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Reading assignment for Monday. October 22^nd: Genesis 8, Noah and the Flood.

 

October 15, 2018, Monday, Class number 9, Church History

Reading assignment: Genesis Chapter 6, D&C 104, and 36 (same as Genesis 7: 4-78, IV)

During the beginning of the class, we reviewed the story of Cain and Abel. A few points:

• There existed during this time the secret combinations of men which were used to get gain.Murder was referred to as common.
• The women were not informed about the oaths.
• Satan is using these organizations to cause the downfall of men on earth.
• We can assume that church ordinances were not honored.
• The descendants of Cain are telling many others of the men of Adam and this causes all men to fear for their lives, that someone might decide to murder them.

Verse 32 begins the story of Lamech’s telling his wives that he has murdered Irad, his great grandfather because Irad was telling others about the secret oaths.  Lamech’s wives rebelled against him and declared these things abroad and forces Lamech to flee the land.

Returning to the story of Enoch (Jared’s son), we note in verse 29 of Genesis 6, that those who are practicing the abomination have brought upon themselves death.  We concluded that this death was a spiritual one, for they are still alive. Verse 30 says; “And an hell I….” noting that it says “an” hell which implies that there is more than one, perhaps there are different levels of hell like there are different levels of heaven (different glories).

The above verses relay to us that God is speaking to Enoch asking him to say unto the people to repent.  Enoch responds by bowing down and asking the Lord “Why is it that I have found favour in thy sight, and am I not but a lad.” Note that he is 65 years old as noted in scripture that in his 65^th the year that Enoch begins his walk with God for 365 years before he is translated. The scripture also notes that “all the people hate me, for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant.” We discussed briefly what this might mean. Did Enoch have a speech impediment? Or, does this mean that he is reluctant to speak out? In either case, The Lord blesses him, and he is able to speak out.  It is interesting also that Enoch is promised protection. I am sure that going out among the people who don’t want to hear what he has to say would be very dangerous.  Verse 39 tells us that Enoch; “went forth among the people, standing upon the hills, and high places, and cried with a loud voice.”  Note that the people called Enoch a wild man.

We continued to read through chapter six noting the gospel message that is being taught to them and is still pertinent to us today, that of repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Spirit.  We discussed some, how we can be considered clean when verses like number 40 say that “no unclean thing can dwell there” except through the blood of Christ.  It is interesting to note that in this chapter, we read that Adam was baptized (verse 67) and was born of the Spirit.  We wondered if Enoch was reading this from the Book of Remembrance or was he telling them from his memory. For, many years have passed by since the actual event, maybe up to 700 years. The scriptures do not give us any idea as to how many others may have also been baptized.  I wondered if all of them had lived out their natural lives before the flood event from which only eight people survived. I think we can assume that Noah and his sons and his son’s wives were baptized for they were appointed to allow mankind to continue.

The next class will take up with the story and the actual vision. 

Assignment: List the aspects that the people of the Order of Enoch adhere to.

 

October 11, 2018, Class number 8, Church History

Reading assignment: Genesis 5 and 6, Cain and Abel, the start of the story of Enoch

Noted: there are two persons with the name Enoch noted in Genesis:

              Genesis 5:27 IV; “Knew his wife and bare Enoch” (4:17 KJ)

              Genesis 6:21 IV; “Jared begat Enoch and taught all of the ways of God” (5:15 KJ)

We started the class by reviewing the events of chapter 4 where we hear about Adams experiences of building the altar and offering sacrifices and the angels visit.  In this we see that Adam and Eve learn of the gospel plan and that through the atonement of Christ they may be redeemed. They are then able to rejoice and respond by saying: “Blessed be the name of God, for, because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life, I shall have joy, and again, in the flesh I shall see God.”

Even though Adam and Eve rejoiced at the gospel announcement, their children did not.  Chapter 6 says that all should repent, and those that did, would be saved.

When Cain is born, Adam and Eve have some great hopes for their son, that he will be one who will accept and believe and those be the one to continue teaching the gospel.  Verse 4 covers a lot of time, because in part we see the hope of Cain’s parents who train him up in the gospel, and then the response of what we assume is a mature person who chooses to say; “Who is the Lord, that I should know him?”

Verse 5 tells us that Adam and Eve have another hope (Cain has already rejected the message) in the birth of Abel. The verse tells us that Cain is a grower of grain and Abel a shepherd. It is said that animals are of more value that grain, thus, Cain is coveting Abel’s flocks and wealth. Because animals provide meat for the table and hides for material, they were of a higher value, even though grain is needed to feed the flocks.  It was also said in the class that the work of tilling the ground to raise crops was more labor intensive than the raising of flocks. Certainly, some of the personality traits of Cain are being revealed, that of a consuming greed and self-centeredness.

I think that we can deduce, that Cain and Abel were both in the priesthood because they were able to present offerings and place them on the altars. That, at least in later years, would only have been done by priesthood. That makes the sin of Cain even more damaging, because Cain was aware of the gospel and had been “called” to serve.  He is now rejecting what he previously knew.

One question out of this, is why Cain’s offering was not acceptable. I see two reasons. One, the offering was at the bidding of Satan and not out of a reverence and belief in God. Cain’s faith was in Satan. Two, the sacrifice would need to be a blood sacrifice in order to be a type and shadow of the upcoming blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

In Cain’s despair, he allows his countenance to fall. Even at this low point in his life, the Lord comes to him and reminds him that he can still be accepted by the Lord if he will but repent. He doesn’t.  Satan now approaches him and devices a secret covenant where Cain can obtain the desires of his heart and that Satan “would do according to his commands” as long as all in done in secret. The secret plot must not become known to Adam or to anyone else who would desire to take revenge on Cain’s life do to the upcoming act.  They even enlist others to join in the secret plot.

Abel is alone with his flock and probably not due back to his family for some time when Cain seeks him out, talks to him in a friendly way, and then attacks and kills his brother. The blood falls on the earth and the earth responds.  We see here the first account of a violent, premeditated murder.  We also are told about others who know of the plot and are sworn to secrecy. Cain thinks he is in the clear.  Hebrew teachings say that Cain hid the body, so no one would find it.  Now the scriptures say that the Lord comes to Cain and confronts him.  Cain then realizes that others know about the crime and laments that surely, others will know, and I will be marked for murder by those that are angered at Abel death. This causes him to take his family and move to another region, “in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.”

We then tried to put ourselves in the place of Adam and Eve, to see just how they must have felt after learning that one son had just killed another son, who they know as a righteous man and one who can help spread the gospel message to their other children.

The scriptures now go into the genealogy of Cain.  It goes down to Lamech. This is interesting because Lamech is also a part of the secret combination society. We note in verse 33 that he tells his wives that he has killed Irad, his grandfather, for telling the sons and daughters of Adam about the secret society. We assume that the men did not tell their wives about the secrets they held.  Thus, Lamech, not wanting the secrets to get out (how men can kill others to get gain), kills Irad. Noted here that it isn’t just to get gain, but because of the oaths he had taken. He tells his wives that Cain received a promise that he would be avenged 7 times, surely, he would be avenged 70 times.

We noted how much like our world today this might be, where there are secret gangs and societies working together to get gain and to murder as a part of the initiations to get into the gang.

We also noted that these secret combinations of that day were one of the reasons for the flood, noting that Cain’s family were destroyed in the flood after 6 generations. Cain was to be avenged 7 times, once for himself, and then the 6 generations to follow.

Chapter 6 begins with the birth of Seth, a new hope for a man of the gospel, a man of the priesthood.  It notes that their children were taught to read and write in a pure language.  The kept the Book of Remembrance, and a Book of the generations of Adam. We are promised that when Christ returns, all things will be revealed unto us. (See II NE 13: 97-100) The chapter continues with the genealogy of Adam and a reiteration of the gospel message. We will begin the next class with Enoch’s vision which starts at verse 37.

 

October 8, 2018, Class number 7, Church History

Genesis 3 and 4, Sections 90:4-6 and 28:10; Book of Mormon in the Book of Mormon 4: 70-72, 2 NE 1:94-120, Alma 9:35-45.

During the previous class, I mentioned that it is notable that Adam and Eve were given the commandment to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” during the spiritual creation (Gen. 1: 30). After that came the physical creation (Gen. 2:6). Adam and Eve were not able to fulfil the commandment while in the garden, but they were aware of it.  Some have speculated that Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit knowing that they needed to. One writer presented a more plausible explanation by saying that they were aware of the commandment, but they had no idea as to how God would bring the conditions into existence that would allow them to complete the task. In their innocence, they had complete faith that it would happen, they just didn’t realize that they would be the “cause” of the transition.  In the garden, they had no guile or secret ambitions to become the first parents of all mankind. Their relationship with God was one of complete trust and faith.

Chapter three begins by telling us about the rebellion of Satan and the better offering that Christ made to the host of heaven.  We discussed how the desire of Satan was to obtain the glory for himself and not allow the children of men to have any choice during their earthly sojourn, and thus not be able to fully enjoy the hoped-for final destination of God’s Kingdom.

To help clarify the gospel understandings around these events we looked at other scriptures on the subject as noted in the reading for the class.

• Sec 28:10 discusses the one third who turn away from the plan and the two thirds that accept the plan.It was noted by a class member that men and women must have had the ability to make choices in the pre-existence where originally it was though that we were just beings waiting to come to earth.We then noted how a part of our life experience is to be tempted and to willingly respond to the light Christ brings.
• Book of Mormon 4:70-72 reveals to us how the redemption of man comes by Jesus Christ which allows us to be “awakened by the power of God, when the trump shall sound.”
• 2 Ne. 1: 70-114 is the great opposition passage and discusses what would have happened to Adam and Eve had they eaten of the tree of life after eating of the tree of knowing good and evil.By being cast out of the garden, mankind could act for himself and not have Satan’s plan forced upon us.We discussed what a probational period is. We discussed that death now was a part of their lives and wondered if death for the plants and animals also began at this time. One student considered that death came about because of Cain and Abel’s actions. The scriptures are unclear on the timing of the beginning of death.Verse 113 is especially meaningful as it states that “they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.” We wondered why we would choose to come to this life and know misery and death but considered that it will be worth it when we ultimately look back on this time.
• Alma 9: 35-45 tells us much the same.

I asked the class whether Adam and Eve were married? Most said that they didn’t know and suspected that they weren’t. We then looked at Genesis 3: 14 and 11 where the scriptures use the word husband and wife. There is no mention of the wedding ceremony, so we didn’t know if this is just how Moses saw their relationship.  It was noted that they seem to have a covenant unbinding relationship and in verse 17 we read that Adam knew that he had to stay with Eve as God had given her to him. He was devoted to her and the relationship. The class thought that this was awesome.

One of the discussion of the day was to consider how Adam and Eve must have felt after they were expelled from Eden.  The scriptures mention that they had many children before Cain and Abel, thus several generations had to have passed before we read about the hearing of God’s voice, the building of an altar out of devotion, and then learning that man can and will be redeemed.  We thought about just how joyous they must have been when they learned of the plan.

One class member wondered why an animal was chosen as the sacrifice. The class concluded that it must have been the best “token” and type and shadow of the coming sacrifice of Christ as an animal would be able to shed its blood just as Christ would do. A plant does not offer the same example of sacrifice. The only other choice would be to sacrifice people and God would never approve of that.

We did not have time to consider one last question, why did God give a commandment to not eat of the fruit or not prevent they from eating of it. The answer comes in section 70:7v.  God must allow us to make the choices and not be able to blame God or say that he forced the issue. Sin must come through our voluntary actions and be independent from God or man cannot be judged “according to their works; and every man shall receive according to his own works, and his own dominion.”  We choose to come even considering the risk. God allowed us our agency even considering the risk.

Another note: the priesthood linage of the men of this time is given to us in Section 104: 18-29.

The next class will take up Genesis 5 and 6, Cain and Abel, Enoch.

 

October 4, 2018, Class number 6, Church History

Lesson to cover: Genesis 1 and 2, D&C 98:5g, Isaiah 14: 12-16

Subject: The Creation and the beginning of Adam and Eve’s story.

Because the “church” is a group of people with like beliefs, I reminded the class that we would be considering what it might be like to be in Adam and Eves situation. So, my questions should reflect that goal.  I asked the class to turn to D&C 98:5g where we are told that “In the day that when the Lord shall come he shall reveal all things; things which have passed, and hidden things which no man knew; things of the earth by which it was made, and the purpose and the end thereof…” I also noted that the condition of “no enmity of man, enmity of beast” which is spoken of to be in the future, was also in the beginning.

We noted that the first chapter of Genesis is the creation of all things spiritual and the second chapter the creation of the physical. Section 28:8d affirms that for us.

The first question asked of the class was: What is the purpose of the creation?  1. The earth is a place where we can come to live in a physical body. As the Celestial Kingdom is a physical place, we must be physical to live there. Second, we need a place where we can have the opportunity to use our agency. We must choose of our own accord to accept the atonement done by Jesus Christ and to put aside those attributes of man that would keep us from God’s Kingdom.  If we do not make this choice on our own, we cannot experience the fulness of joy spoken of in the Book of Mormon. This place is a place of testing.  The third purpose is for us in mortality is to be able to procreate allowing other children of God to come and do as we are doing, along with all that we learn from being a part of being a family unit.

The second question was for us to speculate as to: What was it like to live in the garden of Eden as Adam and Eve did?  This is difficult because we are locked into a mortal body and subject to time. We noted that Adam was to “tend” to the garden. We speculated that this tending was always a choice as the garden was perfect, complete, and always present. Adam was also told that he had dominion over the animals, and that the animals were peaceful towards one another.  We did note that our word stewardship might be similar to Adam’s task here. He was instructed to name the animals.

Third question: Why male and female? Here we noted the different traits of the two and commented on how those traits help the other to be a better person and help with the raising of children.  It is also said that Adam was not good to be alone. Perhaps this causes an inward focus and a lack of someone to serve. As people who need to become more God like, we must be able to focus on other’s needs and allow ourselves to serve rather than be served.  Along this discussion, we noted that the commandment to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” comes in the chapter where things are created spiritually. Does this mean that Adam and Eve knew about this commandment prior to their physical earthly life and thusly caused a dilemma? They knew what they needed to do but were unable to accomplish the task while in the garden. Or, due to their “innocence”, they didn’t fully understand until after their departure from the garden.

The last question asked was: What is the difference between the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?  And what would have happened if they had eaten of the tree of life?  Turning to Alma 9:38-45, we see that the plan of redemption would have been frustrated. If Adam had eaten of the tree of life at that time, there would have been no death and no probationary state where we can choose that which we must do to live with God.

Next class: Genesis 3 and 4, D&C 28:10; Satan’s rebellion and Adam and Eve’s fall. The offering of sacrifices and new understandings.

 

October 1, 2018, Class number 5, Church History

As a we prepare to look at the Book of Genesis as found in the Inspired Version, we continue to look at Section 22 of the Doctrine and Covenants.  This section is a revelation given to Joseph Smith which explains why there is more to the writings of Moses than found in the King James Bible. We started with verse 3 reading through the section and commenting on the points of interest found there.

• Moses is told that the “workmanship of mine hands” is vast and he desires only to reveal the mysteries of “this earth.”
• That no man can “behold all my glory …and afterwards remain in the flesh, on earth” except by the power of God.
• “there is no God beside me”
• We discussed the vast numbers of people, past present, and future, that were revealed to Moses.We assumed that to Moses, the actions of those people was revealed both good and bad.We also see the revealment to Moses that “man is nothing” meaning that man is nothing without the existence of God or outside the purposes of God.
• The section then discusses the experience of Satan appearing unto Moses and how Moses was able to discern that his powers and glory (or lack there-of) do not match those of God’s.We likened this experience to that of Enoch and Joseph Smith.
• The question came up asking why Moses shown a vision of all of the people of the earth and not just the people that he would later lead out of Egypt.We felt that it was to show that the Hebrew people and the tribes of Israel will have an effect upon all the peoples of the earth and especially those that choose to be a part of God’s kingdom. As stated in verse 18, God desires to deliver “all” my (people of the earth) from bondage (of sin); even Israel my chosen. As noted in verse 23b, God’s purpose is “to bring to pass the immortality, and eternal life of man” and noted that in God’s eyes, eternal life means living in his Celestial Kingdom with him.
• We spent some time considering whether this scripture indicates that there are other “earths” like ours and whether there are men and women upon those earths that need to go through the same experiences as we do which would allow them to be a part of God’s kingdom.That would mean that they would have the need to believe on Jesus Christ and to be baptized by authority as is required for us.We then reminded ourselves that we need only focus on that which is important for this earth and for us and that we shouldn’t get bogged down wondering about the question.
• We thought that verse 24b was interesting because it provides a prophecy regarding what man will do and did, that of removing many words from the book (Genesis) and that there would be one raised up to replace them.
• We then turned to section 83 to look at the succession on priesthood from Moses to Adam and that the priesthood is eternal, even though we didn’t completely understand all of the implications from the statement. One comment was that priesthood therefore, is not a creation of man, but of God.It is also noted that the priesthood and ordinances are necessary in order for us to see God in the Celestial Kingdom.
• This section is an answer to the question as found in Psalms 144, “Lord, what is man that thou takest knowledge of him!” Perhaps by the time David asked this question, the words of Moses had already been changed so he didn’t have the answer.
• We also noted that Moses’s experience might have been like that of Isaiah’s in chapter 6, when he said; “Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of host. Moses was asking, what is man that thou are mindful of him.

