I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come, Follow Me for Doctrine and Covenants 18-19. If you missed last week’s insight, Doctrine and Covenants 14-17 click here for it. Please share this with your friends or use this picture to save this pin to read later.
A world “ripening in iniquity”
“Behold, the world is ripening in iniquity; and it must needs be that the children of men are stirred up unto repentance, both the Gentiles and also the house of Israel.” Doctrine and Covenants 18:6
We live in a nation and world where immorality is excused and accepted, where following the councils of the Prophet is scorned and where evil is called good and good evil. As the world drives ever further into chaos let us remember the warning of the Prophet Ezra Taft Benson, Who said:
“As the issues become clearer and more obvious, all mankind will eventually be required to align themselves either for the kingdom of God or for the kingdom of the devil. As these conflicts rage, either secretly or openly, the righteous will be tested. God’s wrath will soon shake the nations of the earth and will be poured out on the wicked without measure.” (I testify, October Conference 1988)
Let us repent and follow the Prophet for surely there is safety in following his words and only in following the Prophet do we qualify for the blessings “God will provide strength for the righteous and the means of escape; and eventually and finally truth will triumph.” Ezra Taft Benson
Endless Punishment
10 For, behold, the mystery of godliness, how great is it! For, behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name. Wherefore—
11 Eternal punishment is God’s punishment.
12 Endless punishment is God’s punishment.
Doctrine and Covenants 19:10-12
One of the biggest revelations in Doctrine and Covenants 19 is the Lord clarifying the true meaning of two terms that the scriptures use repeatedly, Endless and Eternal as actual tiles of Christ. This clarification is something that we as members of the Church often take for granted.
Our belief in Spirit Prison aka hell being a temporary holding place is not a commonly held belief. Many Christians believe that when the scriptures refer to hell/spirit prison as endless fire and torment they think it legitimately means that its duration is endless, these verses clearly that it is not endless in duration but that it is God’s punishment and torment. This is vitally important when one understands that the Plan of Salvation is a plan from a loving Father. One who is not seeking to damn His children, but rather exalt them. This also helps us understand that Eternal Life, is literally God’s life, therefore it is exaltation.
For more insights on the titles of Christ, check out this article, “Seven Insights We Gain By Understanding The Titles of Jesus Christ”
The Bondage of Debt.
“Pay the debt thou hast contracted with the printer. Release thyself from bondage.” Doctrine and Covenants 19:35
Not all debt is bad, but all debt is bondage. The Prophets and Apostles have given us THREE times in which they outline when “Some debt…may be necessary.” they are.
1st “a modest home”
2nd “expenses for education”
3rd “perhaps for a needed first car”
Other than these three exceptions, debt is evil. The root of debt is covetousness which is ingratitude and contempt of God’s plans for us. Covetousness leads us to seek things that God does not intend for us at the time. God has provided us with every needful thing or the means by which to acquire them. Surely buying a sofa or TV is not evil, but if we can not afford to buy that sofa and we go into debt to buy it, it is wrong. It leads us into bondage. Here are four powerful quotes about debt:
“From my earliest recollections, from the days of Brigham Young until now, I have listened to men standing in the pulpit … urging the people not to run into debt; and I believe that the great majority of all our troubles today is caused through the failure to carry out that counsel.”
Heber J. Grant
Joseph B. Wirthlin
“Many of our people are living on the very edge of their incomes. In fact, some are living on borrowings. …I urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt to the extent possible. Pay off debt as quickly as you can, and free yourselves from bondage.”
Gordon B. Hinckley
“Do not leave yourself or your family unprotected against financial storms. … Build up savings.”
Ezra Taft Benson
“If there is any one thing that will bring peace and contentment into the human heart, and into the family, it is to live within our means. And if there is any one thing that is grinding and discouraging and disheartening, it is to have debts and obligations that one cannot meet”
Heber J. Grant
“Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you”
J. Reuben Clark Jr
“I am troubled by the huge consumer installment debt which hangs over the people of the nation, including our own people…I recognize that it may be necessary to borrow to get a home, of course. But let us buy a home that we can afford and thus ease the payments which will constantly hang over our heads without mercy or respite for as long as 30 years.”
Gordon B. Hinckley