1 Kings 12-13; 17-22 Part 1 • Dr. Lili Anderson • June 29 - July 5 • Come, Follow Me

He is mighty to save, and he doesn't need us to be finished.

“He needs us to be faithful, to keep turning to him, to keep including him and not turn”

away in shame. Sadly, we turn this into some times that thing where we feel so ashamed or maybe our family contributes to feelings of shame, that's not what the gospel is about. The gospel is Christ's arms extended all the day long. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Follow Him.

My name is Hank Smith. I'm your host. I'm here with my co-host, John, by the way. Now, John, this is going to be odd because I don't have an adjective for you today. I wanted to show you something.

I'm so grateful. I wanted to show you something.

First King's 1821, listen to this, John, if the Lord be God, follow Him.

We made it. Follow Him. We made it. We're in the cannon. Yes.

Thank you to Elijah. John, it is a privilege today to be joined once again by someone who's been with us before many times. It's been a while since we've had her, but she's back, Dr. Lily Anderson. Lily, welcome back, we've missed you.

Thanks, I'm happy to be here and I do want to say that a lot of people reached out after I was on last and had recently lost my husband and there has been an outpouring of love and support and I know lots of prayers and I'm very grateful for all of those. So thanks to all of you. Lily has taught us many things over the last five years.

I'm excited for today. John, first Kings, Elijah, what comes to mind? There's some big visual, huge things, like with the pre-sub all and there's some tiny, beautiful, powerful things, like with the widow in the midst of this time with divided kingdoms and everything.

I'm just glad we get to talk about Elijah because he showed up in Kurtland, I just love the prophet Elijah. Yeah, he bridges the dispensation, doesn't he? Lily, what are you looking forward to today?

I always love Nephi's admonition to like in this scripture and to ourselves because if we

can't practically apply these things in our lives, they really do us no good and that's clearly not the intent of a Lord. Always looking for personal application and understanding of what's happening to us in the last of the last days and how those insights that come so many times from the Old Testament can really illuminate what we are dealing with today and how to address it and strengthen

ourselves. So there are four big takeaways I wanted to get out of today's discussion even though we could make that a dozen easily but let's go with these four for now. First to understand paganism in ancient and modern times and again this is last of the last days stuff.

“I think really interesting to see sort of a historical view of this because we often get caught”

up in our day-to-day studies and sometimes it's really good to step back and see the arc of history and how God works with us and how we push back as people and humankind. Second point, how to stand with Christ, of course this is a question for every single lesson. How do we strengthen our stance with these Christ?

Number three, the incredible mission of Elijah.

Joseph Smith talked about Elijah so much, there's no way we could even cover what Joseph Smith said about this incredible prophet. He was the last days for Render of Christ so we're going to talk about that part of his mission as well and then the fourth message is about the righteous use of power which is so relevant to our current day where power frankly is demonized.

Those are my four targets for today with lots of little detail as John said there are some little little things here that are sweet and tender that we can touch on. Those who are new to our show are going to experience studying the scriptures with Lily. I guarantee they're going to go back to the previous episodes they have missed and say I want to do that again.

“John, for those new listeners, can you tell us who Lily is?”

Tell us all about her. Lily DeHoyos Anderson is a first-generation American, her mother's French, her father's Mexican, she was born in a little border town in Texas but soon her family moved to the Midwest where she grew up in Michigan in Indiana when she started high school, both her parents began teaching at BYU so that's quite a commute, no, they moved to Provo, she graduated

from Provo High School, tended to be why you graduated in sociology after about 20 years of being a full-time homemaker Dr. Anderson completed her master's degree in social work. She is a licensed clinical social worker, has a full-time private practice in an individual marriage and family counseling.

taught, part-time at BYU in the School of Family Life.

“The Anderson's have eight children, this is fun to say Hank.”

They're called the alphabet kids because they are Adam Bethany, Caitlin, Dominic, Eden, Faith, Great and and Harper.

We learned, because Lily told us they're expecting their 40th grandchild, which is amazing.

She's also working on a new book right now. Working title, the non-victum Christian, Rethinking Charity. Welcome to the program and please tell us about that new project you're working on. The manuscript draft is complete, it is going to take a few revisions but not too many because the content is finally there and I did hit it real block after I lost Chris.

I just recently been able to get that finished and it's been a long time waiting. It is close now to availability and we will have pre-sales available on my website. The idea of this and it's really hard to capture an title because the non-victum Christian is actually a term that I came up with after thinking and praying about it

“because there wasn't a term in our culture, which is telling in and of itself.”

The non-victum Christian is someone who doesn't hurt others because we care too much about our relationship with our Heavenly Father. We want to be Christian.

But we finally realize that God does not want us to be perpetually and chronically heard

by others. That's the non-victum part where instead of going from victim or choosing victimizer, which some people do, some people just swing right past the center, I've taken it long enough, now I'm dish it out and then they feel terrible and they go back to taking it. The point of the book and I have tons of application chapters so that people can see

how that works in marriage with kids, with our extended family, even in church service. How we can be non-victum Christians and learn to establish our own safety take personal responsibility using our agency and our accountability to not be chronically victimized.

“And how some of our misperceptions about charity are what make us most vulnerable because”

we want to be good people. I talk about Christ as a non-victum in the book and then I culminate with how if we really take these tools that God has given us that I go to great lengths to simplify and explain, then we can really channel Christ like love from a position of personal power. So we are not vulnerable too often when we hear the prophets talk about, forgive, love your enemies,

forgive everybody be peacemakers, sometimes people wince because they're like I want to follow the prophet. I want to follow Savior but it sounds dangerous because there are situations where they are chronically being heard and they are afraid that it's a call to continue to be hurt. It's not.

The Lord never, never endorses chronic victimization and there is so much we can do about

it. But it's a change of thinking, it's rethinking charity and then coming back to understanding how that true and pure love of Christ really can amplify us. That sounds fantastic. It's important stuff.

