The law is for children
How else would they learn
To be fitted and measured
And turned?
They are not aware.
But, they will know
When the training wheels come off,
They then can sow.
In my last posting I wrote about the fall of empires and how it is inevitable that this nation, America, was prophesied to fall. I said that I would write about how to protect yourself as we approach dangerous times; walking the straight and narrow path. This post is about what that means and to stand in holy places.
The tribes of Israel rejected what God had offered them (D&C 84:23-25; Hebrews 4:6), so He acquiesced to their desires and gave them a lessor course offering. Instead of Salvation 101 He gave them the curriculum for kindergarten; you know, “don’t fight, share your toys, get along with others, don’t be a bully, don’t butt in line, don’t stare at others, don’t steal or take other’s toys”. They had to be told exactly what to do, and were threatened with punishments. It was the only way to get them to act civilly amongst each other.
When Christ came, He tried to tell the people there was a better, more productive way. He taught that if you have the Holy Spirit in you, you will have the Law written in your heart. You will know intuitively what you are supposed to do and not do. The laws and commandments as written become superfluous because you have no desire to break them. Simply put, the lower law is to do what your leaders, teachers and parents tell you to do, while the higher law is to follow your conscience and the Holy Spirit that is embedded within your heart. Of course to follow the Holy Spirit you have to first obtain it. Nephi tells you how to do that in 2 Nephi Chapters 31 and 32. Alma and Isaiah describe fruits of having obtained the Gift of the Holy Ghost. You can measure your own experience and state of mind or spirit against what is described here:
“And again I ask, were the bands of death broken, and the chains of hell which encircled them about, were they loosed? I say unto you, Yea, they were loosed, and their souls did expand, and they did sing redeeming love. And I say unto you that they are saved. And now I ask of you on what conditions are they saved? Yea, what grounds had they to hope for salvation? What is the cause of their being loosed from the bands of death, yea, and also the chains of hell?…And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God?” (Alma 5:9-10,14)
What is the song that they did sing of redeeming love? I don’t believe this is a metaphor, it is an actual song. The contents of that song are described by Isaiah and quoted by Nephi:
“And in the day thou shalt say: O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedest me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also has become my salvation. Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say: Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doing among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things; this is known in all the earth. Cry and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.” (2 Nephi 22; quoting Isaiah 12)
Alma had written in Alma 5:7: “Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word; yea, they were encircled about by the bands of death, and the chains of hell, and an everlasting destruction did await them.“
There is a very definitive process that takes place where souls come to a profound realization and understanding of their wretchedness and helplessness, something they never realized before. I come from a religious background that didn’t really teach me about this crises of soul. It was something that only truly evil people experienced when they were converted, people like Alma the younger. The church taught that if I lived a pure life (the Law) then I was on the right track and would receive salvation. But I have come to the understanding that there really is a lot more to it, that I must awaken to the realization that salvation doesn’t come just by living a bunch of commandments that I am coerced into keeping out of fear, I have to be completely reborn. My orientation to the things of the world has to be reversed to focus on the things of spirit. I can only do this by repenting and turning to God. Repenting really means, when you get down to it, rejecting the philosophies and idolatry’s of men and embrace righteousness.
We are commanded to come out of Babylon (Isaiah 48:20). But until there is a way for us to extricate ourselves from any interaction whatsoever from the world, we are limited to living our lives in such a way as to remove the corrupt influences and selfish philosophies that drive the economies of the worldly kingdoms. We are consigned to having to deal with the world for now, but the time will come when we will receive a command to flee! (Genesis 19:17) For now, the command to flee is limited to leaving the urges and desires that the world foists upon us as normal. We need to be born again, to have the baptism of fire and to have the Holy Spirit as our guide to navigate the world that we cannot escape.
Once you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, which by the way is not given to you automatically at the time of Baptism (the laying on of hands at baptism is only an invitation to receive the Holy Ghost), you will be able to discern God’s direct communication to you. You don’t require somebody else to tell you what the Lord wants you to do. You don’t need a pastor, priest, bishop, prophet, or guru to tell you what the Lord wants you to do. In fact it is necessary that you reach this level of discernment if you want to survive the coming fall of nations. A call to Zion will not – absolutely will not – come from a pulpit. It will come as a voice in the night 1 to each person and each family that is prepared to receive and follow such a voice.
