D&C 45 (2020 repost)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign welcome to the weekly Deep Dive podcast on the Add On Education Network. The podcast where we explore the weekly Come follow me discussion and try to add a little insight and unique perspective. I am your host Jason Lloyd, here with my friend and this show's producer, Nate Pifer. [00:00:29] Speaker B: What's up? [00:00:30] Speaker A: Hey. In this episode we talk about the prophecy. And when we say the prophecy, really it is talking about end times. And you know, it gets a little bit exciting. This divides up into three sections, if you will. Today it divides up into three sections. At the time Joseph Smith received this prophecy, it is really two. You have got the first part where Christ was talking with his disciples and he tells them what was going to happen in a prophetic way. And we have the benefit of looking back in hindsight and seeing the fulfillment of that prophecy and then everything going forward. He was prophesying about what was about to happen. So you have what was fulfilled and what was going to be fulfilled. And he is using that what was fulfilled to try to frame and help us understand what was going to be fulfilled today. As we look at it, we can almost break this up into three parts. The part that was fulfilled back in the New Testament times with Jesus Christ, and then the part that was fulfilled shortly after Joseph Smith with the early dispensation of the saints. And then what we are still waiting to see happen that Joseph Smith received in vision. So there is a lot to cover. Let S just dive right into it. Doctrine and Covenants, Section 45. 2. It says again I say, hearken unto my voice, lest death shall overtake you in an hour when you think not, the summer shall be past and the harvest ended and your souls not saved. Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him. And I've had people ask me in the past, where are we at timeline wise? And give me some sort of clue or some sort of idea of when I should expect kind of things to start wrapping up or when is Christ going to come so I can start putting things back in order or make some changes in my life or whatever the case may be. And I really like this verse because it's saying wherever we're at in the timeline, so maybe it's like spring or summer and the fall is the time of harvest, right? He says, if death overtake you in an hour when you think not, the summer shall be past. So you still think I've got a whole season before I need to start reprinting. I've got the summer season before fall comes and before the harvest. But if you die, then summer. Not only has the summer past, but the harvest has ended and your soul is not saved. I mean, yeah, I guess we could be waiting for things to roll up here on earth, but really we should be preparing. Every single day we have an opportunity to prepare. Because you never know when you are going to see Christ. Whether it is because he came to you or whether it is because you went to Him. So don't procrastinate. The season might find itself upon you sooner than you thought. All right. Verse 5. Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on My name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life. And I think it's interesting that he's saying that Believe on My name. And what is the difference between believing in Christ and believing on the name of Christ? Why does he say it like this? And maybe this is another example of metonymy. If it was me writing this, it would be spare these that believe on me. But he doesn't do that. He makes this distinction, believe on My name. And then in verse eight, he says, but as many as received me gave I power to do many miracles and to become the sons of God. And even unto them that believed in My name gave I power to obtain eternal life. And it's almost like he's making a distinction here. Those that believed on me I gave power to do miracles. But those that believed in My name gave I power to obtain eternal life. So what is that difference between believing in Christ versus believing in his name? A lot of people believe in Christ, right? The name Jesus Christ. And what is his name? In Greek we call him Jesus and Christ. It almost sounds like a surname, right? Jesus Christ. But they didn't have surnames right there. If there was a surname, it would be Bar Joseph or Ben Joseph, depending on whether you're talking Aramaic or the Hebrew. But why is it that we take upon us the name of Christ? Christ means the anointed one. So Jesus, the anointed one. He's gone by many titles. Immanuel. God is with us. He's gone by Jehovah, even though that's kind of a made up word. Or the God of the Old Testament, Elohim. Many names. What is the significance of name? And why is that different? And as I've been thinking about this, I can't help but think of the kind of that weird little fairy tale myth, the Rumpelstiltskin. [00:05:20] Speaker B: What's so weird about it? [00:05:22] Speaker A: I don't know. Maybe just the name Rumpelstiltskin that thing is. [00:05:26] Speaker B: That story's dope. [00:05:28] Speaker A: But the guy's like, you'll never guess my name. And he's got this kind of the secret hidden magical name, right? And she's trying to guess it for days and days. [00:05:38] Speaker B: She didn't. And she cheated and she cheated, and. [00:05:41] Speaker A: She comes up with this name. But all of a sudden, having this name gave her power over him. Or gave him. You know, there is something to this. And it is not just this kid's fairy tale, but in the Egyptian culture, they have this myth about Isis. She was one of the gods, and Ra. Ra was the God, the all powerful, the almighty. [00:06:04] Speaker B: Is it Ra or Amun? Ra. [00:06:06] Speaker A: It's gone by a couple different titles. Amun Ra. Yeah. But Ra is kind of this root word. Yes. [00:06:14] Speaker B: All right. I don't want to derail this. Continue. [00:06:16] Speaker A: Okay. So she wants the power of Ra, and she devises a plan where, if I remember right, he's getting kind of old and he's drooling, and she takes some of his spittle and mixes it with the dirt and makes this venomous serpent that's going to bite him along the path that he travels. It makes it a little bit strange. [00:06:37] Speaker B: This story is dope, too. [00:06:40] Speaker A: So as he's going along the path, this snake bites him and makes him sick. He wants to be healed. And she comes to him and says, I have the power to heal you. And he says, that's great. Can you make me better? And she says, I will, on one condition. He's like, what's that? And she said, tell me your name. So we get this whole Rumpelstiltskin type thing going, right? [00:07:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:05] Speaker A: And he's like, well, my name is. And then he goes through all of these titles, like what we see all over the Old Testament. Right? Stormbreaker, or whatever the case may be. Stormbreaker, yeah. My name is Almighty, and there's lots of names throughout the Old Testament for God. And the same similar case, he's giving him all of these titles. I am the Storm God. I am the this, the that, the Alpha and the Omega, if you will, to try to make this a little bit relatable. Right. The great I am. So he's giving her all of these names, and she's like, yeah, that's not cutting it. I need your name. Not a title, but your actual name. And this goes on for over a day to the point where he's finally on death's bed and he gives her his name, and that gives her the power that he had and she takes this and