Hey, the doctrine covenant says teach one another out of the best books, that is exactly what you're going to do with this book. Scripture is of the best books and I'm just trying to make them applicable. Yeah, Lily, congratulations on finishing that despite all the hardship you've faced, that's pretty incredible.

Let's start in the company manual, Lily, John and I are excited to learn. The lesson this week, if the Lord be God, follow him. Hey, this is perfect for us, we love it. The house of Israel was in disarray. The kingdom had divided with 10 tribes forming the northern kingdom of Israel and the

two tribes forming the southern kingdom of Judah, but worse than their separation from each other was both kingdom separation from their covenants. The king's led the people away from the Lord and people wavered in their faith. In that setting, the Lord called Elijah to be a prophet. His life shows that a person can have great faith in the Lord even in bad circumstances.

Sometimes the Lord responds to such faith with impressive public miracles like fire falling from heaven, but he also works quiet, private miracles, like feeding a faithful widow and her son. And most often the Lord's miracles are so individual that they are known only to one person. For example, when the Lord reveals himself to you through a still small voice.

So well written. All right, Lily, let's hand the reins over to you. I wanted to start with some of the words of Elder Bruce H. McConkey concerning Elijah. He says, for dramatic manifestations and the visible exhibition of divine power, the ministry

And of course, we're going to talk about what happened on Mount Carmel, and it was a light show. It was a fire show, pretty silent.

“He sealed the heavens, was fed by ravens, extended the widows, barrel of meal and cruise”

of oil, raised the dead, destroyed the precibel, called down fire from heaven on at least three occasions, fasted 40 days and 40 nights and was attended frequently by angelic ministrants. And finally, was translated and taken up into heaven without tasting death. Now when they come back to hurt one, to transfer the keys into this last dispensation, to Joseph Smith and Oliver Caldery, the resurrection had already occurred.

So the Lord could have made them resurrected beings by then. But the Mount of Transfiguration was before. So Elijah goes off an ed framing, chariot, which is going to be discussed next week, as and he passes the mantle to Elijah. But here we are going to talk about what those ceiling keys are that Elijah transfers, which

I mean, are so incredible that they really became a forerun or mark of the second coming

of the Lord. It prophesied again and again, there were other things that were communicated, but what Joseph Smith was inspired to capture is in the first chronological section of the doctrine of heaven, which is section two.

“Of course, section one was added later as a foreword.”

section two is a first chronological section again. He was 17 years old and he's getting this powerful information that has so much to do with the last days that we were living in and what we were experiencing now. It's really extraordinary. He didn't know what it meant for 19 years.

For 19 years, just two years prior to his martyrdom is when it clicks. Here we have Joseph Smith's words about Elijah. And Joseph Smith said so much about Elijah. I'm just going to read here and there, some things that Joseph Smith said, because Elijah has come in this dispensation, the fullness of salvation is again available for the living

and the dead. He was the last prophet that held the keys the priesthood in ancient Israel. And he's talking about the keys of the fullness of the Melchizedek priesthood. The keys of God's power being manifest in its fullness that allows all the generations from Adam, all the way to the end of money and to be sealed into the family of Adam and

Eve. But we're not for that. This world would be wasted. We hear that. The earth would be smitten with a curse or the earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.

How could Elijah's work be done any time other than in the fullness of this dispensation

that we're in now, never before in the history of the earth, has there been the capacity,

the technology, the money available to the kingdom of God to build temples worldwide. To do the family history work that we're doing and digitize it and it's all in computer and it's everything's getting easier and streamlined so that the work can go and of course it will continue all the way through the millennium. But we are already having that spirit of Elijah, every time we dedicate a temple, every

time we announce a temple, build a temple, dedicate a temple, every time anybody goes and does an ordinance. It's the spirit of Elijah that is happening, whether they're doing the ordinance for themselves, of course, super important and then as we continue and do ordinances for the dead.

Joseph Smith goes on and says his latter day mission was to restore the authority and deliver the keys of the priesthood in order that all ordinances may be attended to in righteousness. Why send Elijah, ask Joseph because he holds the keys of the authority to administer an all the ordinances. We just said that without the authority, the ordinances could not be administered in righteousness

and then this also from teaching to the prophet that I really like.

“How shall God come to the rescue of this generation?”

This is Joseph Smith. How is God going to come to the rescue of this generation? He will send Elijah the prophet Elijah shall reveal the cabinets to seal the heart to the father to the children and the children to the fathers, the anointing and ceiling is to be called elected and made sure kind of a quick aside but Elder Cook talked about Elijah

and the ceiling powers and conference this last April. He and Elder Holland were privileged and they were mission companions as he said he said that Jewish leaders request like from Israel requested that our church helped to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Orson Heights dedication of the Holy Land Jerusalem for the gathering of the Jews.

That was special and that dedicated Tory prayers available online and it's really beautiful. So if you haven't read it for a while, look up Orson Heights dedicated Tory prayer, that was on assignment by Joseph Smith of course and it's really beautiful.

As John you mentioned, the kingdoms are divided here in the first couple of chapters that

are in our reading for this week, 12 and 13 of first kings and I want to give again this historical arc. Josh was conquest of can of course all these dates were approximate and you can find some

the children of Israel across the Jordan and into Canaan was around 1,400 BC, give or take,

1,400 years before the coming of Christ. King David is about 1,000 years before the coming of Christ. After David is Solomon and Solomon turns to idolatry and so it's prophesied his son will lose control of the 10 tribes. The prophet, Elijah, this is actually in chapter 11 that's not so much in the reading but

the prophet, Elijah goes to Jerobom who was in the cabinet so to speak of King Solomon. He goes to him and he takes his cloak and divides it into 12 pieces and gives him 10. So as you're going to have leadership over the 10 tribes, Solomon here's about that and Jerobom has to get out of town. What happens then is Solomon dies and his son reabome, no relation to Jerobom.

