the united states it seems to me that
we are at an impasse here because
through media you know starting with
newspapers and then radio
and then tv and now the internet and
social media
the politicians and the system have
become so effective
in dividing us that we only talk about
the issues secondarily
we make caricatures of the politicians
and we look at the negative sides of the
politicians and that seems to be a
bigger talking point
than the actual issues are and being
stirred up to
anger seems to be the primary objective
of any political campaign these days
so since the judges here of the gadian
robbers are
fearful of laying their hands on nephi
he
goes on a little bit more and where's he
gonna go from repentance he's gonna move
right into jesus christ
so he says have ye not read that god
gave power unto one
man even moses to smite upon the waters
of the red sea and they parted hither
and thither
so he says well why not me then right
he's laying down his reasoning his
argument
and then he goes on right i have the
power to do these things
because i have the keys and what are
those keys based on
but behold ye not only deny my words
but you also deny all the words which
have been spoken by our fathers
and also the words which were spoken by
this man moses
who had such great power given unto him
yea the words which he hath spoken
concerning the coming of the messiah
one of the great things about the book
of mormon maybe the greatest thing about
the book of mormon
is the support of christianity
in old testament times
because obviously we don't get that
explicitly
in the old testament it is only
implicitly
that we get that message of christ
through isaiah
and zechariah malachi
and others right but this is explicit
in the book of mormon that all of these
prophets have
always testified of jesus christ that's
what this is always
that's what this is always about is the
doctrine of christ
and he brings up our our favorite
example right
yeah did he not bear record that the son
of god should come
and as he lifted up the brazen serpent
so instead of
us being lifted up right here we go from
pride
to the savior and as he lifted up the
brazen serpent in the wilderness even so
shall he be lifted up
who should come and as many as should
look upon that serpent should live
even so as many as should look upon the
son of god
with faith having a contrite spirit
might live even unto that life which is
eternal
right so again very we get this in the
new testament also the brazen serpent
is a representation of jesus christ and
that brazen serpent
for a very long time was in
the temple before it was removed
but then he goes on here right and this
is a message for us too
not just for those that are denying
christ
or are forgetting about him
he says moses did not only testify of
these things but also
all the holy prophets from his days even
to the days of abraham
yea and behold abraham saw of his coming
and was filled with gladness and did
rejoice
very explicit
what we get in biblical scholarship
today right
primarily dominant in in in
in biblical scholarship that i've seen
which is kind of a survey of of papers
and and books
outside of of believing
scholars is that these things are not
about christ
it's much more of a jewish perspective
but you can see that seeping in
even in believing scholars and even in
the church sometimes an
lds scholarship well these things aren't
really about christ
right this is about something else and
we kind of read into this
see that more and more these days let's
look at the scriptures here what do they
say abraham
knew about his coming that means he
taught that to
isaac and isaac taught it to jacob and
jacob taught it to his twelve sons
and that that's what these things are
all about and that moses prophesied of
him
that isaiah prophesied of him
and he says that abraham not only knew
of these things but there were many
before the days of abraham
who were called by the order of god the
dbr
right the priesthood the melchizedek
priesthood yea even after the order of
his
son that's what the priesthood is
the priesthood was named after the order
of the son
they know what this doctrine is it's not
a guess
it's not trying to read in something in
a message into
hebrew scripture for christians
after the time of christ this is one of
the most important keys i believe to the
book
of mormon and what it offers us a
testimony of the old testament prophets
of the prophets going all the way back
to the time of adam
about the doctrine of christ and he says
even
since the time of abraham there have
been many prophets that have testified
these things
ye behold the prophet zenis did testify
boldly
for the which he was slain right what
are these things well of course it's
repentance but again it's the doctrine
of christ that is at the focus here
that is at the core of the teaching
that's the order that they're after
that's the that's the order that they're
called after
and behold zenic and also isaias
and also isaiah right when isaiah talks
about the virgin when isaiah talks about
the suffering servant
this is not you have to read these in a
metaphorical
way right he's talking about
jesus christ even if he's using other
characters to explain it
and also jeremiah well jeremiah is a
contemporary of lehi
