1 Enoch 96

1 Enoch 96

Verse 4

“Woe unto you, ye sinners, for your riches make you appear like the righteous, but your hearts convict you of being sinners, and this fact shall be a testimony against you for a memorial of your evil deeds.”

“Woe unto you, ye sinners, for your riches make you appear like the righteous”

This makes me think that the righteous are meant to be blessed…

If riches makes one appear like the righteous, this means that the righteous must seem… not only content and stable… but maybe even garnished, and embellished.  Why do people admire those who have the luxuries and jewels to radiate their countenance?  This natural admiration show that there is something undeniably beautiful about that radiance.  The reason why “embellishments” have gotten such a negative regard is because of extravagance: too many pigs with gold rings.

If riches make one appear like the righteous this means that the righteous have the appearance of one who is rich.  The righteous are content, they have a lot of potential for productivity, they have security and stability, and nothing is out their reach… these are the reasons why people want to get rich, because they think that money will get them these things.  But one does not need money to get these, and money does not necessarily get you these, though it may appear to be so.

The way to obtain these blessings is not through worldly riches (this is only how one “appears to have obtained them”).  The way to obtain these is through righteousness.

Though riches can indeed make you appear blessed, only the truly righteous are blessed with these.

Though they appear like the righteous, their “hearts convict [them] of being sinners.”

Because they do not have stability, nor security, nor productivity, nor contentment, in their hearts; but they are just as tormented by their identity like any other indigent.

If you could walk in the shoes of a rich person, you would see that they are as stressed out as anybody else; which leads them to evil deeds like any other sinner, which convicts them of their false “richness”.

June 13, 2012

1 Enoch 69

1 Enoch 69:8-11

“And the fourth was named Penemue: he taught the children of men the bitter and the sweet, and he taught them all the secrets of their wisdom.  And he instructed mankind in writing with ink and paper, and thereby many sinned from eternity to eternity and until this day. For men were not created for such a purpose, to give confirmation to their good faith with pen and ink.  For men were created like angels, to the intent that they should continue pure and righteous, and death, which destroys everything, could not have taken hold of them; but through this their knowledge they are perishing, and through this power it is consuming me.

According to etymology, the root "pen" means "inside" or something in relation to "enclosed", and the name Penemue can refer to the "inside secrets" that he taught mankind.

Penemue corrupted mankind by teaching them the art of pen and paper.  Just shows how unnatural it is to keep records of things; makes me wonder how human beings were meant to live and what many other things that may seem normal and harmless to us are actually sinful.

This even correlates with my own philosophy (which is the reason I am trying to give up this addiction of writing things down).  If anything, record keeping discourages the mind from keeping good memory, just like calculators discourages the mind from doing mental calculation.

Another fun fact, Arabs have good long term memory because their ancestors were used to not writing things down, it was only until recently the Qur’an was physically copied; back then it was only transferred verbally.

Moving on…

The verses say that the flaw with mankind was that they gave confirmation of their good faith with pen and ink, instead of continuing their good faith.  Sometimes we feel justified in resting from doing good because of the good that we have already done. 

It is even worse now, with videos and pictures.  Once we have an image of us doing something impressive, we feel satisfied with our efforts and do not strive any longer to be any better.  Instead of living in glory, we look nostalgically into the past, and depend on our memories of our deeds to make us feel some sort of satisfaction.   We do not even think it’s possible to be in glory continuously.

May 27, 2012

Alma 1

Alma 1:15-16

Even after Nehor acknowledged that the ideas he was spreading “were contrary to the word of God” there were still “many who… went forth preaching false doctrines”. It is no longer Nehor who causes trouble for the Nephites, he is already dead and he even took back what he once preached. He no longer causes trouble but it is his legacy that survived after him which still caused trouble for the Nephites. This shows that his ideas no longer depend on the originator, but there comes a time in the development of a movement in which the legacy grows beyond the control of its creator. Nehor and also Korihor (Alma 30) got themselves in such predicament, in which they had begun something which grew too big for them to clean up.

            This is no longer a wonder when one considers how easy it is to screw certain things up. It is a lot easier to spill milk then it is to recover it. Creating things that grow beyond the creators power to manage is certainly not an improbable phenomenon.

Verse 26:

The Book of Mormon does a lot of reference towards a certain behavior for priests to take advantage of people’s admiration and of their position as priests to have believers sustain them financially; this they call “priestcraft.” Priestcraft is thus defined as the craft that priests use to con people for their money. Such position held by the church of Latter-Day Saints puts down all other denominations and religions who follow the traditional custom of having the offering of the people maintain the economic welfare of priests, by degrading this custom to a scam.

Regarding this matter, Paul also follows the admirable example of the Nephites by supporting himself by his own labor and by his own means while he also does the work of God (1 Thessalonians 2:5-9). Indeed, Paul does mention the custom of “charging” for the preaching of the Gospel, but he does not deem the custom as a scam but as a right, moreover as a right commanded by God (1 Corinthians 9:13-14). This custom even goes back before the tradition of the Nephites. God indeed commands the early nation of Israel that the priests of the nation should get pay for their priestly services (Leviticus 18:21).

