Other Sheep Jesus Has

I was recently reading in 3 Nephi where Jesus discusses how He was commanded not to tell the Jews much about His other sheep in other folds, which he would bring and unite with His visit and voice.

13 And behold, this is the land of your inheritance; and the Father hath given it unto you.

14 And not at any time hath the Father given me commandment that I should tell it unto your brethren at Jerusalem.

15 Neither at any time hath the Father given me commandment that I should tell unto them concerning the other tribes of the house of Israel, whom the Father hath led away out of the land.

16 This much did the Father command me, that I should tell unto them:

17 That other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

18 And now, because of stiffneckedness and unbelief they understood not my word; therefore I was commanded to say no more of the Father concerning this thing unto them.

19 But, verily, I say unto you that the Father hath commanded me, and I tell it unto you, that ye were separated from among them because of their iniquity; therefore it is because of their iniquity that they know not of you.

20 And verily, I say unto you again that the other tribes hath the Father separated from them; and it is because of their iniquity that they know not of them.

21 And verily I say unto you, that ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

22 And they understood me not, for they supposed it had been the Gentiles; for they understood not that the Gentiles should be converted through their preaching.

23 And they understood me not that I said they shall hear my voice; and they understood me not that the Gentiles should not at any time hear my voice—that I should not manifest myself unto them save it were by the Holy Ghost.

24 But behold, ye have both heard my voice, and seen me; and ye are my sheep, and ye are numbered among those whom the Father hath given me.

1 And verily, verily, I say unto you that I have other sheep, which are not of this land, neither of the land of Jerusalem, neither in any parts of that land round about whither I have been to minister.

2 For they of whom I speak are they who have not as yet heard my voice; neither have I at any time manifested myself unto them.

3 But I have received a commandment of the Father that I shall go unto them, and that they shall hear my voice, and shall be numbered among my sheep, that there may be one fold and one shepherd; therefore I go to show myself unto them.

4 And I command you that ye shall write these sayings after I am gone, that if it so be that my people at Jerusalem, they who have seen me and been with me in my ministry, do not ask the Father in my name, that they may receive a knowledge of you by the Holy Ghost, and also of the other tribes whom they know not of, that these sayings which ye shall write shall be kept and shall be manifested unto the Gentiles, that through the fulness of the Gentiles, the remnant of their seed, who shall be scattered forth upon the face of the earth because of their unbelief, may be brought in, or may be brought to a knowledge of me, their Redeemer.

5 And then will I gather them in from the four quarters of the earth; and then will I fulfil the covenant which the Father hath made unto all the people of the house of Israel.  (3 Nephi 15:13-16:5)

This section is odd because it would seem like it would prompt a reaction of self-satisfaction—“We are some of Jesus’s other sheep and others were too stubborn and unbelieving to know of us.”  But it has to be given for an instructive purpose, not necessarily for a back-patting one.

Why would the Jews not understand Jesus’s words about other sheep?  In v22 we get a partial answer. They thought Jesus’s other sheep were the Gentiles. Why did they assume this?  I think it is because the Jews also assumed they (the Jews) were the only people in the world that knew the truth, and that everyone else outside their region and society were Gentiles and heathens.   Yet, from time to time, Heavenly Father had led faithful groups out from the Jews because of the Jews’ iniquity, but the Jews who remained thought those who left were the wicked ones and those who remained were righteous.

It is also possible that the same thing happened among the Nephites. While there were dissenters who went to the Lamanites and stirred up trouble, there was also a big trend of emigration northward in Alma 63 and across the sea. There was no contention associated with this mass movement.  Are we to believe that these were unbelievers? It is more likely that they were Jesus’ sheep.

The thing about Jesus’s sheep at that time is that they don’t need missionary work because they are already in the covenant and part of the kingdom and already faithful.  As such, they are ready for a personal visit.

How would it help the faithful in these different lands to know that they were some of Jesus’s sheep and that He had other sheep elsewhere?  I would think it reduces the tendency toward superiority complexes and exclusivity. If a fold goes bad, good sheep can still be separated out, so a faith community must watch its p’s and q’s.

How does this help us today?  Maybe it is obvious, maybe it isn’t. Today, because of modern transportation and communication, there truly can be one fold and one shepherd, and we need not be surprised to find remnants of covenant people and their traditions in strange places. If we did not know this, our missionaries might listen to people of another culture enthuse about how our doctrines fit so well with their ancient traditions and not know what to say to them about it.  Or we might treat their stories with derision or dismiss it as counterfeit or heresy. But instead we can get excited too and realize we found an old part of the Great Shepherd’s fold. 

