New Testament | Sacred Symbolic

The Garden of Eden’s Tree of Life, Not a Tree

Posted on: 12-11-2011

Category : Allegory & Parable, Divine Potential, New Testament, Old Testament, Pearl of Great Price, Temple

Note from Tevya: this is a guest post from Curtis Ross. Curtis is an amazing web developer who’s put together an incredible webapp that makes scheduling home teaching and visiting teaching, super easy. As you’ll see below, he’s also a very thoughtful guy who really studies the doctrines.

How better to get us started than to ask my first question. Why and how could Adam have lived for ever in his sins after partaking of the Tree of Life? This is a very specific question and sounds like it would have a very straight forward answer, nope. This is the question that after getting an answer completely changed the way I see the story of Adam and Eve and many of the basic principles of the gospel.

I’m going to start my proposed answer to this question by bursting a few bubbles. The book of Genesis was written as the words of Moses spoken to the children of Israel. These are the same children of Israel who started worshiping a golden calf while Moses was getting the Ten Commandments. I’m guessing he was asking himself how exactly he was going to explain the beginning of man to a people who couldn’t even remember who their God was. This is a story where the principles of the gospel are so intertwined it is hard to navigate through them and explain the events.

Lost: A Sheep, A Coin, & 2 Sons – Part 4: The Prodigal Son #1

Posted on: 13-07-2011

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Category : Allegory & Parable, Jesus Christ, New Testament, Scriptures

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11–32 contains the longest of the 3 parables recorded in Luke 15, and perhaps Jesus’ most famous parable (at least one of the top few): the parable of the Prodigal Son. The parable is often seen quite literally as a not much of a parable at all, but rather an example story about forgiveness. But as we will see, it definitely contains deeper, symbolic meaning, fits well the label of “parable,” and also goes very nicely with the previous two parables from this chapter. Make sure to read parts 1, 2, and 3 of this series of articles first, if you have not already read them.

Definition of a Parable

First let’s briefly look at what a parable is. Dictionary.com defines the word like this: “A statement or comment that conveys a meaning indirectly by the use of comparison, analogy, or the like.” So a parable is essentially a story of some sort that parallels the actual meaning of the story. Thus the common root between “parable” and “parallel.” Based on that, if we take the “parable” quite literally as merely a fictional moral example, then it’s no longer a parable at all. However, if there’s deeper meaning understood through “comparison, analogy, or the like” then suddenly it’s both a parable, and something of a mystery to be studied and understood in new ways.

First Clues: The Target Audience

The first clue in my reading, is one we discussed in a previous post in this series, and that is the setting. Since it’s taken me so long to write this concluding article, let’s review those verses:

1. Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.
2. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. (Luke 15:1–2)

Lost: A Sheep, A Coin, & 2 Sons – Part 3

Posted on: 30-07-2010

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Category : Allegory & Parable, New Testament, Scriptures

Make sure you read parts 1 & 2 before reading this.

The Lost Coin

In Luke 15: 8–10 Jesus tells a parable with similarities to that of the lost sheep, but some key differences. Here, a woman looses a coin, then lights a candle, sweeps the house, searches diligently, and rejoices when she finds it.

detail of 'Parable of the Lost Drachma', by Domenico Feti, 1618-22, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

Context

Just like the shepherd in the previous parable, the woman can be compared to Christ in many ways. Also like the shepherd, she doesn’t represent Christ in this parable. But who does she represent? The leaders of the Church like the shepherd? Or somebody else? In many scriptural references an unspecified woman represents the church. This comes from the symbolic imagery of the church as a woman or bride. A quick example of this recurring scriptural theme is found in Isaiah 62:5 “…as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.” Jesus is the bridegroom, the church is his bride. First of all, the value of the silver coin is about a day’s labor. Remember though, that they didn’t have an 8 hour workday in those days. So the value of that coin was probably more like 10-12 hours of hard labor. Lets just say $200 in modern US money. Where did the money come from? Well most likely from the man of the house. He goes out and works, and she has the result of his 10 days hard labor. She looses one day’s worth. If the woman is the church and Christ is the husband, then his work is that of saving souls, of bringing them unto him. Thus, if we’re to put His work in mortal terms, this coin might represent a lost soul (just like the sheep) or perhaps several people, like a family. Understanding these symbolic constructs, the parable applies to all of us members of the church, perhaps even more so than that of the shepherd. With that in mind, what instruction can we pull from Christ’s parable?

Lost: A Sheep, A Coin, & 2 Sons – Part 2

Posted on: 21-06-2010

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Category : Allegory & Parable, New Testament, Scriptures

If you have not already, read Part 1 of this article by clicking here.

Philippe de Champaigne: The Good Shepherd - 1650. From OceansBridge.com

Missunderstanding the Shepherd

One of our main misconceptions of who the shepherd in this story is, comes from within the story itself. There is an undeniably Messianic message in this story. If the shepherd were Christ, he descends into the wilderness (this telestial world) to save the sinner from their sins. Literally carrying them, because His grace—born of the Atonement—does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. So we see pictures of Christ carrying the lost sheep back to the fold. Even The Book of Mormon refers to Jesus as “the good shepherd,” and suggests we need to be his sheep (see Alma 5:38 & Mormon 5:17). Its only natural that this parable should also have a type of Christ in it, as “all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifying of him” (2 Ne. 11:4).

