LDS Freedom Forum

"The authority of the priesthood was outwardly acknowledged by the Jews at the time of Christ; and the appointed order of service for priest and Levite was duly observed. During the reign of David, the descendants of Aaron, who were the hereditary priests in Israel, had been divided into twenty-four courses, and to each course the labours of the sanctuary were allotted in turn. Representatives of but four of these courses returned from the captivity, but from these the orders were reconstructed on the original plan. In the days of Herod the Great the temple ceremonies were conducted with great display and outward elaborateness, as an essential matter of consistency with the splendour of the structure, which surpassed in magnificence all earlier sanctuaries. Priests and Levites, therefore, were in demand for continuous service, though the individuals were changed at short intervals according to the established system. In the regard of the people the priests were inferior to the rabbis, and the scholarly attainments of a scribe transcended in honour that pertaining to ordination in the priesthood. The religion of the time was a matter of ceremony and formality, of ritual and performance; it had lost the very spirit of worship, and the true conception of the relationship between Israel and Israel’s God was but a dream of the past.

Such in brief were the principal features of the world’s condition, and particularly as concerns the Jewish people, when Jesus the Christ was born in the meridian of time."

"The Sanhedrin.—This, the chief court or high council of the Jews, derives its name from Greek sunedrion, signifying “a council.” In English it is sometimes though inaccurately written “Sanhedrim.” The Talmud traces the origin of this body to the calling of the seventy elders whom Moses associated with himself, making seventy-one in all, to administer as judges in Israel (Numbers 11:16, 17). The Sanhedrin in the time of Christ, as also long before, comprized seventy-one members, including the high priest who presided in the assembly. It appears to have been known in its earlier period as the Senate, and was occasionally so designated even after Christ’s death, (Josephus, Antiquities, xii, 3:3; compare Acts 5:21); the name “Sanhedrin” came into general use during the reign of Herod the Great; but the term is not of Biblical usage; its equivalent in the New Testament is “council” (Matthew 5:22; 10:17; 26:59) though it must be remembered that the same term is applied to courts of lesser jurisdiction than that of the Sanhedrin, and to local tribunals. (Matthew 5:22; 10:17; 26:59; Mark 13:9; see also Acts 25:12.)"

"“ God, our Father, in his omniscient wisdom, determined premortally the nation in which we were to live.

From Paul’s address on Mars’ Hill to the intellectuals in the marketplace at Athens. Because of their worship of an unknown god, Paul was directing his remarks to an explanation of the true God. He said:
And God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation. [Acts 17:26]
The words “hath made of one blood all nations of men” refer to Adam, the mortal father of the nations of men. The whole human race is the offspring of one man. Paul said that by divine plan the offspring has been scattered over the earth at the “times before appointed”—that is, the period fixed by God for the several families to go into the countries where he decreed they should dwell. Not only did God determine the times when they should go, but also the “bounds of their habitation,” or, in other words, the countries where they should dwell so that their posterity might carry out the Lord’s divine purposes.
The second passage of scripture is from the Book of Deuteronomy. The writer uses these words: “When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel” (Deuteronomy 32:8). This would indicate that the Lord separated the offspring of Adam into nations and at the same time provided an inheritance for the children of Jacob." President Howard W. Hunter.

https://www.lds.org/manual/jesus-the-ch ... 5?lang=eng


"The Lamanites, while increasing in numbers, fell under the curse of darkness; they became dark in skin and benighted in spirit, forgot the God of their fathers, lived a wild nomadic life, and degenerated into the fallen state in which the American Indians—their lineal descendants—were found by those who rediscovered the western continent in later times. See the author’s Articles of Faith,14:258–60."

