Interest rates in the United States are low, far lower than they would normally be. The Federal Reserve has been pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy to keep them low. Is that a good thing? For the federal government it might be—in the short run—but for savers it is bad. One percent back on your savings is pretty low. The persistent, artificially low interest rate policy of the Federal Reserve Board has become a major transfer of wealth from private savers to the federal government. Low interest paid by the Treasury means low interest earned by savers. Measured against inflation, you may be letting the federal government use your money for less than nothing.
Perhaps even worse, the low interest rate policy of the Federal Reserve is supporting the colossal spending binge of the federal government. The federal government can spend trillions of dollars it does not have, because the cost of government borrowing is so cheap.
It is not naturally cheap. Normal markets would not support the continued massive deficits from Washington. When the government spends more than it takes in it has to borrow from you and me, or more particularly from our pension plans and insurance programs, as well as from banks (and foreigners, a subject for another day). Savers and banks do not, however, have an unlimited appetite for lending to the government, especially at the low rates that the government offers. In past decades, persistent federal deficits would result in rising interest rates, as investors would demand a higher return to keep them willing to buy more government bonds.
Some months ago, when the ballooning federal deficit showed no signs of easing, the Federal Reserve stepped in and started buying up hundreds of billions of dollars of government debt just as investors were backing away. Interest rates on government borrowing would have gone up, but the Federal Reserve bought up the oversupply of debt and pushed interest rates down. Interest rates on government borrowing today remain at historically low levels, six-month Treasury securities going for about one-tenth of one percent. That is way below the rising rate of inflation, which lately is at about 2.5% and going north. That means that many investors in government debt are actually losing money, the return on their government debt falling behind the rate of inflation, the government paying back the money it borrowed with dollars that buy less than the ones that they took in. Federal Reserve policies are helping this go on.
Speaking of inflation, the Federal Reserve announced this past week that it is O.K. with inflation of 2.5%, that in fact the Federal Reserve sees inflation trending toward 3% for the coming years. Some of us who remember back to the Jimmy Carter days when inflation approached closer to 20% than 10% might be tempted to think that 3% inflation sounds pretty good. Keep in mind, though, what inflation means.
Remember what money is. Money is an exchange of promises. I promise that I will give you, say, $100 worth of value, whether my goods, my time, or my services, in exchange for which you give me a certificate—money—that can be exchanged for $100 worth of goods, time, or services with someone else. Money lets me take that promise and put it in my pocket and carry it around to where I think that it will be of most use to me. Money is enormously efficient. I do not work for the grocery store. I work at my job and get paid and then take my money to the grocery store and exchange it for groceries. The store exchanges that money, in turn, for more goods, as well as to pay the salaries of the people who work there. They in turn take that money and use it for what they want.
Inflation makes all of that dishonest. I get paid the $100. If I wait a year to spend it, and there is a 3% inflation rate, that $100 dollars will then only by me what about $97 would have bought when I got paid. Of course, that is an even bigger deal if the inflation rate is 10%, my $100 only being worth some $90 of goods and services in my example. But even 3% can be a very big deal, a far bigger deal than the Federal Reserve seemed to acknowledge this past week.
Consider retirement. Not enough people do, but you should. Perhaps you are an average couple saving and investing and hoping to have a retirement income of say $80,000 per year. You have figured that you can live on that. With an inflation rate of 3%, you had better think again. Your $80,000 retirement income will only be able to buy what $40,000 or less buys today. Setting aside adequate money to save and invest for retirement is hard enough. Inflation makes it all much harder.
Massive government deficits are already driving the Federal Reserve to cheapen the return on your investments (in order to keep the federal deficit from snuffing out the weak recovery). The inflationary pressures that they are building up inside the federal volcano will undermine your retirement even further. The longer we wait to solve the deficit problem, and the interest rate and inflation dangers it spawns, the worse it all gets. Government may not be able to create wealth, but it can surely take it away.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Of the Authority of God and the Witness of Christ’s Resurrection
In May 1829, Jesus Christ sent John the Baptist—slain by command of Herod but resurrected by the will and power of Christ—to bestow on a new prophet, Joseph Smith, the same authority to baptize in the name of God that John the Baptist held during his own mortal ministry. Shortly afterward Christ similarly sent Peter, James, and John to confer on Joseph Smith the same authority from God that had been bestowed upon them under the Savior’s hands. When the Apostles of Christ were gone, their authority also was lost. In 1829 they returned that authority to the earth.
