Jul 24, 2006

King Follett and the Tree of Life

What follows is highly-peculiar doctrine, distinctive of Mormonism and very enlarging if you subscribe to it.

Who ever said that God was a man and that man will be God? God himself said it through Joseph Smith, first publicly revealed in this dispensation while the Prophet was eulogizing over his dead friend, King Follett. As we regard prophetic enunciations as scripture, we would be justified in proclaiming that President Smith the Christian Apostle and his edict are scripture.

But is it anywhere in our standard works? The Prophet himself, in that sermon, takes us through the Holy Bible, principally the Four Gospels, in a handful of languages to show us the truth, with the purpose of quieting his critics and discrediting his foes, so that he might convert them to the truth with the truth. I would turn to the Epistle of Barnabas (a pseudepigraphal work from the Codex Sinaiticus, a unique permutation of the New Testament) and also the books of Alma and Nephi, and the Doctrine and Covenants.

Before drawing into LDS-specific scripture, I would like to put to print some verses from Barnabas, 10th chapter:

1. LET us now inquire wheter the Lord took care to manifest anything beforehand concerning water and the cross.
7. ...He that does these things; shall be like a tree, planted by the currents of water, which shall give its fruit in its season. Its leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doth it shall prosper.
10. Consider how he has joined both the cross and the water together.
11. For thus he saith: Blessed are they who put their trust in the cross, descend into the water; for they shall have their reward in due time;
14. ...And there was a river running on the right hand, and beautiful trees grew up by it; and he that shall eat of them shall live for ever. The signification of which is this: that we go down into the water full of sins and pollutions; but come up again, bringing forth fruit; having in our hearts the fear and hope which is in Jesus, by the spirit. And whosoever shall eat of them shall live for ever.
15. That is, whosoever shall hearken to those who call them, and shall believe, shall live for ever.

Where in our LDS quadruple combinations do we find the doctrine that man may become like God, exalted, and so forth? I invite you to open up to 1 Nephi 11:7, an angel tells Nephi that he is about to show him the Tree of Life followed by a vision of the Son of Man, afterwhich Nephi shall bear witness that it is the Son of God. He shows Nephi the tree in verse 8. In verse 11, Nephi requests the interpretation thereof, or the meaning and symbolism behind the tree. Verses 12-15 and 19-20, the angel answers his request by showing him a vision of Mary and the Nativity. Then he asks Nephi "Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw? And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men."

Angel: Here, take a look at this Tree.
Nephi: What does it mean?
Angel: Okay, here's a vision of the birth of Jesus Christ. Now do you know that the tree means?
Nephi: Yes, it is the love of God.

In Alma 32. Here, speaking to the oppressed, "Alma compares the word unto a seed—It must be planted and nourished—Then it grows into a tree from which the fruit of eternal life is picked."

In D&C 97:9 we read a promise to the Saints, based upon their righteousness, which, of course, is applicable to us all: "For I, the Lord, will cause them to bring forth as a very fruitful tree which is planted in a goodly land, by a pure stream, that yieldeth much precious fruit."

Here is Mike Brady's interpretation and piecing-together of everything presented above. I hope that I can be concise, and I hope that an understanding of what these prophets have said and revealed to us can be had by all. Feel free to give me feedback, or thoughts that you have had on this subject. Let me know how you feel about this blog and teach me from your experiences and revelations of your perspective on the doctrine. With no further ado:

Barnabas verses:
Water and cross refer to baptism and the tree, the tree upon which Christ was raised for all mankind to see. Trees that find root in pure water, also known as Living Water, also known as Jesus of Nazareth, will be made fruitful with leaves that do not wither. Tsumari (in other words), a tree that will not die, even whose leaves will not die. How does this tree find and use this water? Baptism! We immerse ourselves in the Living Water, we take upon us his name, his attributes (or covenant to do so, then take the sacramental blessings for our shortcomings), and therefore plug into that river. But wait, wait, wait... Isn't Jesus the tree? How can we symbolically shoot forth our roots into him, the Living Water, if Jesus is the tree? Are we trees, too?

Nephi verses:
Well, let's first look at Jesus as the Tree of Life, as Nephi beheld. The angel tells him "I'll show you the Son of God" and then Nephi sees a tree. Nephi asks to know the interpretation of the tree and the angel shows him the birth of Christ. The angel then asks if he understands, and Nephi says "Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men." Jesus is the Tree of Life, from whence we pluck pure fruit and become therefore purified by its essence.