"Unto Moses, with whom the Lord spake “face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend,”a the course of the human race, both as then past and future, was made known; and the coming of the Redeemer was recognized by him as the event of greatest import in all the happenings to which the earth and its inhabitants would be witness. The curse of God had aforetime fallen upon the wicked, and upon the earth because of them, “For they would not hearken unto his voice, nor believe on his Only Begotten Son, even him whom he declared should come in the meridian of time, who was prepared from before the foundation of the world.”b In this scripture appears the earliest mention of the expressive and profoundly significant designation of the period in which the Christ should appear—the meridian of time. If the expression be regarded as figurative, be it remembered the figure is the Lord’s."

https://www.lds.org/manual/jesus-the-ch ... 6?lang=eng

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"The term “meridian,” as commonly used, conveys the thought of a principal division of time or space; thus we speak of the hours before the daily noon as ante-meridian (a.m.) and those after noon as post-meridian (p.m.). So the years and the centuries of human history are divided by the great event of the birth of Jesus Christ. The years preceding that epoch-making occurrence are now designated as time Before Christ (B.C.); while subsequent years are each specified as a certain Year of our Lord, or, as in the Latin tongue, Anno Domini (A.D.). Thus the world’s chronology has been adjusted and systematized with reference to the time of the Savior’s birth; and this method of reckoning is in use among all Christian nations. It is instructive to note that a similar system was adopted by the isolated branch of the house of Israel that had been brought from the land of Palestine to the western continent; for from the appearance of the promised sign among the people betokening the birth of Him who had been so abundantly predicted by their prophets, the Nephite reckoning of the years, starting with the departure of Lehi and his colony from Jerusalem, was superseded by the annals of the new era."

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released a 2018 Christmas message:
"Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, offers to us four incomparable gifts—the capacity to love others, the ability to forgive, the blessing of repentance, and the promise of life everlasting. These four unique gifts will bring us more and more joy as we accept and act upon them. They were made possible because Jehovah condescended to come to earth as the baby Jesus. He was born of an immortal Father and a mortal mother. He was born in Bethlehem under the most humble of circumstances. His was the holy birth foreseen by prophets since the days of Adam. Jesus Christ is God’s transcendent gift—the gift of the Father to all of His children. We joyfully celebrate His birth this Christmas season."

The gift of the promise of eternal life - that sounds evangelical Christian. I like it.

"The occasion of the Saviour’s advent was preappointed; and the time thereof was specifically revealed through authorized prophets on each of the hemispheres. The long history of the Israelitish nation had unfolded a succession of events that found a relative culmination in the earthly mission of the Messiah. That we may the better comprehend the true significance of the Lord’s life and ministry while in the flesh, some consideration should be given to the political, social, and religious condition of the people amongst whom He appeared and with whom He lived and died. Such consideration involves at least a brief review of the antecedent history of the Hebrew nation. The posterity of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob had early come to be known by the title in which they took undying pride and found inspiring promise, Israelites, or the children of Israel.e Collectively they were so designated throughout the dark days of their bondage in Egypt; so during the four decades of the exodus and the return to the land of promise, and on through the period of their prosperity as a mighty people under the administration of the judges, and as a united monarchy during the successive reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon.”

https://www.lds.org/manual/jesus-the-ch ... 6?lang=eng

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"Immediately following the death of Solomon, about 975 B.C. according to the most generally accepted chronology, the nation was disrupted by revolt. The tribe of Judah, part of the tribe of Benjamin, and small remnants of a few other tribes remained true to the royal succession, and accepted Rehoboam, son of Solomon, as their king; while the rest, usually spoken of as the Ten Tribes, broke their allegiance to the house of David, and made Jeroboam, an Ephraimite, their king. The Ten Tribes retained the title Kingdom of Israel though also known as Ephraim. Rehoboam and his adherents were distinctively called the Kingdom of Judah. For about two hundred and fifty years the two kingdoms maintained their separate autonomy; then, about 722 or 721 B.C., the independent status of the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed, and the captive people were transported to Assyria by Shalmanezer and others. Subsequently they disappeared so completely as to be called the Lost Tribes. The Kingdom of Judah was recognized as a nation for about one hundred and thirty years longer; then, about 588 B.C., it was brought into subjection by Nebuchadnezzar, through whom the Babylonian captivity was inaugurated. For three score years and ten Judah was kept in exile and virtual bondage, in consequence of their transgression as had been predicted through Jeremiah. Then the Lord softened the hearts of their captors, and their restoration was begun under the decree of Cyrus the Persian, who had subdued the Babylonian kingdom. The Hebrew people were permitted to return to Judea, and to enter upon the work of rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem."

