Sunday, August 24, 2008
The Mother of All Harlots
So, my wife was reading from the Book of Mormon this evening in 1 Nephi, chapter 12, I think. This is a section where Nephi is receiving a witness of what his father, Lehi, had seen. Of course, in chapter 11, we get to see the vision of the Tree of Life and we get a more expanded view of it than in chapter 8. However, I believe that in chapter 12 (I know, I should know for certain) Nephi expounds more on the symbolism of the vision. In this chapter he discusses the Mother of All Harlots, the Great and Abominable Church, and so forth. Well, as my wife was reading this, I got thinking, as I often do, as to what is meant by monikers such as The Great and Abominable Church and the Mother of All Harlots. None of this is new to me. I have pondered this before and come to the same conclusions. I just have never written them down and looked at them.
Some in the Church tend to think (and I do think this represents a(n uneducated) minority) that the Great and Abominable Church is an actual church, namely the Catholic church. Depending on the locality of the LDS, it may be the Baptist church or the Episcopalian church, but some do believe that it represents an actual religious organization, one that is bent upon the disruption of the work of the True and Living church. Being a student, so to speak, of the teachings of Jesus Christ, I find this somewhat disturbing. First, as an LDS person, I am taught to rely on the promptings of the Holy Ghost for my basis of truth. When someone says that this Great and Abominable Church is an actual church, I get no such confirmation. Second, in the scriptures, we are taught that whatever teaches of Christ and brings people to Christ is of Christ and therefore should not be esteemed as evil. These other churches do teach people to love and serve each other and to worship Jesus Christ. This cannot be bad. They may have incorrect interpretations which lead to stumbling-blocks in understanding the true nature of Jesus Christ, but the followers are, nonetheless, faithful to Him. So, to tell me that this Mother of All Harlots is an actual religious organization is to tell me that you do not fully understand the scriptures.
In no way do I claim to have a complete and full understanding of the scriptures, but this one thing I do know: the Great and Abominable Church spoken of in both ancient and modern scripture has more to do with the natural man and his surroundings than with any organized religion. This Great Church spoken of actually represents worldliness and pride. It represents the stumbling-blocks I spoke of earlier. It's what people hold on to that keeps them from uniting themselves with Christ and fully understanding and embracing His gospel. People may not even be aware of it. Most people don't go through life wondering what they may be doing that is keeping them from more fully comprehending the ways of God. However, we are all imperfect beings who tend to follow after this Mother of All Harlots once in a while. It is up to us to start recognizing when we are and try to fix the situation. We need to make ourselves more aware of how we are different from our Father in Heaven and try, do our best, to make up that difference. Of course, we will not succeed at this, but that is where the grace of Christ comes in to play. It makes up the huge difference that we imperfect beings are incapable of covering.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Good News that we all seek. It is the message that we have the opportunity to justify ourselves with our God and be perfected in Christ. It does not promise us that we are already saved through no part of our own. It places the ball in our court and gives us the opportunity, the great opportunity, to be perfected and return to live with our Father. I like the word opportunity because that is what it is. If we view it as an opportunity, it should incite us to action to become more faithful and more righteous, not shunning others and not thinking we are better than they. This is the big challenge of this life: to overcome the Great and Abominable Church (read: the world and all its things) and become disciples of Christ. We have to 1) love God with all our heart and with all our soul and 2) love our neighbors likewise. If we master, and I do mean master those concepts, we can easily say that we are perfect like Jesus Christ. Of course, none of us can really do that, so we need Christ to fill in the gaps; and believe me, there are some real doozies of gaps in pretty much everyone's life.
So, this Great Church spoken of in the scriptures is not an actual church. It is everything we have in our lives that keeps us from being with God. It's our challenge and responsibility to see this life as an opportunity for learning and understanding. It's our chance to be better than we are currently. I say let's go for it.
Some in the Church tend to think (and I do think this represents a(n uneducated) minority) that the Great and Abominable Church is an actual church, namely the Catholic church. Depending on the locality of the LDS, it may be the Baptist church or the Episcopalian church, but some do believe that it represents an actual religious organization, one that is bent upon the disruption of the work of the True and Living church. Being a student, so to speak, of the teachings of Jesus Christ, I find this somewhat disturbing. First, as an LDS person, I am taught to rely on the promptings of the Holy Ghost for my basis of truth. When someone says that this Great and Abominable Church is an actual church, I get no such confirmation. Second, in the scriptures, we are taught that whatever teaches of Christ and brings people to Christ is of Christ and therefore should not be esteemed as evil. These other churches do teach people to love and serve each other and to worship Jesus Christ. This cannot be bad. They may have incorrect interpretations which lead to stumbling-blocks in understanding the true nature of Jesus Christ, but the followers are, nonetheless, faithful to Him. So, to tell me that this Mother of All Harlots is an actual religious organization is to tell me that you do not fully understand the scriptures.
In no way do I claim to have a complete and full understanding of the scriptures, but this one thing I do know: the Great and Abominable Church spoken of in both ancient and modern scripture has more to do with the natural man and his surroundings than with any organized religion. This Great Church spoken of actually represents worldliness and pride. It represents the stumbling-blocks I spoke of earlier. It's what people hold on to that keeps them from uniting themselves with Christ and fully understanding and embracing His gospel. People may not even be aware of it. Most people don't go through life wondering what they may be doing that is keeping them from more fully comprehending the ways of God. However, we are all imperfect beings who tend to follow after this Mother of All Harlots once in a while. It is up to us to start recognizing when we are and try to fix the situation. We need to make ourselves more aware of how we are different from our Father in Heaven and try, do our best, to make up that difference. Of course, we will not succeed at this, but that is where the grace of Christ comes in to play. It makes up the huge difference that we imperfect beings are incapable of covering.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Good News that we all seek. It is the message that we have the opportunity to justify ourselves with our God and be perfected in Christ. It does not promise us that we are already saved through no part of our own. It places the ball in our court and gives us the opportunity, the great opportunity, to be perfected and return to live with our Father. I like the word opportunity because that is what it is. If we view it as an opportunity, it should incite us to action to become more faithful and more righteous, not shunning others and not thinking we are better than they. This is the big challenge of this life: to overcome the Great and Abominable Church (read: the world and all its things) and become disciples of Christ. We have to 1) love God with all our heart and with all our soul and 2) love our neighbors likewise. If we master, and I do mean master those concepts, we can easily say that we are perfect like Jesus Christ. Of course, none of us can really do that, so we need Christ to fill in the gaps; and believe me, there are some real doozies of gaps in pretty much everyone's life.
So, this Great Church spoken of in the scriptures is not an actual church. It is everything we have in our lives that keeps us from being with God. It's our challenge and responsibility to see this life as an opportunity for learning and understanding. It's our chance to be better than we are currently. I say let's go for it.
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