Reabome is the son of Solomon and he's foolish, I can incredibly foolish. His dad touched so heavily and why because he built a temple and then he built a palace that was twice the size of the temple which kind of shows where his priorities were. He builds all this stuff and he is taxing the people to pay for it and not only in money but in labor.

When Reabome takes the throne, the older advisors tell him do yourself a favor. Cut the taxes, these people are going to love you forever. He listens instead to his young buddies who all say no tax more. So he does, he says my father afflicted you at whips, I will afflict you with scorpions. You haven't seen anything yet and that's enough for the 10 tribes, too much.

What a terrible campaign slogan that is.

This is the first king's chapter 12, the end of 16, people answer King's saying, what portion

have we in David?

“In other words, like, you know what, do we really need to belong to David's lineage here?”

Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tenths, oh is no, in other words, pack up. We are out of here, now they don't really physically relocate but they are like, we're done. To your tenths, oh is it wrong.

And from this time forward, now we talk about kingdoms of Israel, which are the ten tribes of the north and the kingdom of Judah, which is reabome and his successors in the south. Thank you for that clarification. When section two of the doctrine of covenant starts, it says Elijah would reveal the priesthood. We think about restoring the priesthood, but revealing the priesthood sounds like a different

thing and a bigger picture type of a thing as you described it. Can you elaborate on revealing the priesthood? It isn't until, as I said, 19 years later, when section 128 is revealed. That is where Joseph Smith and this is a very exciting section. Joseph Smith, you can see how thrilled he is in the language and he says he quotes it again

and he says, I could even render a better translation than this at this point, but this

“will suffice because he wants to go on to the main point and what is the main point?”

That there has to be a welding link and that is this new phrase that Joseph Smith uses in section 128. This welding link between the generations. It's finally being revealed to him. Remember the temple and downman isn't till almost the end of Joseph Smith's ministry.

I mean, it is step by step, line upon line precept upon precept. Now in section 128, look at this, I mean, it is so exciting. Yes, he uses the term welding link in verse 18, the whole and complete and perfect union and welding together of dispensations and keys and powers and glories should take place.

And you see why he said such amazing things about Elijah.

If you look through teachings of practice, there is so much Joseph Smith said about Elijah because this was a lifelong pursuit, this is his whole ministry. From 17, where Marona is finally going to tell him there is a record which he's not going to get for a few years but he's going to know about it. But here's first about this spirit of Elijah, this power that is going to come and he's

kind of like, okay, okay, I'm on board. It comes little by little and finally here in section 128, he sees the picture. This welding link between all generations and then this is the part that is so exciting. I feel like there should be exclamation all through this or it should be in bigger font. It should be in bigger font in our section 128.

“First 19, now what do we hear in the Gospel which we've received?”

A voice of gladness, a voice of mercy from heaven and a voice of truth out of the earth. Glad tidings for the dead, it's not just for them of course but it's for us but now it can

A voice of gladness for the living and the dead, glad tidings of great joy, how beautiful

“upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things and that”

sand to Zion behold that God reigneth. Then he goes on glad tidings from comora and he talks about all these angels who have come that have given him line upon line, precept upon precept. Michael, Peter James and John, our own I, of course, God in the chamber of Father Whitman, Raphael, Gabriel, diapers, angels, Adam, out of the present, I mean, he is so thrilled.

It just makes me so excited to read these words every time and then at the end of the

first 21 precept upon precept, giving line upon line, precept upon precept here a little

and that's exactly what happened to him, just a little bit until he could see the big picture, giving a consolation by holding forth that which is to come confirming our hope. I don't know how people get through the loss of love, and without understanding about the ceiling powers. I know they do and they have various kinds of faith and light that come to them if they're

“willing to receive, but it is a voice of consolation for the living and the dead.”

It is the foundation of our hope that God will keep His promises to all His children at whatever level they are willing to receive, but all of them being sealed up into His dominion in one of those beautiful kingdoms, all of them beautiful, all of them salvation.

Brethren, shall we not go on in so great cause?

I actually love that so much that one of my children put it on a plaque and it hangs in my eyes, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward, courage brethren, and on, on to the victory, let your heart rejoice and be exceedingly glad. This is what Elijah brings us.

He is a messenger, it is the power of Christ, three Elijah, that the earth break forth into singing at the dead, speak forth, and thums of eternal praise to the King of Man, who ever ordained before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison for the prisoners shall go free, let the mountains out for your eye could go on. This so stunning and this is 19 years later, that Joseph Smith is like, I get it, I get it,

all this trickling in of light and truth, and of course he had his hands fall, all kinds of parts of the restoration, it wasn't like he was sitting back waiting for it to hit

him on the head, he was engaged always in building the kingdom in this restored time, and

“as the prophet of the restoration, now in this moment he's like, I see it, can you see it?”

Can you rejoice? Can you celebrate how great is the goodness of God and how generous his ways? This is why Joseph Smith is inviting all of us to join him in incredible rejoicing and consolation. So that little phrase, I will reveal the priesthood, you just elaborated that maybe even

Joseph at the time didn't know how big that was, they know when a Hank's favorite topics is that to say, oh yeah, this is like the New Testament church, well maybe, but everything we're talking about right now is Old Testament. When Maronai comes, these are Old Testament prophecies, God made a promise to Abraham. Yes, we're going to bring back Christ New Testament church, but what do you say?

This is Old Time. This is the Old Time religion. When I was young, we could put all the pictures of the temples on one card, it's like 12 temples, and that was that way for a long time. This explosion is the spirit of Elijah, this is the spirit and the power of Elijah because

of the keys that he brought back to Joseph Smith and Oliver Calgary, okay, it's going to take a while folks, but let it rip when it goes, it's going to go, and this is going to go all the way through the millennium. It's now, we get to be a part of this today. This is a fracture that is a political fracture between the northern and the southern kingdoms,

but it quickly becomes spiritual. In fact, the northern kingdom goes south, spiritually, quicker than the southern kingdom. They both end up messed up, but even though yes, Israel's in the north and Jerusalem is south. The northern kingdom goes south. That's right, the northern kingdom goes south, pretty quickly.

