Tag Archives: Baby

Ezekiel 17-18

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Ezekiel 17-18

Chapter 17: Parable of Israel

Ezekiel shows in a parable of Israel, how Israel will be subject to Babylon.  It goes like this…

An eagle (Babylon) on the top branches of a cedar tree, takes it off. It also takes the seed of the land and plants it in a fruitful field. The seed becomes a vine. The vine bent to another eagle (Egypt), and is promptly destroyed by the first eagle. Changing his tone, the Lord says he will take the highest branch of the cedar tree and set it in the mountain of the height of Israel (Zion), where it shall prosper. This will happen in the last days from a goodly tree in the cedars of Lebanon.

Chapter 18: Punished for our own sins

The word of the Lord came unto Ezekiel and tells him that Men shall be punished for their own sins, sinners shall die, and the righteous shall save their souls. Anyone who sins and does not repent will not be saved.

The Lord says; “…all souls are mine… the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4-5)

One important thing to get out of this chapter is that you are only responsible for YOUR OWN SINS! “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son…” (Ezekiel 18:20)

For this reason I don’t understand some religious beliefs that claim an “original sin” and for this purpose needing a baptism for this original sin to be “cleansed”. First of all we are not responsible for others sins, and therefore the idea of an “original sin” is blaspheme. In the LDS church we believe: “We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.” (Articles of Faith, 2) Therefore if we are not to be punished for other’s sin, then why does a baby who has done nothing wrong in the world… therefore is innocent, need a baptism? Baptism is for people who can sin, and can understand they have sinned and are mentally able to repent of those sins. In the Book of Mormon it speaks of the horrible practice of infant baptism.

“Listen to the words of Christ, your Redeemer, your Lord and your God. Behold, I came into the world not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance; the whole need no physician…  children are whole, for they are not capable of committing sin; wherefore the curse of Adam is taken from them in me… wherefore, my beloved son, I know that it is solemn mockery before God, that ye should baptize little children… this thing shall ye teach—repentance and baptism unto those who are accountable and capable of committing sin; yea, teach parents that they must repent and be baptized, and humble themselves as their little children, and they shall all be saved with their little children. And their little children need no repentance, neither baptism. Behold, baptism is unto repentance to the fulfilling the commandments unto the remission of sins. But little children are alive in Christ, even from the foundation of the world; if not so, God is a partial God, and also a changeable God, and a respecter to persons; for how many little children have died without baptism! (Moroni 8: 8-12, Book of Mormon)

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2 Kings 13-14

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2 Kings 13-14

Chapter 13: Jehoahaz Reigns in Wickedness

In the 23rd year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, his reign lasted 17 years. While Jehoahaz reigned in did so in wickedness. Because of this wickedness, the Lord was angry and caused that all of Israel fell into the hands of Hazael the king of Syria. Jehoahaz  hearkened unto the Lord and because of this the Lord caused a savior to arise among the Israelites and lead them out from underneath the Syrians. Because of their past wickedness Jehoahaz was left with a very small army of men.

Jehoahaz dies and is buried with his fathers. Elisha falls sick and is on his death bed. Joash comes to visit him and cries over him. Elisha tells him to grab a bow and some arrows and point to the window and tells Joash to shoot out the window, and he does. Elisha tells him that the arrow he shot symbolizes the deliverance of the Lord and that he would have victory over the Syrians. So Elisha tells him to shoot into the ground some more… so Joash shoots three times and then stops, but before Elisha dies he tells him that he should have shot 6 or more times, because that is how many times he would have victory over the Syrians.

One of the more bizarre things of the Bible happens in verse 21, where they lower another dead man into Elisha’s tomb and when the man touches the bones of Elisha he revives and stands up! The verse does not give any more details, and the reader is left to wonder why Elisha’s bones would make some re-live? Maybe it is to honor this great prophet?

Hazael, the king of Syria oppresses Israel… but the Lord was gracious unto them because of the covenant that He had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and would not destroy them. Hazael the king of Syria died and his son, Ben-hadad reigned in his place.

Chapter 14: Jeroboam Reigns in Wickedness

In the second year of the reign of Joash, reined Amaziah in Judah. Amaziah was only 25 years old when he began to reign and he reigned for a total of 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan.

Amaziah did what was right in the sight of the Lord. Once, however he came to power he slew the servants who had killed his father. But he did not kill the children of the murderers. The reason he did not do this, is because it was written in the “Book of the Law of Moses” that

“…The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin.” (2 Kings 14:6)

There are a few things that I can say about this…

First; “The book of the Law of Moses” could very well be referring to one of the five books of Moses that we know of today as the first 5 books of the Bible. However, more likely than not this verse is referring to a book that we do not know about currently TODAY. The Bible is not complete, because there were at least 10 times as many books that should have or could have been part of the Bible and 10 times is a LOW number. We know that the Bible is not complete, because the Bible refers often to books that DO NOT EXIST today. So we must accept that the Bible (while very important book, and I personally believe to be the WORD of God) is not a complete WORD of God, but not doubt words from God.

