145: Shem, Part 4

This is the fourth part of a series about Shem, who came to be known as Melchizedek, one of the Patriarchal Fathers, who established a city of peace that ultimately achieved the status of "Zion" and was taken up into heaven. Transcript There are two models that you can consider from the scriptures as possibilities for Zion in the last days. The one model is the Book of Mormon model in which Zion gets introduced after destruction and after the return of the Lord and after folks have a season to incorporate the information and the teachings, the ordinances that Christ restores at His coming. Under that model, we will not see Zion until sometime post-Second Coming. There’s a second model that we find in the scriptures, however, and that model is the one that Christ suggests, He says “as it was in the days of Noah, so also shall it be at the time of the coming of the Son of Man.” And what was it that was going on contemporaneous with Noah? – it was the city of Enoch, in which a people, separated themselves, and they found Zion. Melchizedek was able to do the same thing. The people of the Nephites were able to do the same thing. Whether the model that will actually apply is the model that Christ suggested about the City of Enoch and a righteous people ready to meet the Lord, or the model that the Book of Mormon suggests --a post- holocaust, a post-second coming establishment of Zion, is YOUR choice, and that ought to be the most sobering comment of all. The statement that’s made concerning the Priesthood, Moses 6:7: “Now this same Priesthood, which was in the beginning, shall be in the end of the world also.” That statement, “the same Priesthood that was in the beginning, shall be in the end of the world also,” when you take that and put it together with the statements that say, “as it was in the days of Noah, so shall also it be at the time of the coming of the Son of man,” every time you encounter the existence of Zion, the Zion that we read about, the first one had seven High Priests within it. There was a residue associated with them who were righteous but among them you had the seven High Priests. I have to assume that they each had families, and I have to assume that the families were the ones that were raised by these High Priests in righteousness. I have to assume that that included multiple generations, and so that collection of people was essentially seven families. The Zion that was established by Enoch thereafter, we don’t have any geographic description or numeric description apart from the statement that we get in the book of Jude, which is really quoting from an earlier text of Enoch about the return of Enoch with his ten thousands, “with his ten-thousands” of angels. If that is a representation – and those kinds of things are not particularly reliable, because ten thousands, given the way in which the numeric compilations occurred in those days – the error, if there is one, is an overstatement not an understatement. In other words there would not be millions described as ten thousands; but there could be hundreds described as ten thousands. The area occupied apparently by the people of Melchizedek and his city, in an agrarian setting, could have been located on something that is as small as 20 city blocks of our current type of area. The significance of Zion is not its numerosity. The significance of Zion is its spiritual endowment. It is the power of heaven, and not the voting block. It’s not that you’ve got big numbers here that intimidate the ungodly. It’s that even a handful are sufficient. So now we should realize, I hope, that that city which Melchizedek, the King of Peace, was able to teach righteousness sufficiently so that it was taken up from the earth, reserved to the last days of the end of the world— The next time we have such an event on the earth, the next time there is this kind of gathering and this kind of a population anywhere, it will not be for the purpose of going up. It will be for the purpose of permitting those who have gone up to come back down. It will be for the purpose of having those who can endure the presence of those who come because those who come will burn up all those who are unworthy. And therefore, some few need to be gathered so that the earth is not utterly wasted at His coming. As it was in the days of Noah, so [also shall it be] at the [time of the] coming of the Son of Man (JS-M 1:41; see also Matthew 11:11 RE). How many people were required in order to have the Ark be an acceptable place in which God could preserve all of humanity? It was a portable Ark of the Covenant in which the family was preserved. And so, if it's going to be as it was in the days of Noah— There is this net that has been cast out to gather together all manner of fish. But as the Lord tells the parable, the angels are going to come, and they’re going to pick through all manner of fish, and they’re going to keep the good, and the rest