and then he explains about the
destruction here and this how these
prophecies work he says that jeremiah
testified that jerusalem was going to be
destroyed just like lehi did
and we know that it's been destroyed how
do we know that because the majority of
the nephites politically
the group of nephites are mulekites and
they
came from jerusalem when it was
destroyed
right the son of zedekiah was mulik
the only son of zedekiah that was not
killed
and again our father lehi was driven out
of jerusalem because he testified of
these
things and all the other prophets down
to our time
yea they have testified of the coming of
christ
and he's saying look this is right at
your doors
and you are right for destruction
because what happens with iniquity well
it eats itself right
it turns in on itself factions
attack other factions and because
they're not built on eternal principles
they collide and they fall
and so he puts out there a prophecy to
them again
he says ye go ye in unto the judgment
seat
and search and behold your judge is
murdered
and he lieth in his blood and he hath
been murdered by his brother who seeketh
to sit in the judgment seat
and behold they both belong to your
secret
band whose author is gaddy anton and the
evil one who seeketh to destroy the
souls of men
so when he says this five men run off to
the judgment seat and they find
the chief judge dead sure enough and
they fall to the floor
and other servants run and tell
everybody what has happened
and so as they gather there and these
judges
realize that nephi is right they don't
care about the facts
right it is all about agenda
it's all about a narrative it's all
about power
and so they cry out against nephi and
say behold we know that this nephi must
have agreed
with someone to slay the judge that he
might
raise himself to be a great man get the
theme here of raising right
chosen of god and a prophet and so they
question the five that originally went
there and saw the chief judge
but the chief judges grabbed nephi
anyway
and they bind him and they bring them
bring him before
the multitude and what is their aim here
it's not the truth they're trying to
cross him just like the priests of noah
were doing with the benadai
exactly the same thing right you can
imagine a trial today where the
especially the prosecutor right is just
trying to get the right information here
to sway the jury
it's not about getting the right thing
the truth out
it's about winning it's about power
so nephi says look here's how you're
going to know
you're going to go to the house of
siantom
who is the brother of the chief judge
whose name was sayazoram and say unto
him
that you have murdered your brother and
eventually he's going to confess
there's going to be blood on the skirts
of his cloak
and he will confess to the murder and so
a lot of more people believe in nephi
now right they believe that he is a
prophet
even some a god and so
the people finally disperse nephi heads
toward his house
and on the way he's pondering remember
the word pondering we talked about that
all right what does that mean it means
to reason
it means to work things out in your mind
pound
or pondering comes from the same root
that gives us the word
pound right a measurement it's you're
measuring
this against other things you're
weighing it it's a reasoning
and as he's pondering a voice comes unto
him
saying blessed art thou nephi for those
things which thou hast done
for i have be i have beheld how thou
hast with
unwaryingness declared the word
you know there's times on my mission
where i thought am i am i doing this
you can always do more right you can
always do more where do you where do you
go with that how do you how far do you
go
with that but he says thou hast not
feared them
and has not sought thine own life right
pride
but has sought my will and to keep my
commandments
and that's the key right that's the the
lesson of the savior
even while he's going through the aches
and pains and overwhelming
burden of gethsemane and because of this
he says that i will make the mighty in
word
and indeed in faith and in works
interesting in faith and in works like
the two things we talk about in the new
testament all the time
yea even that all things shall be done
unto thee according to thy
word well this is how
the earth was created right it was done
according to the word of god he spoke
and it happened and he says that
whatsoever ye shall seal on earth
shall be sealed in heaven and whatsoever
ye
loose you shall loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven
and he commands the lord commands nephi
saying it to tell the people except you
repent
ye shall be smitten even unto
destruction
so we might think about this cycle here
a little bit
and see how sin and destruction work
together
i i don't in my opinion and you know
it's just gospel by greg here
but these are natural consequences that
we find with anything
right these are the rules of mortality
that that
that we live with the more we move
away from the mark the more we move out
of order and into chaos and into the
void
the more destruction is going to enter
into our lives or our society or our
cities
our nations etc so as we break down this
order
right of following faith right which is
trust the civilizations have to run off
of trust
