Abomination of Desolation

There is something different when I read the Savior's words. While I was reading this part of the references, I didn't even look at where they were from, I was just kind of skimming the words. But when I hit the reference in Matthew, it felt different. Maybe because it was familiar, but I would like to think that it is because of something else.

Another scripture referencing scripture - there is a couple of reference to Daniel, and then in Mark 13:14 it says:

14 ¶ But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:

In 1 Nephi 22:13-23, it talks some about end of the world type of stuff. A few weeks ago, I saw a special on the Discovery Channel on Revelations - and honestly the special stunk as far as specials go, but it made me start to think. I've been taught some stuff on the end of the world, and I've done some of my own study on it, but it seems like I've come up with some contradictory conclusions. Sort of. When it talks about the wicked being burned and the righteous being saved, is it literal or figurative? I guess with all the horrible calamities that will happen people will die, but maybe it is also their own burning with guilt and shame when Christ is standing right in front of them? Maybe? The thing with the end of the world, is that the details aren't really clear and I think that is on purpose.

This topic ends well with Joseph Smith Translation Matthew 1:12 which says:

12 When you, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, then you shall stand in the holy place; whoso readeth let him understand.

What I take from this is that bad things happen, and when you see these bad things that happen and recognize them, stand your ground, know who you are - in other words, if you have been a disciple of Christ all your lives, don't stop being one, even if the world literally is falling apart around you.

Abomination

Topics without scriptures: Abominable Church.

What first struck me was how many "see also"s there were for this topic. 13! And I guess it would be noteworthy to say that five of those are directly about sexual sin. Since this is a place where I can just shoot off my own ideas and impressions, I guess I'll do that.

I came up with an analogy when I was in high school that represents my views on sin. When we sin, it is like we are making a mark on a chalk board. When we repent, it means we are letting Christ come in and wash the chalk board clean. The thing is, is that the person isn't evil, the piece of chalk is - you don't hate the person, you love the person, but you can still hate the piece of chalk. Separating the sinner from the sin isn't easy, and it isn't suppose to be easy. After all, if salvation was easy to get, would it really be something we would want?

Another thing really fast, as far as homosexuality goes and people trying to use the Bible to say it is ok - what is there argument for Leviticus 20:13?

I guess what also hit me as cool, was there were a lot of verse from Ezekiel, and then in D&C 29:21 it says:

21 And the great and abominable church, which is the whore of all the earth, shall be cast down by devouring fire, according as it is spoken by the mouth of Ezekiel the prophet, who spoke of these things, which have not come to pass but surely must, as I live, for abominations shall not reign.

So I thought that was cool how scriptures reference each other. Kind of like the Book of Mormon I was reading the end part, and Moroni (or was it Mormon) goes off about Abinadi and how what he said was really important - all the way back in Mosiah! Kind of makes you think, if something was important enough to be referenced somewhere else in the scriptures, maybe it should be thought about. The only problem is that Moroni also said to study Isaiah... ug. Well, I guess it is never too late to pray for inspiration!

Abominable

In the scriptures, specifically the Book of Mormon, specifically Nephi/Nephi quoting Isaiah, there are references to the "Abominable Church." There have been speculation by people, even people of high Church standing, but there is something important to know about where my Church gets official doctrine. Basically, it is anything said during our semi-annual world wide conference called General Conference. During this conference, leaders in our church speak to the entire church body, and in reality the entire world, on doctrinal points and such - and we take what they say to be official church doctrine.

In April 1988 General Conference, Elder Packer (one of the 12 living Apostles) gave a talk called "Atonement, Agency, Accountability" where he defines the abominable church using a scriptures from 2 Nephi 10:16

“Wherefore, he that fighteth against Zion, both Jew and Gentile, both bond and free, both male and female, shall perish; for they are they who are the whore of all the earth; for they who are not for me are against me, saith our God”

So basically the abominable church is really just a grouping of all people who are opposed to building up God's Kingdom. It really isn't that complicated.

Another point that there is an emphasis that sexual sin is the third most abominable sin you can commit, next to murder and denying the Holy Ghost. It also talks about how once you have a change of heart, people will try and get you to go back to your old way of living - but once you have you're eyes opened to the fact that there are sides (God's side or wickedness) you have to make a choice what side you're going to be on.

