Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Password for Recording

It has been brought to my attention that the recording for Tuesday’s class may require a password. However, it doesn’t seem to always require it. ZOOM has had some security breaches during classes and I think they working hard to keep up with it all. If the recording requires a password, it is k3&U7297. Please email me at debratolman75@gmail.com if you need help. Thanks for your patience!
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Ether 7-15

READING FOR APRIL 21

Moroni 1-6

LAST CLASS OF THE YEAR WILL BE APRIL 28
  

Following are the link to the recording of Tuesday's class and the quotes. If you have time, please read the articles by Francine Bennion and Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye. Their thoughts are particularly important in our current circumstances. Thank you for your comments and your thoughtful participation. 



 BOOK OF ETHER

“First, unlike the other two Book of Mormon migratory peoples,
the Jaredites (as we call them) are not Jews under the Law of Moses. They’re not even Israelite (also a late term) or Canaanite,
but Mesopotamian. So they are operating under a different set of religious ideas, different language (Sumerian, Akkadian, something else? Hebrew isn’t an option), different cultural background than the rest of the Book of Mormon. And indeed, Ether has a different feel to it than the rest. It’s largely political history, stories of wars between scheming royal families, imprisonment, regicide, etc.”

“We need to take careful account of the text, and not go beyond it, leaping to conclusions. The first issue is that Ether is, I think, the most heavily edited and translated book we have. Records of some kind are kept by the Jaredites and centuries later, edited and compiled by Ether.These plates are then translated by Mosiah. 500 years later, they are re-edited by Moroni who makes expansive and editorializing commentary into the Book of Mormon, and then they are translated again by Joseph Smith. So although it appears we are reading an immediate first-hand eyewitness account of a tower and language change, in actuality that record passed through lots of minds and editing, who we know inserted their own comments to the record.”


 BOOK OF ETHER

“When people think of the book of Ether in the Book of Mormon, they often remember scenes of deception, darkness, and bloodshed.This is not all that surprising, for indeed the book of Ether contains much of these kinds of things.The text speaks of a time of terrible wickedness when ‘all the people upon the face of the land were shedding blood, and there was none to restrain them.’ All the men kept their swords in their hands and no one would lend anything to another because no one was trustworthy in all the land. These unrestrained contentions led to so much bloodshed ‘that the whole face of the land was covered with the bodies of the dead.And so swift and speedy was the war that there was none left to bury the dead, . . . leaving the bodies of both men, women, and children strewed upon the face of the land, to become prey to the worms of the flesh.And the scent thereof went forth upon the face of the land.’ Because ‘the Spirit of the Lord had ceased striving with them, and Satan had full power over the hearts of the people; for they were given up unto the hardness of their hearts, and the blindness of their minds that they might be destroyed,’ all the Jaredites ‘were drunken with anger, even as a man who is drunken with wine.’ The final bloodbath culminated when Coriantumr decapitated Shiz, leaving only Coriantumr and Ether alive.
When we read the bloody conclusion of Ether, the following statement by the Lord to the brother of Jared at the commencement of the record seems strange:‘There [in the promised land] will I bless thee and thy seed, and raise up unto me . . . a seed, upon all the face of the earth.’ We wonder why Moroni included all that wickedness if the Jaredites were such a “great nation” and whether the record contained on the gold plates was, as Moroni said,‘of great worth.’”


 JAREDITE RECORD AND MOSIAH

“The Jaredite record had come into the hands of Mosiah and had been translated by the power of God. He couldn’t ignore its messages and applications to his own situation.This stunning record, like a message from heaven, likely caused him to rethink his plans. Because the Jaredite legacy offered strong warnings against the abuses of kingship and power, Mosiah was influenced not to give the throne to someone other than his heir apparent. Knowing how the Jaredites had turned away from God as their heavenly king also influenced Mosiah to stress the accountability of all people to answer equally and individually to God for their sins (Mosiah 29:38).”