This is like 9/30, but the division of the kingdom's happen, and when is the Syrian capture of the 10 tribes, it's like 7/21, 7/20 BC, 200 years, that the northern kingdom lasts before it's destroyed, and then the southern kingdom is only a little behind that, what 586 BC is the fall of Jerusalem. Now, of course, both kingdoms have a series of righteous and increasingly unrighteous kings,

everyone's want to get a good guy in there.

to try to give them a chance to avoid destruction, but we see in the northern kingdom,

we get prophets like this is not a comprehensive list, there are a lot of minor prophets, but Amis is northern kingdom, Elijah is northern kingdom, Elisha also, northern kingdom, Judah, the southern kingdom has Isaiah, he's a southern kingdom prophet, Jeremiah, and I mean, there was interaction between the kingdoms, so it's not like they didn't hear, but Jeremiah is the last of the prophets with Lehigh in that same era. We have about 56 years that

happens between the division of the kingdoms and the coming of King Ahab, who is the King when Elijah ministers, Ahab marries a woman from Phoenicia, Jezebel, and even if

we don't know much about the Old Testament, sometimes we know that name, Jezebel deserved

her horrible reputation. She was a very wicked woman, Ahab right along with her, but she has some particular moments here that we remember, as I said, about 56 years after the kingdom's divide, Ahab and Jezebel worship, Bale, Molok and Astarte. There are lots of different names for these versions. I mean, Bale remains fairly consistent, but Astarte

“is like often referred to, I think Astroff is the name that we're going to see here,”

Ishtar later on in Babylon and so on, they're all the same, and that is the goddess of sexuality. Supposedly, if fertility goddess, Bale, of course, also requires human sacrifice and then Molok or Melek, different names and versions of names there that also mentioned in the Old Testament, regularly, who required the sacrifice of children. One of his statues was often recreated in a way that had this cavernous belly that they would make a fire in, and

then sometimes they would have stone arms that were held out in front of him that were at a slant so that the child would be placed on the hands of the stone god and roll into the fire. Some times you'll hear the phrase, pass through the fire. You have let your children pass through the fire. That's the worship of Molok or Melek. These were the three main idols. Of course, there were lots of little ones, but these are the three that we hear again and

again in the Old Testament. Now, I want to set the stage here about what Elijah is dealing with. What is happening in this part of the world? And frankly, all of the world, idol worship is everywhere. All the time, except for places where Jehovah comes. The cabinet people are

the first ones, like the Old Testament who were considered any appreciable group of monotheists

worshiping one god without a stone image. God that is not captured in stone or gold, but

“that reigns supreme. That was a very new thing to the world. You remember how hard it was”

for everybody. Lot worship is worship's images. When Rachel goes away with Jacob and Leah, she has some of her father's images that she hides. Joshua talked about put away her images. In Egypt, they were pagans. Paganism is the default. Now, look at how well that fits with 2nd Nephi 2, which we talked about. That's time. I was here. That beautiful verse that Leahy is saying there about men are free according to flesh off and they're

given them free to choose liberty in eternal life, 2nd Nephi 2, verse 27 through the great mediator of all men or to choose captivity and death according to the captivity and power of the devil, for he seeketh at all men might be miserable like unto himself. But then let's go more especially to verse 29. He says, well, in verse 28, I would that you would choose eternal life and verse 29 and not choose eternal death according to the will of the flesh. This

is really important here. The will of the flesh and the evil which is therein which give it this spirit of the devil power to captivate to bring you down to hell. Okay, what is he talking about? Well, when we talk about the plan of salvation, how have we been taught to describe mortality? We say there are two reasons to come to earth to get a body and to be tested. Well, I think we should rephrase that. I really do forgive me. I'm gonna offer

“this. I mean, you could say that way if you want to. It's not accurate, but I think it would”

be more thought-provoking for us to say that we came for two reasons to get a body and the body is the test. The evil they're in. And now what does that mean? Because we are not people who think that the body is bad. Of course, we know God has a body and he is perfected being without a body we can't have a fullness of joy. So there is a great gift in having a physical body. We don't hate the flesh, but what is rehyse saying? It's the appetites. Yeah, there's a potential

or bored or, you know, they cry because their appetites need to be filled. Their needs need to be

focused. And of course, we take care of babies. But as they get older, sometimes they just become bigger babies. And they throw tantrums. If they don't get their way, if their appetites are not fulfilled, that they don't have all the toys they want or all the attention they want or whatever. I'm not saying you don't give appropriate attention. I'm saying we sometimes just create these little natural men and women who then become bigger natural men and women. And they're still

used to having their appetites fulfilled. I've said this so many times, I probably said it last time. But you know, it's kind of like who's side are we on? We bring treats constantly and we don't stop with the primary. We bring it in young men's and young women's whatever. Feed them feed them feed them candy, whatever. My thought is like these kids who can't go two hours on Sunday without food in their mouths. And then we think they're going to handle her mouth. Are we preparing them

“to master the flesh? Because the flesh is the test. Who's going to win the spirit or the flesh?”

