Alma, chapter 42

 This is Alma trying to explain, to his son, Corianton, the justice of God, a justice that sounds so fierce and miserable in Old Testament writings, starting with the casting out of the Garden of Eden (which increased sadness and difficulty for Adam and Eve) and continuing on throughout history, and which seems, to Corianton, to be out of character of a loving God.

Alma starts from the beginning.  His explanation goes something like this:

1st: Adam and Eve.  If they had remained in their original state in the Garden of Eden, where everything was provided, and where there was no death due to the tree of life, there would have been sobering natural consequences?  What would have been some of those?

They would have lived forever, their children and grandchildren and every succeeding generation would have lived forever.  That is unsustainable on earth...beyond its natural resources...shortages of food, overwhelming environmental pollution, etc. etc.    Think about what happens in a society in that situation.

2nd: Powerful, wicked, men and women would never die.  Their destructive, dishonest egregious efforts to maintain power would never end.  They (and we) would never have the sense of mortality that offers us reminders and crucial opportunities to review our lives.  Alma refers to this in verse 5: "having no space for repentance" means having no sense of parameters of lifespan or sense of an end, which parameters serve all of us well in moving us to review our lives and consider how we are using our time and to what ends, and therefore offering opportunities to recognized opportunities to engage in the blessed experience of repentance.  

3rd: Furthermore, not only would powerful, wicked people never die, there would be never ending battles between them and those who wanted to dethrone them or to take their place.  We have enough of those in a mortal life, they would be endless in an immortal wicked world.

Alma refers to such a situation being one in which the word of God becomes void.  Void means "having no legal or binding force; nul; not effectual to bind parties, or to convey or support a right, not sufficient to produce its effect.   Alma is saying that in  such a situation, people who choose wickedness, would not be motivated to repent, but feel free to continually pursue wicked goals without fear of death or any sense of mortal danger. The prophet Isaiah wrote: "My word shall not return to me void, but shall accomplish that which I please". (Isaiah 55:11). A world that includes death, either your own, or of those who are important to you, includes a powerful, and fairly frequent nudge to consider your life, the word of God, and what is most important to you.  A world without death does so far less.

4th: Alma also says that the "great plan of salvation would have been frustrated".  God's whole plan is set up to give us experience that teaches us powerful, personal lessons, helps us see and choose what is most important to us, teaches us how to make changes in order to become all we desire to be, and then to be transformed by glorious resurrection.  

Alma is trying to show Corianton that it is easy to see harshness in God's actions where there is actually a tremendous amount of mercy.

Note: Resurrection doesn't just mean "getting a body back".  It means being "raised with glory", transformed in heavenly ways, empowered to do the good you seek to do in powerful ways.  What kind of glory?  One that reflects, specifically, who you, individually have become and the desires of your heart. (Doctrine and Covenants 88).  (Those who do not wish to do anything good....no glory with your resurrection).

5th: Alma also speaks about what the inevitability of physical death does in a person's life:  It prevents you from living here forever (which most would not prefer once they not only experience the tragedies and violence involved in mortal life) and helps you understand that this life is far from ideal and that post death existence offers far more to us than mortal life does. 

Understanding that, we begin to see that being forever here on earth would cause us to become "lost" (Alma 42:6).  Have you ever become physically lost?  Unable to find your way home, or to the destination at which you set out to arrive?  Becoming lost, in this verse is like that...unable to find your way home to life in the presence of God, which home is joyful to every person who loves goodness.

Corianton, with his father and brothers, has been through a lot (Alma chapter 38), both physically and emotionally, because of his work with his father, trying to teach the word God.  He wonders whether it makes sense to teach about a coming of a Savior far into the future that he is not sure will happen.  And he has made some bad decisions trying to find relief from that insecurity about what he has been asked to do and to teach. 

Alma's words in chapter 42 are his attempt to help his son see that God's response to sin, whether it is Corianton's sin or the sin of Adam and Eve, or anyone else, is not a vindictive assignment to a state of punishment and misery, but rather a reflection of God offering a mortal life that is set up to help us understand and experience the natural, logical, actual consequences of sin (which consequence, is always, ultimately, and naturally, misery) and the consequences of discipleship.

Most of us, consciously, or unconsciously, experience that learning and experience during our lives.  Death, and our awareness of our mortality, is part of the plan to move us out of living amidst what would otherwise be a never ending earthly cycle of power seeking and conflict and violence and struggle, and the misery that such creates if allowed to continue without end.  

