'Covenant & Apostasy'
- Paul clarifies the timing of the Second Coming
- There will first be an Apostasy (Desertion)
- The Apostasy is part of a cycle of creation
LDS Mormon New Testament Bible
in this episode we talked about Covenant
and apostasy here we go so this quick
media episode is on second Thessalonians
this is an epistle that Paul and
apparently Silas and Timothy wrote or
it's from the three of them that they
wrote to the community at the Salonika
shortly after 1st Thessalonians so kind
of the things that we just went over in
the last episode this is shortly after
that he writes a second letter to the
Thessalonians and it's kind of
interesting when you compare the two
because he kind of seems to have to pull
some things back and take a counter
approach on a couple of things but he
starts off here in Chapter 1 and he says
something that is reminiscent of
Doctrine and Covenants section 121 where
Joseph Smith is in Liberty jail and he
just he can't take it anymore and he
cries out to the Lord where is that
where art Thou O God and whereas I
pavilion and the Lord responds to him
and says several things but one thing he
says to him is that look you're not even
his job yet and you're certainly not
like me and what I had to go through and
there's this comparison then that the
Lord is making to Joseph Smith these are
the different degrees of suffering and
for righteousness right so in Paul this
is a theme throughout the epistles that
Paul talks about suffering for
righteousness and how that creates
goodness and in Liberty jail Joseph
Smith is told look
if you endure this well then it will be
counted as righteousness for you which
is a really interesting formula I think
when you think about it that is part of
our life here in mortality is to suffer
it's not that that's what the Lord wants
it's not what we want but it's part of
our learning process and it's part of
our maybe our purification process how
are we going to respond to adversity and
to suffering and of course the only way
we know that is to go through it and if
we endure it well if we learn the
lessons that we're supposed to learn
through this through suffering then it's
counted as righteousness for us so
that's what the Lord obviously went
through what Jesus went through is that
he suffered greater than anybody else
and obviously it is counted as
righteousness for him we're supposed to
as we learn be imitators followers
Mehmet I of Jesus of Jesus Christ and
part of that is suffering for righteous
sake and for righteousness and that's
what he says here to the Thessalonians
again remember they've been suffering
and persecuted through the Jews there
and maybe other places as well and this
is what Paul says to them here starting
in verse four he says so that we
ourselves glory in you in the Churches
of God for your patience and faith so if
you endure it well in all your
persecutions and tribulations that ye
endure five which is a manifest token of
the righteous judgment of God that ye
may be counted worthy of the kingdom of
God for which he also suffer so
worthiness comes through suffering or
that's one way worthiness is
is acquired is through suffering and
suffering for the right reasons or for
the right causes or purposes and then a
little bit lower in the chapter he talks
about those that are persecuting them
and talks about how judgment will be
coming to them and this is something
that the Lord says also in section 121
about those that are oppressing Joseph
and his friends and that there is going
to be judgment that speedily will come
to those that are fighting against
righteousness and he starts to lay the
groundwork here a little bit Paul for
this division right before between the
righteous and those that persecute the
righteous that there is judgment it does
matter and there's a separating
between the wheat and the chaff that's
part of the process we're gonna get into
that here as we go through the next
couple of chapters so in chapter 2 then
he comes back and he starts off in verse
1 talking about the Saints being
gathered so let's think about this theme
that Paul works with throughout the
entire well through all of his epistles
and that is the theme of covenant and so
it's again the Jews and the Gentiles
they're separate but they're going to be
brought together here the first shall be
last the last shall be first those with
different spiritual gifts will reach
down and pull up those that don't have
those spiritual gifts and those people
that are brought up who have other
spiritual gifts will be brought up to
others who don't have those spiritual
gifts and they work with each other it's
part of Covenant through faith hope and
charity and through the different
spiritual gifts so it's this way of
working together to become more one
coming together and that's what he's
starting with here I believe on purpose
with the first verse in chapter 2 here
so he's going to continue with this
theme of being gathered together in a
sense or of Covenant as he goes through
the rest of chapter 2 here he says here
in verse 2
that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be
troubled neither by spirit nor by word
nor by letter as from us think about the
last letter he wrote to them the first
Thessalonians as that the day of Christ
is at hand so as you recall in the
letter of the letter in first
Thessalonians he talks about the Lord is
going to come as a thief in the night
it's urgent it's like you're not you're
not gonna be ready you don't know when
it is and so that must be what's going
on here is that people are starting to
think like hey this is tomorrow this is
next week this is next month and so it's
taken to an extreme not of preparation
but actually the opposite it appears
here throughout the rest of these
chapters here in 2nd Thessalonians that
a lot of people are actually thinking
well I don't need to take care of this
and I don't need to take care of that
because the day of the Lord here is
coming very very quickly and so Paul is
gonna have to real things back in here a
little bit because of the reaction from
apparently his last epistle to them so
he's gotta weigh this out and balance
out this expectation and this principle
of waiting for the second coming of the
Lord so he follows up here and says in
verse 3 this is the verse that we are
most of us familiar with about the great