The next class will take up Genesis chapters one and two

 

September 27, 2018; class number 4, Church History

To be sure that the class members understand what they need to do when studying history, especially church history, I wanted to discuss what is history, where it comes from, and how to be sure that the history we are reviewing in accurate.

I asked the students to tell me what history is. History is the study of past events obtained through various means. We noted that sometimes it is bias and commented on how even our current events are presented to us with a bent perspective. We came up with these avenues of obtaining historical events: oral, documents, genealogy, books, archaeology. I sure there may be others as well.

I presented a power point presentation that noted five aspects of historical thinking:

1.       Chronology – making sure that we know the proper order of when things happened in relationship to other events.

2.       Comprehension – trying to understand the causes and effects, and understanding the sources perspective of the events, then moving to the central question of why it happened.

3.       Analysis and interpretation – breaking down the component parts and understanding the relationships based upon the evidence that we have.

4.       Research – the historical inquiry using multiple sources

5.       Issues – identifying the issues and making a decision from the past information.

I had the class watch a video which also presented five aspects of historical thinking. The video commented that history is not just what we know, but how we know it.

1.       Multiple accounts and perspectives

2.       Analysis of primary sources

3.       Sourcing

4.       Understanding historical context

5.       The claim – evidence connection

www.bing.com/videos/search?q=video+what+is+historical+thinking&view.

We are going to start our reading in Section 22 of the Doctrine and Covenants because it gives us an account of how we received our version of Genesis as found in the Inspired Version. So, we briefly reviewed who Moses was and when he lived, as he is the author of the book (or it could be said that God is the author and Moses wrought it down).

The Herald House publication of the RLDS Church History doesn’t give us much to go on as to the events surrounding the coming forth of Section 22.  Page 103 discusses a court case that Joseph Smith was involved in and says: “shortly after this a revelation was received.”  It is what we now know as Section 22 and a part of the introduction to the Inspired Version.

There is also a reference to the revelation in the Times and Seasons, Volume 4, page 71. Again, it is presented following a court case and talks about the trial and tribulations that Joseph and the church was going through.  However, following that, there is a discussion on why the revelation is so important. We read together the first paragraph of those comments reminding us that Genesis provides some valuable eternal information sorely needed for us to become Sons of God.

“The Jews indeed had been taught “that to them belonged the promises, the giving of the law, and the service of God:” that “theirs were the Fathers,” and that from them (according to the flesh) Christ was to come: but of the nature and office of the Messiah, of the kind of glory that should be revealed when he came, and of the dignity, glory, and fulness [fullness] of those blessings that should accrue to the human family, when he made his appearance among the children of men, they seemed to be entirely ignorant, as well as of the union, and relationship to God which it would be placed within the reach of the children of men to obtain through the medium of his atonement, and the redemption wrought out by him.  Long accustomed to types and shadows, to sprinklings, washings, sacrifices, and the observance of a law, that could never make the comers thereunto perfect, they understood not, and could not appreciate that more “excellent sacrifice,” and the “better covenant,” when it was revealed.  They had long been “under a schoolmaster,” and he had not taught them the glories of a celestial law…”

We will begin reading together the section and then on to Genesis.

 

 

 

September 24, 2018; Class number 3, Church History

To help us with our discussion of what is a church, what are the components of a church, and was there a church in the earliest days of human history, I asked the students to give the class a short report on whether other religions (churches) have ordinances. They prepared short summaries both verbally and written. A synopsis was that the non-Christian churches do not. Kelly reported that the Buddhism is more of an individual’s progression in the attempt to find enlightenment and consist in doing as little harm as possible. Tessa reported that she found very little on the Church of the Jedi other than it is possible to sign up to be a member or a minister.  She also noted that she found a church called the church of the flying spaghetti monster (or called Pastafarionism) which does not really have any ordinances. She also reported on Judaism noting that they only have the ordinances of marriage. Other traditions are found in the religion that may be similar to an ordinance. It takes a long time to qualify to be a Rabbi and she couldn’t find a reference to an ordination service taking place for them.  Julie and Emma reported on Hinduism and stated that the goal seems to be to reach an individual level of spiritual awareness and the progression through reincarnation. No ordinances as we know them seemed to be noted in their readings. Jack reported on Islam stating that “members” are working in their submission to Allah. Again, there seems to be a lack of ordinances which help the members become closer to “God”, but they do have a system of prayers. Jacob and Katie report on the Lutheran church indicating that they do have some ordinances, mainly the sacrament and marriage. They did not see where the priesthood participated in an ordination service. Most of their comments revolved around the Lutheran thoughts on baptism and confirmation.  None of the students reported on the Catholic church, so I shared that they do participate in the Eucharist at nearly all their masses, they have confirmation, sacrament of penance (confession), holy orders for some special purpose like the ordination of a bishop, and the anointing of the sick.

The reason for the research was to help us see why a church needs activities to help the members maintain a focus on the goal (such as ordinances).

To help answer the question, is there evidence that a church existed prior to the New Testament days, I distributed a list of references to the church as found in the Book of Mormon. The sheet is just as a reference.  As one of the class goals is to be better prepared to be missionaries, the proof that the Book of Mormon people did see themselves as a church with the components of a church could be presented to the investigator.

 

September 20, 2018; Class number 2, Church History

Previously discussed: We are looking for the elements of a church in the experiences of the people in the Old and New Testament, Book of Mormon, and modern-day church history. So first, we should determine or at least consider what we think the elements of a church are. Today’s class continued with that discussion.

Looked up the purpose of the church as found in:  D&C 22: 23b, III Ne 7:10, Mark 13:13, I Ne 3: 187-188, D&C 17: 6a-e.

Discussed some additional components of a church:

• Personal relationship with a deity (Christ)
• We discussed the sacrament during the last class. What other ordinances (elements) help us to achieve the goal of the church? To become prepared to live with God in His Kingdom?
• Some form of worship

o   What is worship? Spending time focusing on _________.

o   When do we worship? Music, prayer, contemplation, study, meditation, etc.

o   Encounters with deity which change our hearts and others.

• Being a part of a family (church family)/ community.

o   Do other religions have the same sense of community that the Saints do?

• Covenants made.

o   When do we make covenants in the church?

o   Examples: baptism, weddings, priesthood

• Traditions/ patterns. Asked for definitions

o   Aspects the church that are not backed up or required by scripture

o   Aspects that are specified by scripture

• Having other eternal understandings
• Practices or laws (with structure) which perpetuate the continuation of the church

 

September 17, 2018, Class number 1.  Church History

Because of the upcoming youth trip to the church’s historical sights, the students were interested in learning more about church history and the events that transpired.  I felt that “church” history began with Adam and Eve and that we ought to begin there before reviewing the more modern-day events. Because I believe that the “church” is made up of the people of the different eras, we ought to try and bring to “life” the lives of those individuals.  We ought to know what they were going through as they wrestled with their understandings of what God was wanting them to know and to do, and to better see what their day-to-day lives was like.  Hopefully then, we can better relate to them and see the parallels between the struggles they went through and the struggles we go through as we bring God into our lives and as we respond to His messages.

With that goal in mind, we will need to review briefly the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and modern-day church history books. I say briefly because volumes have been written on those books and those subjects. We don’t have time to review every detail. But hopefully we can review the highlights and see the growth and changes of the “church” over the years.  We can see how God is trying to restore His creation to himself and prepare us for His kingdom.

Suggested Class Syllabus:

Monday, September 17^th, 2018 and Thursday, September 20^th, 2018:

• Define the word “church.”How does the world define what a church is? Why is important to understand what a church is?
• What is the purpose of life? How does “church” activity help or hinder that purpose?
• What are the components of a “church?” Beliefs, doctrines, covenants, leadership, membership, ordinances, faith, traditions, encounters with deity, laws, gifts given to people, authority
• Are we making an assumption when we think that the church needs the proper components to achieve the goal God has in mind for his people?  

Today I introduced the purpose of the classes for the year, that of understanding better what the people of the early church went through.  We discussed the components of a "church"  as mentioned in the above agenda for this week. I asked the members of the class how they felt the components of a church and more specifically our church, helped them to endure to the end. 

We agreed that the church is not a building, but people with  common beliefs and doctrines, a statement of faith, leadership, authority, structure, and ordinances. We also tried to recall what other churches may have as practises and discussed how those aspects of the church benefit the members.

We will meet again Thursday to continue the discussion.

 

 

July 19, 2018.

I have set the starting dates for the second year MIT study course.  We will begin on Monday, September 17, 2018, 8:30 AM, in the conference room at the headquarters building.

We are planning to study the history of the church beginning with Adam in the Inspired Version of Genesis.  That should lead us into the story of the Hebrew nation as “the church,” then into the New Testament church, and then into the 1830 modern day church.  At this time, I do not have a text book written (as I did last year), but we will use the scriptures.  I do have a text that presents some interesting information about the Hebrew church written by a Jewish scholar.  The book, Light from the Dust, by Winifred M. Milner, has been suggested for the modern-day church history. I also have commentaries on the Doctrine and Covenants and books on the church history.  That should be plenty of material.

Please let me know if you are interested. 

We are not preparing to live-stream the class, nor record the class for a later broadcast. I didn’t want to disrupt the class by having the mechanics of cameras, etc. We do not have the ability to set up the equipment and just leave it in the class room.  It is possible that we could have the phones set up for a conference call. You need to let me know that you would like that.

I will again put the class notes on this page to help me stay on track, for the class members to catch up when a class is missed, and for others to know the points discussed.

I hope you will choose to participate! 

Brother Patience

 

 

May 24, 2018, Class # 57, Thursday

Presentation from team one, Molly Moore, Daisy Hasselman, and Jacob Killpack.

The team presented on the subject of baptism.  They broke it down to 3 parts; the authority of Jesus (Jacob), Confirmation (Molly), and the age of accountability (Daisy).  The topics were presented in a power-point using many scriptures to validate the subject.  Each student provided transitions and explanations as they read the scriptures.  Molly brought in some of the beliefs of other denominations on confirmation indicated that some churches do not see the need for the ordinance and some churches see it as a graduation after a set of courses. Daisy included the doctrine of original sin and noted how a person needs to be able to make the decision to be baptized. Jacob presented many great scriptures and thoughts to suggest that Jesus set the example and taught that men must be given the authority just as he was given the authority to baptize.

One interesting bit of information was presented, that James Dobson has agreed that millennials need to wait until they are 30 before they be accountable and thus baptism. The source of the information was babylonbee.com/news/biblical-age-accountability.  The reason for the change from age 12 to 30 was because Millennials have “chronic immaturity, lack of rational decision-making skills…” How unfortunate that they would miss out on the blessings of the Holy Spirit as a companion in those early years. By the time that they are 30, most of their life view points and habits have been instilled in them.

A great job was done by both teams. 

 That was the last class for the semester. We'll now take the summer off. I am looking forward to the classes next year.

 

May 21, 2018, Class # 56, Monday

Presentation from team two, Isaiah Woods, Jackson Patrick, and Emma Moore.

The team presented on the theme of Truth and Consequences.

Isaiah began as the main facilitator for the presentation. He presented 3 types of truth statements:

1.       Correspondence theory of truth: a statement that is true if it corresponds to reality.

a.       Example: “It is raining” is true if it is raining outside.

2.       Coherence theory of truth: a statement that is true if it is consistent with other things that are considered to be true, if it fits into the system.

3.       Pragmatic theory of truth: something is true if it is useful

a.       Example: person A believes that making money is most important in one’s life. Person B has a different view and thinks that friends are the most important. This mostly revolves around those things within our realm.

The group then moved to statistics indicating that much of our world’s social problems may come from believing that there is no truth or believing in incorrect truths.

The group had the audience watch a 10-minute video where Frank Turek, one of the authors of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, discussed truth statements often made by people and how to respond to the statements. 

1.       There is no truth! Is that true?

2.       You can’t know the truth! Then how do you know that your truth is true? Basically, a self-defeating statement that claims to be absolute truth.

3.       All truth is relative! Is that a relative truth and relative to what?

4.       It’s true for you but not for me! Is that true for everybody? They used the example of a bank customer requesting $10,000 dollars from their bank account even though the teller says there is only $43.76 cents in the account.  The customer wants his amount because he says that it is true.

5.       No one has the truth! How do you have the truth that that is true?

6.       You ought not judge! Isn’t that a judgement? Aren’t you judging me for making a judgement statement?

7.       There is no truth in religion, only in science! This is a philosophical statement. It can’t be proven in a lab which is how science goes about proving its theories.

8.       Everything is meaningless! Hey, what do you mean by that?

9.       Doubt everything! Should I doubt that? Most doubts are emotional, facts don’t change.

The next class session will be from team one.

 

May 17, 2018, Class # 55, Thursday

The material for the last class of the year is found on page 43 of the text. We covered the evangelical look at Mormons. It is important that we understand how evangelicals view the Latter Day Saint movement and to be able to distinguish whether we do or do not agree with what they believe about the LDS church.  Most evangelicals do not know that we exist or that there is within the Latter Day Saint movement multiple churches with different beliefs.  Many evangelicals also believe that Joseph Smith was responsible for all the LDS beliefs and thus lump us in with them.

I started the class with the beginning of the movie Meet the Mormons because it helps us realize that members of the LDS church are great people and have very normal lives. I would suggest looking at the full movie as we only viewed the introduction. The rest of the movie interviews 6 families and what their lives are like.

The doctrines printed in our text from the web site came from a google search of a comparison between Christian churches and Mormonism.  There are some of the statements that do not present the beliefs accurately. Some of the beliefs we in the Remnant Church agree with. We evaluated them individually.

• Mormons believe that men can become Gods. This comes from their belief in a progressive God, God: “As man is, God once was, as God is, man maybe.” This statement came for Lorenzo Snow in 1840, and ties into the theory of exaltation. Remnant Saints disagree with this theology and agree more with the evangelicals.
• Mormons see Jesus as a separate entity from God the Father. This argument has gone on in the protestant movements as well; are God and Jesus “one” or “separate.”We and the LDS agree that Jesus is Deity and that Jesus is separate from God as His Son.
• We both agree that Lehi brought a group of people to the Americas.
• The quote says that “a prophet” created a set of “gold” plates, which Joseph translated. The Book of Mormon was written by several writers. Not all the plates were of gold. And Joseph translated the plates with the help of God, not on his own.
• Yes, Jesus came to the Americas after his crucifixion.
• Yes, we believe that the Lord inspired Joseph to reveal things to us.We call this modern-day revelation. It is puzzling to consider that evangelicals believe God will answer their prayers but they don’t believe in modern-day revelation.
• We believe that the Apostle John is still alive along with the 3 Nephites.
• Polygamy did not come through Joseph Smith.
• We believe in a pre-mortal life.
• We do not practice Baptism for the Dead.
• We have a different definition of endowments than the Mormons have.To us, it is an increase in our spiritual abilities and talents that will enable greater ministry. To the Mormons, it is the ceremony and blessings that come from the work done in their temples. We briefly discussed the endowment sessions in the Mormon temples, the sealings, baptisms, and other ordinances.
• I believe that the Mormons and the Remnant churches believe in hell. They stated that the Mormons do not believe in hell.

Are the Mormons Christian? Are we Christians? According the web page, we do not fit their definition of a Christian. The reality is that evangelicals do not have a full scriptural understanding of what a Christian is. We have not been led astray, they have.  We also noted that the church has at least been from the beginning of Man (including Adam). There have been followers of Christ from the beginning.  They were just looking forward towards the atonement and we are living after it.

The next class will be one of the presentations from the students.

 

May 14, 2018, Class # 54, Monday

Subject material: Chapter 11: Can there be a “one true church?” as found on page 40 of the text.

Questions on the board:

1.       Define church.  The students first mentioned a place, then people, then doctrine. I directed their thoughts towards the idea that it is first people, and then it was mentioned that the people need to meet together at a place.

2.       Why is it important to be a part of the “one true church?” By being a part of the one true church and all of its components, you gain the ministry of authoritive priesthood in the ordinances of the church, you gain a better understanding of the fullness of the gospel, and other aspects.

