The daughters of Zion shall rule over the people of the Lord

Mormon Heretic wrote in a comment on another blog:

Paul told us that we should “covet to prophesy” (1 Cor 14:39)

Numbers 11:29, And Moses said unto him,

Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!

Why can’t the people be prophets and receive revelation? Paul and Moses weren’t opposed to the idea.

Yes, why can’t they, indeed?  So, in that spirit, I will share a few observations and you can determine whether this is given by the spirit of prophecy and revelation.

Isaiah 3

Isaiah chapters 2-14 were quoted by Nephi because these prophecies would be fulfilled again in the last days. How do we know this?

But behold, I proceed with mine own prophecy, according to my plainness; in the which I know that no man can err; nevertheless, 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.

Wherefore, they are of worth unto the children of men, and he that supposeth that they are not, unto them will I speak particularly, and confine the words unto mine own people; for I know that they shall be of great worth unto them in the last days; for in that day shall they understand them; wherefore, for their good have I written them. (2 Nephi 25:7–8)

Now, with this understanding, what do we find in Isaiah 3, which was quoted by Nephi?

As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. (Isa. 3:12)

Isaiah then goes on to describe these daughters of Zion that rule over the people. Nephi later launches his own prophecy of the same events, but in much plainer language. I notice some similarities between Nephi’s prophecy of the apostate churches of God in 2 Nephi 28 and Isaiah’s prophecy of the wicked daughters of Zion in Isaiah 3.

Isaiah says,

“The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

“What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts.”  (Isa. 3:14-15)

Nephi says,

“They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing; and they persecute the meek and the poor in heart, because in their pride they are puffed up.”  (2 Ne. 28:13)

Isaiah says,

“Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:”  (Isa. 3:16)

Nephi says,

“They wear stiff necks and high heads; yea, and because of pride, and wickedness, and abominations, and whoredoms, they have all gone astray save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men.”  (2 Ne. 28:14)

Isaiah prophesies at length about the jewelry, ornaments and fine clothing of the wicked daughters of Zion who rule the Lord’s people. (See Isa. 3:18-23.)  Nephi also mentions “fine clothing.”

So, I wonder if women at some point will receive the same priesthood that is given to the men, becoming “rulers,” and then beautify the church buildings and themselves from the coffers of the poor?

1 Samuel 8

There is a principle under which this can be accomplished, found in 1 Samuel 8.  That chapter’s heading gives a good summary of its content.

The Israelites seek for a king to rule over them—Samuel rehearses the nature and evils of kingly rule—The Lord consents to give them a king.

There are currently some Mormons using the Internet to call for the ordination of women to the priesthood.  Should their voices become more vocal and widely publicized, there is the possibility that the First Presidency may respond, perhaps by issuing a statement, perhaps by inquiring of the Lord.

If the Lord says, “No,” there is the possibility that these voices will not accept the Lord’s answer in humility and submit to His will and pleasure, but instead will keep petitioning for change until the Lord finally consents, just like Joseph Smith did with Martin Harris and the 116 manuscript pages, or like the children of Israel did in 1 Samuel 8 when the Lord finally consented and gave them a king.

Another possibility (and I think the more likely) is that this change will happen after the breakup of the church, when the churches descend into all manner of iniquity.  I’m just beginning to make prophetic sense of this and cannot, as yet, see it clearly enough to make that precise determination, but at the very least, it appears to me that the seeds for the fulfillment of the ruling daughters of Zion prophecy have already been sown and are starting to grow.  Take that however you will.

Because of this prophetic spirit, in which I sense where this is heading, I am inclined to view the current calls to ordain women to the male priesthood orders as not inspired of God.  Regardless of their egalitarian nature and sincerity, these voices do not strike me as desirous to know the will of God and to do it, but to bend the will of God to their own wills.  Others are simply caught up in the conversation with no dog in the fight one way or another, just with a desire to do the will of God, whatever that may be.

Ultimately, all this recent online talk may come to nothing (except maybe more dissensions, discord and division) because of the prophetic cycle—where the spirit of prophecy descends, makes a prediction based on current conditions, the conditions then change, the prophecy remains unfulfilled, then the conditions change again and it is fulfilled every whit—but because of this very cycle, I thought to leave these thoughts here on this blog.

