Before i begin, I would like to acknowledge the sensitive nature of this topic and the emotions that run high when its being discussed. I am humbly asking for you to open your mind and heart and read the whole thing before you make a decision to discount what i write. I would also like to state that I believe this is extremely important to the founding of zion or i wouldn’t bring it up at all.
In D&C 29: 45-50 LE. it states:
For they love darkness rather than light, and their deeds are evil, and they receive their wages of whom they list to obey. But behold, I say unto you, that little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten; Wherefore, they cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable before me; For it is given unto them even as I will, according to mine own pleasure, that great things may be required at the hand of their fathers. And, again, I say unto you, that whoso having knowledge, have I not commanded to repent? And he that hath no understanding, it remaineth in me to do according as it is written. And now I declare no more unto you at this time. Amen.
This is Christ speaking and He is telling us that, “little children”, are:
- Redeemed from the foundation of the world
- they cannot sin
- satan has no power to tempt them,
UNTIL: they begin to become accountable
When is that? Why does the Lord use the word “begin” to become accountable? Are we accountable for the knowledge we don’t have yet? Is accountability a process? Is accountability a process of becoming like the Gods? Of being precisely what They are?
Continuing: “And, again,” [same topic, stressing the point or accountability—again] “I say unto you, that whoso having knowledge, have I not commanded to repent?” [Is there anyone who has knowledge, that God hasn’t commanded to repent? Anyone?]
…continuing, “And he that hath no understanding, it remaineth in me to do according as it is written.” Here, the Lord tells us who He means when He says “little children” in the lines just prior to these we read. Little children are “he that hath no understanding”. With those who have “no understanding”, God will do with according as is written just prior which is: they are “redeemed from the foundation of the world, they cannot sin, satan has no power to tempt them”. This is true because of their lack of knowledge and understanding! They are redeemed from the fall to be sent down to another world that God already has prepared for those who are not like Him yet. (Moses 1:38)
This is why Joseph Smith said, “a man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge” and “knowledge saves a man”. Joseph understood what he was talking about! Salvation wasn’t an arbitrary age. It was and is and always will be knowledge that saves! So God instituted baptism as a mechanism to pour out His Spirit more abundantly upon us. (see Mosiah 18:10) In other words, baptism is designed to pour power back into dormant or apostate priesthood, and to give the mind of God to mankind in greater measure. Baptism gives more abundance of the Holy Spirit, which in turn gives knowledge; Godly knowledge!
So as a principle, an age requirement for baptism is blocking God from giving His mind or the Holy Spirit to those who happen to be under that age. Despite that a child under 8 may know that they are fallen and in need of a Savior and desire to repent and be filled with the Holy Spirit with greater abundance, such a discriminatory rule prohibits them from progressing in the knowledge God wants to pour out to them. It fights Gods purposes to restrict children in this way. It contradicts the words quoted above by the Lord. And as we shall see as we continue, it is opposite of how King Benjamin taught his people.
So why and when did this age requirement occur? Shouldn’t we honor Josephs words in JST Exodus and D&C 68?
Good question! In the 10 Lecture series, now Preserving the Restoration, Denver makes it clear that the Campbellite assimilation into the movement Joseph started was like a giant lump in a snake, a giant “aneurysm”! These Campbellites, “saw the faith through restorationist eyes.” This “overthrow of Joseph’s incipient faith” was led by Sidney Rigdon. So we know that Joseph was easily influenced by Rigdon and other Campbellites. We see this all through the D&C where God is answering the questions Joseph asks at the behest of these well meaning folks, while intertwining in, what it is He, God, wanted to establish. We are removing D&C 20 and engaging in this project for that exact reason!