I guess like the angel Ohm and children, the devil on the other. And there is a tug of war. Now God isn't in a tug of war because he is a perfected being who has mastered his flesh. His flesh and his spirit are in perfect harmony completely together in pursuit of good truth. The immortality and eternal life of men. He is completely harmonized to all the good. But we aren't that's the path. Are we going to go up that learning curve to like harness the flesh? And then

of course this is the King Benjamin mentioned, right? That natural man is an enemy to God. That's what we're saying. Why? Because those appetites are powerful. So how does this tie into a lie? Well, the pagan world is all about fulfilling appetites. It is all about do what you feel. Do what you want to satisfy. To get that dopamine hit. I mean there's a book called Dopamine Nation. Well, isn't that the truth? We are all about satisfaction these days. Like what's going to

give me the next dopamine hit? And our society it's constantly. Do what feels good? You deserve it. By now pay later. I mean it's all about enjoyment, enjoyment, enjoyment and of course medicine

avenues. It's always about that. But it's and always has been. But it's gotten much more aggressive

and brazen. But this is paganism. And this is the history of mankind. It's always about the flesh. We're here to see if we can handle the flesh and become my God or if the flesh is going to handle us. In pagan societies, the flesh reigns. It's all about appetites being stimulated and fulfilled. When we're talking about Israel being in a past to see, we're not talking about they're not

“going to church on Sunday. That's how we're talking about. We're talking about pagan worship”

which is all about sensuality. It's all about this manifestation of evil power over others. These human sacrifices that sacrifice with their children and all kinds of sexual stuff. Every time they talk about groves and high places in the Old Testament, our places where they're doing all kinds of depraved sexual stuff. Supposedly to worship, ashroth, or ishtara, star-tate, whatever you want to call her. Look what judge is says. This is the beginning of the Book of Judges, chapter two.

And they for silk, the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods of the gods of the people that were about them, bowed themselves into them and provoked the Lord to anger. And they for silk the Lord and serve bail and ashroth. Those are two of the big ones. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them. So, in other words, because they didn't cleanse the land of

“Cainan and remember he told them that. If you don't clean out the Cainanites, they're going to”

pollute you. You're going to end up worshiping their gods as exactly what happened. They didn't finish cleaning the land. So the Lord let those other neighboring people like the Philistines or the Syrians or whomever. The Amorites or Midianites got allowed them and not because he wanted Israel to be heard, but because Israel was rejecting his protection. The others came in and took over because Israel looked pretty comfortable territory there and God couldn't do anything about it because they had

rejected his protection. And he will not enable sin. If he continued to protect them when they were sinning, that's enabling. Why would they ever be called repentance? That's exactly what the prophets kept saying. Come on, do this and you can be blessed, but if you don't, you can't be blessed. It says this in verse 14 of Judges 2 and the anger of the Lord is how to against Israel. And he sold them into the hand of their enemies roundabout. Now let's look at that verse,

sold them for a second so they could no longer stand before their enemies.

Then he says, "Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges and in verse 19 it came to pass when that judge was dead." They returned and corrupted themselves more. This is the pattern that's been

their doings nor their stubborn way. This is the pattern. God would have protect them. Now Isaiah explains what that means when that says that he sold them. Because look at this, it's so beautiful and Isaiah 50. Thus, say, if the Lord, where is the bill of your mother's divorce with whom I have put away or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? I'd show me the paperwork.

You think I sold you? I never sold you. Behold for your iniquities had he sold yourselves.

When it says he sold them to the Philistines, whatever, obviously it's really a language issue. It's they sold themselves. And then when they were willing to come back, he would protect them. And there are times when he comes in and he sent individual judges or everyone's father's righteous king and he supports them because he can bless us in our path toward him, but he cannot bless us if we're going away from him because he would be subsidizing our self-destruction.

“And that's why again, I think we need to understand. This is the default in the world.”

Monotheism, the Hebrew people were an aberration. They were the exception and a very blessed people because of it because God revealed himself to them. And said, I am the true God. I am the one who has power over the heavens and the earth. I can bless you here and forever. They would not receive it most of the time. Some of them did. Elijah, there were wonderful prophets, some men and we find out later here. There were 7,000 that Elijah didn't know about. And that's got to be around

number, who knew how many exactly, but there were others who chose to worship God and would not about the need to bail. There are people, even when we feel most alone. And you know what? A lot of us feel alone. I've had clients come in because they feel like they're the only ones in their words and states who are really trying to be faithful. I hear about a lot from podcasts listeners. And I only did one speaking assignment in the last couple of years and I almost shouldn't have

said yes because I wasn't still very energetic. Lord blessed me and I was able to go and it was okay, but I did a Weber State devotional. Weber State Institute devotional. Last year and had a lot of those kids that came up after and said I feel so lonely in the kingdom. This is Elijah, Elijah but there were others out there and I tell them you're not really alone. There are people who are being prepared to build Zion. They're not the most visible ones sometimes because we do these things

in the quiet of our own lives and in our own homes hopefully and in when our families and our primary relationships but if we are becoming Zion ready we know there are some because when the time comes there will be people who are on that path to sanctification that can build Zion and receive the

Savior. So we know the gospel will never be taken from the earth. We're not alone. If we are trying to

do the right thing we may feel alone but we are not and it's good to know that it was good for Elijah

“to know that super important that he was given that message when he's ready to say I want to die.”

I just want to die. Can you take me with my fathers and the Lord is like yeah there are more and there are still things to do and of course he had this great mission to come. So I wrote this down that the pagan world is all about feeding appetites. We got a body and now we're going to be tested by those appetites and do not remind me of is Alma to ship on bridle all your passions. You're going to have a body it's going to have passions but it's not

given to every passion and it's not destroy your passions either. It's a certain perfect balance of bridle harness control steer. I love that sentence. The pagan world was all about if it feels good to do it was a 1960s phrase. It literally is that why the Lord sends a famine. He's like I can teach you about appetites. This book by John Daniel Davidson who's a Catholic guy called the decline of Christianity and the dark age to come. That's the subtitle

“that title is pagan America. But he talks about things that are consistent. I think about”

last of the last days that we're living in. But these things are consistent in pagan societies. Moral relativism. I mean that's been I'm a person Oaks talked about that when he was in the

crime at BYU decades ago where he said Moral relativism is basically taught on every university

campus now and that was decades ago as I said but it's been around for a long time meaning that there's no absolute truth that if it works for you that's okay and I can't judge another culture because maybe they're all great. Moral relativism we are so past the beginnings of that. The rule of the strong over the week. That is another characteristic of paganism. The individual has no inherent value. The idea that a person has inherent worth and value is Christian. That is a Christian belief

and has divine potential. But that is a religious belief. People want to say that like that's an