3.       How do we know we are there? It was mentioned that each person needs to decide which church is true. But that opens up the door to individual preferences and interpretations. So, we decided that God need to confirm the aspects of the true church. That can come through scripture study and personal revelation.

4.       What do we do about our answer when we know which church is true? We need to share the information in a polite way, but not to be afraid to testify.  Sharing such a testimony may not be easy for as the text says, when we do share we may seem intolerant of others. No one wants to hear that their church is “less than” or incomplete.

We listed a few components of the true church:

• Authorized priesthood
• Fullness of the gospel
• A serving church/ charity
• Tithing and consecration
• Proper ordinances
• The Inspired Version of the Bible and other scriptures
• Having a prophet
• Revelation

It is interesting to note that people/man have defined what a true church is and are often ready to declare that we are not the true church because we do not comply with their criteria. Yet their criteria doesn’t comply with their own scriptures, only with their interpretation of their scriptures. The text also provides 8 characteristics of cults. Again, the list is of their making.

I took a moment to list other churches which claim to be the one true church, I’m sure it is not all inclusive: Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East, LDS, Seven Day Adventist, Amish, Mennonites, Quakers, Church of the Brethren, Churches of Christ (Campbellites), Muslins, Buddhism, Judaism, and more.

One more class: Chapter 12

 

May 10, 2018, Class #53, Thursday

Because the class is called “Survey of Remnant Church Beliefs,” we discussed how a priesthood call is processed in the Remnant Church.

• Local church leadership (Branch President or General Authority) is led by or prompted by the spirit that the individual has a calling to a specific Priesthood office. That calling is confirmed after prayer.
• The calling is then forwarded to the regional authority or to the general church office for review and prayer.
• The confirmation of the calling is past back to the Branch President who contacts the individual to let him know about the calling and for his acceptance.
• The congregation then sustains the calling during a scheduled meeting.
• The individual is then ordained.
• This process is true for the Aaronic Priesthood and for the Elders. The initial call for General Church Authorities would come from the general church’s leadership.

This is brought up to illustrate that our Priesthood is not “self-called” or “self-appointed.” It is a calling from God through the Spirit’s guidance and confirmed by prayer before the all is presented to the person. Thus, our authority to function is from those and He who called us, not from the individual. We are called to represent God and to function and teach with-in His boundaries, not our own.

In the text book we read that the words holy priesthood can be translated to a pure fraternity of brotherhood (and sisterhood) who all have the opportunity to approach God and Christ without the intervention of a priest (Catholic) or other such church leadership who must be the “go-between” between the person and deity. So, even though a person can approach deity, we believe that the ordinances and the governing of the church must be done by those who have been given the authority to work within the offices they have been called.  This helps to protect the body from incorrect doctrine or practices and provides for an accountability when incorrect doctrine is taught.  Even in the corporate world, no one could represent a company or sell its products without the authorization of the leadership of the company. The gospel is God’s gospel, not our own.

On Monday, we will take up chapter 11 on Can there be a “one true Church?”

 

May 7, 2018, Class # 52, Monday

I asked the students to look up who wrote Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts.  As expected, the answers found tell us that we don’t know for sure.  That becomes a way for the anti-Christians to discredit the scriptures. But does it? Studies have shown us that it was not uncommon for classical authors to not include their names because anonymity was normal in ancient literature.  Perhaps they weren’t trying to sell their books as we do today, and therefore need our name on the page to obtain our royalties.

The answer to the assignment is:

Matthew: the book was authorized or influenced by Levi-Matthew the disciple.

Mark: thought to be John Mark, son of Mary of Jerusalem

Luke: Luke the beloved physician and companion to Paul

John: may have been the apostle John or another known as John the elder

Acts: Luke

There are many scholars who have spent countless hours trying to figure out the answers and the above has been decided as the best choices. Because these people lived very close to the actual events and because those events were so very important and extraordinary, those around the events would have remembered them.

I also asked the class if all of the persons to whom the 4 gospels were attributed were among the original 12 disciples. Matt. 10:2,3 and Mark 3:14 give us the list and only Matthew and John are included.  I suggest that for more details, you read The Case for Christ by Strobel and The Wrong Jesus by Monette.

From there we went on to the section on Agency.  I asked the class to tell me what heredity was, and after answering about the color of their eyes and hair, we discussed how the attributes, skills, etc. might affect who we are.  Then we discussed how the environment might contribute to who we are with such answers as education, attitudes, opportunities, family contributions, etc.  These two aspects of life are often what the educators claim are the only aspects and feel that if those were somehow changed for the better, society would become better. The scriptures tell us that we all have our agency which allows us to make many choices which may or may not lead us down a righteous path.

In the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, he brings up the subject of God giving us our agency and says:

“Of course God knows what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk. Perhaps we feel inclined to disagree with Him. But there is a difficulty about disagreeing with God. He is the source from which all your reasoning power comes: you could not be right and He wrong any more than a stream can rise higher than its own source.”

We then remembered the message that Satan brought up in the pre-existence, mainly, I’ll save them all but I will not give them any choice.

The last topic for the morning was the rapture.  Most of the information for the topic was found in our text. We added that the earth will need to be cleansed before it will be ready for the millennial kingdom and the Celestial realm. After all are taken up, the earth cleansed, we will return to the earth.  Most of the rapture theories feed on the concept of puff and I’m gone because I’m a believer and you’re not.

I then handed out the article found in the Hastening Times, July/August/September 2011 titled The Rapture Theory, by Ben Madison, who was a member of the Remnant Church and considered to be knowledgeable on much of church history and theology. He suggests in the article that the rapture theory leaves out one very important teaching in the scriptures, that of Zion and because of God’s plan, we have a place to endure the tribulation.

 

May 3, 2018, Class # 51, Thursday

Two subjects were taken up in class today: Is the Bible all that is necessary for salvation?  And, is there real evidence for the Bible or is it taken just on Faith?

Perhaps the real subject for the first topic is what statements due non latter day saints use to disallow the use of the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine in Covenants. The text refers to the most commonly used scriptures: Revelation 22:18 and Deuteronomy 4:2. The text also supplies what our answers to the scriptures might be, mainly: God can add to the scriptures and if the reference in Deuteronomy was used in that was, we wouldn’t have any of the Bible after that verse.

The class discussed briefly how scriptures come in to be and then validated or canonized, including our current ones.

I asked the class how the Old Testament came into being.  Did the early Hebrews have copies of the Old Testament?  Was there a copy in everyone’s home? How about the New Testament? Who wrote it? How and when was it put together?

Assignment: Who wrote the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts?

Another part of the discussion is whether the Bible or Scripture “saves” us. Well, no. It is our response to the scriptures that leads us to believe in the gospel and to respond to the atonement work done by the Christ.  Could we obtain or find all of the information we need for salvation outside of scripture? Maybe if someone instructed and guided us through what we need, such as ordinances, priesthood, celestial components of the law, etc., we would obtain the goal. But someone needs to be the one studying the scriptures. So, salvation without the scriptures would be difficult.

When we reviewed 2 Nephi 12:44,45, we all chuckled a little realizing that a prophecy saying that people would say, “a bible, a bible, we have got a bible, and there cannot be any more bible,” and realize that the statement is used so frequently today.

We then looked at the section on the evidence for the Bible or is it just taken on Faith?

I asked the class what evidence we have that the Bible is a valid resource? Archeology and evidence of a world-wide flood were given by the class. I asked them if there were any authors outside the Christian society that wrote about the events of the Bible (especially the New Testament) that were witnesses of the events, places, and people? I handed out pages 270 – 273 of the book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist which provided a table listing some of the people in the New Testament, where they were mentioned, and who the non-Christian source was. Josephus was the most cited source, but there are more.  Our text gives 10 reasons why the authors of the New Testament wouldn’t have embellished or exaggerate the elements of the story. I also provided printouts of page 23 and 24 from the book The Wrong Jesus which is a book looking at many reasons why the story of Christ and all that was there then is valid. It provides 15 details which the author says “practically every scholar and historian know with virtual certainty about Jesus.

We should be able to give a valid comment regarding these theories at any time when someone presents these objections to believing in the gospel story.

At the end of the class, I challenged the students to read or re-read Moroni 10: 3-5 and apply it to not only the Book of Mormon, but to all scripture. And if they are true, how do we respond to the answer?

 

April 30, 2018, Class # 50 Monday

The class reviewed Doctrine and Covenants, Section 85.  The section is a good companion to Section 76 because of the review of the Kingdoms of God.  It was given just after the prophecy given on the Civil War by Joseph Smith thirty years before it began.

Comments:

• 2b notes that Christ “ascended up on high…and descended below all things” confirming that Christ has visited the prison house.
• We discuss whether the “light” mentioned is the same light as comes from the sun and thought that this “light” is greater than just the chemical/light we receive from our sun or others might receive from their sun, for this “light” will quicken our understandings.
• We discussed the earth’s upcoming transition to a celestial condition.
• We discussed how each of us will be blessed to receive even a portion of the celestial glory.This should give us hope even when we are not as fully vested into a kingdom.
• We discuss 8b noting the statement regarding those who “seeketh to become a law unto itself.” How many people might we see in our population that put themselves before all others and that the population might emulate their actions and philosophies.
• In verse 16 we noted that there seem to be 3 levels of actions that might correspond to the 3 levels:

o   Ask as a beggar – humble – wants – as a traveler like the Telestial

o   Seek – as for a thing of value – but lost – like the Terrestrial

o   Knock – to really want to be a part of the kingdom – like the Celestial

o   Currently the door may be locked because of sin – but keep knocking

• Noted then the 7 trumps, and then time shall be no longer
• Verse 38 gives us some insight as to what we need to be doing.

We then turned to page 32 and the section called Doctrine of Original Sin.  It was noted that this doctrine could be the cause of misconceptions that bear on our society such as:

• That the sinful nature is passed down through the generations and thus people may not have a chance to come out from under the oppressive situations they are in because of preconceived notions.
• That Adam was never forgiven
• Even though we are in this sinful world, we do not have to use that as an excuse to continue in the sinful nature. We are loved by God and through him, we can be Godly people.True joy comes when we accept the atonement and desire to be Zionic and eventually Celestial people.

The last bit of conversation asked the question: what is the difference between a “state of innocence” and a “state of perfection.”  The fall from the garden did not mean that they were thrown out of a perfect place, but rather a relationship with God in a wonderful place.  But true joy could not nor cannot be had until we choose to follow his teachings. The choice makes the future a state of perfection.

Thursday, we will take up the next question: Is the Bible all that is necessary for salvation? (or, how protestants try and disclaim anything but the Bible.

 

April 26, 2018 Class # 49 Thursday

We took the opportunity to look up most of the scriptures found on the Life-After-Death Chart put out by the Remnant Church.  The pamphlet uses the King James references on the subject. However, during the class we looked at some additional restoration scriptures on the subject such as found in the 16^th and 19^th chapters of Alma (Alma 16: 230-239, Alma 19: 42-48), and Moroni 4:73,74.

I made note of the 5 general categories for men and women after their probationary period.  The list came from an unknown author, so I located the scriptures to match the category. These are found in our text on page 29

1.    Children who died before reaching the age of eight and will be in the celestial kingdom.

a.    Moroni 8:10-29

2.    All those who die never having had opportunity to know and accept the law and are thus referred to as “they who are without the law.”

a.    II Ne 6: 51-55 and Mosiah 1:107

3.    Those who accept the gospel, are baptized, received the Holy Ghost and then fall away. For these repentance is impossible because they no longer believe (at the time of their death) that Christ can save them.

a.    Heb. 6:4-6 and II Ne 5:56

4.    Those who have had the opportunity to accept the fullness of the gospel while living but have rejected it.  These cannot be saved in the celestial glory.  “who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it…who were honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men.”

a.    D&C 76: 6c, d, 4a

5.       Those who accept the fullness of the gospel, were baptized, while on this earth, and served God with sincerity, real intent, and full purpose of heart

a.       D&C 76:5

I also provided pages 19-27 from The Remnant Outreach Program. It follows the scriptures found on the pamphlet and provides some commentary.

We then turned our study to Section 76 of the D&C. This section came to Joseph and Sidney as they were translating the Bible in John 5:29. The LDS church history claims that Joseph Smith commented on the revelation that “it solves questions relative to the Biblical account of heaven.  Mus has been taken out touching the salvation of man. It appeared self-evident from what truths were left that if God rewarded everyone according to the deeds done in the body, the term ‘Heaven’ as intended for the Saints eternal home must include more Kingdoms than one.” (taken from the LDS Seminary book on the D&C and said it was in volume 1:245.) I didn’t have a copy to confirm the source.

According to history, the opening of the heaven to the men lasted about 1 hour and that there were others in the room. Joseph would say or ask: what do I see? And Sidney would say that he “sees the same.”

76: 2 list several honors that will be bestowed upon those who “fear me and serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end.”

1.       A great reward (2b)

2.       Eternal Glory

3.       Revelation of all mysteries of God’s Kingdom

4.       Knowledge of his will concerning all things in the Kingdom

5.       Knowledge of the wonders of eternity (2c)

6.       Knowledge of many generations

7.       Great wisdom

8.       Understandings that reach to heaven and which the world cannot equal

9.       Enlightenment by the Spirit and power of God. (2d)

I do not comment on this because I seek for gain for myself, but that others might also enjoy the benefits of celestial living. I want to live a life that is worthy of such blessings, but know that only through the atonement of Christ can this celestial life be obtained. This becomes a missionary tool.

The Go Ye and Teach Slides give us a list of what this section indicates as those who will be ready for each of the Kingdoms.

Celestial:

1.       They who receive the Testimony of Christ

2.       They were baptized, being buried in the water

3.       They receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands

4.       They overcame all things by faith (endure to the end)

5.       They have part in the first resurrection (and thus are living on earth during the millennial reign)

6.       They are just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant

Terrestrial:

1.       These died without the law

2.       The spirits of men kept in prison to whom the Son visited and preached the gospel

3.       They received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it

4.       They are honorable men of the earth blinded by the craftiness of men

5.       They are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus

Telestial:

1.       They received not the gospel of Christ, neither the testimony of Jesus

2.       They deny not the Holy Spirit

3.       They are thrust down to hell

4.       They are not redeemed until the last resurrection

I wanted to cover section 85 as well but the class was too short. We will take that up on Monday.

 

April 23, 2018 Class # 48

The class went through the information and scriptures given to us on the Remnant brochure called Life after Death, Heaven of Hell; as well as a chapter from The Remnant Church Evangelism Outreach Program on The Spiritual World.  We looked up the scripture references and followed along with the Go Ye And Teach power point slides on Life-After-Death.  If anyone reading this entry into the class log wants copies of the material, let me know.

By understanding what we believe and being able to show scripture references in the King James version of the Bible, one should be able to help those outside the restoration beliefs to see that there is more to our eternal life than just Heaven or Hell.  I do not see how one could read the Bible and not see for instance the references to the resurrections.  One should then question the Heaven or Hell only options. I have had on a couple of occasions, people give me their explanation of what those scriptures mean. Others just don’t open their hearts to accept anything except what their preacher feeds them.

For certain, we all die.  Most people hope for an after-life.  Many believe that if they are “good enough” Jesus will let them in without following the steps outlined in scripture such as Baptism.  Does that baptism need to be performed by an authorized person? We think so. We also realize that God has provided a place for all accord to how they have prepared for eternal life and a means to achieve the eternal life God wants for all people.

Thursday’s class will take up our text material in chapter nine and look at the additional information provided in the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, especially sections 76 and 85.

 

Below are the notes from the class called "Survey of Remnant Church Beliefs."

April 19, 2018 Class # 47 Thursday

Because many people of the world today believe that pople who have a belief in God and have a Biblical perspective regarding the age of the earth (Creationist),  cannot be good scientist; and I see people who will argue that due to the over whelming "scientific evidence" regarding the age of the earth that the Bible can't be true, I wanted to have this class on the topic even though there isn't a chapter on the subject in our text book.  I decided to pull from a debate that happened in 2014 when Bill Nye and Ken Ham debated the question: “Is creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern scientific era?” We viewed only the 5-minute introductions by both participants and the 30-minute presentation by Ken Ham due to the time frame of our class. The full debate is available on You-Tube.

I asked the students to watch for these main points as Mr. Ham goes through his material very quickly:

• Science needs to be broken down or could be better interpreted as two different subjects:

o   Experimental science (observational or operational)

o   Origins (historical)

• The debate is really between two believe patterns, thus two different “religions.” (Religion is not allowed in the schools)

o   Materialistic/Naturalist based beliefs

o   God based beliefs

• Christians or Creationist can be good scientist, inventors, researchers, etc.This involves the observation or understandings of repeatable experiments that lead to discoveries and benefits for society.
• When we are looking at the past, (origins) we are looking at the same evidence even though we have different perspectives and may come to different conclusions based upon a bias on the subject. Regarding the creation of the earth, we weren’t there and neither was any other person. So, we don’t have the observational testimony of what happened or when. God  and Jesus Christ were the only ones there, and they gave us there testimony in Scripture.
• Non-Christians are borrowing from the Biblical perspective when they use the laws of logic and the laws of nature which had to come from a previous source outside the laws. If the laws came from or along with the maturing of the universe and our earth, they would be inconsistent and created along with the development of what we currently observe.
• Darwin in his book on evolution, states that there are 5 races on the planet and the Caucasians are the most advanced and are more intellectual that the others. And, that current man is more intellectual that those of earlier ages.

