We Are The Wild Branches

Who Are We In Jacob 5?

One of the most intriguing historical and prophetic writings describing the general history of mankind is the account in Jacob 5 in the Book of Mormon where Jacob quotes Zenos relative to the allegory of the tame and wild olive trees. Included in this allegory is the history and prophecy concerning the House of Israel and the Gentiles. Nothing is so clear and yet, at least until you have the keys, so difficult to follow. One of the keys is understanding who the players are.  

There are two main groups--the House of Israel and the Gentiles. And for purposes of our discussion, we must understand, both historically and prophetically, that we are identified with the Gentiles, not the House of Israel. It took me many years to understand this and until I did, the Allegory of the Olive Tree, while interesting and challenging, was just another part of the Book of Mormon. It was not until I understood the players that its meaning to me was revealed.

Let's look at the players.  In the Book of Mormon there are only three groups that make up the House of Israel. These groups are 1) the Jews, 2) the Lost Tribes and 3) Lehi's descendants. In the Allegory of the Olive Tree these are the 'natural branches' spoken of by Zenos (actually Lehi's descendants are part of the tender branches planted in the choice ground), while the House of Israel is the tame (as opposed to the wild) olive tree.

"For behold, thus saith the Lord, I will liken thee, O house of Israel, like unto a tame olive tree, which a man took and nourished in his vineyard; and it grew, and waxed old, and began to decay" (Jacob 5:3).

We, according to Joseph Smith, are identified with the Gentiles (D&C 109:60). Joseph tells us this as he is praying for the House of Israel to be gathered and redeemed (D&C 109:61-67). And of course one of the prophetic aspects of the Allegory is the gathering of the House of Israel.  

Because the tame tree began to decay the Lord of the vineyard said to His servant "take thou the branches of the wild olive tree, and graft them in, in the stead thereof" (Jacob 5:9).

Now some may ask if we are of Ephraim, why are we not identified with the House of Israel? Because Ephraim assimilated among the Gentiles as Jacob indicated when he blessed Ephraim that he would become a 'multitude of nations' (Genesis 48:19), or as the Book of Mormon uses the phrase, the 'fulness of the Gentiles' (3 Nephi 16:4). For purposes of the Allegory of the Olive Tree we members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are identified with the Gentiles, both historically and prophetically. 

Zenos uses other allegorical terms to describe the House of Israel and the Gentiles. Those that make up the House of Israel (Jews, Lost Tribes and Lehi's descendants) are the natural branches, and the Gentiles are the wild branches. So if we simply follow the allegorical terms we can see what happened to, and what will happen to, the natural branches and the wild branches, and why.

Both the natural branches and the wild branches are described by the fruits that they bear, again both historically and prophetically.

The key to the Allegory is the root, which is always described as good. It is the root that sustained the tree into which the wild branches were grafted and later into which the natural branches are grafted. Christ is the root and the source of all good, and it is only when the branches take strength unto themselves and "overrun" the root, that the vineyard becomes corrupted (Jacob 5:37-46). Christ described himself as the vine and us as the branches, and that the branches cannot bring forth good fruit of themselves (John 15:2-8).

The allegory is also about the fruit that the branches bear. Initially the House of Israel or the natural branches are described as growing old and decaying and no longer bringing forth good fruit. But later when they are grafted into the natural tree again they will bring forth good fruit. The Gentiles or wild branches on the other hand, for awhile, after being grafted into the natural tree, bring forth good fruit because of "the much strength of the root" (Jacob 5:18), but then later they bring forth wild fruit, none of it which is good, and eventually we are told the wild branches are cut off and cast into the fire. 

"They came to the tree whose natural branches had been broken off, and the wild branches had been grafted in; and behold all sorts of fruit did cumber the tree.

And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard did taste of the fruit, every sort according to its number. And the Lord of the vineyard said: Behold, this long time have we nourished this tree, and I have laid up unto myself against the season much fruit.

But behold, this time it hath brought forth much fruit, and there is none of it which is good. And behold, there are all kinds of bad fruit; and it profiteth me nothing, notwithstanding all our labor; and now it grieveth me that I should lose this tree" (Jacob 5:30-32).

I have posted an article entitled "An Awful State of Blindness--Wild Fruit" which identifies many of the "all kinds of bad (wild) fruit" identified with Israel anciently and the Ephraimite Gentiles today.

We are told that the tender natural branches which were taken from the decaying olive tree, were planted (hidden) for a time and the areas where they were hidden and planted are described as the "nethermost parts of the vineyard" that is either choice ground or very poor ground, but for purposes of this article the where is not important in understanding what is prophesied concerning us as Ephraimite Gentiles. These details do, however, validate the Allegory as being historically accurate concerning the House of Israel.

There was a reversal that took place when Paul was called to take the fulness of the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46). This is the beginning of the wild branches being grafted into the mother tree. But there will again be another reversal when the Gospel is taken from the Gentiles because they reject the fulness of the gospel, and it is given to the House of Israel (3 Nephi 16:10-11; D&C 14:10). Why? Because as the Allegory describes it, the wild branches bring forth wild fruit, NONE of it which is good. 

The charge, to "graft in the branches; begin at the last that they may be first, and that the first may be last" (Jacob 5:63), is a description used to describe the House of Israel as the first and the last to receive the gospel. Only those Ephraimite Gentiles who repent will be numbered among the House of Israel (3 Nephi 16:13). So there is still hope for us, but only on the condition of repentance. 

