The Nehor Principle Part 2

"The Fourth Interpreter' Part 2
- Josiah, Jeremiah & Lehi
- Laman & Lemuel
- Abinadi was killed because he preached about Jehovah being born into mortality (The Son of God) and bearing the sins of the world.
- The times of Jesus

 

Come Follow Me

LDS Mormon Laman Josiah Jeremiah Isaiah Nehor Deuteronomists Abinadi

 

and then we can come down to the time of

Lehi and here Jeremiah is preaching to

the people who are becoming wicked and

he's saying that all the priests are

wicked in other words those that are

running the temple are wicked there is a

huge problem interestingly at this time

about the time of King Josiah so about

621 622 BC this would be probably in

Lehigh's younger life

Josiah an 8-year old King let's put in

when he's eight years old has very

similar reforms to what Hezekiah hat and

in the Book of Kings were to end in with

Jeremiah we're told that well in the

Book of Kings we're told that Josiah's

was a great king and all these reforms

were great and it was all about idol

worship and they had to get rid of this

idol worship that might be true but one

of the things they do again here is they

take something else out of the temple

several things but they take out what

they call the a schwa in other words

we're used to thinking well the Astra is

the fertility goddess and they wanted to

get rid of the fertility goddess out of

the temple because it was not the true

God and they were worship and that's

pretty odd though what does the ash were

doing in the temple in the first place

it's more than likely ashrita who would

be the mother and would be represented

very possibly by a menorah which would

be the Tree of Life the mother and the

son are the Tree of Life so when we talk

about parsing out the doctrine of Christ

and we think of the title the Son of God

this is really important the Son of God

is the son of God because as a Bennett I

tells us because he's born of a woman

into mortality so anything that

represents the Son of God is going to be

shown oftentimes with a mother

birthed him into this world when Nephi

has his vision when he's looking at the

this is about the tree of life or the

menorah there was probably in the Holy

of Holies that's when we look at the

Tree of Life vision we should think of

it as a temple procession we're getting

to the celestial room think of the

chandelier in the celestial room as the

Tree of Life and that's what Lehi’s

vision is about but the ashram or the

ashrita that would have been in the

temple would have been a large menorah

now they kept a menorah the menorah is a

part of the Jewish faith that would have

been outside in the holy place but not

in the Holy of Holies we're talking

about something that was likely inside

of the Holy of Holies and what are we

told in Lehigh's vision that the tree

represents when Nephi asks the angel

what is the Tree of Life that's his

first question strangely enough the

angel goes to the description of Mary he

doesn't say it's Mary but the first

thing he talks about which is what

Professor Peterson has said is he goes

and he talks about Mary as this fair

virgin in the land of Jerusalem and her

bearing a son and that that's what the

tree of life represents if you look in

other cultures in the Middle East

trees can oftentimes being kings but

they're oftentimes their mothers also so

we know we're told specifically later on

that the tree is a representation of the

son of God

of Jesus Christ but one way that you

portray the Son of God is by portraying

his mother because that's what the Son

of God means it means that he's been

born into mortality

need a mother for that so they get rid

of the ashrita during this time and then

all heck breaks loose over the next 30

years plus and eventually get down to

Lehigh going around preaching around

Jerusalem and so what is the environment

in Jerusalem I think it's we think about

oh well they're just there they're there

there's a lot of iniquity the people are

sinning they're sinners but that doesn't

mean that they're not religious they

were very religious but what had changed

is the tradition the doctrine had

changed and they believed that they were

righteous they had gotten rid of this

looking forward maybe completely gotten

rid of it it sounds like there was a lot

of this going on already for decades

before maybe centuries where they were

corrupting the law or the doctrine of

Christ but in this time around the time

of Josiah and these major reforms that

were made a whole new theocratic party

came into play called the Deuteronomists

and the Deuteronomists were all about

the law of Moses and the lower law and

Christ was taken out of the picture

there was no longer a looking forward to

the son of god

I didn't say Messiah there was no longer

a looking forward to the Son of God

Jehovah coming down and taking on the

sins of the world and so what do we get

from Lehi just like with Isaiah in his

time where what is he writing about I

say is writing about the Messiah and

about the son of God and of course in

the Book of Mormon Nephi loves the words

of Isaiah why because Isaiah was going

through the same thing that Lehi and

Nephi were these attacks against the

doctrine of Christ and they saw what was

happening to the religion to the temple

to the people and getting rid of this

higher law

and tweaking and corrupting this

doctrine water always runs downhill and

the first place is gonna deter off is in

the specific doctrine of Christ or the

Son of God

so Lehi is caught in this environment

he's a prophet he may have known jerk

Jeremiah he may have may have been

recently converted for all we know into

this higher law an understanding of

what's really going on or not but Lehi

begins preaching the gospel

why is he preaching the gospel it's not

because they're just wicked though they

are because they're losing what is most

important to them in their religion when

you've been given what is right and you

remove that then your heart becomes

that much more hardened that we learned

that in the Book of Mormon with all

