Question: I’m having difficulty sorting out which laws or terms of God’s covenants apply on different spiritual levels and how these covenants connect to one another. That includes the Ten Commandments, baptism, and temple covenants. Can you clarify? Answer: Of three major covenants God made with his people and with individuals—the Sinai, Davidic, and Abrahamic […]
Question about the Interrelationship of God’s Covenants Read More »
Have you wondered whether the Hebrew prophets wrote down revelations precisely as God gave them, or whether they added their own thoughts and ideas? Isaiah, for example, was a literary genius as well as an inspired prophet of God. His writings exhibit many layered literary devices. These mechanics of prophesying show an amazing deliberation in
Isaiah Uses Historical Precedents as Types of Things to Come Read More »
“This is to me as in the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would no more flood the earth. So I swear to have no more anger toward you, never again to rebuke you. For the mountains shall be removed and the hills collapse with shaking, but my charity toward
Ancient Types of End-Time Events Read More »
Jesus’ saying that he came to bring “division” on the earth—so much that families would divide against themselves (Luke 12:51–53)—in no way contradicted his most solemn prayer that his disciples might be one in him as he is one in the Father (John 17). It merely affirmed that the truth he personified would act as
Grounds for a Great Division Read More »
The Jewish historian Josephus recounts how a kind of psychosis and barbarity overcame the Jews around 70 A.D., when a million perished at the hands of the Romans. As the world’s end-time scenario sees a recurrence of all past evils, we may expect to see—and do already see—a similar spiritual, emotional, and mental imbalance in
A Psychology of Insanity Read More »
Question: In what ways is the fulness of gospel different from the basic principles of the gospel? Answer: After we define the gospel’s basic principles as faith in Jesus Christ, repentance of transgressions, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost—the latter
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“Their feet rush after evil; they hasten to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are preoccupied with mischief; havoc and disaster follow in their wake. They are unacquainted with the way of perfection; integrity is not within their bounds. They have made crooked their paths; none who treads them knows peace.” (Isaiah 59:7–8) “Jehovah of Hosts
Deconstruction and Reconstruction Read More »
Many persons maintain that God will nullify prophecies of doom if people repent. They cite Jonah’s prophecy of the destruction of Nineveh as an example. The people of Nineveh repented of wickedness and God did not destroy Nineveh as he said he would. Jonah became embarrassed and angry when God seemed to go back on
A Literal Fulfillment of Prophecy Read More »
Explanation: Souls who choose the opposite of keeping God’s laws atrophy to where they no longer resemble who they used to be. Isaiah uses imagery of physical impairments, vegetation, and the spirits of beasts to portray people who lose the light they once had. Their destruction in God’s Day of Judgment that is coming upon
Spiritual Levels—De-Creation Read More »
Rue the day that a great nation such as ours should descend into a culture of carnality that marks a spiritual point of no return! When the eternal principles established by God on which this nation was founded are replaced with ones the same God articulated as abominations, we must know—from where the prophet Isaiah
The Sodomization of Society Read More »
“Your palms are defiled with blood, your fingers with iniquity; your lips speak guile, your tongue utters duplicity. None calls for righteousness; no one sues for an honest cause. They rely on empty words, deceitfully spoken; they conceive misdeeds, they beget wickedness. They hatch vipers’ eggs and spin spiders’ webs; whoever eats of their eggs
The De-Created—Briars, Reptiles, Feral Animals Read More »
Explanation: As people ascend the spiritual ladder by keeping the laws of God’s covenants pertaining to each level, God re-creates them closer to his own image and likeness. By keeping the laws God has decreed, they grow more like God and acquire his divine attributes. Isaiah’s creation theme shows that God continues to create or
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