“enlightenment. Truth no. It is not. It never was. It goes right back to monotheism and particularly”

Christianity. Slavery is always a part of paganism. Slavery never left the world completely and of

course we had our civil war here in the United States and so on but sex trafficking is huge. Even in the United States there is slavery today and it is growing. So for us to think that we're like past to these things is kind of blind and I'm not saying we should focus on the horrible things around us but we should be aware that these are fulfillment of prophecy. Paganism has returned in a more modern form but it's the same as it always was. It's about the appetites. It's about

power. Exerting power over people who can be victimized in a number of horrible ways also complete sexual license and the exploitation of the vulnerable. That is another consistent part of pagan

“societies and especially women and children. And then let me not forget human sacrifice. These are”

the characteristics of a pagan world. The defining feature of a pagan society basically are slavery

and human sacrifice. And the volume of human sacrifice in pagan societies is astounding. Again, we sort of brush it off but when the conquistadorist came to what was then the Aztec capital then watched this line blood was running down the pyramids. They were doing hundreds of sacrifices every day and these were relatively smaller societies considering like how big the world has gotten. Human sacrifice and again the sacrifice of children. Let me just read a couple of other things

that come from that book. The coming of Christianity was not simply a prohibition of foreign cults but a call to arms and assaults upon the antique order of the heavens a declaration of war

upon the gods. Plural gods, the idols, Asterochbeil, Molok. The human race did not and could not

“evolve its way out of paganism. That's what so many people think. We got enlightened. That is false.”

It was God given. The only way out of paganism is the light of the gospel. It is God revealing himself to his people and to all who will listen. We could not evolve out of paganism. The world was dragged out of it sometimes kicking and screaming sometimes at the point of the sword. I remember when I was young and we would travel through Mexico to visit family and my dad pointed this out in the city of Choluma which is close to Puebla. It was a center of native worship. A Catholic

church wanted to stamp out the native paganism. We wanted to end human sacrifice and slavery. They really did bring the cross. In that little Choluma place which was the center native worship, they built 365 churches and or altered or sacred spots. One for each day of the calendar because they wanted to stamp out the idolatry with Christ. Again, it wasn't pretty. It was the point of the sword because they were kicking and screaming. There was aggliness and focus on things but really when you

see that you can see the history of the world. It was completely pagan. All of the continents were pagan except for ancient Israel. Then Christ comes and brings the gospel and the Jews remain monotheistic. Then you have Christianity that even though after the Apostle the ancient Apostles die it goes apostate very fast and the power is lost. The authority is lost but the message of Christ it's the Roman Emperor Constantine who decides he's going to be converted to Christianity.

The clerics and the Catholic Church, the priests and so on had and the monks had the scriptures. They had the scriptures. Then we see the reformation which was all about saying well the Catholics have really gone astray but the reformers really were a huge precursor to the restoration because they made the scriptures available to the common man. People could read for themselves. You can see that Christianity starts to grow amongst the people. So now they're not just

at the behest of all the priests doing what they want but they're learning what Christ said. What the message of God is to man and they pushed back paganism. It's not just Catholic missionaries went all over which you got to give him credit for a lot of that because many of them died. Then the Protestant missionaries that went to the Far East and the islands, many of them died but they did try to send the message of Christ and they pushed back paganism.

Pagan cultures are very tough. They're unforgiving. They're harsh. They sacrificed the vulnerable.

under paganism. Very harsh. The vulnerable are sacrificed. So this is the world that we live in.

And Jonathan Cahn, you know Jonathan Cahn, he's a messianicist. Sometimes they called Rabbi Cahn because he was trained in the rabbinical traditions. So he knows the Old Testament backwards and forwards. I feel like I know the Old Testament but not like he knows the Old Testament and not like the Old Old Old. I'm sure but I love it but I'm not the scholar. He is he knew the Old Testament so well that when he read the New Testament he was converted to Christ which is exactly what she did

happen because all the Old Testament prophets preach of Christ to all the Messianic prophecies. He saw the fulfillment of those prophecies when I read the New Testament. He's like, well, it's obvious when you think about it, he became a Christian. And now he's a pastor of a church. There's some interesting books and videos. One of them is called Return of the Gods. This is a fascinating book. He says the three, I think he calls him Daimonia which is maybe the

Greek or Latin for the evil spirits of the Old Testament. And it's Bale, Astroth, and Molaq that we've

“talked about. And he says the only thing that pushed them back was Jehovah. It was temporary because”

when people went and ended up being mostly idolatrous they were captured and destroyed. So then he says America, he calls it like the modern Israel which in a way it is because it's the promised land that God prepared and hid in a way and that this was the place where the restoration could happen and all of that wonderful stuff, you know, America as Lee Hype prophesied. As long as they worship the God of the land of Jesus Christ they would prosper. Well, America was a Judeo Christian

beginning. I mean the beginnings of this country were clearly Judeo Christian. And we have a really prospered here. But what I am going to say is that until the reintroduction of those three gods, and this is Jonathan Kahn's point, Return of the Gods. He says so America, this modern day Israel, it is so protected by God. Then they started worshiping Bale. He says the sign of the bull and we've got a bull on Wall Street and he talks about the desire, you know, greed, the greed,

you know money as a God. Then Ashraf, which is sexuality, which as our prophets told us this new morality, it was nothing more than the old immorality, just rebranded. And then Molok with abortion. We're basically throwing our children into the fires of Molok. What happens when we worship pagan gods? Our hearts go cold. This dopamine hit all about the sensation, all about the appetites. Turns this cold. When I was growing up, I remember being tired of all the stuff on

pornography. There were so many warnings about pornography. I remember kind of like okay we get it, we get it, pornography bad. It was pretty hard to get back then. I mean if you wanted it,

“you had to make an effort. Most of us were just kind of like, why are we talking about this so much?”