those groups that had the truth and then

they turn against the truth and then end

up fighting against the Nephites they

have the hardest hearts their hearts are

much harder than those of the Lamanites

for example that's the environment with

Lehi and they're going to kill him why

are they going to kill him because they

don't like him because he's telling them

that they're bad boys and girls no

that's not the problem this is the

problem we missed this sometimes I think

right at the opening of the Book of

Mormon this is about Lehi we don't

talk about this vision as much we talked

about his vision of the tree of life but

this is his vision here in Chapter 1 and

being thus overcome with the spirit he

was carried away in a vision even that

he saw the heavens open he thought he

saw God sitting upon his throne

surrounded with numberless concourses of

angels in the attitude of seeing and

praising their God this is really

important because one of the doctrines

that was lost at this time maybe earlier

was the multiplicity of individuals that

were with God the angels right he's the

Lord of hosts the Deuteronomists the

the aquatic party that took over got rid

of all of those ideas in fact they got

rid of the term Lord of Hosts there was

only God that was in the beginning there

were no hosts with him

that's where the deuteronomist said this

is different from what Lehi is bringing

up here he's bringing this up

specifically because of the environment

that he's in in Jerusalem and he came to

pass that he saw one descending out of

the midst of heaven and he beheld that

his luster was above that of the Sun at

noonday and he also saw 12 others

following him and their brightness did

exceed that of the stars in the

firmament and they came down and went

forth upon the face of the earth and the

first came and stood before my father

and gave unto him a book and bade him

that he should read and then we get he

talks a little bit more about expounds

on the vision a little bit more this is

a Nephi writing and then he comes down

here and says that he began to prophesy

and to declare unto them concerning the

things which he had both seen and heard

what did he seen here and it came to

pass that the Jews did mock him because

of the things which he testified of them

which things think about the mocking

here by the way later on with the vision

that Lehi has with the great spacious

building how many of us have thought of

the great and spacious building is

actually being the Temple in Jerusalem

and it having been corrupted and changed

or the city of Jerusalem up on hill

being lifted up in pride that seems like

the background that Lehi has here so he

talks about how he had what he had he

testified of that he had seen was of

their wickedness and abominations and

that's more like what we think about is

the people in Jerusalem being but then

he says and he testified that the things

which he saw and heard and also the

things which he read in the book

manifested plainly of the coming of a

messiah and also the redemption of the

world the atonement the sacrifice of

Jesus that's the key that's what the

Jews had gotten rid of at that time the

Jews had gotten rid of the

Deuteronomists had gotten rid of the

of Christ and when the Jews heard these

things about Christ they were angry with

him yeah even as with the prophets of

old whom they had cast out and stoned

and slain and they also sought his life

that they might take it away so right at

the get-go of the Book of Mormon what do

we have

it is another testament of Jesus Christ

and right from the beginning we have

Lehigh's vision of Jesus Christ who is

the Redeemer of the world and who is

going to be coming into the world

it's the doctrine of Christ that's why

they were going to kill him now why

would they kill him because of that

blasphemy

it's because of blasphemy they are

religious but they are set in their ways

at the lower law this ideological fervor

that they have about the law of Moses

and they're not going to hear anything

about a savior of the world or the Son

of God coming into mortality to them

Lehi here like laman and lemuel accuse

him of later is a visionary man he

believes in revelation he receives

dreams and inspiration and he believes

in this son of God Messiah that is going

to save everyone and so they're going to

kill him for it it's important to

distinguish this I think because of even

if it would go further into the

scriptures here using this knee whore

principle and seeing what's going on why

our laman and lemuel going to kill Lehi

and Nephi we're told that neat that they

think Nephi wants to make himself a king

over them that he's kind of all puffed

up but they accuse their father Lehi of

being a visionary man and they do not

understand the way Nephi does what Lehi

is teaching them they have been it

appears indoctrinated with this ideology

of the law of Moses they are not wicked

in the sense that we would just

generally think of is old layman Allah

we are bad guys Nephi and Sam are good

they're probably very religious you

never see anything in the Book of Mormon

where laman and lemuel

are breaking the commandments they don't

have an issue with a Sabbath day they're

not worshipping idols they're not

committing adultery or fornication why

do they think they need to kill Lehi

their own father and Nephi their own

brother think about well think about

Isis today think about how their fervor

is their religious fervor is what might

they kill somebody for it would be a

religious reason more than likely it

would be blasphemy it would be because

you are outside of their ideological

framework so the Book of Mormon is

launched here right launched out of this

environment of the Nehor principle

out of this loss of Christ in Jerusalem

and so Lehi and Nephi go off and what

are they so passionate about of course

it should be anyway but because of where

they come from because of the

environment that they're in this is what

drives their teaching this is what

drives what they write about because

they have seen what has happened to