Every week, in congregations all around the world, that authority is exercised to channel the blessings of God to the modern day disciples of Jesus Christ. One of these priesthood blessings is the privilege of renewing promises made at baptism by remembering the suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Acting under the direction and authority of Christ His authorized servants bless and administer the emblems of the body of Christ—broken and then resurrected—and of the blood of Christ shed for the sins of many. All who receive these emblems with sincerity of heart in remembrance of Jesus Christ receive forgiveness of sins and direct spiritual communion with God, and they exercise the same spiritual gifts that the faithful followers of Christ exercised in ancient days.
The thousands of men who administer those emblems to thousands of congregations did not take it upon themselves to act in the holy place of Jesus Christ, made sacred when He offered the bread and cup to His Apostles the night before His death. They had hands placed upon their heads and received authority from others, who in their turn had hands placed upon their heads by those who in turn in the same way received the authority of God, all the way back to those who received that authority under the hands of the Savior Himself. For us in these latter days, one pair of those hands belonged to Joseph Smith, who received the authority of Christ from the hands of those upon whose heads hands were placed shortly before they were nailed to the cross on Calvary.
Just as anciently, eye witnesses today are proclaiming once again to the world the living Christ who was slain and who was resurrected and lives to guide and bless all who will be guided by Him. These are not learned men preaching from their study of the scriptures—though they have made in depth study of the scriptures a daily practice of a lifetime. These are men who know the Christ, who speak from personal knowledge and association with the Savior, Jesus Christ, and who proclaim what they know as well as what they believe.
I will give two examples of many. Keep in mind that these examples are not theories or learned dissertations by the doctors of religion. These are direct, personal, and tangible revelations of God, the way that God has throughout the ages revealed Himself.
The first is from The Book of Mormon, a record written in an ancient era but revealed anew in modern times. Some time after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His ascension into heaven, a large group of ancient Americans were gathered near their Temple in a place that in their language they called Bountiful.
I have not seen Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith did, and he proclaimed the living Christ to the world. I have heard and received the testimony of Joseph Smith. By the gift of the Holy Ghost, bestowed upon me by the priesthood authority of Christ, I know that his testimony is true, by the same way that people anciently knew that the testimony of Paul, or Peter, or John was true. I too know, for myself, that Jesus Christ lives, that He suffered for me in my place, as He did for all who will receive Him. I know that Jesus Christ was resurrected.
Because of the resurrection of Christ, I will be resurrected, too, and so will you.
Every week, in congregations all around the world, that authority is exercised to channel the blessings of God to the modern day disciples of Jesus Christ. One of these priesthood blessings is the privilege of renewing promises made at baptism by remembering the suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Acting under the direction and authority of Christ His authorized servants bless and administer the emblems of the body of Christ—broken and then resurrected—and of the blood of Christ shed for the sins of many. All who receive these emblems with sincerity of heart in remembrance of Jesus Christ receive forgiveness of sins and direct spiritual communion with God, and they exercise the same spiritual gifts that the faithful followers of Christ exercised in ancient days.
The thousands of men who administer those emblems to thousands of congregations did not take it upon themselves to act in the holy place of Jesus Christ, made sacred when He offered the bread and cup to His Apostles the night before His death. They had hands placed upon their heads and received authority from others, who in their turn had hands placed upon their heads by those who in turn in the same way received the authority of God, all the way back to those who received that authority under the hands of the Savior Himself. For us in these latter days, one pair of those hands belonged to Joseph Smith, who received the authority of Christ from the hands of those upon whose heads hands were placed shortly before they were nailed to the cross on Calvary.
