Mosiah 2

Mosiah 2:9

In this verse, as well as in other verses and parts of the book of Mormon, there are many indications of a belief that there is a distinction between the mind and the body, in other words there is a belief in duality, the dual nature of a human being.

           

            The following is a list of the verses in which this idea of duality are present:

Mosiah 2:9 – “Open your ears that you may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view.”

            In this verse, each property of the human being has a different function in the listening process. The ears hear, the heart understands, and the mind receives revelation.

Mosiah 2:11 – “But I am as yourselves, subject to all manner of infirmities in body and mind”

Mosiah 2:26 – “for I am also of dust… and am about to yield up this mortal frame to its mother earth.”

            Verse 26 not only implies that the essence of the human being is separate from its body (this mortal frame), but also refers to the earth as a “mother”.

Mosiah 2:28 – “I am about to go down to my grave… and my immortal spirit may join the choirs above…”

            This verse finishes the description of the duality which begins in verse 26. Verse 26 describes the body as a mortal frame, and verse 28 describes the inhabitant of the mortal frame as the self as an immortal spirit that never ceases to exist regardless of the circumstance of the mortal frame.

Mosiah 2:41 – “They are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual”

            As there are strong indications of duality in the book of Mormon, the words more commonly used to describe this duality are “temporal vs. spiritual”; this pair of words is also frequent in first or second Nephi.

Mosiah 4:26 – “I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor… both spiritually and temporally…”

            This is one more of the many indications of a tradition of duality expressed with the word-pair “temporal vs. spiritual”.

Written 9-23-14

 
Mosiah 2:24

“And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?”

“And ye are still indebted to him.”

Do we have a right as human beings to demand something from God? Does the clay say to the potter, “You are doing it wrong”? Everything is God’s and we have no say in what he creates. As human beings, creatures, creation, we are part of the world not the owners of it. If we do what God commands it does not mean that we deserve or have right to a reward; we are just part of the world, part of the phenomena that is under his command. Yet, God has mercy towards us by “paying” us back for our efforts, by rewarding our work. God’s mercy is in that the laws of reality are somewhat consistent enough to recognize a pattern and work along that pattern for our good; or God’s mercy is in that as creatures we see workable patterns that seem consistent and are able to track these patterns and use them for our good.

            We can never pay God back because everything is his. Life is not fair. Thank God life is not fair, because every day we live a life better than we deserve. Our comfort is a result of reality’s mercy; we know this because even in our earth we can see how much worse our lives could have been if we were just born, even as human beings, in another part of the world. Life is not fair, and as followers of Christ we hope it never is.

Written 9-23-14

Mosiah 2:38

“Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like and unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever.”

King Benjamin describes the “dynamics of sin.” This is one way to describe sin to explain why a sinful person “goes to hell.” It is not as simple as to say that God just does not like the person because of what he does and decides to have them burn forever, but this verse describes “hell” as the torment within one’s own self, as the manifestation of guilt, that is the result of their own decisions. God does not condemn them, their own actions condemn them, in fact they condemn themselves! I’d like to recall the concept in 1 Nephi 14:3. In infinite manifestation (when “divine justice do[es] awaken his immortal soul) the fruit of destruction will destroy itself, and hate will hate itself. Like this is all of sin. It is not that God does not like sin, it is that sin does not like God though God is everywhere such that there is no way to escape him. Sin does not like to be, sin does not like itself. This makes it a necessity for him who lives under the guidance of sin to ultimately be in conflict.

            To be an enemy of God means to be against one’s own self. Because to be without harmony of the truth means to be twisted into something incompatible with what there is.

Written 9-23-14

Luke 15

Verse 20

“And he arose and came to his father.  But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

Instead of maintaining his rightful dignity and honor as an oriental patriarch, however, he abandoned social propriety and ran out to meet his son while he was still far away.”  - David K. Bernard

Our God is a desperate God,
He is a God that ridicules and makes a fool of Himself by begging.

Desperate because He is doing everything in His power to bring us back to His Harmony.

And yet we still reject Him in exchange for suffering.

He is desperately crying out to us with all His might;

so loudly it even killed Him at the cross;

so loud the fires of hell burned inside His throat.

He does so because He is not willing to lose us to that hell fire.

He does so because He knows about the impending pain we will go through; it is already hurting Him, He already sees it coming, He is already experiencing it for us, and He is warning us.

He does so because He is willing to set Himself on hellfire to get our attention,

if it means we will be saved.

He is not just as desperate as I am from my own suffering, He is even more desperate, because He is even sympathetic for the suffering that I have numbed from and have tucked away.

He is resorting to ridicule Himself, not because He is foolish, but because we have already crossed those lines ourselves.  What kind of father would be afraid to get a little mud on his shoes to save his child out of the pile of dung that is pinning him down?

He ridicules Himself; it reflects how wrecked our situation really is.

