Sunday, March 13, 2011

The Heavens are Still Open

Today I read Doctrine and Covenants section 77, a question and answer session between the Lord and Joseph Smith. I don't know about you, but I think it would be really cool to just be able to ask the Lord questions and have Him answer them like He does here. All these questions are about the book of Revelation in the Bible.

Nothing much really leapt out at me about this section except for the idea that the Lord still answers prayers and gives revelations in this day and age. I do find it interesting that the Lord talks about the seals on the book and mentions that each seal is representative of a thousand years and that there are only 7 seals. I have often wondered about that and how that works since I have always been taught that Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden in the year 4000 b.c. which would put us in either the very end of the 6th seal or the very beginning of the 7th seal. Just food for thought.

The other thing that stands out to me in this section was the beasts. I have always felt that beasts can choose to follow God or not as they see fit. It just makes sense to me. I mean if a human can choose to not follow God, why can't an animal? They are not inanimate. And there are so many strange stories about animals just going berserk, like the "Ghosts of Tsavo" where 2 male lions killed over 100 men working on a bridge. That just doesn't happen normally. But something had to make those lions act that way. Is it really out of line to suggest that Satan put it in their minds and they listened? Perhaps it is, perhaps not so much, but God tells us in this section that animals can fulfill the measure of their creation, or implies as much, is it too much of a stretch that animals can also choose to NOT fulfill the measure of their creation? More food for thought.

As I said other than the comfort and reminder that the Lord does in fact answer prayers and still talks to man in this day and age and a fun aside about animals, nothing else really stands out to me in this section. But I think that is important to be reminded of that fact in this day and age where so many people are convinced that revelation is over and that the heavens are sealed. Isn't it wonderful to get such a stark example of the truth that they are NOT closed and God does in fact care about us still? It is a comfort to me and even if I don't really learn anything else from this section, it still has merit and teaches us that God loves us, and cares about us. Until tomorrow.

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