Saturday, December 15, 2018

Enoch


Enoch lived before the flood. He was born in a righteous faily but in a wicked world.
Cain became the first son of perdition.
Enoch was a child prodigy who “walked with God” He went about preaching to the people and their reaction was, “A wild man has come upon us”. Some believed but others tried to hurt him. Enoch had the sealing power; he made the earth tremble, mountains flee, etc. Moses 6 and 7.  He was commanded to build a city to protect and be safe. It took 365 years to get the city to the point that they were taken up.
Neal Maxwell wrote a book called Enoch’s Letters. They lived the law of consecration. All deeded all their property and belongings to the bishop and were given back just what they needed. Compare to a pot luck dinner. There were other times in history when people lived the consecrated order, like Acts 2:24 and 4th Nephi.
Enochwanted others to be happy – no cheating, lying no cutting line. His city was moved to a terrestrial neighborhood and all were translated. Then they were resurrected with Christ in the twinkling of an eye. In the mean time they are ministering angels to other planets. When the earth is renewed, the whole city will return to the Gulf of Mexico (per Joseph Smith) where it came from.
The City of Enoch is a type and shadow of things to come – the New Jerusalem will be in Independence, MO. This is where the Garden of Eden was; it was a temple because God walked and talked there and taught the Plan of Salvation.
(Joseph Smith’s code name was Enoch; he is like the next Enoch)
The Arc was built in North Carolina and landed in the Middle East..
Thanks to Satan, Independence became the bloodiest place; that’s where there was an extermination order against the Mormons.
In 1831 they tried to build the New Jerusalem but they were not ready; there was too much contention. D&C 58:44 says the time has not come and won’t come for many years for the New Jerusalem to be built there. They hadn’t yet been endowed and didn’t have the protection of garments against Satan.
The Army of Israel has to be strong enough to build the city of Zion. Now we have endowments in 150 temples. We have to be tithing payers; we have to be ready to live the Law of consecration. We are being tested by being sent to serve. There are 70,000 missionaries – they are the army of Israel. We are more generous as a Church.

The Church changed the 3-fold mission of the Church to 4-fold, adding care for the poor and changed “Missionary work” to “Gather Israel”.
10 times in the Doctrine and Covenants we are told 10 ties to purchase land. Ow the Church has been buying land for farms, cattle ranches, orchards, vineyards and to grow food for our people.
Isaiah says “Enlarge the place of thy tent”. This refers to our Stakes/the Church. They are a place of shelter and safety. We are trying to set up stake centers everywhere. The stakes of a tent hold up the tent and give it stability.
Moses 7 says God will prepare a new city before the 2nd coming. It is a myth that we will walk to Missouri. People will be called to build the New Jerusalem. We have lots of land there. The center will have a 24 complex temple (Journal of Discourses)
D&C 24 talks about the New Jerusalem. It will be the only place where people won’t be at war with each other. There will be so much light and glory that the wicked won’t be comfortable there. It will be protected by a cloud of smoke by day and fire of flame by night.
The New Jerusalem will be prepared as a bride for her bridegroom. In the New Testament it says Zion will again rise when the City of Enoch which will be taken up to meet Christ in 2nd coming. Hymn #41.
Temples now are built to stand through the millennium.
The purpose and goal of the Church is to build up Zion. We do that by serving, praying for Zion to come, be a Zion people, help neighbors. We can pray as a family, “How can we help the ??? family.” “Help us not to have contention” We need to become Zion families to be ready to live in Zion.

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