creates a cure and cures him. So this idea of name plays a prominent role in Egyptian mythology. And this idea that names had this power and you had to keep it secret if you wanted to keep your power secret and sacred or safe. And where it gets really interesting is when God is going and negotiating with the Egyptians to let Israel go. Maybe you've noticed this. Ramses, his name comes from Ra, the God, the great God. Right? And then The MSEs. The MSEs. It's really the same word as Moses. [00:08:37] Speaker B: What? [00:08:38] Speaker A: Yes. Moses and Ramses almost had the exact same name. Moses means son of in Egyptian. So Ramses means son of Ra and Moses means son of blank. The name is missing because you can't. [00:08:54] Speaker B: Say the name of God, dude. [00:08:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it's this hidden magic name. So get this. When Moses asks God, the Egyptians are going to want to know who sent me to free the people. What is your name? And you will notice that God's response to him, he says, I am who I am. And it is not that he is saying I am, is my name. He is saying, I am who I am. Tell him that, in other words, you do not know my name. And that is what the Egyptians are going to understand. This whole idea of Ra and that you couldn't know the true name of God, that he is somehow more powerful than their gods because his name is more hidden, more sacred. And this idea that Moses is the son of the unnamed God. No, no. There's no God name in front of his name. So it's Ramses versus Moses, Ra versus the un. The I am who I am, the unmentionable God. So it's kind of interesting there. [00:09:49] Speaker B: That's the. That's the dopest of all three stories. These are three dope stories in a row. [00:09:57] Speaker A: So there's something special about names. And as I think about that, with the ordinances and everything that we do, we all kind of wrap it in the name of God. And we don't actually say his name. We say in the name of Jesus Christ. Right? In the name of Jesus the Messiah. In the name of Jesus, the Anointed one, Jesus, the Christ, Jesus, in his name, whatever that name may be, without actually saying that name, we're calling on that name and using it to kind of sanction what we are doing. So the power of baptism, the power of sealing, the power of blessings, and the coolest thing, not just the ordinances, but even in everyday common prayer, when we bless our food, we are doing it and calling on this Name this unknown name in the name of Jesus Christ, whatever that name might be. And you look at the history of the Church, the Melchizedek priesthood was named the Holy Order after the Son of God. But to avoid repeating his name or to keep that name more sacred or hiding it, would change it to Melchizedek. And you look at Jehovah, this. This made up word to help people say Adonai or the Lord instead of actually saying the real name, whatever it might be. And they could only say his name once a year in the holy of Holies. It was always this special sacred name. It's kind of neat, whatever it is. And we have the ability to call on that name, to believe on that name, without actually knowing or saying it and taking it in vain. And look at the Ten Commandments right there, ranking towards the top of them. Thou shalt not take my name in vain. And so much so that he doesn't even give us his actual name. And the names that people use for him today are just English titles of who knows what, right? But what if we actually had his name? What would we do with it? You think of how often we throw the names that we do use around in the street. I don't know. There is just something kind of cool about the name of God. [00:12:03] Speaker B: So the Old Testament, like priests and stuff, they knew it though? [00:12:07] Speaker A: Yeah, the high priest knew it, and he was allowed to say it once a year on the Day of Atonement, and only inside the Holy of Holies, not in front of anybody. [00:12:16] Speaker B: Do you think the prophet knows it? [00:12:20] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:12:20] Speaker B: I mean, I know that's not important to our salvation, but I always wonder. [00:12:24] Speaker A: About stuff like that, you know, It's a good question. I have a theory on it, but that's one I don't want to go into. [00:12:32] Speaker B: All right, all right. I don't want to derail you. I don't want to derail you because you've already told three dope stories so far. So. [00:12:39] Speaker A: Rumpelstiltskin, Good old Rumpelstiltskin. [00:12:43] Speaker B: I love that story. [00:12:45] Speaker A: It's an interesting story. [00:12:47] Speaker B: That's terrifying. Dude wants this baby, he's gonna steal this baby. It's pretty dope. [00:12:55] Speaker A: Well, taking this back to the idea of believing in God is one thing, right? He says, those that believe in me receive great power, but those that believe in My name have power to obtain eternal life. And when think about that. The difference between believing in him and believing in his name, anyone can believe in Him. But how do you believe in His Name. Unless you're doing these ordinances. This baptism is done in the name of Jesus Christ. [00:13:26] Speaker B: And while you're doing that, you're taking upon yourself His Name and you're taking. [00:13:29] Speaker A: Upon yourself His Name. [00:13:31] Speaker B: As you've been going through this, I think that that's kind of what's been made more clear. Not just believe. Not just believe that Jesus lived and atoned and whatever, but actually go through the process of taking upon yourself his name and all the other various steps that we've been taught that lead to eternal life. Right? [00:13:49] Speaker A: Yes. And I think that wraps it up. If you're along the covenant path and you're taking his name upon you and doing all of these things in his name, it's not just that you believe in him and you're asking him to do miracles for you, but you are wrapped in. In the power of His Name. And it's cool. I think the sacrament is the most significant thing for this because you think about it, the idea that the bread represents his body, the water represents his blood, and as we're taking these, we're taking his flesh and eternalizing it, symbolically speaking. Right. And so we're taking the flesh and blood, and then we're also promising to keep his commandments and to follow him to do what he would do. So we're taking upon his actions, if you will, how he would. Would behave. We're praying that His Spirit would be with us, and we're taking his name upon us. So in this simple act of the sacrament each week, what aspect of Christ are we not taking upon ourselves? I mean, how much more can we be like him than taking his flesh, his blood, his mannerisms, his name and his spirit? I mean, that's. We really are saying that we will come, follow Him. We will try to be just like Him. It reminds me of the story of Jacob and Esau. This idea that in order for Jacob to receive that firstborn blessing, he had to fool his Father by dressing up as his brother and taking his name and acting as him in order to receive that blessing. [00:15:22] Speaker B: He's straight up lying about it too. Because Dad's like, wait a minute, you don't sound like Esau. He's like, no, trust me, it's me. [00:15:30] Speaker A: It's kind of a weird story, but it's redeeming quality for me is the sense that we don't deserve the blessing ourselves. We aren't the firstborn children. We've kind of fallen from grace. But Christ is giving us this passage, do it in my name, Pretend like