Ether 3

(June 20, 2014)

                So it is clear that I was mistaken yesterday when I thought that the stones might still have been glowing with heat (after all, the Brother of Jared carried them with his hands).  But even that, in a way, is interesting – the scriptures seem to often give us enough information to not be led astray by our own pet theories (if we pay careful attention to what we read).  I don’t know what the significance of that is, but it is a key point that took up space on the plates where space was limited, thus it was valuable to point out that the stones were carried in his hands.

                The other thought that I had in reading this chapter was how the Lord will, from time to time, hold back certain things for His own purposes.  This is consistent with the approach of certain of the Apostles (for which semi-Members and non-Members have been critical) of saying that certain things may be true but not helpful.  It is a funny state that we in the world find ourselves – there is an almost fetishistic love of ‘truth,’ when it comes to breaking down morality.  To hide truth that damages morality is considered a sin.  But despite their protestations on the preeminent role of truth, many of these same people scream foul whenever the truth of gender differences are raised, or whenever a study comes out showing that children do better raised in a mixed-sex, two-parent home (as opposed to a same-sex home or a single-parent home).  These truths, to them, are well worth suppressing all while they clamber to claim that the Apostles are anti-rationality and hiding for not sharing every negative truth about, say, Church history at the start of each General Conference talk.

                Of course, this only makes sense if the purpose is to tear down the Church and the claimed love of the truth is only the nearest convenient club with which to use.