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Going from Concrete to Flowers

Nothing is as delicate and brittle as thing-oriented group of people – so easily shattered by envy, covetousness, and strife once the pressure is put on.

ye do walk in the pride of your hearts; […] [do] lift yourselves up in the pride of your hearts, unto the wearing of very fine apparel, unto envying, and strifes, and malice, and persecutions, and all manner of iniquities;

and your churches, yea, even every one, have become polluted because of the pride of your hearts.

For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches,

more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.

Zion is not a pie-in-the-sky utopia that falls in our laps once we’ve occupied our time long enough — waiting around for Jesus to return to sort everything out.

It is a permeating culture or way of life.  Jesus showed the world what this utopian kingdom looks like by the miraculous works of the Father that He manifested – showing us how to end the reign of the four horsemen [statism, war, famine, and death] and establish the Reign of God.

Those works that He did are what bring about an apocalypse –

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass

but we [as free agents] must do those works for the image to become reality – revealing Jesus Christ in ourselves, being the Jesus Christ in our own situations — making the Word become flesh in us.

If not, it remains the idea of Zion — what we wait around for and sit around and talk about.

We can spend our Life searching for salvation, enlightenment, etc. “out-there” — when all the time, we carry it around in us:

behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

We must surrender [or die to] all our earthly attachments, our vain imaginations, our worldly ideas, and our petty emotions — they must all be nailed to the cross of Christ so we can change our minds [repent] and move on —

— on to that immortal aspect we have in each one of us, You as God [or God as You] — and that’s who Jesus Christ was — God as a human, or humans as God.

That’s what Jesus was showing us:

Here, in that gold-lit realm of Zion lies our true reality, where we are who we are in our right-brain-hearts – once all pretense and personas have been dropped.  Where we are the fully naked-Self that just is.

Unless that change has occurred:

• where we have the same mind in us which was in Christ Jesus,
• where we’ve stopped relating to God as the “out-there”, elderly man on the throne,
• where we no longer just tag”the name of Jesus Christ” onto the words and actions of our left-brain concept of Self,
• but have begun to identify ourselves with [or as] Christ in mind and in heart

we cannot expect a physical change in our environment to manifest.

Once we’ve denied [or disowned] our Self with the fear, trembling, sorrow, weeping, and broken heart brought about by the gospel of Jesus Christ preached in its purity [by the power of the Holy Ghost and in the spirit of prophecy and revelation], taken up our cross, and started doing the same works as Jesus — then may we begin to see eye-to-eye with those in Zion.

How beautiful upon the mountains have been the feet of the one

proclaiming good tidings,

sounding peace;

proclaiming good tidings,

sounding salvation;

saying to Zion, “Thy God has reigned!”

The voice of thy watchmen!

they have lifted up their voice, crying aloud together:

because, eye-to-eye, they see YHVH turning back to Zion.

Break forth into joy, sing together,

O waste places of Jerusalem:

for YHVH hath comforted his people,

he hath redeemed Jerusalem.

YHVH hath made his holy arm bare

in the eyes of all the nations;

and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Living out their story in our own life, seeing the things that they saw with our own eyes, making the word become flesh — comes as we stop working in our own names, and begin to connect as family [united order] through the bonds of covenant, which knit together strangers into joint-stewards:

And now, a commandment I give unto you concerning Zion, that you shall no longer be bound as a united order to your brethren of Zion, only on this wise— […]

they shall be organized in their own names; and they shall do their business in their own name.  And you shall do your business in your own name.

And this I have commanded to be done for your salvation, and also for their salvation, in consequence of that which is to come.

The covenants being broken through transgression, by covetousness and feigned words — Therefore, you are dissolved as a united order with your brethren, that you are not bound only up to this hour unto them,

And again, a commandment I give unto you concerning your stewardship which I have appointed unto you.  Behold, all these properties are mine, or else your faith is vain, and ye are found hypocrites, and the covenants which ye have made unto me are broken;

And if the properties are mine, then ye are stewards; otherwise ye are no stewards.  But, verily I say unto you, I have appointed unto you to be stewards over mine house.

