Searchers or Hearers Only

This post could also be entitled Not Seeing, Hearing or Understanding. 

Paul and Silas’ missionary experience with the Jews in the synagogue at Berea reveals a telling contrast between the early saints who searched the scriptures daily to determine what God was saying in his Word and those who remained content to listen to the brethren’s preaching: “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honorable women who were Greeks, and of men, not a few” (Acts 17:11–12). 

If searching the scriptures daily to see what they said—not only what Paul and Silas preached—defined saints as “more noble” before God, then wouldn’t it profit saints today to follow their example, especially in a day when those scriptures are beginning to be fulfilled? Certainly, the early saints had full-time professions like the saints do today, that perhaps required the bulk of their daytime hours to sustain life. 

Yet, the scriptures they had and searched—most likely the words of Isaiah that predict the first and second comings of Jesus Christ—set their faith on fire. Religious Jewish traditions to this day focus on searching the Torah to elicit the truths of God that sustain them through life’s challenges. Jews have traditionally eschewed the practices of the Gentiles such as the games and circuses these loved to attend. Even though Jews were scattered around the world, and were judged and persecuted by non-Jews for being different, God was still the center of their lives. 

But isn’t being different also what characterizes church members today, and within the body of the church what characterizes persons who search the words of Isaiah? Isn’t the spirit of inquiry shared by saints and Jews ancient and modern what sets them apart from secular Jews and saints-in-name only? Wasn’t that what distinguished Nephi, who inquired of the Lord, from his brothers, who didn’t? 

The same can be said of the Sons of Mosiah who were "men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God" (Alma 17:2).

Do we realize that the gap between searchers and listeners-only has so widened that in just one generation almost the entire church has moved into a non-searching mode? This is exasperated by the emphasis and almost mandate to use conference talks in almost all our meetings. I must say, however, that the Handbook does not say that the talks must be the instruction material for Priesthood and Relief Society, but that topics must come from General Conference talks. A difference maybe, but can we discern between searching the word of God and parroting Conference talks?

Isn't this non-searching mode and reliance on quotes from General Authorities also manifested in the majority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Facebook posts?

When prophecy fails—as Isaiah says—where will the saints turn who have never exercised these spiritual skills but relied instead on what non-searchers told them?

We cannot pretend that the casual believer who relies primarily on what is said from the pulpit can perceive the things of God just as well as one who diligently searches God’s Word and lives it until it permeates his/her whole being.

Can we honestly say that Nephi was not speaking about us when he says that "there are many...who cast many things away which are written," who "will not search" His words, who will not believe them because they are ignorant of what He has caused to be written (2 Nephi 32-33)? Do we really believe Christ when He says that we will be judged by His words (John 12:47-48)?

How do we search His words? See: Let Us Search Them: One Effective way to Search

The Apostasy of God’s Latter-day People

​"The thing that hath been, 

it is that which shall be; 

and that which is done 

is that which shall be done: 

and there is no new thing 

under the sun" 

(Ecclesiastes 1;9).

In view of the Mormon Gentiles’ sliding into apostasy that Isaiah and Book of Mormon prophets predict, one might expect God to provide yet a third witness—one from their own latter-day scriptures and prophets. 

Didn’t Moses also predict Israel’s apostasy and its calamitous consequence even as he had barely succeeded in schooling his people to the point that all Israel kept God’s law and could inherit the Promised Land as a covenant blessing (Deuteronomy 31:29)? 

And didn't Jesus' apostles, even as they had hardly established the church in their day, predict an endtime apostasy and its disastrous aftermath, including the coming of a Son of Perdition and other perdition types (2 Thessalonians 2:3–12; 2 Timothy 3:1–9; 1 Peter 4:17; 2 Peter 3:3–10; Jude 1:5–19)? 

And didn't Christ himself say that when the Gentiles reject the fulness of His Gospel, "I will bring the the fulness of my gospel from among them...and I will bring my gospel unto" the house of Israel (3 Nephi 16:10-11)?

And didn't the Lord say in our time,

"Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord. 

"And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord;

First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord" (D&C 112:25-26 emphasis added)?

Perhaps that kind of last-days ending for those who profess to be God’s people today isn’t what many envision if they haven’t read those scriptures. Or, if they have read them, they don’t believe them or don’t apply them to themselves. Will God forever put off the end of the world with its anticipated tribulations for His elect because they happen to  inconvenience you and me? 

Do we imagine that without being tried in all things we will simply drift into a glorious millennial age of peace through the great goodness of our God because we dutifully attend church and show kindness to friendly neighbors? 