Just as anciently, eye witnesses today are proclaiming once again to the world the living Christ who was slain and who was resurrected and lives to guide and bless all who will be guided by Him. These are not learned men preaching from their study of the scriptures—though they have made in depth study of the scriptures a daily practice of a lifetime. These are men who know the Christ, who speak from personal knowledge and association with the Savior, Jesus Christ, and who proclaim what they know as well as what they believe.
I will give two examples of many. Keep in mind that these examples are not theories or learned dissertations by the doctors of religion. These are direct, personal, and tangible revelations of God, the way that God has throughout the ages revealed Himself.
The first is from The Book of Mormon, a record written in an ancient era but revealed anew in modern times. Some time after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His ascension into heaven, a large group of ancient Americans were gathered near their Temple in a place that in their language they called Bountiful.
. . . and behold, they saw a Man descending out of heaven; . . . and he came down and stood in the midst of them. . . .The second example of many was a modern event, in fulfillment of ancient prophecy. Near the very end of the Old Testament, this prophecy is recorded, from the Prophet Malachi:
And . . . he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying:
Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.
. . . I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world . . . .
Arise and come forth unto me, that you may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.
And . . . the multitude went forth, and thrust their hands into his side, and did feel the prints of the nails . . .; going forth one by one . . . , and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety . . . , that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come.
. . . And they were in number about two thousand and five hundred souls; and they did consist of men, women, and children. (3 Nephi 11:8-11, 14, 15; 17:25)
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple. . . (Malachi 3:1)Who would build this latter-day Temple, and when would the Savior come to it? In their deepest poverty the modern-day followers of Christ, who had received baptism by those authorized by Christ Himself, were commanded by the Lord through the Prophet Joseph Smith to build a Temple in Kirtland, Ohio. One week after the Kirtland Temple was dedicated, Joseph Smith and his colleague, Oliver Cowdery, were praying in the Temple, on April 3, 1836. This is the second example I offer you of the Savior, Jesus Christ, revealing Himself to us in these latter days that we might know Him. This is from the personal testimony of Joseph and Oliver:
The veil was taken from our minds, and the eyes of our understanding were opened.I have been to the Garden Tomb, in Jerusalem. I have looked in. It is empty. Jesus is not there. He is risen, as He said.
We saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; . . .
His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shown above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying:
I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father. (Doctrine & Covenants 110:1-4)
I have not seen Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith did, and he proclaimed the living Christ to the world. I have heard and received the testimony of Joseph Smith. By the gift of the Holy Ghost, bestowed upon me by the priesthood authority of Christ, I know that his testimony is true, by the same way that people anciently knew that the testimony of Paul, or Peter, or John was true. I too know, for myself, that Jesus Christ lives, that He suffered for me in my place, as He did for all who will receive Him. I know that Jesus Christ was resurrected.
Because of the resurrection of Christ, I will be resurrected, too, and so will you.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Of the Passover and the Knowledge of God
On the night before He was crucified, Jesus gathered His Apostles together to celebrate the Passover, that most sacred of Hebrew festivals, rich in symbolism of Christ and His atonement. The firstborn of every family would die, except for the sacrifice of a lamb, whose blood brought life and safety to Israel.
What were Jesus’ thoughts as He celebrated that Passover with those He loved best, on the very doorstep of when He was to fulfill the Passover ordinance and the prophecy embedded in its symbolism. What were Jesus’ thoughts when He Himself was about to be the Passover Lamb?
Many sacred things happened at that Passover. The Savior introduced the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, the broken bread symbolic of His body, soon to be broken and soon thereafter to be resurrected; the wine symbolic of his blood, in a few hours to be shed at Gethsemane and the next day under the whip and on the cross.
Jesus washed the feet of the Apostles, teaching them that priesthood is entirely about loving service to one another.
And Jesus prayed. What would it mean to you to hear the Savior pray to the Father for you?
Some of the words of that prayer are preserved in John 17, one of the most sacred chapters of all the scriptures. This is how it begins:
And then bearing His solemn witness to the Father and to the Apostles around Him, the Savior declared in His holy prayer, announcing Himself, again, to be the Christ, the Messiah—
In 1820, the hour had come. In answer to one prayer, added to millions of prayers offered by other seekers over thousands of years, our Heavenly Father appeared to the young Joseph Smith, spoke his name and revealed to him Jesus Christ, His Son. To Joseph Smith the Father said, “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (JS-H 1:17) With those words, the first drops fell ending the spiritual drought of 1700 years.