And for this purpose I have commanded you to organize yourselves, […] For the purpose of building up my church and kingdom on the earth, and to prepare my people for the time when I shall dwell with them, which is nigh at hand.

In contrast to the current political/economic narrative of a selfish, depraved, calculating human –

Kinship governs who we are in ways current theories fail to account for:

In a world characterized by familial relationships, there is no such thing as “self-interest” [in a self-seeking, calculating sense].

For a time, humans gathered only according to their tribe and their land.  Familial ties are the natural form of human community.  “Advancement” has really just meant that we could begin “bonding” through other things like commerce or information – making communities out of largely unrelated persons.

The cost of this great advancement has been that few of us find joy in the work we do on this earth – few of us have time to cook healthy food and raise healthy families – and by the time most of us stop working the jobs we don’t really like, our health and family are so damaged that we’ll spend the remaining years alone, medicated in a nursing home.

When we are a thing-oriented society [instead of people-oriented] – we are all about the acquiring and the advancing.  Big concrete streets to accommodate big cars, to drive to big stores to buy big plastic-stuff – building the biggest house that’ll fit on the allotted property, having tiny backyards that are paved with concrete anyway, and then sitting inside in chairs to passively observe reality on pixelated screens – and that’s supposed to create joy?

That is so far detached from the Earth:

From the dirt that God gave us – that chaos from which we can create and nurture Life.  Truly living, as a people-oriented society is not about the acquiring – it’s about the connecting.  It’s not about the advancing – it’s about the enduring.  The struggle of human experience is to break through the barriers – and into connection, intimacy, and companionship.

This involves coming to know that – there is no value in things.  They are literally no-thing at all.

The only thing of enduring, true reality is the connections between human beings.  Connectivity is the key.

Humans are naturally social beings.  And the family is the charitable gift society that we are all born into – for the purpose of learning the only lesson we can learn that will save us – charity.  Those who learn charity will enter the charitable gift society that exists in heaven – the family of God.

For a gathered body of family is the only society that can be free and eternal – an everlasting Zion, worlds without end.

Nature [though it follows similar patterns] is ever-new and always creating:

Never boring.  Each new generation that comes along learns about the mystery of the Earth as it is – the world of nature, which was patterned after that eternal world where God resides.

One would think that stability and endurance in a society would breed utter boredom and monotony.  However, where we see utterly boring sameness is in our current skylines, TV shows, brand-names, and highways.  Where we see monotony is in our city-states, monetary systems, concepts of property, monogamy, monoculture, etc.  We are boxed-in with the whole world property-lined, zoned, speed-limited, paved, taxed, regulated, registered, addressed, and licensed.

But nobody left room for Life.

Life here on Earth is just a limited time in what is really a brief probationary situation.  It’s the same play acted out on the same stage for millennia.  The ancients faced the same trials and triumphs, had the same drives and desires that we do.

The props, the technology and fashions, etc. might get constantly replaced, but the plot always remains the same – to commune with God and with one another.

How many more different props and costume changes can a single play have?  How many more shiny things can I own?

It is we who take something like nature – which is amoral, impartial, and anarchic — come in and bring judgments and value-claims such as kindness and cruelty, meaning and order to the whole thing.  But nature itself, outside of a human left-brain-mind, is a blank canvas for our projection.

And humans have been working for millennia to make nature a safe, organized place:

But any attempt to control a single variable in a natural system will only result in more variables becoming chaotic.  This is because a natural system is at rest.  It is at equilibrium and can stay at equilibrium without any energy input indefinitely.

When force is applied to one part of the system, the other parts react proportionately in an attempt to restore that equilibrium point.

This is man’s fall [which is pride] — setting themselves up as Gods in their own right — trying to control the world with control, dominion, and compulsion – instead of just being spontaneously, naturally — as we suppose children or animals to be – and allowing our kingdom to flow unto us without compulsory means.

When Isaiah the prophet was told to prophesy to Israel, the Lord said:

Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot.  And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

God gave humans barefeet because He covered the Earth in dirt and grass.  But man thought he could do better than God and he covered the world in concrete.  So man had to invent shoes to walk on the concrete.

One thing we do begets the need to do another thing in response [so on and so forth], until we reach the point we are at currently, where we spend most of our energy fighting to control what our attempts at control have caused.