"But if they will not turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, I will suffer them, yea, I will suffer my people, O house of Israel, that they shall go through among them, and shall tread them down, and they shall be as salt that hath lost its savor, which is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of my people, O house of Israel" (3 Nephi 16:15). "Them" spoken of here are the Ephraimite Gentiles.

So there is no mistaking but that Jesus is talking about us, He further says: "when men are called unto mine everlasting gospel, and covenant with an everlasting covenant, they are accounted as the salt of the earth and the savor of men;

They are called to be the savor of men; therefore, if that salt of the earth lose its savor, behold, it is thenceforth good for nothing only to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men" (D&C 101:39-40).

Which is exactly what Jesus prophesied concerning us, the Ephraimite Gentiles, the salt of the earth that loses its savor, the wild branches. The Allegory describes it as wild fruit or not bringing forth fruit meet for repentance (Alma 12:15). When He says that none of the fruit is good, He is indicting us, but also prophecying concerning us. But do we even 'hear' Him? Are we so caught up in our goodness, our works, our duties that we can't see? We don't see because we don't 'hear' Him even though our Father commanded us: "Hear ye him."

"Wo be unto the Gentiles, saith the Lord God of Hosts! For notwithstanding I shall lengthen out mine arm unto them from day to day, they will deny me; nevertheless, I will be merciful unto them, saith the Lord God, if they will repent and come unto me; for mine arm is lengthened out all the day long, saith the Lord God of Hosts" (2 Nephi 28:32).

But He also gives us this promise:

"For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived—verily I say unto you, they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day" (D&C 45:57). And how do we receive the truth? Through His words which are truth, light and the Spirit of Jesus Christ (D&C 84:45).

This is a brief but I believe a powerful analysis that when revealed to you personally will not only change your paradigm, but will cause you to focus on the word of God and the need to repent.

Heed this call to action from Jacob to insure your place at His side:

"And the day that he shall set his hand again the second time to recover his people, is the day, yea, even the last time, that the servants of the Lord shall go forth in his power, to nourish and prune his vineyard; and after that the end soon cometh.

And how blessed are they who have labored diligently in his vineyard; and how cursed are they who shall be cast out into their own place! And the world shall be burned with fire. Those who are saying nothing but repentance are laboring diligently in his vineyard.

And how merciful is our God unto us, for he remembereth the house of Israel, both roots and branches; and he stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long; and they are a stiffnecked and a gainsaying people; but as many as will not harden their hearts shall be saved in the kingdom of God.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts.

Yea, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; for why will ye die?

For behold, after ye have been nourished by the good word of God all the day long, will ye bring forth evil fruit, that ye must be hewn down and cast into the fire? (Note the formula for not bringing forth evil fruit--being nourished by the word of God.)

Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject the words of the prophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and deny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and quench the Holy Spirit, and make a mock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you?

Know ye not that if ye will do these things, that the power of the redemption and the resurrection, which is in Christ, will bring you to stand with shame and awful guilt before the bar of God?

And according to the power of justice, for justice cannot be denied, ye must go away into that lake of fire and brimstone, whose flames are unquenchable, and whose smoke ascendeth up forever and ever, which lake of fire and brimstone is endless torment.

O then, my beloved brethren, repent ye, and enter in at the strait gate, and continue in the way which is narrow, until ye shall obtain eternal life. (And we continue in the way by feasting upon the words of Christ. 2 Nephi 32:3)

O be wise; what can I say more?" 

(Jacob 6:2-12)

Letter to my French Friends and Family

As you know I am married to Annie Martin, a friend to all of you, mother, grandmother, aunt and family member.  Annie has always been and still is Mon Amour Toujours.  When I first saw her at South High School in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1960 there was, as Plato said, "a falling in love or the mutual recognition on earth of two souls which had been singled out for one another in a previous and celestial existence."  To meet Annie was to realize 'We had loved before we were born.  And I fell in love with her all over again.

And when she left to go home to France in 1961, she left an 18 year old boy with very little hope of ever seeing her again.  I dreamed of finding her, however, and even though it took 35 years, I did find and reach out to her.  What I found was that a young boy's love was not just some romantic notion of being in love with a cute French girl, but was a love that was so deep and broad that I could not contain it.  All I had were words, however, because she was 5000 miles away, but those words could and would not stop coming.  And even more so after 24 years of marriage, my love for her is even deeper and stronger.

I am sorry, however, for taking her away from all of you.  It was a sacrifice that was very difficult for her, but we decided that together with love as the foundation of our story, we could get through all the problems and obstacles together.  And we have.  

I am so grateful to have met all of you, and for each of you being so kind to me, and for now being my friends and family.  You have welcomed me with open arms, and I am enriched for having met and known all of you.  As you know, when Annie makes a friend, that friend becomes a friend for life and her friends are my friends.  She has taught me so much about friendship, and I have seen how each of you has blessed her life.

How grateful I am that we have our small apartment in Verdun, and that we are able to spend long periods of time in France.  I love France and especially love the people of France, those of you who have welcomed me into your homes, which I credit to your love for Annie.  You should know that she is also loved in Utah and now in Arizona, and that her many acts of kindness are recognized and welcomed.  She has friends in Utah and Arizona who are French and she is particularly close to them, as she is with the many French speaking Americans she has met and in many cases taught.

