SACRED LIFE

 

I have always been touched by Enoch’s encounter with God as recorded in the Pearl of Great Price. One particular part touches me to the core.

Enoch witnessed the sacredness of life in all of God’s creations, including mother earth. When Enoch saw the day of the coming of the Son of Man of Holiness in the flesh, he was enraptured, but not for long (Moses 7:47).

Enoch looked upon the earth and he heard a voice from its depth bewailing: “Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me?” (v 48). And Enoch wept for mother earth (v49).

In the same vein, Moroni spoke of ‘great pollutions’ upon the face of the earth in the last days. Today we agonise over environmental pollution upon our planet but ignore the greatest pollution there is.  When mother earth cried she did not agonise over plastic bags or oil or fossil fuels, she agonized over spiritual pollution.

In his conference talk of October 1993, Elder Joe J. Christensen suggested that the great pollutants spoken in the scriptures of our day are not environmental but primarily spiritual:

“We all hear and read a great deal these days about our polluted physical environment – acid rain, smog, toxic wastes. But there is another kind of pollution that is much more dangerous – the moral and spiritual.”  (see commentary for Mormon 8:31: “Pollutions in the Last Days” in the Book of Mormon Institute Manual)

Why would the earth cry over its’ pollutions? Because it was created for a sacred purpose: for exaltation of man and the earth’s destiny to become a celestial habitation (D&C 88:25,26). Man can arrest this purpose by pursuing the course of evil and ungodliness.

All that Jehovah has created has a sacred purpose. Consider the ‘choice land’ named America which has served as the beginning of mankind’s habitation and will be the end thereof as the New Jerusalem is built upon its soil and serves as the seat of the theocratic Government during the Millenium from which Jesus will govern.

There is one caveat to America’s special status though. This was made very clear to the Jaredites as they landed upon ‘a land which is choice above all other lands’: “he that does possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off” (Ether 2:7-10).

This promise was very much fulfilled. The Jaredites landed in America 2200 B.C. and were annihilated between 500 and 250 B.C. with the exception of Corinatumr, their king and last Jaredite survivor who was discovered by the people of Zarahemla (Omni 1:21).

I am always amazed at the arrogance of the people of this earth who claim that we can destroy this vast planet, the perfect workmanship of Jehovah’s hands.

Many prophecies have been uttered about the earth’s imminent destruction over the years by ‘false prophets’ in scientific robes, which have never come about. First it was acid rain, then a hole in the ozone layer, then global warming, then sea levels rising, then climate change. All this is Satan’s way of undermining the Saviour’s power of creation.

Yes, we have a stewardship of this planet which warrants a personal and individual response but we can never destroy it collectively because we do not have that power and we can never save it because we are not the Saviour.

This is His promise: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:22) and: “The earth is full and there is enough and to spare, yea, I PREPARED ALL THINGS…..” (D&C 104:17). Do we honestly think that because of His foreknowledge, the Saviour would not have equipped this planet to survive all the environmental pollution?

In 2018, a top climate scientist claimed that climate change will wipe out all of humanity unless we stop using fossil fuels over the next five years. This did not happen and could never happen and this is why: “The works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught.” (D&C 3:1)

The earth will never be destroyed until its appointed time to die and be resurrected and that at God’s command (D&C 88:18-26; 130:8,9)……..but mankind can be destroyed for its blatant disregard of the Creator thereof and its unwillingness to serve and obey Him and only Him….

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Creator by Chris Brazelton)