https://www.lds.org/manual/jesus-the-ch ... 6?lang=eng
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Elizabeth wrote: ↑December 15th, 2018, 8:10 pm "The occasion of the Saviour’s advent was preappointed; and the time thereof was specifically revealed through authorized prophets on each of the hemispheres. The long history of the Israelitish nation had unfolded a succession of events that found a relative culmination in the earthly mission of the Messiah. That we may the better comprehend the true significance of the Lord’s life and ministry while in the flesh, some consideration should be given to the political, social, and religious condition of the people amongst whom He appeared and with whom He lived and died. Such consideration involves at least a brief review of the antecedent history of the Hebrew nation. The posterity of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob had early come to be known by the title in which they took undying pride and found inspiring promise, Israelites, or the children of Israel.e Collectively they were so designated throughout the dark days of their bondage in Egypt; so during the four decades of the exodus and the return to the land of promise, and on through the period of their prosperity as a mighty people under the administration of the judges, and as a united monarchy during the successive reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon.”

https://www.lds.org/manual/jesus-the-ch ... 6?lang=eng

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Christ himself exemplified 2 days work for 2 days pay and many other instances of 2 detailed in threads about 7rys prosperity. Commonly called parables, some are better termed allegories, and reveal many verifiable truths not apparent to the casual observer. https://www.lds.org/ensign/2007/02/the- ... s?lang=eng

"The First Vision was a much bigger and more elaborate experience than the simple accounts convey. Grand in scope, it was more than Joseph Smith would ever dare _try_ to convey. Joseph never related the full story in a single telling; rather, he dosed out bits and pieces of his theophany to others as they were able to receive them.

Only by collecting all those puzzle pieces can we begin to see the big picture of his experience. And when we begin to do so… WOW!

The event that emerges from the fragments was one that encapsulates the entire Gospel of Jesus Christ, and communicates human destiny–the purpose of our existence, what we were made to be.

We can begin to see that Joseph Smith’s First Vision was a much larger experience than we have assumed or known by looking at how he first _began_ relating what he had experienced. Joseph tells us that when he came home from the grove that day, his mother asked him what was the matter, why he was so exhausted. He responded, “It is all right, Mother. I am well enough off. I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.”

We see plainly, given the accounts of the experience that we have, that Joseph was holding back, that he was dosing out to his mother just what she needed to know of his experience at that time. What we do _not_ see is that Joseph has done the exact same thing with _us_. The accounts we are familiar with of his prayer in the grove that day and seeing the Father and the Son are only slightly more complete than what he told his mother. Joseph shaped his formal First Vision accounts, of which we are the secondary audience, to tell only certain essentials for which his audience was prepared.

Yet, by giving us bits and pieces from these various accounts, and further fragments, hints, and allusions from his revelatory texts and sermons, he also gave us a fuller picture, through his overall life witness to the First Vision.

In assembling this picture (as I am working to do for future papers), we find, for one thing, that the divine-human interaction on that spring day two centuries ago was not merely one in which God descended to earth, but also one in which a man ascended to heaven.