you're me, act like me, and you'll receive all the inheritances that I would have received. I'm willing to share that with you. And you'll be co inheritors through my name. [00:15:54] Speaker B: That's incredible insight on that story. [00:15:56] Speaker A: It's, it's. [00:15:58] Speaker B: I always just thought that that story was just like, oh, man, Jacob totally straight up lied. Because even when his dad's like, esau, is that you? And he's like, Jacob's like, yeah, yeah, it's me. [00:16:12] Speaker A: You have to wonder why it's there. [00:16:14] Speaker B: Wow. [00:16:15] Speaker A: Because the story's not. [00:16:16] Speaker B: That's like a straight up lie, dog. [00:16:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And I can't believe the story is there to promote lying and deception. I can't believe that that's the purpose for the story. [00:16:26] Speaker B: But sometimes. You know how sometimes when you read those stories and you're not looking past the surface, you're just like, whoa. [00:16:32] Speaker A: Mm. I think that's why it makes the scripture so hard to understand at times, is sometimes we just can't get past what's right there in front of us. And we're like, wait, what? What are you trying to say? [00:16:43] Speaker B: That that doesn't seem to mesh with everything about this. And even it's like all kinds of the Ten Commandments are broken, honoring your father and your mother. I'm just like, dude, lying right to his face to like, steal your brother's birthright. It's like this wild. [00:16:56] Speaker A: It is pretty wild. And I look forward to kind of diving into that next year when we go into Old Testament. It's going to be just a really quick. [00:17:05] Speaker B: I don't want to go too off on this, but that story does like. That story is interesting to me. Did Isaac like Esau more than Jacob? [00:17:19] Speaker A: Oh, that's a good question. I don't think. [00:17:22] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:17:23] Speaker A: I don't think he did. [00:17:24] Speaker B: I have my doubts. Here's the thing, though. [00:17:28] Speaker A: You think he played favorites because he was the hunter, he was the athlete of the family, while the other one. [00:17:33] Speaker B: Was kind of the mellow one. He was the firstborn. And I don't know, man. Because the thing is, I have a feeling that Jacob's mom obviously liked Jacob more than he saw. [00:17:47] Speaker A: This was more of a parental. The dad versus the mom. [00:17:50] Speaker B: I guess I'm just interested in going in this because when Esau comes back and asks after. Isaac's already given Jacob the birthright, the blessing, or I guess the prayer that he offers Esau is kind of interesting. Where doesn't he basically say like you're basically going to assert, you know, power over your brother or, you know what I mean? Or at some point with like the sword or something. [00:18:22] Speaker A: Yes, right. [00:18:23] Speaker B: Like there's something in there that makes me go, I wonder if Isaac wasn't too thrilled that he got tricked. [00:18:29] Speaker A: It's an interesting story because you almost have the mother's boy and then the rough beat him up in the field. [00:18:35] Speaker B: Right. [00:18:35] Speaker A: And the dad likes one and the mom likes one. [00:18:38] Speaker B: The dad was clearly wanting to give. [00:18:39] Speaker A: The birthright to Esau, and it makes it relatable. But in a sense, the blessing didn't come from Jacob. Right. When he lays his hand on him and blesses him, he blessed him with the words that God gave him and that was the blessing that he gave. It came from God and it was in God's name and he couldn't revoke it and give it to the other one. [00:18:59] Speaker B: Exactly. Well, even when Esau's like, is there really no other blessing for me? And Isaac says, well, at some point you're going to have an army and you're going to have to decide what to do with it, basically. You know what I mean? You're going to be able to have power over your brother with force. [00:19:19] Speaker A: Well, it's neat. We've had this conversation before. But the story of redemption when those two finally do meet up, I love that story. And Jacob sending everybody out in front of him to try to soften the blow. [00:19:31] Speaker B: And here's my other family and here's this. But I love it. The thing is, Jacob comes fairly, ridiculously, humbly to Esau, you know. Right. And basically says, I'm at your mercy. And Esau hugs him and they embrace. And I'm kind of like, man, this is a great feel good moment. [00:19:55] Speaker A: You would hope that there's more of those in the Bible and you would hope that that history would have been a little bit closer with those families down the road. [00:20:03] Speaker B: But it is, because it gets gnarly in the future. Right? [00:20:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And there are all sorts of head scratchers in the Old Testament. I am looking forward to kind of diving into those. [00:20:12] Speaker B: All right. I didn't mean to derail you, but I love that story. [00:20:16] Speaker A: It's good. It's good. I guess the point on that is the name of Christ does have some power. And I think it's cool how they mentioned there's something to that name, even to the point where we all receive this hidden name or when we get into the celestial kingdom, this idea that there is a new name written On a rock that you receive for you, that no one else knows the source of a gift. I don't know. It is interesting and I don't know what it all means, but I do find it fascinating to see these themes not just within the scriptures, but also play out in. In other cultures, in other stories, even in fairy tales. It's just fascinating to me. [00:20:56] Speaker B: It's very cool, honestly. That's some amazing insight. I've already learned a lot. [00:21:03] Speaker A: The City of Enoch. God, in this case, he introduces himself a little bit differently throughout Doctrine and Covenants. And this time he's choosing here to say, I am the God of Enoch. And the City of Enoch kind of plays a prominent role in this because we believe God is saying that this prophecy, that there is this Zion that is already built up and at some point this heavenly Zion and this earthly Zion are going to meet. So it is interesting how he couches this discussion as I am the God of Enoch and focusing so much on the importance of establishing Zion here on Earth. And it is neat how he talks about holy men were seeking Zion all throughout the history of the world, but they couldn't find it. And why could they not find it? Because of the unrighteousness and wickedness of the people around them. So they were trying to find it. Not that they were trying to build this Tower of Babel or some sort of way to jump onto the city, wherever it went, mythical, whatever, right? No, they were trying to find it by teaching and preaching and trying to get people to serve God, to love God, to love their neighbors. But because the people were wicked or unrighteous, they would stone the prophets. They would kill the prophets. This idea, they rejected the prophets. They couldn't establish a Zion society. It happened a long, long time ago. People were seeking. Righteous people throughout all of history have been seeking it. And they admitted that they were strangers on the earth and they were pilgrims and strangers looking for the city, but they couldn't find it because there wasn't enough love and coercion among the people that they resided with. But God says that at the end they did see Zion, even in the flesh. This idea that he would resurrect them or put them to Zion. So I find this kind of interesting because it says that when Zion comes, I have to believe from here that it is going to have grown in residency with all of these people that were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, who found a home finally, with a people of like mind and like heart that understood and taught what they taught. Now they have A nationality. Now they have a place, a home that they can call their own. And this city has swollen in numbers when it comes to see us. It is going to be a really neat experience. Okay. The key to understanding this section, and I think it is really the very first portion when Christ is talking to his disciples in the New Testament times. And a key to understanding, I guess, these first verses, is that Christ is talking about events that took place 79 A.D. so a long time ago. These are not things that we should be looking forward to in the future. It is what has already happened to kind of give us some context. So I am going to read a few of these verses. 