146: Shem, Part 5

This is the fifth 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 These are the kinds of preparations that need to precede Zion. We are not going to get there in one step. We’re only gonna get there incrementally. And there’s a great deal of increments yet to be accomplished. It's not gonna happen by fairy dust. There's not gonna be someone who comes along and says to you, “Spiritu Sancto, Ave Maria.” You know, get the holy water; get the incense, voodoo—voila, now you're Zion! It's not gonna happen. It doesn't matter if it's a Dominican in a brown robe or a Mormon Elder with a name tag. You… You must become holy. You must receive the guidance, blessing, benefit, and baptism of the Spirit. You must become the house of God. You’re going to have to be the one that God visits with in order to have the preparations that are necessary take place. This is not something to be accomplished in a single step. Indeed, all of it must precede the gathering. We looked (a while back, in one of the preceding talks) at how dangerous it would be for an unworthy person to attempt to be in Zion. Because when it finally is acceptable to the Lord—and when His presence does come, finally, to dwell there—it is unsafe for anyone unprepared to face that glory to be in that condition. Therefore, when the gathering takes place and you would like to join in, you do so at your peril if you’ve not accomplished the things that are expected to be accomplished beforehand. We read those verses in Alma (yesterday) about Melchizedek's people. Melchizedek’s people—Alma chapter 13—about how the people that Melchizedek gathered had waxed strong in iniquity and abomination and had all gone astray. It doesn't matter that you look about and see a tattered ruin of the Restoration. And it doesn't matter that we’re filled with all kinds of false notions, inadequate and incomplete teachings. And it doesn't matter that we’re a vain and a proud people. It's even worse when, recognizing that we are a vain and a proud people, we tend to gather together and to think of ourselves as even better than they are. Because we immediately import that same culture of arrogance. We immediately take what is offered, and instead of becoming (as we talked about yesterday) humbled by the greatness of the steps left in front of us, we tend to think that we ought to view this stuff comparatively (“and we are slightly better than them, after all”) when the standard is absolute! And it doesn’t matter if you’re kinda, sorta, a little better. It’s absolute! It’s an on-and-off switch. And if it's on, it's on; and if it's off, it's off. There is no dimmer. It doesn't happen that way. And we aren't better than them. In some respects, we have greater reason to fall into the folly of our own pride. We have greater reason to think ourselves better than the people that think they’re better than the rest of the people. And so, we move along incrementally to become yet further away from God. If we think we're better than them and they think they're better than the world, then we oughta become a fool for Christ's sake and go and serve among them. We oughta do like the missionary who went out and did everything that the king bid him do and did it with such exactness and such fidelity, because he wasn't trying to serve the king; he was trying to serve the King of Heaven. He was trying to show—in the integrity of his heart and in the integrity of his soul—what was true. Maybe the way to fix some of the problems that exist with your own children is for you to go and ask the Bishop to let you be a Primary teacher. And then you're not only teaching and ministering to your own children, but you’re teaching and you’re ministering to others as well. Hearts of people get hard the older they get (although, there is at least one exception, ‘cuz I ran into a guy at my office who was like 85 years old, and he’s still as young and as nimble and as open and as flexible as a child). That’s why we have to become childlike—because we have to be willing to consider these things. Well, in that Alma chapter 13 material, beginning at 14, it says: Yea, humble yourselves even as the people in the days of Melchizedek, who was also a high priest after this same order which I have spoken, who also took upon him the high priesthood forever. And it was this same Melchizedek to whom Abraham paid tithes; yea, even our father Abraham paid tithes of one–tenth part of all he possessed. Now these ordinances were given after this manner, that thereby the people might look forward on the Son of God, it being a type of his order, or it being his order, and this that they might look forward to him for the remission of their sins, that they might enter into the rest of the Lord. (Alma 13:14-16, emphasis added; see also Alma 10:1 RE) And what is these ordinances that are being talked about? That’s what we looked at in the Orem talk in chapter 13, and we’re not gonna repeat it here. That’s the material that includes: Everything that God does, He does by an ordinance. Everything that He does and every blessing He confers, He confers by a covenant. One of the good news about the absence of a binding covenant is that you can't damn yourself by taking upon yourself an obligation that you will never honor. One of the good things about the Restoration is that there are covenantal examples that are given that give you an idea of the kind of behavior that God would want. I wish everyone would go to the temple. I wish everyone would go to the temple and take on them covenants, learn what they are, and then try to live them. But if you fail (unlike the stuff that comes into play with this Melchizedek character), there is no severe penalty, because it’s for your good and for your practice and for your instruction. And if you honor that, there’s no reason why God and the angels cannot ratify whatever it is you do if you qualify for it. The Holy Spirit of Promise is embedded within the architecture of the Church's teachings. And it was as recent as—what? General Conference before last?—when President Eyring got up, and he talked about how they had the sealing power, and then he threw in that caveat that everything has to be sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise. I put that up on my blog; I quoted it, and I said, “That's good doctrine.” And that is good doctrine. Go to the temple, get your ordinances, and then work to have this Holy Spirit of Promise. Because the Keeper of that Gate is the Holy One of Israel, and there’s no employee there. It is the Holy One of Israel, and you qualify to receive that directly with heaven. There’s no other gatekeeper opening and closing doors—there is the Holy One of Israel; He employeth no servant there. In Isaiah chapter 9 there is a verse that is dealing squarely with this issue. This is chapter 9 verse 6 of Isaiah: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end." This is a prophecy about Christ coming to restore, in the meridian of time, the government of God in which He, Christ, represented the "Father" of all, as the Redeemer of all, as the bringer again of the holy covenant. He is prophesied to return with the description provided in the Book of Revelation, chapter 19 verse 16, as "the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords." In D&C section 76 He explains what His intention is with respect to mankind. He intends to make men: "[T]hey are they who are priests and kings, who have received of his fullness and glory, and are priests of the Most High after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the Only Begotten Son." (D&C 76:56.) That’s the intention that He has for all men; that men should become like Him: "kings and priests." Zion is a mortal responsibility. Men must cooperate with God for God to be able to bring it. It is not something that heaven is going to provide for us. When Enoch and his city were established, it was not until after it was established and people had gathered together that the Lord came and dwelt with them. They prepared the place, they extended the invitation, and the Lord came. Likewise, in the city that was established by Melchizedek, it wasn’t the angels who built his city. He preached repentance; men repented, and as a consequence of having repented Zion was taken up into heaven. Enoch’s Zion fled. Melchizedek’s Zion fled. The last days Zion will be built not to flee. It will be built as an established beachhead to which the Powers of Heaven will return in order for He whose right it is to govern the earth can assume the responsibility of governing the earth. He intends to overthrowing every other government there is and to establish as the King and as the Prince of Peace, and as the Father of Righteousness, His rule and His reign over the earth once again at His coming. Joseph Smith described the priesthood that will function in Zion preliminary to the Lord's return. This is a quote from one of his teachings: "That priesthood is a perfect law of theocracy and stands as God to give laws to the people." (That’s from The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith on page 322.) In that same talk there is a better elaboration made [by] one of the note-takers. You can find this in The Words of Joseph Smith, page 246. Joseph said: "It is understood by many by reading this chapter [referring to Hebrews chapter 7] that Melchizedek was a king of some country or nation on earth. But it was not so. In the original it reads ‘king of shalom,...