And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Isaiah 8:17


If you are looking for messages about the Europe Area Humanitarian Mission, go to http://stayinginfrankfurt.blogspot.de/

If you are looking for Old Testament Videos, go to
http://salemzion.org/new/index.php/resources/adult-institute-old-testament/



Thursday, November 30, 2023

NT Week 9 : Revelation 6-16 : Seals. Beasts, Dragons, Marks

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CTvS4UOp7E&list=PLD9o3pQYhVMF2TXItDBjF2-WOro3i93Af&index=21






Mosaic floor of Beth Alpha Synagogue in Israel



Ishtar Gate: walls of Babylon rebuilt in Berlin, Pergammon Museum


Dragon and bull representing the King of Babylon
Revelations by Reed Durham; Ensign May 1973

Gustave Dore' Four Horsemen/Chariots



  These are overhead projector images from LDS Seminaries and Institutes in @1980.  Note the inaccuracies and anachronisms


















NT Week 8 : Revelation 5 : Throne, Veil, Time

 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erHSSzMnCRs&list=PLD9o3pQYhVMF2TXItDBjF2-WOro3i93Af&index=20

Three papers I recommend this week: 

Margaret Barker: Beyond the Veil of the Temple: The High Priestly Origin of the Apocalypses 

https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/veil.html

 Margaret Barker :  The Temple Roots of the Liturgy 

https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/Roots.pdf

and  Elliot Wolfson :   Seven Mysteries of Knowledge: Qumran E/sotericism Reconsidered

 https://www.academia.edu/3335498/Seven_Mysteries_of_Knowledge_Qumran_E_sotericism_Reconsidered







Neal A Maxwell Quotes on Time and Space
"The Lord Himself said that He `knoweth all things, for all things are present' before Him. (D&C 38:2.) We read, too, that `all things are present with me, for I know them all.' (Moses 1:6.) Therefore, God's omniscience is not solely a function of prolonged and discerning familiarity with us-but of the stunning reality that the past and present and future are part of an `eternal now' with God! (Joseph Smith, History of the Church 4:597.)" (Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, pp. 7,8.)

"Since-unlike for us enclosed by the veil-things are, for God, one "eternal now," it is to be remembered that for God to foresee is not to cause or even to desire a particular occurrence-but it is to take that occurrence into account beforehand, so that divine reckoning folds it into the unfolding purposes of God." (Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, p. 12.)

"Our agency is preserved, however, by the fact that as we approach a given moment we do not know what our response will be. Meanwhile, God has foreseen what we will do and has taken our decision into account (in composite with all others), so that His purposes are not frustrated.  It is unfortunate that our concerns do not center more upon the correctness of what we do in a given moment-and less upon whether or not God's having foreseen what we would do then somehow compromises our agency. It is equally regrettable that our souls should be troubled at all because we cannot figure out `how' God does it, when it has been made so abundantly clear and on so many occasions that He does do it." (Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, p. 12.)

"Quite understandably, the manner in which things unfold seems to us mortals to be so natural. Our not knowing what is to come (in the perfect way that God knows it) thus preserves our free agency completely." (Neal A. Maxwell, "A More Determined Discipleship," Ensign, February 1979, p. 71.)

`And all things are present with me, for I know them all' (Moses 1:6). God does not live in the dimension of time as do we. Moreover, since `all things are present with' God, his is not simply a predicting based solely upon the past. In ways which are not clear to us, he actually sees, rather than foresees, the future-because all things are, at once, present, before him!" (Neal A. Maxwell, "A More Determined Discipleship," Ensign, February 1979, p. 72.)

"When we understand that all things are present before His eyes and that He knows all things past, present, and future, then we can trust ourselves to Him as we clearly could not to a less than omniscient god who is off somewhere in the firmament doing further research." (Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, pp. 36-37.)

He sees the beginning from the end because all things are, in a way which we do not understand, present before Him simultaneously in an `eternal now.' Further, the arithmetic of anguish is something we mortals cannot comprehend. We cannot do the sums because we do not have all the numbers. We are locked in the dimension of time and are contained within the tight perspectives of this second estate." (Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, pp. 37.)

