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.