Perhaps some of you wonder how Annie could become a Mormon, or a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. Mormon is the name of a man who received generations of written records and abridged them, delivered them to his son Moroni, who buried them and made them known to Joseph Smith. Mormons is a nickname.  You have all heard stories of Mormons, many of which are not entirely accurate.  Maybe even some of you believe that she became a Mormon just because I wanted her to, and I have even heard the word 'brainwashed.'  But those who really know her, will understand that this is just not true.  She asked me and I told her it was not a condition of my marrying her, and in fact it was almost 5 years after we were married that she wanted to be baptized.  

One thing about Mormons is that we do not have to believe anything that is not true, and the only truth is the word of God. There is no official creed or set of beliefs dictated to us by others.  One mistake is for others to see us as just another religion.  I have always felt and can understand that most French people do not trust religion.  It has played a coercive role in your history.  Your history includes religious leaders and the monarchs colluding to gain power over the people.  The fact there that is a church in almost every village attests to the fact that someone was forced to pay for them and build them.

What Annie learned is that she did not understand the plot of our play on this earth.  She did not know the beginning and did not know the end of the play.  She was born in the middle and because religion had been so corrupted, she did not know that there was a plan and a reason for us being here.  She learned that she existed before she came here and that her coming to earth had a purpose and that she could return someday to live with her Heavenly Parents, as well as her earthly family and friends.  She learned that all of this was made possible by a loving Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother who set in motion the organizing of this earth for a testing place for Their spirit children.  Think about how this earth is quarantined or set apart in a cosmos so big that we are incapable of even comprehending.  There are billions of earths like this one all organized for the same purpose.  The fact that science can't discover them is a testament to the effectiveness of the quarantine.  She came to know that in organizing this earth, God did not create it out of nothing. He took matter and using His knowledge organized it to form this earth, like He had done many times before.

So our Father in Heaven, who is the God of the universe, organized this earth and sent two people to inhabit it--Adam and Eve--and placed them in a Garden with everything provided for them.  They were given two charges:  do not partake of the forbidden fruit and multiply and have children.  Soon they recognized that they could not keep the second charge without breaking the first one, and that they could never know the difference between good and evil if they did not partake of the fruit.  So Eve made a decision and did partake of the fruit and then convinced Adam to do the same.  Because God told them that if they did partake of the fruit they would be cast out of the garden and would surely die, they were cast out and would be subject to death.  But he did allow them a time of probation to learn how they could overcome the effects of the fall and return to Him someday.  

All of this is recorded and was taught to Adam by God himself, and because  Adam fell, we exist, and because of their fall we die and are partakers of misery and woe.  So that Adam, Eve and their posterity (all of us are of the family of Adam and Eve) could be enticed by the one (God/Good) or the other (Satan/Evil), Satan was allowed to come among them and try to entice them to follow him.  

But Adam was also told that there was a way to overcome the effects of his fall, and that was by turning to Jesus Christ.  Yes, Adam and Eve were taught of Jesus Christ and were taught why it was necessary for them to repent, or to turn to Christ, be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and to thereafter put their trust in this Jesus Christ.  Adam was told that Jesus Christ paid the demands of God's justice for all of us and put in force a plan of redemption for all of us.  The fall of Adam and Eve brought upon them the Justice of God.  Christ's atonement brought about the Mercy of God--that if we repent, or turn to God, Christ would suffer the demands of Justice, and we would not be subject to the justice of God.  He was also told that everyone would be resurrected and would live forever.  For those who accepted the Mercy of God, they would be found guiltless, and for those who did not accept His mercy would be subject to the Justice of God.  But even God's punishment, or God's Justice would not last forever, but even they would emerge after having paid for their own sins and be raised to a place where they desired to go, and live forever.

Now you are going to ask, how do we know this?  We know it because it was recorded and our history and the history of mankind begins with Adam.  Adam, you see, was taught to write by God and kept records of all that God had revealed to him.  We have this history, and by we, I mean it is available to all of us, including you.  Some of it is found in the Old and New Testament, and many other ancient records that have been discovered, including the Book of Mormon.  God did not leave us blind.  He imposed certain conditions on all of us, and therefore thought it expedient that he tell us what those conditions are and how we can overcome them. But many of these treasures are hidden to us unless we have the desire to search them out and discover them for ourselves. Whether one does or does not search them out, they exist nevertheless. There are countless who have searched them out and stand as witnesses that these treasures do exist and that they are true. 

Adam and Eve taught what they had been taught to their children, but most of them rejected God because of the cares of the world and the promise of riches.  So for several generations after Adam, the majority of the people rejected God and chose to be subject to His Justice.  Years later, however, a man named Enoch called upon God and was told to go out and call the people to repentance, which he did, and many repented, but again over time the majority rejected the teaching of Enoch.  

Again after several generations the majority of the people rejected God, and other prophets, i.e. Noah, Abraham and Moses during different dispensations called upon God and the gospel of Jesus Christ, with proper authority to perform ordinances was established.  Then again it happened when  Jesus Christ came to the earth as the mortal Jesus, and we can read what He did and what happened to Him in the New Testament, and how He also restored the truth for a time.  After Christ was crucified the people again perverted His teachings and we move into the period of time after Christ.   And this is where Joseph Smith comes in.  He like, Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses & Jesus Christ, ushered in this last dispensation when the Gospel of Jesus Christ would be on the earth for the last time prior to Christ coming again as He promised He would.

