Understanding Languages 4

Then he said: "you will hear of a woman giving birth and she shall have a man child, but he will be old."

He also said: "you will hear that a mule will have a colt and many people among the gentiles shall go to see the event."

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And then he said: "you will know that everything has become new when you shall see the light come forth out of the East and that light shall destroy all things."

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Now this is a familiar spirit, and if a man knows of these things and he knows of the writings of Nephi and other prophets, the Holy Ghost shall lead that man to the truth.

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A familiar spirit is also contained in the language of a people whose lives are centered theologically wherein all things pertain to God.

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Wherefore, Nephi did testify saying: "After my seed and the seed of my brethren shall have dwindled in unbelief, and shall have been smitten by the Gentiles; yea, after the Lord God shall have camped against them round about, and shall have laid siege against them with a mount, and raise forts against them;

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And after they shall have been brought down low in the dust, even that they are not, yet the words of the righteous shall be written, and the prayers of the faithful shall be heard, and all those who have dwindled in unbelief shall not be forgotten." (2 Nephi 26:15)

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Notwithstanding, the information historically that is available to a searcher of truth, many there be that shall not understand the writings of Nephi on the subject unless one is desirous to search out the mysteries from the eyes of the remnant people, or the Navajo people, and all other Native tribes upon the land of promise.

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For indeed, my people have dwindled in unbelief having separated themselves from the pure gospel of Christ for over 1,617 years since the completion of the golden plates; and all Native tribes numbering approximately at the coming time of St. Brendon, they numbered nearly 10,000,000 people with over 1,000 different tribes;

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And now they number approximately 1,500,000; and the Gentiles did camp round about them from the upper Northwest into the coastal California into the Southwest, the upper Mid-West into the Mid-South, and into the Eastern Coastline, until many are not; the Gentiles did raise fort against the people, even this community where I live is called Fort Defiance;

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And the Navajos walked the "long walk" to Bosque Redondo prison encampment; and many children and old people were shot along the way that they are naught and that they are low in the dust of mother earth.

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But because of the Lord, and the prayers of the righteous and the prayers of the faithful shall my people receive again that which they have lost because of disobedience, it is for this intent, I write the things I do unto the convincing of man that a righteous man might perceive the light and truth,

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And that he might exercise faith in the truth and seek to establish his righteousness, which righteousness, cannot be established without understanding the spiritual welfare of this long dispersed people of the Lord.

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The unwillingness and disbelief of man causes him to doubt and to look unto things perverted; and being unrighteous, he thinks not in those things and wherein truth is, therefore he sees not the light nor does he comprehend the Christ for darkness comprehended not the light, and thus truth remains hidden to that man.

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Man has learned by the power of the devil to believe in what he sees, what he hears, what he feels, and what he smells and what he can touch physically; and this sense of spiritual disbelief is augmented by the precepts of men all around him.

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Nevertheless, God commands man to believe in him having faith in things not seen that gives unto man sufficient knowledge and gives unto him the power of the Holy Ghost that if man has a willingness to receive spiritual knowledge and the blessings that cometh from God, God is willing to bestow such knowledge and blessings on a righteous man of God.

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I will bear a witness that the things my grandfather bore witness of to me, have all been fulfilled in my lifetime excepting the new beginning and the light from the East, as well as the prophecy of Isaiah and Nephi.

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And if you say they are not true, it is because of your lack of study to search to know and to understand, and the many distractions of this world do blind and bind you down into a hidden darkness from whence no light can penetrate your being.

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In ancient times, numbers had an assigned symbolic meaning traditionally and culturally, embedded in the language itself.

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Accordingly, when the ancient one heard the number "7" they were reminded of fulness and completion, i.e., completion of the creation of the earth, the number of times certain fasts and ceremonies were held, and so forth.

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A number could also emphasis a higher number by multiplication, such as 144,000 elders from the 12 tribes of Israel mentioned in the Book of Revelations defining completion and perfection of those who shall be sanctified and perfected by Christ's gospel.

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I will say that the number 12 represents a fulness of the higher priesthood hence 12 is multiplied by 1,000 (12,000), which represents multitude and magnitude, or that 144,000 is a fullness of the higher priesthood in multitude or magnitude that should come in the fulness of times as redeemed elders of Israel who have had their calling and election made sure.

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In addition, the fulness of the higher priesthood is represented by the 12 tribes of Israel and accordingly as is recorded in Genesis the blessings given by Jacob to each son.

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To that end, it is Abraham who is given the promise that these are ministering preachers of the gospel and in whom the power of the priesthood is made manifested unto the blessings of the priesthood, and that through them in the last days shall the blessings of the gospel come unto the gentiles that repent and are numbered with Israel.

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Therefore, this number of 144,000 describes the expanded powers of the priesthood in God's work and strengthens the overall magnitude of the priesthood body that should come in the millennial day to set in motion that period, which is the seventh millennial time of God's time to complete and perfect all his works, i.e., God rested on the seventh day of his creation and all things were completed and perfected.

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I shall below endeavor to shed light on some of the numbers I believe to be imperative to comprehend theology with numbers for your learning and understanding as you read holy writ, moreover, I will leave some for your personal studying unto greater understanding.