“Seeing the historical grounding of this cautionary counsel makes Mosiah’s warning all the more potent as a forewarning to readers in the latter days. This was no idle threat, nor was it merely hyperbole in a war of competing ideologies. It was based on the outcome of real historical events Mosiah had become familiar with while translating the Jaredite record. As such, it stands as a witness and warning to modern readers, underscoring the importance of collectively making righteous choices as a society.”


 WEAKNESS

“We might define weakness as the limitation on our wisdom, power, and holiness that comes with being human.As mortals we are born helpless and dependent, with various physical flaws and predispositions.We are raised and surrounded by other weak mortals, and their teachings, examples, and treatment of us are faulty and sometimes damaging. In our weak, mortal state we suffer physical and emotional illness, hunger, and fatigue.We experience human emotions like anger, grief, and fear.We lack wisdom, skill, stamina, and strength.And we are subject to temptations of many kinds.”

“There is another, even more powerful way that God makes weak things strong unto us.The Lord says to Moroni in Ether 12:37,“Because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.”
Here God is not offering to change Moroni’s weakness, but to change Moroni. By tackling the challenge of human weakness, Moroni—and we—can learn charity, compassion, meekness, patience, courage, long-suffering, wisdom, stamina, forgiveness, resilience, gratitude, creativity, and a host of other virtues that make us more like our Father in Heaven.These are the very qualities we came to earth to hone, the Christlike attributes that prepare us for the mansions above.
Nowhere is God’s love, wisdom, and redemptive power more evident than in His ability to turn our struggle with human weakness into the invaluable godly virtues and strengths that make us more like Him.”


 A LATTER-DAY SAINT THEOLOGY OF SUFFERING

“We wanted life, however high the cost.We suffer because we were willing to pay the cost of being and of being here with others in their ignorance and inexperience as well as our own.We suffer because we are willing to pay the costs of living with laws of nature, which operate quite consistently whether or not we understand them or can manage them.We suffer because, like Christ in the desert, we apparently did not say we would come only if God would change all our stones to bread in time of hunger.We were willing to know hunger. Like Christ in the desert, we did not ask God to let us try falling or being bruised only on condition that he catch us before we touch ground and save us from real hurt. We were willing to know hurt. Like Christ, we did not agree to come only if God would make everyone bow to us and respect us, or admire us and understand us. Like Christ, we came to be ourselves, addressing and creating reality.We are finding out who we are and who we can become regardless of immediate environment or circumstances.
What is the point of that? What is the point of knowing reality and being ourselves, of suffering? Why did this matter so much?
One reason we were willing to pay the high costs of continuing to address reality and become ourselves is that God told us we can become more like himself.We can become more abundantly alive, with ultimate fulness of truth, joy, and love—fulness impossible for souls unable to take real part in creating it, souls ignorant of good or evil, pleasure or pain, souls afraid of the unknown.”


 CHRIST AND THE WORK OF SUFFERING

“Christ worked mightily in the final hours of his life. He struggled quietly in the Garden of Gethsemane, heavy with the sicknesses of humankind, lonely and pressed down. He stood raw and wounded, enduring the banal cruelty of magistrate and mob. He bore his burden through Jerusalem’s crowded streets. Exposed, he called for water, but tasted vinegar.The weight of his body dragged on his nail-pierced hands and on his lungs, arresting his breath. He witnessed his mother’s torment and could do nothing for her. Alone, he cried out into the darkness, unable to hear God’s voice.Then finally his task was finished. Having experienced suffering, one develops power over it — not the power to stop it, or take it away from someone you love, but to know its sorrows fade. Having experienced suffering, one receives power from it — the power to share others’ burdens and be humble, to see one’s own burdens and be kind. On the other side of suffering is strength. It is a peculiar sort of confidence that derives from having had no confidence at all.Things that once seemed difficult are now no trouble, and things that seemed like trouble now reveal themselves as gifts. People who once seemed vexing, inexplicable, or foreign now strike me as familiar because they have known pain. People who once seemed broken and tainted with ruin while I imagined myself to be whole are now my sisters and brothers.Truly, now I know that I am nothing, which thing I never had supposed.”