19 and 20 says, but verily I say unto you that desolation shall come upon this generation as a thief in the night. And this people shall be destroyed and scattered among all nations. So this is not something we're waiting for. This is something that already happened. And this temple which ye now see shall be thrown down. And there shall not be left one stone upon another. And it shall come to pass that this generation of Jews shall not pass away until every desolation which I have told you concerning them shall pass. And something I want to kind of hone in on this is this generation of Jews shall not pass away until this desolation which I tell you happens. So Christ is saying this around 30 A.D. if we are using rough numbers, the Temple was destroyed in 79 AD so 49 years later. So definitely there were people in that generation that had not passed away at the time that everything was literally fulfilled. The Temple was absolutely destroyed, the city was destroyed, and the Jews that entrenched themselves in Masada ended up committing suicide. It was a bloodbath. The Romans came through, just wiped out the people. But Eusebius, an early church historian, around 300 AD says some interesting things about this. Because Christ remember, he says, when this is going to happen, woe unto the women who are giving suck. Woe unto this. Woe unto all these people to flee or whatever. And he tells them a few signs that they should be looking for. And this is what Eusebius wrote. He says, the whole body, however, of the church at Jerusalem, having been commanded by a divine revelation given to men of approved piety there before the war, removed from the city and dwelt at a certain town beyond the Jordan called Pella. So the entire Christian church pulled themselves and relocated themselves out of Jerusalem. And actually, in the middle of a siege, the Romans had already come, laid siege. And then for some odd reason, they lifted the Siege long enough that the Christians felt like they. I mean, it says here, by certain revelation, they got out while the getting out was good, and they were all saved. So Adam Clark, he wrote a commentary on the New Testament. He was citing Epiphanies, said, it is very remarkable that not a single Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem, though there were many there when Cestius Gallus invested, invested the city. And had he persevered in the siege, he would soon have rendered himself master of it. But when he unexpectedly and unaccountably raised the siege, the Christians took that opportunity to escape. As Vespasian was approaching with his army, all who believed in Christ left Jerusalem and fled to Pella and other places beyond the Jordan River. And so they all marvelously escaped the general shipwreck of their country. Not one of them perished. So this context, this setting, is what the Lord is using to explain what's going to happen next. And like we said, this was all done in the same generation. So when we look at the next couple verses, it says, and when the times of the Gentiles has come in. So now Christ is, excuse me, this revelation is shifting gears. He's talking to his disciples and saying, this is what you should look forward to. This is what's going to happen, the destruction and whatnot. And now when the time of the Gentiles has come in, he's talking about a different time, not 79 A.D. and he defines the time of the Gentiles as this. A light shall break forth among them that sit in darkness, and it shall be the fullness of my gospel. So when I look at this, I look at the restoration of the church, and I look at it. It didn't go to the Jews at Jerusalem. It didn't go to the Lord's chosen people, if you will. It went to America. The word Gentiles in Hebrew is goyim, which literally means the nations. And America is the melting pot of the nations. What better nation represents the mixing or the gathering of the nations? He went to this outsider, and this is the time of the Gentiles, where the fullness of the Gospel is restored. So this is now shifting from New Testament times to Joseph Smith's dispensation. He says, but they receive it not, for their hearts are far from me because of the precepts of men. Again, look at the parallels between Christ and when he first came versus the time of the Gentiles. When he came to the time of the Jews, when he came among the Jews, he was a light to the Jews. And they received him not. And now he is a light to the Gentiles. And what happens? A lot of the Gentiles, it says, but they received him not. And in that generation shall the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. So when should we be seeing this time fulfilled? He says, in that generation. And in the New Testament times, in that generation meant 49 years that everybody that was living at that time, these things were fulfilled. So we should expect that people living at the time of Joseph Smith that these next portions of the Doctrine and Covenants, those prophecies, are going to be fulfilled at the time of the Gentiles. Here there shall be men standing in that generation that shall not pass until they shall see an overflowing scourge. For a desolating sickness shall cover the land. But my disciples shall stand in holy places and not be moved. But among the wicked, men shall lift up their voices and curse God and die. So we're looking for a scourge that happened in the same generation of when the Gospel was restored in 1830. So within 40 years of 1830, what do we have? 1861, we've got the break of the Civil War. And we've kind of talked about this in a previous episode so much was this the case that Joseph Smith advised Emmanuel Murphy, an early convert to the church, he said to go to South Carolina and Georgia and warn his friends of the wrath and desolation and to gather out his friends to Zion for the wars and rebellion would soon begin in South Carolina. So this scourge that was going to happen within 40 years was going to start in South Carolina and Georgia. And when the Civil War breaks out, it's interesting because in the Doctrine Covenants, it says, I want you to gather away from the east countries and go into the west countries. And he pulls all of the saints, gathers them, as we've talked about in other episodes, gather them to Ohio, gather them to Missouri, gather them to Kirtland. Now gather them out to the Rocky Mountains. And when they're gathered, all the persecution starting here. Now, there's going to be