Alma verses:
So Jesus is the Tree of Life, and we are also trees, as Barnabas (and Alma) taught, and commanded us to take our nourishment from Christ's water. Alma? Oh yeah, Alma taught that, too. So let's see, in his speech given on the Hill Onidah, he tells us to take within ourselves, within our hearts, a seed of faith, taken from the fruit that we plucked from the Tree of Life, or Christ himself. This faith can be applied to any Gospel subject, but ultimately it will be faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We ingest this, take it to heart, so that it may be pumped to every extremity of our soul.

"...behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me." (Compare Alma's words with Joseph Smith's words as he presented the doctrine of manhood being a step toward Godhood: "This is good doctrine. It tastes good. I can taste the principles of eternal life, and so can you. They are given to me by the revelations of Jesus Christ; and I know that when I tell you these words of eternal life as they are given to me, you taste them, and I know that you believe them. You say honey is sweet, and so do I. I can also taste the spirit of eternal life. I know that it is good; and when I tell you of these things which were given me by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, you are bound to receive them as sweet, and rejoice more and more.")

As our faith in Christ grows within our hearts, this seed grows and matures. As we take upon us his name and attributes, we grow and mature. We grow to become more and more like whom? Jesus Christ. Why? Because this mature seed within us is no longer a seed, but now a shoot, now a sapling, eventually a tree mighty and strong. Weathered, sure, but having drawn on the Living Water it is majestic and able to withstand what wind and temptation might beset it.

And now back to Barnabas (and the Lord in the D&C verse), my first source in comparing us to trees: "and he that shall eat of them shall live for ever. The signification of which is this: that we go down into the water full of sins and pollutions; but come up again, bringing forth fruit; having in our hearts the fear and hope which is in Jesus, by the spirit. And whosoever shall eat of them shall live for ever." So we partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life (capital letters) and become ourselves trees of life (lowercase letters). We are now like Christ, for others to come and pluck our fruit, for them to experience his love through our actions; for his attributes are now our attributes. We can bring others to Christ by our fruit. Even Joseph Smith says "God has wrought out a salvation for all men, unless they have committed a certain sin; and every man who has a friend in the eternal world can save him, unless he has committed the unpardonable sin. And so you can see how far you can be a savior."

Yes, the King Follett Discourse teaches us explicitly of our Godly potentials. So do our other scriptures, so do other men of God whose writings are not endorsed specifically as scripture, but contain truth nonetheless. Even the writings of Buddha, which I have much occasion to study, contain pure truth, if you can sense it. Thank you Alma, for showing us that we can become trees of life, right in the Book of Mormon.

Thank you Joseph Smith.

Thank you Jesus.

Jul 8, 2006

Here am I, Send Me--the Best Samaritan

***Commerce and Charity

Six months ago I took a position with a company called Samaritan Technologies. The company was founded a decade ago by two men, my current supervisor Todd and my brother-in-law Joseph, then only in his mid-teens. Todd had graduated from BYU in non-profit administration and moved to St. George, a small town in southern Utah, to start up a United Way chapter. He met Joseph at church, as they were members of the same congretation. One day as they were driving around, Todd lamented that he was having a hard time managing all of his volunteers: too much paperwork to sort through trying to decide which volunteers were best suited for which opportunities, details falling through cracks, etc., and why can't there be some software program that could do it all for him? Well, Joseph was a programmer and offered his service to solve his friend's problem. Soon they were storing all of their volunteers and opportunites electronically, and the matching was accomplished with relative ease.

A short while later other non-profits came to Todd and Joseph, wanting the same kind of solution and curious as to the solution they had come up with. They decided then to market and sell this tool. In deciding what to name the company, Todd posed the question to Joseph, "what exactly do you call software that matches volunteers to the needs of the community around them?" ...