Because if a reasonable God who knows everything is acting like this about us…

What must He know?

And if an omnipotent God is doing all He can do for us…

What is there left to do?

Written on August 26, 2012

Psalms 139

Verse 4

“Before I even speak a word, you know what I will say”

We pray to let ourselves know what we want from God, and to develop our understanding of this connection.  God already knows everything, you pray to become aware of that.

Verse 7-10

“Where could I go to escape from your Spirit or from your sight?

If I were to climb up to the highest heavens, you would be there.  If I were to dig down to the world of the dead you would also be there.

Suppose I had wings like the dawning day and flew across the ocean.

Even then your powerful arm would guide and protect me.”

God is everywhere, even in death He rules.  He is the God of death, and none can escape from Him through death.  You cannot escape Life through suicide.  If you submit to God, also, there is no way you will be able to stray from His presence; He is that dependable. 

September 23, 2012

Psalms 110

Verse 1

“The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right side, until I make your enemies into a footstool for you.’”

“The Lord said to my Lord”.  When I first read this, I looked up other versions to see if it was a typo.  It was also strange to me how both “Lord” were capitalized.  This verse definitely stands out because of this, some say that it proves the trinity.  I cannot be sure, but it is definitely an undeniable address.

There are different theories as far as who is addressing who.

Of course, Christian theories would say that it is The Father addressing Christ; according to what Jesus says in Matthew 22:41-45

Jewish theories say that it is God addressing Melchizedek as the priest forever.

September 23, 2012

Psalms 103

Verse 8-10

“The Lord is merciful! He is kind and patient and his love never fails.

The Lord won’t always be angry and point out our sins;

He doesn’t punish us as our sins deserve.”

How much punishment do we deserve? We deserve the worst of hell.  He has enough mercy even to let us live ignorantly of this.  Without His protection we will not be able to escape. Truth is inescapable, we cannot avoid our verdict (See Psalms 139:7).  There is no death that will keep us from judgment.  God rules all, Life rules all (See Psalms 139:10).  We cannot escape life.  All we can do is submit to it, and everything it throws at us.  I kneel at your feet Lord, as I willing bear all the agony that you have set for me.  Refine me with your fire.

September 23, 2012

Psalms 97

Verse 7

Psalms 97:7

“Those who brag about the useless idols they worship are terribly ashamed, and all the false gods bow down to the Lord.”

 

There are many other verses in the bible that indicate who or what the gods of the old testament were.

Not only were they idols made out of solid matter, but people made these images after certain entities that they may have seen or experienced.  Sometimes they thought of certain people as gods, whether they were kings or the apostles: the god of golf (Tiger Woods), the god of fast food (McDonald's)  Sometimes the gods were angels, fallen angels, or demons: which may explain what the "greek gods" were, all of their stories, and what they were doing having sexual relations and procreating with human beings.  

That is why I say, every religion has some truth in it, though it may refer to the same things differently.  I believe in the pagan gods, I believe they are real.  But whatever we may consider a god to be, we do so because of its greater amount of power; gods are relative.  

The only god that isn't relative, is the Most High God.  Which makes Him the only True God.
Other gods may or may not be gods in comparison with certain things.
But a belief in a Most High God, is a belief in ultimate perfection.  
If you believe there exist an Ultimate Perfection in Reality, that is your Most High God.

Psalms 136:2

“Praise the God of all gods. God’s love never fails.”

Psalms 138:1

“With all my heart I praise you, Lord.  In the presence of angels I sing your praises.”

In the footnotes of the CEV it says that angels could refer to gods, supernatural beings, or maybe just rulers or leaders.

September 23, 2012 

Isaiah 10:10

"As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria," 

April 18, 2013

Isaiah 24:21

"On that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens and the kings of the earth." 
The CEV footnotes says that, "the powers in the heavens", could mean the stars since "in ancient times the stars were thought of as powerful spiritual beings, and sometimes they stood for pagan gods." (CEV footnote on Isaiah 24:21)

Isaiah 30:33

"Long ago the Lord got a place ready for burning the body of the dead king.  The place for the fire is deep and wide, the wood is piled high, and the Lord will start the fire by breathing out flaming sulphur."  (CEV)

The foot note on this verse says: "burning the body of the dead king": or "sacrificing the king" or "sacrificing to Molech."  Human sacrifices were sometimes offered to Molech, a god whose name sounds like the Hebrew word for 'king'."

This verse is saying the God got a place ready for burning the body of the dead king.  The footnote says that the word "king" may be referring to Molech; and the description of the place certainly sounds similar to the lake of fire where the fallen angels will end up.  

The point I am trying to make with this is that, in the Bible, God refers to lower gods as very real entities with minds of their own.  Although it may not refer to idols in this way, gods may be considered "false" not because they are do not exist, but for a different reason.