Lost: A Sheep, A Coin, & 2 Sons – Part 1

Posted on: 10-06-2010

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Category : Mormon Life, New Testament, Scriptures

Re-reading Luke 15

The following is from notes of my thoughts during a priesthood lesson over a year ago.

Luke 15 tells us three stories, all are about loosing a prized possession. But each teaches a very different lesson. As I recall, the priesthood lesson that brought the Spirit and helped me learn the following, quickly descended to the normal, modern-Mormon interpretations of these parables, when the teacher opened it up for commentary. It’s unfortunate that Luke wasn’t familiar with these modern interpretations when he recorded these three parables together, in what is now chapter 15 of his book.

Context

Luke sets up these parables with the context that “the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, [Jesus] receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” So we must assume that what follows is Luke’s perception of Christ’s response to these accusations.

Image of a shepherd with his flock from Bible-Archaeology.info

Lost Sheep

The first story is of a lost sheep (Luke 15:3–7). If one in a flock goes missing, how does that happen? Well a shepherd can’t watch his flock 24-7, he must sleep. As he does, the flock continues grazing, moving in a direction, but generally staying in a group. If one sheep finds a particularly lush patch of grass, or some other distraction, it will become “lost” simply by staying where it is. The church can work in much the same fashion. We never want to leave people behind, yet the goal & purpose of the church is that its constantly moving forward, progressing on both an individual level as well as on the whole. Thus a person can get left behind, simply by not continuing to move forward with the group. Sins of omission still make one a sinner.

Lessons from Birth, On the 2nd Coming

Posted on: 07-04-2010

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Category : 2nd Coming, Book of Mormon, Family, Jesus Christ, New Testament

I recently heard my wife have the following conversation. She was on the phone, so I heard only her side:

“No, she didn’t predict when he’d come.”

“Because she’s smarter than that. She’s been delivering babies long enough to know that any prediction is going to be wrong. But the chiropractor did, sorta.”

“No, he just said that everything’s lined up now, and he gave his permission.”

“Yeah, he said I could go into labor anytime now.”

Our Baby: Colter

As I heard this, a phrase from scripture came into my head: “of that day, and hour, no one knoweth; no, not the angels of God in heaven…” (JS-M 1:40). And I thought, ‘that’s a wise midwife.’

Nobody can predict when a baby will come no matter how long they’ve been in obstetrics. My wife’s good friend who had a baby about 5 months ago, was told by her OB that she wouldn’t have their baby until well after his due date, so he’d see her for a regular appointment in a week, a few days after the due date. The baby arrived 4 days later, on his due date.

Spiritual Cross Training (Scripture Study Tip)

Posted on: 18-01-2010

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Category : Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, New Testament, Old Testament, Scriptures

Cross training means training in a variety of sports in order to improve performance in each of them. Thus, improving in one sport makes you better at other sports. Closely linked is the idea of muscle confusion: When you work a muscle the same way every time, eventually you plateau. However, if you change the routine, working the same muscle but in different ways, you continually progress.

Spiritual cross training is a scripture-study program based on this principle. Instead of studying The Book of Mormon for a month (or a year), you mix it up daily–you cross train. This idea came to me when I was spending up to two hours a day studying the temple. I was very excited about it, but eventually I got burned out: I didn’t have the time or energy to study that much on a daily basis. The unfortunate result was me taking a break from scripture study for days on end.

Here’s my schedule (but the principle can be personalized to your interests and schedule):

The Most Important Chapters in Scripture? (Part 3)

Posted on: 27-04-2009

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Category : Ancient, Book of Mormon, Ceremony/Ordinances, Divine Potential, Doctrine & Covenants, Latter-Day, New Testament, Old Testament, Scriptures, Temple

Tags: Book of Mormon, Christ, Divine Potential, endowment, god, heirs, keys, Malachi, orders, ordinances, priestesses, priests, queens, sacrificial offerings, temple

If you haven’t already, I strongly recommend you read Part 1 and Part 2 of this article before reading this.

The title of this series of articles suggests that there might be scriptures that are “most important.” I don’t pretend to be capable of knowing what, of all God’s revealed scripture is the most important. However, Malachi 3 must be of great importance because, like many chapters of Isaiah it is given to us twice, and was given to the ancient Nephites by Christ himself. Malachi 4, in turn, must also be hugely important to us, because we have it many different times in the Latter-Day cannon of scripture. Of all things that Moroni could have told Joseph that night in his bedroom, he repeated Malachi 4, something Joseph already had in his Old Testament, and Moroni knew he would translate those verses from the plates that Moroni was there to announce to Joseph. Yet he gave them again. Why?

The Return of the Prophet Elijah

Elijah rebukes Ahab for turning from worshiping Jehova to Baal.

Elijah rebukes Ahab for turning from worshiping Jehovah to Baal.

We ended the last article with the indication that there were further ordinances that allow us to experience the things of Godliness. Clearly these ordinances are very important, perhaps most important. I personally believe that this is the reason we are given Malachi 4, several different times. Moroni even gives us different wording in the latter-day reciting. There are probably many reasons for this but I think two are very important: first, to help us better understand a scripture we may have become too familiar with, and therefore have stopped trying to extract deeper meaning from; and second, to help us take notice of it and ask the questions that will help us delve beyond the surface meaning.

Lets go to the scriptures. In. 3 Nephi 25 we read:

5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord;
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.