Avraham’s Mailbox

Question: Would not the spiritual kings and queens of the Gentiles who gather God’s “sons” and “daughters” of the house of Israel (Isaiah 49:22–23) be themselves of the house of Israel? Answer: Hosea’s prophecy that “Ephraim has assimilated among the nations (hitboleil ba’amim); Ephraim is an unturned pancake” (Hosea 7:8) affirms Jacob’s birthright blessing on […]

Question: What does Isaiah teach about how to live through the time when his prophecies are starting to be fulfilled, especially as it concerns members of the church? Answer: While the words of Isaiah spell out ahead of time how the end of the world is going to unfold, they indeed also reveal what pulls

Question: How can you tell the difference between when Isaiah is speaking about the Lord and when he is speaking about the servant? Answer: Whereas the Lord identifies himself as the God of Israel, the servant does not. Each refers to the other as a different person than himself. Yet, both suffer in the course

Question: On one hand Nephi says that in order to understand the things of the prophets one must understand “the manner of the things of the Jews” (2 Nephi 25:5). On the other hand he says, “I have not taught them many things concerning the manner of the Jews; for their works were works of

Question: How is the law translated beings observe different from that of other celestial people? Answer: While all celestial persons such as God’s elect keep a celestial law, some do so on a higher spiritual level than others. What set the three Nephite disciples of Jesus who inherited the Father’s kingdom apart from the nine

Question: How can one who is single act as a king or queen as that title implies marriage of a man and woman? Answer: The ministry of a king or queen as defined in the scriptures depends upon the law a person keeps. In Isaiah’s theology, that is the law of the Davidic Covenant. In

Question: Does Isaiah indicate who it is that will reign with Christ for a thousand years according to what John saw in Revelation 20:4? Answer: John said, “I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of

Question: With so much craziness in the world, are the prophecies of Isaiah already starting to be fulfilled? Answer: Although Isaiah’s prophecies deal with a specific end-time scenario called the “Day of the Lord”—God’s Day of Judgment upon a wicked world—the backstory of that time period contains elements already familiar in our culture today. Here

Question: How does Isaiah describe the gathering of Israel? Answer: The gathering of Israel is an integral part of Israel’s end-time restoration. It takes the form of a literal, physical exodus of elect remnants of Israel’s twelve tribes from among all nations at the onset of a worldwide destruction: “I will bring your offspring from

Question: What does the Savior mean when he says, “Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another” (Matthew 24:10)? What will offend them? Answer: Jesus is speaking of the time shortly before his second coming, of which Isaiah prophesies, when those “who are vigilant for his word” would

Question: Does Isaiah 20 mean the Lord’s end-time servant will preach to the USA for three years before the great destruction? Answer: Egypt’s function as a codename of America in the Book of Isaiah, and Isaiah’s typifying the servant, suggest that he will indeed give three years’ warning before three years of God’s judgments upon

Questions: (1) Is the Savior a type for the servant? Or can someone greater be the type of someone lesser? (2) Could our continual focus on the servant be in some ways eclipsing the Savior himself? Answer: Rather than seeing the Savior as a type of his servant, it is more in line with typological