IDOLATRY 2

 

I wrote yesterday about the influences of the world enabled through technology and how they lead us to idolatry.

The greatest shield against the penetrating strength of our modern-day living is strict obedience to the commandments of God. There simply is no better protection and acquisition of strength. I was all the more convinced of this as I read something very interesting about the very last of the Ten Commandments (thou shalt not covet)  which many people would not think was a important as the preceding nine but this illustrates just how all the commandments are so intertwined that none can be broken without weaking all the others:

“He who covets the mere material things of life may have ‘other gods before him’.

“He who covets may desecrate the Sabbath day to get gain.

“He who covets may fail to sustain his father and his mother in their need.

“Some who have coveted have killed to get gain.

“Many who have coveted a ‘neighbour’s wife’ have committed the grievous sin of adultery.

He who covets is more likely to steal (or to swindle or embezzle or engage in sharp practices).

“He who covets may bear false witness to get gain.

“Whenever we ignore any divine counsel or commandment, we can be sure that we weaken ourselves and increase our susceptibility to other sins….The commandment against covetousness does not mean that we should not have a wholesome desire to improve ourselves or our situation….The danger comes when mere ‘things’ begin to matter too much.” (Richard L. Evans, in “The Tenth Commandment”, Part 1, “The Ten Commandments Today”, p 142-44)

“Paul, on two occasions, equated coveting with idolatry (see Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5). The implication is that when one sets his heart on things of the world to the point that allegiance to God and His principles no longer matters, then material things become as a god to that person; he follows after them or worships them….Samuel told Saul that sin and iniquity were also idolatry (see 1 Samuel 15:23). (Old Testament Student Manual 1 p 135)

Think of the serious attachments people have in this world that demand their full focus to the point where they become addictions, such as food, drugs, alcohol, sex, even violent crime.  These addictions become gods and they all stem from disobedience to the commandments.

These are flaxen cords which the adversary uses to bind us to him forever (2 Nephi 26:22). This is idolatry….at all times, if we are not following God, we are following the opposition…..

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Guiding Light by Ivan Guaderrama)

DECEPTION

 

“The Book of Mormon exposes the enemies of Christ. It confounds false doctrines and….fortifies the humble followers of Christ against the evil designs, strategies, and doctrines of the devil in our day. The type of apostates in the Book of Mormon are similar to the type we have today.

“God, with his infinite foreknowledge, so molded the Book of Mormon that we might see the error and know how to combat false educational, political, religious, and philosophical concepts of our time.” 

-          President Ezra Taft Benson (in CR April 1975, p 94-95)

Twelve years earlier President Benson gave us the formula through which we could identify deception (in CR Oct 1963, p 16-17):

1.     What do the standard works say about it?

2.     What do the latter-day presidents of the Church have to say on the subject… Particularly the living President?

3.     The test of the Holy Ghost…this test can only be fully effective if one’s channels of communication with God are clean and virtuous and uncluttered with sin.

The third reminds me of President Nelson saying that in the last days we will not be able to survive spiritually without the constant guidance of the Holy Ghost.

Nephi went one step further and advised us to feast upon the words of Christ because the words of Christ will tell us all things what we should do because the words of Christ are administered by the power of the Holy Ghost (2 Nephi 32:3).

The Holy Ghost is the most important element of the abovementioned formula. The words of Christ are relative to both the standard works and the prophets of the Church but the Holy Ghost provides the confirmation of these words and testifies of their truth.

The Church has a dual purpose: to administer the saving ordinances of the Gospel and to instruct and protect the elect of God from the ideologies of the world hence the administrative structure of prophets, seers and revelators.

Deception has only one outcome:  spiritual bondage from which we might never recover. Truth offers us freedom here and now and in the world to come. Falsehood enslaves us now and forever. The war continues, the battleground is here, one person offers us captivity and one person offers us freedom. We know who is who.

And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free…… (John 8:32)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Set My Spirit Free by Greg Collins)