April 29 - Righteous Cities

What started as a boring Hebrew Grammar conversation got really interesting and ended in an amazing doctrinal discussion of righteous cities. Here's how it went:

1. The Hebrew word גָּדוֹל (Gah-dohl) means "Great". But what kind of Great? The kind related to size. Abram was told in Genesis 12: 2 that his posterity would be that kind of great. 
2. Abraham wanted a City. He had heard about Enoch's city, and Melchizedek's city of Salem. He knew how Melchizedek through some hardship was able to persuade a wicked city, like Sodom, to repent and become righteous. But the Lord was able to do better than a city, as he promised Abraham would be a father of many 'nations'. 
3. The sad thing for Abraham was, he would live near where his city would be established, but would never actually acquire it (Hebrews 11: 8-10, 13 describes this further, and shows the exceptional faith he and his family had). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's covenant wives were all barren, yet each miraculously bore children who became the covenant lines. They did it all by faith.
4. The first shot at a righteous nation through Abraham was when Moses established Israel. David and Solomon did a pretty good job at it but then blew it through sin. Jerusalem was a geographically strategic place for spreading the gospel, for standing out and converting the world, but instead, they let the world persuade them. 
5. The second shot at it came in the 1830's when Joseph Smith tried to establish a righteous nation, but they blew it again, or the timing wasn't right.
6. We live in the third attempt at a righteous nation. The elect are gathering in all the time. We know at the time of the Lord's second coming, Israel will be gathered as a righteous nation (actually, many righteous nations) - even a global city of righteousness, and the Abrahamic Covenant will be complete. At this time, the earth will be translated from a temporal state, and will remain translated for 1,000 years until it is resurrected and becomes the celestial city. 
7. We go into the Celestial Kingdom as Cities, not as individuals.

April 3 - Tying the Law of Moses to the LDS Sacrament Table

1. *There were three kinds of sacrifice under the Law of Moses, and an order by which they were carried out. These are outlined as follows with regard to sin. When one committed a sin, they would follow the steps outlined below. But first, it is important to understand that food and the eating of it represents a feeling of being satisfied. The consuming of sacrifices whether by eating or burning representing the satisfying of the demands of justice.
1. The Chatat חטאת. An animal was killed upon the altar and divided two ways. The first half was for the priest and his family and represented becoming reconciled with the church, and with the Savior (represented by the priest). The second half was consumed on the altar, and went up in smoke, symbolically going up to God. Scriptures often refer to the sweet savor, or smell, etc, that a burnt offering was to God. 
2. The Olah עֹלָה. (The one God asked Abraham to perform with Isaac) The animal is slaughtered, divided, washed, annointed, and burned completely. This sacrifice belonged entirely to God. The entire aspect of this sacrifice represents the total consecration necessary to satisfy God, and fully repent.
3. The Shalom. An animal is slaughtered and divided 3 ways; The first was eaten by the offender; the 2nd by the priest, and the 3rd was consumed by God. This three way participation represents oneness and unity that follows true repentance among the offender, the priest (the church/Christ), and God.
2. *Genesis 22:16 - Grammatical mistranslations: Extra emphasis on the me/I pronoun. Should be translated more like "I am swearing to myself...". Then there were many words and Direct Object Markers that created repetition and emphasis. The message in Hebrew that was lost in English was "This Covenant is a DONE DEAL, absolutely, completely, wholly."
3. *Once again, the covenant with Abraham involved the following: 1) A city (the worldwide Zion that is yet to be built) 2) Become a God and have endless posterity, and so will his children 3) Priesthood/ordinances/covenant marriage ordinance of exaltation.

April 1 - Intelligence, Visions, and Intergalactic time travel

1. Genesis 22:12 - The Lord says "Now I know that...", wait a minute! Doesn't God already know all things? Yes, but He speaks to us according to our understanding, and according to our time reckoning. God can SEE the timeline, he does not MAKE the timeline. The Hebrew name, יְהוָה (Jehovah) has the imperfect verb form meaning it has never had a beginning or and end. Like as in "I AM", rather than "I WAS". Yes, God always knew Abraham would make the choices he did, but NOW he is seeing it. A slightly missed translation here points out that Abraham did not only prove that he learned to fear God, but God recognized that Abraham actually IS the Fear of God. 
2. Big discussion on Fear, and what that means in English vs. what that means in Hebrew. In short, they really are very much the same. There really is a bit of the English "FEAR" in the real Hebrew word, meaning, if you are afraid of a certain consequence, then you don't do that thing. Elder Christofferson has a talk on Fear "A sense of the Sacred" (Part 5 entitled "Godly fear". When you fear God, you depart from evil. We don't' naturally want bad consequences in our lives.
3. There are many scriptural synonyms terms for light: Glory, Intelligence, Power, Light, Truth, Power, Life, The Light of Christ.Gods learn to control this perfectly and completely, and have FULL CONTROL over it. (As a side note, I recently read a talk by Cleon Skousen who taught that these particles of intelligence respect God, and God respects them). The Lord is ALL POWERFUL within parameters/natural laws. D&C 88 - Light is in everything, priesthood, ordinances, etc.
4. We have had a lot of light infused into this world, especially since the 1700's. This light will continue to grow until we make this world the Terrestrial Kingdom, and Christ's light will be added through the Millennium until this world becomes the Celestial Kingdom. The purpose of this dispensation is to PREPARE FOR THE MILLENNIUM!! 
5. The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy, at 2.5 Million Light years away. This means, as we look and behold the galaxy with our naked eyes, we are literally beholding it as it was 2.5 M years ago, in the present. Energy/Light/Intelligence/Power/Truth/Etc left that sphere all that time ago, and we are now seeing what was recorded on those energy particles with our mortal eyes in the present. This is how God can use light to show things past, present, and future. If he wants to give someone a vision of the Savior's atonement, he controls the light/energy/etc, etc which directly witnessed that event and calls it to the attention of the person beholding the vision. 
6. Abraham was faithful to all the tests presented to him. If WE want to be as Abraham, and be promised all that was promised to him, then WE must be tried as Abraham!
7. The Holy Ghost Administers the Light of Christ
8. Marion Romney spoke of light coming to us in three phases. The first is the light that comes to us at birth; the second is the Gift of the Holy Ghost; the last phase is The more sure word of prophecy, and is directly administered by Christ. (The Light of Christ - Marion G Romney, April 1977)