Gadianton Slayer wrote: ↑March 15th, 2023, 5:24 pm
Funny that there are people on the forum who use this logic and have asked identical questions, but no one wants to address this.
I'll address it.
**********"Why do you care so much about the church?"
(down below)
from your other comment
There are times when corruption needs to be exposed
YES - there is -
7. ....
in the days that the prophecies of Isaiah shall be fulfilled men shall know of a surety,
at the times when they shall come to pass
Second Nephi 25
AND THAT TIME IS NOW ***.
**********
"Why do you care so much about the church?"
Well - like Isaiah says - (and how the Lord feels)
when your beautiful wife - that you love so much -
has become a harlot -
well - you can see WHY - you care sooooo much.
***
Isaiah 1
21
How the faithful city has become a harlot!
She was filled with justice; righteousness made its abode in her, but now murderers.
Foreseeing his people’s imminent calamity because they choose not to repent,
the prophet grieves for them, the word “How” characterizing a lament (Lamentations 1:1; 2:1; 4:1).
In other words, the prophet is asking,
“How could this tragedy have happened?
How is it that this people didn’t repent in time?
How could those who were once righteous become so wicked?”
The term “harlot” attests to their broken covenant relationship with Jehovah their husband (Isaiah 57:3-13).
Besides identifying a specific place, the term “city” represents Jehovah’s covenant people in general
(Isaiah 45:13; 60:14).
She was filled with justice. Righteousness made her abode in her, but now murderers.
“Justice” (mispat) and “righteousness” (sedeq)—the basis of all covenant blessings and the underpinnings of a law-abiding society—have given way to injustice and unrighteousness.
The term “murderers” reiterates the level of wickedness to which Jehovah’s people have sunk.
Isaiah 50
1 Thus says Jehovah:Where is your mother’s bill of divorce with which I cast her out?
Or to which of my creditors did I sell you?
Surely, by sinning you have sold yourselves; because of your crimes is your mother cast off.
Two women appear in the Book of Isaiah:
(1) the current unfaithful wife, whom Jehovah divorces;
and (2) a formerly divorced wife, now faithful, whom he remarries (Isaiah 54:1, 4-14).
While the faithful woman—the Woman Zion, an elect category of Jehovah’s people—sees covenant curses turn into blessings, the unfaithful woman sees covenant blessings turn into curses.
The fact that Jehovah’s people who are “cast off” suffer the identical curses as the Harlot Babylon (Isaiah 1:21-31; 5:24-25; 9:13-21; 42:18-25; 47:8-15; 57:7-13)
implies that they become a part of Isaiah’s Babylon category.
2 Why was no one there when I came; why did no one answer when I called?
Was my hand too short to redeem you; have I no power to deliver?
By a mere rebuke I dry up the Sea; rivers I turn into desert—their fish become parched
a for lack of water and perish because of thirst.
The current wife’s unfaithfulness is complete
when she rejects Jehovah at the time he “comes” and “calls” (Isaiah 65:12; 66:4).
That occurs when Jehovah appoints his servant to establish justice in the earth and restore his people
(Isaiah 42:1, 4; 49:5-8).
As Jehovah’s hand, the servant reclaims their remnant (Isaiah 11:11), smelts away their dross
(Isaiah 1:25), empowers them (Isaiah 41:10), leads their new exodus (Isaiah 11:15-16),
leads their new conquest (Isaiah 11:14), assigns them inheritances (Isaiah 34:17),
and protects them (Isaiah 51:16). Many, however, pay no regard to him (Isaiah 59:1-2).
Isaiah 54
1 Sing, O barren woman who did not give birth;break into jubilant song, you who were not in labor.
The children of the deserted wife shall outnumber those of the espoused, says Jehovah.
Isaiah’s depicting Jehovah’s people as two cities, one righteous, the other wicked, has a parallel in two women or wives, one faithful, the other unfaithful. The imagery of a woman who typifies Jehovah’s covenant relationship with his people thus divides into that of two women: (1) “a wife married in youth only to be rejected” for her unfaithfulness, but whom Jehovah now remarries (vv 5-6); and (2) the wife currently married, whom Jehovah now rejects for her unfaithfulness: “Surely by sinning you sold yourselves; because of your crimes is your mother cast off” (Isaiah 50:1; cf. 1:21; 57:3-13).
A reversal of circumstances takes place when the natural lineages of Jehovah’s people who anciently rejected their covenant Lord renew their relationship with him—while, at the same time, the assimilated lineages of his people who displaced them now reject him through their idolatries (Isaiah 42:17; 44:15; 45:20; 46:1-2). In the millennial age of peace, the “children” or “sons” (banim) who are born to the remarried spouse—a chief covenant blessing—far exceed those of the spouse who is cast off. She who was “barren” during the intervening centuries has cause to rejoice (Isaiah 49:20-22).