Be Ye Doers of the Word, and Not Hearers Only

RE James 1:4 says,

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness, the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the vices of the world."

I love this passage. One part of it has always been a mystery to me though.

"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was."

What?

Natural face. Glass. Goes away. Forgets what manner...  

The scriptures, or God's words in any form, can act as a mirror (glass) to our souls. We see in them who we really are - the good and the bad. By showing us who we really are - fallen, broken, imperfect - we can then go do something about it. Unfortunately, we sometimes come to read or listen, say "sweet, got me my word of God for the day!" then go about doing absolutely nothing to improve. We spend time looking in the mirror, only to leave, forgetting about those things we ought to correct, being hearers, but not doers of the word. 

The fact is, until we are in the position of the Son of God, the one who attains to the resurrection of the dead by coming to this world and acting in complete conformity with the words of the Father, we all have things we need to improve on. 

Let's not hear then forget, thinking ourselves justified because we spent time hearing. Go and do. That is where we will find God.

What Polygamy?

What do you see here?


"A) This people begin to wax in iniquity; they understand not the scriptures for they seek to excuse themselves in committing whoredoms because of the things which were written concerning David, and Solomon, his son. Behold, David, and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.

B) Wherefore, thus saith the Lord, I have led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem by the power of mine arm, that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph.

C) Wherefore, I, the Lord God, will not suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old.

C) Wherefore, my brethren, hear me and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife, and concubines he shall have none, for I, the Lord God, delighteth in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me, thus saith the Lord of hosts.

B) Wherefore, this people shall keep my commandments, saith the Lord of hosts, or cursed be the land for their sakes. For if I will, saith the Lord of hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people.

A) Otherwise, they shall hearken unto these things. For behold, I, the Lord, have seen the sorrow and heard the mourning of the daughters of my people in the land of Jerusalem, yea, and in all the lands of my people, because of the wickedness and abominations of their husbands. And I will not suffer, saith the Lord of hosts, that the cries of the fair daughters of this people, which I have led out of the land of Jerusalem, shall come up unto me against the men of my people, saith the Lord of hosts." (Jacob 2:6, RE)


Can you see it too?

Email Response Concerning Contemporary Fathers

A friend asked me how Enoch and Noah could be contemporaries even though the Lectures on faith put the translation of Enoch before the birth of Noah. Here is my response:
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I'd correct a couple of things. First, it wasn't from the Apocrypha, but from the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Genesis Apochryphon.

Second, here's the actual passage:

"Behold, I thought then within my heartthat conception was due to the Watchers and the Holy Ones and to the Giants and my heart was troubled within me because of this child. Then I, Lamech, approached Bathenosh, my wife, in haste and said to her, "By the Most High, the Great Lord, the King of all the worlds and Ruler of the sons of Heaven, tell me This truthfully and not falsely. Is the seed within you mine?"

Then Bathenosh my wife spoke to me with much heat and said, "O my brother, O my lord, remember my pleasure, the lying together and my soul within its body. And I tell you all things truthful.

My heart was then greatly troubled within me, and when Bathenosh, my wife, saw that my countenance had changed, then she mastered her anger and spoke to me saying, "O my lord, O my brother, remember my pleasure! I swear to you by the Holy Great One, the King of the heavens, that this seed is yours and that this conception is from you. This fruit was planted by you and by no stranger or Watcher or son of Heaven. Why is your countenance thus changed and dismayed, and why is your spirit thus distressed? I speak to you truthfully.

Then I, Lamech, ran to Methuselah my father, and I told him all these things. And I asked him to go to Enoch, his father, for he would surely learn all things from him. For he was beloved, and he shared the lot of the angels, who taught him all things. And when Methuselah heard my words, he went to Enoch, his father, to learn all things truthfully from him." (Dead Sea Scrolls: The Genesis Apochryphon pp. 481-482)

[So while Enoch may have been translated by the time Noah was born, the fathers had ready access to him.]

The Lord wasn't kidding about benefiting from reading these things! Also, if you keep reading, this is Noah's recounting of how he came to be where he is.

From Moses 7 (LE):

"And Enoch beheld angels descending out of heaven, bearing testimony of the Father and Son; and the Holy Ghost fell on many, and they were caught up by the powers of heaven into Zion."

There's no reason this couldn't have gone on up until the flood. Otherwise, why keep Methuselah around to bear Lamech, and he to then bear Noah and have them preach to all men everywhere? And when these Angels are descending from heaven, couldn't they be the very Fathers we are talking about? In what manner did the angels "descend out of heaven"?

So you have them descending anyways, and preaching to others who repent and are caught up. But this next Zion is not going to be caught up. The old will come down. Communication between those in Zion and those outside of Zion this time will probably be more practical.

