Welding Families Forever

Two things really caught my attention in D&C 128:18.

First the term “welding” was used two times in reference to linking together generations. We usually think of this in terms of “sealing,” but I really like the term welding. It seems so much heavier and substantial. I envision a very thick chain being welded together which cannot be broken.

Second is “For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect.” We need our families. They are what really matter in life. I feel blessed to live in a Church which puts so much emphasis on families.

This made me think of an experience my dad shared with me. After mom died, he would go visit her grave on Sundays before church. A man who lived in their neighborhood told him he wanted the sense of peace he could see in my dad. His wife had also passed away and he wanted what my dad had, so dad started teaching him about the plan of salvation and eternal families. One time while dad was visiting mom’s grave, he received a very strong impression that she was on the other side teaching this man’s wife the same things he was teaching this man.

Missionary work is happening among those who have passed on. They are at the mercy of our willingness to serve in the temple. I am blessed to serve in the temple. It gives me the opportunity and privilege of helping women there who are serving and those who have passed on.

Born Again

In Moses 6: 59-60 there is a pattern that intrigues me. It speaks of being born by water, blood, and the spirit and those words are used three times.

The first time it says that we are “born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit which I have made.” This all happens during the process of childbirth.

Then it tells us we must be “born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten.”

I really like the analogy of being “born again.” When we are baptized and have our sins washed away, it is as if we are a new born babe, fresh from the heavens and without sin. We can become again this way each Sabbath as we renew our baptismal covenants by partaking of the sacrament.

Then it tells us why we must be born again by these three things and what part they play.

“For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified.”

We are baptized in water and by so doing keep the commandment. It is up to the Holy Ghost to justify the ordinance. In the class The Eternal Family we studied this and learned about what the justification of the Spirit means.

“We are “justified” by the Spirit as the Holy Spirit of Promise either ratifies or rejects each ordinance as being valid.”[1]

“[Justification] is the Lord’s way of assuring that no unauthorized acts or ordinances are binding in the hereafter.” [2]

These are pretty amazing responsibilities that the Holy Ghost has. This also reminds us that we can’t fool the Lord. If we enter covenants unworthily, they may look like they have been done, but the Spirit will not justify the ordinance as being valid.

And then after those two things have happened, we are able to be sanctified by the blood shed for us by our Savior Jesus Christ. The dictionary defines sanctified as to "set apart as or declare holy; consecrate; make legitimate or binding by religious sanctification; free from sin; purif[ed]."

All of this is how we are born again--by water, by the Spirit, and by blood.

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[1] Justification and Sanctification Transcript, The Eternal Family, BYU-Idaho, taken partially from Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Born of God, April 2008

[2] Elder Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 408

The Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation, introduced in 1777 and ratified in 1781 created a weak “League of Friendship” amongst the states. A decentralized confederation based on state sovereignty. 

Each state sent delegates to serve in the Congress of Confederation. Each of the states had an equal vote on any proposed legislation, legislation required unanimous support in order to pass, and once passed the national government had no authority to enforce the legislation with in a state.

The purpose was to prevent certain states from having control of the legislature to pass laws that weren’t fair to other states. The control was kept at the state level and they were joined together to assist one another for mutual and general welfare.

States began using their power to levy tariffs, but they weren’t levied equally, so low tariff states like Rhode Island started receiving more trade. This led other states to levy retaliatory tariffs against the goods that were favored by the low-tariff states. There was also a lot of dispute over who controlled rivers and ports. 

The high taxes in this difficult economy led to a high number of mortgage foreclosures. Debtors turned to mob action against their state legislatures. Shays Rebellion was one such action used to prevent the government from taking away farms. 

Under the Articles of Confederation, the national government had no power to intervene on behalf of the states. Each state was self-governed and there wasn’t a rule of law applied that would govern everyone equally. It was pretty much chaos and every one feared that what they had fought for was on the brink of destruction.

These are the historical events which led people like James Madison to call for a revision of the Articles of Confederation.

A More Perfect Union

We watched the video A More Perfect Union for American Foundations. It is a movie depicting the Continental Congress and what went into the creation of the Constitution.

I was surprised at how tenuous of an experience it was to get passed. There were many times it almost failed.

Something else that I was amazed by was how men stood up and voted against what they personally wanted because it was the right thing to do for America. One example is the discussion about slavery. The man who suggested doing away with it within a certain period of time was a slave owner and relied on that labor for his lively hood. He was willing to put God and Country ahead of his own personal wants and needs.

