Joseph Smith also had enemies who hated him - and in the end, took him and snuffed him out. It was supposed to end that way (I think; or those closest to him were supposed to rally around him to protect him until he died a natural death at the age of 85 years).
Sometimes, against our better natures, we invite many into our bosoms that turn out being our worst enemies. Sometimes, it is best for all to keep them at a distance - much as a shepherd would keep a ravening wolf at a distance, even though they may have fur, four legs and a tail, it does not make them friends of a sheep with four legs, fur and a tail..... So, please do not get caught up in the BS that you were taught in screwels that we should love everyone at any cost. That is a caveated statement - and one that is foolish at best in today's world. We HAVE to judge everyone we come across. My wife's step father is a child molester. By the lovey-dovey, touchy-feely koombiah BS attitude that many people have, I should just have a big hug fest and then leave my young children alone with him for months on end because I love him and forgive him. I am COMMANDED to forgive him, or I cannot receive the same for myself when I seek it from the Master, but I still have to remain vigilant for those I love and have stewardship over. The words of the Savior said it best, and I use them very often "WISE AS A SERPENT, HARMLESS AS A DOVE". So, we judge people every day of our lives - you and I simply do not possess the keys to pass a FINAL JUDGMENT on any individual. As much as I despise hitler and even our current prez, I cannot pass final judgment on either of them because I do not know the details of how many times they were beaten by their mothers, made fun of in school, etc etc....
One of the best things one can do is apply a filter to our lives based on how the Savior judged and acted around those who were a physical threat and a spiritual threat to those whom he had stewardship over. In order to do that, one has to have logic in their lives (be able to analyze things) and they actually have to read the scriptures and know how Jesus reacted and responded in various situations. Most do not have either of these two things - so they spew the mentally-retarded leftist logic (I always say it - and will say it until I am blue in the face: liberalism is a mental illness and a spiritual malady) out about life being one big koombiah-fest. These jokers, when the facade of civility is shattered here shortly, will make a quick conquest and will have the misfortune of watching their loved-ones raped and killed before their very eyes and then having the same done to them. These are in the bonds of iniquity - because they cannot see it when it is around them and do not see the awfulness of their situation when all things scream of its proximity.
Here is a story from a previous blog post of someone who spoke out against the sin of the day and gave the ultimate for having done so. If you do not get that people hate you with a seething hatred for what you are and what you stand for (the Church's value set), then you are naive indeed. Many of them, if it were legal or the legal and social framework no longer existed, would give you the same end that Zechariah got:
"In 661 BCE, the prophet Zechariah ben Jehoiada chastised the nation for their sins, warning them of the grave punishments that would befall them if they would not change their ways. Rather than accept his rebuke, the nation stoned Zechariah to death in the Temple courtyard. Incredibly, this occurred on Yom Kippur."Rather than allowing Zechariah's blood to settle into the earth, G-d caused it to bubble up. The people tried to cover it with earth, but it continued to seethe for the next 252 years, until the Destruction of the Temple by Nebuzaradan (Nebuchadnezzar.). "Our Sages say that when Nebuzaradan entered the Temple he found the blood of Zechariah seething. He asked the Jews what this phenomenon meant, and they attempted to conceal the scandal, but he threatened to comb their flesh with iron combs. So they told him the truth: "There was a prophet among us who chastised us, and we killed him. For many years now his blood has not rested."
"Nebuzaradan said, "I will appease him." He then killed the members of the Great and Small Sanhedrins, then he killed youths and maidens, and then school-children. Altogether, he killed 940,000 people. Still the blood continued to boil, whereupon Nebuzaradan cried: "Zechariah, Zechariah! I have slain the best of them; do you want all of them destroyed?" At last the blood sank into the ground (Talmud, Gittin 57b)
The only way that Enoch, just before the first great destruction, remained alive with his people, was to basically inhabit a fortress on a hill. This allowed the people to self-cull as they decide, FOR or AGAINST God's ways. This same process will occur with the New Jerusalem - just as Spencer has described it. With a righteous people gathered against the final onslaught of evil, no weapon formed will prosper against those people. Once the 12,000 of each tribe (sent out of this terrestrial abode) have gathered out the righteous from off the face of the earth, the final cleansing will occur (of which no man knows the hour of). All wickedness will cease because all wicked will have been stripped of their mortality and those who remain will seek only to do good because the memory of evil will have been removed with the removal of those who harbored it in their hearts. The false sense of koombiah will be gone mostly because those who will remain will be children and the adults who kept themselves out of Babylon and did not partake of her sins.