And with this last dispensation other records have come forth adding additional evidence to all that I have said.

Annie, is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ (nicknamed Mormons because of a man named Mormon who abridged the plates kept by people in America from 600 BC to 400 AD--The Book of Mormon), because she knows that all of the above is true and that it was necessary for her to repent and be baptized so she too would receive the Holy Ghost to help her through the rest of her journey here on this earth.  

She came to know this because she read and continues to read the Book of Mormon, and other scriptures, she prayed and received a witness from her Heavenly Father that it is true--a witness that anyone desiring to, can also receive.  Annie came to know that it would not be by control or compulsion that the world would change, but rather by the principles of righteousness and love.  Annie epitomizes this mighty power of love in her life and in the life of all.  She knows that true love results from a process available to all:  faith, repentance, and baptism, followed by the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which fills us with hope and perfect love.  This love is charity or the pure love of Christ and it remains and grows by praying to the Father with all energy of heart, and as a result our love for others is a result of feeling His love for them.  This love wants everyone to partake of the same love.

And she prays for each of you to be protected, to be happy and for you to want to know what she now knows, and taste what she has tasted, for the knowledge she has is from God. 

I will miss seeing each of you this year, but can't wait until next year when I can see you again.  While I don't understand much of what you say, I can see how you enrich Annie's life, and how your lives are enriched because of her.  Thank you for helping to make the Annie I love so much.

Gros Bisous,

Clark

Are We Not All Beggars?

Most of us are aware that Alma gave up his seat as the Chief Judge so that he "might preach the word of God unto (the people)..seeing no other way than bearing down in pure testimony against them" (Alma 4:19). What we may not understand is why Alma believed it was necessary. Alma observed that "the people of the church began to wax proud" because of what they "had obtained by their industry" (Alma 4:6). This "was the cause of much affliction to Alma," and he was "sorely grieved for the wickedness which (he) saw had begun to be among (his) people" (Alma 4:7). "He saw great inequality among the people of the church" which he described as "wickedness." It caused Alma to be "very sorrowful." (Alma 4:6-19). In 3 Nephi we also read of "a great inequality" in all the land and in the church which resulted in "Satan leading away the hearts of the people to do all manner of iniquity" and that they "did not sin ignorantly, for they knew the will of God concerning them, for it had been taught them..." (3 Nephi 6:11-18). 

Why is inequality among the Lord's people described as wickedness? Because it is contrary to the law of God. The Lord has taught us "that it is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin." (D&C 49:20). He wants us to be equal that "the poor shall be exalted, in that the rich are made low" (D&C 104:16). "For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things" (D&C 78:6). This is the Lord's law, His only law, and He has asked us to enter into a covenant to keep it. The truth is every covenant we enter into with the Lord leads up to this covenant.

Let me make something clear. A covenant is not a two way promise. A covenant can be made by only one party, such as God covenanting with Abraham, the Gospel being His new and everlasting covenant (D&C 101:39-40), or the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood which was made by God and sworn by God with an Oath. We enter into and agree to abide by his new and everlasting covenant through repentance, "faith on the Savior, and remission of sins by baptism, and by fire, yea, even the Holy Ghost" (D&C 19:21;31), and then living the higher law based on loving God and each other with all our, heart, mind and soul, as we desire, pray for with all our heart, and are infused with His love.

 

But we also make covenants or promises to our Father in heaven as did Israel when Moses introduced the Law of Moses (which, by the way, is a performance, based on the right spirit, version of the law of consecration), which was given to the people in remembrance of our God and King. Moses asked the people if 1) they would do things God’s way rather than their own way? 2) would they be obedient to Him no matter what He asked of them? 3) would they willingly sacrifice anything He asked for, including their own lives? 4) Would they at all times, behave morally and soberly? 5) After answering yes to each, God says, "Very well, this is what I want you to do." (see Deuteronomy 5:6). Moses then tells the people what they are to do, and the spirit in which they should do it. 

 

However, before we are ready to receive His law, we must hear and believe His words, enter into His new and everlasting covenant, and desire with all our hearts to be filled with His love. Because unlike the Law of Moses, we should want to keep His law, not because we are commanded to, but because we are filled with charity or the pure love of Christ.

Let us go to King Benjamin to discover how this process works. For his great farewell address, Benjamin summoned all the people to gather by families around the temple "that they might rejoice and be filled with love towards God and all men" (Mosiah 2:2-4). He begins his discourse on an economic note: "I have not sought gold nor silver, nor any manner of riches of you" (Mosiah 2:12). "I, myself, have labored with mine own hands" (Mosiah 2:14-15;17). "I, whom ye call your king, am no better than ye yourselves are" (Mosiah 2:26). He is setting the keynote, which is absolute equality. And that follows naturally from the proposition that we owe everything to God, to whom we are perpetually and inescapably in debt beyond our means of repayment: "In the first place....ye are indebted unto him...and will be forever and ever" (Mosiah 2:23-24). Let no one boast that he has earned or produced a thing. "Therefore, of what can ye boast?... Can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay," right down to the dust of the earth, it all "belongeth to him who created you" (Mosiah 2:24-25). It is His property, not ours.  