It was amazing how many times divine providence, prayer, our maker, and statements like that were made. Such a stark difference from what we see today.

You could literally see the hand of God working over this gathering of men. 

How Would I Amend the Constitution?

I was asked to answer this question:

Article 5 of the Constitution allows the states to convene another constitutional convention.  If such a meeting were held, and you were asked to be a delegate, what changes would you propose to the existing constitutional structure?

I would propose term limits on Senators and Congressmen. We have people who have served in those positions for 30 years. Yes, there is some benefit to longevity, however, they are out of touch with reality. They worried about a President becoming like a monarchy, I believe this has happened in some form with these lifetime senators and congressmen.

I would also propose that all Senators, Congressmen, President and Vice President, etc. must abide by any law passed by Congress. This means they would pay the same taxes and have the same healthcare as the people they pass the laws for.

I would also propose that Congress cannot vote themselves a raise. Those should be voted on by the people. None of us can vote ourselves a raise. They are supposed to be working for us. We should determine if they are doing a job worth getting a raise or not.

He will Succor His People

I had a hard time deciding what to discuss this week because there were so many awesome scriptures that we read. 

I finally chose Alma 7 because I love something I found in my scriptures about this.

In Alma 7:12 it says “he will take upon him their infirmities…that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.”

If you are like me, I always thought that succor meant to comfort. The dictionary says it is “assistance and support in times of hardship and distress.”  I had a note in my scriptures with this statement by Elder Holland which gives the word succor a much deeper meaning:

“Succor is used often in the scriptures to describe Christ’s care for and attention to us. It means literally ‘to run to.’ What a magnificent way to describe the Savior’s urgent effort in our behalf. Even as he calls us to come to him and follow him, he is unfailingly running to help us.” [1]

Imagine that; the Savior is literally running to help us. Take a minute and actually picture that in your mind. I imagine him running to me and when he reaches me, he embraces me in a huge hug. That is absolutely a “magnificent” thought! Not only did Jesus Christ suffer all the pains and agonies of our lives, so that he could know how to succor us, but he is literally running to us to do it.

He has given us the means whereby we can receive support, comfort and understanding, and to be redeemed so that we may return to him.

Are we accepting his amazing gift with open arms?

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[1] Jeffrey R. Holland, Mar 2, 97, CES Fireside “Come Unto Me”

The Salvation of Infants

As kind of a piggy back to this post, Article of Faith #2 can offer the world a whole lot of peace. 

I think specifically of mothers of babies who die in infancy, before the chance to have them baptized; mothers, and fathers, who think that their baby is lost and will never be in heaven, but instead in a dark and dreary state of limbo. I can’t imagine being a mother of an infant and thinking that this was the fate of my child.

We know from this Article of Faith that we are punished for our own sins and NOT for Adam’s transgressions. This means that babies aren’t born with “original sin” tarnishing their perfect beings. 

Babies who die in infancy are automatically with their God.

What an amazing doctrine to learn if you have never known this before. Jesus Christ Atoned for our sins. 

For all of our sins, everyone. 

This gives us the peace of knowing that we only bear the burden of our own sins.

Punished for Our Own Sins

Article of Faith #2: We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.

While reading these scriptures through the lens of the second Article of Faith, some things really hit me differently.

Normally this passage in Nephi amazes me that a prophet of God would think himself a “wretched man.” This time I felt the words he spoke sounded like deeply fervent prayer. It seemed to me as though he was pleading with the Lord to save him from his weaknesses and praising Him for all the goodness He has bestowed upon him.

Keeping the commandments was the thing that stood out to me in Moses. Adam and Eve had been kicked out of the Garden but still looked to the Lord for guidance. When they received commandments, they obeyed and taught their children.

Something was also cleared up for me regarding the offerings of Cain and Abel. Cain was a gardener. Abel kept sheep. Cain gave the Lord some of what he produced with his labors. So did Abel. I always wondered why the Lord was so unhappy with Cain’s gift. Then it hit me. It wasn’t because he didn’t like the gift. It was because what they were giving the Lord was the “offering” of worship. God had commanded them to “offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering unto the Lord” for their worship. God was unhappy with Cain because he basically made a mockery of a sacred ritual.

Because we are going to be punished for our own sins, we need to do as Nephi and look to the Lord and pray fervently. We also need to do as Adam and Eve and obey the commandments.