other persecution that starts when the war breaks out in the Civil War. Excuse me. In the United States, the Civil War breaks out. A lot of scholars looking back at that time period say that one of the reasons why that war was so violent, so long, so prolonged, was because of religion. And you might look and say, wait a second. Why would religion make it worse? Well, both sides believed that they were fighting God's cause and they were praying that God would make Them the victor and destroy their enemies. And they just fueled in this idea of hate. It started off very hateful. There was a large feeling of that. So just to kind of point this out, there was a Northern clergyman during the Civil War who prayed, saying, we ask thee to bring these men, the rebels, to destruction and wipe them from the face of the country. And then on the other side of the war in the south, you've got the Southern Methodist saying, quote, it is doing God service to kill the diabolical wretches on the battlefield. So a large cause of the intensity and the duration was this religious fervor. And we saw this hatred. You look at the persecution of the saints, a lot of it was because you are perverting the gospel. It was religious persecution and intolerance, this hateful whatever. And I love how Lincoln puts it all in perspective for me and tries to bring the nation to a new understanding and a new era of mending things and fixing things and changing the perspective from hating each other. In his second inaugural address, he says, both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces. But let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been fully answered or has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. Woe unto the world because of offenses. For it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which in the providence of God must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both north and south this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom this offence came shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in living God always ascribe to him. Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass by. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk. And until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether with malice towards none and charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and for his orphan, and to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, with all nations. It's an amazing address to me. And he looks at this almost as a Scourge for the 250 years of slavery in America, and saying, if we have to go until every dime this Nation made for 250 years of service is paid back or that is sunk, and the imagery for every lashing that was given to a slave is paid back by a sword smiting someone else. If all of this blood being spilt is for the sins of America and how they treated others, then we have to say that God is just. This is a scourge that God is sending upon us. But I think he points here the way out of the scourge in let us go on with charity. Let's bind up the wounds, let's care for those. Let's switch this mindset and stop praying for the destruction of each other. Instead, try to heal each other. So I look at the Civil War as a scourge that helped change and reform how America viewed each other and made us a more cohesive and powerful nation. And it's interesting when God says, He says, describing this time period, he says, and the love of man shall wax cold and iniquity shall abound. And I have to ask this, what does iniquity mean? And if I were answering the question, iniquity, to me it's just wickedness, right? Would you say that that's what you think, Nate? I mean, iniquity, that's what comes to mind. That's what comes to mind. Right. When I was reading the original text of this revelation, it wasn't iniquity, it was, let's see, inequity. So they replaced the I with an er. I guess they replaced the e with an I subsequently. And I said, inequity means not equal, right? Yes. And iniquity in my mind means wicked. So I looked up the etymology of the words. They both come from the same root, the same Latin root. Both of them mean not equal. Iniquity does not mean wickedness. It means unequalness. And I thought that was interesting. And I think we lose a little bit here when the word changed to iniquity, because we think of just wickedness but he's saying here that part of the problem is the inequality and how people were being traded, the status of people. I mean, slavery is an obvious example. The rights of women didn't exist. You look at how the saints were treated. This great inequality was abounding. But as bad as it was in the United States. Alexis de Tocqueville, I love him. Yeah, I do. Interesting guy, right? Sociologist. He came to the United States in 1830 because he believed, I guess it was 1831. He believed that democracy was the future of the world. And he wanted a peek at what this democracy looked like and what. What cautions there were and how to best embrace this as the future in France or in the future and the rest of the world. And he made some interesting observations. He says, quote, it must be acknowledged that in few of the civilized nations of our time have the higher sciences made less progress than in the United States. In other words, he's saying the US Is backwards. They are so far behind in the sciences. And he goes on, many Europeans struck by this fact, have looked upon it as a natural and inevitable result of equality. Wait a second. God was just describing the US as this time period of being in equity, in equalness, and yet he's looking at it and saying that this equality that the United States shows is the reason why. I guess. Let me read this quote. Many Europeans struck by this fact have looked upon it as a natural and inevitable result of equality. And they thought that if a democratic state of society and democratic institutions were ever to prevail over the whole world, the human mind would gradually find its beacon lights, grow dim, and men would relapse into a period of darkness. [00:39:51] Speaker B: Little did they know. [00:39:52] Speaker A: Little did they know in the 1900s, the US would lead the world in. [00:39:57] Speaker B: Science rather than science, medicine. [00:40:02] Speaker A: But they looked at it. The Europeans looked at it and said, the problem with America is equality. So we look at America with all of its faults, and we look back at this time of slavery, and we see God say, hey, this inequality is wrong. And because it's wrong, there is going to be a scourge on this nation that is going to change it and set people free. A light to those that sit in darkness, to the prisoners, they are going to go free. But as inequal as we look at America, the rest of the world in comparison, looked at America as the great equal. Think about how much more equal, unequal it was the world over, where you had these class divisions and this idea that a commoner never could cross the threshold and become A nobleman. Right. So it's not just the US that suffered from inequality, but us was a part, I think, that had made more progress, maybe that was developing more equality, that this is where democracy started, this is where God starts his scourge. But this scourge is going to go the world over and spread this idea of equality and democracy, that everyone is created equal. This prophecy and Doctrine and Covenants, Section 45. It's not just the Civil War. It is this idea that the whole world was going to reform and that equality was going to be changing