The knowledge of multiple folds becomes an aid to latter-day missionary work and conversion. New converts are blessed to find truth that builds on old truths held by long tradition and to know they’ve found what their forefathers once knew. Missionaries are blessed to know that Heavenly Father has prepared the way and that He does have elect all over the earth waiting for the truth. It is like new acquaintances discovering they have a common ancestor—suddenly you’ve got new family!

Perhaps another one of the ways it helped the Nephites to know this was it assured them that they (through their records) would be instrumental in helping bring the Gentiles and the scattered remnants of Israel back together to the knowledge of Christ and the fold of God even though they had been separated from the Jews. It is a great blessing to the isolated to know that over the long term they would have a great positive influence on Christ’s other sheep. 

Spoiled Through Philosophy, Col. 2:8

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Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Col 2:8)

For a long time I used to think “spoil” in this scripture meant “treat with excessive indulgence so as to destroy or ruin a person’s good nature,” like an indulgent parent might spoil a child.  Recently I realized that wasn’t the way the scriptures use it at all.  The scriptures use “spoil” to express how soldiers loot and pillage after a battle.

The apostle Paul was warning the Saints to be careful that they not allow the philosophies of men to pillage them of the hope and assurance they had through Christ.  He was concerned that the tendency to question and disparage evidence felt through the Spirit rather than seen or heard or experienced by tangible means would convince the Saints that their hope in Christ and the resurrection was foolish.

I think the same warning still stands today.

America before the Word of Wisdom

We have all heard the stories about the incidents that prompted D&C 89.  The school of the prophets would meet and the elders would dirty the floor chewing tobacco that they spit liberally in all directions, and they’d fill the room with smoke from their pipes as they discussed the doctrines of Zion.  Emma Smith had to clean up all that yuck from the floor in the evening and she complained to her husband about it, and then he asked the Lord about it and received the Word of Wisdom.

We might be inclined to think that for some reason the elders of the church were major slobs to spit tobacco all over, but actually their behavior was typical in various American cities at that time.  So typical, in fact, that Charles Dickens commented freely on his observations in his travelogue American Notes.

As Washington may be called the head-quarters of tobacco-tinctured saliva, the time is come when I must confess, without any disguise, that the prevalence of those two odious practices of chewing and expectorating began about this time to be anything but agreeable, and soon became most offensive and sickening. In all the public places of America, this filthy custom is recognised. In the courts of law, the judge has his spittoon, the crier his, the witness his, and the prisoner his; while the jurymen and spectators are provided for, as so many men who in the course of nature must desire to spit incessantly. In the hospitals, the students of medicine are requested, by notices upon the wall, to eject their tobacco juice into the boxes provided for that purpose, and not to discolour the stairs. In public buildings, visitors are implored, through the same agency, to squirt the essence of their quids, or ‘plugs,’ as I have heard them called by gentlemen learned in this kind of sweetmeat, into the national spittoons, and not about the bases of the marble columns. But in some parts, this custom is inseparably mixed up with every meal and morning call, and with all the transactions of social life. The stranger, who follows in the track I took myself, will find it in its full bloom and glory, luxuriant in all its alarming recklessness, at Washington. And let him not persuade himself (as I once did, to my shame) that previous tourists have exaggerated its extent. The thing itself is an exaggeration of nastiness, which cannot be outdone.

On board this steamboat, there were two young gentlemen, with shirt-collars reversed as usual, and armed with very big walking-sticks; who planted two seats in the middle of the deck, at a distance of some four paces apart; took out their tobacco-boxes; and sat down opposite each other, to chew. In less than a quarter of an hour’s time, these hopeful youths had shed about them on the clean boards, a copious shower of yellow rain; clearing, by that means, a kind of magic circle, within whose limits no intruders dared to come, and which they never failed to refresh and re-refresh before a spot was dry. This being before breakfast, rather disposed me, I confess, to nausea; but looking attentively at one of the expectorators, I plainly saw that he was young in chewing, and felt inwardly uneasy, himself. A glow of delight came over me at this discovery; and as I marked his face turn paler and paler, and saw the ball of tobacco in his left cheek, quiver with his suppressed agony, while yet he spat, and chewed, and spat again, in emulation of his older friend, I could have fallen on his neck and implored him to go on for hours….

The Senate is a dignified and decorous body, and its proceedings are conducted with much gravity and order. Both houses are handsomely carpeted; but the state to which these carpets are reduced by the universal disregard of the spittoon with which every honourable member is accommodated, and the extraordinary improvements on the pattern which are squirted and dabbled upon it in every direction, do not admit of being described. I will merely observe, that I strongly recommend all strangers not to look at the floor; and if they happen to drop anything, though it be their purse, not to pick it up with an ungloved hand on any account.