Shall we inherit everlasting thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers because our prosperous circumstances have enabled us to out-do even Solomon in all his glory and dwell in quite large houses that testify of our good fortune even as we employ inequitable standards in the workplace? Speaking of hypocrites, Jesus said, “They have their reward.” 

What need have they of a heavenly mansion or of treasures in heaven? Man’s rationale for clinging to his idols can’t alter God’s eternal decrees. “All is well in Zion” may not be words spoken from the pulpit, but they typify those who attempt to serve both God and mammon (2 Nephi 28:15). As Nephi predicts, the Mormon Gentiles’ apostasy doesn’t occur all at once but over time when people “in Zion” progressively resist the truth of God—first, ¹scriptural truths had among them that aren’t perceived for what they are; and, second, ²a full-blown rejection of additional records that God brings forth (2 Nephi 28:24–32; 29:3). 

Isaiah traces this falling away from one generation to the next: “Alas, a nation astray, a people weighed down by sin, the offspring of wrongdoers, perverse children: they have forsaken Jehovah, they have spurned the Holy One of Israel, they have lapsed into apostasy” (Isaiah 1:4). He likens God’s people and their leaders in that day to Sodom and Gomorrah: “Hear the word of Jehovah, O leaders of Sodom; give heed to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!” (Isaiah 1:10). 

The increasing loss of light that follows the Mormon Gentiles’ spurning of one disconcerting truth after another leads to their ultimately rejecting the great outpouring of truth God promised to send. 

Paradoxically, however, that same outpouring of truth—which occurs “in the own due time of the Lord” (1 Nephi 14:26)—is made possible because at least some Mormon Gentiles incorporate all truth in their lives that God has revealed and exercise faith in Him that He will reveal more (2 Nephi 28:30; 29:8; 3 Nephi 26:9–11; Mormon 8:12; Ether 4:13). These are they who are not “blinded by the craftiness of men” (cf. Doctrine & Covenants 76:75), who differentiate between “the truth of God” and “precepts of men” (cf. 2 Nephi 28:26–31), and who love God who embodies all truth (John 14:6) more than they love the person of men (cf. James 2:1–9). 

Even as Joseph Smith and Brigham Young had barely established the church among the Mormon Gentiles, they too warned of the apostasy of many from the truth because of their depending on men instead of on God. Although these leaders offered their all in the cause of Zion, many Mormon Gentiles who have made no such sacrifices repudiate their words. 

Brigham Young pointed church members to the scriptures for a knowledge of the truth rather than to himself: “I do not want men to come to me or my brethren for testimony as to the truth of this work; but let them take the Scriptures of divine truth, and there the path is pointed out to them as plainly as ever a guidebook indicated the right path to the weary traveler. There they are directed to go, not to Brothers Brigham, Heber, or Daniel, or to any apostle or elder in Israel, but to the Father in the name of Jesus, and ask for the information they need” (Journal of Discourses, 12:96 emphasis added). 

Brigham Young “dreaded the time when the saints would become popular with the world; for he had seen in sorrow, in a dream, or in dreams, this people clothed in the fashions of Babylon and drinking in the spirit of Babylon until one could hardly tell a saint from a black-leg. And he felt like shouting, ‘To your tents, O Israel!’ because it was the only thing that could keep the people pure” (Mosiah Hancock Journal, 73). 

A revelation the prophet Joseph Smith received likens the church to a vineyard whose master commands his servants to plant twelve olive trees and build a hedge, set watchmen, and construct a tower to overlook the land. But even as they are laying the tower’s foundation, their desire to make money supersedes their obedience to their lord: “They began to say among themselves: And what need hath my lord of this tower? And consulted for a long time, saying among themselves: What need hath my lord of this tower, seeing this is a time of peace? Might not this money be given to the exchangers? For there is no need of these things. And while they were at variance one with another they became very slothful, and they hearkened not unto the commandments of their lord. And the enemy came by night, and broke down the hedge; and the servants of the nobleman arose and were affrighted, and fled; and the enemy destroyed their works, and broke down the olive-trees” (Doctrine & Covenants 101:47–51 emphasis added). 

At the ruin of his vineyard—upon his servants’ having fallen “asleep”—the master appoints one of his servants to “Go and gather together the residue of my servants, and take all the strength of mine house, which are my warriors, my young men, and they that are of middle age also among all my servants, who are the strength of mine house, save those only whom I have appointed to tarry; And go ye straightway unto the land of my vineyard, and redeem my vineyard; for it is mine; I have bought it with money. Therefore, get ye straightway unto my land; break down the walls of mine enemies; throw down their tower, and scatter their watchmen. And inasmuch as they gather together against you, avenge me of mine enemies, that by and by I may come with the residue of mine house and possess the land.” That endtime servant—who is “a faithful and wise steward in the midst of mine house”—God makes “a ruler in my kingdom” (Doctrine & Covenants 101:53–58, 61; cf. Matthew 24:45–47). 