this whole inequality that we were dealing with. And I think it is kind of neat that they equate inequality with inequity. I mean, iniquity is the idea that. [00:41:38] Speaker B: You are not equal with God. What is it? How does that relate to unequal? Serious question. [00:41:45] Speaker A: No serious question. And let me see if I can give you a serious answer. Justice is blind, right? Why is justice blind? She's got the scales, and the idea is that she is not playing favorites, one side or the other. This idea that there is equality, not that you favor one kind or over another, but that they. You weigh them for their merits, you weigh it for what it's worth. Right? [00:42:12] Speaker B: Okay, this is good. I'm just saying, like, I. I'm just trying to see where inequity fits. [00:42:21] Speaker A: So in my mind, inequity is when you start tipping the scales and you make it so they're not equal anymore. If you, if you've got your hand on one scale and you're pulling it down or lifting it up, the justice is no longer blind. That's iniquity. Iniquity is when you're tipping the scales and making it unequal because of sin. [00:42:44] Speaker B: This is, what I'm saying is like, how does this have to do with. When it says that, like, groups of people are like, whatever, are engaging in iniquity. Like, it clearly still like, referring to sin. Right, Right. [00:42:58] Speaker A: In my mind, that the iniquity is this. Like, if you, if you say, okay, here's the rules, look at clergy, for one thing, they'll preach no adultery, no this, no that, or whatever. But then on the side, they've got all their wives over here, or they're doing something else. That iniquity, in my mind, is inequality, where you're requiring one set of people to live by one standard. Where you, on the other hand, is living a double standard and say, this is okay for me, or this is something I can do. That's iniquity. But it's also Inequity, it's also inequality. Because you're tipping the scales. You're saying this is okay for me, but it's not okay for you. This hypocrisy is this idea of inequity or inequality. Cool. [00:43:43] Speaker B: I like it. [00:43:44] Speaker A: Okay. Hope that makes sense. [00:43:47] Speaker B: But I mean, also, I guess when you were describing it, it kind of made sense too, that it could be something where sin puts us at a disadvantage or makes us unequal with what we need to be eventually equal with Right, which is we're supposed to become more like God. And when we sin, we're creating a deficit. That's exactly right. Like there's. We aren't. We aren't becoming one. We aren't becoming equal. We're. We're making decisions that are putting us at a disadvantage of becoming equal with God eventually, which he's told us to do. [00:44:30] Speaker A: Yes, that's a great point. It's an excellent point. We're shorting ourselves of our divine potential. [00:44:38] Speaker B: That's the better way to put what. I just mumbled. [00:44:41] Speaker A: I like what you mumbled, though. [00:44:42] Speaker B: No, you said it better, though, and cleaner. [00:44:45] Speaker A: And I like in context, especially of last week when we were talking about the law of God and God says, do I clothe one man in riches and one man in rags? And you look at this and say, I want you to be living the law of consecration. Take what you need and supply for your needs, but take care of these others too. And not just with their needs, but their wants. And this idea that it is okay to have wants, it is okay to have desires, and it's especially okay to be helping others to meet those, to try to create at least some sense of equality in an inequal world around us. And maybe some of that inequalness gives us the opportunity to show where we shine. We couldn't be clothing the naked or feeding the people or visiting those who are in prison. As Christ says, when you're doing unto the least of these, you do it unto me. If that inequality didn't exist in the first place, and maybe a lot of that inequality exists as a test for us that are we going to be iniquid? Is that. Is that even a word? [00:45:45] Speaker B: It sounds weird, but I like it. [00:45:47] Speaker A: But by ignoring the people around us, or are we going to strive for equality in the sense that we build up and we help, and by doing that, we are helping the balance with the difference between us and God because God says, come, follow me. And when we are acting like him and sacrificing that others might have a better life or sacrificing to build someone else up. We are filling in that gulf between us and God and leveling the scales with. With us, too. [00:46:17] Speaker B: I love it. [00:46:19] Speaker A: Okay, I'm going to slide into another little portion of the Doctrine Covenants here. As he's talking about all of these things that are going to happen, he says that they're going to happen within the generation. Right. And within a generation, clearly there were people in Joseph Smith's time that were alive to see the Civil War. In fact, Joseph Smith's younger brother, William Smith fought in the Civil War. So there's definitely that going on. And this trouble spreads throughout the world. But this is what I wanted to focus on. It says in verse 36, and when the light shall begin to break forth, it shall be like unto a parable which I will show you. Ye look and behold the fig tree, and ye see them with your eyes. And you say, when they begin to shoot forth, and their leaves are yet tender, that summer is now nigh at hand. Even so shall it be in that day when you shall see all these things, then shall they know that the hour is nigh. And going back to the beginning. Right. This idea. We see the gospel spread forth, we see the light and we say, oh, things are starting to happen. We should expect to see a gathering. We should expect to see a scourge, a destruction that goes the world over. Well, we've seen a gathering. We've seen a scourge and destruction. Now we can look at it and say, oh, where are we at on the timeline? Well, you look at a fig tree, this means that we are early summer. The fig shoots forth its branches and its blossoms early summer. But it is not till late summer or early fall that the fig actually produces fruit. So it is saying, we still have a season before the harvest. So I look at the ultimate coming of Jesus Christ when he stands on the mountain and splits it. And the Jews look at him and say, who are you? And they see the wounds in his hands. And he says, I received this in the house of my friends, these prophecies of him coming in great glory. This I see, is coming at the time of the harvest, a season after these things have already been fulfilled to just kind of give us a gauge of where we're at. But what I find interesting, if this means that we're at the very start of summer and we still have a season to go before the harvest, then why in doctrine covenants, over and over and over again, did we see the field is white and ready to harvest. Lo, the field is white and ready to harvest. Wait, I thought this was saying that we are summer and harvest is still a season off. So are we harvesting or are we waiting? And as I looked at that, here is what I learned. Passover marks the beginning of the harvest of grains. And the grain harvest lasts seven weeks long. So it goes to Pentecost, if you will, in the Christian world. But at this time, it was called in the Old Testament the festival of weeks. So the festival of weeks is at the end, the seven week period, seven weeks after Passover. So Passover marks the beginning of the harvest and