This story was told to me during my first orientation, with both Joseph and Todd present, along with another story, the story of the Little Match Girl, by Hans Christian Anderson. Our vision and goal as a company is to relieve suffering, like that of this little girl, by providing a matching solution. Volunteerism and altruism is not America-exclusive, but it certainly is a huge part of our lives. Most other countries hardly have the notion, and there really is no other nation in the world that can compete with the United States as far as honest volunteers willing to reach out. We are surrounded by and we live with, in fact we are ourselves, volunteers with a desire to relieve that suffering, help our neighbors and make the world better; rather Zionistic, don't you think? Haven't many of us covenanted to consecrate our time, money and talents to the building of up the Kingdom of God on Earth? So, how is that done?

Yes, how exactly is that done? We are taught to help, and many of us want to, but how? Where do we start? How do we know who needs help? ...and so our willingness and desire (gifts from God, really) are ammunition without a target simply because we don't know where to find, or perhaps aren't strong enough to seek, these opportunities.

***Christ and Charity

Let's quickly go over the story of the Good Samaritan, found in the New Testament, Luke 10. So we know that the Samaritans were not only seen as inferior, but loathed by the Jews. Wanting to worship Jehovah, they built a temple to rival that of the Jews, which only made them more hated. Bottom-line, they were enemies, Jew and Samaritan. With that in mind, the parable tells of a Jewish man on the road to Jericho. On his journey, he is overtaken by thieves, robbed, beaten, stripped and left "half dead." Unconscious or close to it, he lay by the wayside bleeding, broken and naked, probably praying for help if he could even muster that much effort.

Then passed by a priest of his own religion. A priest who taught the Law of Moses, who professed charity and the Gospel. The perfect solution to this man's plight! Up he came to the pathetic sight, beheld the man, and not only did he walk on by but he crossed to the other side of the road.

Next came a Levite, a fellow Jew. Levites were also priests, or they were their assistants. Up he came on the fellow and likewise passed by, also crossing to the other side.

The man's condition would be much worse by now, as wounds untreated tend to become. Two men, claiming to be consecrated or cleansed in order to serve their God, and of the same faith, the same lineage, the same family as this man, would not stop. And so comes the so-called enemy of this man, so comes the man from Samaria. Ew! A Samaritan! They are dirty, they have no real faith with so many 'religions' mixed into one, their churches and temples do not operate under true authority. Heaven forbid I ever have to meet one! So comes the man from Samaria, along the path. It is doubtful that we was just out for a stroll; Samaria is quite the way away from Jeruslam and Jericho. No, the man was likely doing business of one sort or the other, and he was certainly not travelling about in search of dying men to aid.

Here, let me quote Jesus Christ:
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, whn I come again, I will repay thee.

In all Biblical parables, even in mythological tales, stories of heroes, there is always a protagonist figure, the man who does what he should. In the Bible we read of good sons, good fathers, masters of households or vineyards, etc. We should know that in all of these cases, this true and just character represents the Savior himself. And so to teach us not only about charity but also about how ridiculous cross-religion bigotry is, the Lord presented himself as a Samaritan. The Good Samaritan.

The Best Samaritan.

***Ourselves and Charity

We are all on the road to Jericho. Jericho is Heaven, and our goal. By our own human nature, we fall among 'thieves', or rather sin and transgression. Sin leaves us bleeding and helpless on the side of the road. Let us not be haughty and proud and pass by others who need help, spiritual or physical or whatever. Let us not be priests, let us not act as the Levite, whose wounds are not as bleedingly apparent, and ignore our brothers and sisters. His wound is known to us as he passes by with no compassion. So we are in such a helpless state, dying in our hopes to reach Jericho, when along comes Jesus Christ who binds up and pours wine and oil into our wounds, who sets us on his beast and takes us to a safe place, who pays the price of our comfort and healing...and who will come again.

The Samaritan, even Jesus Christ, in a very literal sense, was a volunteer. Mormon doctrine teaches us of our pre-mortal existence. Heavenly Father posed the question to all of His children: Whom shall I send? And our Savior volunteered, replying "Behold, here am I, send me. Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever."

So what must we do? How must we be? "Be ye therefore perfect even as I, or your Father who is in Heaven is perfect." And how can we be like Christ? Take a gander at Matthew 25:40. And what we cannot do is made up for by the Best Samaritan's aid, his Atonement. But he asks that we try, doing all that we can, in helping one another, by volunteering.




Todd: What exactly do you call software that matches volunteers to the needs of the community around them?

Joseph: You call it Samaritan software.