After watching the video, I offered some additional insights from the Restoration perspective.

• The Inspired Version says in Genesis 1:1: “…I reveal unto you concerning this heaven and this earth…” suggesting to me that there are more earths in our universe or there have been other earths in our universe in other time-lines, or there will be other earths in the future.Thus, suggesting that we do not yet understand very much about all that is in our universe and the creative mind of the Creator. We are given the information we need to understand our current relationship with God, and not about the rest of God’s creation.
• D&C 22:21c; “And worlds without number have I created…(d) But only an account of this earth, and its inhabitants thereof, give I unto you; for behold there are many worlds which have passed away…(e) and there are many also which now stand, and are numberless are they unto man…(23a) The heavens, they are many and they cannot be numbered unto man…and as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof, even so shall another come;”This also points to the points in Genesis 1:1 IV.
• D&C 90:5e; “The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected…”

o   Could it be that when scientist measure the elements to determine the age of the earth, they are measuring these eternal elements which may not testify as to the age of the earth, but rather the age of the elements from which the earth was created.

• R154 b: “For as surely as you understand time, time shall come to an end…” Time is a part of our existence now and has been created for us during this probationary period. Because time will end, it must have had a beginning.Is it possible that the universe we see is part of another “time?”We certainly do not understand how God’s creation could have been made outside our time and we are trying to understand them within our time.
• Light waves and light particles cannot be measured both at the same time. Does this influence what we think or understand about the creation and what we perceive and thus try to “measure.”

If, as the Bible points to, the Earth has 7 dispensations given to it and the last dispensation is the millennial reign, then we are indeed in the last years of the time before Christ comes and ushers in the last 1000 years to be spent with him. Although we may not be able to prove a 6000-year-old earth through observational science, we can say scripturally say that the earth is nearing a great transition.

The commentary on the debate does add some detailed thoughts and theories on the evidence we see around us which makes it more plausible that the Scriptures are correct. Someday, we’ll know more and see the bigger picture.

 

 

April 16, 2018 Class # 46, Monday

This was the first class in a couple of weeks due to our General Conference and a break. It’s good to be back on schedule.

The class for today reviewed chapter eight of the text; the doctrine of eternal security. I wrote on the board the following:

              Is it possible to be saved, and then lose that salvation?

              What does eternal security mean?

              Can I separate myself from God after I have been saved?

My first experience with the question came when a plumber was working on a drain problem at my previous employment.  I had to be in the room with him so I was just talking to him on general subjects. He then purposed the question to me: “Have you been saved?”  I came up with some answers but quickly felt like I was not prepared to give a short answer that would state what I believed. Since then, I have had even more experiences where the principle came up. Those experiences prompted me to write the chapter and to eventually write our text.

Our belief is that one must endure to the end and thus salvation is not just a one-time event, but an on-going relationship with Christ where I attempt to change my life to be as Christ would want it to be. When I made that comment to the plumber, his reply was that the person in that situation had not really claimed a belief in Christ. Much of this discussion problem may be in the use and understanding of terms which need to be clarified as we progress through the conversation.

To help the class understand the subject and help with possible future conversations, I asked Apostle Don Burnett to come speak to us.  He was raised in a Baptist church and joined the Restoration way of thinking as a young man.

He started his thoughts for us by saying that many of our Protestant friends will pick and choose certain verses of the Bible to support their claims without studying all of the Bible. Many times, they should just continue to read the next verses or the rest of the chapter to understand what was really being said. He commented that many of the people he has approached with additional scripture on a subject have said to him; “Oh, I see it there but I just don’t care.  All I need to know my pastor will tell me.”

It is true that nothing can take me out of the hand of God, or out of His love. But we can do things in our lives that separate us from being the people God wants us to be.  Don asked us if we can ever lose our agency? (Agency being the option to choose God or not to choose God.) We always have our agency, at least until our final days.

Don called our attention to Matthew 4:4; “It is written, Man shall not live be bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”  That indicates that we should take just one verse and base the entire theology upon one verse, but all that has been taught.

Many of our protestant friends read verses that indicate that all that is needed is a belief in Christ to be saved, when we know that “Faith without works is dead.”

Revelations 12:11 tells us that we can overcome our accuser (Satan) by the “blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and the loved not their (our own selfish desires) lives unto death. This tell us that we must endure to the end and continue to testify of our savior.

Don mentioned that the concept of Zion is to, as a person and as a people, to be constantly moving towards a better life using the principles of Christ, which indicated a constant change in who we are that we might be accepted as citizen’s in the Kingdom of God.

As we have later lessons on our understandings of life-after-death, it was not brought up in today’s class. But that concept does change the understandings of heaven or hell, and salvation.

Our next class will review the question of whether the earth in very old, or only 6000 years old. The reason for the discussion is because evolutionist and anti-Christians tell us that the Bible must be wrong because of all the evidence pointing to a very old earth.

The answers to the questions above: 1. Yes, it is possible to separate ourselves from God through sinful actions and to be unprepared for the Celestial Kingdom. 2. We can be eternally secure in a future if we maintain our relationship with Christ and do those righteous works we called to do. We might not end up in the Kingdom of God. 3. Yes.

 

Schedule for SRCB (MIT) class for the remainder of 2018

1.       Monday – April 16^th              Chapter 8, Don Burnett on Eternal Security

2.       Thursday – April 19^th              New Earth verses the Old Earth, Video from the Nye/Ham Debate.                                 

3.       Monday – April 23^rd               Chapter 9 – Life-after-death, the restoration perspective.

4.       Thursday – April 26^th             Chapter 9, continued

5.       Monday – April 30^th               Original Sin and is the Bible necessary for Salvation

6.       Thursday – May 3^rd                Real Evidence for the Bible / Freewill (page 34)

7.       Monday – May 7^th                  The Rapture/ Tribulation (page 36)

8.       Thursday – May 10^th              Priesthood of All Believers (page 39)

9.       Monday – May 14^th                Chapter 11 – One True Church?

10.   Thursday – May 17^th              Chapter 12: An Evangelical look at Mormonism

11.   Monday – May 21^st                Review – Presentations Team One.

12.   Thursday – May 24^th              Review – Presentations Team Two.

Presentations are to be picked by the teams on a subject or subjects from the years discussions. They will then present their case to the rest of the class and any visitors.

The teams are: 1. Molly, Daisey, Madison, and Jacob

2. Jackson, Isaiah, Emma

 

March 26, 2018 Class # 45, Monday

The class text briefly mentions what other religions teach about salvation.  On that list is Islam. Because they are a growing religion in America and because we will meet people of the Islamic faith, I thought we should look at some points and understandings they present. The statement in the text was taken from a pamphlet that is published by Rose Publishing called Christianity Cults & Religions. It compares 20 groups and a simple explanation about them. Just as the pamphlet is brief, so will any 45-minute class be brief and incomplete.

While doing a web search, I noted these points and brought them to the class:

• Jesus is mentioned in the Koran where it states that Jesus did great miracles including raising people from the dead (Suri 19:25). Jesus was presented as sinless (Suri 19:19), and born of a virgin.
• The Koran (considered equal to Christ) does not record that Muhammad (AD 570-632) performed such miracles and that he had to ask for forgiveness.
• Two things mentioned in the Bible which are not in the Koran which if a Muslin were to believe, he would “join you in heaven.”1. Jesus died on the cross for our sins and 2. He arose from the dead and ascended into heaven.
• When talking to a Muslin about Christ, discuss the need for a mediator.You might bring up the need for a mediator to be between you and a government official. Then also note that the mediator to God would have to be as great as God himself.
• Conflicts with the Koran and the Bible:

o   Koran states that Abraham offered up Ishmael. The Bible says that it was Isaac.

o   They confuse the sister of Moses – Miriam – with Mary the mother of Jesus.

• A teaching tool might be to refer to the Old Testament prophecies that foretold the coming of Christ.
• Some important questions to ask them:

o   Do you expect to go to heaven/paradise? They are constantly striving to please Allah and will not be sure that they have done enough good works to accomplish the goal until they have left this life.

o   Do you have an assurance that God will accept you?

o   What does the Koran teach about forgiveness? This is a foreign concept to them.

• According to their history, Muhammad was a man to whom the God of creation revealed many things over a 12-year time frame. They were not written down until after his death.
• Why do so many of them hate America?

o   The see the way we behave in our country as an example of Christian culture.  For them, religion and government are intertwined. The actions of the people should reflect the beliefs of the religion.  When they see Hollywood’s portrayal of America, the immoral stuff put on the web, the way we act and dress, etc., they think that is the way Christians are.

o   We eat Pork and drink alcohol, they don’t.

o   Christians pray with dirty hands.  They have a ritual washing prior to each prayer session.

o   They see our fallen “Christian” leaders as an example of our faith standards.

o   We seem undisciplined and unfaithful.

o   We need to get our own house in order and then we can tell them about religion.

o   Christians worship a “triune” God (God the Father, God the Christ, and the Holy Spirit). This is a faith statement of some denominations. We do accept that Christ is Deity, they do not.  To them he is a prophet that did not raise from the dead.

Web references: JesustoMuslims.org/content/bridge-points-reaching-muslins and moodymedia.org/articles/islam-unveiled/

There will be no class this upcoming Thursday due to conference preparations, no classes during conference, and the office is closed the Monday after conference thus no class. The next class will be April 12^th.  We will cover chapter eight.

 

March 22, 2018 Class # 44, Thursday

The text continues looking at the question of salvation by considering what some other religious groups believe on the subject as found on page 24 of our text. The main reason for reviewing these is because there are those around us who follow these teachings and we need to be able to discuss with them the truth as we understand it.

The Christian Science church was founded in 1875 by Mrs. Eddy.  In her writings, she states that “God is an impersonal Principle of life…and that matter is an illusion.”  She goes on to claim that Jesus was not God (deity) and did not die on the cross.

We then went on to the Unification church and their leader, Sun Myung Moon.  He believes that Christ failed in his mission and that Rev. Moon believes that it is his task to complete the salvation task. Rev. Moon believes that he is superior to Jesus.

We continued to consider the other listed groups, all with varying ideas, especially the claims that there is no sin.  I especially liked the concept that there is no old age, but I know better because I often feel old.

When we got to Islam, I asked the class who they felt Allah was, the God of Abraham or another lessor God chosen by the faith?  That is the assignment for the next class: research the question.

It was noted that many of the Islamic people today are good and law-abiding people and have a sense of community. It was also mentioned in class that one of the class members knew of a case of an Islamic family member trying to convert to Christianity and that action put the convert in danger of death from her family.

Because Islam is becoming such a large presence in the world today, we thought that we should learn a little more about the religion which we will do during our next class.

There will be no class on March 29 nor during conference. On Monday, April 9th, the office is closed and again no class. 

 

March 19, 2018 Class # 43, Monday

After reviewing the “saved by…” scriptures on page 23, the class continued with the topic of what people believe are the saving concepts. We have spent much of our discussion time on the “sinner’s prayer,” so I didn’t feel we need to discuss it today. We also have an upcoming chapter on the doctrine of eternal security. I did comment that we (Remnant and Christians) might be able to refer back to a deciding moment or our realization that we are sinners and in need of the atonement. For some, growing up in the church, we might not have had anything but a continuing growth in our testimony rather than the moment of decision.

That led us to consider the seven points found in the One-Minute Answers book, which consider the path through the moment of decision whether it is a single moment or over our life time of experience.

1.       Acknowledge that you are a sinner. We all need to realize that mankind is a sinner due to the fall of man, and that we as a people often wonder down sinful ways rebelling against what God wants us to do.

2.       Believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you. The atonement is real and we should praise God that it did happen.

3.       Change direction. Turn away from your sinful way of life.  It seems that every time I think I have conquered a sinful aspect of my life, Christ and the Holy Spirit show me another. I am forever in debt and dependent upon the Savior of mankind.

After the prayer (or experience), he suggests that you:

1.       Begin reading and obeying the Bible (Scripture)

2.       Begin praying. Simply talk to God. We talked a little about our prayer life and the prayer habits we have.

3.       Begin going to church that teaches through the Bible. We heard minister stress the idea of belonging to a “bible believing church.” That ignores the additional scriptures we have and we noted that all of the bible believing denomination do not agree.  So, which one is correct? We need to consider all of the scriptures and what is being taught.

4.       Make friends with other believers… We need our support groups!

 

March 15, 2018 Class #42, Thursday

Today we had the opportunity to cover the different restoration scriptures found on page 23 of the text. They cover the different ways that we are “Saved.”  As noted, the list is from the Doctrinal References by Alvin Knisley and published by Herald House.

Saved by belief                              Acts 16:31, John 3:15-16

Saved by grace                              Eph. 2:8, Titus 3: 3-7

Saved by hope                               Romans 8:24

Saved by baptism                           I Pet. 3:21

Saved by the gospel                       I Cor. 15:1,2

Saved with fear                              Jude 23

Saved by belief and confession        Rom. 10:9

Saved by the name of Christ            Acts 4:12

Saved by obedience                        Heb. 5:9

Saved by works                             Phil. 2:12, James 2:14-25

 

We took turns reading each one and commenting upon them.

On belief, we saw that believing is a first step to all other steps towards salvation.  If you don’t believe, you won’t care or respond.  We have covered grace well as we went through the previous 1833 confession.  Without hope (related closely to faith) of the promised future. We felt that the scripture might be a little confusion due to the older form of speech, but concluded that “hope that is seen is not hope” because it now knowledge and proved.

We discussed the need for us to be willing to “confess the name of Jesus Christ” as a part of our salvation. If called upon by our peers, we should not deny Christ, and we are commanded to bear a positive testimony to others for the sake of our salvation and theirs.

On the name of Christ, the Old Testament covenant ceremony includes the taking on of the others name. And then considering that when we covenant with Christ, we take on his name and all that that implies.  We also close our prayers “in the name of Jesus Christ.”

The concept of being saved by works must always be cleared up as the term may be confusing. It is true that we cannot “do” anything to cause Christ or God to save us. That is his grace and mercy. But, we can respond to the atonement and react with righteous works which change us and others.

We closed the class noting that Saved by Faith was not on the list. We turned to Moroni 7: 24-25 where that is stated that it is among those thinks that will save us.

I feel that we have covered the “sinner’s prayer” in our previous class discussions. So, we will go on from there in our next class to page 24

 

 

March 12, 2018 Class #41, Monday

Today’s class went over the scriptures I had asked the class to review.  The list can be found at the end of the previous class.

I Peter 4: 6-7, refers to the “gospel being preached also to them that are dead.” We speculated that the dead mentioned in the scripture meant to our evangelical friends, the dead in spirit. We understand that the dead are in the prison house. We took a look at Rev. 20 along with the scripture.

II Peter 3: 3-13 and I Thess. 4: 3-13 gave us a chance to discuss the evangelical perspective on the rapture. It was mentioned that Christ is going to live on the earth for the millennial reign, which would indicate that be “taken up in the rapture to heaven” in an incomplete teaching.

After reading together the other interesting scriptures mentioned in the assignment, I asked the class to go to I Cor. 15: 40-41 which discusses the glories of God and wondered why they are not mentioned by non-restoration saints.

The rest of the class was spent reviewing the differences between Liberal Christianity and Conservative Christianity as shown by the chart on page 22 of the MIT text. We also asked the question for each of the points as to where we are in our believes; such as, we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God but also realize that due to the many translations and due to the understandings of the language over the years, that the Bible may not be as clear on some points in some verses as thought.  One needs to look at all of the scriptures on a topic before creating a doctrinal belief.  On miracles, if we don’t believe in miracles, how can one accept the resurrection. On humans as being good, we agree that humans are in a fallen state, but consider that there must be some good in people in order for them to respond to the Holy Spirit.

In the liberal column under Jesus, it mentions that Jesus is not God and in the conservative column it says that Jesus is God. We should consider saying that Jesus is Deity and not make the claim that Jesus is God.

We agree with the atonement.

The liberal view that God’s “primary attribute” is love leads us to think that God will save all people due to that love.  However, it is because of the love and his holiness (sanctified) that He has provided for us the path to return to him.

As to the heaven of hell alternative, we will leave that until later as there is a chapter in the text that is upcoming.

