FATHER'S DAY MEMORIES

Fathers are important.  It's amazing that today I even have to say that.  When God created mankind, He created both males and females.  The first commandment He gave them was to have children and begin a family.  The father is the patriarch; the mother, the matriarch. Neither could conceive a child without the other. In today's world, this common sense definition of father, mother, and family has been turned on its ear.  Of course, there are non-traditional families through death, divorce, and abandonment; nevertheless, children need both of their parents.

Watch fathers with their children.  They love them as much as the mother does, but parent them quite differently.  The blessed child has both. I remember talks like this with my father and my own daughter's time with her daddy.  I miss both.

I've heard many comments lately about the current state of affairs in America.  People want to blame the police, blame others who are different, blame the president or the democrats.  In truth, we are reaping what we sowed when we took fathers out of the equation.  I watched a video of well-know black men who put the blame squarely at the feet of a society that has almost eliminated the father.  

All lives matter.  All children deserve to be born into a family with a mother and a father.  Unfortunately that is becoming more rare. Equally unfortunate is the inarguable fact that our society is toxic to families, and particularly critical of the traditional role of fatherhood.

God bless good fathers everywhere who nurture and train their children with love and with an eye to the future.  It is easier to raise a good boy or girl than it is to fix a broken man or woman.  Fathers, I salute you with fond memories of my own father, who was one of the best.  His children and his grandchildren and even his great-grandchildren rise up and call him blessed.



Every boy's model and every girl's first sweetheart should be his/her daddy.

© Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson, June 2020

BOOK OF MORMON VIDEOS

Lehi as portrayed on the videos

Yesterday, I chose not to write in my blog, preferring to take advantage of feeling somewhat stable on my feet to sort through the grandchildren's clutter and clean the back patio.  The thing that kept me on the track spiritually was watching the Book of Mormon videos produce by the Church.  I could work outside and hear the dialog through the screen door.  It was an enriching experience.

Actors who portray Nephi and his brothers with crew member

The casting for these productions (which must have been a monumental task) was amazing.  You recognize Nephi and Alma, King Noah and Abinadi, by their distinctive appearance and by their voice talents.  Since we have been recently reading in the book of Alma, I have been particularly impressed with the actor portraying Alma.  I can almost see Alma himself looking down with approbation.

Alma and Amulek portrayed on the screen

If you haven't yet discovered these magnificent productions, you can find them on the Church website and on YouTube/Book of Mormon Videos. I promise, you will find in them a treasure of liken the scriptures and making them real.  These were not just names and events in a book.  These were real people who lived, and struggled, and worshipped, and died.  

Enos

Thank you to all of those involved in these productions for bringing the Book of Mormon alive. The locations, casting, costuming, hair styles, make-up - everything is first class and better than anything Hollywood does because there are no CGIs, visual effects, or other distractions.  And the script writer was, for the most part, Mormon himself.

© Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson April 2020

WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE?

Just yesterday I was reading posts of a Facebook group called Worldwide-United.  I rarely take the time to do that anymore and I don't know what led me to open it, but I immediately saw a post from a sister who was struggling with her testimony as a result of all of the horrific things that are happening in our nation.  She said she couldn't get her head around how a loving God could allow that to happen.  

The post caught my eye because I had just been reading Alma 14 about the martyrdom of the righteous women and children in Ammonihah and the horror felt by Amulek and Alma at being forced to watch.  Even in the midst of all of the terrible things happening today, I still shudder at the evilness of people who could do something like that. I found myself commenting on Alma's testimony to Amulek that sometimes God doesn't want us to intervene and that those who suffer are taken quickly into the arms of God. There suffering stands as a testimony of their evil at the last day.

The Stoning of Stephen

The question of why God allows bad things to happen to good people has been asked for Millenia. Most of us have asked it of God at least one time in our lives. It is universal in this fallen world.

This link to a Book of Mormon Central KnoWhy on the subject sheds a lot of light on that question.  

Why Does God Sometimes Allow His Saints to be Martyred?

It appears to center around the principal of agency. If God interfered in every instance, He would set his whole principal of agency and accountability fail. We sometimes look at situations with our mortal eyes, without recognizing that God's vision is far broader and deeper than ours.

God comforts those who suffer.  In this instance, by taking them quickly to his bosom as He did Stephen when he was stoned.  Before dying, Stephen saw Jesus  Christ standing on the right hand of His Father, waiting to receive him.

God comforts those who witness such evil and feel powerless and impotent, but angry.  He can calm our hearts and bring comfort as he did to Alma. Our earthly tribunals are often unjust or corrupt.  The Ultimate Judge of the Universe, while compassionate to the penitent, is absolutely just with the unrepentant. 

