1 Nephi 12: Those who dwindle in unbelief will become dark, loathsome, filthy, idle, and abominable people

In the last chapter, an angel showed Nephi all the shit his dad saw and much, much more. Nephi saw dad's magic tree, iron rod, large and spacious building, the exceedingly white virgin Mary, Jesus, John the Baptist, the twelve apostles -- pretty much everything that Joseph Smith the angel could think of at the time.

Now, in this chapter, the angel shows Nephi his seed. He'll have tons of seed, as many as the sand of the sea.

And it came to pass that the angel said unto me: Look, and behold thy seed, and also the seed of thy brethren. And I looked and beheld the land of promise; and I beheld multitudes of people, yea, even as it were in number as many as the sand of the sea. 1 Nephi 12:1

Nephi's seed will live in many cities, more cities than can be counted.

And it came to pass that ... I beheld many cities, yea, even that I did not number them. 1 Nephi 12:3

But bad times are coming. Mountains will disintegrate and cities sink and burn.

I saw mountains tumbling into pieces; and I saw the plains of the earth, that they were broken up; and I saw many cities that they were sunk; and I saw many that they were burned with fire; and I saw many that did tumble to the earth, because of the quaking thereof. 1 Nephi 12:4

Then the heavens will open up and Jesus, the Holy Ghost, and the apostles (with their robes made white from being washed in Jesus' blood) will come down to minster to Nephi's seed.

And I saw the heavens open, and the Lamb of God descending out of heaven; and he came down and showed himself unto them. And I also saw ... the Holy Ghost fell upon twelve others... And these twelve ministers whom thou beholdest shall judge thy seed. And, behold, ... their garments are made white in his blood. 1 Nephi 12:6-10

But Nephi's seed will fight his brethren's seed.

And while the angel spake these words, I beheld and saw that the seed of my brethren did contend against my seed, according to the word of the angel; and because of the pride of my seed, and the temptations of the devil, I beheld that the seed of my brethren did overpower the people of my seed. And it came to pass that I beheld, and saw the people of the seed of my brethren that they had overcome my seed; and they went forth in multitudes upon the face of the land. 1 Nephi 12:19-20

And it will be awful to look at. Seed fighting seed everywhere. I doubt if there has been so much contending seed in a single paragraph since time began. (It is, perhaps, the seediest passage in all literature, with the possible exception of Ezekiel 23:20.)

Finally, the chapter comes to a thrilling conclusion with the angel showing Nephi what will happen to the seed of his brethren that dwindle in unbelief: they will become a dark, loathsome, filthy, idle, and abominable people.

And the angel said unto me: Behold these shall dwindle in unbelief. And it came to pass that I beheld, after they had dwindled in unbelief they became a dark, and loathsome, and a filthy people, full of idleness and all manner of abominations. 1 Nephi 12:22-23

(Which, as we'll see later, is the origin of the Native Americans.)

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Blogging the Book of Mormon

Next episode -- 1 Nephi 13 revisited: Satan founded the Catholic church, God blessed America (and cursed the Native Americans) , and the BoM fixed the Bible

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Frank Schaeffer has a great idea

[T]he best thing a believer in any actual God can do is to admit that a lot of the Bible is hate-filled blasphemy. (Maybe God Rejects the Bible)

What Frank Schaeffer says here is obvious to any believer who has taken the time to read the Bible. Unfortunately, not many believers have done that, and those that have aren't honest enough to admit the obvious.

And believers have another problem, too. 2 Timothy 3:16 -- what Schaeffer calls "the scariest verse in the Bible."

There is a verse in Timothy that says that all Scripture is for our edification. This verse, not the many Bible stories of the many killings "ordained by God," is the scariest verse in the Bible.

But there's a good reason for an honest believer to throw out 1 and 2 Timothy anyway: they're forgeries. They weren't written by Paul as they claim to have been, so they weren't inspired by God (God didn't inspire forgers) and shouldn't have been included in scripture in the first place.

So now that we've disposed of the scariest verse, we can deal with the rest of the Bible.

There is another choice besides rejecting religion outright or adopting an all-the-Bible-is-true fundamentalism, one too rarely made The fact is too few religious people are willing to suffer the loss of approval by their religious leaders, friends and family to make this other choice: embrace faith in God by thinking for themselves and openly reject the parts of one's scriptures outright that fly in the face of fact, compassion and decency.