Christ's example is the one I will follow, He Just Loved and Forgave and He conquered all
ReplyDeleteAnd why in the hell do you think that by me saying to love everyone, it means that i don't judge people and situations. I would never leave my child alone with pervy Uncle Bill. I make solid judgments everyday. You are one extreme individual that needs meds.
ReplyDeleteI love the first posters comment. You are absolutely correct and should be writing the blog.
ReplyDeleteJust to make a clarification: the Zechariah mentioned is NOT the same Zechariah that has a book in the Bible, but a different one.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, if the dating is correct, this happened in the middle of the reign of Manasseh, son of Hezekiah. It was during Manasseh's reign that God decided to destroy the kingdom of Judah, for their many sins.
It wasn't so much the quantity of sins, but the type of sins and where the sins were committed. Manasseh built altars to Ashtaroth, Baal, and Moloch and had the people commit all types of sexual sins WITHIN THE WALLS OF THE TEMPLE.
So this Zechariah ben Jehoaida tries to tell the people to repent and is stoned on the Day of Atonement. Of course the temple was defiled with the blood of innocents.
Not even Josiah's purification was enough. The Lord treated it as a stay of execution of sorts, until we had the last king of Judah Zedekiah who was very wicked too.
Thanks for sharing!
And for the second poster: Sexual sin IS up there with murder. Doesn't matter if it is fornication or adultery among heteros or homosexuality, pedophilia, and beastiality. You need to read the Book of Mormon again, especially where Alma explains this to his son Corianton (ALMA 39).
It has been these sexual sins commited in holy places that has proven the downfall of ANY people that could ever be called the Lord's people. Cases in point, Bible: King Manasseh, the wicked kings of Israel. Book of Mormon: King Noah, the fall of the Jaredites via secret combos, the near fall of the Nephites to the secret combos after the birth of Christ and just before His death, and the fall of the Nephites as described in Moroni 9.
On your post about Zechariah son of Johaida (sp) I got the timeframe wrong. It was in the days of Joash, NOT of Manasseh. The dating is wrong on your source as it should be in 841 BC and not 661 BC.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless he is shown in 2 Chronicles 24:17 and appears when Christ destroys the hypocrisy of the Pharisees when he mentions a Zechariah who was slain in the courts of the temple.
Also one thing that is interesting is that after the death of this Zechariah, the Jews lost ALL of the previous access that they had had to angels within the temple preceint (sp?) as well as miracles. The story appears to be, you shed innocent blood in a place regarded as holy, expect major problems.
It started with his murder in 840 BC. It continued in the reign of Manasseh ben Hezekiah. It was consumed in Zedekiah's reign when the Lord told Lehi and Co. to get out of Dodge.
Based on what the author of the blog wrote and has written in the past, he probably feels that some of these homosexuals but not all, and some of these other groups which he named, but not all, and I would guess some of those whose decisions destroy liberty, but not all are a potential threat to his family. (For example, some whose actions and changing of laws destroy liberty may have the intention to destroy liberty and to make slaves, and others may be confused and their intention is to protect and sometimes they do not know where the line is between liberty and protection…Another subject for another time.) The blogger is probably not skilled as well as he would like in defining and constantly redefining this distinction, although he did attempt to once. He probably would rather speak out with words now, because that is better than the next step that differences can lead to, and cause even more contention and less unity, and less understanding. His weakness, in my opinion, is using inflaming words and derogatory names, which can be like throwing gasoline on a small fire.
ReplyDeleteSome in these sexually different categories have been or feel like they are in potential danger of other people’s persecution because of how they feel, think and act. Only God knows their struggles and why they battle what they do and even the author, himself, addressed this to a degree.
I think the biggest potential future strife that is coming is that some who are different sexually, (homosexual and previously mentioned groups in author’s blog) want others to change their mind set and say there is no sin. Some (not all) want others to be forced to act like sin does not exist; it is a human-made delusion of the mind; and there are only opinions and there is no God who issues commandments in the first place. Or if there is a God, he wouldn’t issue the commandments that he did, so they must not have come from Him. So first the laws of the land changed to protect from bullying, which bullying is a departure from the commandment to love one another. Then the attitudes of hate have changed…and even acceptance of the individuals…because we do not know the psychological battles that go on in people’s minds. But that is not enough. Some homosexuals want others to change their mind-set and to not even think that homosexuality (and other definitions mentioned) is a less desirable or healthy way of acting. That it may be a lesser lifestyle or behavior is not allowed to be thought or written or expressed aloud…that we cannot even agree to disagree. This is where I perceive the author is concerned and why he is frustrated; he could work on stating things more civilly and using more persuasion and less-name calling. We know that some others think that the way LDS live and believe is less desirable, but they are civil in how they express it, and they don’t persecute us (yet, anymore, as much depending… on your situation).