When we witness suffering or when we suffer ourselves, we can either let it harden us into cynicism or heal us into stronger faith in Him.  C. S. Lewis once wrote this suffering that pain can bring us closer to God if we allow it. Wrote he, pain insists upon being attended to.  God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. (The Problem of Pain. 1940)

The Apostle Paul put it this way in his letter to the Romans: but we glory in tribulation also: knowing tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5: 3-5) This scripture has helped me through many a painful trial, although I must admit that I often have to get on the other side of the tribulation before I am able to be grateful for it! That it doesn't take me as long to get there as it did when I was younger tells me that I am on the right path.

Finally, suffering can help us differentiate between those things we can control and those we cannot.  In the Book of Judges, the people living under the protection of the Judge, Gideon, were suffering and starving at the hands of their enemies.  Gideon appealed to God for relief.  The scripture tells us that the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. To which Gideon answered, If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? . . . The Lord's answer to Gideon was to Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hands of the Midianites; have I not sent thee? (Judges 6: 12-14) Gideon had been called by God to handle the issue and he had the ability to do so.  He just needed to wake up to the realization that, with God's help, he was to bring about the deliverance.  I think this point is summed up in this prayer from Alcoholics Annonymous:

© Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson April 2020

WIIFM or WMCID

The bottom line motivation for antichrist, be it person or system, is the search for the WIFFM - What's In It For Me?  If the answer to the question is "nothing" then it is put aside, ignored, or destroyed.  Nehor's entire concept of a poplar, wealthy, and powerful clergy is driven by the WIFFM. It is the hallmark of selfishness, laziness, and pride. The WIFFIM is self-centered and looks inward toward the natural man.  It is the pattern of the adversary

WMCID?

Contrast that with the pattern of the Savior.  We could label that What More Can I Do? - WMCID. People doing the Savior's work don't look toward themselves, always trying to figure out the best angle for them.  They look upward toward God and then outward toward others. They are humble and teachable and motivated by love for God and their neighbors. People with a WMCID mentality are humble.  They don't think less of themselves; they think of themselves less.

Alma 13 is probably the single chapter of scripture that tells us the most about the priesthood.

Melchizedek ordaining Abraham to the Priesthood

• It is the priesthood after the Order of the Son of God (13: 1-2)
• It was called the Melchizedek priesthood because Melchizedek was such a great high priest. (13: 14-19)
  
• The call was issued to men of great faith and having chosen good.(13: 3)
• When other men choose to harden their hearts and turn away from God, they cannot be chosen for the priesthood, even though they came into the world having the same choices as their brethren. (13: 4-5)
• Men are given priesthood power to act in God's name to perform ordinances and to teach the doctrine of Christ so that others may know salvation. They are called to preach repentance.
• Once their own robes are made white by the blood of the lamb, they cannot look upon sin except with abhorrence. (13: 12)
• The Priesthood is eternal from eternity to all eternity (13:7)

Alma pleaded with the people not to procrastinate the day of their repentance. These are the words of a holy and just man whose love for his brethren knows no bounds.

And now, my brethren, I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yes, with great anxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins, and not procrastinate the day of your repentance; But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that y may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering; Having faith on the Lord; have a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest. And may the Lord grant unto you repentance, that ye may not bring down his wrath upon you, that ye may not be bound down by the chains of hell, that ye may not suffer the second death. (Alma 13: 27-30) 

No man with the WIIFM mindset could have said those glorious words. May we all heed them and repent on a daily basis that our garments may be made white with the blood of the lamb.  May we love one another as Alma loved his people and not ever choose our actions based on "What's in if for me?" , but looking upward and outward always toward "What more can I do?"

PROPOGANDA OF AN ANTICHRIST

Several years ago, I wrote a document for my children in which I gave the history of Israel, the Book of Mormon, and how it aligns with the Bible.  Cedar Fort Book asked me to expand it to include 8 crucial themes that are found in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon.  This book was published in 2018.*

Two of the subjects I covered were the priesthood or the Order after the Son of God; and the antichrists with their priestcraft fashioned after the master of Lies, even Satan.  Today, I'd like to look at the theology of antichrists. Tomorrow, I will contrast the philosophy of the antichrists with the theology of Jesus Christ.

Book Review, Deseret Book

~ ~ ~

I'd like to take a moment at the outset to look at one modern antichrist who epitomized the traits of men like Korihor and Nehor, two of the antichrists in the Book of Mormon. The man of whom I'm thinking was Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda (masquerading under the title of "Public Enlightenment.") His role was to spread the ideology of the Nazi's or National Socialist German Workers' Party. Even the name was a lie because they were not true socialists, but fascist , representing both ends of the spectrum of evil patterned after the order of Lucifer, the Father of Lies. In fact, Hitler hated Marxist socialism.

