4 Nephi 1:20-36
1:20-26 - Well, the happiest time in the world has run its course and “there was still peace in the land, save it were a small part of the people who had revolted from the church and taken upon them the name of Lamanites; therefore there began to be Lamanites again in the land.” Mormon cites the reason for this change as “those who were lifted up in pride, such as the wearing of costly apparel, and all manner of fine pearls, and of the fine things of the world. And from that time forth they did have their goods and their substance no more in common among them.” There’s that costly apparel again, like it cited so many time as the beginning of the down fall of the society, and as HN reminds us, they are “costly” apparel, not “good looking” apparel, so that begs the question, why costly and not cute? Costly indicates that someone besides you knows that it’s expensive, so labels, designer logos, etc. It’s a status symbol, so that everyone knows that you have the money to buy these things, and of course you wouldn’t share those things with others, and you wouldn’t give your excess to the church to distribute it to the poor, you would keep it so that you can be rich. Oh, very interesting. The IM teaches, “Divisiveness is a result of unrighteousness. The following commentary suggests that pride is the beginning of all such divisions and the reason that some individuals ‘revolted from the church’ and took upon themselves the name Lamanites. ‘Why would it matter to a people what they were called? Why would it be so important for them to be called Lamanites? Why would a group choose to forsake the transcendent privilege of unity in order to be designated by this or that name? The answer is simple: pride. A desire to be different. A yearning to be acknowledged. A fear of being overlooked. A craving for public notice. The righteous feel no need for attention, no desire to be praised, no inclination to demand recognition. The prideful demand their rights, even when they are wrong. The prideful feel that they must do things their way, even when that was in the wrong way. The prideful insist that they must pursue their own path, even when the road they take is wide and broad and leads to destruction.” That’s an interesting way to look at it, why people need recognition, I’m in agreement with HN on this one, he asks “Why did some people revolt from the church and call themselves Lamanites when everything was going so well?...The same reasons then as now for the most part. This being a system that embraces all aspects of life, they felt too many demands were being made on them. It was just too hard, too much effort to keep it up. See, keeping up a virtuous society (requires), as it tells us in verse 12, fasting and prayer and meeting together often. That’s just too strenuous, because they had to dedicate themselves to intense thought… So they could go on and on and have no end of activity to keep them busy, but it required increasing mental effort and they just weren’t up to it. You get bored and weary with that sort of thing. You don’t rest enough. There’s a tendency to overdo… For the most part they felt too much is being demanded. They were asked to give up too much. They walked in too strict a path. But this wasn’t the church that was demanding that- it’s nature that demands it. Nature demands our sobriety and refraining.” I thought there were several profound points in there, first, people leave the church because the feel too pressured, too pressed for service, I’ve seen many many people leave the church over this, they just want to do what they want to do all the time. My friend made an incredibly insightful comment yesterday that she left the church because she wanted to do whatever she wanted without feeling bad about it, except the not feeling bad about it never came, which is the perfect feed into the HN’s last point, that it’s not God trying to set these rules just so that he can have rules for us to obey, they are the rules required by the universal law of happiness, they are universal truths, and when we break them, we simply break ourselves against them. The last point I really took away from this was that there is a possibility to overdo religious stuff. In the paragraph HN actually admits that he himself, gets too overwhelmed with religious stuff and then kind of shuts down a little bit. This happens to me and I feel guilty about it because I’ll think to myself, “I shouldn’t get tired of studying the scriptures,” but when I do, I’m kind of irritated with myself. That’s why I try to keep certain boundaries when it comes to what I do. For instance, I listen to the Ensign/religious books on my way to work but on my way home I can listen to whatever I want. Sometimes it’s church stuff, but usually it’s secular stuff or the radio. I have to write my blog and study the scriptures before I can do anything else at night, but on the weekends I just do scripture study with my kids as a family. I try to do these things so that I can maintain a balance, and it’s so validating to me to hear that even HN can’t just do religious stuff all the time, that even he has to maintain a balance.