Instead of people separating themselves intellectually and even voluntarily choosing to agree to disagree, there is a push to make everyone think alike and maybe even force one group of individuals to do something in a place that is special or holy to them that they do not feel right about. I think this is what the author has concern about. So what constitutes bullying is now being contested and disputed verbally for now. “You are bullying me because you are not calling this action marriage or you are not allowing me to be married with all of its rights and privileges.” Or “you are bullying me because you are forcing me to marry you in a place that is set apart for a different kind of agreement, and you want to make me do something that I do not think is right.” So now it appears that we are heading to the other extreme of intolerance and the pendulum is swinging far in the other direction now and not in just this area, but many other areas.
ReplyDeleteI think the author and the commenter are both judging the other’s intentions wrongly (as I may be also…and I acknowledge I do not have a window to the inner-most desires and intentions of each one.) When we judge others—their worth--and when we speculate where they will end up, or even label as all evil or all good--that is an unrighteous judgment. The reason God's judgment is righteous judgment and there is strong language in the scriptures is because He knows the thoughts and intents of each of his children as well as what they do. He knows why they do what they do...the reasons, the causes, the inclinations, the fears, and not only the outer battles they are waging, but the inner battles within each of his children. He knows if we delight in trying to do the right thing and our disappointment when we fall short or if we could care less in how we treat others, or at least others who can do something for us. I suppose how we treat others who can give us nothing, is an even greater test of character. He knows if we delight in helping others reach their potential or delight in pointing out another’s flaws and weaknesses and making them look bad and shaming them to make ourselves look better. He knows it all, and yet…
God still gives commandments. He still expects us to keep them, but he knows we won't always. God's commandments are for me to measure myself by and as a guide and a protection; not as stick by which to beat up myself or another individual’s worth. It is fine to feel an emotion of regret or remorse in falling short of the standard or commandment, so that we have a desire to get up and try again. These guides also help us to know whom to trust, but we must be weary, because we can be deceived. The Pharisees gave the appearance of keeping the commandments, delighted in catching someone not keeping them, and delighted in the punishment of that person.
It is the natural man/woman in us to delight in the shame, demise, pain, torture [even if it is only mental or emotional anguish] of someone, especially when we feel they deserve it. We call that justice. We want them to know how it feels and perhaps a small portion of that is righteous, because deep down we know some inclinations in those that hurt us can only be changed if they know how their actions are causing this horrible feeling and experience in others. If they understand how bad it feels to be on the receiving end of this anguish, then this can sometimes give the wicked the motivation to stop. So even the wicked provide a learning experience for the wicked, and we all have wicked parts in us, because we are all imperfect. This earth life is all about gaining knowledge and understanding and becoming less wicked not more wicked, and eventually, through drawing closer to Christ, having his power change our natures.
ReplyDeleteWe also delight and are grateful, hopefully, when we mess up and someone is patient, helpful, kind and gracious to us in our failure. We call that mercy. Some of our mess ups are more intentional than others and some are more accidental. Here again, God is the perfect judge of how much evil and pre-meditation we brought into the action and also how much bad tradition and knowledge we learned from wrong sources, or how much ignorance and lack of knowledge we had, or how much physiological and psychological influences and environment contributed to the whole mix of choice making. We as humans lack this knowledge, thus we cannot judge perfectly, and that is why Christ said to love one another and judge not. Loving another begins with trying to understand them; Not agreeing with them or even joining with them in that difference. It takes a lot of effort to seek to understand, and some things maybe we won’t understand about another person without God’s help. That is why we get trials, or our children get trials, or our friends, so we grow in knowledge and understanding. We can choose to learn or not learn from our trials.
Where there is more knowledge or experience or health, I feel there is more of an expectation from God to be good. If we were allowed to always get away with everything, never had consequences and were accountable to no one, we would not need mercy nor appreciate it. So without justice; there could be no mercy.
Somebody, though, has to mete out justice. Sometimes it is the wicked on the wicked. There are key people to meet out justice…those who are appointed by society to do so, parents or caretakers, God and those he calls; and then there are those who are self-appointed. Hopefully those in positions of powers have good motives and character. We must trust that God does, or it is difficult to exercise faith in Him, His Son, and His Plan of Happiness.
