Category: Scripture Notes
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The voice from the darkness manifested in the light
When Christ offers to heal the people He acknowledges that they have faith sufficient to be healed. It occurred to me today that this faith was connected to them having heard the voice of Christ in the darkness as He said “will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be…
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No way to reverse course
It occurred to me that the Gadianton Roberts had put themselves in a position where they could not reverse course and make peace with the Nephites on any terms. They couldn’t support themselves without plundering the Nephites and they had driven the Nephites into a defensive situation where they could never trust the robbers to…
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Threats and bluster
I’ve never seen it before but there are striking similarities between MAGA leaders and Giddianhi. They all make bold claims about the strength and rightness of their movement. They pretend or even imagine that they represent overwhelming majorities of the populace and they use violence and threats of violence to try to seize the power…
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They began to be…blind in their minds
…they began to be hard in their hearts, and blind in their minds, and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen. 3 Nephew 2:1 Is this where we are today? Is that why so many people are willing to at least consider voting for a man who, even under the mouse generous…
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The wickedness of the rising generation
This is a pattern that with successive generations society moves toward greater wickedness or greater righteousness or greater consciousness of one issue or another. We can’t blame that movement solely on the rising generation. Part of it comes because of how they were raised and part of how it plays out depends on the ways…
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Self selecting
The period after Samuel spoke was a period of sorting between the wicked and the righteous. The people self-selected with a minority covering their sins, repenting, and walking humbly before the Lord while a majority indulged in increasing wickedness and made excuses for why they wouldn’t “subject themselves” to the traditions of the faith of…
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By their fruit tree shall know them
It occurred to me today that people who are blinded—who have allowed themselves to be led captive by the devil—will not recognize good fruit vs evil fruit and thus will be incapable of discerning reliably between those who are good and those who are evil. I think we are seeing a lot of that today.…
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Catching up
As soon as Jesus turned to doctrine with the Nephites He began by sharing what is regarded as his most influential sermon—the Sermon on the Mount—so that they would be instructed equal to the Jews at Jerusalem even though he spent so much less time in Bountiful than in Judea.
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Chastening is a sign of love
Chastening, when done correctly, is a sign of love. Even when it needs to be direct and might feel harsh to the once being chastened. It is not love to let someone live in an unsustainable fantasy world.
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Because I am a Lamanite
Samuel pointed out to the people of Zerahemlah that they were rejecting his message because of who he was. They were predisposed to ignore anything that didn’t come from a Nephite. (Not that that’s a true excuse since they also rejected the words of Nephi.) it is human nature to have our biases. Republicans are…