What did the Savior say to Joseph? Jesus quoted scripture, a prophecy that He had given to the Prophet Isaiah:
What were Jesus’ thoughts as He celebrated that Passover with those He loved best, on the very doorstep of when He was to fulfill the Passover ordinance and the prophecy embedded in its symbolism. What were Jesus’ thoughts when He Himself was about to be the Passover Lamb?
Many sacred things happened at that Passover. The Savior introduced the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, the broken bread symbolic of His body, soon to be broken and soon thereafter to be resurrected; the wine symbolic of his blood, in a few hours to be shed at Gethsemane and the next day under the whip and on the cross.
Jesus washed the feet of the Apostles, teaching them that priesthood is entirely about loving service to one another.
And Jesus prayed. What would it mean to you to hear the Savior pray to the Father for you?
Some of the words of that prayer are preserved in John 17, one of the most sacred chapters of all the scriptures. This is how it begins:
These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come;Indeed it had, the hour pointed to by all eternity, the very meridian of time.
glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:It is curious to me that there are still some, who must not have read this and other passages of scripture, who say that Jesus Christ never claimed that He was the Son of God, the Messiah. Here is Jesus very plainly declaring His Sonship in prayer to the Father in the presence of His disciples.
And then bearing His solemn witness to the Father and to the Apostles around Him, the Savior declared in His holy prayer, announcing Himself, again, to be the Christ, the Messiah—
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:1, 3)Before 1820, where was that knowledge of Jesus Christ to be found? How were people to know the Savior, the knowing by which they could obtain eternal life? The Prophet Amos foretold—
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. (Amos 8:11, 12)For centuries the famine had prevailed. What the churches of the day taught about Jesus Christ was all confusion and contradiction.
- Some said He was the Son of a God who had no body, parts or passions;
- or that He was the physical manifestation of a God who could never be seen;
- or that He was a Savior who only saved some and damned others, all regardless of what they did or believed;
- or that He saved everyone who believed no matter what they did;
- or that He saved some because of what they did no matter what they believed;
- or that He had done His work, gone to Heaven, and left men afterward to fend for themselves.
In 1820, the hour had come. In answer to one prayer, added to millions of prayers offered by other seekers over thousands of years, our Heavenly Father appeared to the young Joseph Smith, spoke his name and revealed to him Jesus Christ, His Son. To Joseph Smith the Father said, “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (JS-H 1:17) With those words, the first drops fell ending the spiritual drought of 1700 years.
What did the Savior say to Joseph? Jesus quoted scripture, a prophecy that He had given to the Prophet Isaiah:
they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men (JS-H 1:19).We call that the First Vision, because many others followed, in which Jesus Christ revealed Himself to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and then to others, and by which others who knew Jesus in their mortal lives passed on to Joseph what the Savior had given to them. Joseph Smith passed on that knowledge and power to us, to all who will today receive Jesus Christ, and come to know Him and the Father, and obtain eternal life, in the way that those did, who observed the Passover with Jesus, in the way that many others have throughout history. The Savior’s Church was on the earth once again to bring hearts near to the Savior through the power of the doctrines of God.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Of Blood Sacrifice and the Sacrifice of the Savior
For some 4,000 years the ritual sacrifice of a first-born, unblemished lamb played an essential part in the worship of the God of Heaven. This was an ordinance that dates from Adam, was practiced by Abraham, and was given renewed emphasis through the prophet Moses to the children of Israel, only recently released from slavery and oppression.
Also since the days of Adam, blood sacrifice as prescribed by revelation has been copied and horribly distorted by followers of many other religions not authorized by God. The disciples of these other religions, and also many less understanding subscribers to the religion of Jehovah, have acted as if they believed that the blood sacrifice itself did something, accomplished something, in some way mattered.