Another relevant quote from Joseph:

"And now, I ask, how righteousness and truth are going to sweep the earth as with a flood? I will answer. Men and angels are to be co-workers in bringing to pass this great work, and Zion is to be prepared, even a new Jerusalem, for the elect that are to be gathered from the four quarters of the earth, and to be established an holy city, for the tabernacle of the Lord shall be with them." (TPJS)

So if you ever have to respond to "HEY! ONLY ANGELS WILL DO THE GATHERING!" then you can say "Well, yeah, sort of. They will work in conjunction with men to accomplish that. Joseph said as much."

It's all part of what Denver was talking about. In the days of Noah we see that it was easy enough, though a serious matter, for "men" on Earth to work in conjunction with the translated city.

So the point isn't who was touching the ground at the same time, but rather what was the work being done and who was involved.

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I don't know for sure how much of this is true, but it's what I have been able to gather from my studies and prayer.

The Lord's Admonition pt. 3 - Short Version

Among the discoveries made at Qumran, there was one document called "The Community Rule". This document laid out how the body of believers was to be governed.

This document is not unlike the document we are struggling to create now. While I don't think we should take and use a document from a failed effort, it shows how God works the same way yesterday, today, and forever and is a testimony that IT IS Him directing the work underway. 

The Lord's Admonition Pt. 2

Continuing on with the admonition to study other texts that might be useful to us...

One big part of the scripture project is updating archaic language. This has been on the agenda since late June (see here). In the recent answer the Lord gave in response a prayer offered for acceptance of the scriptures the Lord said:

"...I accept your clarifications and you are permitted to proceed to the end with your plan to update language to select a current vocabulary, but take care not to change meaning—" (Answer p. 2)

Two of the first scrolls discovered in caves at Qumran (the Dead Sea scrolls) are known to us as "1QIsaiahA" and "1QIsaiahB" (I'll just refer to them as "A" and "B" in this post).  "B" is remarkably similar to what we have currently in our bibles and predates "A" in language use. "A" is essentially the same text, but with language that better reflects the vocabulary used when these scrolls were written down. In other words, "A" is an updates the archaic language used in "B".

As far as I am aware, this was not known to the scriptures committee, but this information combined with the admonition from the Lord is one more witness among many that this project has been directed by the Lord.

You can learn all about this from the lecture series called "The Great Courses: The Dead Sea Scrolls" which can be downloaded on audible or bought in book form from Amazon. 

Such Love As This

In the answer the Lord recently provided to us as a result of the prayer for acceptance of the scriptures, He said,

"Study to learn how to respect your brothers and sisters"

On the first page of the Book of Mormon, you have Lehi praying "with all his heart" on behalf of the wicked people at Jerusalem. A pillar of fire appears before him, where he then sees and hears "much". He goes home after this experience, lays down, and, being filled with the Spirit because of the things he had seen, is caught up to the throne of God. Because of some things that happen while being caught up, he declares:

"Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! Thy throne is high in the heavens, and thy power, and goodness, and mercy are over all the inhabitants of the earth; and, because thou art merciful, thou wilt not suffer those who come unto thee that they shall perish!"

This rhetoric is common enough throughout scripture that it is largely ignored. But look closely here. What is being said? Whatever Lehi saw, it caused him to realize that God's works are "great and marvelous" making Him "Almighty". To further emphasize God's lofty position, Lehi declares that "[His] throne is high in the heavens".

Think about that for a minute. Who is the most powerful person on Earth? What effect do they have? What are their works? How far is their influence spread? How do they act? How do they view themselves? How do they treat others?

Compare that person with this being who has a position "high in the heavens". The "heavens" is a big place. If you look at our galaxy alone, you'll find that there are BILLIONS of stars and planets. An example is in RE Genesis 4 when Enoch, while in the presence of God, states:

"[...]were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, and millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations[...]"

High in the heavens indeed... whatever power we think we have here is small potatoes compared with this God who is Almighty.

Then, Lehi shows us that these observances are only preliminary information for the message he wants to convey about the being he is praising. He says:

"[...]thy power, and goodness, and mercy are over all the inhabitants of the earth[...]"

What a humbling realization. Consider this particular earth on which we live. In that same chapter in Genesis that is referenced above, in response to comments by Enoch, the Lord responds by saying,

"[...]among all the workmanship of my hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren[...]"(RE Genesis 4)

We live on the most wicked planet of any that this great God has created, and Lehi is telling us that God still has mercy on "all the inhabitants" and that His "goodness and power are over [us]".

Who among us has such love as this? We are left without excuse. We have no reason to not be good, merciful, and loving toward one another in our tiny spheres of influence.

Keeping the Covenant

RE Deuteronomy 8-9 (LE Deut. 28-30)  has some pertinent info when considering the coming covenant.

The people are gathered together to hear Moses read a covenant from the Lord. In the second paragraph, the Lord says that "this day thou art become the people of the Lord the God". They are now His people and he proceeds to say something like "here are the blessings you'll receive if you obey my commands, here are the cursing you'll receive if you disobey, and if that happens, I'll scatter and destroy you."

Really the whole thing needs to be read, but I think that's a good synopsis.

Let's not be scattered, destroyed, and give up our opportunity to another people, deal?