as we break down the family as we break
down
religion and faith in god then the the
very natural consequences of all these
things
is destruction of course it is
it's like a house of cards so nephi goes
out and preaches this to the people and
remember
how close we're getting now to the to
the birth of christ
here we're at about 20 bc we're going to
move all the way to 6 bc here
we're starting to move toward this
destruction and there's contention and
there's wars
starting to pop up everywhere there's no
security
and this this band of robbers the
gadians
are carrying out the work of destruction
and wickedness
and the people are allowing it and so
nephi stands in as an advocate kind of
like moses did on sinai
and he says look instead of destroying
this people right now
which again which would be natural
consequences
please allow for there to be a famine
instead and hopefully they will repent
in other words they're not going to do
this on their own i understand that
they're not going to make that choice
and it's much better if they did just as
alma taught the poor zoramites right
you're kind of forced to have a broken
heart and a contrite spirit
because you're forced out of the
synagogues and you're forced
economically
to be humble here nephi is saying the
same
thing same idea allow for them to be in
a position
at least to be forced to
humble themselves it's not the best
option
but it's kind of a plan b here and so
based on what has been granted to nephi
here
as far as what he says is going to
happen
is going to happen he he says okay
there's going to be a famine
and finally the famine does its job and
it comes to pass that the people saw
that they were about to perish by famine
right there by force and they began to
remember the lord their god you can see
how something like a natural disaster
or how the elements can work against
power right when people are starving to
death
it might lower the power of those in
charge
it could increase it also if they can
hold on to the power of food
and distribution but it could also say
to those that are starving hey i'm going
to die anyway here my family is going to
die anyway
so your threats on me are not that
strong
and that can work different ways you
know you think about the ukrainian
famine
right from the soviet union and the
oppression that laid there and how power
ruled over that but it can work the
other way as well
and so the people repent and nephi cries
under the lord and says look they have
repented
please remove the famine and he and he
does
and this brings about a great change
here between the lamanites and the
nephites
because now everyone esteems nephi as a
great prophet
you know it took hunger starvation
and near death to do it but they all
regard nephi as a great prophet
and the church did spread throughout the
face of all the land
and the more part this might be the
first time this happens
and the more part of the people both the
nephites and the lamanites
did belong to the church and they did
have exceedingly great peace in the land
and thus ended the 70th seventh year
so again coming up here in in a few more
years
to the birth of christ and the majority
of the people both lamanites and
nephites are members of the church
but that doesn't hold for long right it
says here
a couple years later there were a
certain number of the dissenters
from the people of nephi who had some
years before gone over
unto the lamanites and taken upon
themselves the name of lamanites right
because it's political
he fights and lamanites political groups
and also a certain number who are real
descendants of the lamanites
being stirred up to anger by them always
it's always how it works or by those
dissenters therefore they commenced a
war with their brethren
being the nephites and so they would
come in and commit murder
and plunder and then they would retreat
back into the mountains
and into the wilderness and secret
places
hiding themselves that they could not be
discovered again this is
these are robbers this is a lot like
guerrilla warfare
you might be a smaller group but this is
how you work against a larger system
and daily they received additions to
their numbers
inasmuch as they were dissenters that
went forth unto them
so we could probably look at first that
the majority of these dissenters were
not members of the church
but then it goes beyond that and in the
space of not
many years they became an exceedingly
great
band of robbers and they did search out
all the secret plans of gaddyanton and
thus they became robbers of gadiantit so
the same thing comes back
and cycles back you say well how can
that be they just saw how horrible
everything was well
think about politically how how
political
ideologies just they just always seem to
resurface
in a free land it's harder to do
in a land where the rulers have a very
heavy hand
but think of how many times some new
form of
hypernationalism come into play
or how many times on the opposite side
of the aisle right some for new form of
marxism
comes into play even though these things
have
proven nothing but disaster and
destruction
and suffering and death they get
recycled
over and over again and
these band of robbers are they they
plunder and murder both with the
lamanites and with the nephites
and so they send out an army against