In truth, in the whole history of the earth there has been and will be only one blood sacrifice that matters at all, from an eternal perspective. That was the blood sacrifice of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the sacrificial Lamb of the Father. His sacrifice was the only one that in and of itself possessed any virtue, for that sacrifice made possible the forgiveness of the sins of men and women throughout time. All other sacrifices conducted under divine authority derived all of their virtue from that one sacrifice of the Savior.
That was why the Lord was so strict about how those sacrifices were to be conducted, so that each one referred directly to the Savior’s sacrifice. All sacrifices not conducted in the manner prescribed by revelation from God and under His authority were solemn hoaxes, pointing away from the Savior, diverting attention away from the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and were diabolical at their root.
Consider the sacrifice offered by Cain. Rather than offer the blood sacrifice prescribed by God by revelation, tied to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that would heal sins from Adam down to the last child born on earth, Cain offered a sacrifice of fruit. Cain acted as if there were some virtue in the sacrifice itself, rather than recognizing that a sacrifice could only derive virtue from the only sacrifice that could generate virtue, the sinless sacrifice of Christ. The Lord rejected the sacrifice and reminded Cain that he could not please the Lord without obeying the Lord (Genesis 4:3-7). Obedience to God was not part of the plan of Cain, who thereafter descended from his mocking sacrifice to the bloody murder of his own brother.
The sacrifice prescribed by revelation from God was rich in symbolism, the death of the unspotted firstborn lamb directly representative of the death of the firstborn and sinless Son of God. The actual death of the sacrifice was a powerful, real, tangible reminder for the disciples of Jehovah of the reality, the literalness, of the sacrificial death of the Messiah. The ordinance was intended to be impressive to the minds of the worshipers—the physical death not only representing the physical death to come of the Messiah but also driving home the point that matters of spiritual life and death were at stake.
These blood sacrifices were only temporary, however. For the people who lived before the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, they were intended to bring more reality to the promise of an event that had not yet happened. After His sacrifice and resurrection the Savior proclaimed an end to the ordinances.
Do we living after the resurrection of Jesus Christ have no need to be reminded of His atonement? Of course we do. In place of the blood sacrifice of old, the resurrected Savior called for a new sacrifice:
But the Lord still draws upon physical ordinances to remind us of spiritual realities. The night before the crucifixion Jesus instituted the ordinance of partaking of ceremonial bread and wine to remind us of the union of His sacrifice and ours. The bread points to the body of Christ, that He gave up in death and reclaimed in resurrection. The wine points to the blood that He shed in Gethsemane and on the cross.
The promise is pronounced in the words of the prayer that the Savior prescribed to be offered. As His disciples partake of tangible symbols of even more powerful spiritual intangibles, they do so in witness “that they do always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them.” (Moroni 5:2) The saints of ancient days and modern times are united by powerful and appropriate ordinances in their focus on the central event of history, the sacrifice and atonement of Jesus Christ.
Also since the days of Adam, blood sacrifice as prescribed by revelation has been copied and horribly distorted by followers of many other religions not authorized by God. The disciples of these other religions, and also many less understanding subscribers to the religion of Jehovah, have acted as if they believed that the blood sacrifice itself did something, accomplished something, in some way mattered.
In truth, in the whole history of the earth there has been and will be only one blood sacrifice that matters at all, from an eternal perspective. That was the blood sacrifice of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the sacrificial Lamb of the Father. His sacrifice was the only one that in and of itself possessed any virtue, for that sacrifice made possible the forgiveness of the sins of men and women throughout time. All other sacrifices conducted under divine authority derived all of their virtue from that one sacrifice of the Savior.
That was why the Lord was so strict about how those sacrifices were to be conducted, so that each one referred directly to the Savior’s sacrifice. All sacrifices not conducted in the manner prescribed by revelation from God and under His authority were solemn hoaxes, pointing away from the Savior, diverting attention away from the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and were diabolical at their root.
