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Moroni takes over from his dad, and immediately criticizes the readers for their latter-day church that builds expensive building, loves those buildings more than the poor, and requires people to give their money to receive baptism for the remission of sins. Searcher and MD struggle to figure what church he could possibly be talking about.
D&C 20:8-9
D&C 42:12-13
D&C 27:5
D&C 124:119-120
Alma 37:23-26
2 Nephi 3
D&C 1:37-38
D&C 101:1-13
D&C 124:45-48
2 Nephi 28
D&C 56:1, 14
1 Nephi 10:17
I completely agree with your definition of envy. Here is a great example of Elder Gary Christopherson using his minion to show these members how to show obeisance to their better. This disgusted me. It starts at about 2:40.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl_D3Y0r5fA
Top show, gentlemen.
One of your best, I think.
I feel such gratitude for you two showing up every week.
Consistency in a world gone mad.
I love the scriptures.
The Word is written in the depths of my soul.
The iron rod runs straight through my heart, which
God holds in his gentle, healing hands.
Relevant to the episode, I thought of D&C 101: 75
“There is even now already in store sufficient, yea, even an abundance, to redeem Zion and establish her waste places,
no more to be thrown down, were the churches who call themselves after my name, willing to hearken to my voice.”
Ouch.
And that was December, 1833.
Searcher, it’s alright that your book is taking longer than anticipated to be published.
Often, the timing for the significant events in our lives is frustratingly out of our hands. Perhaps the time is not yet for you to cast off your anonymity.
Your work is important. Trust that all will fall into place as designed. Sometimes, waiting simply is.
And MD, a Circus Animal cupcake? Oh, my. Wherever did you get that?
Anyway, thank you for this podcast. My life wouldn’t be the same without it.
Singer
Thanks for your kind words and encouragement. I have always felt also that things will fall into place when the Lord wants them to. He knows the timetable. I love diving into the scriptures each week and appreciated your description of God holding the other end of the Iron Rod with his gentle, healing hands. We all need the healing that can only come from Him.
Searcher is there a posibility that we could pre buy your book and save some time?
I would be up for that.
Aw, I ‘m honored to receive a response from you, Searcher.
You don’t always drop into the comments section, so this was a pleasant surprise.
Perhaps my wording was peculiar (it wouldn’t be the first time), but what I really meant was that God holds my heart in his hands.
It feels important to clarify that because my heart is what he healed.
However, I liked your interpretation as well. The Lord is the sovereign creator of all, so ultimately, he holds everything in his hands, doesn’t he?
Either way, I’m excited to get a copy of your book when it’s published.
I have Solving the Prophet Puzzle and the Reformatted Scriptures, and I look forward to adding your work to my collection.
And I totally empathize about writing the bibliography; presenting sources is vital for supporting your claims, but citations must adhere to such strict, precise formatting that I feel stressed just thinking about it.
Better you than me, my friend. 🙂
Regarding the use of tithing money for temples, I came across something this week that caught my attention. In 2 Samuel 7, King David realizes that he has a nice house of cedar while the ark of God is in a tent. So he proposes to build a permanent structure for the ark as well. Initially, the prophet Nathan tells him to go ahead. However, that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan gave him a message, including the following:
“Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle, in all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel, spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, WHOM I COMMANDED TO FEED MY PEOPLE ISRAEL, saying, Why build ye not me an house of cedar?”
He then goes on to not tell David to build Him a house, but that God will make a house for David.
Reading Psalms 51, we can also notice that David understood temples were not required for the type of sacrifice God really wanted, “for thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (v.16-17)
Maybe I am missing something, but I didn’t notice that the topic of building a permanent structure for the ark to settle in comes up again until Solomon brings up the subject in 1 Kings 5 where he says that David couldn’t do it because there were too many wars to start a huge building project, but felt that the task had fallen to him because he lived in a time of peace and God had said David’s son would build a house unto His name.
Here is my point, God seems to indicate that using resources to build and maintain a permanent temple would compete with the commandment to feed his people. Also, I am not sure that the available text shows that God ever wanted a temple to be built. Although we know that He did accept some that were built. When he talks about building a house for David, I think he meant a people, just as God built Israel a house (of descendants). Solomon seemed to think the house was something he was destined to build, not God, and went back to the physical structure idea (but in the end he was left with a temple but lacking salvation because he turned and worshiped other Gods).
Great find! The 2 Samuel 7 story is repeated in 1 Chronicles 17, where there is a slight word change:
“Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spoke I a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people, saying, “Why have ye not built me a house of cedars?”
Doctrine and Covenants declares the bishop under the law of consecration to be a judge in Israel, and D&C 42 says:
30 And behold, thou wilt remember the poor, and consecrate of thy properties for their support that which thou hast to impart unto them, with a covenant and a deed which cannot be broken.
31 And inasmuch as ye impart of your substance unto the poor, ye will do it unto me; and they shall be laid before the bishop of my church and his counselors, two of the elders, or high priests, such as he shall appoint or has appointed and set apart for that purpose.
This all seems very consistent. Give your surplus to the bishop, the bishop will judge who gets what so that everyone in Israel gets fed.
Section 124 says: 58 And as I said unto Abraham concerning the kindreds of the earth, even so I say unto my servant Joseph: In thee and in thy seed shall the kindred of the earth be blessed.
59 Therefore, let my servant Joseph and his seed after him have place in that house, from generation to generation, forever and ever, saith the Lord.
60 And let the name of that house be called Nauvoo House; and let it be a delightful habitation for man, and a resting-place for the weary traveler, that he may contemplate the glory of Zion, and the glory of this, the cornerstone thereof;
61 That he may receive also the counsel from those whom I have set to be as plants of renown, and as watchmen upon her walls.
And Revelation 21 says: 22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
It seems the true temple is God and we become that temple when we receive the fullness. The only house God really wanted was one where the poor and the strangers could be taken care of.