What is more, no one can even pay his own way in the world, let alone claim a surplus:  "If ye should serve him who...is preserving you from day to day...and even supporting you from one moment to another--I say if you should serve him with all your whole souls, yet, ye would be unprofitable servants" (Mosiah 2:21).

What do we do, then, to qualify for his blessings? "Behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land" (Mosiah 2:22). To what commandments is he referring? "Now this is the commandment:  Repent,...and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost" (3 Nephi 27:20). In return "ye are eternally indebted to your heavenly Father, to render to him all that you have and are" (Mosiah 2:34), which is simply the law of consecration.

Now keep in mind that these are not Benjamin's words, but were made known to him "by an angel from God" (Mosiah 3:2). Furthermore, the angel assures them that it is all good news, "that thou mayest rejoice; and that...thy people...may also be filled with joy" (Mosiah 3:4), for all this looks forward to the coming of the Lord.

He then delivers the words of the Angel. Eager as they are, the people must again be taught and cautioned before the law itself is set before them. For these people, like those taught by Moses, remain "a stiffnecked people" (Mosiah 3:14), and after all God did for them "yet they hardened their hearts" (Mosiah 3:15). "For the natural man is an enemy to God...and will be forever and ever, unless he...becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things" (Mosiah 3:19). He tells them that "none shall be found blameless before God, except through repentance and faith on the name of the Lord God" (Mosiah 3:21). To prepare them to receive this law by covenant, he first teaches them the Gospel of Jesus Christ (3 Nephi 27:13-21).  

Thus ended the first address of King Benjamin, by which the people were quite overcome, falling to the earth, viewing themselves in their own carnal state, crying out for forgiveness and receiving a manifestation of the Spirit that filled them with joy, "having received a remission of their sins, and having a peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them (Mosiah 4:2-3).

They were now ready to receive the law and covenant to keep it. Benjamin recognized that they were ready to "hear and understand the remainder of (his) words because at last and because of the knowledge of the goodness of God...(they) were awakened to a sense of (their) nothingness and (their) worthless and fallen state" aware that (they) could only put their "trust in the Lord...keeping his commandments.... Believe in God...believe that (they) must repent...(and) always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and their own nothingness, and his goodness and longsuffering... If ye do this ye will always rejoice and be filled with the love of God" (Mosiah 4:5;9-13).

We then see other fruits of our repentance, "ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due" (Mosiah 4:13). And "ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked, or ... transgress the laws of God" Mosiah 4:14). "Ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another" (Mosiah 4:15) No more competitive society. No more humanism as taught by Satan through Korihor, that "every man fares in this life according to the management of the creature, (and that) every man prospers according to his genius" (Alma 30:17). No more survival of the fittest. No more inequality.

Moreover, beyond your family, "ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him." A beggar is one who asks, for some reason or other, not having what he needs. "Ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish" (Mosiah 4:16). To turn the beggar down may be to sentence him to death. The usual pious appeal to the work-ethic--there is no free lunch--will not do.

"Perhaps thou shalt say, the man has brought upon himself his misery therefore I...will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just" I worked for mine! You work for yours! (Mosiah 4:17). Joseph Smith said it is better to feed ten impostors than to run the risk of turning away one honest petition. Anyone who explains why he denies help to another who needs it, says Benjamin "hath great cause to repent...and hath no interest in the Kingdom of God" (Mosiah 4:18), which kingdom is built up on the law of consecration. "For behold, are we not all beggars?" This is no mere rhetoric--it is literally true. "Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for...food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver and for all the riches which we have? You are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are" (Mosiah 4:19-20).

"O then, how ye ought to import of the substance that ye have one to another" (Mosiah 4:21-22). We all give and we all receive, and never ask who is worthy and who is not, for the simple reason that none of us is worthy, all being "unprofitable servants" (Mosiah 2:21). "And if ye judge the man" who asks for your "substance that he perish not" and find him unworthy, "how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God" (Mosiah 4:22). Benjamin says it applies to both the rich and the poor, the poor who want to be rich and who "covet that which (they) have not received" (Mosiah 4:26).

 

Benjamin sums it up that every man "should impart of (his) substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath" for all have a right to food, clothing, shelter and medical care, "both spiritually and temporally according to their wants" (Mosiah 4:26; 18:29).

He does not tell them what they must not do but what they must do. "I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them" (Mosiah 4:29). Instead of telling them what they should not do, he has told them what they absolutely must do. It "doth not belong to you, but to God" (Mosiah 4:22), who wants it distributed equally.

Note that not a word is said from first to last about hard work, thrift, enterprise, farsightedness, and so on, the usual preludes to the no-free lunch lecture. The Lord is teaching them about His Real World, not what we refer to as the real world which belongs to Satan. And as long as we live by the world's economy, we are in the world and of the world, from which we should desire to be delivered. And as Nephi reminds us "The laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money they shall perish" (2 Nephi 26:31).

Note the preparation the people had to undergo before they could receive this law and covenant to keep it, and the preparation you must also undergo. In fact your response to His words is a measure of where you are in the process. It is critical for us because we "are not united according to the union required by the law of the celestial kingdom. And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom" (D&C 105-4-5).