It may be useful to add a few of the evidences that God’s descent to earth in Joseph Smith’s First Vision was followed by Joseph’s own heavenly ascent. First, there are scriptural patterns for a theophany that begins with an earthly dimension, in which God comes down, and then adds a heavenly dimension, in which a human being is lifted up. God first manifests his presence to Lehi (as He had to Moses) in a descending pillar of fire and then, afterward, lifts Lehi up to heaven where he sees God seated on His throne. Second, Joseph hints in his First Vision accounts that, on this same pattern, part of his experience occurred on earth but another part transcended the earthly dimension. In his 1832 account Joseph initially described God’s presence descending in “a pillar of fire” that, despite its flaming appearance, did not consume the trees of the grove, plainly locating this part of his experience on earth. Yet in the 1842 Wentworth letter he further writes of the First Vision, “my mind was taken away from the objects with which I was surrounded, and I was enwrapped in a heavenly vision.” And his conclusion to the 1838 “Joseph Smith-History” account also suggests that at some point during the experience he left ordinary consciousness of his surroundings: “When I came to myself again I found myself lying on my​ back looking up into Heaven.” These details are similar to the heavenly ascent portion of Lehi’s theophany, in which he was “overcome with the Spirit” and “carried away in a vision.” Third, at times when Joseph was referring to the First Vision he also brought in the idea of gazing into heaven, as if these two were linked for him as part of the same experience. So, for instance, in one of the few sermons where Joseph explicitly talked about the First Vision, describing how “as a youth” he “could not find out which of all the sects were right” and “went into the grove & enquired of the Lord,” he also asserted that “any person that has seen the heavens opened knows that their is three personages in the heavens holding the Keys of Power” (Joseph Smith, sermon, June 11, 1843, spelling as in original). Such linkages suggest that his First Vision included “seeing the heavens opened” – i.e., a heavenly ascent.

Thus, God first descended to earth, and then Joseph ascended to heaven.

Put differently: God came down to the man’s level to lift the man up to God’s level.

Joseph Smith’s First Vision was thus a nutshell version of something much bigger: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, in its robust, living form, is, as the early Christians put it, “God became man in order that man might become God.” This is what God’s incarnation as Jesus Christ is all about. Salvation, wrought by Christ, is that he partook of our human nature so that we might become “partakers of the _divine_ nature.”

Young Joseph _experienced_ the Gospel of Jesus Christ–God’s descent to our level, and his own consequent ascent – a lifting up, or “exaltation” – to God’s level. In this single personal experience, the entire plan of salvation was played out.

The adolescent Joseph had gone into the grove seeking wisdom. He emerged having had what was perhaps the ultimate orienting experience of all time, experiencing the earth, the full sweep of human history, the heavens, and the God who ruled over them all.

Joseph thus received a theophany, and a “*pan*ophany” – a comprehensive revelation, or what Isaiah had called the “vision of all.”

Joseph Smith spent the rest of his life unpacking that encounter. His work with the Book of Mormon. His institution of the temple endowment. His Nauvoo theology. These were all _outworkings_ of that initial theophany, his panophany.

Joseph Smith would spend the rest of his life witnessing of this experience. As an historian of religion and a disciple of Jesus Christ, I add my witness to his. I know of no single experience in which the Gospel of Jesus Christ has more fully performed its redeeming work or in which it is more perfectly epitomized than Joseph Smith’s First Vision.

The more I research Joseph Smith and his teachings (and I can assure you, I am dealing with potentially difficult topics in my research – plural marriage, etc.), the stronger my testimony has grown. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and bear witness to his prophetic mission and the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

My best,
Craig L. Foster

'A great company of the exiled Hebrews availed themselves of this opportunity to return to the lands of their fathers, though many elected to remain in the country of their captivity, preferring Babylon to Israel. The “whole congregation” of the Jews who returned from the Babylonian exile were but “forty and two thousand three hundred and three score, beside their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven.” The relatively small size of the migrating nation is further shown by the register of their beasts of burden. While those who did return strove valiantly to reestablish themselves as the house of David, and to regain some measure of their former prestige and glory, the Jews were never again a truly independent people. In turn they were preyed upon by Greece, Egypt, and Syria; but about 164–163 B.C., the people threw off, in part at least, the alien yoke, as a result of the patriotic revolt led by the Maccabees, the most prominent of whom was Judas Maccabeus. The temple service, which had been practically abolished through the proscription of victorious foes, was reestablished. In the year 163 B.C., the sacred structure was rededicated, and the joyful occasion was thereafter celebrated in annual festival as the Feast of Dedication. During the reign of the Maccabees, however, the temple fell into an almost ruinous condition, more as a result of the inability of the reduced and impoverished people to maintain it than through any further decline of religious zeal. In the hope of insuring a greater measure of national protection, the Jews entered into an unequal alliance with the Romans and eventually became tributary to them, in which condition the Jewish nation continued throughout the period of our Lord’s ministry. In the meridian of time Rome was virtually mistress of the world. When Christ was born, Augustus Cæsar was emperor of Rome, and the Idumean, Herod, surnamed the Great, was the vassal king of Judea."