Because like, I never see it, but how prophetic, of course, all of that was.

When I started counseling, this was pretty early. I don't remember exactly when, but I remember meeting with a couple. Mostly with the sister, the wife, but it has been came in a little bit at first, too. And he was called. That man was called. The things that he did to his children are how he responded to his children. And certainly to his wife, it was like, there's no warm heart in this man. There's no warm heart. And he

had been steeped in pornography for such a long time and had embraced it. Now I want to make a really clear distinction here because there's no avoiding pornography these days. I'm not saying that that's licensed to indulge. I'm saying, you can't go to the mall without seeing pornographic images. It's all on the freeway. It's on a free commercial or when you think about these warnings.

“And then to see this man, I remember I had two teenage boys to let home when I met with that”

couple. I told them about how I had once thought they were kind of overdoing the warnings on porn.

Then I said, but you know what? I never heard this one. I never heard how cold it can make you.

How it can shut down natural affection, which is what again, the New Testament warns about the love of mental wax cold. Isn't it in birth Corinthians where it talks about how their consciousness could be seared as a hot iron? That's where Ahab is. That's where Jezebel is. That's where a lot of these house of Israel people are. Their consciences are seared. They have gone cold. They can't feel the spirit. They're not interested in the spirit. They're saying it's all about

dopamine. It's all about the appetites. As America has allowed for these things to come back into the culture, we are worshiping the same gods as ancient Israel did when they became idolatrous.

that Christianity is the exception. Think about it. If we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ

“of Latter-day Saints that has all the authority, all the ordinances, all the keys,”

access to what does it says in section 121 as well might man stretch forth this puny arm to stop the mystery river or turn it upstream as to hinder the Almighty from pouring out knowledge upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints. That is stunning Christianity being the aberration.

What is it to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? It is such an incredible

privilege. We are blessed beyond measure. Now we are dealing with a world that is going more and more pagan. But people will not completely turn to the idols. There will be people who are going to become Zion ready and build Zion and receive the Savior. God is doing this gathering that we get to be a part of, but he is doing what we can't do himself. We are supposed to be the gatherers. And you know it's a privilege to be a part of it. It really is, but he can do it on his own.

I win when people say things like God needs us. I'm like, not really. He includes us. He let us. He let us help if we're willing. And then we are very blessed for being participants

in this great work. But he will do his work. Nobody is going to get in the way. We can get on the

“train or get out of the way. That's kind of what the choices are. I think it's just so fascinating to”

see that this culture that we're looking at here sometimes we look at the Old Testament and go like, "Oh, that's so foreign. It's so different, not really. We are worshiping the same God's in our society." Hopefully, all of us will turn away now. I want to see something about those who struggle with sexual addiction, pornography addictions or just exposure to all that mood and Los Angeles material which is everywhere. Of course Christ understands our struggles. He is mighty to save and he doesn't

need us to be finished. He needs us to be faithful, to keep turning to him, to keep including him and not turn away in shame. Sadly, we turn this into some times that thing where we feel so ashamed or maybe our family contributes to feelings of shame. That's so tragic. That's not what the gospel

“is about. The gospel is Christ's arms extended all the day long. As we rely ourselves to him,”

he can bring us along in our weakness, in our stumbling, in our frailty's, in our failures.

If we keep coming, if we keep including him and never turn away, that's the scary thing is when

people say I can't pray because I'm so ashamed or I feel so guilty and it's like guilt can help us repent. But if it takes us away from Christ, that's not the right kind of guilt. That does turn into into such a destructive avenue that Christ weeps over. He wants us to be empowered through him and to hope and know that not everything will be resolved in this life. I love that Paul never identifies his thorn in the flesh. I love that because all of us can understand where we have

persistent weaknesses that that wonderful men and wonderful women have struggled with weakness, but they have continued to rely themselves to Christ to hold fast to him and to keep coming on the covenant path. There's nothing he can't do with us if we let him. I said this before Hank, but Satan will tempt you to do something or whisper you out of do that or just indulge in that and then as soon as you do, he'll start telling you what a horrible

person you are. Everyone's doing this. How dare you do this? How dare you? I hope people listening will listen to what you said. Keep turning back. It's a great point. Elder Holland said this in his talk personal purity, which was kind of a reduction of his talk of souls and sacraments at the way you which is marvelous, marvelous talk. I hope everybody will read it. This personal purity conference talk was also beautiful. It's slightly different and condensed, of course,

but he said I have declared here the solemn word of revelation that the spirit and the body constitute the soul of man, which by the way is a restoration doctrine. No other Christian church teaches that. That the body is part of the soul. They don't think of the body as eternal, resoul blast to know that that is where we can become like God eventually as he is a resurrected man, a perfected man. We have that restoration doctrine, but it also tells us how precious

both the spirit and the body are and that we have to care for both of them and not let the appetites take over. He goes on and says that through the atonement of Christ, the body shall rise

to be kept pure and holy. If some few of you are carrying wounds, these are the struggles.

We're in a world where we are bombarded with sensuality and sexuality and depravity. It's everywhere. If we are carrying these wounds and struggling with them, I know that to you as extended the peace and renewal of repentance available through the atonement sacrifice of Jesus Christ, in such serious matters, the path of repentance is not easily begun, nor painlessly traveled. If we're struggling, we're on the right path. It's not going to be easy. It doesn't mean we're doing

it wrong if we're struggling or we have our failures along the way. It's not easily begun or painlessly

“traveled, but the savior of the world will walk that essential journey with you. He will strengthen”

you when you waver. He will be your light when it seems most dark. He will take your hand and be your hope when hope seems all you have left. His compassion and mercy with all their cleansing and healing power are freely given to all who truly wish complete forgiveness and will take the steps that lead to it. It's a journey. Don't shut him out. Just like you said, John, that's the real be trail. The temptation and then you're not worthy of a savior. You're a terrible person.