1:27-36 - One thing that I think is interesting about the breakup of the society is that “they began to build up churched unto themselves to get gain, and began to deny the true church of Christ.” If you are rejecting the church and separating yourselves from that society, then why would you set up churches? Wouldn’t you just reject every form of organized religion? But because it says that they set up the churches to get gain, it’s clear that those who created it, knew the power of organized religion to extort the masses, if that is their goal. These corrupt churches satisfied the need of the people to still feel like they were worshipping the true and living God, eased their conscience concerning that matter, but still allowed them to live any kind of lifestyle that they wanted, because these churches, “professed to know the Christ, and yet they did deny the more parts of his gospel, insomuch that they did receive all manner of wickedness, and did administer that which was sacred unto him to whom it had been forbidden because of unworthiness. And this church did multiply exceedingly because of iniquity, and because of the power of Satan who did get hold upon their hearts.” HN speculated that these other churches “administered that which was sacred” meaning, that they would give the sacrament to those who were unworthy, which is a big no no, but really if we think about it, those administering it wouldn't be endowed with priesthood power anymore, so it really wouldn't be effective, but if those giving and those taking this mock sacrament knew that, then it's to their condemnation. And of course, where there's pride and wickedness, there's also persecution of those who remain faithful to the true gospel of Jesus Christ, "and they did despise them because of the many miracles which were wrought among them." Interesting that they would be hated because of miracles, that doesn't make sense to me. HN explains, "They made fun of their miracles. Well, who would make fun of a miracle? Miracles are at a premium. They are what we want... They could see the miracles. Well, miracles do not convert people- that's another point. The miracles had a very opposite effect here. They despised what they couldn't see. Of course, miracles are going on that you may not recognize as miracles, too....They brushed them aside, and you can do it with everyone. But they had the power and the authority. They had the office. You'll notice here (verse 30): 'Therefore they did exercise power and authority over the disciples of Jesus.' Well, if they belonged to another church, how come they exercised power and authority? Not legal. It's religious here, because it was a sacral state,' ... who did tarry with them (the ones who were foolish enough to remain), and they did cast them into prison.' It didn't do much good, though. They were aggressive and obnoxious; they grew up in the heart of the old church; and they have a bad time to the old disciples of Jesus. They singles them out as an element which would have to be removed, along with their miracles. But the others having retained their integrity also retained their powers, and they couldn't be stopped. They kept right on." So like I just asked about, would it matter about taking a pseudo-sacrament if those dispensing it didn't have the proper authority, and HN gives insight here. The true disciples of Christ retained their priesthood power because they remained righteous, so the miracles were wrought, and those who had turned their backs on the gospel took those miracles of constant reminders that they did not in fact have priesthood power any longer. It's like the priests of Baal and Elijah, The priests were publicly humiliated when their god wouldn't light the fire but Elijah's would. Now let's imagine that the priests of Baal had previously been disciples of Christ and looked to Elijah as God's chosen servant. They had already left neutral ground and had turned their back on the knowledge of God, so it only makes sense that they would not only be embarrassed by their lack of miracles, but they would be murderously angry because of the constant reminder of their rejection.
1:27-36 - One thing that I think is interesting about the breakup of the society is that “they began to build up churched unto themselves to get gain, and began to deny the true church of Christ.” If you are rejecting the church and separating yourselves from that society, then why would you set up churches? Wouldn’t you just reject every form of organized religion? But because it says that they set up the churches to get gain, it’s clear that those who created it, knew the power of organized religion to extort the masses, if that is their goal. These corrupt churches satisfied the need of the people to still feel like they were worshipping the true and living God, eased their conscience concerning that matter, but still allowed them to live any kind of lifestyle that they wanted, because these churches, “professed to know the Christ, and yet they did deny the more parts of his gospel, insomuch that they did receive all manner of wickedness, and did administer that which was sacred unto him to whom it had been forbidden because of unworthiness. And this church did multiply exceedingly because of iniquity, and because of the power of Satan who did get hold upon their hearts.” HN speculated that these other churches “administered that which was sacred” meaning, that they would give the sacrament to those who were unworthy, which is a big no no, but really if we think about it, those administering it wouldn't be endowed with priesthood power anymore, so it really wouldn't be effective, but if those giving and those taking this mock sacrament knew that, then it's to their condemnation. And of course, where there's pride and wickedness, there's also persecution of those who remain faithful to the true gospel of Jesus Christ, "and they did despise them because of the many miracles which were wrought among them." Interesting that they would be hated because of miracles, that doesn't make sense to me. HN explains, "They made fun of their miracles. Well, who would make fun of a miracle? Miracles are at a premium. They are what we want... They could see the miracles. Well, miracles do not convert people- that's another point. The miracles had a very opposite effect here. They despised what they couldn't see. Of course, miracles are going on that you may not recognize as miracles, too....They brushed them aside, and you can do it with everyone. But they had the power and the authority. They had the office. You'll notice here (verse 30): 'Therefore they did exercise power and authority over the disciples of Jesus.' Well, if they belonged to another church, how come they exercised power and authority? Not legal. It's religious here, because it was a sacral state,' ... who did tarry with them (the ones who were foolish enough to remain), and they did cast them into prison.' It didn't do much good, though. They were aggressive and obnoxious; they grew up in the heart of the old church; and they have a bad time to the old disciples of Jesus. They singles them out as an element which would have to be removed, along with their miracles. But the others having retained their integrity also retained their powers, and they couldn't be stopped. They kept right on." So like I just asked about, would it matter about taking a pseudo-sacrament if those dispensing it didn't have the proper authority, and HN gives insight here. The true disciples of Christ retained their priesthood power because they remained righteous, so the miracles were wrought, and those who had turned their backs on the gospel took those miracles of constant reminders that they did not in fact have priesthood power any longer. It's like the priests of Baal and Elijah, The priests were publicly humiliated when their god wouldn't light the fire but Elijah's would. Now let's imagine that the priests of Baal had previously been disciples of Christ and looked to Elijah as God's chosen servant. They had already left neutral ground and had turned their back on the knowledge of God, so it only makes sense that they would not only be embarrassed by their lack of miracles, but they would be murderously angry because of the constant reminder of their rejection.
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