Consider the sacrifice offered by Cain. Rather than offer the blood sacrifice prescribed by God by revelation, tied to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that would heal sins from Adam down to the last child born on earth, Cain offered a sacrifice of fruit. Cain acted as if there were some virtue in the sacrifice itself, rather than recognizing that a sacrifice could only derive virtue from the only sacrifice that could generate virtue, the sinless sacrifice of Christ. The Lord rejected the sacrifice and reminded Cain that he could not please the Lord without obeying the Lord (Genesis 4:3-7). Obedience to God was not part of the plan of Cain, who thereafter descended from his mocking sacrifice to the bloody murder of his own brother.
The sacrifice prescribed by revelation from God was rich in symbolism, the death of the unspotted firstborn lamb directly representative of the death of the firstborn and sinless Son of God. The actual death of the sacrifice was a powerful, real, tangible reminder for the disciples of Jehovah of the reality, the literalness, of the sacrificial death of the Messiah. The ordinance was intended to be impressive to the minds of the worshipers—the physical death not only representing the physical death to come of the Messiah but also driving home the point that matters of spiritual life and death were at stake.
These blood sacrifices were only temporary, however. For the people who lived before the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, they were intended to bring more reality to the promise of an event that had not yet happened. After His sacrifice and resurrection the Savior proclaimed an end to the ordinances.
And ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood; yea, your sacrifices and your burnt offerings shall be done away, for I will accept none of your sacrifices and your burnt offerings. (3 Nephi 9:19)Modeled after the image of the Savior’s sacrifice, they were fulfilled when His atonement was accomplished. To continue the blood sacrifices after that would suggest that the Savior’s sacrifice was not sufficient, that somehow the Savior’s suffering for our sins was incomplete, that the sacrifice of an animal in and of itself could provide forgiveness. Remember, there never was any virtue in the sacrifices other than as they pointed to the future sacrifice of the Christ. Continuing the ordinances after Christ’s death and resurrection would actually be a denial of faith in Christ and His atonement rather than the expression of faith in Him that they were prior to His redemption.
Do we living after the resurrection of Jesus Christ have no need to be reminded of His atonement? Of course we do. In place of the blood sacrifice of old, the resurrected Savior called for a new sacrifice:
And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost . . . (3 Nephi 9:20)This sacrifice is also connected to the Savior’s sacrifice, for that is how we receive the forgiveness of sins that His redemption made possible. That is how we are brought within the circle of the atonement whereby Christ’s suffering takes the place of our suffering. Our sacrifice is to receive Him and qualify for His sacrifice in our place.
But the Lord still draws upon physical ordinances to remind us of spiritual realities. The night before the crucifixion Jesus instituted the ordinance of partaking of ceremonial bread and wine to remind us of the union of His sacrifice and ours. The bread points to the body of Christ, that He gave up in death and reclaimed in resurrection. The wine points to the blood that He shed in Gethsemane and on the cross.
The promise is pronounced in the words of the prayer that the Savior prescribed to be offered. As His disciples partake of tangible symbols of even more powerful spiritual intangibles, they do so in witness “that they do always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them.” (Moroni 5:2) The saints of ancient days and modern times are united by powerful and appropriate ordinances in their focus on the central event of history, the sacrifice and atonement of Jesus Christ.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Of Controlling Events and the Wrath of the Crowd
When Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on the Sunday before He was crucified, few in the crowd really knew who He was or what He was doing. Even his closest disciples little understood what was happening and unfolding. All knew it was momentous, but all but the Savior Himself misunderstood why.
To the cheering crowd Jesus was an unstoppable miracle worker come to change their political—and surely many even believed their religious—world. The Savior understood how fleeting this popular acclaim would be. His understanding was akin to that voiced by Oliver Cromwell some 1500 years later, when similarly the focus of the hurrahs of the streets Cromwell said, “Do not trust to the cheering, for those persons would shout as much if you and I were going to be hanged.” Jesus knew that the crowd would be shouting again on Friday.
None of this was accidental. It was all prophesied hundreds and even thousands of years before, and Jesus was in control of all of the events and the fulfillment of all of the prophecies. For an omniscient and omnipotent God, nothing happens by chance.
