Sunday, February 7, 2016

Jacob 5-7 - Wrapping up Jacob

Reading through my notes on Jacob 5, I was reminded of a couple of observations. One is that verse 40 is Nephi’s day. This is when Lehi’s party was brought to the New World. Verse 61 is the start of our day, when the Gospel is restored and taught the last time.

The pruning and replacing of the evil fruit occurs in our day.

Chapter six, verse one is where Jacob gives his commentary and prophecy about what he’s just written. I think it’s instructive to note that speaking as prophet, his prophecy consisted of saying simply, “Everything I told you is the truth.”

So it can be for us today. A prophet is still speaking by the power of the Holy Ghost and prophesying when he says no more than, “this is all true.”

For those dealing with critics of the Church and its teachings, Jacob gives us the story of Sherem. Sherem’s arguments are persuasive. They seem to make sense. It’s clear that what he says is effective because many people, Jacob says followed after him.

He gives the antidotes to the Sherems of our day in verse five. He speaks of the many revelations he’d been given, even seeing angels and hearing the Lord’s voice. While this may sound extraordinary, keep in mind, Laman and Lemuel both had seen angels and God’s power in personal ways. It didn’t help because they were tone-deaf to the Spirit.

Jacob wasn’t. And that’s the key. If you’ve had experiences with the Spirit and you keep them fresh through regular study of the scriptures, you will be inoculated to the Sherems of our day. This may seem an audacious thing to say, but it is what I’ve experienced. With all that I’ve experienced of the Spirit and all that I continue to feel, the Sherem arguments that get thrown at me just bounce off. As long as I read the scriptures, go to the temple and attend church on Sundays, in other words as long as I make the Savior the rock on which I stand, none of this will destroy me. I love Helaman 5:12 for that reason.

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