Pseudepigrapha or Restored Work? (Part 1)
“And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.” -Exodus 24:7
The term Pseudepigrapha is a technical or scholarly term that refers to a work that is written under a false name or pseudonym. It’s use gets murky because it can refer to a work in which the author merely seeks to hide his or her identity for anonymity or to avoid persecution, or are attributing their doctrine to a famous figure. It is further clouded by the fact that H. R. Charles and James H. Charlesworth each published collected volumes of Pseudepigrapha, giving the unlearned the the notion of an “acceptable canon” of Pseudepigrapha. Many works in the canons themselves are regarded as Pseudepigrapha.
School of Prophets … a Tender Young Plant
I’ve been pondering recently about where we are in the rollout of the School of the Prophets, and here is the imagery that I have come to as I seek to understand our current situation.
The Tree of Life
“And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” -Genesis 2:9
In the Garden of Eden it is said there were two very important trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The fruit of the tree of good and evil is a representative of the impulsive or reflexive submission to God’s law vs the endowment of moral autonomy (Genesis 3:22). It is the ability to choose and discern good from evil autonomously. By contrast, the the tree of life represents God’s love through Christ.
The Word of Wisdom
“A Word of Wisdom, for the benefit of the council of high priests, assembled in Kirtland, and the church, and also the saints in Zion; to be sent greeting, not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom…” -Doctrines of the Saints 58:1-2
Section 58 of the Doctrines of the Saints is known as the Word of Wisdom and is an interesting doctrine of all Latter Day Saints and Mormons that accept some form of the Doctrine and Covenants share. While we all enjoy the blessing of the revelation, it seems that each sect interprets it very differently. What does the Fellowship do with it?
When to Forgive
“Then came Peter to him, and said” Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? And Jesus saith unto him: I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” -Matthew 18:21-22
I was asked recently how much we should take when others push us? How much should we give when others only take? How much should we hurt and come back when others purposely or even go out of their way to hurt us?
The Record from the Plates of Brass
A portion of the records written upon the plates of brass contains a record of the Jews. A free PDF is now available as the work of translating the plates of brass moves forward.
The Prophecies of the Holy Prophets
A portion of the records written upon the plates of brass contains a collection of the stories and prophecies of the holy prophets from the beginning to the commencement of the reign of Zedekiah.
Who of all these parties are right?
I had a rather interesting flash of inspiration over the weekend.
I’ve been pestering the LORD with the same basic question for several months, and lately that pestering has been more and more frequent. The root question I’ve been drilling on is how these different seers can bring forth these different records that are at odds with one another. And, to compound that problem, the prophets themselves tend to not feel particularly inspired about the records brought forth by other prophets.
The Divine Feminine in the Apocrypha
“And Wisdom was with thee: which knoweth thy works, and was present when thou madest the world, and knew what was acceptable in thy sight, and right in thy commandments. O send her out of thy holy heavens, and from the throne of thy glory, that being present she may labor with me, that I may know what is pleasing unto thee.” -Wisdom of Solomon 9:9-10
In the Fellowship of Christ, we talk about the idea of a Mother in Heaven or Divine Feminine. In the Old Testament wisdom is a personified heavenly female power. The author of Proverbs says of the Divine Feminine: “Take fast hold of instruction; let Her not go: keep Her; for She is thy life” (4:13). We see in Proverbs 8 that Wisdom is described as more than a good quality. She was with God before the foundation of the world, she is co-eternal with Him. In the Book of Mormon we see Her as the tree that bears the fruit that is Jesus Christ in Lehi’s dream and Nephi’s vision (1 Nephi 3:49 RAV, 11:9 OPV).
With this understanding, we can bring Her reality back. This is after all the restoration of all things. Our Mother in Heaven is someone to identify with, to know.
Conference 2024 (Video)
“Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ, that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ.” -Moroni 7:18 RAV, 7:19 OPV
Racism in the Book of Mormon Part 3
In part 1 we examined what racism is and looked at the text to see if we could find examples of racism. While we did find bias and God’s condemnation of the Nephite’s prejudice against their cousins, we could not find any racism. In part 2 we asked about the origins of the text to see if the book might be racist based on those origins. In this third and final segment, we will look some reasons why people might like to see the Book of Mormon as a racist text, what do they gain from this perspective.
Who Wrote the Book of Mormon? (Racism in the Book of Mormon Part 2)
Last week I went over racism in the Book of Mormon, in the text itself. While we did find human bias and prejudice, we did not find actual racism, as we define the term today. The week, I am going to come at the same topic from a different angle.