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Sunday, April 12, 2020

ZOOM Invitation for April 14

Following is the link to join class on Tuesday. Zoom updated their software and have discontinued the need for a password. Clicking on the link should take you directly to the meeting. See you Tuesday!

Topic: Ether 7-15
Time: Apr 14, 2020 09:30 AM Arizona

Join Zoom Meeting

 https://zoom.us/j/97054714231

Meeting ID: 970 5471 4231

To Join By Phone:

        +1 301 715 8592 US
        +1 253 215 8782 US

Meeting ID: 970 5471 4231


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Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Ether 1-6

LINK FOR RECORDING OF APRIL 7 


READING FOR NEXT WEEK

Ether 6-15

Following are the quotes from our class discussion. Thanks for being here today and adding to the discussion.

BROTHER OF JARED

“One of the greatest . . . prophets in the Book of Mormon—indeed, a very strong case could be made for calling him the greatest of the prophets in the Book of Mormon—goes unnamed in the record that documents Christ’s remarkable life.That prophet is identified to the modern reader only as “the brother of Jared.” Yet even in such near anonymity, the revelation that unfolded before this man’s eyes was so extraordinary that his life and legacy to us have become synonymous with bold, consummate, perfect faith.”

“In the dispersion required of them at the time of the Tower of Babel, the people of Jared arrived at “the great sea which divideth the lands” (Ether 2:13), where they pitched their tents, awaiting further revelation regarding the crossing of a mighty ocean. For four years they awaited divine direction, but apparently they waited too casually—without supplication and exertion.
. . . It is difficult to imagine what a three-hour rebuke from the Lord might be like, but the brother of Jared endured it.With immediate repentance and immediate prayer, this prophet once again sought guidance for the journey they had been assigned and for those who were to pursue it. God accepted his repentance and lovingly gave further direction for this crucial mission.”


 BARGES

“For such an oceanic crossing, these families and their flocks needed seaworthy crafts similar to the barges they had constructed for earlier water travel—small, light, dish-shaped vessels identical in design above and beneath so that they were capable of staying afloat even when facing overwhelming waves or, worse yet, when they might be overturned by them. These “exceedingly tight” crafts (Ether 2:17) were obviously boats of unprecedented design and undiminished capability, made under the direction of Him who ruled the seas and the winds that rend them, to the end that the vessels might travel with the “lightness of a fowl upon the water” (Ether 2:16).”


 BROTHER OF JARED

“Surely God, as well as the reader, feels something very striking in the childlike innocence and fervor of this man’s faith.‘Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this.’ Perhaps there is no more powerful single line of faith spoken by man in scripture. It is almost as if he is encouraging God, emboldening Him, reassuring Him. Not “Behold, O Lord, I am sure that thou canst do this.” Not “Behold, O Lord, thou hast done many greater things than this.” However uncertain the prophet is about his own ability, he has no uncertainty about God’s power.There is nothing here but a single, clear, bold, and assertive declaration with no hint or element of vacillation. It is encouragement to Him who needs no encouragement but who surely must have been touched by it.‘Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this.’”

“A final—and in terms of the faith of the brother of Jared (which is the issue at hand) surely the most
persuasive—explanation for me is that Christ is saying to the brother of Jared,‘Never have I showed myself unto man in this manner, without my volition, driven solely by the faith of the beholder.’ As a rule, prophets are invited into the presence of the Lord, are bidden to enter His presence by Him and only with His sanction.The brother of Jared, on the other hand, stands alone then (and we assume now) in having thrust himself through the veil, not as an unwelcome guest but perhaps technically an uninvited one. Says Jehovah,‘Never has man come before me with such exceeding faith as thou hast; for were it not so ye could not have seen my finger. . . . Never has man believed in me as thou hast.’. Obviously the Lord Himself is linking unprecedented faith with this unprecedented vision. If the vision is not unique, then it has to be the faith— and how the vision is obtained—that is so remarkable.The only way this faith could be so remarkable would be in its ability to take this prophet, uninvited, where others had only been able to go by invitation.
Indeed it would appear that this is Moroni’s own understanding of the circumstance, for he later writes, ‘Because of the knowledge [which has come as a result of faith] of this man he could not be kept from beholding within the veil.     . . .‘Wherefore, having this perfect knowledge of God, he could not be kept from within the veil; therefore he saw Jesus’”