The structure. 

We’ve separated ourselves within our little families with the minimum amount of adults required, each having our own properties and our own possessions – to such an extent that we miss out on the richness of oneness with others – the simple salve of being freely connected to all our human brothers and sisters.

That safety in numbers that comes as we gather.  Our souls cry-out for this connection and free association – but like when the body is missing a necessary component or nutrient, we may be able to cope but can never truly be made whole without it.

This satisfying level of community comes as human-beings connect with other human-beings.  A husband, wife, and resulting children look exactly like how the scriptures define a paradisaical, Zion community — the kind of community believers in Christ are supposed to be building, making it “on earth“, as it is “in heaven“.

Such a body of believers in Christ [who are bound by both kinship and shared belief] should continue to grow itself along the same lines — as a family.

Families meet together naturally, they do not “have meetings”.  Going door-to-door, handing out religious tracts – that’s advertising.  That’s marketing religion and religious paraphernalia.

Church and missionary work are about being engaged in gathering the tribes of Israel – gathering people out from among the tribes of the earth.  Everyone who comes unto Christ, whether they are of the direct bloodline of Israel [Jacob] or not [a Gentile], is automatically numbered among the house of Israel when they are converted to the Lord.   The covenants that the church priesthood administers are what takes unrelated believers in Christ and binds them [knits them] together into bona-fide tribes of Israel – the Lord’s family.

The reason we are all “one in Christ” is that we all become His sons and daughters.  That rebirth is fundamentally conceived of and described along tribal lines:

• it is patterned after the image of being embraced by a bendoin sheik and being brought into his tent.
• it is the chain of eternal family sealings going back to Adam and Eve.
• it is the fathers’ hearts turning to children and the children’s hearts to the fathers.

It’s all tribal in nature.

When we take unrelated believers in Christ and knit them together by covenant into a family – we restore the tribal notion of Israel, a separate people-group, or nation of kings & priests and queens & priestesses.

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Seeking the Good of Others

Meat Sacrificed to Idols:

One of the issues in the first-century church that was addressed in writing by Paul concerned meat that had been sacrificed to idols.  Debates over what to eat might seem strange within a church established by a man who said:

“Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?”

However, as formerly pagan/Roman converts began joining congregations of the church of Jesus Christ, an issue arose concerning the eating of meat.

Pleasing the Romans gods thru animal sacrifice resulted in temples having more meat than their priests and priestesses could eat.  So, as a source of income, the temples would sell the extra meat to vendors — who would in turn sell that meat in the marketplace for general consumption.  Thus, it was common for meat sold in the marketplace to have been previously consecrated as a sacrifice to a Roman god.  The Jews stayed away from such meat because they were wary of the chances encountering the “unclean” food-handling practices and they believed that to partake of consecrated meat was to give second-hand approval of idol worship.  The Gentiles did not believe that meat could be tainted by a sacrifice they did not participate in.  Both parties brought these preconceived cultural views on the subject with them into the church of Jesus Christ — thereby making the matter a point of contention within the church.

The council recorded in Acts 15 urged Gentile converts to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols.  In essence, the council sought to assure that at the next church sacramental meal a formerly-Jewish believer could eat meat he was served with confidence — knowing it had never been part of a sacrificial cow, and a formerly-Roman believer could not be accused of participating in idol worship.

Applying the Matter to Ourselves:

Whenever I read Paul’s writings on the subject of members of the church of Jesus Christ eating meat that had was considered “unclean” by some — I can’t help but think of the current LDS views on things like meat, caffeinated drinks, beer, and wine.  So last week, I read thru 1 Corinthians 8-10, imagining that Paul was writing to church members today on the subject of the Word of Wisdom.

Paul’s Law of Offense = Seek the good of others instead of being concerned for your own good:

The following was taken from 1 Corinthians 8-10.

Some people might think that all things are lawful for them because of justification by faith or because of all the knowledge they have on the issue.  While the freedom in Christ or the knowledge you obtain may make you feel important, it is love that strengthens the church of God.  If you claim to know all the answers, then you don’t really know very much.  However, the person who loves God – the same is known by Him.

Whether or not everything is lawful for you – not everything is expedient or constructive.