https://www.lds.org/manual/jesus-the-ch ... 6?lang=eng

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"Some semblance of national autonomy was maintained by the Jews under Roman dominion, and their religious ceremonials were not seriously interfered with. The established orders in the priesthood were recognised, and the official acts of the national council, or Sanhedrin, were held to be binding by Roman law; though the judicial powers of this body did not extend to the infliction of capital punishment without the sanction of the imperial executive. It was the established policy of Rome to allow to her tributary and vassal peoples freedom in worship so long as the mythological deities, dear to the Romans, were not maligned nor their altars desecrated.

Needless to say, the Jews took not kindly to alien domination, though for many generations they had been trained in that experience, their reduced status having ranged from nominal vassalage to servile bondage. They were already largely a dispersed people. All the Jews in Palestine at the time of Christ’s birth constituted but a small remnant of the great Davidic nation. The Ten Tribes, distinctively the aforetime kingdom of Israel, had then long been lost to history, and the people of Judah had been widely scattered among the nations."

"In their relations with other peoples the Jews generally endeavored to maintain a haughty exclusiveness, which brought upon them Gentile ridicule. Under Mosaic law Israel had been required to keep apart from other nations; they attached supreme importance to their Abrahamic lineage as children of the covenant, “an holy people unto the Lord,” whom He had chosen “to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” Judah had experienced the woful effects of dalliance with pagan nations, and, at the time we are now considering, a Jew who permitted himself unnecessary association with a Gentile became an unclean being requiring ceremonial cleansing to free him from defilement. Only in strict isolation did the leaders find hope of insuring the perpetuity of the nation.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Jews hated all other peoples and were reciprocally despised and contemned by all others. They manifested especial dislike for the Samaritans, perhaps because this people persisted in their efforts to establish some claim of racial relationship. These Samaritans were a mixed people, and were looked upon by the Jews as a mongrel lot, unworthy of decent respect. When the Ten Tribes were led into captivity by the king of Assyria, foreigners were sent to populate Samaria. These intermarried with such Israelites as had escaped the captivity; and some modification of the religion of Israel, embodying at least the profession of Jehovah worship, survived in Samaria. The Samaritan rituals were regarded by the Jews as unorthodox, and the people as reprobate. At the time of Christ the enmity between Jew and Samaritan was so intense that travelers between Judea and Galilee would make long detours rather than pass through the province of Samaria which lay between. The Jews would have no dealings with the Samaritans.

The proud feeling of self-sufficiency, the obsession for exclusiveness and separation—so distinctively a Jewish trait at that time—was inculcated at the maternal knee and emphasized in synagog and school. The Talmud, which in codified form post-dates the time of Christ’s ministry, enjoined all Jews against reading the books of alien nations, declaring that none who so offended could consistently hope for Jehovah’s favour. Josephus gives his endorsement to similar injunction, and records that wisdom among the Jews meant only familiarity with the law and ability to discourse thereon. A thorough acquaintanceship with the law was demanded as strongly as other studies were discountenanced. Thus the lines between learned and unlearned came to be rigidly drawn; and, as an inevitable consequence those who were accounted learned, or so considered themselves, looked down upon their unscholarly fellows as a class distinct and inferior."

https://soundcloud.com/janadele/sets/ja ... -jesus-the



Jesus The Christ. Audio. Chapters One to Six.

JST, Matthew 13:39–44. Compare Matthew 13:39–42; see also D&C 86:1–7
Before the end of the world (the destruction of the wicked), messengers sent of heaven will gather the righteous from among the wicked.