Will the Lord say to us: "they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received.... For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift."

“Be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine” (D&C 38:27). 

No Other Way

The word of God teaches us that humans are spiritually deficient and that our goodness is flawed goodness. Because God's word is light and spirit, we receive both as we receive His words. We not only come to know that we 'cannot merit anything of ourselves' and that we must 'rely wholly upon the merits' of Christ, but we also experience our own lost, fallen and corrupt state. His words teach us that redemption is not a matter of legislation, moral exhortation, proper examples, rules, regulations and good education. We also learn why this is true--these methods require imperfect people to be in charge of making themselves and others perfect. Certainly there can be human goodness in such efforts, but they cannot bring about our redemption.

We must not only accept but experience that mankind (and each one of us) is spiritually flawed and our plight is beyond human remedy. And we experience this through His words which He has imparted unto us. We also, through His word, experience His goodness and greatness and come to know that our salvation does not come through our good works, but through His righteousness. Rules and regulations cannot empower us. The potential for sin can be clarified by the law, but not eliminated by it. That is why the law can only be a schoolmaster to teach us of our plight and to encourage us to look for the remedy. The remedy is not the law. Redemption comes in and through the Holy Messiah.

This we hear directly from His voice through His words: "There is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God save it be through the merits, and mercy and grace of the Holy Messiah" (2 Nephi 2:8). And you cannot come to him "save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in Him, relying wholly upon the merits of Him who is mighty to save" (2 Nephi 31:19).

Why is it then that we insist on thinking that our performance will somehow earn a greater reward? And that we will be able to flash our outstanding report cards at the judgment and all will be well? There is only one answer to this question and that is we have not received the word of God which He has so lovingly revealed to us! Instead we have bought in to the gospel of performance rather than the gospel of repentance. Because we have substituted the word of God with the teachings of men mingled with scripture--a perverted and watered down gospel--we are conditioned that we must do it with our strivings, our efforts, our doing, our goodness, our successes, our virtues, and our activity. But how do we eliminate this from our thinking? We must hear His voice in His words! There is no other way.

Important in the records of the dispensations is that when men depart from God's way and substitute their own ways in its place, they usually do not admit that is what they are doing. Often they do not deliberately or even consciously substitute their ways for God's ways. On the contrary, they easily and largely convince themselves that their way is God's way. The apostasy described in the New Testament is not a desertion of the cause, but a perversion of it, a process by which the righteous are removed and none perceives it.

But this is what happens when we neglect the word of God. Our minds, like a land neglected by the cultivator (us) necessarily produces thorns and thistles, so our sense, by long neglect, produces a plentiful crop of noxious opinions, dogmas, tenets and perverted teachings. There is need now for much care in cultivating the field of our minds, that the word of truth, which is the true and diligent husbandman of the heart (word is what nourishes us), may cultivate our minds and hearts with continual light and truth.

We do not like to think of ourselves or our minds as being corrupt, and yet that is the word the Lord uses to describe us, for when we take strength unto ourselves and boast in our own strength, then we are left to our own strength, and we will not prosper. Our 'own strength' is a state of corruption and we cannot overcome this corruption by our goodness, our virtues and our activity. When the Lord asked His servant "Who is that has corrupted my vineyard?" the servant answers that the vineyard becomes corrupted by corrupted people who take strength unto themselves, or rely on their own strength: "...is not this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have become corrupted?"

As a result of the fall we are all corrupted and do not merit anything of ourselves. So the problem does not lie solely in the fact that people take strength unto themselves, but that corrupt people take strength unto themselves, and we all are, everyone of us, corrupted as a result of the fall. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit.

The Lord also said that men who set themselves up as a light unto the world have corrupt minds, because their minds are filled with corrupt teachings, ideas and opinions. We have all gone out of the way (are not in the way) and have become corrupted.  Because of pride and because of false teachers and false doctrines, even our churches have become corrupted. Why? Again it is corrupt people (the fall) with corrupt minds (the false teachings and false doctrines). Add to this the desire for the things of the world (all corruptible), we are in a very sorry state indeed.

Of course Christ is the remedy, but how do we come to Christ? How exactly do we partake of His goodness, His incorruptible state of righteousness, and His promise to make us incorruptible like He is? 

The answer is through His words. When we are born we are neither good nor evil, but are innocent, but are "conceived in sin, even so when (we) begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in (our) hearts, and (we) taste the bitter, that (we) may know to prize the good." (Moses 6:55) And "it is given unto (us) to know good from evil, wherefore (we) are agents unto (ourselves)..." (Moses 6:56) So with these competing influences--good and evil--how do we learn to prize the good? Before leaving the Garden, Eve told Adam that it was better for them to pass through sorrow so that they could learn to prize the good.  In D&C 84, the Lord makes it clear that we come unto Him through His words, and that "whoso receiveth not my voice (His words) is not acquainted with my voice, and is not of me." 

So we experience the darkness within ourselves and in the world. We should not deny the darkness within or avoid the darkness of the world. We should acknowledge it, accept it, but transcend it by seeking God's light shining in the darkness! And that light is His word!