You may be able to consume any food or drink without raising questions of moral conscience within yourself because you understand that everything from the earth comes from the Lord.  Why should your freedom be limited by what someone else thinks?  If you are capable of enjoying all things that come from God, then why should you be condemned for it?  We can’t win God’s approval by what we eat – you won’t lose anything if you abstain, and you won’t gain anything if you partake.  So whether you eat or drink – whatever you do – do it all to glorify God.

However, not all believers understand this.  Some are accustomed to thinking that words of wisdom concerning diet are commandments – and their weak consciences will be offended.

Should a non-member ask you over to his or her house, by all means go if you want to and eat whatever is offered to you, out of respect for their hospitality.  But then should a member there point out that the food or drink served ought to be considered morally objectionable to you because of your religion – don’t consume it out of consideration for the one who told you.  For you must be careful that your freedom doesn’t cause another of a weaker conscience to stumble.

If your superior knowledge on a subject were to encourage a believer to do something they believe is wrong, then you would be sinning against Christ because he died for that person too.

If my dietary choices would cause another believer to sin, then may I never break the “commandments” outlined in any words of wisdom concerning diet so long as I live.  I do not desire another believer to stumble.  Don’t give offense to Jews, Gentiles, or the church of God.  Try to please everyone in what you do.  Don’t just do what is best for yourself – do what is best for others, so that many may be saved.

When you are with those who are weak, you should share their weakness because you have a desire to bring the weak to Christ.  It is best to try and find common ground with people, doing everything you can that you might save some.

Even though you are a free person, with no earthly slave master, you must become a servant to all people to bring them to Christ.  When you are with Jews, live like a Jew to bring them to Christ.  When you are with members who strictly adhere to Church™ teachings, live under that law – even though you are not subject to that law, do so in order to bring Christ to them.  When you are with Gentiles who are without the law, then also live apart from that law for the purpose of bringing them to Christ.  But you must not ignore the law of God – always obey the law of Christ.

Questions:

• Is my characterization of Paul’s teaching on offense accurate?
• What lessons can be drawn from his teaching?
• Is my connection of his teaching on eating pagan meat with the Word of Wisdom™ fair?
• Is this teaching consistent with the rest of the Scriptures?
• How can we balance Paul’s law of offense with spicing up your church experience, rebelling against body modesty, or cheerfully doing all things?

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Intellectuals

The recent uploading of the Moura “Joseph Smith” Daguerreotype has brought a lot of attention (and criticism) to this blog, especially from intellectual quarters. Intellectuals and myself are like water and oil: we don’t mix, at all. In order to explain why I’ll have to get a little personal…

When I was just a kid, my scores were so much higher than my classmates that my teacher decided to split our class into three sections: A, B and C. Virtually all of my friends were in the middle and lower sections. I was in the highest section with Jill, the only other high scoring classmate.

I was both happy and unhappy with this arrangement. On the one hand, Jill was the prettiest girl in class, so I was happy to spend all my time alone with her. On the other hand, as all my friends were in the middle to lower sections, I now couldn’t spend time with them. This ticked me off. It also caused a lot of tension and fights as those in the “lower class” resented those in the “upper class,” especially my friend Ryan, who had the hots for Jill, and who was insanely jealous of my “luck.”

Later, a change of schools brought me into what was termed the Gifted and Talented Program. Once again, I was separated from my friends and put into a different class, with different people. These kids were from other schools, except for myself and Jennifer, another high scorer. I noticed that they were mostly nerds and prideful, arrogant children that thought they were better than everyone else and that judged others based upon their knowledge. It made me sick to be there, as it was so anti-gospel. (By this time I had converted to Mormonism.)

At some point there came the letter that most parents would get giddy over: an invitation from MENSA to join their organization. My mother left it up to me to decide. It was a no-brainer. I tore up the letter and chucked it into the garbage. I have never regretted my decision.