So what was one of the questions on the minds of the various Restorationist movements in the years leading up to Gods hand beginning again with Joseph? Because we know Joseph was able to be influenced, and we know the Campbellites and Rigdon were the primary influencers that got Gods restoration off track. What was one of their concerns? A debate that was raging then and still is a question between Catholics and many protestants today, is the “age of accountability” debate. It was a time of debate regarding original sin and when one needs baptism. “What is the age of accountability?”, is a question asked then and still today! So Jospeh was pushed to get an answer. Rigdon shows up to translate the Bible with a young Joseph. It is possible and very likely that Rigdon and the Campbelittes asked for a “king” so to speak, by influencing Joseph to ask for or to mistakenly seek, a hard and fast age requirement for baptism, and we see that influence in that one verse in Exodus, and the other in D&C 68. Sidney Rigdon shows up to assist Joseph in the translating, and we find the same issues being debated in the Restorationsist movement then underway, show up in the translating and later the D&C.
If you look at the verse quoted above in section 29, the contradiction between where the Lord says, “whoso having knowledge, have I not commanded to repent?”, and then equates understanding and knowledge to accountability, contrasted with an arbitrary age requirement where from one second to the next one suddenly becomes accountable as one second earlier they weren’t accountable, and based on no action or work or knowledge other than the ticking of the clock they suddenly become so. This seeming contradiction fits this pattern that exists in the D&C between what a restorationist campbellite audience wanted, contrasted with what Gods intention was and is. We see the two conflicting themes intertwined in scripture as God gives the saints what they wanted, and also what He wants simultaneously. We are left to find the light by the light within us.
You cannot conflate Mormon condemning baptism of “little children” with section 68 or Exodus. Both of the latter occurred after Mormon wrote Moroni 8. What we can do is look at what Mormon understood by the words “little children” by looking at the material that he just abridged and rewrote on metal plates. He had just finished that work when he wrote Moroni 8, and therefore his understanding would have come from the words of the prophets whom he just abridged.
“And even if it were possible that little children could sin they could not be saved; but I say unto you they are blessed; for behold, as in Adam, or by nature, they fall, even so the blood of Christ atoneth for their sins.”
So we are talking about “little children” and the idea that Christ atoned for their sins. So what does King Benjamin mean by “little children”? Continuing, next verse…
“And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent. For behold he judgeth, and his judgment is just; and the INFANT perisheth not that dieth in his INFANCY; but men drink damnation to their own souls except they humble themselves and become as little children, and believe that salvation was, and is, and is to come, in and through the atoning blood of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.
Mosiah 3:16-18
So we have a message about children and accountability given by King Benjamin. He (just like Christ did in Section 29) first establishes that “little children” are saved from the fall by Christ. He then expounds and tells us exactly who he means by “little children”. It is infants! Which puts this right back into Josephs own time and the very debates of his day regarding original sin or guilt that was raging as religious freedom was being explored following the Protestant Reformation. Joseph tells us that it was a “tumult of opinion” and that voices were crying "lo here and lo there”. How was a boy as young as he was to know the truth? Well, he lacked knowledge. He lacked Wisdom. So he asked and got an answer.
Mormon knew this definition and understanding that King Benjamin gave in this sermon. He did not have Josephs material brought on by apostate christians in the 1800’s before him. It is therefore more reasonable to believe that Mormon was referencing infants when he speaks of “little children”, than that he was referencing all people under the age of 8. It also solves the contradictions between everything Jospeh taught the rest of his life and those two verses that condemn us still today. There is another message God wants us to see in the material Joseph gave us. The term blindness used in scripture is important because it tells us we can’t see what we can’t see. Unbelief being that we believe something that is incorrect, to be the truth, then it stands to reason we are going to be surprised when the thing that we were blind to that was in the dark is revealed to our understanding. If it wasn’t surprising we would have already known it. If we weren’t blinded to the truth, we would have already seen.
So why is this important to the establishment of zion?
In Joel we read:
28 ¶And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; [what is the mechanism God uses to “pour out His Spirit”?] and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions
32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.”
