Avraham’s Mailbox

Question: Does Isaiah offer counsel for how to wade through end-time challenges? Answer: While Isaiah informs us of a lot of bad news about the world’s end-time scenario and the part God’s people’s play in it, his main objective is to warn us and reveal the way God has ordained for his people not just […]

Question: Do we have any idea from the words of Isaiah what the kings of the Gentiles had not heard or considered, as prophesied in Isaiah 52:15 and quoted by Jesus in 3 Nephi 20:45 and 21:8? Answer: The passage in question shows that it is God’s end-time servant who sets the stage for the

Question: I don’t fully understand the atonement and repentance. If Jesus paid the price for our sins so that we might overcome spiritual death, why is it we have to pay the price for iniquities? Wasn’t the price paid by Jesus already? What is repentance? I know this seems basic but I have had a

Question: Why hasn’t Jesus shown himself in person to the Gentiles, including the Latter-day Saints, as he did to the Jews, Nephites, and Ten Tribes? Answer: To the house of Israel—whom Paul defines as “his people whom he [God] foreknew” (Romans 11:2)—pertain certain blessings that accrue from previous spiritual experience. People have called this preceding

Question: Do we know from the scriptures the nature of the veil spoken of in Ether 4:15, which the Gentiles are invited to rend? Answer: A true definition of what constitutes the veil can be gleaned from analyzing and comparing many scriptural instances of the word “veil.” Discerning a scriptural “pattern in all things” serves

Question: As per your excerpt from Endtime Prophecy, p 401-402, in last week’s email, is there evidence that could implicate today’s LDS ecclesiastical leaders in priestcraft and secret combinations? Answer (by Rodolfo Vergara): Literary evidence indicates that the Book of Mormon was written to those Gentiles who “have care for the house of Israel” (Mormon

Question: A few weeks ago or so, I ordered your books and have read several. I want to thank you. The feeling I’ve had the past few years telling me something is missing is subsiding as I discover new truths. Why have I heard this before? Is the word “hated” in 2 Nephi 29:5 indicative

Question: I’m curious about Isaiah’s description of Judea’s and Jerusalem’s deprivation of “both staff and crutch—all food supply and water supply” in Isaiah 3:1. Where will the staff and crutch be deprived? Is it safe to assume it is here in the U.S.? We can see the lack of leadership Isaiah describes in the same

Question: I’m having difficulty with how to respond to people who judge the general authorities of the church based on what the scriptures are saying about our day, and also how to respond when I see the church, its representatives or affiliates withholding the same privileges they give to others from those who search the

Question: I would love to hear more about the temple covenants. So many Christians use the New Testament to say that the veil of the temple was rent, so that access to God changed and the temple was no more to be used. Can you write more about why temples were not to be ended,

Question: How do LDS temple covenants relate to biblical covenants such as the Sinai Covenant, Davidic Covenant, and Abrahamic Covenant that appear so prominently in the theology of Isaiah? Answer: While temple covenants are in the nature of individual covenants that Latter-day Saints make, the covenant made at baptism—in which we take upon ourselves the

Question: The general consensus among Bible scholars is that the Book of Isaiah was written by two or more authors, but the scriptures say otherwise. How should one respond to that? Answer: Liberal scholars’ main arguments for assigning several authors to the Book of Isaiah are (1) that its three different historical settings—Israel before its