References:

2 Nephi 4:16-35

Moses 5:1-27

Along the Road to Independence

The Patriot Philosophers had a positive outlook on mankind when determining the principles and structures of good government. They believed that True Liberty, which was the balance between absolute freedom (anarchy) and absolute order (tyranny), was possible through the Virtue of the People. They believed that certain positive qualities and characteristic had been implanted in the human soul and would lead the people to be able to exercise self-restraint to achieve True Liberty.

They espoused principles of both schools of thought: the Democratic principles of participation in government and protection of the people, and the Republican principle of representation where decision making authority is given to representatives of the people to make laws on their behalf.

They also believed in Natural Law – the will of God and His “higher law.” These concepts justified resistance and rebellion and their belief in the basic right to govern themselves.

The Colonists had a love, pride, and affection for Britain. After the war, a “pernicious project” adopted by Parliament to directly tax the colonists started the discontent. They felt their rights were being taken away. They weren’t consulted on taxes; their petitions for redress went ignored. After revolting the Stamp Act, Parliament made things worse with the Declaratory Act and the Coercive Acts in response to the Boston Tea Party. The Colonists still had the spirit of reconciliation in the Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress, but Britain wasn’t listening. They actually sent out troops to destroy militia munitions and arrest the patriot leaders, leading to the battles at Lexington and Concord. This brought them to the Declaration for the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms, which by the way has some most excellent language, if not a bit of drama. The Colonists felt they had to choose between unconditional submission to “the tyranny of irritated ministers” or resistance by force.  They resolved to “die free men rather than to live as slaves.”

Prior to Common Sense, independence wasn’t really discussed openly – it was still considered treason. Common Sense pointed out why rule by king and monarchy was basically a ridiculous idea. Because it was accessible to everyone, the common working folk and not just the upper class, it became a widely accepted topic of conversation. It said what everyone was feeling; “that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still,” and got the people talking about it.

The Declaration of Independence was basically an indictment of the King and Parliament listing all of their offenses and violations of the “inalienable rights” of the Colonists. It then showed that based on those things, the Colonists were rightfully declaring their independence from Britain.

Beguile - The Deeper Meaning

In Moses we read of Satan seeking to beguile Eve, “for he knew not the mind of God.”[1] Satan wanted to destroy agency from the get-go by forcing everyone to return to Heaven and receiving the glory of not losing any of God’s children. We know how that ended.

Then we read “it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men.”[2] Here is Satan, trying to undermine God’s plan, but actually playing into it because he didn’t know the mind of God.

I pondered the word beguile. Most people say it means deceived or fooled. I have this note in my scriptures: Beguiled is an ancient Hebrew word not commonly used. Satan gave her a complex scenario. Eve had a decision to make.

I found an article wherein a Hebrew scholar, Dr. Nehama Aschkenasy, told the writer that the Hebrew word interpreted as "beguiled" is a “rare verb form of unusual depth and richness … no longer in use, [and] almost impossible to translate. ‘It is safe to say that it indicates an intense multi-level experience which evokes great emotional, psychological and/or spiritual trauma’ … and ‘makes it clear that Eve was motivated by a complex set of inner drives, anchored not only in her physical but also in her intellectual and spiritual nature.’ … She further suggests that because of this intense multi-level experience, Eve is caused to step back, reevaluate, reassess, and ponder the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”[3]

Those who attend the temple experience this view of Eve. We are blessed to know that she was a woman of great courage and spiritual insight which allowed her to make the choice she had to make.

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[1] Moses 4:6 And Satan put it into the heart of the serpent, (for he had drawn away many after him,) and he sought also to beguile Eve, for he knew not the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world.

[2] D&C 29:39 And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet—

[3] Beverly Campbell, Mother Eve Mentor ForToday’s Woman: A Heritage of Honor, April 2, 1993, 11th annual conference of Collegium Aesculapium in Salt Lake City, Utah 

True Liberty

We talk about liberty in this country, but how did the Founding Fathers define True Liberty? 

True Liberty is the middle ground between absolute freedom and complete control. On the one hand, with absolute freedom - there is anarchy, on the other, with complete control -  there is tyranny. 

They believed that when the people are living honest and virtuous lives, less control has to be exerted over them. This is True Liberty. The less honest and virtuous people are, the more control has to be put in place and liberty is lost.

This comes full circle back to agency and accountability. When people use their agency well and are accountable for their actions, they have liberty. 