March 8, 2018, Class #40, Thursday

We continued our trek through the New Hampshire Confession of Faith by discussing point number XVI, “Of the Civil Government.” As the question mentions a civil government, I asked the class to define a civil government. After some discussion, I offered the definition of: the practical implementation of a state business that is other than its military units which creates and enforces the laws prescribed.  The other two types suggested were that of a military or religious authority and leadership. I also asked the class to tell me what types of business a government such as a city, state, or federal government might be found doing. And next, to consider that having a government is “of divine appointment.”

The next aspect of confession XVI was to say that governments ought to be led by righteous people, prayed for, honored, and obeyed “except only in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We began looking at the scriptures suggested to see if they make any statements that council us to follow the leaders of our government.  We read Rom. 12:1-7; II Sam. 23:3; Matt. 22:21, I Peter 2:13; Acts 5:29; and Matt. 23-10.   We then looked up Isa. 2:1-4 and Isa. 9:6-7.  I asked the class if there are any modern-day scriptures with the same council?  We then took a brief look at Section 112 of the D&C.

The next point in the confession is called: “Of the Righteous and the Wicked.”  We discussed what we thought the “radical and essential difference” was and felt that the point of this confession aligned with the next point on the world to come, and that they only look at a two-fold result of this life, either heaven or hell, righteous or unrighteous depending upon the conscience or verbal acceptance of Jesus Christ.  If you believe, you are righteous. If you don’t believe, you’re not.  We do believe that all men are sinners in the sight of God. However, we consider that we must continue to respond to the atonement of Christ and to continue to do righteous works until this mortal life is over. Righteousness may be a gradual lifelong moving towards the standards that Christ has set out for us.

Point number XVIII discusses “Of the World to Come.”  We agree that the end of the world is approaching, but felt that we should consider that the Kingdom of God is to be upon this earth, thus feeling that what is meant by “the end of the world,” is an end to the world as we currently know it. We agree that in the “last day Christ will descend from heaven, and that there will be a final retribution,” but realize that the final judgement is after other events such as the millennial reign of Christ. I felt that a full study of the “end time” events could not be included in the few minutes of this class and that we have other lessons on salvation understandings yet to come in the text.

I suggested that the class review the following scriptures found on the list for this confession: I Peter 4: 6-7; Matt. 24:35; Matt. 13:39-40; II Peter 3:3-13; Rev. 1:7; I Thess. 4:13-18; Acts 24:15; Matt. 13:49; and Matt. 24:30,31. I also suggested that we look at I Cor. 15:40-41; and Revelations 20.

Our next class will take up more of the salvation beliefs.

 

March 5, 2018, Class # 39, Monday

We continued our trek through the New Hampshire Confession of Faith by discussing point number XII called “Of Harmony of the Law and the Gospel.” The first question was to consider what the word Law means, especially as it related to the Gospel.  To do that, I asked the class to consider some passages from D&C Section 85:3, 11, 9, and 8.  They tell us that the “law” is in all things and governs all things. Paragraph 11 discusses the law governing “all things by which they move in their times, and their seasons; and their courses are fixed…” We considered the idea that the times may not all be at the same time suggesting that different earths and planets may exist at different times as per their need in God’s purposes for His creations.  We discussed the different kingdoms of this planet, such as that of man, animals, plants, single cell creatures, etc.  From there we discussed how we need to obey the laws of God’s Kingdom, more specifically the Celestial Kingdom, in order that we might be able to spend eternity with Him.

Point XII goes on to consider how fallen man seems to love sin, basically saying that man is carnally minded and/or that the natural man is an enemy to God.  How difficult it is to break the habits and mental desires so familiar to all of us. And yet we must in order obey the laws of God, relying upon the grace and mercy of God, and depending upon the atonement for us to be worthy of his goal for us.

We read together: Matt. 18:17; Luke 16:17; Rom. 3:20-24; and Rom. 4:15. (KJ)

Point XIII brings out that a congregation is made up of baptized believers, noting that some churches today do not make that claim.  We questioned the concept that pertaining to reading and interpreting the scriptures is by “only scriptural officers.” We wondered if this went back to the Catholic idea that only the priest could read and teach from the scriptures? Certainly, we would consider that we all may teach from the word, but that individual interpretations should always agree with all of the scriptures, not just a verse or passage.

We did not read any of the scriptures recommended to support the statement.

Point XIV discusses the method of baptism, notably immersion in water of a believer. We noted that it is to be done “into the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost;” which agrees with our prayer used at the time of baptism. When we make the covenant of baptism we gain the privileges of being a part of his church and the opportunity to partake of the ordinances reserved by membership such as the sacrament.

We read together: Acts 8:36-39; Matt. 3:5-6; John 3:22-23; Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 2:38; and Acts 22:16.

We closed the class by discussing point XV on the Christian Sabbath. We considered how many today ignore any council to keep the day holy. It was hard in some cases to consider some of the activities we do, but thought that we could always ask ourselves the question “is what I’m doing enriching my spirit and allowing my body to rest?”

We did not read any of the scriptures recommended to support the statement.

The next class will take up the last 3 points of the confession of faith.

 

March 1, 2018, Class # 38, Thursday

We started the class by discussing point VIII, Of Repentance and Faith.

I noted that some of the way the words were used in the statement were less familiar to us as our language has become more “common” than it was in 1833.  I brought up the word duties where they say, “repentance and faith are sacred duties.” We thought we might be inclined to use the word “response” in that sentence.  We also discussed how repentance and faith are “graces.” It is through the grace of God that we have the opportunity to repent and we repent because we have the faith believing that there is a God and that he forgives our sins. Praise God.  We also looked at the word “contrition” and decided that it meant a sense of humility, obedience, and surrender.

We read together: Mark 1:15, Acts 11:18, I John 5:1-5, Acts 2:37-38, Acts 16:30-31.

On statement IX, Of the Purpose of Grace; we felt that the word election needed to be defined as to not confuse it with the action of voting. We looked up the definition and found that “a privilege of making a choice” worked better in the text to help us understand the meaning.

We read together: II Tim. 1:8-9, Eph. 1:3-14, John 15:16, II Thess. 2:13-14, and John 10:16.

We tried to figure out how the last scripture helped to support their statement of belief.  We of the Restoration belief use that scripture to verify the Book of Mormon as it mentions the “other sheep” Christ is to minister to.

On statement X, Of Sanctification; we especially liked the description of “a progressive work” in relationship to our lives.  And, how the Holy Spirit works with us to constantly change us by our choice and submission to the people God wants us to be, and to be ready for the upcoming Kingdom of God.

We read together the first four scriptures mentioned in the text after the point.

On statement XI, Of Perseverance of the Saints, it was good to read that “We believe that such only are real believers as endure unto the end. It then says that those who truly follow Christ will have a life that is noticeably not superficial in their professing of Christ.

We read together the first five scriptures noted in the text on that point.

For Monday’s class, we will continue through the points hoping to cover 3 or 4 more with a goal of finishing the confession by the end of next week.

 

February 26, 2018, Class # 37, Monday

Just a note, there was no class last Thursday due to another ice storm in Independence.

Today we took up point number V called “Of Justification,” as found in the 1833 New Hampshire Confession of Faith by Newton Brown.

I began the class by defining Justification: the action of declaring or making righteous in the sight of God. We agreed that this is a theological definition and that the word could be used in other ways. But, since we are studying theology, this one will work. This is especially critical as we considered the work that Christ did for us in the atonement.

The other word used in the scriptures we wanted to look at is Sanctify meaning: “free from sin, purify, absolve, endure, and vindicate.

We all liked the term “great gospel blessing” as used in the sentence on page 19. Again, the term works is emphasized by the text as it reads: “bestowed not in consideration of any works of righteousness which we have done.”  It was noted that this statement of works had a possible connection the thought that the Jews of the day had done something righteous to “bring” Christ to them; thus, works of righteousness done by them to make them special in the eyes of God and God’s chosen.

As I looked at the scriptures for confession 5, I noted that many of them say much the same thing.  Therefore, I asked the class to look at on their own these scriptures: Acts 13:39, Romans 5, Matt. 9:6, Acts 10:43, and Matt. 6:33.

We read in class together these scriptures on salvation: D&C 17: 6, Helaman 4: 70-73, Ether 5:28, D&C 11;4, Mosiah 3:21, Alma 3:67-72, Alma 9: 49-50, and D&C 162:9. The last two scriptures mention the words “righteous works.” This really helps us understand how we understand the relationship of grace and works.

Point number VI notes to us how “salvation is free to all.” This in showed us that God is no respecter of persons. Once we as humans have received this salvation gospel, our job is to accept the gospel and the blessings that come to us, or we can reject the gospel which leads to condemnation.

We picked out Rom. 1:15-17, John, 5:40 and Luke 10:27, to study at home.

Point VII discusses the regeneration or born-again experience that we all might experience whether that was a onetime event or over our entire lifetime changing towards what God wants us to be. We did not look at the scriptures that goes along with the point.

Thursday we will take up point VIII and more as time allows.

 

February 19, 2018, Class # 36, Monday

The class is continuing to look at the 1833 New Hampshire Confession of Faith and the scriptures they use to back up their statements.  Today’s class worked on number IV, Of the Way of Salvation.  The first sentence says; “We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of grace…”

Do we agree?

I found in a book called Restoration Beliefs which was compiled by the San Francisco Bay District in 1963, this statement:

“Saved by Grace?

What of salvation by grace? We most certainly believe that salvation comes by grace. The difference comes in our definition of grace. One of the best definitions expressed in recent years is to the effect that grace is the quality of God that causes him to continue to reach out past the rejection of man seeking to lift him from his fallen state, to challenge him to live in accord with the good that was created in him…It is by this kind favor and limitless outreach of God that salvation is possible.”

So often, evangelicals claim that we do not believe that we are saved by grace.  However, they often mean that you are saved by grace alone.  We would agree that we are saved by grace, for it is through grace that all else is possible. I understand that much of the grace/works debate comes from the early church’s claim that one could buy indulgences and thus purchase salvation. Or that one could “do things” that would put a “jewel in your crown of heaven.” We cannot purchase our salvation or by doing good deeds quality for heaven. In section 162:9 , we are counseled “through our faith we are saved by grace, remember that it is through our holy works we demonstrate the depth of our faith.”

The rest of the confession statement number IV is such that we could agree with it.  We did look up some of the scriptures given with the statement and choose to read a little beyond those given as a reference.  For example; we read in Eph. 2, verses 3-5, not just 3.

We also turned the pages of our text to page 23 where some other scriptures are given whereby we may be saved.  We read Eph. 2:8 and Titus 3:3-7 on grace.  Then moved on to James 2:14-25 and discussed the relationship between faith and works.

Our next class will take up point number V, Of Justification.

February 15, 2018, Class #35, Thursday

The assignment for today was to read II Nephi: 6, and Alma 19: 42-46 and 84-104.  We began the class by acknowledging just how grateful we are for the explanation on the fall of man as found in the Book of Mormon.  We went around the table and had each one of us read a verse with an occasional question asked about the text, on the grace of God for His plan.  It was noted in verse 28 that the mercy of God will even deliver up the captive spirits from hell and that the bodies of men will be restored to the spirit of men.  We are indeed dependent upon the atonement of Christ and as long as we keep our minds focused on Christ, even until the end of our mortal life, we will be saved to the eternity God has prepared for us. Verse 74 reads: “Remember, to be carnally minded is death, and to be spiritually minded is life eternal.”

We then turned our attention to Alma 19: 42 -104 noting especially verse 43: “…as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.”  We discussed that when the concept of just heaven or hell is the only consideration, one thinks that when a “bad” person dies, his or her spirit goes to hell and that there is nothing else for them. Thus, the great push to have people say the “salvation prayer” and keep them from going to hell no matter what actions or behavior they may have after that event. Verse 66 reminds us that “if…the desires of their hearts were good, they should also, at the last day, be restored to that which is good.”

We then turned our attention to the scriptures of confession point three as found in our text, especially the ones referred to in Romans chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8. We noted that Paul was assuming at time that the readers of his texts had some understanding of salvation and the events following our deaths.  It is too bad that he didn’t have the Book of Mormon to refer to for we are sure that the teachings of Christ to the early Christians was complete.

Next Monday, we will take up point IV and V, and the scriptures found there. Please feel free to look them up and contemplate what they say, and if they agree with restoration theology.

Thank you for participating.  Let me know if you are outside the class and would like to make any comments.  Send them to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

February 12, 2018, Class #34, Monday

Currently the class is working through The New Hampshire Confession of Faith (1833) printed on pages 18-21.  We worked on point number 2, Of the True God.

For the most part, we did not disagree with this point of the confession.  It was pointed out that they give only one name to God, that of JEHOVAH.  We noted that there are many other scriptures stating another name for God as seen in Exodus: I AM THAT I AM. 

It was good to note that this confession states that they believe in the Godhead as three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.  As we read through the scriptures given to us in the confession, we could see the diversities of the three.  I did note the unusual description of the three when they said: “executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work.” We wondered if that was a term more familiar in 1833 and noted how it points to the three entities working within different functions, yet still one.

When we read Rev. 1: 4-5 we were struck by the words “from the seven spirits.”  Matthew Henry’s commentary indicated that they refer to the seven cities where churches were established and listed in verse 11.  In the Inspired Version we find the word servants substituted for spirits. Corwyn had a different commentary that referred us to Isaiah 11:2 where it listed 7 different aspects or spirits: “And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of 1) wisdom and 2) understanding, the spirit of 3) counsel and 4) might, the spirit of 5) knowledge, and of the 6) fear of the Lord.” That’s only 6 unless you say that the first “spirit of the Lord” is number 1. If we see the Matthew Henry thought that the seven spirits are the cities, each one would be a servant of Christ and that would align better with the Inspired version.

We then began to look at the 3^rd point which covers salvation and the fall of man.  We didn’t have problems with the statement until we considered our belief that infants are not able to sin.  I also noted that they state that people are “utterly void of that holiness.”  I felt that people have a spark of the Spirit in them which hopefully leads them to righteousness and to realize that God is Love. Isn’t the heart of man basically good, but often ignores it, hardens his/her heart, and goes astray.  Romans 3:10 states that God is good and we know that man is made in God’s image.

The assignment for Thursday is to read II NE. 6 and Alma 19:42-46 and 84-104.  We will then take up the scriptures found to back up the confession.

February 8, 2018 Class # 33

Due to another activity in the church, there was no class last Monday.

Today’s class began a close look at “The New Hampshire Confession of Faith (1833).  We have agreed that we would like to read the individual points of the confession and look up the scriptures to determine how we think these scriptures validate their points.  And then review what our understanding of them is.   A copy of the confession is found on page 18 of our text and on line. 

It appears that the confession is saying that the Bible is the only book and of more importance towards salvation that Christ. We discussed that we understand that scripture is divinely inspired, but that when we look at how scripture has come about through many translations and understandings, that it may be hard to say that a given verse may prove a preset belief. Rather, we need to look at the whole book, and in our case multiple books, to better understand what God is revealing to us. We do accept that God has kept his hand in the books and has guarded them throughout the ages.

Corwyn Mercer gave us a good way to help “bible only” believers begin a walk through the “math” as we begin to help them understand the process of scripture coming forth and the possibility of additional scripture, when we read the first suggested scripture of the first point: II Timothy 3: 16-17 and vs. 15.  Verse 16 is noted by them to prove that the bible is the only book and that it is without error. Corwyn noted that “scripture” during the time of Paul was only the Old Testament, and then only available in scrolls at the synagogue. So, using this scripture to say that the New Testament is as they say it is, cannot be because Paul didn’t have the New Testament to include as “all scripture.” 

We also discussed how the holy spirit is our teacher and has been from our early youth, if we have been listening to it. If we are in tune to the spirit and are open to its teachings, that spirit will confirm the right-ness of a scripture. That becomes a key as we search all scripture, pray about it, and determine what truly is correct doctrine.

Proverbs 30:5 is used as proof of the infallibility of scripture as well. As we looked at that scripture we agreed that “God is pure,” but noted that man is not. Men make mistakes. Men’s understandings may cause certain word patterns to vary. Men’s languages change. Etc.

It was noted in class that Romans 2: 12 was a good reference to say that we are accountable to the law, but we need to know the law before we are subject to its teachings.

The next class will take up the 2^nd point in the confession.

February 1, 2018 Class # 32

Thursday’s class compared the statement of faith from the National Associations of Evangelicals to the Epitome of Faith from Joseph Smith.

With that came some brief history of when and why Joseph Smith wrote the Epitome of Faith.

There are some points in the NAE statement that we agreed with, but feel that some of the wording is not as clear as Joseph’s statements. We noted that baptism and the ordinances were left out of the NAE statement.  They did “believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by who’s indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life,” which to us would include how the ordinances of the church would enable us to have the spirit with us and help us to endure to the end.