The minute I start focusing on the commandments and how "so and so" is not keeping them and dwell on how awful they are for not doing so, and then I verbally, or physically, or emotionally harm them in some way for not doing so, then I am at risk spiritually. At the same time, we also need to protect ourselves and others we have stewardship for, and to teach them and judge carefully so that we know whom we should trust, and whom we should separate ourselves from, and how we can best protect ourselves and those we are suppose to protect.
ReplyDeleteA kind, fair, and all-knowing God does the judging (determining whom will get along best with whom in different levels of existence after this earth-life) and God does the separating in Heaven (Remember, heaven wouldn't be heaven, if we were all thrown together like we are on earth, if we haven’t learned what we needed to learn to get along. We need a respite from this.) He did give commandments for reasons. Some are to protect us in many various ways.
I believe another reason he gave us commandments is to see how we use the commandments to treat others. Are we like Jonah at one point and secretly hope Ninevah does not repent, so we can watch it get destroyed and delight in its destruction? When we were young, did we like when are brothers and sisters got in trouble … (yes, if they were hurting us, because we wanted them to stop hurting us.) Do we like when our earthly brother and sisters are experiencing sorrow and going through hard times? “Yes, if it turns to their betterment and they learn from their mistakes?” “No, it is painful to watch.” Both?
Is it our place to judge when something bad happens to someone, if it was because they were bad or good? Some things are more directly correlated than others. Bad things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. God has the key to our heart, so God knows. But the sun shines on the wicked and the good. It is our job to “mourn with those who mourn and comfort those who are in need of comfort”, regardless if they brought it on themselves or not. It is easier to do this when we know they are innocent, but it is still a commandment, even if they are not innocent, and then, remember (we do not truly know what most individuals have experienced; God does.
It is our job to love God; and to love others. If we love Him we will keep his commandments. If we fail, then we will repent and try again. We will not judge others for sinning differently than we do, for we do all sin. It is sometimes hard for some to believe in God, let alone trust Him. I believe that is because of family baggage, world history baggage, apostasy of true gospel principles and false notions of a scary God, and rebelliousness. If everyone could be open to the real God, real history, real interpretation, and truth wasn’t suppressed or held back or vilified, more people would believe and trust God and his servants. If there was more love for our siblings on earth, more people would help each other to overcome their sins, weaknesses, and evil. Moroni 7:16 “For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.”
ReplyDeleteThe question to ask is… are our thoughts, words, and actions helping others to come to Christ? Do we use love and persuasion? Do we seek to understand? The whole purpose of the atonement of our dear Savior, who had to descend so low in the gulf of despair, pain, torment, agony, etc. was so that he would be able to understand us. Only when we know an individual, do we understand why they do what they do and their intentions, and that can give us the key to building the bridge to where they are. If we are on a bridge, but it doesn’t connect to them, they cannot step onto it. Christ is a bridge-builder. Satan creates gulfs of misery. The question to each of us is do we wish to be like Christ? And do we trust Him and His Father and have hope in their goodness? Sometimes because of our job, role (parent), etc. we are put in a position of judging. And because we are human and flawed, we fail to always act the way our true Father and his Beloved Son act.
There has to be a standard. Without rules, laws, commandments there is not social motivation or incentive to be nice, accountable, responsible, or to grow in wonderful qualities and ways, with positive characteristics. Without justice and standards, there is not even an opportunity to show mercy, patience, forgiveness, sacrifice, kindness, and understanding. When we are in the role of a “judge” or a “protector” of those we have responsibility for, we must humbly seek to do the right thing based on our knowledge and sometimes mete out tough love (negative consequences or separation or withholding of privileges) and we must try our best to be strong in the areas we are “judging” and “protecting”. The worst parents or king or judge is one who has the “do as I say, not as I do” mentality” and then doesn’t even acknowledge it. Then there are parents who are too strict and parents who are too lenient. We all mess up in this role of judge and protector, because we are human, but when we do mess up, we should be quick to acknowledge our wrong, and make it right, so we are a credible judge. When we are not in that role, we need to share, invite, love, teach, forgive, seek to understand, so we can teach, encourage, motivate and be an example, love, apologize, be firm for truth and good, feel remorse, feel hope, and LOVE! We can also do those same things, as well, when we are in the role of judge and protector, it’s just sometimes we have to mete out or allow the negative to happen for other’s growth and learning.