apostasy and the great apostasy right is
what happens after the Apostles here are
all killed off and the church starts to
fall away from its priesthood Authority
it's revelation it's organization and it
breaks down into different sects with
different values hierarchies in their
doctrine and different heresies and a
lot of paganism coming back into the
church and especially from the doctors
of Alexandria and the philosophers
philosophies of men start to come into
the church but here's what it says in
verse 3 let no man deceive you by any
means for that day shall not come except
there come a falling away first and a
number of different translations of the
new
here actually say until there is an
apostasy an apostasy means to stand away
from Apo would be coming out of our
away from and Stasy would be to stand
and so it's it means to stand away from
or really it would mean to desert
something right - actually desert
something or someone and so we can look
at an apostasy I think and especially
inserting here the knee whore principle
as deserting the ideas and the values
hierarchy of the gospel and deserting
the priesthood and deserting certain
doctrines and deserting Christ and the
fullness of the doctrine of Christ as
well that would be an apostasy because
you'd be deserting him and who he really
is so there has to be a falling away
first and that man of sin be revealed
the son of perdition so as we talked
about apostasy there is also what you
would say in Greek and apocalypse which
means a revelation or a revealing of the
son of perdition also so all heck has to
break loose before the Son of man will
return but again going back to verse one
here where he first he talks about a
gathering gathering together the Saints
think about how we talk about the
gathering of Israel president Nelson is
really big on this I love the way he
talks about this he puts us into the
whole grand picture of the Lost Tribes
of Israel and gathering all of Israel
back together something that had been
split apart dispersed is now being
gathered back together again in the last
days well it's the same thing with the
church and with the priesthood and with
the doctrine that is how things work
that is part of creation a much larger
principle if we're to step back and look
at this we see that
there are cycles of what we call
dispensations and what is a dispensation
a dispensation means dispensing the keys
of the priesthood dispensing the truth
dispensing the fullness of the gospel
and there has to be several
dispensations because when that is
dispersed then the church grows people
have the ordinances they have the truth
they build their families around these
things and then it slowly starts to
break apart and the priesthood is lost
truths are lost and the civilization of
Zion so to speak starts to corrupt and
dwindle away and then there is an
apostasy this isn't the only great
apostasy after the Apostles here right
there have been several before and that
is part of creation that's how it works
there is a separation of things an
apostasy standing apart and then there
is a gathering a bringing everything
back together and Paul I think
understands this very very well and so
he uses this type of language so that we
can see how this is all part of a
process and he's trying to explain to
the Thessalonians the exact principle
here that I'm talking about you have to
have a separation and being brought to
back together that's the whole plan of
salvation from a macro perspective as
well as a micro perspective macro in the
sense that Adam and Eve fell away from
God right and our whole job then in
mortality is to come back together with
him well the 12 tribes of Israel fell
apart from each other and we're supposed
to gather all of that back together
again the Jews and the Gentiles and the
tribes of Israel and the truth is broken
apart into several different factions or
the priesthood and the doctrine of
Christ is lost and falls away it deserts
the people when they don't believe and
so then there has to be a new
dispensation of the keys and the truths
and then everything is brought back
together again and so Paul is using that
language throughout the epistles and we
see it right here in second
Thessalonians so he's trying to reel the
Thessalonians back in a little bit and
saying look don't worry so much about it
yes he's coming as a thief in the night
but it may not be tomorrow it may not be
next week there's a lot that has to
happen here still so move on with your
life and work with faith hope and
charity and then he gives us a clue
about how things are already happening
here to break things apart again he says
here in verse 7 for the mystery of
iniquity doth already work only he who
now letteth will let that's Christ
letting Satan do his job until he be
taken out of the way it's another
process right he's here and then it's
going to be taken apart so when he talks
about judgment and about the people in
the church and those that are also
persecutors that's the other side of
bringing things together you can bring
and gather Israel gather the Jews and
the Gentiles here the Greeks and bring
them together but even from that group
there's going to be a sifting right
there's going to be a breaking apart
between the righteous and the
unrighteous between the oppressors and
the oppressed so to speak between the
faithful and the unfaithful bringing
bringing things together and then things
falling back apart and then in verse 10
he explains why this happens with some
people and why they fall apart it comes
down to that very important principle it
says and with all deceivableness if
that's even a word and unrighteousness
in them that perish because they
received not the love of the truth that
they might be saved
so they don't have the desire right
they've lost the desire and think about
how that desire works there are
missionaries like Paul here who goes out
and paints the picture brings the spirit
and changes hearts and people begin to
desire what Paul is talking about and
understand the truths and then
eventually some of those people turn and
their hearts turn right that means that
really their desire changes they began
to desire other things that become more
important to them and their values
hierarchy begins to alter and so they
lose the love of the truth and you can
see how that principle how the love of