I am asking the students to bring a King James Bible with them for the next class because we are going to look up the scriptures given as back up for the points given to us in the “New Hampshire Confession of Faith” (1833).  That confession of faith is printed in the MIT Academy text on page 18-21.

January 29, 2018 Class # 31

Monday’s class covered the 5 criteria for Christian denominations per Ron Rhoades in his book called “The Complete Guide to Christian Denominations” © 2015.  They are printed out in our study text on page 15. Briefly: 1) Scripture, 2) God, 3) Jesus Christ, 4) Humanity, 5) Sin and salvation.

We disagree with his criteria on point number 1 as he says the Bible is the inerrant word of God. Also, point number 4, in that he says humanity is destined to be in heaven or hell depending upon whether they have responded affirmatively to the gospel.  We might discuss the concept of heaven or hell and I read into the criteria the need to “say the sinner’s prayer” alone as acceptance into heaven.

We also discussed the grace “alone” and faith “alone” comments in criteria number 5.  We do recognize the grace of God allowing us to be in his fellowship, but look at more of the whole picture on “salvation.”  I have considered that much of what protestants disagree with is the indulgences of the Catholic churches.

He excludes Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses because they do not agree with his 5 criteria.  The reality is, his criteria doesn’t agree with the early church.

 

January 25, 2018, Class # 30

The class discussion today begins to cover chapter Six of the Missionary In Training Academy material called “What do other churches believe? Creeds and Statements of Beliefs.

The mention of “previous events” refers to missionary experiences in recent years that the author had done in various communities in the area.  Most of them were public events where we could share reading materials with those passing by, and then some conversation when possible.  Those events helped to point out that we need to be better prepared as to what other denominations believe.  It was noted in class that we could approach these one on one opportunities by either discussion those beliefs or just presenting our view points.  Either way, having some knowledge of both would be beneficial.

The class spent some time discussing why the church leaders of the early church felt they needed to develop a definitive statement about beliefs, mainly that of deciding who is and who wasn’t a Christian and who was following who’s teaching.  As the church was a dominate force in the early kingdoms, gaining funds, control, territory, etc. was important to their survival.

We discussed the Apostles Creed which was developed from around 120 to 205 AD. We discussed what we agreed with and those points we felt were incorrect. We also discussed what was meant by the “universal church.”

The next class will take up the rest of page 15 and Ron Rhodes summary of what he thinks are the five criteria for a Christian Church.

 

January 22, 2018, Monday, Class # 29

Today’s class started by looking at a current bumper sticker that says “coexist” using different religious symbols. From the research that I have done, the symbol is in support of religious pluralism, the belief that all religions are true, and thus we should just accept whatever is taught and co-exist.

I asked the class to look up Deut. 13:1-5, John 4:1, and Gal. 1:8.  I encourage you to do the same. The scriptures encourage us to be careful and not to stray from the truth, but where does the truth come from and how do we know it when we hear other claims about truth?

I referred to a graph found on page 51 of “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist”. It is based on the answers to the question he asks at seminars; “Why do people believe what they believe?”

Sociological Reasons	Psychological Reason	Religious Reasons	Philosophical
Parents Friends Society Culture	Comfort Peace of Mind Meaning Purpose Hope Identity	Scripture Pastor/Priest Guru Rabbi Imam Church	Consistency Coherence Completeness (best Explanation of all the Evidence)

We discussed how we should evaluate the messages we receive. Any theological concept that we hear should be evaluated through the scriptures and through prayer. Just as Moroni 10:5 says, we should ask with a sincere heart and we will receive an answer through the Holy Ghost.

It is interesting to note that many people will say that they believe this or that and that they have received spiritual confirmation of that belief.  But we also know that conflicting ideas can’t both be true. So, to sort through some of the beliefs found in various places, you need to look at all scripture and not base a belief on just one verse.  We are also blessed to have two additional books of scripture to help us see more clearly.

In the restored church, we must also consider that God and Christ are directing us on who we must be to be citizens of his Kingdom. If we wanted to be a part of a sports team, the coach of that team would expect us to fulfill the requirement needed.  So does God.

The next class will begin Chapter Six.

 

January 18, 2018 Class # 28

Today we discussed the question of evil. What is it?  Where did it come from?  Most of the answers are found on page 12 and 13 of the class material.

The class indicated that evil is the opposite of good.  It has its basis in the sin of mankind with Satan pushing us onward toward his objective and our demise. Evil “is in the will, the choice, the intent, the movement of the soul, which puts a wrong order to the physical world of things and acts.”

It we understand that the Hebrew translation of evil is adversity, then it becomes easier to see how God placed evil or adversity in our world, that we might have the choice and thus, with choices that are of God’s design, achieve our preparedness for his kingdom.  One student paraphrased scripture and reminded us that we must “taste the bitter that we may prize the good.”  Love can only be full if chosen freely.

The text refers to two kinds of evil: physical and moral.  The physical evils are those aspects of our worldly life that are brought upon us through the world we live in and cannot control. The moral evils are brought upon us by the choices mankind or individuals make.

Scriptures to review: Moroni 7:11-18, II NE 1:81, II NE 8:90, D&C 1:3, and Isaiah 45:7

We discussed how much of the moral evil in the world may be caused by the lack of security in each of us. We look to the things of the world to bring us security.  When “bad” things happen to us, we blame God and loose our security in him. We want to conquer others in order to gain our position or status, etc. We should be placing our security in Christ and in the Father.  We can turn all our fears over to him and we can thank him when we have seen his hand in helping us through the dilemmas of worldly life.

The next class will take up chapter five, on page 13 and 14. 

Why should we believe anything at all?  See Duet. 13: 1-5

 

 

January 15, 2018 Class # 27

Just in case you were looking for Thursday’s class, it was canceled due to the ice and snow.  Even with a little snow last night, we did have class today.

In review, we considered the benefits of a zionic community in hopes that being able to see those perks, people would desire to change themselves and become a people ready to live there. We noted that it is like the question, what comes first, the chicken of the egg. We need the community to help us change who we are so that we might take on the attributes of a zionic citizen.  So ultimately, both the community and the citizens grow together as we become what God wants us to be.

I asked the class to give me some attributes of a citizen of Zion.  Here is what they gave me:

1.       Love – no envying, no strife or contentions.

a.       strife means angry or bitter disagreements

b.       not fighting over the little things

2.       Not angry

3.       Humility (being humble)

4.       Peaceful on a personal level (from a security in God)

a.       Self-control

5.       Forgiveness

6.       Kindness

7.       Joyful – outward reflection of inner joy

a.       Boldness – confidence in beliefs resulting in not having a fear in sharing

8.       Compassionate – going the extra mile for someone – empathy

At the end of this discussion, I gave the students a list of what I had found and some scriptures to go with them:

1. Love – John 13:34-35; Moroni 7:48-53; Luke 10: 26-30, IV Ne 1: 17-18
2. Service – Alma 2:20-22; James 1:26-27
3. Work – Genesis 3:25; D&C 42:12b
4. Self-reliance – D&C 77: 3c-d; I Tim 5:8
5. Accountability – D&C 101: 2b-d
6. Purity of Heart – D&C 94:5a
7. Be Ye Perfect – Matt. 5:50
8. Diligent – II Peter 3:14
9. Praying – Jude 20
10. Keeping His Word – I John 2:5
11. Clean and white – Rev. 19: 7-8
12. Charity – Moroni 7:50-53, I Cor. 13: 3-8
13. Wisdom – Luke 2:40 (and service – Mosiah 1:49)
14. Kind – Moroni 7:50-53
15. Repented – Alma 16:134-137; Alma 14:103
16. Fruits of the Spirit – Galatians 5:22-26
17. Consecration: D&C 42:14b, 106
18. Faith, Virtue – II Peter 1:2-8

This is by no means a complete list, but some things to consider in our own lives.

I felt that it is time to move on, so the assignment for Thursday’s class is to continue in the text on page 12 and 13, evil and tolerance.

 

 

January 8, 2018  Class # 26

This was the first class of 2018.  We had taken time off during the holidays.  

We left off our discussion on page 12 of the MIT material, chapter 4, Can mankind fix its problems without the help of God?

A large part of the discussion during the last class was considering what would need to be “fixed” to make it a “better place.”  What do we mean when we say “better?”  What would it take to bring our current society from the beliefs it has into a community we would call Zion?  I was hoping to allow the students to consider or visualize what living in a zionic community would be like, and thus create a greater desire to live under those conditions.  Therefore, I gave them the assignment to write a 2-page paper on how zionic conditions would make the world a better place. Thus, answering the question of the chapter as to why mankind needs the church’s concepts and God’s concepts to make it a “better society.”  This seems to be a two-part problem.  One, creating a community where the conditions exist for the proper development of the citizens; and two, having citizens who have the attributes of zionic citizens living together.  The two aspects seem to need to develop side by side. Can you have one without the other?

The students brought up several things they felt would be better in this zionic society:

• More righteous tolerance and acceptance of each other.
• Because of the first point, less political unrest.
• Everyone would accept God and his principles.
• People would strive to live under God’s will, and place more trust in the Lord.
• Less hungry people and all finding a way to contribute to the community.
• Lower crime rates.
• A more loving people.
• A better understanding of how people would deal with each other.

I’m not sure that each of the points above were specific enough to tell us just how it would be better, but some did. We did discuss them as we went as we expanded our thinking.  One of the discussion points was to consider the church's teaching on just wants and needs, or the creation of surplus.  If members of the community were to consider creating and sharing their surplus, what things could be done for the betterment of others?  What opportunities could be provided and thus the community would be better. This comes about because the citizens desire to share and to consider the needs of others.

I then quoted from a series of radio broadcast by President Frederick M. Smith done in 1938.  He said:

“Religion is more than a mere theory, or the philosophy of the mystical. It has and should have a practical application. It should furnish a basis on which the maladjustments of society might find a rectification. Among Latter Day Saints is firmly fixed the earnest belief that the Christian religion was intended by its Author to have social application toward betterment of human conditions, and that present social ills are the result of departures from such religion, or failure to apply it…We have lost sight of our brother and our neighbor and their needs, or in our selfishness have reused to do what lies in our power to supply those needs.

Because most of the students did not write out the assignment, but shared bullet points on their thoughts, I asked them to go ahead and write the 2-pages to help them express their thoughts.

The next class will review the assignment and then consider the second part of formula, that of what personal attributes are needed to be a zionic person. We then need to continue with the understandings on evil.  As we consider what needs to be better, we are discussing mostly how we can change the moral evils in the world, for the physical evils of the world are harder to address, such as illness, which are those things we may have to suffer through.

I am going to put the most recent class on the top of this page for each entry to make it easier to find the most recent material.  

Please let me know if you are reading this and feel free to respond to the lessons by sending me an e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

 

2017 class reports:

The new class called "Survey of Remnant Church Beliefs" has begun.  The first class was Sept. 11 and the second class on Sept. 14th. If you would like to participate by using this web page, please do. You will need to have the first text material on hand.  It is called "Missionary In Training Academy" written by myself. I can send you a copy.  Here is how it can work for you.  I will put the brief class discussion notes here on this page.  You can read the material on your own.  I will also include the assignments for that class, which you can do and then send them to me via my e-mail at the church; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. I will then respond to you.   There is no grading.  This is just a way to help you follow along.

1st class notes:

Goals for the class:1. better learn what we as the Remnant Church believe. 2. strengthen our understandings to keep us strong in the faith.  The first activity was to watch a video found at: allaboutphlosophy.org/absolute-truth-video.htm.  You should be able to find that on line.  We then discussed our observations about the video and if we felt the video was acurate.

We then discussed what we thought absolute truth is and found a definition of it which says that "truth is not relative but absolute.  If something is true, it is true for all people, at all times, in all places."

The reason we need to discuss that there is absolute truth, is because many of those opposing Christianity don't want to consider that there is abosolute truth.  Thus, we need to open that door of thought to allow people to be ready to accept religion.

Much of these discussion will come from a resourch listed in the SRCB material.  It is called "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist" by Geisler and Turek. The main points they bring up are in the SRCB text.  

Assignment for the next class: Look up on the web some information about Logical Thinking or Critical Thinking.  Write a couple of simple logical progressions. Read chapter one of the text. Read over the definitions found on page iv of the material.

Class number 2 notes:

We reviewed the definition of truth and why it is important. 

We reviewed the 7 points on page 2.

We discussed what a self-defeating statement is. Those statements contradict themselves. Such as "All truth is relative."  Our answer to that should be: is that a relative truth?  We then took a look at a simple example of a logical progression statement:

1. All men are mortal

2. Spencer is a man

3. therefore Spencer is mortal.

This is a valid conclusion base on the premises.   They follow that if...and if... then.....  What is not stated is whether the proposition is true. In this case, at least the conclusion is valid.  What if all men are not mortal, or if Spencer is not a man, then the argument could be false even with the correct conclusion.

Logic can help us with our missionary work as we can use it make a strong case for those questions that cannot be ultimately proved like is there a God? Through good sound observation, a solid conclusion can be made.

Two scriptures were brought up on truth: D&C 90:5a,b and 85:9a.

Assignment for the next class: look up scriptures on truth and write more logic statements.

 

Class # 3: September 18, 2017

The first topic for today's class was a look at self-defeating statements and the "road runner tactic".  We had the opportunity to watch a road runner cartoon.  You can find one on you-tube.  Basically it is the coyote finding himself suspended in the air or being beaten by his own attempts to catch the road runner who alludes the traps and remains unharmed.   A self-defeating statement is much like that,  it has no ground to stand on.  

An example is someone saying there is no truth.  The statement doesn't meet it's own criteria. Our answer to that might be: How do you know there is not truth?  To continue with that thought, one might ask whether we know everything in the universe.  Is it possible that there are still facts on bits of knowledge that haven't yet been discovered, explored, or considered.  The answer would be yes. If that is true, then I don't know everything and that something might still come forth that would explain a truth we previously thought of as not true.

We then discussed opinion verses truth.  Some things that are considered to be true may be just opinion. This is true in religion. The idea that babies need to be baptised is a good example. Scripture does not back up that belief, yet, people still consider it to be true. 

In a classic sense, philosophy means finding truth through logic, evidence, and science (look up the definition of science). This is how we will approach our research on theological topics.  Is something worth believing if it's rational, if it is supported by evidence, and if it is the best explanation of the data? The answer should be yes. I believe that it is possible to test our beliefs by this method.

Assignment: look up scriptures on truth and continue to consider your logic statements. Reading assignment: continue with chapter one, page 3 of the MIT Academy material.

Class # 4: September 21, 2017

We took up our assignment to review the scriptures found by the students on "truth".  The first one was D&C 90: 4a-e, 5 b, and 6 a.  We especially looked at the thought that truth is set and anything more or less than that is not of God but of the wicked one.  We saw that truth is independent and in God's sphere, and that light and truth is outside of our human sphere.

I asked the class to give me examples of what we claim as truths. 1. There is a God. 2. God created... 3. The gospel 4. the elements and physical laws which brought us to the restoration concept that the temporal and spiritual make up the celestial law.  5. We discussed the opposite views between the unchurched and the churched that God is the source of everything and the results of the world's thinking that God and his truth isn't the source of truth.

We put a large box on the white board representing absolute truth.  We wrote in the box: God, the gospel, the word of God, intellegence, agency, Christ, the spirit of Christ, the family unit, and society structure or community. These things we decided were patterns set by God and if the world followed them it would be a better place (less chaos).

The concept of Relativism was introduced, the philosophy that doctrine should be determined by culture, society, historical context, and are not absolute. The scriptures we are looking at do not agree with the philosophy.

Other scriptures that we looked at: Sec 83: 7b, Ether 1: 108, and Moroni 10: 5.

The next class will continue the scripture search on truth with an emphasis on the Old and New Testament references to truth. Are they as complete as the D&C and Bk of Mormon.

Class # 5 September 25, 2017

As an exercise in logical thinking, I presented the class with a couple of puzzles:

A man lives on the tenth floor of a building.  Everyday, he takes the elevator to the first floor to go to work or to go shopping. When he returns, he always takes the elevator to the seventh floor and then walks the remaining flights of stairs to his apartment on the tenth floor.  Why does he do this?

On night during the Second World War, an Allied bomber was on a mission over Germany.  The plane was in perfect condition and everything on it worked properly.  When it had reached its target, the pilot ordered the bomb doors opened. They opened, and he then ordered the bombs to be released. But the bombs did not fall from the plane. Why?

Do you know the answer?  Send it to me.

We discussed relativism, the philosophy that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relationship to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute.

I read from the book: "Pocket Handbook of Christian Apologetics" the following: From a practical point of view, the question of whether we can know objective truth is one of the most important questions in apologetics, because today most arguments between Christians and non-Christians come down to this point....the argument retreats to this ubiquitous line of defense: "What you say may be true for you, but not for me. Truth is relative. ...We must be prepared to help our opponents that they take refuge in this relativism and subjectivism only after they have lost the argument."