(Joel 2:28, 32)
If God is to pour out His Spirit upon our young men and women, they need a greater abundance of the Holy Spirit. By the time a child turns 8 years old they are already so engrained in the ways of the world, and corrupted with TV, internet, and public schooling, that it takes years maybe decades for God to pour out His Spirit abundantly enough to counteract the violence, sex and vulgarity that washes over them on a constant basis. Remember, accountability is a process that doesn’t end until one knows all things. If we waited until we “knew enough” before we got baptized, we would miss the very mechanism God intends to fix that very deficiency in us.
Heres how Alma puts it.
“what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantlyupon you?”
If you lack the Spirit in any degree, Alma at least will tell you the way to get more! Go repent and be baptized!
In Mosiah 2, King Benjamin addresses the need for children to be involved in the gospel according to their knowledge:
"For behold, there is a wo pronounced upon him who listeth to obey that spirit; for if he listeth to obey him, and remaineth and dieth in his sins, the same drinketh damnation to his own soul; for he receiveth for his wages an everlasting punishment, having transgressed the law of God CONTRARY TO HIS OWN KNOWLEDGE. (Wow! Accountability defined!) I say unto you, that there are not any among you, except it be your little children that have not been taught concerning these things, but what knoweth that ye are eternally indebted to your heavenly Father, to render to him all that you have and are; and also have been taught concerning the records which contain the prophecies which have been spoken by the holy prophets, even down to the time our father, Lehi, left Jerusalem…O, all ye old men, and also ye young men, and you LITTLE CHILDREN WHO CAN UNDERSTAND MY WORDS, for I have spoken plainly unto you that ye might understand, I pray that ye should AWAKE TO A REMEMBRANCE of the AWFUL SITUATION of those that have fallen into transgression.”
Is it really true that a child younger than 8 years old cannot understand the gospel of Jesus Christ? Why does Christ say, “suffer the little children to come unto me” if He doesn’t mean it? Are children under the age of 8 taught the gospel? If so, and they awaken to their awful situation as King Benjamin says, who would deny salvation and redemption to such a soul by denying them the blessing of baptism and its attendant outpouring of the Holy Spirit because of an arbitrary rule that is found only in scripture after the Campbellite distortion of Gods work?
The idea that at a single moment in time, independent of knowledge and understanding, one second a soul is innocent and does not need baptism, and at the striking of midnight suddenly becomes accountable is so contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ that its laughable and seems absurd when seen in its true light. In the future it will be seen as unthinkable to deny an entire segment of the worlds population the salvific blessings of baptism because of so arbitrary and ridiculous a rule established by churchmen who wanted to be the boss of other people and tell them what to do and when and who can come unto Christ.
I take the words of a servant, given us in our day as my guide and instruction in this matter.
"The only condition for baptism is to accept the Doctrine of Christ, set out by Christ in His own words. Christ commanded it be done, and has reiterated that it is to be done anew in our day. We will be disappointed at His coming if we fail to obey.”
‘Any who want to be baptized should be. If you have this power given by Christ and anyone comes to be baptized, do not refuse them.” (Italics on the word ‘anyone” are Denvers)
—Denver Snuffer
I add my witness before God that the age restriction was wittingly left out by Christ, Mormon, Moroni, Alma, Nephi, Joseph (in all his writings other than two spots), King Benjamin, and in our own day, Denver. It is not a principle of truth but a rule. I also witness that it is knowledge that saves, and knowledge and understanding that makes a soul accountable before God. Lets put aside the rules that bind us to darkness and deny the Holy Ghost, and establish principles that remove the condemnation and scales of darkness upon us and our children as promised us in D&C 84, if we will not only say but do what the Book of Mormon tells us: Repent and be baptized until you know all Things. The rising generation needs more Holy Spirit as soon as they understand and awaken to their awful situation as King Benjamin taught.
“Who having knowledge have I not commanded to repent?”
“the first fruit of repentance is baptism”
Will ye deny the Christ and the Holy Spirit to your children any longer?
Perhaps it is at long last time we change JST Exodus and D&C 68 to reflect correct principles and lay aside this condemnation under which we suffocate and deny the Holy Spirit to the souls who need it most if we are to have Zion.
No comments:
Post a Comment