And if you hear that message coming, that's from Satan. If he's saying, just give up. Just

bag it, just forget it. This is too hard. You'll never make it. Savior wouldn't say that.

It's not in his vocabulary and it never will be.

“Lily, we've had you for a while. We've covered the paganism of the day and I think”

you've shown us. We live. You said you were going to like in the scripture today besides the the date on the calendar. It's a very similar world that we live in. Where do you want to go next? Similar conflicts because the great thing is that this is the dispensation of the fullness of times and Elijah didn't have the benefit of the kingdom of God moving forward in the earth. But the adversary is the same. That's where we don't want to underestimate him. He is the same yesterday.

Always. He doesn't come up with anything new. He just repackages it. That's where I think it's

really helpful for us to not feel so disconnected from the Old Testament people because the temptations are the same. They are packaged in more modern terms with more neon lights. But it's the same trouble. And we have the same God that they had access to. Again, we're so blessed to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the United States. It's so easy to underestimate what an immeasurable privilege that is to be living on earth at this time. Let's talk about

into this scene. We have Ahab and Jezbel who institutionalize idolatry. It's been there ever since the division of the kingdoms that Jeroboam set up those calves and so on. But now Jezbel orders the slaughter and it is a massacre of the priest of Jehovah. She sends out her guys to go and kill Jehovah's servants. They kill a whole bunch. Now we hear later here and now in the later chapters of kings that Obadaya who was in Ahab's court. So he had some responsibilities in

the kingdom. But he was a servant of a lord. But he had to be way on the downmo. Like he is not visible. Or he would be undoubtedly exterminated as well. He hides 100 priests. He puts 50 in one cave and 50 in another and he brings them food. Good man does what he can to save some of the priests. But so many are slaughtered. While Jezbel is the driving force, Ahab gives her free reign. For this reason Elijah comes to Ahab and says we're going to seal the heavens for three years,

“at least. It's a little longer than that. Some people say it could have been up to five. But I think”

the record here in Old Testament tells us three and a half years that the heavens are shut. And a terrible drought happens. Now for a while Elijah is living on his own in the wilderness and ravens feed him. You imagine ravens bringing you the food that you subsist on. And there's a little brook. But eventually it broke drives up. And God allows that to happen. He comes down into a town. And the spirit tells him to approach a widow woman who is there at the well to get

some water in order to make their the last meal for her and her son before they die because they're out of food. Elijah asks her to make that cake for himself. We didn't know much about this woman.

if you're a man of God, then I'll do it for you. And the miracle happens. He stays with her and

“her son. And the barrel of meal never fails and the coups of oil never fails. So she's able to”

continue to feed them in a humble way. Now I want to say something here about food storage was brought really vividly to my attention. Again, this is probably over 20 years ago. I had a young woman that came to see me for a while. One of the decisions she was trying to make was whether or not she should start dating a guy that she had dated before, but they had broken up and now he wanted to get back together. He was a return missionary. But he didn't have a current temple recommend because

he did have a serious pornography problem. And I said, well, was he working with, you know, path to get that back? And she said, well, his bishop's trying to work with them and he gives him some assignments and things. But he's not meeting with his bishop. He keeps canceling. I said, well, that's pretty telling what's going on. She said, well, he says he's so busy because his family, this was 20 years ago, but they had this bunker in the mountains with cattle stalls and like

huge places, silos and stuff for grains and whatever. And he was currently too busy to meet with his bishop because he was learning from someone how to use black powder to protect the munitions that they also had stored in the bunker and tons of guns. Now he's going to learn how to use black powder. You know, I had to chuckle. I'm sorry, those things are not going to preserve him. Have we lost the plot? I'm like, his temple recommend would be more protective of him.

If he's worthy of it, then all the bunkers anywhere. Where is our faith? People, I hope, will do what they can to follow the council of the prophets because we try to be obedient, hopefully, but the safety is not in the food. And we don't have to sweat about like, do I have enough of this or enough of that? Do what you can and then trust? Be worthy, live a covenant life. Again, we're not going to be perfect, but if we are willing and we keep coming and we reach for the

savior constantly and we let him do his great, celestial alchemy in us to turn our lead into his gold. We are protected in all the ways that matter. All the ways that matter. My personal opinion is that if there is food storage around, we're all going to have to bring it into the chapel, which will become bishop storehouses and everybody will share and the crews of oil will not fail. On the barrel of meal will not fail if the Lord's purposes are that way. And if we die in the

“first quake, that's okay too. If we're worthy of her time for recommends, that's what the protection”

comes from. Here we are with Elijah having this, again, this is one of those sweet, quiet miracles. It's not public, but it goes on during this time of the famine and then her son dies. Now, this is interesting to me too. I mean, of course, it's a huge loss to her and she is devastated. She's already shown great faith. She has felt the spirit of Elijah in her home, but this is kind of her breaking point. It's not interesting. That's what it kind of says here.

And I want us to think about what happens when we're at breaking points because everybody hits breaking points. We're going to talk about a few in the scriptures, but let's look at this one.

It must be, first king of 17. In verse 18, she says to Elijah, what have I to do with the

“other man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and slay my son?”

She's devastated. And here she's been so faithful, but she's like really, after all this, isn't that a familiar feeling for us? Don't we get to these places where we say, what else do you want? I've tried to be so good. I've done all the things I know to do. And now this, why this or why didn't you protect me? Why couldn't you have spared me this? Elijah performs another miracle and asks for Lord to bring this child back to life and it happens.

Coming up in part two. First, I asked her to tell me her story, so she could be validated. And then I

said, honey, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. Ceilings do not separate people. They bring them together. This is bringing us into the family of Adam and Eve. In whatever glory, we choose to receive and qualify for.