Jesus had long been warned not to go to Jerusalem, that the local leaders would seek His life. In apparent avoidance of the reach of the authorities in Jerusalem, Jesus had largely confined His ministry to Galilee, beyond their jurisdiction. In a surprise move one time before (and in demonstration that He was always in control of events), the Savior had quietly gone to Jerusalem for the Passover, but once there He made His presence public. On that occasion the authorities were too awed by Jesus’ popularity to move against Him. He came and left His city without harm.
For this final visit of mortality, the Savior made His approach well known. His fame, especially of His miracles, had been building. It was brought to a crescendo shortly before and only a short walk away from Jerusalem when the Savior, before a large crowd, called forth Lazarus from the dead. That Lazarus had been dead, just as Jacob Marley, “dead as a doornail,” there was no doubt; he had been in the tomb four days. That Lazarus was alive again was apparent to all. What kind of a Man was this?
As Jesus entered Jerusalem, in clear token of the Messiah, “the Son of David,” the people filled the streets. But their cheering had little to do with yielding their hearts to God and doing the works of righteousness. It was the expectation of having a Messiah who would do their will, One who could and would feed the thousands, heal the sick, and even raise their dead, and maybe restore the greatness of the kingdom of David. Christ would do all of these things, but only on His terms, and those terms the people were not ready to accept. When that became clear, they would call upon the hated Roman rulers to crucify the last real King of the Jews.
Jesus knew and expected this reaction. With the power of God to make all things work for good, through that unfair sacrifice Christ made His “soul an offering for sin, . . . bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:11, 12), as He and the Father had planned from before the creation of the world. On the third day, Jesus the Messiah Himself rose from the tomb. The Christ had gained the victory over all, including death and hell, and extended that victory freely to all—before and since His sacrifice—who will receive it and Him, on the terms of Him who paid the whole price alone.
To the cheering crowd Jesus was an unstoppable miracle worker come to change their political—and surely many even believed their religious—world. The Savior understood how fleeting this popular acclaim would be. His understanding was akin to that voiced by Oliver Cromwell some 1500 years later, when similarly the focus of the hurrahs of the streets Cromwell said, “Do not trust to the cheering, for those persons would shout as much if you and I were going to be hanged.” Jesus knew that the crowd would be shouting again on Friday.
None of this was accidental. It was all prophesied hundreds and even thousands of years before, and Jesus was in control of all of the events and the fulfillment of all of the prophecies. For an omniscient and omnipotent God, nothing happens by chance.
Jesus had long been warned not to go to Jerusalem, that the local leaders would seek His life. In apparent avoidance of the reach of the authorities in Jerusalem, Jesus had largely confined His ministry to Galilee, beyond their jurisdiction. In a surprise move one time before (and in demonstration that He was always in control of events), the Savior had quietly gone to Jerusalem for the Passover, but once there He made His presence public. On that occasion the authorities were too awed by Jesus’ popularity to move against Him. He came and left His city without harm.
For this final visit of mortality, the Savior made His approach well known. His fame, especially of His miracles, had been building. It was brought to a crescendo shortly before and only a short walk away from Jerusalem when the Savior, before a large crowd, called forth Lazarus from the dead. That Lazarus had been dead, just as Jacob Marley, “dead as a doornail,” there was no doubt; he had been in the tomb four days. That Lazarus was alive again was apparent to all. What kind of a Man was this?
As Jesus entered Jerusalem, in clear token of the Messiah, “the Son of David,” the people filled the streets. But their cheering had little to do with yielding their hearts to God and doing the works of righteousness. It was the expectation of having a Messiah who would do their will, One who could and would feed the thousands, heal the sick, and even raise their dead, and maybe restore the greatness of the kingdom of David. Christ would do all of these things, but only on His terms, and those terms the people were not ready to accept. When that became clear, they would call upon the hated Roman rulers to crucify the last real King of the Jews.