Second; it mentions that we are not responsible for the sin of our parents. So if we are to assume that Adam and Eve are our first parents (which all human life according to the Bible stems from) then why would we be held accountable for their sin? What exactly am I talking about? I am talking about the “Original Sin”. I know that there might be other religions that believe in this, but I know for a fact that the Catholic Church does believe this. Now, I am not going to tell anyone how to worship… we are all free and we all were given agency to do as we please. I believe that everyone has a right to worship God in any way that they see fit. However, I do not understand why a baby (whose life has just begun) could possibly be a sinner!  This is why babies are baptized. But in my personal opinion it is a great abomination before the Lord. We are not responsible for our parent’s sins… so why are we being held accountable for something that Adam and Eve did? We must be baptized when we gain faith in Jesus Christ and want to change our lives to follow him… which means we have to repent of our sins. How can a baby possibly repent? A baby cannot. Therefore should not be baptized. This is a doctrine that is unique to the LDS church (the Mormons) that a person should not be baptized until the age of accountability (which we know, through modern revelation is 8 years old.)

Amaziah with his new found power as king goes and kills ten thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt and took Sela and renamed is Joktheel. Amaziah with his cocky winning streak decided to send a letter to Jehoash the king of Israel and told him to battle against him. But Jehoash writes back and tells Amaziah to glory in his victory, but to stay home and not come up to battle against him, because he would essentially destroy him. But Amaziah does not listen and goes to battle anyways… and just like Jehoash said, Judah was defeated and the men ran back to their tents. As a result of their defeat the king of Israel takes Amaziah as prisoner and also takes all his gold and silver along with the gold and silver of the treasuries of God. He had lost not only personal belongings, but that which also belonged to the children of the Lord.

Jehoash dies and his sons Jeroboam reigns in his place. Amaziah lived for 15 more years after the death of Jehoash before he too passed away. The people arise and form a conspiracy against Jehoash and end up killing him and burying him in the City of David and put Azariah the son of Amaziah in charge.

Jeroboam the second, the son of Joash became king in Samaria and reigned for 41 years. But did so wickedly. Jeroboam recaptured many parts of Israel. He died and his son Zechariah reigned in his place.

 

Exodus 1-3

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Exodus 1-3

Chapter 1: Pharaoh Seeks to Destroy all Males

The children of Jacob/Israel dwell in the land of Egypt; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher and Joseph. All of the souls that came from Jacob were seventy that were in Egypt.

But the children of Israel multiply and become a mighty people. The king of Egypt (after Pharaoh) did not know Joseph and therefore feared the children of Israel. The King of Egypt called for “taskmasters” to inflict on them burdens that they might become a weak people. With this “slave” labor the King of Egypt builds two treasure cities; Pithom and Raamses. As the king of Egypt inflicted more and more on the children of Egypt, the mightier they became!

The king of Egypt calls the midwives to come and tells them to kill all males that are born unto the Hebrews and only let live the females. The midwives (fearing God) refuse to do it and anger the king of Egypt. The king then calls them for a second time and demands that all male babies that are born to be thrown into the river, saving only the female babies.

Chapter 2: The Birth of Moses

There was a man who came from Levi, who married one of the daughters of Levi. They get married and have a child; a son. Because of the new laws in the land of Egypt she fears that her baby boy will be murdered, so she hides him for 3 months. But after time, she realizes that she cannot continue to hide this baby boy for long. So she takes him to the river and puts him in an “ark”, basically a little basket made of bulrushes that would float down the river.

The baby boy is found a little while later by the daughter of Pharaoh, who looks upon the boy with compassion and sends him away to be nursed by another Hebrew woman. When the boy is older, he is given to Pharaoh’s daughter to be her son. Pharaoh’s daughter calls her new son; Moses.

Moses grows up and sees the mistreatment of his brothers, the Hebrews. One day he witnesses an Egyptian “smiting” or hitting a Hebrew and decides this is unacceptable. So when he thinks no one is looking, he kills the Egyptian and hides “buries” him in the sand.

The next day he goes out and one of the Hebrews asks him why he thinks he could be a prince and judge over them, and asks Moses if he is going to kill him as well. Moses at this point gets very nervous because he thought no one had seen him killing the Egyptian. So Moses flees to the land of Midian. This was a smart move on the part of Moses because after Pharaoh hears about what Moses did, he seeks to slay Moses.

Moses, while dwelling at a well in the land of Midian meets the seven daughters of the priest of Midian. The priest invites Moses into his house and gives Zipporah, one of his daughters to marry Moses. Zipporah bares a child to Moses and names the child Gershom.

During this time the king of Egypt dies and the childen of Israel rejoice, because they were no longer in bondage. The Lord remembers his promise that he had made unto Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and has respect unto the children of Israel, the Hebrews.

Chapter 3: The Lord Appears unto Moses

Moses was watching over the flock of Jethro (who was his father-in-law). He led the flock to the backside of the desert and came unto the mountain of God, “Horeb”.

There, an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, that came from a bush. When Moses saw this, he stopped to see why the bush was not on fire. When he did this, God called out to him and tells him that he needs to go down to Egypt and bring his people out of bondage.

Moses agrees, but asks God what he should say when the Hebrews ask who sent him. God responds and tells Moses to tell them, that “I AM” sent him.

Who is “I AM”? Some people say that this is God or “Heavenly Father”, but in the Spanish scriptures (La Reina Valera) where it says “…The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…” (Genesis 3:15) – the Spanish version says “Jehovah” instead of “The Lord God”.

So who is Jehovah? – Well if we read WAY AHEAD in the Bible in the New Testament- John 8:58; “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” . So we learn that Jehovah is Jesus Christ.

God commands Moses to travel to Egypt and speak with the Elders of Israel. He tells Moses that they will go with him to Pharaoh and command that he let the people go. But God tells him that surely Pharaoh will not let them go so he will have to stretch forth his hand and make it happen.