you start harvesting barley, and then the festival of weeks, seven weeks later, you finish harvesting wheat. So when he says the field is white and ready to harvest, thrust in your sickle. A sickle is an instrument used to be harvesting grains. This is the grain harvest, which takes place anywhere from March, April down to May, June. So when he says the field is white and ready to harvest, and here we are now into summer, it just fits. First, there is going to be a harvesting where we gather people together, we gather the wheat together, and then the tares get gathered together. And it's not like the tares. It's not like someone has to go out there and gather the tares. Really, you look at the people that were gathering together to tear down the church, they were doing a lot of the gathering on their own. The righteous tend to kind of gather together and a lot of the wicked tend to gather together. This starts with the harvest of the tares. But when he's talking about here with the sign of the times, he's talking about fruits and figs. And that harvest happens at another Jewish holiday. So we had Passover, the festival of weeks. And then the Sukkot festival that happens in October corresponds with the fruit harvest. And that's the harvest at the end of the world. That's how I see it. So if we were to look at a timeline and try to understand where we're at the time of the Gospels, excuse me, the time of the Gentiles, when the light shines forth and the gospel is restored, that is marking the beginning of a grain harvest. And we gather people in and we gather as much as we can, and then there is this scourge, this desolating scourge that spreads the world over. And now we are looking at and we see the fulfillment of that. And then we should understand that there is a season of time before we get to the ultimate harvest. At the end of the year at the fall time. So just trying to keep all the harvest together and understand what it means so we don't look at it and say what I thought the harvest already happened. [00:51:20] Speaker B: Thank you for doing all that research, because I would have never even thought of even where to start. [00:51:26] Speaker A: There is a lot of cool stuff in here and, you know, it seems to make sense when we start looking at this in hindsight. Hindsight is always 2020, and you talk about some of the things that are prophesied that are going to happen before this harvest. And he says, there shall be signs and wonders, and they shall be shown forth in the heavens above and in the earth beneath. And they shall behold blood, fire and vapors of smoke. And I think it's interesting that they say this. Blood, fire and vapors of smoke. Keep those in mind, Blood, fire and smoke. Because the next verse says that shall come the sun before the coming of the Lord, the sun shall be darkened and the moon be turned into blood, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and then a remnant shall be gathered into its place. So looking at these verses, is this something that we're waiting for in the future, or is this something that has happened? And as I read these verses, this is something that has already happened, going with the scourge that we see in the civil war. This is things that are happening before the Lord can come at the end. This is something that's already happened before the summer season, if you will. And where I understand this, it's interesting. The reason I say it's interesting that they say blood, fire and smoke, because in war you have bloodshed, right? But you also, they had a habit of burning cities down. They would start buildings on fire, so you'd have blood followed by fire. And then as the fire start going out, followed last by smoke. And whenever you have blood, fire and smoke, if it's a large enough destruction, if a large enough city is destroyed, that smoke can make a day seem dim where it's darkening the day. But that much smoke, what it does to the light as it comes down is it starts to filter out the blue and the green light so that all you're left with is the red light. So when there's enough pollution in the atmosphere, it will make the moon look red, like a blood moon. And another thing that makes the moon look red is when the earth passes between the sun and the moon, the sun's light, as it goes to the earth and bends around it and comes back to hit the moon passes through the earth's Atmosphere and as much pollution as there is in the atmosphere, all of the blue and the green lights get filtered out. Only the red lights make it to the moon. And so they call it a blood moon. At the time of a total lunar eclipse in the Civil War, we had a super moon which corresponds with when the Earth is closest to the moon. The moon is closest to the Earth in its rotation, corresponding with a blood moon. When the eclipse happened and turned the moon red during that time period, we had all sorts of wonders in the stars. Something that makes me think that this has already happened is in General Conference in October 2001, President Hinckley stated the following quote, the vision of Joel has been fulfilled, wherein he declared, and I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth. Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord has come. So I think we have passed that point and I look for events that could match that. I mean, obviously the super blood moon and the Civil War is interesting, but there was more heavenly signs that were connected with this. Do you realize we call them the war comets? In 1861, a huge comet passed over. You could see it in the United States for a couple weeks. Super bright. People looked at it as an omen. The newspaper is printed. This either means peace or war. Something is going to happen. And the night it disappeared, the next day, the Civil War started. The very first battle, the battle of, I believe it was Bull Run. So you have this market, the battle at Bull Run with the very first comet. And then a year later, in 1862, you have a second comet that lights up the skies and people look at it again as this omen. Something is going to happen. This is another heavenly sign, what's going on. And the day following the night where it disappears was the battle of Antietam, which was the single deadliest day in American history. And so if it is not enough, we had these comets, we had these blood moons. In 1862, the Northern Lights were visible over the Virginia battlefield, seen by both the Confederates and the Northerners. And both of them looked at it as signs of God with, I mean, both of them kind of interpreted their way, but there was all sorts of heavenly signs. And I think we talked about the Perseid shower back when we were talking about Doctrine and covenants, Section 29 and a few episodes ago. So I don't want to get into too much detail on this, but I would like to say there were a lot of signs around this time in the heavens that could fill the description of what doctrine and covenants is telling us. [00:56:57] Speaker B: So big picture, what you're saying is if we're going to change our ways, we should probably do it. [00:57:04] Speaker A: Yes. And looking at doctrine and covenants, when we read some of these things that are a little bit scary, Know that a lot of these things have already been fulfilled. We are living at a time kind of understanding where we are at on the timeline of things. There are still some great things to happen. They do talk about the sun being darkened. In 1878 was the great American eclipse, if you will. This is what put America on the map. Everyone