The preparations that qualify us to hear a voice in the night and be able to discern that it is the Holy Spirit are the same qualifications that will prepare us to live in Zion. That is why the warning to flee will not come from a pulpit, or from a website. It will come to people who have followed the admonition to stand in Holy Places (D&C 87:8) and with patience await the Lord’s word to us personally. Where is this Holy place? It is the place you make Holy by your presence and your righteousness.
Alma gave us a clue, which I quoted above, on how to recognize if you have truly repented and are able to stand in Holy places, and even stand in the presence of the Lord. For how will you withstand being in Zion if you cannot stand in the presence of a glorified being like Christ? Alma further asks: “And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? Do you exercise faith…” (Alma 5:14-15). Think about that, do you have an aversion to worldly things that you once enjoyed in the world that may not be very uplifting to the spirit, or do you still enjoy inappropriate pastimes.
In verse 15 and 16 Alma says something profound, “Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged…. I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?“
Have you tried in your prayers to imagine that scene? Alma is encouraging us to do that. He asks you to imagine you are standing, or kneeling, before Christ. Picture in your mind the brilliance of his presence and the love that emanates from Him. Can you imagine you hear the words, “Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been righteous.” Can you picture him standing before you in his glory saying those words to you? Does it rock your soul? Can you feel to sing the song of redeeming love? Or do you cringe and find yourself closing up the picture in your mind because it is too painful? Try lying to Christ in this imagined scene by saying, “Lord, our works have been righteous works upon the face of the earth…“
It takes a whole lifetime of soul searching to really understand the base motivation for your actions. We can do a lot of good deeds for the wrong reason without realizing. I had a conversation with a friend yesterday about the role fear plays in our actions. Even the actions that we think are righteous and motivated by a desire to do good are many times motivated by fear. Fear is the wiping stick of the Law. Talking to people I find some are engaged in doing good works because they fear being left out, or they want to be noticed. Even the desire to receive the second comforter can be couched in fear – the fear of being excluded. There are a lot of busy people working hard to gain God’s graces; they will earn a select spot in the telestial kingdom.
The good news is there is a good side to feeling soul pain. It is the beginning of true repentance. Christ teaches that the soul that mourns (because of sins) will be comforted (Matthew 5:4). It is crucial that we experience an imaginary encounter with Christ in this life and feel the pain of that encounter when we can do something about it, and not in the next life in reality where we can’t.
Nephi’s Straight and Narrow Path
After you recognize that you aren’t as good a person as you thought you were and you feel to cry out like King Lamoni did, “Oh Lord, have mercy; according to thy abundant mercy…!“(Alma 18:41) Those are rather melodramatic words to a modern sensibility, but that is what is required. Nephi says that we demonstrate our desire to repent by witnessing to God by being baptized exactly in the manner Christ was (2 Nephi 31:5). Nephi describes that after we repent with real intent, taking upon us the name of Christ, and entering the waters of baptism, Christ declares that we will receive the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. Nephi says that after you receive the baptism of fire you will be able to speak with the tongue of angels and shout praises to the Holy One of Israel. Two more evidences that one has been born again.
What is interesting to me are two points. First, that it seems the baptism of fire is a singular dramatic event. Second, you don’t arrive on the straight and narrow path until after you have been baptized by water and also received a remission of your sins “by fire and the Holy Ghost” (2 Nephi 31:18) Nephi describes the process in some detail and declare that this is the Doctrine of Christ (2 Nephi 31:21).
The process of salvation continues in Chapter 32 of 2 Nephi. After you have received the Gift of the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost will guide you in “all things what you should do“. This is the voice that will speak to you in the night and tell you to prepare, and then to flee. The Holy Ghost will guide you until the day that Christ becomes your personal teacher and your guide (2 Nephi 32:6).
We all have a lot of work to do.
What I have laid out to you in a very brief manner is the ultimate survival course. You could say that the Book of Mormon is the Survival Manual of our age. Obtain the voice of God through the Holy Spirit and you will have obtained the most crucial skills to surviving all the things that the world is going to throw at you in the coming years. I wrote a previous post on how to discern the voice of the Lord which is the Holy Spirit. (https://thenorthstarchronicle.com/2019/10/)
Notes:
1 https://unityinchrist.com/calltochurchesprt.html An account of Ukrainian Christians who escaped the Stalin purges in the 1930’s. They received a voice in the night that warned them to leave immediately. This is an amazing account that has many lessons to teach us today.