39 The harvest is the end of the world, or the destruction of the wicked.

40 The reapers are the angels, or the messengers sent of heaven.

41 As, therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world, or the destruction of the wicked.

42 For in that day, before the Son of man shall come, he shall send forth his angels and messengers of heaven.

43 And they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them out among the wicked; and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

44 For the world shall be burned with fire.
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/jst/jst-matt/13?lang=eng
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https://www.lds.org/topics/family-procl ... g&old=true


On September 23, 1995 this proclamation was made to the world:

"WE, THE FIRST PRESIDENCY and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.

ALL HUMAN BEINGS—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.

IN THE PREMORTAL REALM, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.

WE DECLARE the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan.

HUSBAND AND WIFE have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.

THE FAMILY is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.

WE WARN that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.

WE CALL UPON responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society."

"Long before the birth of Christ, the Jews had ceased to be a united people even in matters of the law, though the law was their chief reliance as a means of maintaining national solidarity. As early as four score years after the return from the Babylonian exile, and we know not with accuracy how much earlier, there had come to be recognised, as men having authority, certain scholars afterward known as scribes, and honoured as rabbisz or teachers. In the days of Ezra and Nehemiah these specialists in the law constituted a titled class, to whom deference and honour were paid. Ezra is designated “the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord, and of his statutes to Israel.”a The scribes of those days did valuable service under Ezra, and later under Nehemiah, in compiling the sacred writings then extant; and in Jewish usage those appointed as guardians and expounders of the law came to be known as members of the Great Synagog, or Great Assembly, concerning which we have little information through canonical channels. According to Talmudic record, the organisation consisted of one hundred and twenty eminent scholars. The scope of their labors, according to the admonition traditionally perpetuated by themselves, is thus expressed: Be careful in judgment; set up many scholars, and make a hedge about the law. They followed this behest by much study and careful consideration of all traditional details in administration; by multiplying scribes and rabbis unto themselves; and, as some of them interpreted the requirement of setting up many scholars, by writing many books and tractates; moreover, they made a fence or hedge about the law by adding numerous rules, which prescribed with great exactness the officially established proprieties for every occasion."

https://www.lds.org/manual/jesus-the-ch ... 6?lang=eng
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"Scribes and rabbis were exalted to the highest rank in the estimation of the people, higher than that of the Levitical or priestly orders; and rabbinical sayings were given precedence over the utterances of the prophets, since the latter were regarded as but messengers or spokesmen, whereas the living scholars were of themselves sources of wisdom and authority. Such secular powers as Roman suzerainty permitted the Jews to retain were vested in the hierarchy, whose members were able thus to gather unto themselves practically all official and professional honors. As a natural result of this condition, there was practically no distinction between Jewish civil and ecclesiastical law, either as to the code or its administration. Rabbinism comprized as an essential element the doctrine of the equal authority of oral rabbinical tradition with the written word of the law. The aggrandizement implied in the application of the title “Rabbi” and the self-pride manifest in welcoming such adulation were especially forbidden by the Lord, who proclaimed Himself the one Master; and, as touching the interpretation of the title held by some as “father,” Jesus proclaimed but one Father and He in heaven: “But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is Master, even Christ.”

The scribes, whether so named or designated by the more distinguishing appellation, rabbis, were repeatedly denounced by Jesus, because of the dead literalism of their teachings, and the absence of the spirit of righteousness and virile morality therefrom; and in such denunciations the Pharisees are often coupled with the scribes. The judgment of the Christ upon them is sufficiently expressed by His withering imprecation: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!”

"The origin of the Pharisees is not fixed by undisputed authority as to either time or circumstance; though it is probably that the sect or party had a beginning in connection with the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. New ideas and added conceptions of the meaning of the law were promulgated by Jews who had imbibed of the spirit of Babylon; and the resulting innovations were accepted by some and rejected by others. The name “Pharisee” does not occur in the Old Testament, nor in the Apocrypha, though it is probable that the Assideans mentioned in the books of the Maccabees were the original Pharisees. By derivation the name expresses the thought of separatism; the Pharisee, in the estimation of his class, was distinctively set apart from the common people, to whom he considered himself as truly superior as the Jews regarded themselves in contrast with other nations. Pharisees and scribes were one in all essentials of profession, and rabbinism was specifically their doctrine.