For example, the philosopher Boethius described in the fifth century how `God is  outside of time and does not foresee the future; rather, he sees it in an "eternal now" that is equally present to all parts of time. . . .`In the presence of God . . . all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord.' (D&C 130:7. See also 88:41.) These verses confirm what has been referred to as `the eternal now'-within which God exists, so that He sees rather than foresees." (Neal A. Maxwell, Plain and Precious Things, p. 57.)

"Of course, the Father knew beforehand of all human wickedness. He knew beforehand of mankind's need of a Savior. He knows the past, present, and future, since all their dimensions are continually before Him, said the Prophet Joseph Smith, constituting `one eternal "now"'." (Neal A. Maxwell, One More Strain of Praise, p.47.)

Actually, God has the past, present, and future ever before Him, constituting an 'eternal "now"' (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 220; see also D&C 130:7)." (Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, November 1999, p. 7.)

Amid the mortal and fragmentary communiques and the breaking news of the day concerning various human conflicts, God lives in an eternal now where the past, present, and future are constantly before Him (see D&C 130:7)."  (Neal A. Maxwell, "Care for the Life of the Soul", Ensign, May 2003, p. 70.)



NT Week 7: Revelation 4-5 Worship and Song

 




There are NO good pictures/Google images of worship in heaven.  Good luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1H_Oa4bnKg&list=PLD9o3pQYhVMF2TXItDBjF2-WOro3i93Af&index=19&t=1142s


Saturday, November 4, 2023

Reading Assignment for Salem Institute class Nov 8

We will be studying Rev 4-5 and it would be very helpful to read Ezekiel chapters 1, 9, and 10 before class.


I am assuming people will either be traveling or cooking or visiting relatives on Wednesday, Nov 22 so we will NOT have Institute that day.

Enjoy this beautiful fall weather!

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Fall Salem Institute Week Six : Letters to the Seven Cities

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3De-76vXmM&list=PLD9o3pQYhVMF2TXItDBjF2-WOro3i93Af&index=18


 




The discovery of the Book of Balaam inscriptions:

1.       "In an unprecedented discovery, an ancient text found at Deir Alla, Jordan, in 1967 tells about the activities of a prophet named Balaam. Could this be the Balaam of the Old Testament? The text makes it clear that it is. Three times in the first four lines he is referred to as “Balaam son of Beor,” exactly as in the Bible. This represents the first Old Testament prophet to be dug up in Bible lands — not his tomb or his skeleton, but a text about him. The text also represents the first prophecy of any scope from the ancient West Semitic world to be found outside the Old Testament, and the first extra-Biblical example of a prophet proclaiming doom to his own people. … The remarkable text found at Deir Alla consists of 119 fragments of plaster inscribed with black and red ink. It was among the rubble of a building destroyed in an earthquake. It seems to have been one long column with at least 50 lines, displayed on a plastered wall. According to the excavators’ dating, the disaster was most likely the severe earthquake which occurred in the time of King Uzziah (Azariah) and the prophet Amos in about 760 BC (Am 1:1; Zec 14:5). The lower part of the text shows signs of wear, indicating that it had been on the wall for some time prior to the earthquake." (Balaam Son of Beor, Bible and Spade, Bryant G. Wood, p114, 1995 AD)

2.        "Deir Alla in the eighth-century B.C. was a large city, perhaps even a center of religious instruction. On the walls of a room in one building that may have stood near a temple, a professional scribe copied the text of an important religious manuscript. First he drew four red frames. Then he filled the frames with text, adding a drawing here and there for adornment. See artist’s reconstruction of how this inscribed wall may have looked. Sometime in the eighth century B.C. Deir Alla was leveled by an earthquake, perhaps the very earthquake mentioned in the Book of Amos, and also spoken of by Zechariah as “the earthquake that stopped up the valley in the days of King Uzziah of Judah.” In the Deir Alla disaster, the inscribed wall fell, crumbling into a myriad of fragments that scattered over an area of more than 20 square feet. The author observes that most of one section of the wall seems to have fallen in a pit, while another section fell at the corner of the original wall (see plan)." (Fragments from the Book of Balaam Found at Deir Alla, André Lemaire, BAR-11:05, Sep/Oct 1985)