Hitler, introducing Goebbels to his ministers said, "I will provide a propagandist casus belli. It's credibility doesn't matter.  The victor will not be asked whether he told the truth. (Wikipedia)
Goebbels followed this same line of thinking.  The thing was to get the information out there, even those that were out-and-out lies.  He himself said, "If you tell a lie often enough, people believe it and it becomes the truth."**

~ ~ ~ 

Let's take a look at the philosophical base of the antichrist that had such a huge impact on the people of Ammonihah: Nehor. 

Nehor was a charismatic man, large in stature, and popular.  He offered what might be called cheap or easy salvation, and he grew very rich in the process. Here are some of the key points he put forward:

• There would be no Christ because there is no need for an atonement. God created all men; therefore he will save all men in the end.  There is no need for guilt or fear.  Much like the philosophy of the 1960's "If it feels good, do it."
• People are free to do whatever they want so long as they don't break a civil law.  No man could be punished for what he said if he believed it was true.  Nehor himself stated that he was preaching God's word. Therefore, they could use their agency how ever they chose and there would be no consequences.
• He taught that clergy should be paid handsomely and that they should be popular.  Priests and teachers should not have to work, but be supported by the people. It became politically correct to bring personal and legal pressure on the Church of God and the court-appointed system of judges.

Nehor became arrogant in his pride and very wealthy. He set up several churches in the area with priests and teachers appointed by him.  His conceit was ultimately his undoing when, in a rage, he hit an old man who bore testimony against him with his sword until the man died.  He was tried for murder and executed.  Just prior to his death, he admitted to Alma that he knew the things he taught were lies, designed to gain wealth and the power of celebrity.  Like Hitler and Goebbels, it didn't matter to Nehor if what was the truth or not.  If you say it often enough and loud enough, people will believe you. By the time he realized the folly of his ways, the damage was done and the religion of the Nehors spread throughout the lands of the Nephites. 

This was the "religion" of the people of Ammonihah, to the point that they were planning to do whatever damage they could do to bring down the government and the Church of Jesus Christ. They recognized Alma when he came and threw him out of the city.  They had total disdain, recognizing that he was the high priest of the Church, but since he was no longer the chief judge, he had no power over them. These people use the techniques of the devil to attack and try to confound God's prophet.

The second time Alma returned, he was met by a good man named Amulek who became his missionary partner.  They were confronted by not only the people, but the most powerful people: the judges and attorneys.  One among them was a man named Zeezrom. Read his interchange with Amulek and with Alma in chapters 11 and 12 and see how he uses propaganda techniques that evil men and women still use today. 

The philosophies of the Nehors is alive and well in the world.  The intent is still the same: tear down God's Church and kingdom; and tear down the government.  Satan's agenda from before the beginning.  Oh, how I wish everyone could see that.

© June 2020 Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson

*Words of God: 8 Crucial Bible Themes Supported by the Book of Mormon, Cedar Fort Publishing, Springville, UT. 2018
Book available from www.amazon.com and www.deseretbook.com 

** I like this definition of the word propaganda so I thought I would share it as written.  Today, we call propaganda "fake news" and the world is awash in it. I believe that it is through misleading and awfulizing information designed to provoke feat that this entire nation shutdown.  The current race riots are also being used all part of the agenda to get unseat the president. The very name, ANTIFA is an example of a lie since it supposedly stands for anti-fascist, when it is one of the most fascist terror groups in the world.  DEFINITION:
Propaganda is communication that it used primarily to influence and audience and further an agenda which may not be objective and may be presenting facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, of using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is presented. . . . 
In the 20th century, the term has often been associated with a manipulative approach. . . to spread fake or biased news using social media. . . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda 

THE LORD MAKETH NO SUCH THING KNOWN UNTO US

On more than one occasions, Laman and Lemuel failed to understand something their father had taught them by the Spirit.  They were frustrated because Nephi always seemed to "get it" and they didn't.  One occasion that I remember was when Lehi had taught them about the olive tree.  They said to Nephi:

Behold, we cannot understand the words which our father hath spoken concerning the natural branches of the olive tree, and also concerning the Gentiles. And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord? And they said unto me: We have not, for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us. (1 Nephi 15: 7-9)

People who have chosen to harden their hearts to the promptings of the Spirit and have dulled their conscience through sinfulness are not in a position to receive revelation.  