A further revelation Joseph Smith received foresees the Mormon Gentiles’ apostasy that precipitates God’s Day of Judgment on a wicked world, the same as Israel’s apostasy did in the past: “Vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord. And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord; First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord” (Doctrine & Covenants 112:24–26; cf. Ezekiel 9:1–11 emphasis added). 

While “blasphemy” applies to those who profess knowing God but who preach things not of God, its ultimate form is “blasphemy against the Holy Ghost,” for which there is no forgiveness in this world or the next (cf. Matthew 12:31–32; Doctrine & Covenants 132:27). The scriptures define both types of blasphemy: “The godless utter blasphemy; their heart ponders impiety: how to practice hypocrisy and preach perverse things concerning Jehovah, leaving the hungry soul empty, depriving the thirsty [soul] of drink” (Isaiah 32:6); 

“Thus saith the Lord concerning all those who know my power, and have been made partakers thereof, and suffered themselves through the power of the devil to be overcome, and to deny the truth and defy my power—They are they who are the sons of perdition, of whom I say that it had been better for them never to have been born; For they are vessels of wrath, doomed to suffer the wrath of God, with the devil and his angels in eternity; Concerning whom I have said there is no forgiveness in this world nor in the world to come—Having denied the Holy Spirit after having received it, and having denied the Only Begotten Son of the Father, having crucified him unto themselves and put him to an open shame” (Doctrine & Covenants 76:31–35). 

To John, Jesus declared, “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write, ‘These things says the First and the Last, he who was dead but is alive: “I know your works and tribulations and poverty, though you are rich, and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and are not, but who are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of the things you will suffer. See, the Devil will cast some of you into prison so that you may be tried, and you will have tribulation for ten days. But be faithful to death and I will give you a crown of life” (Revelation 2:8–10). 

Reading the term “Jews” in this endtime context as a codename for endtime believers, those of God’s people who metamorphose into a “synagogue of Satan” will in the end be made to “worship before your feet and know that I have loved you” (Revelation 3:9). Isaiah concurs: “They will bow down before you, their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust of your feet. Then shall you know that I am Jehovah, and that they who hope in me are not disappointed” (Isaiah 49:23). 

Warned Joseph Smith, “You will live to see men rise in power in the church who will seek to put down your friends and the friends of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Many will be hoisted because of their money and the worldly learning which they seem to be in possession of; and many who are the true followers of our Lord and Savior will be cast down because of their poverty” (MHJ, 19); “Those who cry transgression do it because they are the servants of sin, and are the children of disobedience themselves. And those who swear falsely against my servants, that they might bring them into bondage and death—Wo unto them; because they have offended my little ones they shall be severed from the ordinances of mine house. Their basket shall not be full, their houses and their barns shall perish, and they themselves shall be despised by those that flattered them. They shall not have right to the priesthood, nor their posterity after them from generation to generation” (Doctrine & Covenants 121:17–21). 

Other latter-day prophets have given similar such warnings to the Mormon Gentiles: “Six of the original Twelve Apostles selected by Joseph Smith were excommunicated. The Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon left the Church. Three of Joseph Smith’s counselors fell. One even helped plot his death. A natural question that might arise would be that if the Lord knew in advance that these men would fall, as He undoubtedly did, why did He have His prophet call them to such high office? The answer is: to fill the Lord’s purposes. For even the Master followed the will of the Father by selecting Judas.

The apostasy of God’s covenant people is a major end-time event. 

In the last days, the falling away of those who claim to be the Lord’s covenant people sets the stage for the world’s final tumultuous events. Isaiah helps us understand that our materialism, apostasy, rebellion and failure to repent serve as a forewarning of the judgments that follow. 

When ancient Israel turned away from the Lord, destruction came upon the world. Unfortunately, many who profess to follow the Lord will grow comfortable, worldly, and careless. They will say in their hearts, “All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth” (2 Nephi 28:21). They will trust in the arm of flesh, follow precepts of men, and reject the greater truth and light.

Yet, the Lord always provides a way of escape and deliverance for the righteous. He pleads with us to repent, to seek His face and hearken to His voice while there is still time. 

God stands ready to bless and deliver every soul who truly turns to Him.

I add my own voice of warning: An Awful State of Blindness

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This scriptural account of the Mormon Gentiles prophesied apostacy was mostly put together by Avraham Gileadi.