In the New Testament the Pharisees are often mentioned as in opposition to the Sadducees; and such were the relations of the two parties that it becomes a simpler matter to contrast one with the other than to consider each separately. The Sadducees came into existence as a reactionary organization during the second century B.C., in connection with an insurgent movement against the Maccabean party. Their platform was that of opposition to the ever increasing mass of traditional lore, with which the law was not merely being fenced or hedged about for safety, but under which it was being buried. The Sadducees stood for the sanctity of the law as written and preserved, while they rejected the whole mass of rabbinical precept both as orally transmitted and as collated and codified in the records of the scribes. The Pharisees formed the more popular party; the Sadducees figured as the aristocratic minority. At the time of Christ’s birth the Pharisees existed as an organised body numbering over six thousand men, with Jewish women very generally on their side in sympathy and effort; while the Sadducees were so small a faction and of such limited power that, when they were placed in official positions, they generally followed the policy of the Pharisees as a matter of incumbent expediency. The Pharisees were the Puritans of the time, unflinching in their demand for compliance with the traditional rules as well as the original law of Moses. In this connection note Paul’s confession of faith and practice when arraigned before Agrippa—“That after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.” The Sadducees prided themselves on strict compliance with the law, as they construed it, irrespective of all scribes or rabbis. The Sadducees stood for the temple and its prescribed ordinances, the Pharisees for the synagog and its rabbinical teachings. It is difficult to decide which were the more technical if we judge each party by the standard of its own profession. By way of illustration: the Sadducees held to the literal and full exaction of the Mosaic penalty—an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth—while the Pharisees contended on the authority of rabbinical dictum, that the wording was figurative, and that therefore the penalty could be met by a fine in money or goods.

Pharisees and Sadducees differed on many important if not fundamental matters of belief and practice, including the preexistence of spirits, the reality of a future state involving reward and punishment, the necessity for individual self-denial, the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection from the dead; in each of which the Pharisees stood for the affirmative while the Sadducees denied. Josephus avers—the doctrine of the Sadducees is that the soul and body perish together; the law is all that they are concerned to observe. They were “a skeptical school of aristocratic traditionalists; adhering only to the Mosaic law.”

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/moses?lang=eng


An extract from the translation of the Bible as revealed to Joseph Smith the Prophet, June 1830–February 1831.

Chapter 1
God reveals Himself to Moses—Moses is transfigured—He is confronted by Satan—Moses sees many inhabited worlds—Worlds without number were created by the Son—God’s work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

Chapter 2
God creates the heavens and the earth—All forms of life are created—God makes man and gives him dominion over all else.

Chapter 3
God created all things spiritually before they were naturally upon the earth—He created man, the first flesh, upon the earth—Woman is a help meet for man.

Chapter 4
How Satan became the devil—He tempts Eve—Adam and Eve fall, and death enters the world.

Chapter 5
Adam and Eve bring forth children—Adam offers sacrifice and serves God—Cain and Abel are born—Cain rebels, loves Satan more than God, and becomes Perdition—Murder and wickedness spread—The gospel is preached from the beginning.

Chapter 6
Adam’s seed keep a book of remembrance—His righteous posterity preach repentance—God reveals Himself to Enoch—Enoch preaches the gospel—The plan of salvation was revealed to Adam—He received baptism and the priesthood.

Chapter 7
Enoch teaches, leads the people, and moves mountains—The city of Zion is established—Enoch foresees the coming of the Son of Man, His atoning sacrifice, and the resurrection of the Saints—He foresees the Restoration, the Gathering, the Second Coming, and the return of Zion.

Chapter 8
Methuselah prophesies—Noah and his sons preach the gospel—Great wickedness prevails—The call to repentance is unheeded—God decrees the destruction of all flesh by the Flood.

Effective immediately, full-time missionaries may communicate with their families on their weekly preparation day via text messages, online messaging, phone calls, and video chat in addition to letters and emails.