Popular Sovereignty

Popular Sovereignty is the concept that the government will act based on the will of the people. 

This is a basic tenet of The Constitution. 

The power comes from the base of the people up to the government, not down from on high such as with a monarchy. 

I believe that this base of power has become flipped over. 

Under the guise of protection, better education, better health, etc., the government is pushing things down on the people. The government has become corrupt and beholden to special interest groups and a few people in power who want to change the face of America.

Agency vs. Freedom

Agency and accountability are words with which members of the Church are familiar. It is interesting to be discussing them in an American Foundations class. They really are, though, at the heart of what happened when the colonists began to revolt.

Given agency by our Creator, it is an innate desire of all men. We want to make choices for ourselves. Accountability comes into play when our agency to choose interferes with another person’s rights. All choices have consequences, good or bad. When we exercise our agency, we must be accountable and deal with whatever the consequences are. Laws are put in place to force some people to be accountable for their choices because they won’t do so otherwise.

I really appreciated how Dallin H. Oaks, a former Utah Supreme Court Judge, distinguished between Agency and Freedom. 

Agency is how we exercise our will and our power to choose. 

Freedom is the privilege to carry out our choices.  

Everyone has agency. Most people in the world don’t have freedom.

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Reference:

Dallin H. Oaks, “Free Agency and Freedom,” 1987

They Deny the Atonement of Jesus Christ

Reading the talk The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent, by Jeffrey R. Holland, I had an interesting thought.

He mentioned that some people believe the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to not be a Christian church because we don’t believe in the “post—New Testament Christian history [but] return to the doctrine taught by Jesus Himself,” that of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost being separate, individual beings.

He mentioned the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds wherein they have “declared the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to be abstract, absolute, transcendent, immanent, consubstantial, coeternal, and unknowable, without body, parts, or passions and dwelling outside space and time. In such creeds all three members are separate persons, but they are a single being, the oft-noted “mystery of the trinity.”

Some also question our Christianity because we believe in an “embodied—but certainly glorified—God.” He said: “Any who dismiss the concept of an embodied God dismiss both the mortal and the resurrected Christ.”

Here is where my thought came.

If they deny the resurrected Christ, they deny the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ is what it is all about. Without that we are all lost. What is the point of believing in a God who has given you absolutely no way to be saved?

How to Make Colonists Revolt, 101

Coming to America as a colonist offered a lot of economic opportunity for people of every class. Land was so plentiful that there was more opportunity to own land, which in turn would give them the right to vote. This automatically elevated their status.

If people couldn’t afford to make the voyage to America, they could obtain passage as an indentured servant. Even though indentured servitude limited their opportunities in the beginning, once their debt had been paid, the opportunities were still there. Hard work and industry were rewarded.

Although there were many freedoms of ownership and business, there were also restrictions placed upon the colonists meant to insure that wealth would funnel back to Britain. Exclusive trading rights were awarded to just a few companies, creating a monopoly on things such as tobacco and lumber. Because of the limitations, come people found ways to get around those restrictions. As a result, smuggling became prevalent.

Before 1763, the British colonists were proud to be subjects of the crown. They had, as Benjamin Franklin said, “an affection for Great Britain; for its laws, its customs, and manners, and even … its fashions.”

Because the war left Great Britain with so much debt, they took two measures to recoup some of the loss.  First was the Proclamation of 1763 which prohibited migration past the Appalachian Mountains into Ohio, to save administrative costs. The Colonists thought this would eventually loosen up and weren’t so concerned with this.

Second, a direct tax was levied on the colonies. In 1764 the Sugar Act was enacted. This was to be a tighter enforcement of the Navigation Acts, which funneled money through to Britain by taxing certain goods. The colonists weren’t very happy about this, boycotted certain goods, and the act ended up costing Britain more than it brought in. Parliament repealed the act.

In another attempt to raise money through taxes, Parliament enacted the Stamp Act of 1765. The colonists were not consulted on this tax and were less than thrilled. Violence erupted, property was destroyed, and “Stamp Men” were forced to resign due to intimidation and property damage.

Not only were they not consulted about this, but their attempts to petition Parliament went ignored. They felt their rights as British citizens, and the government’s commitment to the rule of law, were being taken away, not only economically, but also their right to trials by jury. The colonists felt they had to do something before things got worse and more of their economic freedoms and basic rights were taken away.