This plan for us which offers both good and evil requires that we learn to recognize the difference and understand exactly what is good and what is evil. Again we turn to His words which tell us that good is the righteousness of God, and evil is everything else. One way is narrow and the other broad. The Lord tells us that we get in the right way because of His words and we stay in the right way because of His words. We see this by virtue of the word of God being identified as the Rod of Iron, with the word being compared to the Liahona and with the word of God being truth, light, spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Why? Because the word of God leads us to the fountain of living waters, the love of God and to the righteousness of God. While ignoring and not receiving His words keeps us in darkness and leads us to wander in strange paths and eventually being captive by the chains of hell. And when we shine the light of His words upon ourselves, we see the corruption, the flawed goodness, the evil. And yet at the same time we see His goodness and righteousness, and willingly rely wholly upon His merits.

Ask yourself this question: Is my faith so little that I cling to the deeds that I do, calling them good, because I am afraid to see the evil in myself? Yet it is only through seeing the evil in us that we can exercise the faith to see the good in Him.

And exactly how do we know to see the good in Him? By what our Father in Heaven has revealed to us about Him and about ourselves. And how do we get this revelation? Through His words that he has spoken and caused to be recorded.

I would that you should take upon you the name of Christ and retain His name always written in your hearts, and that you hear and know the voice by which you are called, and also, the name by which He shall call you. For "how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart."

Saved From Our Sins

"...and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matt 1:21).

The greatest part of our energy in this world's life is spent in the endeavour to rid ourselves of discomfort. We spend vast amounts of time and resources trying to avoid discomfort or to make ourselves more comfortable. Some do it through attempting to escape the discomfort, others with strong and continuous effort to keep moving up into bigger and better and more, only to discover that with each new escape or new ascent, new discomfort. The truth is that we bring our troubles with us. We bring ourselves with us. In our haste to be rich or to escape, we are slow to find the poverty of our souls and no amount of effort at escaping or improving our circumstances can rid ourselves of this poverty.

For the cause of every person's discomfort is evil, or as Alma says 'our awful, sinful and polluted state,' or the evil in ourselves, our own corrupted state, our own unrighteousness, and our flawed goodness. In addition we also have and experience the evil of those we love. And the only way to rid ourselves of this evil is to get rid of our own sin--our sinful and polluted state. And I don't mean the deeds that we do, but the evil that we are. Make note of the irony--it is very uncomfortable to admit that we are evil. Only those bad people who have committed atrocious sins are evil, we tell ourselves. For this reason we cling to the deeds that we do, calling them good, because we are afraid to see the evil in ourselves.

What needs to be changed is us, not our actions or our behaviors. We can, for example, quit doing a particular sinful deed, but what is not changed is our capacity to continue to commit that sinful deed. Foolish is the person who would rid himself and others of discomfort by waging war on the evils around him, while that person neglects his own character and capacity for sin. We, nor others, can be righted from the outside. Wrong is always generated and done by an individual because the wrongness exists in that individual! 

Too often our efforts are directed at treating the symptoms rather than the cause. I call it chopping at the leaves as opposed to going to the root of the problem. Almost all of our efforts are thus directed as if a change in our behavior or the behavior of others is the cure to the sickness. We are only right when there is no wrong in us, not when we have quit doing wrong. We must be set free from the evil within us, not set free from the sins or evil we are doing, nor set free from the sins we have committed. I mean the sins we are capable of doing, the sins or evil which spoil our nature--the wrongness in us--the evil we consent to, the evil we are, the evil which makes us do the sins that we do.

Let's pause here and answer the question you may have--is it really evil that is within us? Is it not just the result of the fall? Isn't it better, or doesn't it make us feel better, to say that nobody is perfect and not that we are evil? We could if that were the case, but it isn't. One of the results of the fall of Adam was that Satan came "among the children of men, and tempteth them to worship him; and men have become carnal, sensual, and devilish..." (Moses 6:49 emphasis added). The Lord also told Adam that "inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good" (Moses 6:55 emphasis added). 

"For they are carnal and devilish, 

and the devil has power over them; 

yea, even that old serpent 

that did beguile our first parents, 

which was the cause of their fall; 

which was the cause of all mankind becoming carnal, sensual, devilish, 

knowing evil from good, subjecting themselves to the devil.

Thus all mankind were lost; 

and behold, they would 

have been endlessly lost 

were it not that God redeemed his people from their lost and fallen state.

But remember that he 

that persists in his own carnal nature, 

and goes on in the ways of sin 

and rebellion against God, 

remaineth in his fallen state 

and the devil hath all power over him. Therefore he is as though 

there was no redemption made, 

being an enemy to God; 

and also is the devil an enemy to God."

(Mosiah 16:3-5). 

Further, if the definition of Good is the righteousness of God and evil is everything else (Moroni 7 et al), then our capacity or desire to choose anything other than the righteousness of God is evil.

 

To save a man from his sins, or from his awful, sinful and polluted state is the reason Christ was sent by His Father, sent to do the will of the Father. Christ did not come to just deliver us from the consequences of our sinful deeds, while yet our sinful nature remained. But men, loving their sins, pervert the word of God by saying that He came to save us from the punishment of our sins. This teaching has perverted and corrupted the teaching of His gospel. He did not come to just pay the price of our sinful deeds, but to pay the price of our awful, sinful and polluted state--to save us from our sins, from ourselves.