these robbers and that they're actually
pushed back by the robbers
again you can imagine kind of similar to
something like you might see right in
vietnam
or or afghanistan right you're going
into someone else's land where they have
a much better idea
of the terrain of the hiding places
of cutting things off and using the
terrain in your favor
for example in afghanistan all those
tunnels that they were able to use
that's always the advantage of a another
army coming into a stranger land
so they go out a second time this army
and they try to do the same thing and
they're pushed back yet again
and so you can imagine now
how much fear there would be among the
lamanites and the nephites
with this band where they they can't
stop them they've tried twice and they
can't do it
and so these robbers come into these
cities and the villages
with great destruction and they kill
many and carry away others captive into
the wilderness yay and more especially
their women and their children now
there's a couple reasons for that i
think
number one you probably have an awful
lot of
younger single men that would be a part
of this they would be the first ones to
go
not all of them of course but that would
be easier they have nothing that they're
leaving behind
as they go out into the mountains with
these robbers
so they need wives secondly of course
it's easier to get them because the men
might be off doing something else
and so they lay in wait and when the men
are away in certain areas
they go in and they take the women and
the children then of course
as slaves people that will labor for
them
and so here the nephites especially
they begin to turn back to pride
this is not softening their hearts
remember
these are the same people that in a
sense the reason they changed their
hearts
was because of the famine it's not
because they
did this on their own without a big push
nephi says that they harden their hearts
and do forget the lord their god and do
trample under their feet the holy one
the doctrine of christ right yay and
this because of their ease and their
exceedingly great
prosperity and then we get a
a in the the environment that we live in
right with with with mortality and being
natural men and women
oh how foolish and how vain and how evil
and devilish and how quick to do
iniquity
and how slow to do good are the children
of men
yea how quick to hearken unto the words
of the evil one
and to set their hearts upon the vain
things the
void things the worthless things
of the world right that's that's how we
all are that is our
our status that it is easier for us to
be of the world and that's by design
so that we can overcome it and how slow
are they to remember the lord their god
think about the sacrament prayers right
and this focus again on remembering on
focusing and the preaching over and over
again especially in the book of mormon
by the prophets about
remember the great things that the lord
has done for us for our fathers
taking them out of egypt and going
through
the wilderness and bringing them to the
promised land of bringing lehi
to the new promised land to the americas
how slow
they are to walk in wisdom's paths
and then this is key about the pride
it says behold they do not desire that
the lord their god
who hath created them should rule and
reign over them
and that's always by choice right we
always choose that
all hierarchies are formed in that sense
you know our values hierarchies are are
formed by our decisions of what's most
important
what we are going to follow our agency
creates what will rule over us
and we get this little tidbit here
it's talking about the power of the lord
and how
the mountains tremble and quake
and smooth places become like a valley
and he comes down here and he says and
thus according to his word the earth
goeth back
and it appeareth unto man that the sun
standeth still this is from joshua
in the brass place again an ancestor
directly to the josephites here
yea and behold this is so for surely it
is the earth
that moveth and not the sun
so what is the cosmology here of the
nephites
did they know that the earth rotated
around the sun
i don't know if that's exactly what that
means
but it's not until the time of
copernicus
right later on that this really changes
and it's actually
a heresy to the church to the christian
church at the time
but here it seems like that's the
cosmology here of the nephites
and so nephi finishes up wishing for the
best
but knowing that not everybody is going
to follow the will of god not everybody
is going to use their agency
to insert themselves in that values
hierarchy and in the
theological hierarchy putting god above
them
to reign over them and that it's because
of their decisions
and their works that there is going to
be a disparity
in results among us there has to be
he says i would that all men might be
saved
but we read that in the great and last
day
there are some who shall be cast out
okay who shall be cast off from the
presence of the lord
and this is the experience that he's
having with his people now
there are some that will listen but
others
that are succumbing to or outright
choosing consciously iniquity
and the benefits of a natural world
i'll talk to you next time

 

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