Avraham’s Mailbox

Question: Some say members of the church are no longer experiencing the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost that should accompany the ordinance of baptism by one having authority. Because of that, they throw into doubt whether priesthood authority still exists in the church. Answer: Fulfilling Jesus’ prediction about false prophets arising before […]

Question: If God’s divine protection under the terms of the Sinai Covenant required Israel’s righteousness to a man as in the book of Joshua, how does that translate into God’s protection in the church today? Answer: Because the collective Sinai Covenant God made with his people Israel (as distinct from individual covenants) continues to operate

Question: In preparation for Isaiah, I read the following from the Come Follow Me manual: “For the most part, people today aren’t the primary audience of the Old Testament prophets. Those prophets had immediate concerns they were addressing in their time and place—just as our latter-day prophets address our immediate concerns today.” Does prophecy from

Question: What is meant by this verse from D&C 1:14: “And the arm of the Lord shall be revealed; and the day cometh that they who will not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants, neither give heed to the words of the prophets and apostles, shall be cut off

Question: What do the scriptures say about the gathering of Israel? Answer: These are two questions: (1) who do the scriptures define as Israel? And (2) what do they say about Israel’s gathering? In the context of “gathering” Israel, it is “the house of Israel” that is gathered and the timeframe is the end of

Question: Given that there are seven spiritual levels of people Isaiah has identified in his prophecy, how do you ascend from one level to the next? Answer: The quick answer is that to experience rebirth or ascent to a higher spiritual level one must keep the law of God’s covenant that pertains to that level.

Question: How can we tell the difference between a person experiencing trials and tribulations versus experiencing covenant curses? Answer: Like the people of Alma the Elder who repented of their iniquities at the Waters of Mormon and settled the Land of Helam, the consequences of their former transgressions still followed them even though they had

Question: In this day, what does it look like to be a proxy savior when we don’t have “vassal kings” such as King Benjamin or King Hezekiah? Or is that referring to yet a future time? Is the temple endowment enough to enter into the fulness of the Davidic Covenant or is there more to

Question: What does the gospel being taken from the Gentiles entail? So many are leaving the church, is that what it refers to? Answer: Knowing that to date the restored church consists mostly of Ephraimite Gentiles—that is, of Ephraimite lineages who “assimilated” (yitbolal) into the Gentiles (Hosea 7:8), “who are identified with the Gentiles” (Doctrine

Question: I hear Dr Gileadi say the knowledge in the book Isaiah is part of the covenant blessing. So far I have not found a scriptural basis for that. Can you please kindly show where I can find it in the Bible? Isaiah 53:11 says “He shall see the toil of his soul and be

Question: The prophets and apostles are not teaching false teachings now, nor are they going to. The church is not going to fall away. The church does not and will not need to be set in order (other than as directed by Christ through President Nelson and the next prophet if there is another before

Question: If the scriptures say the end-time church has apostatized, why should we continue to be members of it? Answer: Although there exist many prophecies that speak of a general apostasy of God’s end-time people—and of the judgments of God that come upon all nations as a consequence—a prophecy of the church’s ceasing to exist