“No, this may be an absolutely unprecedented case of a prophet’s will and faith and purity so closely approaching that of heaven’s that the man moves from understanding God to being actually like Him, with His same thrust of will and faith, at least in this one instance.What a remarkable doctrinal statement about the power of a mortal man’s faith! And not an ethereal, unreachable, select category of a man, either.This is one who once forgot to call upon the Lord, one whose best ideas focused on rocks, and one who doesn’t even have a traditional name in the book that has immortalized his remarkable feat of faith. Given such a man with such faith, it should not be surprising that the Lord would show this prophet much, show him visions that would be relevant to the mission of all the Book of Mormon prophets and to the events of the latter-day dispensation in which the book would be received.
After the prophet stepped through the veil to behold the Savior of the world, he was not limited in seeing the rest of what the eternal world revealed. Indeed, the Lord showed him ‘all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be; and he withheld them not from his sight, even unto the ends of the earth’ (Ether 3:25).The staying power for such an experience was once again the faith of the brother of Jared, for ‘the Lord could not withhold anything from him, for he knew that the Lord could show him all things’ (Ether 3:26).”


BROTHER OF JARED

“This interpretation helps reveal the stark contrast between the brother of Jared, the father of the noncovenant people to which Moroni would draw the attention of his gentile readers, and Abraham, the father of the covenant people on which the rest of the Book of Mormon focuses.Where Abraham is definitively the called one, the one who—unlike Adam before him— responded to God’s call with ‘Here am I!’ (see especially Genesis 22:1, 7, 11), the brother of Jared is the uncalled or unbidden but nonetheless faithful one. As a model for the similarly uncalled Gentiles, the brother of Jared displays a sort of non-Abrahamic faith that, if imitated by Gentiles generally, can result in ‘the unfolding [of] all [of God’s] revelations’ (Ether 4:7).”


BROTHER OF JARED

“The Book of Mormon is predicated on the willingness of men and women to ‘rend that veil of unbelief ’ in order to behold the revelations—and the Revelation—of God (Ether 4:15). It would seem that the humbling experience of the brother of Jared in his failure to pray and his consternation over the sixteen stones were included in this account to show just how mortal and just how normal he was—so very much like the men and women we know and at least in some ways so much like ourselves. His belief in himself and his view of himself may have been limited—much like our view of ourselves. But his belief in God was unprecedented. It was without doubt or limit: ‘I know, O Lord, that thou hast all power, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger' (Ether 3:4). And from that command given to the Lord, for it does seem to be something of a command, the brother of Jared and the reader of the Book of Mormon would never be the same again. Ordinary individuals with ordinary challenges could rend the veil of unbelief and enter the realms of eternity. And Christ, who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem His people, would be standing at the edge of that veil to usher the believer through.”


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Sunday, April 5, 2020

ZOOM Invitation for April 7

Below is the link to join class on Tuesday, April 7. 

PLEASE NOTE: ZOOM IS NOW REQUIRING A PASSWORD FOR ALL MEETINGS. YOU CAN FIND IT JUST BELOW THE LINK FOR THE MEETING. I HAVE HIGHLIGHTED IT IN RED. 

We will be discussing Ether 1-6. See you then!

Join Zoom Meeting


Password: 344399
Meeting ID: 624 363 283

Dial by your location
    
        +1 301 715 8592 US
        +1 253 215 8782 US

Meeting ID: 624 363 283
Password: 344399




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