Although the perspective of getting pay for priestly and spiritual services is backed by the traditions and the words of the Bible, this verse (Alma 1:26) does give me another perspective about this “right” that the priests are set to have. According to Alma 1:26, the priest also labors as everyone else, specifically because they do not deem themselves above everyone else. Does this mean that the only reason why a priest would get pay for their priestly work is if they consider themselves above everyone else? Is pride the only reason why priests accept pay? The answer is not necessarily an obvious “no”. This verse assures that spiritual work of a priest is not necessarily above others, indeed it is not necessarily a one-way service. The traditional perspective of the teacher dispensing knowledge into the student is being replaced by a more modern perspective of both parties doing learning. In this perspective, both the priest and the congregation both benefit and receive strengthening from the interaction. The teacher is not above the student, all individuals are only part of a community of learners.

The act of being financially independent as one preaches the gospel is definitely admirable. But should those who do not follow the example of Paul and the Latter-Day Saints be ashamed of themselves and consider themselves scammers? Definitely not. Yet, one must be careful that this right to be supported by the offering of the people should not be abused, just as any other right. It is understandable how this right may lead to insensitivity and ungratefulness of priests; it may even lead to the natural insensitivity and ungratefulness of the general humanness of the priest to being more noticeable. Thus, the general insensitivity of the humanness of the priest can be interpreted or may even manifest as a susceptibility to scam.

Finally, even though the Mormon tradition insists on the admirable custom of the priests being financially independent and although they condemn the model of “priestcraft,” they do not necessarily belittle the custom of the other religions and denominations. What they do explicitly disparage is straight-out scamming which they refer to as priestcraft. Yes, they do disparage the opportunity that priests have to scam believers but this thin line between right and abuse can be displaced by opinion or outright ignored so that it is possible to become judgmental and condemn anyone who receives pay for their priestly services.

Written 11-27-14

Enos

Enos 1

 

Verse 13:

“And now behold, this was the desire which I desired of him – that if it should so be, that my people, the Nephites, should fall into transgression, and the Lamanites should not be destroyed, that the Lord God would preserve a record of my people, the Nephites; even if it so be by the power of his holy arm, that it might be brought forth at some future day unto the Lamanites, that, perhaps they might be brought unto salvation-” - Enos 1:13

 

                This verse expresses the main concern of Enos along with everyone who revers the plates as holy word of God, that the plates should survive no matter what happens to the rest of the world. That they would be survive to be available and help people in the future, whoever it may be. This concern is first explicitly expressed in the Book of Mormon through this passage.

                When I first read this verse, I was very confused because of the overuse of commas made me read that Enos was asking God for the Nephites to fall into transgression and the Lamanites should not be destroyed… “if it should be” (or if God would allow it). But no, “that if it should be, that my people the Nephites, should fall into transgression, and the Lamanites should not be destroyed,” is all part of the conditional. Enos is asking that even if it were the case that: the Nephites should be destroyed and the Lamanites survive, that the plates of the Naphites would survive with them.

                In this verse Enos is asking God for the plates to survive over anything else. Enos is addressing the worst case scenario when he says that the Nephites may be destroyed and the Lamanites not, this is the case that each of the two societies is turned upside down. Enos’s first priority is the word of God, even above his own people. One could say that the word of God is the only thing with importance, because without the word of God, the Nephites would be reduced to nothing. The people of Zarahemla are an example of this. As in Omni 1:17, Amaleki describes the people of Zarahemla as a people with a corrupted language and without a record; that they denied the Creator.

                People are fallible and corruptible; Enos knows that the word of God is not and wishes for it to survive above anything else.

 

Written 9-9-14

 

Verse 20:

 

“And I bear record that the people of Nephi did seek diligently to restore that Lamanites unto the true faith in God. But our labors were vain; their hatred was fixed, and they were led by their evil nature that they became wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the bow, and in the cimeter, and the ax. And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us.

Verse 21:

And it came to pass that the people of Nephi did till the land, and raise all manner of grain, and of fruit, and flocks of herds, and flocks of all manner of cattle of every kind, and goats, and wild goats, and also many horses.”

 

                Verses 20 and 21 draw a cultural distinction between the Lamanites and the Nephites. The Lamanites are hunters, savage tent dwellers, and the Nephites seem a little more humane and organized. The Nephites grow and raise their nutritional resources, and are apparently appalled by the Lamanites short skin girdles. The Bible also has a similar distinction between two types of culture. In Genesis 4:2 we find that “Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.” This becomes a cultural distinction when their descendants come forth. The descendants of Cain are settlers that work the soil and the descendants of Seth are keepers of flocks, and tent dwellers. Moses and the Israelites go through a transition from being nomads, keepers of flocks, and wanderers in the dessert, to people that become settled in the promise land. But in Enos, though the Nephites are settlers, they keep flocks and work the soil, while the Lamanites are hunters that live in tents. But the outstanding cultural distinction between the two is that the Lamanites are described more like savages.

 

Written 9-9-14