As we learn to acknowledge the evil within us and the evil around us, we realize that we are helpless to make any changes in ourselves that will make our evil nature go away. What we can do is look for the light shining in the darkness. But Oh how we hate the light and prefer the darkness! For the light shining upon us will cause that we see the evil within us, and this we cannot stand. So we prefer the darkness. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."

It is the badness within us, ready to produce bad actions, that we need to be delivered from. As long as this badness remains we are left to be evil, commit evil and suffer the consequences. But to be delivered only from these consequences would be no deliverance from ourselves, but would be damnation. Add to the evil in our being the fact that we do not care and will not obey--we will not repent and turn to Him, because we love the comfort of the darkness rather than the discomfort of the light shining upon us.

Consider that the evil that lives in each of us, our evil judgments, our evil desires, our hate and pride and envy and greed and self satisfaction--these are the souls of our sins, the cause of our sins, and are more terrible than the deeds that we do. They make us as loathsome as the loathsome things that we do.

Christ came to deliver us from the bondage of not just our deeds, but from our awful, sinful and polluted state, and not just from the punishment of any of them. When all our sins are gone and we are changed by Him, the punishment will have departed also. He came to make us good.

One master sin is at the root of all the rest. It is the non-recognition by us, and the consequent inactivity in us. It is the absence of our being in harmony with our Father and His Son. It is the fact that He has given us the choice between Him and His righteousness, and everything else, or evil. Being enticed by one or the other, we choose one or the other. Can you imagine that you can come to align your will with His? Not in the sense that we are better behaved or improved, but in the sense that we become like Him because we have come to recognize the evil within us and turned to Him to change us. It is the will of God that we become like Him. When that becomes our will as well, then we are one with God. The Lord knows what we need; we know only what we want. We want ease and comfort. He wants purity. 

We can begin by acknowledging the evil within us and compare ourselves to His goodness and bring about the godly sorrow that comes as a result of this comparison of His goodness and our nothingness. It is only through seeing the evil within us that we can exercise the faith to see the Good in Him.

As we move about in the shadows of our own darkness and the darkness of those around us we may create fictions of our own goodness by comparing ourselves to others. It is true that we can always find someone worse than we are, or so it seems, because all we measure is the outward manifestations of a people going about to establish their own righteousness. The true God gets distorted, while we assume the authenticities and endorsements that belong only to God. We maintain appearances of true worship and lay stress on outward observances and the need to preserve the exterior of true worship. All of this is caused by avoiding the light and being comfortable in the darkness and avoiding the righteousness of God.

Instead of the righteousness of God we create a fiction that feeds the many as we worship the God of our making, but are now allowed to worship the false gods (our gods) alongside the true God.  

In order to awaken to a sense of our own lost and fallen state, our evil and sinful state, we have a remedy. And that remedy is the "light of the everlasting word." The only problem with this remedy, is that the light of the everlasting word will awaken us to a sense of our awful guilt and the fact that we are encircled about by the bands of death and the chains of hell. Not a very comforting remedy to say the least for those who desire comfort. Nor is it comforting  to be shown our weakness as soon as we come unto Him, or be told that we must lose our life to find it. But it is the only way we can come out of the darkness and into the light. Measuring ourselves by what we do with what others may or may not do may be comforting, but it is not redeeming. 

While it is frightening and certainly not pleasant to see the evil within us, the alternative is much worse and will cause us to wish that we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from His presence. Adam and Eve certainly recognized this as they contemplated partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The attached poem that I wrote illustrates our dilemma.

The Lord cannot save us from our sins while we hold on to them.  We must send them away or forsake them. We must begin to cast them out, if we would be delivered from the evil within us. But alone we might labor for all eternity and not succeed. We cannot set ourselves right. Only Christ can do that. He does not even require that we be sorry for our sins, because, until His love is developed in us by Him, we cannot be truly sorry.

As soon as we just desire to forsake or to send our sins away, He will cause that desire to work in us, and immediately we will begin to see some of the fruits of our repentance, fruits which come from Him, such as curing our tendency to turn away from Him and taking away our disposition to do evil. But don't expect all the evil in us to be taken away in this lifetime. Hence the need for continual repentance, for validating our repentance by enduring to the end, with the hope, no the knowledge, that we can be perfected in Him.

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The Net

Something there is that doesn't love safety,

That wants the net removed from under us,

And forces all our timid ones to flee;

And awakens all our senses to the light.

The work of the lifeless is another thing:

I have seen them, cautious and secure,

Staying still, never moving;

Lifeless, helpless, never understanding why.

Never seeing, never feeling. Life I ask:

Is it more than dying? Isn't life for living?

Every year they seek to find their life

On things which have no life and give no life;

Things which give them comfort, make them safe,

And all the while entomb their souls for life.

"Be careful," they're told, "You might get hurt;"

And so they stay away from all that might give life;

As if getting hurt would harm them some.

"You can't get hurt if you are dead," I say.

Why is it that they are afraid to live, afraid to dance?

Wall flowers all, hiding from the real world, turning away;

Behaving themselves, deluding themselves;

Free from the pain of embarrassing failure.

Adam and Eve rejected the set, the garden in which they lived;

Both wanted more than comfort and ease, wanted to be like God.

And yet reseeking Eden, the Garden of Eden, is the work of the day;

"If only life were this or that, wouldn't we be happy?"

"Never suffering is never living," I say, as I remove the net

And see the danger from above, and feel the life within me.