are going to be scheduled for burning. And so the question is, how diligent ought the search be into the things of God? How carefully ought we to consider the things that have been restored to us through the Prophet Joseph Smith? The fact is that this stuff is assigned to our dispensation. And I’m reading from the Book of Mormon, which the world does not have or accept. I’m reading from the Book of Abraham, which the world does not have or accept. I’m reading from the Joseph Smith Translation, which the world does not have and accept. All of you have this information in front of you. All of this material has been restored through someone that we claim we honor and regard as a prophet. Now Melchizedek was a man of faith… (JST Genesis 14:26) By the way, Melchizedek is a title; it's a name-title. It’s a compound of two words. One is “king,” and one is “priest”—and therefore, in one sense, it's a name-title, and in another sense, it's a new name. And it’s not the birth name given to someone, rather it is the new name/title which is fashioned after Christ because Christ is the great King and the great Priest who’s the King of Kings, and He is the Great High Priest. And so, Melchizedek is really a name-title that belongs to Christ, it being used as a substitute to prevent the frequent repetition when you’re talking about the Holy Priesthood—that the correct full name would be the Holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son of God. But to prevent the too frequent repetition of that, Melchizedek (which is a name-title for Christ) got used as a substitute. But Melchizedek—that is, the person who grew up to become the one that got that name-title, was a man of faith, who wrought righteousness; and when a child he feared God, and stopped the mouths of lions, and quenched the violence of fire [this is Melchizedek as a child; this is Melchizedek doing something by faith]. And thus having been approved of God, he was ordained [that is, ordination occurred after faith]... (Ibid, vs. 26-27, emphasis added) Can a man heal by faith without priesthood? Of course they can. Can Melchizedek, as a child without priesthood, stop the mouths of lions? Yes, the scriptures say so. Can “by faith” a man (Melchizedek being one who did so) quench the violence of fire without priesthood? Yes. Therefore, is it evidence that… Oh, what was the guy’s name in Oklahoma? The evangelical minister whose ministry was largely based upon healings? Can he heal? Can he do so without priesthood? Yeah, of course. I mean, these are two different things. These are altogether two different things. So, Melchizedek accomplished these things by faith. And then, having accomplished these things by faith, God ordained him: [a] high priest after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch. It being after the order of the Son of God; which order came, not by man nor by the will of man… (Ibid, vs. 27-28) That is, we can't vote in that guy. We can't ‘hope and pray and sustain with our prayers and faith and confidence’ that guy. We can't have our will bundled into that guy. That guy comes as a consequence, exclusively, not of father, not of mother, not of the will of man, but by the will of God. This is, after all, sons of God that we're talking about. … neither by father nor mother; neither by beginning of days nor end of years; but of God… (Ibid) ...because God is endless; therefore, His word is endless, and His covenants are endless, and His commitments are endless. And if you lay hold upon it, you lay hold upon something which is itself endless. And it was delivered, just as we saw in Doctrine and Covenants section 84: And it was delivered unto men by the calling of his own voice, according to his own will, unto as many as believed on his name. For God having sworn unto Enoch and unto his seed with an oath by himself; that every one being ordained after this order and calling should have power, by faith, to break mountains, to divide the seas, to dry up waters, to turn them out of their course; To put at defiance the armies of nations, to divide the earth, to break every band, to stand in the presence of God. (Ibid, vs.29-31) Now, take that impressive list of things, and read it in light of this: ...to do all things according to his will, according to his command, subdue principalities and powers; and this by the will of the Son of God which was from before the foundation of the world. (Ibid, vs. 31) See, such persons holding such power are not freelancing. And in fact, evidence of the possession of this power does not come as a consequence of someone displaying every one of these things, but if they display any one of these things… For example, Nephi (when he was bound in the desert and left to die by his brothers) broke every band that bound him, having been strengthened by God (see 1 Nephi 7:16-18; see also 1 Nephi 2:4 RE). And that same Nephi, bound to the mast when the storm came that threatened the su