Jerusalem and it's they've lost it and

so as they go out to start this new

civilization this is at the core is this

this doctrine of Christ and everything

that follows with the prophets descended

down through Nephi he is focused in on

this rock-solid doctrine of Christ

because of where it was born of here

with Lehi and Nephi let's go down to one

more example of this that we find in the

Book of Mormon and there's several but

let's go to one more and that's going to

be with one of the most important

stories in all of scripture highly

recommend that you study this over and

over and over again that is the trial of

Abinadi Abinadi remember is with

those that have our descendants of

zenith zenith left Zarahemla went off to

the land of Nephi and he

starts a new Kingdom a new city and Noah

is his son King Noah is his son and he

has his priests with them and they have

this trial that's going on now what is

happening here is that the author's

Mormon here contrasts king Noah with

King Benjamin even though they're very

far apart in when these events actually

happened but we get the story of King

Benjamin and then the story of a Ben and

I but we have these two separate stories

where you have Benjamin who is the

benevolent service King where he is in

the temple he is giving his discourse

probably possibly a festival of

Tabernacles speech when they would very

possibly coronate the new king that

would make sense that's what they did at

the Feast of Tabernacles and that would

be his son Messiah but they contrast

King Benjamin who sees God and who

speaks about the Savior with king Noah

and his priests and what is it about

King Noah and his priests that are it's

so important for us to look at and to be

warned about they don't believe in the

doctrine of Christ that's the problem

they are focused in also on the law of

Moses and Abinadi is trying to preach to

them about what the law of Moses really

represents that it is a looking forward

to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and

that without that it's dead it's a dead

law all by itself because that is what

it is it's just it's a law that just

ends up eating in on itself without the

ability to look forward to something

eternal and so a Ben a die

has his trial and the whole trial is

based on this the law of Moses sitting

on its own

versus the higher law with Christ that's

what this is all about and they bring in

Isaiah over and over again and one of

the questions that the finally the final

question that the priests ask of Ben and

I has to do with Isaiah chapter 52

verses 7 to 10 these are the verses that

talk about how beautiful upon the

mountains are the feet of the messengers

I'm parrot paraphrasing here this is a

very very important scripture and I'm

going to make a suggestion to you here

and that is that you research this a

little bit and understand what that

really means what the whole chapter 52

is talking about because it is central

to the entire Book of Mormon that's why

this this trial of Abinadi is so

crucial I have seen lately from LDS

scholars that I really really like what

I believe is a an interpretation that is

not the best interpretation of what's

happening there in other words they look

at it as a lot of secular academia looks

at in biblical scholarship so in chapter

52 verses 7 to 10 in a way that makes

limb high and his people look at look

like you know kind of nationalists that

they are the righteous branch of people

and they might have thought that that's

that could be a real possibility and

that a Bennett eye has come in to

basically tell them hey you're not that

great you're actually wicked but that

loses the whole point of the entire

sermon that a Bennett eye gives to King

Noah and his priests and it is the

entire point that Mormon is trying to

point out

it is all about the doctrine of Christ

they end up killing a Bennett I not

because he's telling them that they're

bad boys and girls they kill Obinna die

because he tells them that the Messiah

will be born of a woman into mortality

and take on a body and take on the sins

of the world that's why they kill him

read chapter 7 before all of this ever

even happens Mosiah chapter 7 so here is

another example where as we use this

interpreter this knee whore principle we

get a better idea of this current of

opposition that is happening throughout

the scriptures where this doctrine of

Christ continues to be corrupted it is

the second law of thermodynamics right

everything runs downhill everything

dissolves disintegrates even our ideas

in our theology unless we stick to our

covenants and we continue to put Christ

and his sacrifice what he did at the

very top one more point about the son of

God that I want to make let's go to the

time of Christ why did they kill Jesus

we get this specifically in mark and in

John they do not kill him because he is

the Messiah this is important to

understand again there are very various

corruptions of the doctrine of Christ

and that's why I say the doctrine of the

son of God for example the Jews at this

time those that were in power not

everybody remember we're not talking

about all of the people of Judah of

Judea all of the people that claim to

have an affinity to the Temple in

Jerusalem

most of them may not have had the same

theology as those that were in power the

high priests Sadducees Pharisees elders

scribes

cetera that's an important thing to

understand there are many of the people

in Jerusalem at the time of Christ that

would have been possibly scattered out

in the wilderness with a few inside of

the Land of Jerusalem that had a

completely different tradition and

understanding of theology and what would

that have been they may have had a

different idea about the Son of God they

may have had a truer understanding about

what the Messiah meant that he was going

to be born of God and that he was the

savior of the world remember that's

where John the Baptist is out in the

desert he's preaching to everybody out

there that's where he's first getting

his converts and that's where Jesus has

