Avraham’s Mailbox

Question: Does Isaiah mention anything about the changing of sacred ordinances? Answer: Isaiah describes both the blessings that come with observing pure ordinances and the curses that come from changing them. The purpose of temple ordinances or sacred rites of passage, for example, is to enter into God’s presence—as “when you come to see me” […]

Question: Does Isaiah mention anything about the existence of a heavenly Mother? Answer: Isaiah uses a beautiful a–b–a mini-chiasm to identify humanity’s “Maker” as our “Father” (‘av) and his “Wife/Woman” (‘ishah) as she who gives birth to his “sons/children” (banai). Isaiah 45:9–11 Woe to those in conflict with their Maker, mere shards of earthenware pottery!

Question: How do the two witnesses of Revelations 11:3 fit with the end-time servant prophecy? Do they follow the end-time servant? Are they some of the servants he calls as mentioned in Jacob 5:70? Where does their ministry fit in the timeline of the last seven years before Christ comes? Answer: Because a majority of

Question: An author recently made a convincing case that the newly crowned king of England is the Antichrist. Is that possible? Answer: The king of England does not fit the scriptural pattern of the end-time Antichrist. Isaiah depicts the Antichrist as the tyrannical ruler of a militaristic world power from the North—from an end-time “Assyria”—who

Question: Is it possible that the Servant in Isaiah’s prophecy is the people of Israel? Answer: There exist two “servants” in Isaiah’s prophecy: (1) the collective servant, who are God’s people on the Jacob/Israel level of Isaiah’s spiritual ladder; and (2) the individual servant, who is on Isaiah’s seraph level. At a time when God’s

Question: If Abinadi quotes chapter 53 of Isaiah to the priests of King Noah to convince them that the Holy One of Israel will be born on the earth as the Son of God, why does Abinadi quote the last two verses of chapter 53 about God’s Servant. Isn’t all of chapter 53 about Jesus

Question: I recently read an article on an LDS Internet site that viciously vilified Brother Gileadi. It stated that the servant in the book of Isaiah is Jesus Christ and that Brother Gileadi is wrong about the latter-day David. Joseph Smith, the article claimed, said this David or servant is Jesus Christ. What is Brother

Question: How do we know from Isaiah when the Davidic Servant described therein is referring to Jesus Christ, or Joseph Smith, or some future person; or maybe all three at once? Answer: First, having imbedded many literary features in his book that prove his prophecies form an end-time scenario—one that uses the history of his

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