Come, Follow Me Ether 1-5: Insights By Gogo Goff

I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come, Follow Me Ether 1-5 (If you missed last week’s insights for Come, Follow Me Mormon 7-9 click here). Save this pin to read later.

Praying For Others.

“Then Jared said unto his brother: Cry again unto the Lord, and it may be that he will turn away his anger from them who are our friends, that he confound not their language.”
Ether 1:36

Jared knew the power of prayer, his brother Mahonri Moriancumer prayed and found favor in the eyes of God so that He would not confound their language, as soon as they had secured this blessing for themselves they immediately sought the same blessing for their friends and family.

Mahonri Moriancumer had great faith, all throughout the book of Ether we see his faith in action, we see the miracles that come from his prayers! We can follow the same pathway to greater faith in Jesus Christ, namely prayer and praying for others!

Moroni’s Warning To America.

“10 For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God. And it is not until the fulness of iniquity among the children of the land, that they are swept off.
11 And this cometh unto you, O ye Gentiles, that ye may know the decrees of God—that ye may repent, and not continue in your iniquities until the fulness come, that ye may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of God upon you as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done.”
Ether 2:10-11 (8-12 for the full warning)

Moroni is abridging the record of Ether when he stops and issues this warning, he flat out says “This cometh unto you, O ye Gentiles” he can not more plainly say AMERICA WAKE UP!

North and South America is a choice land, a land with a promise, serve Jesus Christ or be destroyed like the civilizations before.

“There are some things we can and must do at once if we are to stave off a holocaust of destruction. First: We must return to worship the God of this land, who is Jesus Christ. He has promised that the righteous will be preserved by His power. But we must keep the commandments of God. We must pay our tithes and offerings, keep the Sabbath day a holy day, stay morally clean, be honest in all our dealings, and have our family and personal prayers. We must live the gospel.”
~Ezra Taft Benson

Seeing the Lord.

“And he answered: Nay; Lord, show thyself unto me.”
Ether 3:10

The brother of Jared requests to see the Lord and the Lord grants his request. This is called the second comforter, when we personally are visited by Jesus Christ.

The first comforter is the Holy Ghost, His role is to lead us to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ then leads us to the Father. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught:

“After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter. …when any man obtains this last Comforter, he will have the personage of Jesus Christ to attend him, or appear unto him from time to time, and even He will manifest the Father unto him”
(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,149–51).

How Do We Know?

“But he that believeth these things which I have spoken, him will I visit with the manifestations of my Spirit, and he shall know and bear record. For because of my Spirit he shall know that these things are true; for it persuadeth men to do good.”
Ether 4:11

“How does one know what is true”? is the grand question and it is called epistemology in academia. In Christian epistemology, they set the Bible as the highest source of truth. The problem with this is two-fold.
1st It places a book called the Bible as the final authority, not God.
2nd It requires the cannon to be closed, effectively saying that God spoke not speaks, He cared not cares, and He loved not loves.

As Latter-Day Saints, we rejoice in the knowledge that just like in times prior God speaks directly to us today! Modern revelation, which requires an open cannon, reconfirms the divine truth of God’s consistent love towards all mankind past, present, and future.

We cherish all scripture, but we are willing to accept ALL truth that God desires to give us. Just like the saints in the days of the Apostles accepted a New Testament even though they had an Old Testament.

The Bible teaches us that the words of God to Noah were not enough for the people of Moses, nor the words of God to Moses enough for the people of David, nor David for Christ. And the Gospels were not enough for the people in the days of the Apostles. So why would that change?

The truth of the matter is, whenever there is an authorized servant of God in the land he delivers truth from God to the people. This is how scripture is written! “whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture” D&C 68:4

We seek God and follow Living Prophets, our highest source of epistemology is the Spirit of truth which delivers truth from God Himself! We turn to the Law Giver and His Spirit to guide us in these latter days. The Apostles and Prophets in our day work just like in the days of old, they teach and preach what they are given by the Holy Ghost (Who is the messenger of Christ) and in turn we seek a divine individual confirmation and then we have the mouth of two witnesses and we can know our epistemology accurate.

I am thankful that God is willing to send the Holy Ghost to testify of truth to us, of truth TODAY. That we need not only rely upon the word to Moses, Noah, and David, but we have the word of God to US in OUR Day. Because He loves us the same as Noah, Moses, and David!

Repentance, Grace, and God.

“And if it so be that they repent and come unto the Father in the name of Jesus, they shall be received into the kingdom of God.” Ether 5:5

Moroni here echoes the New Testament teaches of Jesus Christ, who declared in Luke 13:3 “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Jesus commanded us to repent, the apostles echoed the command in their teachings, (see Mark 6:12, Acts 3:19, Revelations 3:19)

But why? Why the huge theme of repentance? Because a notion pushed by Satan was coming, the notion was that our works were evil and of no avail.
James strongly rebuked the concept of faith without works when he declared “faith, if it hath not works, is dead” he followed it up by “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” (James 2:17,19)

What is the difference between the Devil and you? REPENTANCE!
Repentance is not to earn Salvation, let me repeat that. Repentance does not earn Salvation. Repentance is a prerequisite set by the Father before Grace can be enacted. So that mercy does not rob justice.

Helaman 5:10-11 “…the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins.

And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance; therefore he hath sent his angels to declare the tidings of the conditions of repentance, which bringeth unto the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls.”

It is by Grace that we are saved, it is by Grace that anyone is saved. But without repentance, we reject that Grace, repentance is the act of accepting grace. One can not come unto God and not desire to repent.