The idea that struck me the most though, that was a new idea to me, was from Leviticus 18:30

30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God.

I have been pondering for the past couple years WHY ordinances are important, like baptism. I knew that it had something to do with an outward expression of your devotion, and I knew it had something to do with the fact that doing something physical was important because the fact that we have bodies is important - but I never thought of ordinances as a way to protect ourselves from doing wickedness. I guess there is a right way and a wrong way to outwardly worship God - and God didn't want us doing things that he would consider abominable, even if our hearts were in the right place. This is kind of an understand example, but it might be like stealing an engagement ring for your fiancee. Sure when you give it to them it has all the same good lovey feelings, but how you went about it would probably horrify a lot of girls. I guess ordinances might be seen in kind of the same way, where God has laid out for us HOW he wants us to go about showing our devotion to him, so we don't accidentally sin.

Abode

Topics without scriptures: Abner

Yesterday I went to the Space Needle, and while I was sitting inside at a table, sipping my hot chocolate, I noticed a janitor moving between the visitors like a ghost. No one looked at him, and he kept his eyes down as he went about his job of sweep up trash that the thoughtless crowd left on the ground, probably without even realizing that they were leaving it for him. What amazed me, was how everyone did such a good job at ignoring him that even though they were smashed in that room and were within inches of his person, they acted as if he wasn't even there.

There are times in all of our lives when we feel like this, that the rest of the world is so close to us but at the same time has chosen to make us invisible. Whether it is sitting in a crowed cafeteria, walking down the street or all alone in your apartment with the noises of the city and other living people only one wall away, it is so easy to feel like you must not really exist because if you did then all these other people would notice you.

There were only two scriptures for this topic, and the scripture that I want to focus on is 2 Kings 19:27

27 But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.

God knows where we are, where our feet fall. When the rest of the world might not know or care, he knows and cares about where we are. All that negative depressing stuff I just wrote above, gets cancelled out with the happy and comforting news that God always knows where we are and we are NEVER invisible to him.

Able

Topics without scriptures: Abimelech.

When I read these verses, there were two themes that stuck out to me. One was what God was able to do, and the other was what we are able to do. One of the main arguments against the LDS Church is that we aren't Christian because others think we believe in being saved by works. This is a huge misunderstanding probably due to vocabulary differences and other details of miscommunication. To set the record straight we DO believe in being saved by grace and that we can do nothing to get salvation because it is a gift - but we also believe that to be a true disciple of Christ we need to do what he has commanded us. We can't get to Heaven without Christ's merciful sacrifice and atonement - but we can and are expected to cultivate faith and then to act on that faith.

Why I bring this up is that a very large percentage of these scriptures are about what God is able to do, with only a few talking about what we are able to do. This reminded me of the argument above because in the end, it is about God and what he is able to do. Men can try and push us around, but God can do anything and is all powerful. The only thing he can't do is lie - and I believe that he is also incapable of not loving us. That means that the things that happen in our lives are because God is allowing them to happen, not because some other person is powerful enough to control our lives.

Someone I know asked me why doesn't God just show himself so we would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was here - arguing that we would still have our agency and we would still be able to make good or bad choices. My argument back is that knowing a god is not like knowing a person - it says in the scriptures so many times that when someone had a vision of God they had to be physically changed for a while because they would have died by exposure to his glory. Those people who did have those visions, became prophets. I believe that if we were faced with the God of the universe, who is all powerful, that our agency would be compromised. That we would be so impacted that we would have no desire to sin, and without sin we would be giving up the opportunity God has given us to grow closer to our Savior through the atonement. We would know beyond a shadow of a doubt, but then to me I think life would become a lot more like living through the motions until we died, without room for growth.

Ability

Topics without scriptures: Abigail.

First off, the Church is awesome as far as utilizing the internet. They have this website about/for Christmas that is pretty cool. :)

For this topic there was only four scriptures. All of them can pretty well be summed up as: God doesn't expect us to do more than our ability, but he does expect us to live up to what we can do.