the truth would drive and individuals
actions would drive your actions would
drive my actions that would be righteous
if I really have that desire to really
chase the truth a little further down in
13 he says but we are bound to give
thanks always God for you brethren
beloved of the Lord because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to
salvation what is the beginning again
the beginning is the counsel of God it's
the premortal counsel the sod that
we have in Hebrew and what we have in
Genesis in the beginning right bellick
sheets is that is the Hebrew is the
counsel it's the pre-existent
period it's not the beginning of when
the earth is created it's the premortal
life it's the counsel in heaven so Paul
is saying that these members had been
chosen in that counsel in the beginning
they had been not predestined but four
ordained and then in 15 therefore
brethren stand fast and hold their
traditions which he have been taught
whether by word or our epistle tradition
is very important there are good
traditions and there are bad traditions
like we learn in the Book of Mormon that
the Lamanites are blinded because of the
tradition of their fathers
they have the wrong traditions and the
Nephites cling a little closer to the
right traditions and you can see that
happening in like even in the West right
now where you have a big change in
traditions not necessarily for the
better as Christianity begins to slow
down and fall apart and become less of a
primary and core part of people's lives
those traditions are being lost and I
mean that as far as every sect of
Christianity everywhere
I love seeing things from like the
Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church
the Episcopalians the Church of England
and seeing you know very
tradition rich I may not agree with
everything but you can understand how
rituals and certain traditions that can
be carried on and passed down are
important to a civilization to a family
to an individual and to be able to
repeat those things and then they can
give that to their children etc
strengthens the culture and it
strengthens the people think about the
Jews they have been scattered everywhere
mass murdered and put aside in many
point at many points in history in many
parts of the world but even though we
don't agree with all of the traditions
and even though a lot of the Jews today
are secular there are certain traditions
that are still there and it helps it
helps a people survive and so Paul is
saying hang on to those traditions that
we have taught you and who knows what
that might mean we can think of today a
family home evening we can think of you
know what we might do together as a
family on a Sunday what we do honor
holidays church activities family
activities etc it's an important part of
sticking together as a family and as a
people and then he gives a word of
warning he talks about those that are
not
pulling their weight in the church
they're not working and maybe some of
them are even getting a handout but not
working and he seems to imply here that
some of them may be people that again
are saying hey Christ is coming here
soon what's the point and so he's saying
he talks about work and how it's
important that everybody work for
themselves and earned their own keep and
that's a important principle right it's
an important principle even if something
was coming up shortly you need to work
to earn your own keep and you can see in
different societies and even in
different cultures within the west where
welfare comes in and dominates someplace
it destroys a community completely
destroys a community you need to do the
exact opposite again that is misplaced
empathy that actually destroys and
doesn't help and so by teaching work and
producing something so that you can
enjoy the fruits of your labor and you
can wax confident in your skills and
your capabilities and your leadership
and your parenting and growing up
learning the same types of skills is
crucial and that's starting to fall away
here maybe there is a little bit too
much welfare going on within the church
here or something so he says here in
verse six now we command you brethren in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that
you withdraw yourselves from every
brother that walketh disorderly and not
after the tradition which he received of
us tradition of work tradition of
service tradition of obedience and
whatever else they had planted there in
Thessalonica but he's talking again
about a separation right
you've been gathered together you're all
being gathered together but there is
also on the other side of that
separation that needs to occur and we
have that today
we still have that today we don't like
it we don't push for it obviously but we
have disfellowship what does that mean
to be disfellowshipped
it means that you're pulled apart
hopefully it's just kind of a one three
five game suspension so to speak and
then you're back in the game and then we
also have excommunication right which is
obviously goes well beyond that but
there is still separation even as we are
gathering things together and he says
hear about this work about a work ethic
in verse 10 he says for even when we
were with you this we commanded you that
if any would not work neither should he
eat so that's a pretty good principle
unless you're disabled right unless
you've got a real problem everybody
should be working and producing it's
just healthy and I think that we do a
pretty good job of that in the church
there's a welfare where it's needed but
it's usually shorter term and it's
usually with an arm around you helping
you try and get back on your feet so
Paul has gone over again covenant cloven
ear bring together there has to be
separation constantly going on and there
has to be bringing together constantly
going on that is what we read in Genesis
in the creation story and in the story
of the Garden of Eden and uses that to
teach this lesson to the people in
Thessalonica that look I mean there's
still a major separation in apostasy a
desertion that needs to happen before
the Lord is going to come back before
again there is a coming together of God
and man but even as we await that we
need to work we need to serve we need to
grow
and we need to produce I'll talk to you
next time
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