A worthy meditation

The chapter is overwhelming!  You must read it today.

The contrast is not between one with infinite divine potential and one that has already reached that status.  The divine window for us to look through in Isaiah 6 declares the difference between an unholy man and a Being, thundered by seraphim in an ecstatic, antiphonal trisagion to be “qadosh, qadosh, qadosh.”  In heaven, believers of Jehovah will be forever separated from the presence of sin in their hearts, but they will always throughout eternity be eclipsed by the holy status reserved exclusively by the Hebrews for the God who is declared by the great Hebrew tetragrammaton, YHWH.  God is holy in the absolute sense.  Man is not (thank God for His altar so that my sins—past, present, and future—could be covered, atoned for).  Man cannot evolve into Light, the defining essence of Theos.  As a creature, man can only be “the light of the world” as he is a conduit or should I say, an earthen vessel for the Light of God.  There is an infinite degree of difference between holy men and the God of burning holiness, transcendent holiness. (more…)

I am sure most everyone, living in the Idaho/Utah I-15 corridor has heard the word, “ensign”.

Isaiah 5:26 says, “And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth:  and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:”

Living in Eagle, Idaho, David R. Minert, currently the Bishop of a Young Single Adult Ward, expounds in his book, Simplified Isaiah (2006), on the last five verses in the chapter:

“In the last days, the Lord will restore the fullness of the gospel and, by the means of a worldwide missionary program, call out or signal to His people, who are scattered throughout the world, to gather together quickly.  The saints will answer this call by the aid of modern transportation systems (planes, trains, etc.), and in their return they will not be hindered. (2 Nephi 29:2; D&C 64:42)  The saints will travel so fast that they won’t need to sleep on their journey, nor will they have to change clothes or even take off their shoes!  The gathering of the saints will be done both through the air like an arrow (airplanes), and on horse’s hooves of flint, whose wheels revolve quickly like a whirlwind, and whose loud noise will sound like the roar of a lion (trains).  These loud planes and trains will safely carry the saints, as they are gathered to their places of destination, and no one will hinder them.  In the last days, the people of God who do battle with the forces of evil will contend forcefully and fearlessly, yet the forces of darkness will violently oppose the children of light” (21).

Is this guy serious?  His interpretation has absolutely no connection to the all-together terrifying Isaiah text.

And by the way, why has the BoM taken out the words in Isaiah 5:8, “that lay field to field”?  The underlying Hebrew words have literally, physically been on leather in Israel for well over 2,000 years.

Fellow Idahoan, David R. Minert, has written a new, two-columned book, Simplified Isaiah For The Latter-Day Saints (Orem:  GRANITE Publishing & Distribution L.L.C., 2006).  The author has written his explanation of every verse in Isaiah in the right column of each page.  In the left column, he has printed out the King James Bible with (1) cross-outs, (2) Book of Mormon additions in red, and (3) Joseph Smith Translation additions in bold.

There is an amazing statement on the back cover of David’s book: (more…)

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1.  Isaiah 3:1 (KJV) – For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, (more…)

Our church family just poured over Isaiah 2 in our inductive study last night. Each week, we will be studying a new chapter together.

I am going to need some clarification from LDS friends on whether this is standard LDS belief as I quote various authors on Isaiah 2.

ISAIAH 2:2-3

(1) The mountain of the LORD’s house is the Salt Lake Temple

Victor L. Ludlow in his book Unlocking Isaiah In The Book of Mormon (SLC: Deseret, 2003) notes, (more…)