The post mortal life, Alma explains, is set up to free us from that awful possibility...putting us in a new, post-moral state; a state where redemption continues to be possible due our desire to repent and change without the encumbrance of a failing, mortal body, which redemption continues to be available to us due to the amazing justice of God and due to the amazing mercy and deliverance from the bondage of our sins, which deliverance the Father and the Son made possible through the latter's atonement for each of us.  

Corianton has been struggling with a misapprehension of the nature of God...seeing Him as a decreer of laws, a promiser of far off personal interaction, and a vindictive dealer out of justice.  When we see God that way we seek consolation elsewhere, which is exactly what Corianton did.  That put Corianton in a reasonable state of mind: feeling antipathy towards God because he thinks that God's motives must be control and punishment for sin (which he, Corianton has engaged in) while, at the same time He claims to be full of love.  Corianton's antipathy, coming from those assumptions, makes total sense.

Corianton has been laboring under the belief that God, by nature is vindictive and harsh, focused on obedience and penalty (justice), in spite of claiming to be a God of love.  His father is trying to help disabuse him from that erroneous assumption by explaining the total incorporation of loving mercy and forgiveness in God's plan from the beginning, made possible by a huge and voluntarily and lovingly given price on the part of both the Father and the Son.  

Verse 1 of Chapter 43 indicates that Coriantion may have found it helpful.

 

Spiritual fasting as a turning towards partnership

Thinking about the practice of spiritual fasting this morning.

"Fasting requires self-control and discipline, as one denies the natural desires of the flesh. During spiritual fasting, the believer's focus is removed from the physical things of this world and intensely concentrated on God." ~ Mary Fairchild

I generally have tended to think about fasting from food as an expression of turning to God and away from food for a time, good in and of itself, and considered even better when it is "done with a purpose", a petition for help for self or others, in mind.  But Fairchild's statement has me thinking about the principle of fasting as it relates to a broader definition of that turning.

Fasting from food reminds me of my own physical weakness and dependency upon God's creation of this world and its resources for my very life; my own weakness in comparison to the power of a wondrous, life-giving, loving, and amazing God.  It can direct my feelings of hunger into awareness of my own dependence upon Him and the world He created for us, and, hopefully,  therefore,  encourages me towards grateful and more earnest communication with Him.  And, seeking that communication, I may gain spiritual clarity of thought. 

That leads me to believe that, though we often talk about "fasting with a purpose",  and tend to think of it as a method to employ while petitioning God for a particular and important need or hope to be fulfilled, spiritual fasting is not simply a way to express gratitude, or to earn God's favor, or to increase the likelihood that He will do something, for us or someone else. Rather, the purpose of fasting is to produce a transformation in us—a clearer, more focused attention and dependence upon God.  Thus, my more focused attention to, and grateful communication with God while fasting can help me to hear God's voice more clearly on those very subjects that are on my mind and in my heart.  And as I do so, that attention moves our communication away from "petitioner to grantor" (I need this, please make it happen) and into "partners" (here is what is possible, and what we each can do) in the work of the Lord near me.

Clearly, food is not the only thing which, if I fast from it, can help me in my efforts to turn my heart and mind to God.  At this point in my life, after decades of regular spiritual fasts from food, fasting from food is fairly easy and familiar.  What's harder for me at this stage of my life?  Fasting from time spent online.  Sobering.

Furthermore, fasting, it seems, is more than abstinence from something, which abstinence is hopefully practiced with God in mind. 

Isaiah wrote "Is this not the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?  Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? That thou sees the naked, that thou cover him: and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?"  (Isaiah 58:6-7)

We have a tradition, when we engage in a spiritual fast, of donating "fast offerings"; funds to be used by churches or other institutions to aid others who struggle with one or more of the burdens and needs that Isaiah wrote about.

It occurs to me that it would be wise for me to not only make such donations with those Isaiah verses in mind, but, as I communicate with God during a spiritual fast (be it a fast from food or from anything else), to also seek from Him the courage, heart, will, and information He may give me in order to not only donate funds, but also to be able to recognize, by His spirit, the moments or times in the coming days when I am personally in a position to act in a way that furthers what Isaiah wrote about and to do so.

For a hesitant, homebody person like me who finds solitude peaceful, asking to be able to see those moments or times and to act accordingly feels daunting.  But if I remember that our Father and I are partners in whatever He indicates in the days that follow such a seeking and seeing, rather than us being just petitioner and grantor, that helps. A lot.

Ezekiel 36:16-20. When we wrap ourselves and our sins in the flag of religious devotion...

"Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

"Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings:...

"Wherefore I poured out my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idol wherewith they had polluted it: 

"And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

"And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, "These are the people of the Lord".  (King James Version)

The word of the Lord came unto me saying

"My son, when the people who knew me, and called themselves my people, lived in the land that I had given them, they made it a country full of sin by their choices and their actions:...

"I responded with energy and swiftness because they embraced the sins of anger, violence, and killing, and because they embraced ideologies, and powerful entities. and leaders which encouraged those sins and extolled such responses and actions.

"And so I allowed them to be attacked and defeated by other nations that do not know me.  My decision to do so was a just and appropriate response to their decisions and actions.

"And when they were among people who do not know me, they treated my name with irreverence and abuse whenever they declared, "We are the people of the Lord".  

Sobering to consider today.

The Lord's considered offer, which some accepted, and others did not: Ezekiel 36:21-32

Corrected post: What Latter-day Saints Get Wrong About Prophets

What Latter-day Saints get wrong about living prophets, according to Keith A. Erekson 

By Valerie Walton, Church News,  3 Feb 2022, 4:00 PM EST 

 During his time working with Church history, Keith A. Erekson, the director of historical outreach and partnerships for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has listened to thousands of questions from people who struggle with concerns and doubts about the Church. They range from the multiple accounts of the First Vision, to polygamy, to the prohibition on the participation of Black Latter-day Saints in priesthood and temple ordinances, to witnessing friends being excluded or insulted for identifying as LGBT. 

“Maybe it’s a little of all of these and then some,” he said. 

Many of these questions “invoke the existence and role of living prophets,” Erekson said in an Ensign College devotional held in the Assembly Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 1. 

Erekson cited the Old Testament story about Naaman in 2 Kings 5 seeking healing from the prophet Elisha as an example of a relationship Latter-day Saints might have today with living prophets. 

Naaman, a successful military commander and warrior, was suffering from a skin disease. He approached Elisha, who had a reputation as a healer, according to the customs of his time: with a letter of recommendation from his king, a flourish of horses and chariots, and gifts of gold, silver and clothing. 

“He also expected Elisha to behave the same way as other healers in their culture,” Erekson explained, “by calling aloud, waving his hand, or enacting some other ritual performance. But Elisha defied Naaman’s expectations by refusing the gifts and sending a simple message to wash seven times in a nearby river.”

Naaman instantly became angry and went away in a rage. Later, his servants talked him into trying the treatment, which worked. 

“So here is the insight: Naaman’s instant rage surfaced when his expectations were challenged,” Erekson said. “He protested by saying, ‘I thought that for me he would surely come out.’ Yes, Naaman needed to humble himself, but the root problem was neither the prophet nor his prescription; it was the expectations Naaman brought to the encounter.” 

Erekson asked his listeners what expectations they might have about prophets, how those expectations might be influenced by their upbringing and culture, and if they are assuming things that are incorrect. “Admitting the errors in our own thinking is sometimes the most difficult part of understanding Church history because it takes humility to change our expectations and assumptions after we learn they are incorrect.” 

Many oversimplify living prophets to a simple binary of being inspired or uninspired. However, instruction given by the Lord on the day the Church was organized, which is found in Doctrine and Covenants 21:1-2, gives three things that should be expected of prophets: “Behold, there shall be a record kept among you; and in it thou shalt be called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of Jesus Christ, an elder of the church through the will of God the Father, and the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ, Being inspired of the Holy Ghost … .” 

“Prophets cultivate relationships with each of the three members of the Godhead and understanding these relationships helps dispel common misunderstandings of their work,” Erekson said. 

Many cultures have models of prophets. For some, a prophet is a sphinx, riddler or soothsayer who speaks in anonymous riddles. For others, a prophet is a “lone voice who speaks out against all evil and oppression” and denounces every wrong. Another model is that of a cable news pundit who pins the blame for tragedies on the sins of an enemy group, offering harsh condemnations. 

 Some Latter-day Saints come to expect prophets to act like these models. “Then, if prophets speak too clearly in favor of vaccination, or if they fail to stand with or against the internet’s outrage of the day, or if they offer kindness instead of criticism of refugees, some turn away in rage like Naaman,” Erekson said. 

Another unhelpful expectation is a distrust in a person who is influenced by culture. Every human is shaped by the language, customs, knowledge and experiences of individuals, families and societies, making it impossible for anyone — including prophets — to not be influenced by culture. 

