Val's Email Sunday School: Shared Values, The Foundation of Civilization

The reading this week begins shortly before the coming of Christ to the Americas where he visited the Nephites and the Lamanites. It says “the prophecies of the prophets began to be fulfilled more fully; for there began to be greater signs and greater miracles wrought among the people.” However, despite increased miracles and signs, the people who didn’t believe in Christ persecuted those who did “saying: Behold the time is past, and the words of Samuel are not fulfilled; therefore, your joy and your faith concerning this thing hath been vain.”

They caused a “great uproar throughout the land; and the people who believed began to be very sorrowful, lest by any means those things which had been spoken might not come to pass.” There began to be armed conflicts and heated disagreements among the people. The groups of people who had secret agreements among one another to try to achieve power and wealth “had become so numerous, and did slay so many of the people, and did lay waste so many cities, and did spread so much death and carnage throughout the land, that it became expedient that all the people, both the Nephites and the Lamanites, should take up arms against them.”

The people who believed in God and followed God “did unite with their brethren, the Nephites, and were compelled, for the safety of their lives and their women and their children, to take up arms against those Gadianton robbers, yea, and also to maintain their rights, and the privileges of their church and of their worship, and their freedom and their liberty.” However, despite uniting against a common enemy, they were still fighting among themselves, and the “robbers did gain many advantages over them.” At this time the people were “in a state of many afflictions; and the sword of destruction did hang over them, insomuch that they were about to be smitten down by it, and this because of their iniquity.”

Something I’ve thought a lot about regarding the destruction of civilizations is whether God smites these civilizations because of their wickedness, or whether destruction is just an inevitable consequence of societies that stray too far from the spectrum of shared values that allows humans to live in peace together. I don’t think that once societies hit a threshold of wickedness that God is annoyed enough to try to destroy the people. Instead, I think it’s like all commandments. The wisdom for them is sound, but we don’t always understand what we sometimes perceive as a restriction on our freedom when in reality it’s usually setting guidelines to allow us to thrive more fully by giving us a framework in which to operate. In games, morality, society, and life, there must be rules to create order.

Without order, there’s chaos. When everyone tries to play by their own rules, the game (a board game, society, or life) is ruined. You can’t play/live/thrive together when you aren’t using the same framework. We need some basic shared values (not necessarily shared beliefs) for the game to continue. In the case of the US, our shared values used to be Judeo-Christian values of equality of all men/women before God and in society (regardless of wealth or position which by extension means equal application of the law), and refraining from lying, cheating, stealing, murdering, etc. I think that societies and people destroy themselves by going to war with one another when they drift too far from common values that allow for peace and prosperity. In the scriptures it says that when the majority of the people choose evil, then they’re ripe for destruction. However, if people “repent” or change then they’re spared. To me this doesn’t seem to imply a vengeful God intent on punishing people for wrongs, but rather a continuum with consequences that at some point may tip past the point of no return.

The scriptures show us repeated cycles of the people living in peace and going to war. The cause of the rise and fall of conflict and peace among these people is the same, and it’s not restricted to scripture. When societies start to elevate certain people above others in worth or importance, and the rule of law ceases to apply equally to all people regardless of position or class, and groups of people begin to cheat one another, battle for wealth and power, and society/civilization begins to decay. What’s funny is that the word “civilization” seems to encompass this meaning, the action or process of being courteous or polite, noncriminal. What’s funny is that we have groups in the US right now, particularly BLM (Black Lives Matter Inc), who state a main objective is to rid us of “the oppression of respectability.” Respectability is defined as “proper, correct, and socially acceptable.” They are literally and actively seeking to undermine civility, or the representation of civilization, and we wonder why the world is going to crap.

There are a lot of really interesting studies about how sexual morality and promiscuity are also one of the biggest determiners of the health of a civilization. Civilizations that permit promiscuity undermine the order of civilization. Stable family units are the basis of ordered society. Promiscuity leads to kids without a set of parents, fewer stable homes, and increases in cheating and divorce. I read about how monogamy and restrained sexual passions allow you to bridle your passions and channel them into more productive outlets like career, family, and community, while promiscuity indulges people’s hedonism so that they’re constantly seeking satisfaction and pleasure instead of seeking to building things like family, life, or community. Again, we want the effects of following the rules without having to actually follow them.

Other symptoms of a decaying society are the glorification of violence, and the debasement of the currency. You can find a lot of examples of inflation and what causes it (governments), but I really liked this article about it https://mises.org/library/inflation-and-fall-roman-empire. It explained how the rulers of Rome and the military (those who worked for the government) benefitted from a dual monetary system where the people at the top reaped benefits, while everyone else struggled to get by because their purchasing power was constantly being undermined. That doesn’t sound anything like the rich benefiting from rising asset prices while regular people have the purchasing power of their savings constantly diminished like today, does it? This seems extremely relevant to me when we consider the chaos of all of the currencies in the world from Venezuela to Zimbabwe. The plague of deficit spending is also addressed, and we won’t go too far into it, but the manipulation of currencies and deficit spending to the benefit of the few to the detriment of many are what’s caused things like the sovereign debt crisis in Europe (Greece most famously), stagnant growth over the course of decades in Japan, and 0% to negative interest rates across the board, and rising inequality all over the world. But again, without arguing morality, how can we say that this is wrong? Unfortunately if we aren’t going to be blazing hypocrites, we need to be consistent and moral all the time, not just when it’s convenient or we’re the one getting screwed. There is no moral high ground if you don’t care about morality unless it affects you negatively.

I know this is a bit of a tangent for a Sunday School lesson, but I hope I can help you see the relevance. When we consider the scripture that tells us that “wickedness never was happiness,” I take it to mean that doing the wrong thing doesn’t lead to the good outcomes that we want. These principles are broadly applied. Fiscal or monetary wickedness (doing the wrong thing, being irresponsible, spending what you don’t have) never leads to prosperity. Sexual wickedness (doing the wrong thing and only pursuing pleasure) doesn’t actually lead to satisfaction. I’ve watched the world around me double down on things that are wrong, and act surprised when there are negative consequences.

How can we be surprised that people don’t value life in terms of mass shootings, terrorism, or murder, when we as societies kill unborn babies with abortion (usually for convenience), fail to provide shelter for homeless and let people die on the streets, and let the poor go hungry (whether in our own communities, countries or the world)? How can we expect people to value the sanctity of life when so much of what we do as a society teaches that life is not precious or valuable or sacred at all? When nothing is sacred anymore? We have to do better. We have to actually live the values we profess to have.

How can we be shocked or surprised at all the variations of pornography and sexual exploitation and rape when we as societies profess that sexuality is just pleasure, a need to be filled, and that it doesn’t mean anything special? How can we sexualize children more and more and debase innocence and be surprised when that leads to even worse things? How can we do everything wrong, celebrate it, and then act surprised or horrified to find out there are consequences?

When we discourage marriage, encourage divorce, and destroy the family unit, the foundation of ordered society and civilization, how can we be surprised that the structure and rules of society are crumbling? One thing the pandemic showed us starkly is how much families have shifted the responsibility of their children to the state. Here in the US people were lamenting what children would do if schools were closed because then those kids would have “food insecurity,” meaning that some kids wouldn’t have anything to eat if the school wasn’t feeding them breakfast and lunch. As a society we’ve hoisted the responsibility of feeding our children from the parents onto the state. Teachers and schools shouldn’t be responsible for feeding your children. They shouldn’t be responsible for caring for the emotional, spiritual, and/or physical needs of children. We need to take more responsibility for our own lives, our own children, and our own communities.

Jordan Peterson, a Canadian Psychologist, talks about this. He talks about how the voluntary acceptance of responsibility is what gives us meaning in our lives. The more we seek supposed freedom by refusing responsibility (regarding the state of our lives, our finances, our kids), the more we diminish meaning in our lives. I think that the acceptance of the burden of responsibility and bearing it well is what we consider success. For example, in any area of life, it is the voluntary acceptance of responsibility and striving to bear it well that constitutes success. In our pursuit of ultimate freedom from rules and responsibilities in our modern societies, we’ve destroyed the basis of our meaning and success.

Back to the reading. The leader of the wicked group of people sends a letter to the leader of the people, Lachoneus. Lachoneus was “exceedingly astonished, because of the boldness of Giddianhi demanding the possession of the land of the Nephites, and also of threatening the people and avenging the wrongs of those that had received no wrong, save it were they had wronged themselves by dissenting away unto those wicked and abominable robbers.” This reminds me of what’s happening in the US right now too. There are groups of people, who I believe are a minority, who are demanding that the country acquiesce to them. They’re threatening everyone because of perceived wrongs.

In the reading, the good guys prepared for conflict. They only plan to defend themselves, instead of going after the bad guys. They “put up their prayers unto the Lord their God, that he would deliver them in the time that their enemies should come down against them to battle.” When the bad guys come to battle against them, “behold, great and terrible was the day that they did come up to battle; and they were girded about after the manner of robbers; and they had a lamb-skin about their loins, and they were dyed in blood, and their heads were shorn, and they had head-plates upon them; and great and terrible was the appearance of the armies of Giddianhi, because of their armor, and because of their being dyed in blood.” The bad guys use fear and intimidation as a deliberate tactic. They want to scare the people into submission, into surrender. They wanted to punish the people for things that they didn’t do. I don’t know about you, but this tactic in the Book of Mormon and in our society today is against my religion. It’s wrong. It’s evil. I believe that man should be punished for their own sins and not for Adam’s transgressions, or that we should only be held responsible for the things that we do, not for Adam's sins or for the sins of our ancestors. I didn't want to bring politics into this, but the concept original sin in which we are all born sinful, is one that a certain political party is pushing. I watched a community event in which one of the presidential candidates spoke of us as a people and a nation needing to address the original sin of 400 years of slavery. There's so much that's morally wrong with this that I wasn't even sure that I should mention it here. I don't believe in original sin. I don't believe in holding people accountable for things that they had no part in. 

The good guys fell down on the ground, praying to God for protection. There’s very little in life that we can control. We have some control over our own lives, and little control over the direction of society or the world. We are fragile and frail, and much of the control that we think we have is an illusion. Prayer is what we do to try to influence those things which are out of our control. The battle ensues, and the good guys win. Afterwards, “their hearts were swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears, because of the great goodness of God in delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; and they knew it was because of their repentance and their humility that they had been delivered from an everlasting destruction.”

Though the deliverance in these chapters was physical, I think that we can superimpose the lessons in the story onto other areas of life. We can talk about emotional or spiritual deliverance instead of just physical deliverance. Though The Book of Mormon is full of physical battles, the stories can apply to us. We can think of it in the context of the armour of God (see the bible) with the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit, etc. We too can prepare as best we can, and when the time comes to battle, we pray for strength and guidance and then boldly act.

It said near the end of the reading that “behold, there was not a living soul among all the people of the Nephites who did doubt in the least the words of all the holy prophets who had spoken; for they knew that it must needs be that they must be fulfilled. And they knew that it must be expedient that Christ had come, because of the many signs which had been given, according to the words of the prophets; and because of the things which had come to pass.” I mentioned this in my last lesson, but I liked how it spoke of the people believing because of the many signs which had been given. In the recent reading in Helaman 14 it said, “many shall see greater things than these, to the intent that they might believe that these signs and these wonders should come to pass upon all the face of this land, to the intent that there should be no cause for unbelief among the children of men.”

These scriptures tell me that there will be evidences given to people by God, with the intent that they should believe. We were never meant to blindly believe in prophecy, God, the prophets, or The Church. We are supposed to experiment in our own lives on a micro-level and receive evidence, experience, and knowledge there, and we are also supposed to watch society and the world follow the macro-level prophecies written about in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, so that when we see them fulfilled, we will have reason to believe. Because the people had the prophecies proven to them as they watched them fulfilled, and presumably had individual spiritual experiences in their own lives as well, they believed and “they did forsake all their sins, and their abominations, and their whoredoms, and did serve God with all diligence day and night.”

It says a few different places that Nephi ministered with “power and with great authority.” Guess what the reaction was of the people who weren’t trying to follow God or Christ. You’ll never guess. Nephi was casting out devils, performing miracles, and raising his brother from the dead and providing evidence of the truth of his words, and “they were angry with him, even because he had greater power than they. . .” They were mad at him because he was more powerful than they were! How dumb is that! They were also mad at him because it wasn’t possible “that they could disbelieve his words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. . .” The bad guys “saw it, and did witness of it, and were angry with him because of his power; and he did also do many more miracles, in the sight of the people, in the name of Jesus.” Another place in the reading it talked about the people willfully rebelling against God. They didn't do bad things in ignorance. They knew better and they chose to do evil things willfully. 

In the end, their chief judge is murdered and it says that basically the government is destroyed. The bad guys who tried to destroy the government appoint an anti-Christ King over themselves. Everyone else divided into tribes which consisted of their friends and families. There is some tenuous peace between many of the tribes, but the shared values that previously bound them together are gone. They don’t have the same laws, but “they were united in the hatred of those who had entered into a covenant to destroy the government.”

To me, the reading this week was a stark warning of what can happen to people when we disregard the consequences of immorality. Everyone wants to live in a moral society with moral leaders, but many people don’t want those rules of morality to apply to them. It also is a warning of what happens when we no longer have shared values. When order breaks down, chaos ensues. The fall of the Nephite civilization into tribalism is so interesting, and what’s even crazier is that it’s not out of the realm of possibility for our societies today. We like to believe that we're more evolved, more enlightened, or somehow more civilized than the rest of humanity because of our modernity, but this isn't the case, and to believe it is dangerous. 

It reminds me of a quote by Jeffery R. Holland in a CES broadcast in 2015 when he said, “We know for certain that if or when everything else in the latter days is down or dying: if governments, economies, industries, and institutions crumble; if societies and cultures become a quagmire of chaos and insecurity, nevertheless through it all the gospel of Jesus Christ and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that bears that gospel to the world will stand triumphant. It will stand undefiled in God’s hand until the very Son of God Himself comes to rule and reign as Lord of lords and King of kings. Nothing is more certain in this world. Nothing is more sure. Nothing could be more of an antidote to anxiety.”

Val's Email Sunday School: Bravery, Faith, and Hope

Ah yes, it’s time again for Email Sunday School. Today we’ll discuss another one of my favorite scripture stories, Samuel the Lamanite, and what this story can teach us about ourselves and our day. Samuel the Lamanite was a prophet who came to a city called Zarahemla to preach to the people. He taught about repentance (or the need to become better and more moral) and about Jesus Christ. The scriptures say “he did preach, many days, repentance unto the people. . .” However, the people didn’t like what he had to say, and they threw him out of the city. Samuel the Lamanite received inspiration that he needed to go back, but the people wouldn’t let him into the city. This is where it gets good.

We’ve got to admire Samuel’s resolve to do what he feels is right, despite the obstacles he faces. First, he preaches and no one listens. Then, he preaches and they literally throw him out. He’s instructed to go back, but they won’t let him into the city. If I was Samuel and I knew God wanted me to do something, I’d be wondering why He wasn’t preparing the way a little bit instead of having me face all of these obstacles and dead ends. But instead of dwelling on what he couldn’t do, Samuel the Lamanite instead does what he can do. Samuel keeps putting in the effort.

President Nelson said that, “...the Lord loves effort, because effort brings rewards that can’t come without it.” What might those rewards be? Maybe allowing us to learn how to exercise trust or faith. Maybe allowing us to realize our actual capacity or strength. Maybe having us do things we know, we know, that we didn’t have the ability to do on our own so that we can bear witness and testimony to others later? President Nelson never specifies in that talk what those rewards are, but I think it would be enlightening for us to think about why sometimes the things that God wants from us are hard and why he lets us struggle. Why did Nephi and his brother’s have to go back for the plates? Why did they have to try so hard to get them? Why is struggle often a theme in the stories about following the Lord?

Back to Samuel. Samuel decides to do what he can, and climbs up on the wall of the city since he can’t get inside. It’s fun to imagine how high the wall of the city might have been. Did he have to rock climb up it? It had to have been pretty high for the rest of the story to make sense. Anyway, he went and got “upon the wall thereof, and stretched forth his hand and cried with a loud voice, and prophesied unto the people whatsoever things the Lord put into his heart.” He prophesied of their destruction if they didn’t change and become more moral, more righteous. They needed to change (repent). He taught of Christ, and Christ’s coming. He prophesied of violence, famine, and pestilence if they didn’t change. He taught that they would face God’s fierce anger if they didn’t improve. He taught that the city was spared because of the righteous who were in it, “But behold, the time cometh, saith the Lord, that when ye shall cast out the righteous from among you, then shall ye be ripe for destruction. . .”

He doesn’t mince words as he describes how the people “do not remember the Lord” in the things he’s blessed them with, but they “always remember [their] riches, not to thank the Lord . . .for them; yea, [their] hearts are not drawn out unto the Lord, but they do swell with great pride, unto boasting, and unto great swelling, envyings, strifes, malice, persecutions, and murders, and all manner of iniquities.” He preaches very specifically about the prophecies around Christ’s birth and death, saying that “many shall see greater things than these, to the intent that they might believe that these signs and these wonders should come to pass upon all the face of this land, to the intent that there should be no cause for unbelief among the children of men.” I find this reassuring. When we consider the Second Coming of Christ, and the last days, and the signs, wonders, and prophecies that will come before his return, it is comforting to think that the Lord will provide us enough evidence with the specific intent that there should be no cause for unbelief.

It’s a good sermon. He has a lot to say. I like it because whether or not you believe that The Book of Mormon is an actual history of people on the American Continent, it’s at least as old as Joseph Smith’s day. And the philosophies and arguments and ideologies of man are not new. I particularly liked this excerpt:

“25 And now when ye talk, ye say: If our days had been in the days of our fathers of old, we would not have slain the prophets; we would not have stoned them, and cast them out.

26 Behold ye are worse than they; for as the Lord liveth, if a prophet come among you and declareth unto you the word of the Lord, which testifieth of your sins and iniquities, ye are angry with him, and cast him out and seek all manner of ways to destroy him; yea, you will say that he is a false prophet, and that he is a sinner, and of the devil, because he testifieth that your deeds are evil.

27 But behold, if a man shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth—and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is a prophet.

28 Yea, ye will lift him up, and ye will give unto him of your substance; ye will give unto him of your gold, and of your silver, and ye will clothe him with costly apparel; and because he speaketh flattering words unto you, and he saith that all is well, then ye will not find fault with him.

29 O ye wicked and ye perverse generation; ye hardened and ye stiffnecked people, how long will ye suppose that the Lord will suffer you? Yea, how long will ye suffer yourselves to be led by foolish and blind guides? Yea, how long will ye choose darkness rather than light?”

He goes on to say that if we don’t choose to do right now, then at some point it will be too late, because “your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head.” What Samuel the Lamanite says here is really interesting, and you can find a lot of variations of this sentiment in self-help books and self-development books. Many people believe that being happy is a side effect of a certain type of life, a certain type of living, and not an ends in itself. They say that the harder you pursue happiness, the more elusive that it is, but if instead you build a life, based on service and meaning, that happiness is a result.

The people are so mad about what Samuel the Lamanite has to say that the crowd decides to try to kill him. When I was little, I didn’t know why the people wanted to kill Samuel for what he said. I just thought they were bad guys, so that’s what they did. The bad guys tried to kill the good guys. Wasn’t that how it worked? But seeing the anger and senseless violence of the riots throughtout the country this summer online has exemplified to me George Orwell’s quote that says, “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” I can see people in our society today wanting to kill people for saying things they don’t like.

The mob starts throwing rocks and shooting arrows at Samuel. Samuel is not only obedient and wise, he’s brave. He keeps his cool and continues preaching, trusting that God will protect him, especially because he’s on the errand that God sent him on. Some of the people believed his words because they couldn’t hit him, but the others who didn’t believe him were even madder and “when they saw that they could not hit him with their stones and their arrows, they cried unto their captains, saying: Take this fellow and bind him, for behold he hath a devil; and because of the power of the devil which is in him we cannot hit him with our stones and our arrows; therefore take him and bind him, and away with him.” When Samuel the Lamanite saw the people coming to physically get him because they couldn’t kill him any other way, “he did cast himself down from the wall, and did flee out of their lands, yea, even unto his own country . . .”

Samuel’s most famous prophecy is probably the one that told of Christ’s Coming. He talks about the signs and wonders that will precede the birth of Christ. I liked reading about the prophecies regarding Christ’s birth and death, and the stalwart faith of those who believed Samuel. That’s a whole other lesson, so I’ll conclude talking about what this story of Samuel can teach us today.

One thing that struck me was that Samuel managed to offend almost everyone. If “the wicked take the truth to be hard” he managed to rub everyone’s sore points. Some of the people realized he was right, and decided to change and become better, but most of them just got mad. To me, this demonstrates the importance of not giving into hate and anger, the importance of humility. When we are humble we can recognize when we’re doing wrong and we can change. The world is better when we are better. The people in the crowd listening to Samuel were just people. Many of them were probably relatively good people who were making some immoral choices that Samuel pointed out. Instead of recognizing that he was right, they got defensive, angry, and violent.

Becoming defensive, angry, and hateful is something I’ve seen online a lot. And I’ve seen it from people in various denominations who claim to follow Christ. They publically disparage others and rant about how they can’t believe that someone who follows Christ could support one political candidate or the other. This is so disappointing. We know better. Are we living up to the standard we know is right?

We must be more Christlike, and that includes not shaming others for having different opinions. Isn’t that literally one of the biggest problems our society has today anyway? Are we going to jump on the bandwagon of division when people don’t reach the same conclusions we have? Tolerance, agency, and freedom of choice are literally the point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to have actual tolerance, understanding, and love for others and not try to force them to conform to what we think is best.

Life is full of shades of grey, and there is often no “right” choice, but merely the best choice we think we can make after reasoning things out in our minds. This is why Christ is supposed to be our advocate with God. He knows our hearts, minds, and intent. It’s not our place to judge people and their choices and try to shame them into what we think is right. It’s wrong to use God, our church, or Christ as a justification for what we’re doing and try to force or compel others to do the same. President Uchdorf said, “We must realize that all of God’s children wear the same jersey. Our team is the brotherhood of man. This mortal life is our playing field. Our goal is to learn to love God and to extend that same love toward our fellowman.”

I hope we can look at this story and find inspiration in Samuel’s example of resilience, perseverance, obedience, faith, and bravery (also his magnificent superhero-like ability not to get hit with projectiles and arrows). I hope that as a society we can stop being so rooted in our ideologies and instead find common ground in our shared values of freedom, liberty, agency, and humanity. I hope we can rise above the psychological and spiritual warfare that seems to be being waged against us in news cycles and on social media and instead choose faith over fear. I hope we can focus on the good and have hope. Hope is a scarce commodity, and those who have it will stand apart in this world. As Thomas S. Monson said that “the future is as bright as your faith.”

Val's Email Sunday School: The Power of Authenticity

The reading this week was very fun. I like the story of Nephi and how he predicts the murder of the chief judge, how people think he was an accomplice because he knew about it, and how they ultimately catch the murderer who confirms that there was no way that Nephi could have known the things he did. It’s an entertaining story. However, I spent most of my time thinking about the people who stopped to listen to Nephi when he was praying on the tower in his garden.

Nephi had previously taught the people about morality and the teachings of Jesus Christ. He’d prophesied about what would happen if they didn’t change, and “they did reject all his words.” He’s disappointed. He’s devastated because he sees his people “in a state of such awful wickedness, and those Gadianton robbers filling the judgment-seats—having usurped the power and authority of the land; laying aside the commandments of God, and not in the least aright before him; doing no justice unto the children of men; Condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money; and moreover to be held in office at the head of government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of the world, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and kill, and do according to their own wills—”

It says that this great iniquity came upon their people in a short amount of time, and he was really anguished about it. He did “exclaim in the agony of his soul” that he wished he could have lived and been joyful in the days of his ancestors, when the people were more willing to do good, and slower to be so corruptible, when they were “quick to hearken unto the words of the Lord—Yea, if my days could have been in those days, then would my soul have had joy in the righteousness of my brethren. But behold, I am consigned that these are my days, and that my soul shall be filled with sorrow because of this the wickedness of my brethren.”

This part is timeless and can apply to us now. It reminds me of a quote from the Lord of the Rings:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

None of us wants to experience the hardships of our day. We might look on the past and long to live in a different place or time because we lament the evilness of our time, but Gandalf tells us that everyone who goes through hard times feels that way too, but it isn’t up for us to decide anything different. The best that we can do is choose what we’ll do with the time given to us in the place that we are.

As Nephi was praying, lamenting about the state of his society and the unwillingness of the people around him to live moral lives, he was on a tower in his yard near a busy road. It says that “there were certain men passing by and saw Nephi as he was pouring out his soul unto God upon the tower; and they ran and told the people what they had seen, and the people came together in multitudes that they might know the cause of so great mourning for the wickedness of the people.”

I can imagine this taking place now, some people overhear a guy praying somewhere isolated on campus or on the roof of their apartment building, and they text all their friends or tweet something out about how they’ve got to come see this guy crying and freaking out about how wicked society is. Did they gather together to make fun of him? To mock how mournful he was? Maybe. Others came out of genuine curiosity. Some might have come out of compassion and wanted to comfort him. Whatever their motivations were for coming, Nephi managed to draw a crowd.

When Nephi finishes his prayer, he stands up and sees “multitudes of people who had gathered together.” His reaction is interesting. I imagine he was angry and embarrassed. He sounds pretty mad. He basically says, Why the heck did you guys come? So I could tell you about all of the immoral things you’re doing? I came here to pray privately because I’m mournful because of all the horrible things around me. And now you’ve all gathered here and you’re all curious.

If the devil didn’t have such a strong hold on your hearts, you wouldn’t wonder so much. How could you give in to everything that corrodes your souls and makes you miserable? Why won’t you change? Turn to the Lord your God. “O, how could you have forgotten your God in the very day that he has delivered you? But behold, it is to get gain, to be praised of men, yea, and that ye might get gold and silver. And ye have set your hearts upon the riches and the vain things of this world, for the which ye do murder, and plunder, and steal, and bear false witness against your neighbor, and do all manner of iniquity.”

Our convictions and morals should run deep. We shouldn’t be swayed to forget God or our morals if it is fashionable and people will praise us for it. We shouldn’t abandon our principles for riches or wealth. That’s what it means to have integrity. You live according to your beliefs and you live according to what is moral and right because you believe it, not because of praise, or shame, or coercion, or whatever. We do what is right because it is right. Not because we might get caught. We don’t do whatever we can get away with. We have principles and we live according to them.

Not only did Nephi manage to draw a crowd, they stuck around for quite a while to hear what he had to say. They were genuinely interested in his perspective, despite the fact that he chews them out quite a bit. I’ve wondered about that. Why would these immoral, wicked people (according to Nephi) listen to him? Why would they want to know why he was upset? Why would they care?

I’ve thought about this a lot. And the best I’ve been able to come up with is that they were moved by his authenticity. His sorrow was real. His mourning was real. His pain was real. In a world filled with people whose morals change according to what is fashionable and what might make them money, being real and genuine is powerful. I hope that this is true. I hope that authenticity lends weight and power to what we say. I hope more truly inspiring and good people will continue to stand up and lead by example, countering the trends we see around us today.

Like Nephi, I lament the society in which we live. I lament that we tear down the foundations of civilized society like morality and the nuclear family, and then act surprised when the whole thing is in danger of collapsing. Why are we surprised that people are foul mouthed when we fill songs, shows, movies, and video games with unnecessary foul language? Why are we surprised when high school kids, celebrities, and politicians all use horrible language?

Why are we surprised and horrified that the United States is the biggest producer and consumer of pornography when we encourage women and girls to take pictures of themselves wearing less and less clothing on social media then praise and reward them with followers and likes? When we sexualize women and now little girls? When nothing is sacred and sex is just a tool to sell products and movies? How can we be surprised that people lack empathy and kill without remorse when we lack any reverence for the sanctity of life and kill potential humans/babies for convenience and praise ourselves for our progress in “women’s reproductive rights?”

How can we be surprised that people act without dignity or refinement when we praise filth and debasement? A stripper turned singer just released a popular song with explicit lyrics that people described as “deliciously filthy.” How can we expect society to be better than filthy, foul-mouthed, and vulgar when singers, celebrities, politicians, and sports stars act this way and are embraced and praised for it? If we want better we must be better. If we want a less corrupt society, we have to be less corrupt individuals. This has to be a grassroots effort.

It reminds me of the verses in 2 Timothy that say, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. . . Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” If Ever there was an accurate description written of the world we’re living in, this is that description.

Chapter 12 of the reading concludes this mini-story with Nephi regarding his society and the murder of the chief judge. It paints an unflattering and even scathing picture of human nature stating, “1 And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him. 2 Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.”

When we prosper, we struggle to remember the God. We struggle with humility. We struggle to remember to pray. It’s true that when we’re scared and lost or in danger we’re more likely to pray and seek guidance and help from God. “And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him.

4 O how foolish, and how vain, and how evil, and devilish, and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of men; yea, how quick to hearken unto the words of the evil one, and to set their hearts upon the vain things of the world!

5 Yea, how quick to be lifted up in pride; yea, how quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom’s paths!

6 Behold, they do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide.”

This reminds me of Mosiah 3:19 that says, “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” I hope that we can yield to the enticings that urge us to be better, that we can seek to do good, and strive for more uplifting, virtuous, and lovely qualities in our own lives. I hope that when we know better, we will choose better (repentance).

Val's Email Sunday School: A Beautiful, Bright Future

There’s a lot in these chapters that I wanted to talk about, so I’m not going to pick just one theme or scripture. This week, I’m going to talk in more of an overarching way about what was in the reading this week. We begin talking about how there were people in these ancient societies that were organized for power and gain. They were willing to do whatever it took to gain more power and money, including murder. They called these people the Gadianton Robbers, or the Band of Gadianton, after their leaders Gadianton and Kishkumen who set up these rites and covenants among the wicked people. They became so powerful that “. . .in the end of this book ye shall see that this Gadianton did prove the overthrow, yea, almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi. Behold I do not mean the end of the book of Helaman, but I mean the end of the book of Nephi, from which I have taken all the account which I have written.”

The people who were organized for evil (for power, gaining money, and murder) were extremely powerful. I think that we can relate that to today, where we see people in the government who become multimillionaires, or look at people organized to riot and loot. Small groups of determined individuals can be a powerful force for evil. If we believe that these small groups of people who are determined towards specific goals can alter the course of an entire nation, then we must believe that small determined groups intent on liberty, goodness, and caring can have a similar impact too. As we battle for the helm of our nations and the world, we need to remember Margaret Mead ‘s statement, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Sometimes we doubt our own ability to affect change in our own lives, much less the larger world around us. But I think that people’s valiant examples of brave living are what change the world even more than an intentional attempt to change the world. Maybe true change is more organic than forced. This also reminded me of something I read once that said  people watch all these movies about traveling back to the past and worry about changing the smallest thing because of the influence it might have on the future, but few people believe that they have that kind of power in the present.

Simultaneously during this time in the reading when many people sought to get money and power, the world was becoming a more beautiful place. Christ’s gospel was spreading. It says that tens of thousands were converted unto the Lord. This is interesting because President Nelson said about the Restoration of Christianity in our day, “If you think the Church has been fully restored, you're just seeing the beginning. There is much more to come. … Wait till next year. And then the next year. Eat your vitamin pills. Get your rest. It's going to be exciting.” There was one quote I looked for, but couldn’t find. It talks about the fullness of the Restoration, and what still needs to happen for the church to be fully restored upon the earth as it was in Jesus’s day, and it said something like every doctrine, every ordinance, every gift, every miracle that existed then must be restored. 

The reading is full of cycles of dissension and peace. The people fought, and then there was peace. They got prideful, and there was contention. When they repented things got better and “there was continual peace established in the land, all save it were the secret combinations which Gadianton the robber had established in the more settled parts of the land, which at that time were not known unto those who were at the head of government; therefore they were not destroyed out of the land.” It says that during this time “. . . so great was the prosperity of the church, and so many the blessings which were poured out upon the people, that even the high priests and the teachers were themselves astonished beyond measure. And it came to pass that the work of the Lord did prosper unto the baptizing and uniting to the church of God, many souls, yea, even tens of thousands. Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name.”

Even though this is the time of wars and extreme corruption and evil in the Book of Mormon, it’s some of the greatest times that existed for these people. There was peace. There was prosperity. People joined Christ’s church by the tens of thousands. It talks about the purification and sanctification of the people’s hearts, which occurred “because of their yielding their hearts unto God.” The defeats that Christ’s people faced only happened when they became wicked and had to rely on themselves and not God.

This may seem silly, but as I’ve watched the turmoil in the world around me, I’ve worried that I wasn’t prepared for this world. If we’re going to live in a dystopian society of violence and mayhem, I need to be fitter, stronger. I need to buy weapons, and train in combat. I didn’t do any of those things. I’ve wasted my time in pursuits that are only useful in civilized society. I’ve worried that God didn’t prepare me for a place in this brave new world that we live in. These scriptures helped me to feel a little better about that too. Though the scriptures do talk about the wars and battles, it talks about people working to provide food, and others are spinning cloth, etc. Society functioned and a lot of people led very normal lives. There were indeed many warriors among them, but many of the women and children especially just lived their lives while the armies fought to protect them. There’s something to be said for specialization, and the world probably doesn’t need everyone to be warriors. We need farmers, physical therapists, artists, teachers, writers, etc, too.

At the same time, while the people were prospering, the robbers of Gadianton were going about trying to take over the world, as usual. Interestingly enough, the Lamanites “did preach the word of God among the more wicked part of them, insomuch that this band of robbers was utterly destroyed from among the Lamanites.” Meanwhile, the Nephites, formerly the most righteous part of the people, liked what the robbers had to say. And they “did build them up and support them, beginning at the more wicked part of them, until they had overspread all the land of the Nephites, and had seduced the more part of the righteous until they had come down to believe in their works and partake of their spoils, and to join with them in their secret murders and combinations.

And thus they did obtain the sole management of the government, insomuch that they did trample under their feet and smite and rend and turn their backs upon the poor and the meek, and the humble followers of God. And thus we see that they were in an awful state, and ripening for an everlasting destruction.”

Ugh. This sounds suspiciously like what we are dealing with today. Leaders who seem more intent on furthering their own power or money than upholding our laws or liberty and freedom. The scriptures expound on these “secret combinations” saying that “they did have their signs, yea, their secret signs, and their secret words; and this that they might distinguish a brother who had entered into the covenant, that whatsoever wickedness his brother should do he should not be injured by his brother, nor by those who did belong to his band, who had taken this covenant. And thus they might murder, and plunder, and steal, and commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness, contrary to the laws of their country and also the laws of their God. And whosoever of those who belonged to their band should reveal unto the world of their wickedness and their abominations, should be tried, not according to the laws of their country, but according to the laws of their wickedness. . .”

Later the reading says, “And seeing the people in a state of such awful wickedness, and those Gadianton robbers filling the judgment-seats—having usurped the power and authority of the land; laying aside the commandments of God, and not in the least aright before him; doing no justice unto the children of men;

Condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money; and moreover to be held in office at the head of government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of the world, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and kill, and do according to their own wills”

This leads me to Ether 8, which says, “And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed; for the Lord will not suffer that the blood of his saints, which shall be shed by them, shall always cry unto him from the ground for vengeance upon them and yet he avenge them not. Wherefore, O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to get power and gain—and the work, yea, even the work of destruction come upon you, yea, even the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be.

Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up. For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people. . .” We would be wise to take our cues from the Lamanites, who originally went among the wicked gadiantons and tried to preach the word among them. When that didn’t work, they literally chased them out of their lands. It was the righteousness of the people that kept this corruption out of their government and leaders. It was the Nephites who were seduced by promises of power and wealth who permitted it and participated in it who allowed it to take root in their government and leaders who let it spread and poison their whole society. 

While it may seem grim that there was so much corruption and wickedness in power, there were really good things too, which I’ll end with. Helaman reminds us that, “. . .remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”

The righteous people went and “did preach with great power, insomuch that they did confound many of those dissenters.” It repeatedly talks about them preaching with “great power and authority” for “they had power and authority given unto them that they might speak, and they also had what they should speak given unto them—” We’re told various places in the scriptures that it will be given unto us (even in the very moment) what we should say. We’re told that if we’re prepared we shall not fear. I think that these things are telling us that if we live righteous and well, God will allow us to help him when we’re in a position to do so, and that he’ll even tell us what to say and what to do. This is powerful and, to me, comforting. “Therefore they did speak unto the great astonishment of the Lamanites, to the convincing them. . .” This reminds me of the scriptures about the armour of righteousness and the sword of truth. Most often it is the word of God that changes people, and truth, more than anything else that persuades people to change. 

There’s a part of the story that takes place in a jail that kind of reinforces this lesson to me. Yes, Nephi and Lehi were super amazing, but I like reading about Aminidab just as much. Of Aminidab they wrote, “Now there was one among them who was a Nephite by birth, who had once belonged to the church of God but had dissented from them.” He’s in the jail where these scary and miraculous things were happening, and because of the way he was taught growing up, he recognized what was going on. He told the people what was happening and what they needed to do. Despite his past, despite choosing the wrong side for a while, the Lord was able to use him where he was, as he was. I really liked this. The Lord can use you, where you are, who you are right now, if you are willing, and even if you’ve made wrong choices and are in precarious situations. 

During this part of the story, we’re given insight into what the Holy Ghost is like. They describe hearing a voice, and “when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul. . .” And we hear later that “there came a voice unto them, yea, a pleasant voice, as if it were a whisper. . . “ Again, a quiet, soft, pleasant voice that pierces you to your soul. You have to be listening to be able to hear whispers. We, too, have to be quiet, intentional, and listen to try to hear direction from the Holy Ghost.  

I’ll end on an inspiring, happy note. It says that “the people of the church did have great joy because of the conversion of the Lamanites, yea, because of the church of God, which had been established among them. And they did fellowship one with another, and did rejoice one with another, and did have great joy.” The people were happy. Many people humbled themselves and chose to follow God and Christ. And “there was peace in all the land, insomuch that the Nephites did go into whatsoever part of the land they would, whether among the Nephites or the Lamanites. And it came to pass that the Lamanites did also go whithersoever they would, whether it were among the Lamanites or among the Nephites; and thus they did have free intercourse one with another, to buy and to sell, and to get gain, according to their desire. And it came to pass that they became exceedingly rich, both the Lamanites and the Nephites; and they did have an exceeding plenty of gold, and of silver, and of all manner of precious metals, both in the land south and in the land north.”

There was lots of joy, and lots of peace, and lots of prosperity. There was so much peace that people who were previously mortal enemies, who may have killed each other without remorse, were able to trade with one another, and travel without fear among one another’s lands. There was joy and peace and they prospered a lot. This to me is the essence of faith or fear. The apocalyptic last days' scriptures can be terrifying, but many people fail to remember that the scriptures tell us that things will also get more beautiful and better as God gains ground on the earth and among the hearts of the people. I think it’s really exciting to imagine traveling in lands of people previously deemed enemies, places we never would have been able to go. I imagine us being able to travel to the middle east, and vacation in Iraq or Afghanistan or China. While these things might seem like daydreams, miraculous things are already happening with the Temples announced to be built in the United Arab Emirates in the heart of the middle east, and with one in the heart of China. I’ve included a link to video that made me happy. If this is the future of the world, I’m excited for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnJnNru9I78

Val's Email Sunday School: We Need Honorable Men

 

I had a hard time figuring out what to discuss in Email Sunday School this week. I just wasn’t sure which direction to go, which is unusual for me. There are so many stories, concepts, or people that you could talk about. Usually there’s a part of the reading that really jumps out, and I start making connections to other scriptures and concepts, but this week it was harder. The stories are about wars and politics and faith. Although we are told that The Book of Mormon was written for our day, I think we have to be very careful not to try to make direct parallels and superimpose stories in scripture directly over our society as though they follow a direct template. I believe the lessons we learn from the scriptures are probably more generalized, and more about themes and patterns of human societies and individual human behavior rather than a roadmap of what’s happening today (even though sometimes it does seem like there are direct parallels).

With that said, I have chosen to talk about Captain Moroni and a bit about Helaman’s 2,000 warriors. I like these stories and encourage everyone to read them. We’re told in Alma 48:17 that “. . . if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.” We’re given a few other examples of men like this in the next verse who are also admirable and good, but for our purposes now we’ll focus on Moroni.

What are some things we can learn about Captain Moroni in the recent reading and the reading this week to help us understand what he was like and why if more people were like him, the devil couldn’t have power over the people’s hearts anymore? It’s interesting to consider things in this light, throughout the reading we saw Moroni angry repeatedly. We saw him using strategies and battling against enemies and killing people. We even saw him send a really strongly worded letter to the government, demanding the support and provisions his men needed, threatening to go and take out the government if they were no longer supporting freedom. He threatened to come down there and take care of things by force. This is just such an interesting perspective. Turns out that they hadn’t sent the support that Moroni and all of his men needed because they were dealing with their own insurrection, so Moroni had actually been wrong in his assumptions of what was probably going on. What can this teach us?

If we assume that Moroni really is an example to which we aspire, these qualities are actually good and admirable. It teaches us that anger isn’t a “bad” emotion, like we sometimes think, but that it is useful and powerful and can compel us to action in the right circumstances. Righteous indignation and anger are tools, like so many things that can be used to productive or destructive ends. It reminds me of the scriptures admonishing us to bridle our passions. We aren’t taught that passions are bad, but that we need to be the masters of them, directing them and maintaining control, utilizing them instead of them ruling us. 

There’s no question that in these battles the righteous and the wicked were engaged in violence. Is violence bad? The short answer is yes, but the truer answer is probably that it depends. When your enemies are intent on using violence to subjugate you to their will, to hurt or kill you or your family, these scriptures are teaching us that violence is an acceptable response to protect and preserve your rights, privileges, family, property, possessions, and religion. This part is really interesting to me, because in the United States right now we have people burning and looting and insisting that damaging property, stealing possessions, etc, isn’t violence because people have insurance and these things can be replaced. These scriptures appear to be teaching that those who seek to take away freedoms, property, possessions, or rights are perpetrating violence, and violence can be justified against them. 

We see Captain Moroni and other armies in these chapters using strategy to regain cities over and over. They tricked people repeatedly in various ways and did what they had to do to take back ground. This is interesting because they’re tricking people to try to avoid having to kill others to get what they want, instead they’re using strategy to achieve their goals. I like this because they aren’t crippled by their righteousness, having to be honorable to a fault while the evil people who play dirty are allowed to walk all over them. They did what they had to do to protect and preserve their people and their freedoms, but they did it honorably, which in many of these cases was avoiding killing those who wanted to kill them, if possible. 

These stories give me a better idea of what it means to be an honorable man. These men are not pacifists. They are not weak. They are strong and masculine. They are powerful. They have all the ability in the world to be dangerous, and they choose not to battle for power or dominance, but for the right to live in peace. It reminds me of Superman, a hero that our society doesn’t seem to understand anymore. His appeal is not in his utter strength. He could take anything in the world by force if he wanted to. Superman’s, and men’s, true appeal and superpower is that despite their physical prowess and strength, despite the fact that they can take what they want by force (possessions, virtue, whatever), when they are good they choose to be moral, gentle, humble, and compassionate. To be a man is to use your power for the good of others, not to enrich yourself. As much as society seems to hate it, women and children still need good men who will protect them. As controversial as it may sound, it appears to also show us that there is an appropriate place for anger, ferocity, and even violence. Our scriptures actually teach us that it is appropriate to shed blood of someone who is attacking your family and you’re defending them.

Another theme throughout the reading was that Moroni trusted the Lord in matters of life and death. Trusting in the Lord is a theme that is throughout the reading, and one that the stories of Moroni shares with Helaman and his Warriors. Of the young men warriors Helaman said “Never have I seen so great courage, nay, not amongst all the nephites.” These young men “had not fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.” Three times throughout the reading, they mentioned the faith of their mothers and how the power that these young men had stemmed from what their mothers had taught them. “And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it.”

I love the stories about the battles that the 2,000 warriors were in. They were inexperienced, yet they were made equal to the task. They were strong and powerful. The scriptures attribute their power to their faith in God. They were so powerful that when they attacked the flank of the opposing army, they were so ferocious “that the whole army of the Lamanites halted and turned upon Helaman.” There are miracles throughout these chapters as the young men are strengthened and protected and none of them are killed. We appear to be taught that it was their willingness to obey with exactness that demonstrated their faith, and “according to their faith it was done unto them.” Again, faith is the power that manifests the miracles. In a different battle, none of the young men in Helaman’s army died, but “neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds.” It was astonishing and miraculous that they were spared. They “put their trust in God continually” and they were delivered (the theme rearing its head once more).

These stories teach us that it is honorable and right to defend our lands, possessions, families, children, rights, privileges, and liberty. They teach us that it was honorable for the people to “take up swords in defence of their freedom, that they might not come into bondage.” They teach us to trust in God and he will deliver us out of the hands of our enemies. 

All of this brought to mind a quote from Margret D. Nadauld, that D. Todd Christofferson quoted in Conference in 2013. It says, “The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.” This may seem like an odd way to end, when I’ve just praised physical strength, power, and masculinity a lot in this lesson, but I don’t think that it is. I think that men and women both need to strive for these same character traits of kindness, refinement, faith, goodness, virtue and purity. I think striving for and acquiring them are what allow us to have the trust and faith necessary to believe that God will deliver us from our enemies and allow us to trust him continually, regardless of what those “enemies” look like. Whether they’re physical, spiritual, political, or societal threats, the solutions appear to be the same. 

Val's Email Sunday School: What Does Restoration Mean?

As always there were a lot of places you could choose to focus your attention in the reading this week, but I wanted to address the emphasis that was put on the choice between happiness and misery. This phrase, or variation of this phrase, was repeated several times throughout the reading. At the end of Alma chapter 40, and throughout all of chapter 41, Alma talks about the “plan of restoration” and how a “all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.”

I couldn’t help but think of car restoration as a parallel. In restoring cars, restoration is “the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition.” A full restoration entails “completely disassembling the vehicle and restoring each and every part and system.” It can mean taking a car "from original condition in an effort to return it to like-new or better condition," and it can mean rebuilding the car exactly the way the manufacturer first assembled it in the factory.

I like the gospel teachings because the parallels that we are taught about small scenarios tend to hold true when broadened and expanded as well. So we can talk about the individual and the restoration of the soul to the body, but we can also talk about families, groups of people, the entire church, or even the earth being restored to a new or better condition. That makes me think of the 10th Article of Faith that not only talks about the restoration of the ten tribes of Israel, but also the earth being renewed and receiving its paradisical glory.

        We also talk about the restoration of the church. I used to assume that the church was “restored” with Joseph Smith because that’s what I thought we were taught, but lately they have talked more about how the restoration of the church has only begun, and it is by no means complete. So it should be interesting to read the scriptures with this perspective, where we try to see the differences of the church in the past in the Bible or the Book of Mormon, and compare it to our day to see how things might be destined to improve, because restoration is always an improvement. It is taking something in a current state, and making it better, more perfect, more complete, like new. 

Alma also talked about a spiritual restoration, which is where I’d like to focus the rest of our attention. He said, “I have somewhat to say concerning the restoration of which has been spoken; for behold, some have wrested the scriptures, and have gone far astray because of this thing." Again, as we’ve learned in the past, wresting with the scriptures is not wrestling. It’s not fighting or struggling with something. Wresting is to twist, distort, or contort something. So, the plan of restoration, or the spiritual restoration is something that people really have a hard time with.

Alma tells us that it’s just and necessary for our bodies and souls to be restored to one another, but he also says it is equally just and necessary that “men should be judged according to their works; and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their hearts were good, that they should also, at the last day, be restored unto that which is good. And if their works are evil they shall be restored unto them for evil.” 

I think it’s really interesting that we will be restored to that which we have sowed. It’s the law of the harvest again. And it’s logic again. If we plant strawberries, we get strawberries. If we plant an apple tree, we get apples. We don’t get peas from planting strawberries, and we never will. Like produces like. And it’s my understanding that Alma is telling us here that the things we have done in our lives will be multiplied and returned to us. “Therefore, all things shall be restored to their proper order, every thing to its natural frame—mortality raised to immortality, corruption to incorruption—raised to endless happiness to inherit the kingdom of God, or to endless misery to inherit the kingdom of the devil, the one on one hand, the other on the other.” These scriptures tell us that there are specific consequences and results to specific actions, and they are non-negotiable.

The thing that many struggle with, I think, is this concept of happiness. We live in a Hedonistic society where many believe that pursuing their dreams, desires, or fulfilling passions are what bring happiness, but the scriptures tell us this isn’t true. The scriptures tell us that happiness comes as a side-effect, or a consequence of a specific type of living. Alma seems to think it’s completely illogical for us to think of it any other way. “Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness. . .  this is not the case; but the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil, or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish—good for that which is good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just; merciful for that which is merciful.”

He’s telling us that happiness is to be found in following God (serving God, serving man, and finding a way to contribute to make the world more perfect or the Kingdom of God on Earth). Lasting happiness, joy, and peace aren’t found anywhere else. Pleasure, sure. But deep satisfaction, peace, and happiness? That’s only found by living one way (though the variations of what that may look like are many). Happiness is to be found only within the framework that God has prescribed. He goes on to say that “For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored . . .”

This also made me think about the scripture in Alma 34 where he is talking about procrastination and says, “Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.” To me this means that we will be the same people, have the same personality now and later. We won’t magically become different or better later unless we work to change, to be better, to repent. We will be restored to that which we were, which we have been. If we want to be restored to good things, we should strive for good things now. If we want to be happy later, we should live the way that allows us to be happy now. I think living a life of meaning is what makes us happy, and to have meaning means to change the world for the better and improve the lives of others.