thought we were so backwards scientifically. But when this eclipse happened, it kind of marked an end of an era and the beginning of a new one. An eclipse is. There's. In the old world, when an eclipse happened, it usually meant to them that God was upset with the king, with the governor, with the government, with however it was. And they had astronomers that would watch these eclipses, and if it was a partial eclipse, they would say, okay, what quadrant of the sun got blocked out? And what quadrant of the land does that correspond with? In order to identify what king God was pissed at or ticked off, at least. [00:58:14] Speaker B: It's totally okay. [00:58:17] Speaker A: And here's something interesting that they would do with this. If it was a total eclipse. And then they were just absolutely mad. Right. There's this ritual that was practiced throughout Egypt, Canaan, all of these different places where if there was a sign like this where the eclipse happened and they said, okay, God's mad. They would take a substitute king. So they would find somebody on death row that was going to die anyways, and they made him king for the day. [00:58:44] Speaker B: What? [00:58:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, the substitute king ritual. [00:58:47] Speaker B: I love these old school ritual things, man. Let's go. [00:58:51] Speaker A: They figured that he would be kind of like the lightning rod, if you will. Like if God is really mad and he's going to smite the king down, Then here he is, some knucklehead. Yeah. Usually a prisoner off death row. They just take him and say, hey, guess what? Today's your lucky day. You get to be king. [00:59:09] Speaker B: Could he pardon himself as king? Because that would have backfired really quick. If they had done that to me. [00:59:15] Speaker A: It would have backfired. I would have been like, cool. [00:59:17] Speaker B: My first royal decree is, I am pardoned of all things that I've done. [00:59:21] Speaker A: The ritual kind of varies from society to society. In some cases, at the end of the day, they would sacrifice the king, Showing the God like, hey, we know that you're mad at our king. Here he is, and we're killing him to appease you so that you won't kill our actual king. And then they put the regular king on the throne the next day, and life continues as usual. It's kind of an odd ritual, but it is interesting. When Herod killed all of the babies in Israel, after Christ was born, there followed an eclipse. And after the eclipse, Herod gets sick and dies. So there's something kind of. But I don't know, it just kind of happens throughout history with this. But where I think it's interesting is when Christ goes to die, what did they do? They crowned him King of the Jews. They made him a substitute king, if you will. They put a crown of thorns on him. They put a red robe on him, and then they even put the title above the cross, King of the Jews. And we have all fallen from grace to where God is disappointed with us. And he steps in as the substitute in this case, and he takes that role and he takes that punishment so that we can rise up and become kings and priests unto the most high. So this tradition, as weird as it may seem, maybe it's founded in some sort of teaching or idea or principle, in the idea of the atonement and how it was going to work. And so I look at this eclipse almost as the dawn of a century when America wasn't quite there. The way they treated slaves, the way they treated, persecuted the saints, the way they did things. The eclipse marking the end of an era as the sun comes up again, as the start of a new time, a new epoch. All right, there is so much more to talk about here. I am just going to try to briefly sum this up because I have gone too long as it is. There are some exciting things to look forward to in the future. And as the prophets have said this in conference over and over again, you look at the signs of the times, and Christ tells us, look at the fig tree and look for the signs. There is a reason why he gives us signs in heaven. There is a reason why he gives us things to look for. And in one of these verses, he says, if you are not looking, then you will be cut off. He said, I am giving you this for a reason. And how many of us, I included, I don't always look for these signs, or I don't always look to understand where we're at, or I don't always look for what's supposed to be happening because I'm too busy trying to live my life as it is. But he's telling us specifically do this. And he talks about gathering the righteous together. And he says that Zion will become this fearful city where nobody dares mess with Zion because God is with them. He's going to preserve them. Very similar to how Enoch built Zion early on. If you want to read about Enoch, Zion and Moses, it gives us an idea of what to expect with this future Zion as the saints are gathered in here. And he says, the wicked shall not go unto it. And I kind of laughed at that when I read it. I don't think we have to worry about the wicked going up into Zion because we have a hard enough time trying to get the righteous to come up unto it. So the righteous will be gathered even more so than what we have now. But they also talk about the saints being gathered from the four corners of this earth. So this idea of gathering is not necessarily the singular location anymore as much as this gathering around the globe and being caught up to heaven when Christ comes, and that he will come in great power authority, and he will split the mountain and the people will see him and recognize him. And a lot is what we understand this millennial time of peace yet to come. So if you're interested in reading more about that, please take a look at these last few verses in Doctrine and Covenant, Section 45. [01:03:22] Speaker B: What are we talking about next week? [01:03:24] Speaker A: Next week we are talking about the various gifts of the Spirit and the importance of church history. [01:03:30] Speaker B: Honestly, I can't wait for this one. [01:03:32] Speaker A: Yeah, for real. [01:03:35] Speaker B: I was thinking, how rad would it be if somebody, like, when they were blessing their baby, blessed them with the gift of X ray vision or the gift of flight? [01:03:48] Speaker A: I would you say that. And I joked with my wife. When our firstborn was born, I said I wanted to bless them with godlike strength and devilishly good luck. [01:04:00] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. See, this is what I'm saying. The thing is, it's like one, I believe that God has a sense of humor. And I think that that's a pretty. I think more or less everybody probably knows that at this point. Anybody that's had to be a parent or really deal with any unexpected twist in life. But honestly, I just sometimes think how fun it would be just to tweak out everybody in the ward. If you're like, the name of this child is Zeus now, bless him with the gift of lightning. [01:04:31] Speaker A: I was pushing for Thor back, and this was way back before any of the Marvel takeover, but I obviously got outvoted on that one. [01:04:38] Speaker B: I bless you with the gift of invisibility. [01:04:42] Speaker A: Just. [01:04:42] Speaker B: Just so that everybody, including the bishop or the deacon holding the microphone, has to, like, open their eyes and see if this is actually happening. You know, it'd be even crazier is if God was like, all right, you asked for it, you got it. Devilishly good looks. All right, until next week. [01:05:03] Speaker A: See y.