3.       "Found at Tell Deir ʿAllā, near the River Zerqa (biblical Jabbok) in the eastern Jordan Valley, these texts were apparently once displayed in a room of a building that is commonly believed to have been a sanctuary. Written in black and red ink on white plaster, fragments of the texts were found on the floor of that room when the building was destroyed by a violent earthquake—one of the many that plagued the region. As a result of that disaster, part of the plaster was burnt and the entire inscription fell to the ground, shattered in pieces, much of which was irretrievably lost. The fragments that remain were found in several groupings." (Deir Alla Plaster Texts, Prophets and prophecy in the ancient Near East, Vol 12, 138, 2003 AD)

4.        "Combination I clearly concerns the vision of Balaam son of Beor, “a seer of the gods,” who is also known in the biblical tradition recorded in Num 22–24. Like the prophets of ancient Israel, Balaam in this account is privy to the deliberations of the divine council. The assembled deities—known in the account alternatively as “gods” and “Shaddayin” (a term related to the biblical divine epithet “Shaddai”)—have ordained a catastrophe, and they charge a certain celestial being to execute the destruction on their behalf. Unfortunately, only the first letter of her name has been preserved (line 6), so her identity can only be a matter of conjecture. Like the deceiving spirit sent forth from the divine council witnessed by the prophet Micaiah the son on Imlah (1 Kgs 22:5–18) and like the adversary in the divine council who was permitted by God to set forth to harm Job (Job 1:6–12; 2:1–8), she plays a destructive role. The impending doom that she is to bring about is in many ways reminiscent of end-of-the-world scenarios that are often found in the Bible, notably in the preaching of the prophets. Creation will apparently be undone as the cosmic floods will be released upon the earth (“the bolts of heaven” will be broken), the dark rain clouds will cover the skies, and there will be pitch darkness and terror on earth." (Deir Alla Plaster Texts, Prophets and prophecy in the ancient Near East, Vol 12, 138, 2003 AD)


Pergamon Museum, Berlin Germany : Altar 



White stone

But in ancient times, particularly in the middle east  and Mediterranean, the white stone represented important details about one’s social status. In some cultures, the trial judges on a panel would each deposit a black stone or a white stone in a bowl or urn, or reveal one from the palm of their hands, to cast their votes on the verdict of the accused. A black stone indicated the judge favoured a guilty verdict and a white stone meant the accused was considered innocent of the charge. If the accused received more white stones than black from the panel, he was acquitted. So, the white stone became a symbol of being judged innocent.

(See Metamorphoses, by Ovid. (A.D. 8) Lib XV, verse 41. Translated by John Dryden, et al [1717]. “A custom was of old, and still remains, Which life or death by suffrages ordains: White stones and black within an urn are cast, The first absolve, but fate is in the last.”)

In Classical Athens, when the decision at hand was to banish or exile a certain member of society, citizen peers would cast their vote by writing the name of the person on the shard of pottery; the vote was counted and, if unfavorable, the person was exiled for a period of ten years from the city, thus giving rise to the term ostracism

Similarly, in ancient Rome, before a gladiator match, the gladiators pulled stones from a bag and the ones who drew black stones were to fight while those who pulled white were given a reprieve.

In other situations, a person who carried a white stone with a name of a patron on it, enjoyed the privileges of a modern day credit card, with expenses charged to the patron. Often it was a white tesserae (mosaic stone) that was used to permit charging expenses to another’s account. (See Pliny Natural History, 7.40.131).



Fall Salem Institute Week Five : The Revelation of Jesus Christ

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-h59SDWDC8&list=PLD9o3pQYhVMF2TXItDBjF2-WOro3i93Af&index=17


Fall Salem Institute Week Four : Hebrews

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhOlFw56ew8&list=PLD9o3pQYhVMF2TXItDBjF2-WOro3i93Af&index=16

Lots of handouts to accompany the Epistle to the Hebrews: 












John Widtsoe in 1931.

"One may quite as easily find himself in mistaken notions if he attempts the interpretation of the scriptures without getting a full perspective of the subject and adequate knowledge of human events that led to the giving of the scriptures, including origins and translations."