Since my childhood, my experiences with intellectuals have inevitably been the same, with but few exceptions: They like to use big words. “And [Sherem, an Anti-Christ] was learned [he was an intellectual], that he had a perfect knowledge of the language of the people; wherefore, he could use much flattery, and much power of speech, according to the power of the devil.” (Jacob 7: 4) They love to quote other “authorities.” They like to presume they know whereof they are talking about and that you don’t. They like to use sarcasm. They can’t stand being corrected. They like to argue. They do not engage in edifying conversation. (See D&C 50.) They feel that their degrees and studies at a University demonstrate that they actually know something. And they judge everyone based upon what they don’t know and based upon their lack of knowledge of what the “experts” have said. “And many more such things did [Korihor, an Anti-Christ] say unto them, telling them that…every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius [intellectual power].” (Alma 30: 17)

The possession of, type of and amount of knowledge is the ruler that intellectuals use to measure others. In my early days, I was being trained as an intellectual and would have done the same thing, had God not given me an early introduction to the gospel of Jesus Christ and taught me to discard that ruler as a measuring stick. A man is not saved by knowledge. A man is saved by faith. (See my continuing series of articles on faith as I expound upon this principle.) I learned that when judging others, if one were to judge them, faith must be the measuring stick, not knowledge. But intellectuals do not agree with this assessment.

Throughout my life, I’ve come across two classes of intellectuals: LDS and non-LDS. One would think that the addition of the letters “LDS” would make a world of difference between the two, but in my experience the difference is merely in degrees. The non-LDS intellectuals are, by and large, atheists, having no faith and thus no spiritual experiences whatsoever. The LDS intellectuals have little faith and thus minimal spiritual experiences. In other words, the thread that binds them both to each other is a general lack of faith.

My experience is that LDS intellectuals get, at best, “feelings.” (Many of the non-intellectuals do, too.) Revelations (the type that you can write down) seem to be rare among LDS and even rarer (as in non-existent) among intellectual LDS. Prophecies, visions, dreams, angels? Forget it. Gift of tongues and interpretation? Lower manifestations that only happen during the mission. Administrations, operations, discerning of spirits, miracles, audible voices, etc. are all scarce among intellectuals.

I have also observed that when RM intellectuals are telling of spiritual manifestations that have happened to them, they almost always give an experience from their mission. It’s like for two years the Lord is able to humble them sufficiently to get some small measure of spiritual experience under their belts, and then upon returning home they resume their intellectual studies and spiritual mediocrity. But I emphasize that the experience was usually of small measure. Granted, small is better than nothing.

As a society we’ve come to glamorize knowledge and college degrees. An intellectual, therefore, is someone special, superior even. Many people are intimidated by them. And they try to maintain that public image and fear factor. Yet, in my own experience with them, I have found them to be the group most likely to be devoid of, or severely lacking in, faith (with but few exceptions.) Because of this, when I come across an intellectual my expectations of the encounter are usually pretty low.

I am not alone in this assessment. The Lord himself speaks of them in the harshest of terms.

Jacob said, “When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.” (2 Ne. 9: 28 )

The Lord despises intellectuals “who are puffed up because of their learning and their wisdom,” and “save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them.” (See 2 Ne. 9: 42.)

Intellectuals “contend with one another” and “teach with their learning, and deny the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance.” (See 2 Ne. 28: 4.) If you look over the Internet discussions that are occurring in intellectual circles over my recent posting of the Moura Daguerreotype, which looks like Joseph Smith’s death mask, you’ll see plenty of contention generated when anyone has a contradictory opinion. You’ll also notice the general attempt to get the Holy Ghost and all spiritual manifestations out of the discussion.

Intellectuals that are puffed up in the pride of their hearts “shall be thrust down to hell.” (See 2 Ne. 28: 15.)

The world (and the church) have generally adopted the Nephite educational model: “And the people began to be distinguished by ranks, according to their riches and their chances for learning; yea, some were ignorant because of their poverty, and others did receive great learning because of their riches.” (3 Ne. 6: 12)

Intellectuals are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (See 2 Timothy 3: 7)

So, I welcome to this blog all the intellectual, teach-me-nothing know-it-alls: the scholars, the academics, the experts, the authorities, the wannabes and their worshipers. Yes, I still think you are all one taco short of a combination plate and incapable of spiritual enlargement. (You all probably think the same of me.) Yet, although I don’t believe you’ll actually learn anything here, it’s nice to know that after all these years I’m still irritating your kind.

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