Lately, I've been having a difficult time figuring out what I'm suppose to do with my life. I know "be good" and "serve others" - but as far as knowing what to do with my time specifically from when I wake up in the morning to when I go to sleep - has been pretty difficult for me. This is partially due to a chronic illness I have that makes it difficult for me to do some things - but only on some days. I wake up every morning not knowing what I'll be able to do - so how can I make goals or plans for a year from now? How can I make commitments when I don't even know what I'll be capable of an hour from now? Needless to say, the above extraction from my study is more than just a good idea - it is a challenge for me to practically apply it every minute of my life.

In Matthew 25:15 it says

15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.

This is from the parable of the Talents - where a rich man gives some money to each of his servants before he goes away on a journey. When he gets back he finds out that the first two servants had invested their money and had doubled what he had originally given them, making him very pleased with them. But the last servant was so scared of losing his talent that he buried it in the ground - and the rich man was mad at him.

What has God given me? What are my abilities and "talents"? When I'm really sick and can do little more than sit in bed, I start making a mental list of what I CAN do. The list might be short compared to what I could do before I became sick, but all because some days I have only 1 talent as opposed to 5 talents, God still expects me not to waste my life away in bed.

As Christmas is approaching, I've been thinking of "what can I do" a lot more - as I'm sure lots of people are. How can I make a difference? I can't go out and visit the poor and needy, but I can facebook a friend, call someone to see how they are doing, write a letter or volunteer my home for others to make cookies to give to people. These are little things, but they are a whole lot more than just sitting my bed, watching TV and waiting for the day to finally be over with the hope that I'll be healthy to live up to my expectations - when really I should be thinking more about what are God's expectations for how I live out each day.

Abide

Topics without scriptures: Abiathar.

There is a Jeff Goodrich song that goes something like "The foxes have their holes, the birds have their nests, but I have nowhere to rest. I said 'Lord, I know it's just a start, I'll build Thee a home in my heart." This song was playing in the back of my head this morning while I contemplated what to write, which makes sense to me since the main ideas behind these scriptures had to do with God living in us, and us living in God.

When you think of a house, who are the people who live in that house? Family members, right? And in the old days (or if you are rich) servants live there too. So who are the people who live with Christ? Those who are his family and servants. So the question is, if I want Christ to be with me, to be a part of me and dwell in my heart - how do I become a member of his household? With Christmas coming there are lots of opportunities to run around and do good deeds like bake your neighbors cookies and such - but I think that all that is just a start. While the road to Hell may be paved with good intentions, I think the road to Heaven is paved with small, everyday kindness. John basically says this in 1 John 2:6

6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

There are a lot of "he"s in there, so when I read it it was more like this:

"he that saith He abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked."

The uppercase "He" is meant to be Christ, and the lowercase "he" is meant to be us. I think Christ did small, everyday acts all the time, and then when the big ones came it was only natural because of his nature. Obviously because Christ was, well, Christ, he was going to do good - but the example is there. If we are going to claim to be Christians, that means to "walk, even as he walked" or to do as he did.

Another interesting point I found in my study was that in Matthew 10:11 Christ tells his disciples (were they Apostles by this point?) that while they go out and preach to find someone who was worthy and then stay at that house until they were done preaching in that town. Then in Luke 19:5 Christ tells Zacchaeus, a sinner that no one likeed, that he is going to stay with him. So what makes someone worthy? I highly doubt Zacchaeus felt worthy or had it in his mind to be host to Jesus when he went out to see him. Christ is the one who determines our worthiness, not our neighbors or friends or family or even ourselves. Maybe what made Zacchaeus worthy was the fact that he REALLY wanted to see Jesus - that he wanted to have Jesus be a part of his life in anyway he thought he could, and then Jesus did the rest. Zacchaeus opened the door of his heart without even knowing it, and Jesus never will reject walking through a doorway that is opened to him.

This idea of Abiding has really struck me. The idea behind abiding isn't for someone to come and visit for a minute or two - or just on holidays like our relatives do around Christmas. It is about living somewhere - clearing out space and having Christ actually be a member of all your meals, in the room for all your conversation, have what decorations you have in your house be his decorations, and whenever you look inside yourself or figuratively "come home" - having him be there.