 Notes on Types and Shadows

In the allegory "The Cave", Plato describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them and give names to these shadows. The shadows are the prisoners' reality, but are not accurate representations of the real world. The shadows represent the fragment of reality that we can normally perceive through our senses, while the objects under the sun represent the true forms of objects that we can only perceive through reason. Three higher levels exist: the natural sciencesmathematicsgeometry, and deductive logic; and the theory of forms.

Socrates explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are actually not the direct source of the images seen. A philosopher aims to understand and perceive the higher levels of reality. However, the other inmates of the cave do not even desire to leave their prison, for they know no better life.


Jesus, in John 3, tells Nicodemus “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” 


I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.- C. S. Lewis


 

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…'” (Genesis 1:26)

The Hebrew word for “in our image” is “betzalmenu בצלמנו .” The word “tzelem צלם” is from an unused word, which means “to shade” according to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon. Here is the detailed definition: “images (of tumours, mice, heathen gods); image or likeness (of resemblance).”

“Tzelem” is related to the word “Tzel צל”, which is the modern-day Hebrew word for “shadow”. This gives us a deeper understanding of “btzalmenu”, which means “in our shadow.” We were created in the shadow of God! When we think of this, how does a shadow form? It is when sunlight or any light hits an object, and the exact form of that object casts a shadow. The shadow is an exact representation of the person.

There is one more person we should look at in the Bible who reflects the idea of being a shadow of our God. It is Betzalel בצלאל, who appears for the first time in the Torah in Exodus 31:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘See, I have called by a name Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with a Godly spirit רוח אלהים, with wisdom, בחכמה , understanding תבין, and knowledge דעת , and with every craft.’ – Exodus 31:1-2

One of the meanings of Betzalel is “In the shadow of El (God).” The other remarkable thing about him is that he is the “son of Uri.” “Uri אורי means “my light”. We have a perfect picture of the shadow which is cast by sunlight! But there’s more. The words that describe the Godly spirit of Betzalel in the Torah are the same words used to describe someone else:

And the spirit of the LORD רוח יהוה shall rest upon him – a spirit of wisdom חכמה and understanding בינה, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge דעת and the fear of the LORD. – Isaiah 11:2

Gen 5:3  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

צָלַל    shadow, shade through the idea of hovering over); to shade, as twilight or an opaque object:—begin to be dark, shadowing.

BELOW    http://tcemission.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Types_Shadows_Patterns.pdf

 TYPES    A type is a divinely purposed illustration of some truth. It may be: (1) a person (Rom 5:14); (2) an event (1 Cor 10:11); (3) a thing (Heb 10:19-20); (4) an institution (Heb 9:11-12); or, (5) a ceremonial (1 Cor 5:7). Types occur most frequently in the Pentateuch, but are found, more sparingly, elsewhere. The antitype, is found generally in the NT

Rom 5:14  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure τύπος  of him that was to come.

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things...Heb 10:1 

Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was· admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. Heb 8:5

 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might· shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. 1Ti 1:16 

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an· holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:  Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Col 2:16-17· 

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are· written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.1Co 10:11

a person (Rom 5:14); (2) an event (1 Cor 10:11 Exodus); (3) a thing (Heb 10:19-20 veil); (4) an institution (Heb 9:11-12 copy of heavenly temple); or, (5) a ceremonial (1 Cor 5:7 passover).

1Co 10:1Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;  2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.  6 Now these things were our examples,

Liken  ὁμοίωμα  homoiōma   

that which has been made after the likeness of something;  a figure, image, likeness, representation;  likeness i.e. resemblance, such as amounts almost to equality or identity

Rom 1:23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Rom 5:14  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness  of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Phil 2:7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

Rev 9:7  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men

 LIKE  ὁμοιόω   homoioō

Matt 6:8  Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Matt 7:24  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 26  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

Matt 11:16But whereunto shall I liken  this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows,

Matt 13:24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

Matt 18:23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.

Matt 22:2  The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,

Matt 25:1  Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

Luk 7:31 And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like?

Luk 13:18 Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it?

Act 14:11  And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.

Rom 9:29  And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like  (HB דָּמָה damah  דָּמָה dâmâh, to compare; by implication, to resemble, liken, consider, devise, (be) like(-n), mean, think, use similitudes. ) unto Gomorrha.

Heb 2:17  Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.