Today I read Doctrine and Covenants section 101, which was given in response to the persecution of the saints in Missouri. The Lord makes it clear in the very beginning of the section that the reason this is happening to the saints is because they were not faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord and have entered into transgression. However, just like Pilate, that does not exempt those who did the persecuting and they will ultimately suffer the consequences of those actions.
It really got me thinking too about the people who committed those atrocities both in the early days of the church and during the Crusades. I mean, what were those people thinking? I understand during the Crusades it was actually the leaders of the churches in those days who are ultimately to blame, but still. Do you think those people killed Latter-day Saints in Missouri, burned houses and watched women and children walking in the snow with nothing but the clothing on their backs truly felt good about themselves? What in heaven and earth could inspire such hatred? Could those men really go home and get into bed with a smile on their face feeling like they had done the Lord's will? I don't see how.
As I mentioned I understand that the Crusades are another matter, and the leaders of the churches at that time had NO understanding of the Gospel of Christ and led their followers to sin by demanding they retake Jerusalem and urging their followers to kill supposed heathens. But it also brings to mind Saul, who later became Paul. From what we know, he DID feel he was doing the Lord's work in persecuting and killing the followers of Christ before his vision on the road to Damascus. To me, such attitudes reflect a severe misunderstanding of our Heavenly Father. I understand that Saul was not a Christian at the time, but it also reflects about as big a misunderstanding of the Gospel of Christ as you can have. What do you suppose all those men, and perhaps some women, I mean who knows, thought when they got to the other side and full implication of their error was made apparent to them? I shudder to even think on it. Food for thought.
The other thought I had came from the verse comparing the saints to salt. The Lord says that when salt has lost its flavor it is good for nothing and should be cast out. It got me to thinking about the comparison between the saints and salt. The way I see it, salt basically has two functions, flavor and preservation. As I was reading I thought of some really interesting comparisons between Latter-day Saints and salt. First, flavor. Salt, in this day and age, is primarily a flavoring for food and is found in a great number of foods from breads to sauces and soups. It adds variety to otherwise bland foods. It can also cover up a bad taste of a food we may not be fond of. I imagine that Heavenly Father when looking at the world feels much the same way about the people of the world. They are a distasteful "flavor" to Him. But the Saints are a good, wonderful flavor and He can cover up the bad taste in His mouth when He deals with the sins of the world.
To me the aspect of preservation is a much more interesting concept in comparison of saints and salt. Before refrigeration, and even now with some foods like country ham, salt was used to preserve foods, especially meats, beyond their normal period of edibility. Now, there are many cases where the Lord has told the world, or rather cities in the world, that He would destroy them, however, there are righteous among them that are calling on His name and saving those people from destruction. What a marvelous comparison it is then to call the Saints a tool of preservation that save those wicked around them well beyond what should be their allotted time based on their level of wickedness. According to the scriptures, the saints are indeed a wonderful tool of preservation for the wicked to keep them well past their prime in the hope that some few of them may repent and turn to God.
There is another aspect of preservation though that the Saints are good at, that of staving off corruption. When a righteous Latter-day Saint follows the commandments, they have the Holy Ghost as their companion. As such, they have a unique spirit about them that others notice and like to be around. This can lead to those people that are around them in changing their habits and nature so that they no longer desire to do that which is evil or will at least cause them to not do that which is wrong in the sight of God in that person's presence. It is quite the interesting phenomenon which I am sure most of you have noticed in your own lives.
However, like salt, the Saints can lose their flavor and far from staving off corruption can begin to cause it and as the analogy states may then be only good for casting out. However, unlike salt which has lost its flavor, a Latter-day Saint can repent and regain his/her good standing in the Lord's sight and can once again act as salt for the Lord in this life. It really is a marvelous analogy and I am grateful to be able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands in helping those around me and preserving the spiritual lives of some few of my brothers and sisters in this life. I hope you too are taking advantage of the opportunity that righteous living affords you and are able to do good in the world around you, even if only by being who you are. Until tomorrow.
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