It is somewhat remarkable too, at first, to say the least, to see so many honourable members with swelled faces; and it is scarcely less remarkable to discover that this appearance is caused by the quantity of tobacco they contrive to stow within the hollow of the cheek. It is strange enough too, to see an honourable gentleman leaning back in his tilted chair with his legs on the desk before him, shaping a convenient ‘plug’ with his penknife, and when it is quite ready for use, shooting the old one from his mouth, as from a pop-gun, and clapping the new one in its place.

I was surprised to observe that even steady old chewers of great experience, are not always good marksmen, which has rather inclined me to doubt that general proficiency with the rifle, of which we have heard so much in England. Several gentlemen called upon me who, in the course of conversation, frequently missed the spittoon at five paces; and one (but he was certainly short-sighted) mistook the closed sash for the open window, at three. On another occasion, when I dined out, and was sitting with two ladies and some gentlemen round a fire before dinner, one of the company fell short of the fireplace, six distinct times. I am disposed to think, however, that this was occasioned by his not aiming at that object; as there was a white marble hearth before the fender, which was more convenient, and may have suited his purpose better. (1)

I remember when I first read this I was simply amazed that such a dirty and disgusting habit could have been so widespread and socially acceptable.  It gave me a deeper sense of what a revolutionary concept it would be for our church members in that time to learn that tobacco was not for the body or the belly.   I had an instant appreciation for the messes that we don’t have to clean up now that this is no longer a common practice in our society.  And too, a look at some pictures of decayed and rotting mouths of teeth caused by frequent tobacco chewing caused me to appreciate the greatly increased health we enjoy now.

As I was working on this post, I started to wonder at what point in our history people decided that spitting tobacco was bad.  Michael Pekker had a bit of insight on his blog about smoking tobacco.

When the germ theory was proven in the late 19^th century, public reform efforts began targeting unsanitary practices, such as spitting, which could spread disease.  Public opinion turned against spitting tobacco, and laws were framed that made spitting unlawful in public places.  (2)

Might we have spiritual habits that are just as ugly and unhealthy which we wouldn’t see without an outsider telling us how gross they are?

Sources

(1)  (Charles Dickens, American Notes, chapter 8) [http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/americannotes/9/]

(2)  Michael Pekker, “Chewing Tobacco: History, Specifics, and Health Effects”, http://smoking-tobacco.blogspot.com/2011/05/chewing-tobacco-history-specifics-and.html

Sick of Halloween? Try All Saints Day instead!

Halloween is starting to get more and more annoying to me for several reasons. First, I hate that the costumes for women are becoming hyper-sexualized. When I see the sexy nurses, the sexy maids, the sexy witches, the sexy bunnies, ad nauseum, I want to vomit. Second, the over-done scary gore bothers me.

Halloween has the potential to be so much fun; what other holiday in the year gives us social permission to dress up as anything? I just wish that people would realize that just because we can dress up does not mean that “anything goes.”

It was when I started casting around for alternatives that I learned something cool. Halloween (or All Hallow’s Evening, as it once was called) is followed by a holiday on November 1, called “All Saints Day,” which honors “all saints, known and unknown” (Wikipedia). The next day, November 2, is called “All Souls Day,” which “specifically commemorates the departed faithful who have not yet been purified and reached heaven” (Wikipedia).

Surely we, if anyone, have the most reason to celebrate on those days!

Did you know the hymn “For All the Saints” was written to commemorate All Saints Day? (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_All_the_Saints) Check out the lyrics, six stanzas of which are not in the LDS hymnal.

For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the Apostles’ glorious company,
Who bearing forth the Cross o’er land and sea,
Shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the Evangelists, by whose blest word,
Like fourfold streams, the garden of the Lord,
Is fair and fruitful, be Thy Name adored.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For Martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye,
Saw the bright crown descending from the sky,
And seeing, grasped it, Thee we glorify.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
All are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
And singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

It seems to me that if we want a Latter-day Saint alternative to Halloween, we could celebrate All Saints Day and All Souls Day. How could we celebrate them? There’s a raft of possibilities!

• We could make those days into days of temple worship to bless the dead and then have feasts to refresh the living!
• We could dress up as saints from all ages of the world! (Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and even.. future saints (Latter-day Saint Star Trek?))
• We could take bread (representing the bread of life) to nonmember neighbors!
• We could celebrate by flying kites (to represent the angel souls of the dead that are sealed to us)!

We could make these days uniquely our own.