The Urim & Thummim Principle for Internet use

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Now Ammon said unto him: I can assuredly tell thee, O king [Limhi], of a man that can translate the records; for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God. And the things are called interpreters, and no man can look in them except he be commanded, lest he should look for that he ought not and he should perish. And whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer. (Mosiah 8:13)

The context for this verse is Ammon telling King Limhi that there is a seer who can translate the gold plates that were found.  It is neat to think that we have prophets, seers, and revelators leading our church today, but I think there are principles here that can apply in our lives, particularly concerning our individual internet use and safety.

Note the danger that Ammon highlights—“lest he should look for that he ought not and he should perish”.  We don’t know how a seer might perish from wrong use of the Urim & Thummim, but the same danger certainly applies for internet use.  There is the danger of looking at things we ought not, as well as spending so much time looking at less consequential things that one fritters away their life.

The principle implied for wise use of the Urim & Thummim is to be purposeful about use, according to commandment. It doesn’t specify whether it is God’s commandment or man’s commandment, but you get the idea that since it is a gift from God, you would use it according to God’s commandment. I think the same is true for use of the internet.

The situations seem a bit different in the frequency of use. The Urim & Thummim seems like something that would be used rarely (except we don’t have record of all the times it was used), whereas the internet is so embedded in our society now. Still, the principle of purposeful use according to God’s commandment (or following God’s commandments) is useful for keeping us out of trouble when we use the internet today.

Ammon and Limhi Discuss Seership, Mosiah 8:17-18

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In the book of Mosiah, Ammon and King Limhi have a little discussion about the gift of translation and seership, and Ammon says some things about a seer’s abilities that Mormon loved enough to preserve for us:

17 But a seer can know of things which are past, and also of things which are to come, and by them shall all things be revealed, or, rather, shall secret things be made manifest, and hidden things shall come to light, and things which are not known shall be made known by them, and also things shall be made known by them which otherwise could not be known.

18 Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings. (Mosiah 8:17-18)

When you look at that verse 17, it sounds like there is a lot of repetitive phrases which might at first look like it was just for emphasis, but if you examine it carefully, you can see that there are some very subtle shades of meaning, which indicates that the speaker (and writer) wanted to convey exactly what they meant and so they worked hard to capture in words the denotations they wanted to communicate by the term “seer” :

1.     Know of things past

2.     [know of] things to come

3.     reveal all things

4.     secret things made manifest

5.     hidden things come to light

6.     things not known are made known

7.     things made known that otherwise could not be known

Also, if you look at the last four things on that list, it may seem like they are synonyms for each other, but they each have their own shades of meaning as well.

Secret things – To me this means principles kept only for those who need to know

Hidden things – This seems like principles that Satan has tried hard to conceal by corruption or removal

Things which are not known – Principles no one thought of

Things…that otherwise could not be known – Principles that have to be revealed and would not be known without revelation and can’t be discovered with any other way of knowing

General Conference is coming up very soon in which we get to listen to prophets, seers, and revelatiors.  If you are looking for an interesting lens to view it, try looking for principles that are taught which could only be known through revelation and seership.