to go too often he has to get out of

what he calls Jujuy

because they're gonna kill him the Jews

at this time and today still believe

that a messiah is coming but the

difference is not that the Jews believed

Jesus was not the Messiah and now

they're still looking for the Messiah to

come and we believe Jesus was the

Messiah and he's already come that's not

the issue the issue there the difference

is is that we believe that Jesus Christ

was the son of God and that he took on

the sins of the world that has nothing

to do with the Jewish Messiah in the old

temple in the Temple of Solomon they

used to have at the time of the Feast of

Tabernacles that's the festival in the

fall where they would have the Day of

Atonement which he used to be

anciently the most important ritual and

day of the calendar year for the

Jews before the deuteronomist came into

power but at this time at that with the

Temple of Solomon they would take the

Davidic king and the Queen and they

would parade them in in a procession

during the Feast of Tabernacles at least

during coronation but at least to

some degree they would have done

something similar each year during the

Feast of Tabernacles bring them in from

the east and up into the temple

just like Jesus did when he came in with

the palms and entered into Jerusalem as

the king and then that king and queen

would have would act as actors they

would act as the temporal king and queen

of Israel and then later just Judah they

would act for the people the

congregation that would have been out in

their tents this was also called a

festival of booths or Sukkot and then

they were they would also act as at

least the king and maybe the Queen too

the King would have also acted as

Jehovah the king of kings and what would

part of that drama be he would go into

the Holy of Holies the King going into

the Holy of Holies as a Melchizedek

priest and he would be born out of the

veil out of the Holy of Holies as the

Son of God

it was a ritual talking about the

Messiah being born into mortality and

being the one that suffered for the

world that's what the Son of God meant

to the ancient Israelites it was Jehovah

and it was reenacted through temple

imagery and drama over and over and over

again and so in the Gospels at the time

of Jesus when we refer to him as the

king they have a different context than

we do the people that would have been in

the wilderness that had a different

tradition they were looking back to an

older tradition that was lost at the

time of Lehi that they still remember

and probably still had scriptures for

the Book of Enoch and other books of

Scripture they were the easiest ones to

probably baptize and convert and they

would have gone right along with the

idea of a procession on Palm Sunday for

the king who would end up that day going

right into the temple as the son of God

so we have lastly here

the example of Jesus and his time Jesus

acted throughout that final week

especially as what his followers

understood as the true Messiah not just

a political figure interestingly enough

during the crucifixion who do they let

go a political figure a political

Messiah possibly Barabbas who was a

zealot and someone who caused problems

as a revolutionary against the Romans

how many times do you see Jesus talking

about the Romans are chiding the Romans

he was chiding his own religious people

that's what the Nehor principle is

about it is about how religion changes

and how doctrine can very easily change

John in his gospel writing after all

three of the other Gospels had already

been written wanted to make it very very

clear about Jesus not just as the

Messiah or a messiah but that he was the

son of God chapter 20 verse 31 says

specifically that's why he wrote the

gospel so that they knew he was the

Christ the Messiah The Anointed One and

the Son of God and he just like mark

sayings precisely the reason he was put

to death is because he claimed to be the

son of God just like a Bennett I was put

to death because he talked about the Son

of God then Jesus would that the Messiah

would be born into mortality and take on

the sins of the world

just like they wanted to kill Lehi for

the same thing and just why I why Isaiah

writes over and over again about the

Messiah and about the suffering servant

the royal suffering servant the son of

God because there's collapses during

these times of the doctrine of Christ

the knee whore principle

has taken hold and it always does

eventually it always eventually takes

hold so this is really about you and me

it's about how do we look at the

doctrine of Christ and how do we let it

slip sometimes in our lives how do we

change our behavior how can we excuse

things or can we really focus in on the

doctrine of the Son of Man the doctrine

that Jesus performed the miracle of the

atonement which is tied directly to our

faith our hope and even our charity

those are all part of the higher law

that come with the atonement I don't

think it is a coincidence that in the

West where Christianity has reigned

pretty much with the idea that our God

lowered himself below us and had that

kind of love and respect if you will for

individuals for Humanity that that

doesn't bring eventually an openness of

freedom and opportunity I think that

Christianity among other things but

primarily Christianity is at the core of

the West but the idea of Christ and that

doctrine is slipping further and further

and further away as the Nehor

principle takes hold

so as the forth interpreter with the

Scriptures look for this and understand

that that is the pushback and that the

prophets as they go out and they preach

about Christ over and over again they're

preaching against a force that

continually wants to assert Christ the

god of this world continually wants to

make himself known and be the god of

this world and I think that's why the

Book of Mormon in these last days as

this doctrine erodes is literally such a

godsend

because that's what its focus is we'll

talk to you next time

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