One reason for this is because where much is given, much is expected.  If such people receive such an understanding, they are then under condemnation if they don't live it. When Zeezrom asked Alma and Amulek to know more about the kingdom of God, Alma explained this to him:

 It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God; nevertheless they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of the word which he doth grant unto the children of me, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him. . . . therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God.  And they that will harden their hearts . . . are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. (Alma 12: 9-11)

Alma explained that this is why the Lamanites are under less condemnation than the Nephites, even though they were wicked, because their choices came because they didn't know any better.  They had been taught the false traditions and hatreds of their ancestors, Laman and Lemuel, and thus were less accountable than the Nephites who knew better. 

The wicked people of Ammonihah had confessed that they knew Alma and the Church and had conciously chosen to rebel.  Instead of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the fall, the atonement, and the resurrection, they chose the easy doctrine of Nehor who said that everyone would be saved no matter what they did.   They had so dulled their consciences that they did not recognize how far astray they had gone.

The people of Ammonihah didn't understand the plan of redemption.  They didn't understand the connectedness of the fall of Adam and the atonement of Christ.  They didn't understand why repentance is necessary. They didn't understand the resurrection.  They didn't understand the concepts of agency and accountability, nor recognize whose plan called for universal redemption with nothing due on our part.

To Zeezrom's credit, he began to remember what he had known.  He trembled in fear as the testimonies of Alma and Amulek cut him to the core.  He did know the difference between truth and error and recognized with clarity the exact nature of his sins.  When he visualized standing before the throne of God in his current state, it made him ill unto death.  He did repent and stood as a witness and testifier of Jesus Christ for the remainder of his days.  If someone like Zeezrom who began with all the attitudes of an anti-Christ could turn his life around, there are none of us who have sinned beyond the reclaiming grace of repentance and the Savior's atonement. When we think of Zeezrom, we usually think only of his wickedness and forget ther repentant man of God.  Like Ebeneezer Scrooge, let us think of Zeezrom on Christmas morning and not on Christmas Eve.

© June 2020 Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson

ESTABLISHING CREDIBILITY UNDER THE HEBREW LAW OF WITNESSES

It interests me that the first thing Amulek did when he came forward to speak was to recite his own ancestry.  He said: 

• I am Amulek
• Son of Giddonah
• Son of Ishmael
• Descendant of Aminadi (who interpreter the writing which was upon the wall of the temple, written by the finger of God
• Descendant of Nephi
• Son of Lehi
• Descendent of Manasseh
• Son of Joseph sold into Egypt. (See Alma 10: 2-3)

Many ancient cultures introduced themselves by reciting their lineage.  Tribes in Africa, Arab tribes, ancient Chinese, Indian and others practice this means of cultural identity. For Amulek to have done so was in harmony with many ancient cultures around the world. Even today in some traditional Native American groups, heritage is a way of introduction.  For example, among the Navajos, if one is meeting another Navajo who is a stranger to you, one would cite his born-to clan (his mother's) and his born-for clan (his father's).

After the recitation of his genealogy, Amulek also brings out that he is well known in the area, that he has many kinfolk and friends, and that he has been financially successful. 

He may have chosen to do so just because it was an expectation in his Nephite culture, or he may have chosen to do so because of the way the group had responded to Alma when he first arrived.  The people were antagonistic from the beginning.  They said to Alma:

Who are thou? Suppose ye that we shall believe the testimony of one man. . . ? We will not believe they words. . . And . . . Who is God, that sendeth no more authority than one man among this people. . . ?  (See Alma 9: 2, 4, 6) 

The irony is that they knew perfectly well who he was, because on his first visit they said to him: Behold, we know that thou art Alma; and we know that thou art high priest over the church . . . we are not of thy church and we do not believe in such foolish traditions. . . . Thou hast no power over us . . . Thou hast delivered up the judgment seat to Nephihah; therefore thou art not the chief judge over us. (See Alma 8: 11 - 12)

  

Because they knew who he was, I think when they asked him "who art thou?" on his second visit, what they were really saying, in the modern vernacular, "Who do you think you are, coming here to pronounce judgment on us?  Our Law of Witnesses demands that, even in a court of law, there must be two or more witnesses brought forth to establish a case.  Where is that second witness?"

Amulek was that second witness.  He made a point of stating his lineage as one who had the right to speak and reminding him that he was a well-known and well-respected man in the community, giving his words credibility.

That the people still did not listen was a point against them on their road to destruction. Oh, that all people could study the Book of Mormon.  Problems that seem only political are also spiritual. And problems that seem primarily only spiritual are also often political.  The war between good and evil seems to envelope both.

© June 2020 Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson