{"id":37098,"date":"2017-08-21T05:00:31","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T10:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=37098"},"modified":"2017-08-28T14:56:28","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T19:56:28","slug":"reading-nephi-148-17-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2017\/08\/reading-nephi-148-17-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Binaries of the Lamb and the Devil – Reading Nephi – 14:8-17 part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I’ve taken a hiatus from this project, and am now returning to it. If you’re interested, the introduction to the series is here<\/a>, and if you’d like to peruse earlier entries, click the authors tab at the top of the page and then click on my name. I welcome your own thoughts on these specific verses (or on my reflections) in the comments below.<\/p>\n

* * * *<\/p>\n

I feel somewhat affronted by the angel\u2019s adamant declaration and insistence on the binary nature of humanity. It\u2019s not just that there are only two churches, but that these two churches exhaust the whole of humanity. Everyone\u2019s in the pews\u2014it\u2019s just a question of in whose pew one\u2019s planted. This strikes me as a rather medieval exclusivity. If you\u2019re not with us, then you\u2019re against us (as Jacob will later quote an angel explicitly declaring in II Nephi 10:16). There are those baptized and enduring, and then there are those heading toward damnation. It\u2019s hard not to see this interpretation in Nephi\u2019s own narrative account of his family\u2019s dissolution.<\/p>\n

Can this really be an angelic message from the heavens? \u201cWhat may appear to be ok, normal, even noble, is really of the devil.\u201d This is where families are torn apart: \u201cI know you personally, I know your decency, your goodness, the ways in which you excel me\u2014but you\u2019ve chosen a path or lifestyle or politics or faith that I can\u2019t reconcile. So against all evidence and reason, I determine that you\u2019ve been fooled by the devil and are on the path to hell.\u201d (I\u2019ll ignore\u2014or rather, just mention\u2014the ego stroking this does to our mortal weakness.) This is one way\u2014and too common a way\u2014to read this passage.<\/p>\n

Slowing down, however, I see that there\u2019s another way to read this exhaustive binary; we can of course flip it the other way round, giving it a pluralistic and radically inclusive reading. The binary forces us to confront our own ignorance and prejudice: \u201cYou\u2019re different; you\u2019re other; I do not understand your culture and values; and try as I might, I cannot seem to reconcile your way of being and relationship with God with that of my own. If I\u2019m careful and honest, however, despite my undeniable discomfort, I cannot see anyway in which your difference fights against God<\/em>. Consequently, my God demands that I see you as one of us<\/em>.\u201d Or as Jesus puts it in Luke: \u201cHe that is not against us is for us\u201d (9:50).<\/p>\n

Another overlooked facet of the exclusive binary: it of course predates and continues well beyond Western medieval Christianity. But even if it didn\u2019t, articulated as an exhaustive categorization, we cannot<\/em> identify the Great and Abominable Church with any given historical institution (though of course any particular institution can be\u2014and probably is\u2014a contributing party). Once again, turning this around, it means the same thing for the Church of the Lamb\u2014there\u2019s no one-to-one correlation with any specific institution. This fact is emphasized with the explicit distinction that gets made between the Church of the Lamb and the covenant people of the Lord (I take the latter to be a sub-group of the Church of the Lamb). This too is given in the context of helping us understand the covenants of God with the House of Israel.<\/p>\n

Additionally, dominion <\/em>is a striking word in this passage. What does it mean? In context it seems to mean at least two things: control or influence (primarily cultural, but also political, economic, other?) and demographic density. The devil\u2019s church of course has greater dominion, though it\u2019s key here that the Church of the Lamb and the covenant people of God (again, the latter a subset of the former) are globally distributed. Those who are unwilling to sell their covenants are a minority. Those who prize spiritual progression enough to actively pursue it are a minority. But they\u2019re a global<\/em> minority.<\/p>\n

Finally, the passage ends with the same confusing attempt to tie all of this in to specific historical events. Once again, the description of these events is so general as to seem applicable to any point in history. That seems right. We always find ourselves besieged by the Great and Abominable Church. We always find our dominion small. There are always wars or at least rumors of wars in all nations. Such are always the circumstances in which the children of God are placed. Whether on the macro world-historic level or within my own heart, I can find two churches warring\u2014one with a frightening level of dominion.<\/p>\n

Such are always the circumstances in which commences the fulfillment of the covenants of God with Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I feel somewhat affronted by the angel\u2019s adamant declaration and insistence on the binary nature of humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37098"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37163,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37098\/revisions\/37163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}