“In fact, Nephi explained that God speaks to prophets — and all of us — ‘according to their language, unto their understanding’ — in other words, our cultures” (2 Nephi 31:3).  

Erekson said that prophets interact with their cultures, such as Joseph Smith using seer stones, Joseph F. Smith pondering the afterlife during the ravages of World War I, or President Russell M. Nelson counseling Latter-day Saints to abandon attitudes and actions of prejudice in a society built on discrimination. 

 “Prophets participate in their cultures as do you and I, and the way we all progress is by following God in our cultures.” 

Another expectation is that to follow the prophet, one must imitate their every deed, such as raising pigeons because President Thomas S. Monson did. “Prophets do not urge us to follow or imitate them, but to follow and imitate the Savior,” Erekson said. 

“Stated another way, the prophets do not teach us to follow them, but to ‘hear Him’!” 

Some expect prophets to receive revelation “only by kneeling alone and asking for it,” Erekson said. While many revelatory experiences happen that way, prophets also receive revelation with other people through councils. Today, the Church is administered through councils comprised of members of the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Seventy, Presiding Bishopric and general organizations. 

“If we expect revelation to come only to individuals, then we will miss many of God’s modern dealings with living prophets.” 

Why do prophets need the grace of Christ? “For the same reasons that you and I depend on His grace — to forgive our sins, succor our infirmities, mitigate our shortcomings, expand our capabilities, turn weaknesses into strengths,” Erekson said. 

Prophets make mistakes and they disagree. In extreme cases, their differing perspectives can lead to disputes. “Most of the time,” Erekson said, “the differences of opinion serve to bring all perspectives on issues into the discussion.” 

The only person to ever live a mistake-free life was Jesus Christ. Prophets are aware of their own shortcomings, Erekson said, citing Moses who worried over his speaking inadequacies, Moroni who felt the same about his writing, and Joseph Smith who published his errors and divine rebukes. 

“We should also not expect that prophets do not get tricked,” Erekson said. He gave a few scriptural and modern examples of prophets being fooled. For instance, when Joseph Smith lost the 116 pages of the Book of Mormon manuscript, he “was told simply, ‘You cannot always tell the wicked from the righteous’ (Doctrine and Covenants 10:37). The message was not ‘One day you will learn how to identify the wicked.’ Just, ‘you cannot.’” 

Simply citing the many instances of when prophets disagreed, made mistakes or were tricked is incomplete, Erekson said, “without understanding that prophets serve ‘through the … grace of [our] Lord Jesus Christ.’ His grace is sufficient to bring them to unanimity, refine their souls and succor them.” 

Prophets don’t know everything about the future. “While it is true that God reveals some of His secrets to prophets, and that some prophets including Moses, Enoch and Nephi received sweeping visions, that does not mean that every prophet knows everything about everything,” Erekson said. The things they do know are not always spelled out for them.

 “As the ‘mouthpiece’ of the Lord, they do not simply open their mouths and the word of God flows out,” he said. “Sometimes revelation has come as dictated wording, but prophets also receive inspiration, feelings and impressions that they must put into words and actions. Sometimes they explore paths that don’t work out.” 

Erekson then addressed the idea that the prophet will never lead the Church astray — wording that comes from a statement made by Wilford Woodruff announcing the end of plural marriage. Over time, “additional assumptions have been attached — that the practices of the Church should never change, and that following prophetic counsel should cause no suffering,” he said. 

“In its complete original context, Wilford Woodruff’s teaching emphasized that the prophet would not … lead people ‘astray from the oracles [or revelations] of God and from their duty.’ 

Prophets will not lead us away from their true witness of Jesus Christ, from His revelations or from the path, however hard it may be, to follow Him. 

“Because prophets act and preach by the Spirit, we have a duty to seek the Spirit to understand and receive their message.” Prophets work to be inspired of the Holy Ghost because they don’t know everything, and they gain light and truth from the Lord line upon line. 

Doctrine and Covenants 107:22 instructs that prophets are to be “upheld by the confidence, faith, and prayer of the church.” 

Today, members of the Church uphold the prophets “with confidence gained through the companionship of the Holy Ghost, with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and through prayer to God our Father,” Erekson said. 

“We should rightly expect prophets to be called through the will of God and the grace of Jesus Christ and receive ongoing guidance through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost,” Erekson said. “As we do so, we can, like Naaman, shed incorrect expectations and assumptions about prophets that both impede our ability to be blessed and prompt divisive anger.” 

You can watch or read the full Ensign College devotional here.  

https://www.ensign.edu/keith-a-erekson-february-2022