"Among the many other sects and parties established on the ground of religious or political differences, or both, are the Essenes, the Nazarites, the Herodians and the Galileans. The Essenes were characterized by professions of ultrapiety; they considered even the strictness of Pharisaic profession as weak and insufficient; they guarded membership in their order by severe exactions extending through a first and a second novitiate; they were forbidden even to touch food prepared by strangers; they practiced strict temperance and rigid self-denial, indulged in hard labor—preferably that of agriculture, and were forbidden to trade as merchants, to take part in war, or to own or employ slaves. Nazarites are not named in the New Testament, though of specific record in the earlier scriptures; and from sources other than scriptural we learn of their existence at and after the time of Christ. The Nazarite was one of either sex who was bound to abstinence and sacrifice by a voluntary vow for special service to God; the period of the vow might be limited or for life. While the Essenes cultivated an ascetic brotherhood, the Nazarites were devoted to solitary discipline.

The Herodians constituted a politico-religious party who favored the plans of the Herods under the professed belief that through that dynasty alone could the status of the Jewish people be maintained and a reestablishment of the nation be secured. We find mention of the Herodians laying aside their partisan antipathies and acting in concert with the Pharisees in the effort to convict the Lord Jesus and bring Him to death. The Galileans or people of Galilee were distinguished from their fellow Israelites of Judea by greater simplicity and less ostentatious devotion in matters pertaining to the law. They were opposed to innovations, yet were generally more liberal or less bigoted than some of the professedly devout Judeans. They were prominent as able defenders in the wars of the people, and won for themselves a reputation for bravery and patriotism. They are mentioned in connection with certain tragical occurrences during our Lord’s lifetime.

The authority of the priesthood was outwardly acknowledged by the Jews at the time of Christ; and the appointed order of service for priest and Levite was duly observed. During the reign of David, the descendants of Aaron, who were the hereditary priests in Israel, had been divided into twenty-four courses,o and to each course the labors of the sanctuary were allotted in turn. Representatives of but four of these courses returned from the captivity, but from these the orders were reconstructed on the original plan. In the days of Herod the Great the temple ceremonies were conducted with great display and outward elaborateness, as an essential matter of consistency with the splendor of the structure, which surpassed in magnificence all earlier sanctuaries.p Priests and Levites, therefore, were in demand for continuous service, though the individuals were changed at short intervals according to the established system. In the regard of the people the priests were inferior to the rabbis, and the scholarly attainments of a scribe transcended in honor that pertaining to ordination in the priesthood. The religion of the time was a matter of ceremony and formality, of ritual and performance; it had lost the very spirit of worship, and the true conception of the relationship between Israel and Israel’s God was but a dream of the past.

Such in brief were the principal features of the world’s condition, and particularly as concerns the Jewish people, when Jesus the Christ was born in the meridian of time."
https://www.lds.org/manual/jesus-the-ch ... 6?lang=eng

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Elizabeth wrote: ↑July 30th, 2016, 2:22 am
"God chose Jacob over Esau while the two were yet in Rebecca’s womb and before either, as far as the works of this life are concerned, had earned any preferential status. Why? It is a pure matter of pre-existence. Jacob was coming into the world with greater spiritual capacity than Esau; he was foreordained to a special work; he was elected to serve in a chosen capacity.
You Are Favoured Because of Your Conduct in Premortal Life

Not all the reasons for your blessings are because of your conduct in this world; some go back into the beginning with God. “God gave his children their agency even in the spirit world, by which the individual spirits had the privilege, just as men have here, of choosing the good and rejecting the evil, or partaking of the evil to suffer the consequences of their sins. … some even there were more faithful than others in keeping the commandments of the Lord. …

The spirits of men … had an equal start, and we know they were all innocent in the beginning; but the right of free agency which was given to them enabled some to outstrip others, and thus, through the eons of immortal existence, to become more intelligent, more faithful, for they were free to act for themselves, to think for themselves, to receive the truth or rebel against it.” (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation,1:58–59.)

Many responded to the spirit of God there. They were favoured and foreordained to receive privileges."

https://www.lds.org/study/manual/new-te ... 6?lang=eng
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https://www.lds.org/scriptures/jst/jst- ... l?lang=eng