We then discussed the decay in our society. A discussion of that is found in our text on page 3.  We also looked at the 5 reasons the Socratic Society has given us as arguments against the idea of absolute truth. 

The class shared several OT and NT scriptures regarding truth. Exodus 34:12, Genesis 7: 69-70, 9: 22, Mark 5:25, Romans 1:18, John 14:6. It was noted that the KJ version of the Bible does not give us as clear of an understanding on the topic as does the IV, the D&C, or the Bk of Mormon.

The assignment for Thursday: Read chapter 2 page 4.  Look up the arguments points of General Relativity, Law of Causality, the first Law of Thermodynamics, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and the Law of Entrophy.

Class # 6, September 28, 2017

We began the discussion on chapter 2, Does God exist?  

We reviewed Genesis Chapter 1: 1-7

Comments were made regarding the words "this heaven and this earth" and we wondered if this tells us that there were or will be others. In any case, it tells us that God created all that we know of or can observe.  We also considered the statement "I AM."  The beginning of the universe we are a part of started and will have an end.  

Many truths about God can be known by the effects that we observe.  It is from these logical observations (induction) that we can draw reasonalble conclusions (deductions) about the existence and nature of God. This is how chapter two begins. 

We then began to discuss the three arguments for the existence of God: 1) Causality 2) Design and 3) Moral.  We then began to define, General Relativity, Law of Causality, The First and Second Law of Thermodynamics, and the Law of Entrophy.

General Relativity was Einstein's discovery which stated that the earth must have had a beginning, which was contrary to his desire to believe that the universe  was constantly perpetuated by itself (eternal- non ending or constantly regenerating)

The Law of Causality states that everything that comes to be has to have a cause. This allows us to answer the question of who made God, by saying that He does not have to have a beginning (cause). God did not come to be, He is eternal, the I Am.

Class # 7, Monday October 2, 2017

We watched and discussed a video found on You-tube called "Science has found proof of the existence of God." The video is about 25 minutes long and is presented from the Christian view point.

Class # 8, Thursday October 5, 2017

We began the class by reading Exodus 3:13-14.  This is the scripture where God speaks to Moses and says; "I AM THAT I AM."  Matthew Henry makes this comment about the scripture, this explains his name Jehovah and signifies: 1. That he is self-existent, 2. Eternal and Unchangeable, and 3. He is incomprehensible.

On page 92 of the book "I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist," the authors clear up a common flaw in the atheist question: who made God? They point out that they misunderstand the Law of Causality. "The Law of Causality does not say that everything needs a cause. It says that everthing that comes to be needs a cause. God did not come to be...so he didn't need a cause."  This gets us back to our openning scripture..

We then reviewed the SURGE acronym as found on page 5 of the MIT text. Note again the comment in the video from the last class telling us that the percentage of deviance from the big bang event that would have not allowed the continuation of the creation of the universe. We might also consider what variants would not allow for life on earth if they were upset such as the percentage of oxygen in the air.

The students were asked about their views on the old universe (earth) vs. the biblical new universe (earth) theories.  We agreed that we should at some point take a look at those.  For now we agreed that either way, God still created the universe we are in. And that God is still the most reasonable explanation for the Cosmos. 

Class # 9 Monday, October 9, 2017 

The class viewed a short video found on : allaboutphilosophy.org/is-there-a-god-video.htm.  This video asked people on the street what they thought about how to have a relationship with God.  Most of them answerrd that they don't know or don't want to bother. This again points to how the people in today's world are not paying attention to religion. 

Today we took up the second argument as an aid to help people consider whether there is a God, that of the Teleological argument or that of Design. Did the universe have a designer?  What point to this concept? This is found on page 5 of the MIT text.

We then took a look at the Anthropic Principle - the universe is extremely fine-tuned and balanced. 

5 examples were given to help confirm this concept. 1. The balance of oxygen on earth is at 21%.  If it were at 25%, the earth would be subject to spontanious fires. At 15% we would die. 2.Transparency - if the earth's atmosphere was less transparent, not enough radiation would reach the earth, if the transparency was more trasparent, we would have too much radiation. 3. Moon-Earth gravitational interaction - if the interaction was greater, earth's rotation speed would be too severe, ocean tides, etc. If less, we would have greater climatic instabilities. 4. Carbon Dioxide Level - if higher a runaway green house effect, if lower, plants would not be able to grow. 5. Gravity - if the gravitational force were changed by .00000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent, our sun would not exist.

There are many more examples of how well balanced the universe and our plant are which supports the idea that it is extremely fine-tuned and balanced.

Class # 10 Thursday, October 12, 2017

The assignment for today's class was to read chapter 2 of F. Henry Edward's book; "Fundamentals."

We had a good discussion as we went through the text. His first paragraph discusses how wonderful are the creations of man (the inventions and building, etc.), but then makes the statement that "we have not yet organized the spiritual forces of the universe. Our personal relationships do not match our scientific achievements." We read between the lines and agreed that mankind has not, even with all of its achievements, been able to bring about that total God fed relationship with Him. The author later states that the achievments of men has not fulfilled our deepest needs.  We need religion and God to do that.

He presented 4 reasons for believing in God: 1) because of the loving activity of Divinity, 2) because of my observation of human nature, 3) because Jesus believed in him, and 4)  because of personal experience.

The class then discussed the four points. On point one; yes, we agree, we can see, it we look for it, where God has had some effect on man even though some would attribute that to society being good to society due to training and education. On point two, we felt that what we currently observe on  human nature today is not leaning towards "good" and in fact is deviating from it. On point three, we felt that this is true, but that in order to use this as a discussion point with a non-believer, they would have to accept scripture and that Christ was divinity. On point four, personal experience is always a good testimony and is difficult to argue with, other than for the non-believer to say they think the one sharing the testimony is just crazy. We felt that the question at the end of the chapter: Your agnostic friend is interested in your reasons for belief in God. Where will your arguments for the existence of God most likely to fail to convince him? The class response was back to the 3 arguments from the MIT text, causality, design, and moral.

The assignment for the next class is to do a little research on DNA, most how the complexity of DNA supports the argument that there is a God.

 

Class # 11, October 16, 2017

Today, the main object is to see just how complex DNA is and that, due to incredible amount of exacting information included in each strand, it would take a "designer" or "creator" to write the codes. To help us understand this concept, the class viewed 3 short videos on DNA that were found on YouTube: "The Discovery if the Structure of DNA," "The structure of DNA," and "DNA-Evidence of God ."

After some discussion of the subject, I asked the class to consider the question; can DNA write itself?  We agreed that it cannot and still be complete. It can replicate itself, but needs a designer to write the codes and that they must be complete and exact or they do not work. It was noted that it would take 200 volumes of a 1,000 page book to equal the information in one stran. 

We looked up and marked two scriptures: Psalm 139: 13, 14 and Isaiah 40: 26. 

I then reminded the class that 99.9% of our DNA is similiar to everyone's.  I indicated that one author said that the reason for this is because we all live on the same sphere and the codes need to be similiar inorder for all life to exist.

I then brought up the Mitochondria DNA factor which traces all human beings back to 3 female sources. There also seems to be a genetic block somewhere in our history back to 4 couples.  Many believe this to be Noah and his family. Noah's wife did not have any children after the flood. That leaves the three sons and their wives. There are three mtDNA markers found today: "M", "N", and "R". There is very little difference in these markers, so there must have been a one female who lived not too long before the bottleneck. 

The next class will take up the holes in the evolutionary theory.

Class # 12, October 19, 2017

We spent a little time reviewing the complexity of DNA and how the complexity points to the need for a designer. I again asked the class if they thought DNA could "write" or create itself.  We agreed that because every bit of information in a strand was important, it would be difficult to see how that DNA could spontaneously "write" itself.  I used the analogy of a yard covered with car parts spontaneously putting themselves together in just the right sequence to become the car. Not to mention the creation of the parts in the first place, from nothing. 

We then watched a video found at: answeringgenesis.org/kids/videos/evolution-refuted.

There were two basic messages from that video: 1. that evolution is not an observable (nor is it observable) process and 2. that in order for "new life" to come into existence, there is the need for new genetic information (code) to be added to the DNA code, which it cannot do.  Observable science reveals that living organism only loose information, they don't gain from it.

There is the possiblilty for DNA to have some mutations to occur resulting from chemical interaction, but that those mutations don't cause the species to improve. 

I read to them the story found on page 113 of the book by Geisler and Turek about the Alpha-Bit letters being spilled out to read "TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE-MOM",  the point being that the information could not have existed without some intellegent intervention (Mom).  The text goes on to say that "Naturalist biologist assert that life generated spontaneously from nonliving chemical by natural laws without any intelligent intervention."  The next "problem for Darwinists is explaining the origin of first life."  Because the process of evolution cannot be observed, nor was it observed except only by God, then what evolutionist are doing is making assertions based upon pre-concieved theories, that some kind of combinations of events changed a current species into the next stage, and then the process was repeated by chance into again another stage and so forth. The possibility of these events is astronomical.

It is interesting to note that Richard Dawkins in his book The Blind Watchmaker writes: "Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose."  But two pages later flatly denies that human life or any other life has been designed.

From the Pocket Guide, page 38:  "What difference Does Evolution Make?"  1. a theory about what happened-more complex species appeared on earth- and when as shown by fossel records. 2. a theory about how this happened-natural selection. 3. it can mean the absense of a divine design as distinct from God using natural selection. 

Homework: write a paragraph on Natural Selection.

Class # 13 Monday October 23, 2017

I started the class by discussing the Term: Intellegent Design.  This came about due to the lack of an answer during the last class. 

We agreed that Intellegent Design is the theory that life and the universe could not have come about with out the aid of some designer and is ofter seen as an alternative to evolution.  ID is often seen as creationism. According to a source, ID may have happened as the designer placed the needed species on the earth at the appropriate time, not all at once.  We also discussed the possiblity that the universe might be very old and the account in Genesis is for this earth. It was suggested that we turn to D&C Section 22: 21d; "But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you...."

I then brought up a distinction in terms. Historical verses Observational Science. Historical science is often called origins.  It is non-repeatable and not able to be done through repeated testing and confirmation of the experiments done.  Thus Historical Science is an assumption as to the theory or theories presented.  Observational Science or experimental science is that which can be verified through testing and control. 

Evolutionist also try to claim that Creationist cannot be good scientist. This is just not true, for their are many great scientist that still accept the biblical accounts and the research into true science are possible.

The Theory of Evolution is developed by looking back at discoveries with a preconcieved concept and claiming that the discoveries proof the theory instead of looking at the testable research and trying to discern what the evidence is telling us.  Because only one term for science has entered into our text books and media, we then conclude that evolution is totally factual when in reality, other theories and factors might explain the same observations. It was noted that only one has seen the creation, God; thus we should go to the source to best understand the events. 

We then discussed the assignment, write a paragraph on natural selection.  Definition: The change in heritable traits of a population or species over time, random mutations which the offspring inherit. It was noted that mutations almost always decrease the quality of the species. In order for their to be mutations, there must first be a "correct" set of DNA. Evolutionist cannt tell us where the first species came from nor how the parent species became.

We watch a video found at Youtube: Myths and Misconception on Evolution by Alex Gendler.  The video was from the evolutionist view point and said that evulotion comes through reproduction, not some of the popular ideas of the day such as; 1. Evolution is organism adapting to their environment. 2.Individual organisms don't evolve at all, instead, random genetic changes occur and those organism survive. 3. Survival of the fittest doesn't always fit. It's due to reproduction. 

I think we have covered enough of the design argument conseidering the time elements given us. Note, that their are many text books written on the subject.

The assignment for the class: Research and consider this question, and then write a response: Are moral laws instilled in us by God or are they developed by society and given to us through education and training?  Some in society say that we just accept them because they make society "work" better and are for the benefit of all.  Read pages 6-8 on the third argument: Moral law.

 October 26, 2017 Class # 14

This class begins the 3rd argument for the existence of God, the Moral Argument which states that there is an absolute moral law, and that standard implies an absolute moral law-giver.  Something outside of man has placed within us this standard or set of values.  The reading assignment is on page 6-8. The other assignment was to consider the question: does moral law come from God or has it been developed by society?

I started the class with a video found on youtube: "Can You Be Good Without God?" (watch?v=OxiAik2vu) 

I then invited the class to share their thoughts on the assignment. If you have thoughts, please send them to me.

We then discussed some examples of those absolute moral choices we feel are instilled within us such as: universal notions of fairness and justice, universal standards of right and wrong.  The video said that when a person is saying; "Hey, that's not fair, that's wrong, tha's an injustice" you are saying that you affirm that you believe in objective morals.

The atheist or materialist says that humans are just another species and are therefore, just matter (no spirit).  Therefore, marality comes from us.  We as a society have chosen different subjective moral choices just because we accept that they are better for society, they help to keep us safe. 

Yes, it is true that subjective moral choices can evolve and growth  as mankind realizes the benefit of the choice.  But deep within every person is an objective moral code that guides us. 

I believe that it is because we are created by God, God has placed within our spirit (the non-matter part of us) those codes that are most like him. Perhaps those codes are a part of our spiritual training before our birth and come with us. Or, because our spirit is connected to God through the Holy Spirit, we have those codes with us.  We don't know. We do affirm that there is a God and he has written the prescription for the codes that guide us.

There will be no class on October 30 and Nov 2nd. 

Assignment for November 2nd: begin reading chapter 3.  We will begin to discuss other views of God or views of no-God. 

November 6th, 2017 Class # 15

The class today went back to page 7 of the text material to discuss point iv and v on page 7.  
"We can't know what is good unless there is an unchanging standard of good outside of yourself."  People will appeal to a code that is beyond themselves when they compare what is good and what is bad.

The class was asked the question: "How do we know what is good? According to who's set of moral standards? If there is no God, then does society dictate what is morally correct or is the standard? We agreed that there is a moral light given to all people and that it comes from God. But also realize that many people do not agree. So then what dictates their moral choices.  On page 7, point b,i, we find four possible choices for the source of morality, 1) from something less than me, 2) me, 3) from those equal to me, 4) from something above me.

Many of the apologetic books consider one main moral comment a validation for God.  That come when people claim that something "is not fair," which basicall says that they believe that there is something beyond themselves to base the comment upon.

To help measure whether we are understanding the class material so far, I presented the class with a 13 True or False quiz.  (I can send you a copy by request.) We then reviewed the questions.  

Assignment for November 9th, read chapter 7 of the book: Pocket Handbook of Christian Apologetics, by Kreeft and Tacelli; called The Problem of Evil.  This discusses how to explain the existence of evil to those who find it a stumbling block to believing in God.

 

November 9th, 2017 Class # 16

To help clarify question 11 of the True and False Quiz given on Monday, I was able to re-find the source of the quote.  It was from F. Henry Edwards book, Fundamentals, page 12 of the 1940 printing. The paragraph which included the statement in the 1940 book adds some clarification to the comment:

T or F: A belief in God is not possible (my word in the test) capable through of scientific demonstration due to the limitations of science rather than the absence of evidence (1951 printing). The 1940 book adds this: Belief in God...is not capable of scientific demonstration. That is because science does not operate in that field, and is due to limitations of science rather than to the absence of evidence.

The book goes on to state that scientific demonstrations cannot proof the love of my mother.

I then asked the class to again define truth and morality. I asked the questions found in the book; "what is the greatest problem in America today?" The class discussed the other comments found on page 8.

We then looked at D and C 1: 3e and Alma 19: 83-91 and discussed the prophecy of the D&C scripture and the explanation for the fall as found in Alma.

Reading from the book, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, on page 67, it tells about a conversation between one of the authors and a fellow naval officer.  The friend made the comment that "I don't believe the Bible. But if it is true, then I'll be in big trouble."  Oh, how true.  The next page discusses the importance of knowing what is theologically correct. For example, if an atheist believes that all humans are just material (everything is materialistic view) then there is no difference between a pig and humans and that no deity has created us with any special significance. Then we see people who don't value human life.

 

November 13, 2017 Class # 17

As we continue to discuss how to present and answer to the question: How can a "good" God allow evil or create evil; or what is evil; I thought we should look at some scriptures on evil. 

Here are the scriptures we took a look at and discussed:

Inspired Version - Genesis 3: 22 and 28, Genesis 9:6,  Isaiah 5: 21-21, and 45:7, Luke 11:14, Moroni 7: 4-7and D&C 1:3e

Basically, the class discussed that God does allow evil in the world and that he did, as Isaiah says "create" the situation in where evil can exist. But, man is the real creator of evil in our world today as we make choices that affect others or try and take away the choice of others. This is apart of man needing to choose between good and evil.  By choosing good, we become as God who knows good and evil, but always chooses good.

