1 Enoch 108

1 Enoch 108

Verse 9

“Who, since they came into being, longed not after earthly food, but regarded everything as a passing breath and lived accordingly, and the Lord tried them much, and their spirits were found pure so that they should bless His name.”

Living according to the idea that this life is but a mere breath engenders a spirit that does not long after earthly desires (the needs to satisfy your instinctual desires [the flesh]).

June 14, 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

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

Jacob 4

Verse 18:

“Behold, my beloved brethren, I will unfold this mystery unto you; if I do not, by any means, get shaken from my firmness in the Spirit, and stumble because of my over anxiety for you.”

 

Can a prophet be too anxious for his people? can he be too concerned? Can he get too excited to listen to God? This verse expresses these ideas affirmatively. I guess one’s devotion to God has not to do with how emotionally excited they get. Sometimes one’s own anxiety, even one’s own joy, can get in the way of God’s intention. This is why I like this verse. It expresses that a follower of God must have his emotions on check and under control. And just because you believe that you are chosen by God it does not mean that you have a right to speak your heart out without restrain or careful thought.

 

2 Nephi 2

Verse 11:
"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteous could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness not misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if iy should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.'

One of the beliefs that I keep hearing (and that seems to be essential to the Mormon tradition), is that original sin was necessary for humanity to evolve out of the state of innocence. That life in Eden was not enough; it was not bad, but then it could not be good either. And so, it was necessary for them to obtain the knowledge of good and evil, so that they could practice their "agency" (agency is an essential concept in Mormonism) and thus grow in goodness towards God's perfection.
This idea is not quite dualistic by saying that life and world must always have good and evil, instead it admits goodness within a dualistic nature but goes on to explain that even though this dualism was necessary in the origin that the purpose of this dualism was to grow perfectly into goodness and eventually eradicate evil.

"And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and  they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery, doing no good, for they knew no sin."
- 2 Nephi 2:22-23

In a "Practical Theology" class I took I read about Niehbur and how he thought that the reason why man was prone to sin was because of his "dual" nature. Because man is both animal and spirit, both spiritual and physical, he ends up desiring things that he cannot have. This is a problem for man because he ends up resorting to inappropriate measure to obtain the impossible; what else would he resort to? In this sense, it is the conflicting nature of the way that God formed him, that forced man to sin. And through the same token, it makes sin not an unnecessary and negative element; but an unavoidable step in the process of the growth of man.
And so, it seems that we are still in our embryonic stage as mankind lives in the state of sin. God is still creating us, and he will only finalize his creation, we will only be born until we are resurrected into perfection. Then we will truly be able to say with God that what he created was indeed good. (Read Romans 8:19-29)

This reflects another common concept that without evil, good cannot be defined; without pain there would be no pleasure; and without tragedy there would be no success.
I may believe this common concept but I also believe that evil is unnecessary, and therefore it logically follows that I believe that good is also unnecessary. In other words, as the Mormons would put it, I would have preferred to have stayed in a state of innocence in Eden. But this is because, I think that good and evil are misconceptions of reality. The knowledge of good and evil really is a fall, because Adam and Eve fell from reality into an illusion, and I want to wake up out of that dream.

Written 9-4-2014



Verse 23:

"And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery, doing no good, for they knew no sin."
In one of the conversations I had with the missionaries, they pointed out that God gave Adam two certain commandments... 1: Thou shall not take of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil and 2: be fruitful and multiply. Also, they always say that if Adam would have not transgressed he would not have had any children. So in conclusion, what God was giving them was an impossible ultimatum. Either they would not take the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and not be fruitful and multiply, or they would be fruitful and multiply only after they took the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You cannot follow one commandment without breaking the other.
According to them, God knew this and he had planned for it all along.