Reject the parts of scripture outright that fly in the face of fact, compassion and decency.

Amen to that!

Douglas Wilson and I now agree on pretty much everything

OK. That might be a bit of an overstatement. But we do seem to agree on pretty much everything that we used to argue about, at least as far as I can tell anyway.

Here is a list of things that Douglas and I now seem to agree on:

1. No one should be burned alive or stoned to death (with the possible exception of pedophile priests).

2. Specifically, the following people and acts should not be punished by stoning, as required by the Bible.

   • Blasphemy or cursing -- Leviticus 24:15-23

   • Wizards or women with familiar spirits – Leviticus 20:27

   • Sabbath breakers – Numbers 15:32-36

   • Stubborn, rebellious, drunken sons – Deuteronomy 21:18-21

   • A city-dwelling virgin that doesn’t cry out when raped -- Deuteronomy 22:23-24

   • A woman who isn’t a virgin on her wedding night -- Deuteronomy 22:13-21

   • People who argue for the existence of another god -- Deuteronomy 13:6-10, 17:2-5

3. No one should obey God’s command to burn people to death. Specifically, the following people should not be burned to death:

   • A man, wife, and her mother if they are having an affair, get married, or whatever. – Leviticus 20:14

   • A priest's daughter that plays the whore – Leviticus 21:9

4. Homosexuals should not be executed. -- Leviticus 20:13

5. A Christian should not own slaves, even if they are treated well.

If you've read my previous posts about Douglas Wilson's views, you'll know that this is quite a change. Douglas and I disagreed on all of these items just a few years ago.

And it's possible that we still do. I haven't yet got a clear answer from Douglas on this list of agreements. But I hope to see it soon here.

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October 7, 2010 Update: Doug Wilson and I no longer agree on #5 (slavery).

Glenn Beck explains how Native Americans became the blood-thirsty savages called "Lamanites" in the Book of Mormon

It's hard for any sane person to watch Glenn Beck. But if you can stand it, here's Glenn claiming that Native Americans are descended from Israelites.

Of course that's not what science says. But that, Glenn tells us, is because science and government have conspired together to hide the truth.

Why would they do that, you wonder? Well, here's what Glenn says (for those of you who can't stomach the video):

Science was colluding with government because of commerce, and religion was involved. Now why do I tell you all this stuff?
...
The history that has been erased in our nation, and in particular with the Native Americans, happened because it didn't fit the story they created: Manifest Destiny. It only works when Indians were savages and they had to have savages for commerce and government to expand. The ancient artifacts prove otherwise. Why aren't we looking into those?

Which explains why science and government hid the truth about the origin of the Native Americans. But what was the religious motive?

Glenn doesn't talk about that, but he knows what it was. Anti-Mormonism.

Most Americans, then and now, reject the Book of Mormon. And, when it comes to the Native Americans, the Book of Mormon explains it all.

Here is a condensed version of the Book of Mormon:

A small group of Israelites traveled by boat to the North America in 600 BCE. There they split into two groups: one good the other bad. The bad ones were called "Lamanites," whose descendants are what we now call Native Americans. The Lamanites fought with and completely wiped out good, fair-skinned "Nephites." God cursed the Lamanites (Native Americans) by darkening their skin and turning them into sinful, blood-thirsty savages.

And he [God] had caused the cursing to come upon them [the Lamanites] ... wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. 2 Nephi 5:21

The Lamanites ... were led by their evil nature that they became wild, and ferocious, and a bloodthirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins and their heads shaven.... And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us. Enos 1:20

The Lamanites ... were a wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people. Mosiah 10:11-12

The Lamanites ... were ... sinful and polluted. Mosiah 25:11

So according to Glenn Beck and the Book of Mormon, Native Americans are not just savages -- they're evil, sinful, polluted, wild, filthy, ferocious, blood-thirsty savages. God made them that way by cursing their ancestor, Laman (who was, don't ya know, an Israelite).

Sounds like the perfect story to base Manifest Destiny on, doesn't it?

I wonder why science didn't go for it?

The Bible is like a software license

(via The Redheaded Skeptic -- be sure to read her Bible Studies!)