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What I will not convey to you is what is called "gematria" that means a reckoning by numbers, or in most ancient societies, the Mesopotamian regions, letters of an alphabet had a numerical values attached thereto, thus letters and numbers were interchangeable.

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The Number One

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The number "1" is the most common number among all peoples and languages, but is more important to comprehend the number "1" as it pertains to scripture to obtain the full meaning of a given passage of God's words.

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The number "1" represents unity or oneness, a number indivisible from other numbers, therefore it represents the Godhead, the church of Christ, a group of people having a commonality like Zion and the oneness in God. And the Savior prayed unto the Father and said:

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"And now my Father, I pray unto thee for them, and also for all those who shall believe on their words that they may believe in me, that I may be in them as thou Father, art in me, that we may be one." (3 Nephi 19: 23)

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In this manner righteous men of God are purified in God, especially they who are chosen of God because of their righteousness.

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Therefore, a numerologist would say that the number "1" is independent of all other numbers, but is the source of all other numbers, accordingly, it is the same when speaking of God, or the Godhead.

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In the Genesis it says: "In the beginning God created the heavens and earth."

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I want to take a look at the word God from a Hebrew standpoint and one that even Joseph Smith might have found intriguing given the translation of the Bible.

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Moreover, the translation of the Bible resulted in the understanding of the Hebrew language.

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In the Hebrew Bible, two words are made use of in the Old Testament: yacheed which literally means "only one" while echad means "one of others."

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The thought then is that God, God the Father, God the Lord, or God the Spirit, are "one" with those with whom he serves in the Godhead; and in this godly capacity, they are perfectly united in bringing about the immortality and eternal life of man; they are not "alone", but "one".

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It is based on this thought that Joseph Smith when doing a re-translation of Genesis 1:1, he wrote: "in the beginning the Gods created the heavens and earth.", moreover, in Alma 13, Alma's discourse includes a preparatory redemption for those who should come through the covenant lineage or the chosen seed, lineal descendants of Shem through Abraham, in that they assisted in the formation or the creation of this earth with God.

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For in accord with the doctrine of Christ, one could not be considered like unto or assist without a preparatory redemption.

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Then this subject of yacheed and echad begins to take on more meaning as it pertains to the scriptures in the oneness of the Godhead and mortal man achieving a preparatory-exaltation in the first estate and completion of an exaltation into the second estate, and the Lord says if ye are not one ye are not mine for the Father and I are one. (And then the Lord said: Let us go down.

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And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, [emphasis added] organized and formed the heavens and the earth. Moses 4: 1-31)

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The Apostle Paul states that members of the church are of one body and the Lord Jesus Christ called his people Zion, like unto the people of Enoch, because they were of one heart and one mind.

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Therefore, in the celestial law of God, Adam and Eve were commanded:

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"therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."

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Wherefore, being one, is to become one in God to bring about the exaltation of mankind.

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Then as you read the scriptures, understand that which is written that you might have a full understanding of them who wrote, i.e., that in order to fulfill the commandment of God to fulfill the promise that God should scatter the house of Israel throughout the earth, the children of Lehi were led to the land of promise "with one accord".

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And when disobedience set in on the journey, they did not travel in a straight course.

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Thus, if man in mortality is not one with God he does not travel a straight course to spiritual unity -- to the land of promise or to the celestial world. (Alma 37: 38-47)

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Then the dream of Lehi becomes a reality in that certain of his family and others did press forward holding onto the iron rod along the strait and narrow path.

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The Number Two

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The number "2" has a dualistic application in meaning depending on usage in the scriptures.

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The first symbolic application is that of: opposition, separation, or good versus evil.

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The second application is that of being a witness after the order after the Son of God to uphold and sustain an ordinal charge. (Alma 13)

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Therefore, in Hebrews Paul tell us that there are two covenants or laws, i.e., the Law of Moses and the Law that Christ brings in the Meridian of time, (representing the Old Testament and the New Testament).

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Wherefore, the keeping of the two testaments will stand as a witness of the righteousness and worthiness of all the children of God.

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In this concept of the gospel, the number "2" represents the fulness of the testimony of Jesus Christ, which results in a judgment of good or evil in all people.

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Paul refers to the Law of Moses as decaying and faulty because there is a need for another complete sacrifice determined by a broken heart and a contrite spirit wherein earthly actions are tied to heavenly actions.

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Indeed, John tells us that the first creation is a fallen creation and will be replaced by a new heaven and a new earth. (Revelations 21 – 22)

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We learn from Paul to the Corinthians that this newness is similar to the "first" Adam, who is fallen, that has been replaced by the "second" Adam, who in Christ raises all humanity from the fall.

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In the Book of Mormon Nephi states: "…there are two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to the great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth." (1 Nephi 14:10)

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Wherefore, in the scriptures we read of similar allegories or parables demonstrating division, i.e., light and darkness, the wheat and the tares, the sheep and the goats, the division between the Nephites and the Lamanites, the rich and the poor, and even the war in heaven and the division and opposition found then.

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In the order of God, there is a necessity that such orders or ordinal actions taken is supported by a witness of two or three.

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In furtherance of this pattern, the Lord sent out the twelve by twos as well as the seventy in the early church.