Look at Alma 19:83-91,  Book of Mormon 4:59-94.

The assignment for the next class is to meditate on D&C 1: 3, Alma 19: 83-91, Book of Mormon 4: 59-94, and to write some words of reflection on what is there. 

 November 16, 2017  Class # 18

We began the class today by reviewing the two scriptures given in the assignment. Daisy presented a paragraph on each one  She indicated that she was struck by the use of the word "probation" for our time on earth.  She had previously thought of the word as describing a  punishment. When she looked up the word, she found that it can mean a rescue from a penalty.  That concept can apply to our lives. That brought up some discussion on the reason for our life on earth and the need to make righteous choices. 

The next scripture discussed was the one found in Alma 19. We discussed the concept of and the need of knowing good from evil, and why it is important for us to be able to make a choice between them. Without the choice, mankind would end up trapped in sin and its punishments. We also discussed how the condition of our life at the end of our life will determine the "condition" of our next life. 

Last week we looked up Isaiah 45:7 as it pertains to God "creating evil." I looked up the scripture in a Hebrew translation and it said that the word evil in that scripture means opposition.  Thus, God created opposition. That fits with restoration theology.

We next turned to the chapter from "Pocket Guide of Christian Apologetics" called The Problem of Evil. Corwyn especially liked and we discussed, the last sentence: "There can be no human being without it (free will). The alternative to free will is not being a human but an animal or a machine."  We discussed how animals do not have agency.  They may make decisions based upon their instinct, but that for them, killing for food or survival is not evil or a free will choice (thus murder). The chapter points out that evil is not a being. Evil is not a thing. Free will allows humans to choose to do evil things.

The chapter went on to say that we need to distinguish between moral evil and physical evil, moral, being the choices and result of human decisions, physical evil being the result of natural disasters, illness, the actions of others toward us that are out of our control. Another point given is the  arguments indicating that the fall of Adam and Eve is a real event. God did make mankind good, it is we who became the sinners. God is not to blame for creating sinners. Second, if the fall is just an individual thing, "why have none of us ever resisted the forbidden fruit?"  

I asked the question, "What is good about cancer, car accidents, the death of a loved one?" This question may be similar to one an atheist might ask trying to validate their thought that a "good God" would not create these bad things or if He did, then he is not a good God. We concluded that these types of events are still the result of the bad things people do to one another or are the result of sin being brought into the earthly equation.

How would you answer the question? Let me know.

Assignment: Read the section on the different views of God and on Humanism.  Write down your thoughts on why you think Humanism is incorrect.

November 20, 2017 Class # 19

Assignment: read page 10 and 11 and tell the class why you think humanism is incorrect. No one had a prepared statement for humanism in totality, but were willing to share on the individual points. 

To help us understand where humanism comes from (other than a teaching of Satan), I shared that the term humanism was coined by Frierdrich Niethammer at the beginning of the 19th century and was used to refer to classical literature. The idea that man is supreme and doesn't need God has been around since Adam and Eve noting that they were saying through their actions that they didn't need God, or that man is supreme.

But the humanist movement as an organization started in the mid 18th century and was formalized around 1940. It seemed to me that much of the points were pointed at how the "old churches" that came after the apostasy and before the restoration were dominating society and governments with much oppression.

We also found it interesting to note that they call themselves a "religion," and wondered how can they use that term as we defined religion as a belief in and worship of a supreme being.  But, if you use one of the secondary definitions, it includes something like adherence to a cultural system of designed philosophy.

We then looked up a definition for humanism: A system or outlook of thought, putting prime importance on human matters, stressing the potential of man and values human ideals, emphasizing man's common needs and seeking ways to solve human problems.  We felt that Christianity today does value the same, but puts God into the equation and that the church also strives to nourish the spiritual aspect of life and addresses eternal preparation.

We then began to look at the 15 points they present.  

Regarding the first one, many scientist who do not believe in God have affirmed that the universe had a beginning and will have an end which contradicts the statement.

The second point says that man is a part of nature. The name for that philosophy is materialism which states that there is only matter and its movements and modifications (no spiritual element). It then goes on to say that life is the result of a continuous process (evolution). This is another attempt to leave God out of the picture and say that we don't need him. 

The third point says that the idea that there is matter and spirit is false. I guess they just haven't experienced it yet. We considered that there is a lot of information and facts present in the universe that we do not know yet.  If that is true, then the possibility of God may for them be apart of what they just don't know yet.

The assignment for the next class: Write down your thoughts on how humanism has revealed itself in our societies today?

The next class will be next Monday due to the holiday.

November 27, 22017 Class # 20

We have been and will continue to discuss Humanism in our world. The class was given an assignment: Write down your thoughts on how humanism has revealed itself in our societies.  Some of the class members presented these thoughts:

• They are trying to take away the mention of God in our conversations, education, and government.  
  • That creates an atmosphere where they no longer have to strive to be "good."  I asked them to tell me what that meant. They made the claim that society is becoming less civilized, less concerned about morals, more self-centered, etc. I challenged them to consider that many people whether they are claiming to be humanist or not, might disagree with the statement and say that they are striving to build a more civilized society, that they are concerned with moral questions, and can see the disadvantage of a self-centered society. They just believe that society can achieve the goal without God. 
  • We then tried to define what a better society is. Were the patriarchal societies of the Hebrew worse than we are? Perhaps less material possessions and advantages, but they might have been just as good at being a "good society" as we are, maybe better.
• That brought up the humanist point number 14 as quoted on their web page. The key word we decided was that the humanist say they are demanding a "socialized and cooperative economic order." The emphasis is on the demanding of such conditions as opposed to a society having the choice to bring about the conditions. 
• The class thought that the government is becoming less interested in religion or in a government with God. 
• The class brought out that a humanist's philosophy would not include doing things in this life that would effect the outcome in eternity because they don't acknowledge that there is an afterlife.  What is the purpose of life? 

We then read the fourth humanist point. The key word we choose to look at was "that man's religious culture and civilization...are the product of a gradual development due to his interaction with his natural environment and with his social heritage...molded by that culture."  I made this comment: so first man was "less" than today's man and tomorrow's man will be "more" than today's man. We then discussed that many of the men and societies of the past may have been better than that of today. In what way are we better?

What is needed here is a standard to help us measure as to how we are better or worse, or is our society better or worse. I would rather depend upon scripture and God for that standard than the ever changing standards of man.

 

November 30, 2017 Class # 21

 Today's class will take a brief look at the history of humanism. I say brief because the evolution of humanism has been going on since the early philosophers. And as each philosopher considers the theories, they have changed or added to the beliefs of humanism. It also appears that the some of the early contributors were not trying to take God out of the equation. It was called religious humanism. Secular humanism came along later and did include statements that took God out of the picture.

I wrote on the board this quote: "As I have said, happiness cannot be gained without good and just and righteous deeds...The best works are those that benefit many people. Those are most virtuous, perhaps, that cannot be pursued without strength and nobility. We must give ourselves to manly effort, then, and follow the noblest pursuits."

The quote was written by Alberti in Della famiglia (1435-44; "On the Family")

The class reviewed the quote and thought that, from our perspective, we would have change "manly" effort to "Godly" effort. It is interesting to note how close to theology it is. Some of the early history and early philosophers were not trying to take God out of the picture. It seems that they were trying to change the church and encourage it to help society become better and the church less oppressive. Trying to get way from Medieval Catholicism.

We then reviewed a couple of points found in an article from newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/humanism which stated:

· Humanism was in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries "a reaction against the religious authoritarianism of Medieval Catholicism," from the rediscovery by European scholars of classical Latin and Greek text.

· In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a "reaction against the newly prevalent dogmatic authoritarianism of Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism, and the Counter-Reformation..."

· "IN the last two centuries, various elements of Enlightenment humanism have been manifested in philosophical trends such as existentialism, utilitarianism, pragmatism, and Marxism."

· "Secular humanism, in its neglect of God the source of human values, risks as impoverishment of meaning. Yet humanism is an inevitable reaction to theism when it is authoritarian and dogmatic."

We discussed the thought that if the church of the past had been all that it was set up to be and true charitable principles manifest, the church would have solved many of the problems which caused the rebellion. We might also suggest that a church is needed today that will manifest the fullness of the gospel and the charity of the gospel and bring mankind, with the help of God, to the Kingdom Christ came to establish. May the Remnant Church be that church.

The article mentions that one reason why "humanism rejects theistic religious belief, and the existence of God or other supernatural being, is on the grounds that supernatural beliefs cannot be supported rationally." We discussed the statement and said that at least for us, we do what God wants us to do because we want to be near Him through his Holy Spirit. What humanist are seeking is the observational science and repeatable science that proves that God is real. Note that when that revealment takes place, the opportunity to choose based upon faith, will be gone. "And every knee will bow."

A speaker in a debate that I watched indicated that he felt that the "dogma" of the church hasn't provided solutions or the answers and suggestions for we should just do the directions from God. He stated that circumstances might be present to steal a loaf of bread from a hurricane ravaged stored. The bread would go to waste anyway and the thief's family needed the food. (Debate found on You tube: Atheist Debate – Dillalunty vs. Slick – Is Secular Humanism superior to Christianity?)

Assignment: review the comparison chart, Christian? Or Secular Humanist?, www.aboundingjoy.com/humanism chart. htm

December 4, 2017 Class #22

We began to review the chart as seen on the above web page (assignment for today's class). 

The chart presents three columns. The first one is the Secular Humanist statement of belief per the author, Steve Hall, with a copyright of 2005. The second column presents a Christian view point on the Humanist statement. And the third column are some questions for us as Christians to consider. We were able to discuss the first 3 topics. 

The first topic was God; humanist say: "man is the measure of all things." without a belief in God. Discussing the questions for the Christian allowed us to consider just how much time in our day do we spend thinking about God, serving God, in prayer with God, and praising God.  We then discussed just what do we mean when we say that we should pray unceasingly for we can't be as a monk might be, on our knees all day. We need to spend time serving others.  So, then what does it mean to serve others? Do we choose professions that allow us to "serve others in a Godly way (righteous works)?

The second topic was how the world (humanist view) might use the name of God and in the questions for us, it asked us to consider when we might cross the line and say something like "Gah" or "Jeez".  Just how close to swearing is this? Or, do we as Christians speak or talk in a plain manor? 

The third topic was the views on Jesus Christ. Humanist would say that Christ is just a normal man and did not arise from the cross. The questions for us, is whether we have personally accepted Jesus Christ into our life? We discussed the different perspectives of a normal protestant (like a Baptist, or Evangelical) where just saying the sinner's prayer is enough. In the restoration perspective, accepting Jesus Christ is a lifelong relationship and requires us to "endure to the end."  Yes, we have accepted Christ, but don't see that our salvation is sure or that we can do whatever we desire because we have been forgiven. 

I would encourage you to pull up the chart and review for yourself the questions. We will continue through the chart on Thursday.

December 7, 2017  Class # 23

The class continued to look at the chart mentioned above beginning with the line on Creation. We noted that we have felt that some people try and make us feel ignorant or uneducated because we believe what the bible says regarding the creation.  We did note that some in the class were unsure about a belief in the "new" earth (6000 years old) or just that no matter how "old," God is still the creator. We also noted that there are many very well- educated men that can present solid evidence regarding the new earth and that God is the creator.

We discussed the sin-full nature of man as opposed to humanist view that man may feel good about himself regardless of the behavior.  We see how because man was created by God, that all men and women are of value to us and to God. On sin, they say that all activity is OK as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.  Our point was that there are many activities that may not directly harm others, but the behavior may still effect society and effect one's eternity. 

The idea of moral relativism (no absolute right or wrong) has been discussed earlier in the study. We did ask ourselves how much Christians have tried to rationalize behavior that God says is wrong.

We spent time discussing the problem of tolerance.  The humanist view says that it is wrong to tell someone else that their behavior is wrong or sinful. Are we willing to take an unpopular stand on an issue because of what God says about it?

The last topic was how society has turned over much of the parental training to the schools and noted that most students do better when their parents are taking an active role in what they do.

The next class will take up on the Humanist points found on page 11 of the text.

December 11, 2017  Class # 24

We were able to go through all of page 11, the eighth through the fifteenth thesis/points for humanism. We did find that the verbiage of the points was often hard to understand perhaps due to the age when they were written. Or, perhaps because they were cloudy on purpose. There is little doubt that the humanist view point does not consider any after life for it is stated that life is for the here and now.  All of our passions should be for this life. Living the high life is the goal, worship and prayer as a way into the next life does not need to be considered.  

Any observations or actions that would lead one to think that there is a supernatural power, should be done away with.  They can be explained away by the science of the day, and if mankind still doesn't understand where the events are coming from it is because we don't yet understand the science of how it is done. But a confidence in mankind says that we will learn the how someday. For example; we can't raise someone from the dead because we don't have all of the science needed to accomplish the goal.  Such events should not be considered as God's miracles. 

On the 12th point, we wondered how they would define "joy in life."  We thought that the best joy in life was when we were in tune with the Holy Spirit and doing what God wants us to be doing in service to them. In their view where all things are just material, this life is for us to enjoy through the material things we have or the activities that we can enjoy while here on this earth.

We need to remember that the battle of humanism verses Christianity was partially due to how the authoritive church dominated over people and that it did not do a very good job explaining why the Godly view would help individual and communities in the here and now, as well as in eternity.

We noted in the 14th point how they insist that a "socialized and cooperative economic order" is only possible by the demands of a higher order taking from all so that all might have an equal chance.  We felt that Zion may accomplish a more equitable order but by the charitable giving nature of those citizens. It was noted that when some people are "given" all that they need, they fail to appreciate what they have and fail to contribute to the whole.

It is not by man's decisions as to what shall be distributed, but by the council with God through the proper channels that the church and its citizens will be able to affirm life and help to establish conditions satisfactory for all. It is with God, not without God. It is through accountability to God in this life and the next that a fuller society can come about. Maybe the church hasn't taught this well enough or clear enough.  When we do, humanist might see the example and see value in a God centered society.

On Thursday, we will discuss chapter four, page 12. "Can mankind fix it problems without the help of God?"

 December 14, 2017  Class # 25

This was the last class of 2017.  Our next class will be January 8, 2018.

We started into the question presented in chapter 4, "Can mankind fix its problems without the help of God?" A simple way to answer the question is to say no, it cannot. But I feel the question begs a deeper answer. I think the world is looking for something better, mankind just doesn't know the answer and as demontrated in the humanistic view, is looking for the answers without God.  As has been stated earlier, one of the reasons the humanistic points have been developed is that the church did not or is not answering the question of why being a part of "church" is a better way of life and not providing answers to how society could be. The humanist make the claim that the authoritive church is always providing does and don'ts without providing the reasons why.  Towards the end of this chapter I said; "But the question was presented; can we ultimately succeed in making the world what we want it to be? And then we should ask; according to who's philosophies or ideals do we look for the pattern?" This is when we as Christians need to realize that we need to and are being asked to give up ourselves and to follow what Christ wants us to do. 

I began the class by asking the opening question and then trying to consider what we might mean as "better."  What do people want?  What do we mean by the "the world." 

So, the answers the class discussed were:

• freedom - the right to go out and do things
• to be loved
• to feel accepted (tolerance is our next chapter)
• to be comfortable
• to have a place to call home (shelter)
• to feel safe
• to be challenged
• to have opportunity
• a peaceful world
• equality
• to be able to give service to others
• power
• knowledge
• stuff

A third world country would consider their world better if they had clean water, better shelter, access to food, medical care, and some education.

We were reminded about Maslow's higher-arcy of needs. The bottom is the physiological needs or basic living needs like food, shelter, clothes, etc.

The next level up is to be able to live safely. Then a feeling of being love; self-esteem and on top, self-actualization (a feeling of being of worth).

So, can the church provide the above? Some of the items on the list cannot be satisfied without great resources. Some of the needs are promoted by media and may not be as important as we think. Much of the list involves mankind's insecurity. 

Mankind seems to think that it can, through learning about each other, through sharing wealth, by talking to each other, etc, make the world a better place.  And yet we still have "great human suffering, unhappiness, discontent, violence, war, disease, pollution..."

Is was brought up that when we put ourselves into Christ's hands, our self-worth is in and with him, not of our own doing.  Even in death, we can be secure so we do not fear what the non-christian may fear. When we receive Christ, we receive self-actualization and a feelling of self-worth. But, we haven't yet solved all of the problems around us today. Some of the problems are the things we must face, go through, and decide about to help us grow towards the ultimate goal as sent forth by God. 

Now, having taken a look at what mankind "wants," I asked the class to write a 2 page paper on how zionic conditions would make the world a better place, or at least provide an example that what God wants is the better "phylosophy" for our guide..

 

 Please let me know if you are participating through this web page.  

Terry Patience