Jesus knew and expected this reaction. With the power of God to make all things work for good, through that unfair sacrifice Christ made His “soul an offering for sin, . . . bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:11, 12), as He and the Father had planned from before the creation of the world. On the third day, Jesus the Messiah Himself rose from the tomb. The Christ had gained the victory over all, including death and hell, and extended that victory freely to all—before and since His sacrifice—who will receive it and Him, on the terms of Him who paid the whole price alone.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Of the Mortal Ministry of Christ and the Return of the King
No two events in the history of mankind have been the subject of more divine prophecy than the earthly ministry and atonement of the Savior, Jesus Christ, and the return of Jesus Christ and His subsequent millennial reign. Both were so frequently major themes of so many of the Old Testament prophets that their messages were confused and confounded in the teachings of the scholars at Jerusalem in the time of the Savior’s mortal ministry.
For that reason—or at least in part for that reason—most of these scholars and many of the people in Judea and Galilee were blind to the Savior and the fulfillment of prophecy before their very eyes. That did not make the fulfillment any less real, it just meant that those people found themselves to the side or even hostile to its fulfillment.
All of us can be blind to the unfolding of great occurrences that happen in our own time and location, appreciating their significance, if at all, only from the distance and perspective of time. Then, our longing to have been a part cannot make up for the lost opportunity, often caused by our lack of sensitivity or distraction by things that mattered much less.
Some of these lost opportunities are painful to have missed, like the comet not seen, the speech by the great leader not heard, the perfect performance not witnessed. Others are more than painful, they are life changing: the love lost, the job that went to another, the child not born. These last may not meet mankind’s list of great moments, but they would rank high on a list of personal great events, events that poignantly matter.
The events involved with the ministry of Jesus Christ are a combination of both. They affect all of mankind as much as they powerfully change individual lives. The greatest episode of history—the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ—is also the most important for each of us personally. Surely for that reason, among others, the mortal ministry of the Christ and His return again to the earth have been foretold by prophets from the beginning of time. It was important to God and to us that we not miss them.
Consider first the many prophecies about the birth of the Savior, so that His advent to the earth should not be doubted beforehand and the fulfillment of those prophecies would help build faith in Him during His brief mortal ministry. As surely and completely as the prophecies of the birth were fulfilled so would be the prophecies of the Savior’s sacrifice and resurrection.
Next consider—just one rich example among many—the words of Isaiah found in Isaiah chapter 53. Here the prophet foretold, seven centuries before the happening, that the Messiah would be despised and rejected, acquainted with grief, that He would bear our griefs and sorrows—wounded and whipped for our transgressions, providing healing to us—that he would be led as a lamb to the slaughter, that He would speak not a word in reply to the mocking of the tormentors, that He would be judged and condemned without proper trial, executed among the wicked and buried in the tomb of the wealthy, that He would bear the iniquities and provide forgiveness to many.
As richly detailed as are Isaiah’s prophecies of the mortal and atoning ministry of Jesus Christ, they are matched by his predictions of the latter days and second coming of the Savior. Just as sure as the first happened—as completely as foretold—we can be confident that all prophesied about the second coming will evolve as foretold. If we heed the words of the prophets of God and prepare we will not miss them. Rather, we will rejoice in the richness of the unfolding and be waiting and glad when Christ returns, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Jesus as Savior and King.
For that reason—or at least in part for that reason—most of these scholars and many of the people in Judea and Galilee were blind to the Savior and the fulfillment of prophecy before their very eyes. That did not make the fulfillment any less real, it just meant that those people found themselves to the side or even hostile to its fulfillment.
All of us can be blind to the unfolding of great occurrences that happen in our own time and location, appreciating their significance, if at all, only from the distance and perspective of time. Then, our longing to have been a part cannot make up for the lost opportunity, often caused by our lack of sensitivity or distraction by things that mattered much less.
Some of these lost opportunities are painful to have missed, like the comet not seen, the speech by the great leader not heard, the perfect performance not witnessed. Others are more than painful, they are life changing: the love lost, the job that went to another, the child not born. These last may not meet mankind’s list of great moments, but they would rank high on a list of personal great events, events that poignantly matter.
The events involved with the ministry of Jesus Christ are a combination of both. They affect all of mankind as much as they powerfully change individual lives. The greatest episode of history—the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ—is also the most important for each of us personally. Surely for that reason, among others, the mortal ministry of the Christ and His return again to the earth have been foretold by prophets from the beginning of time. It was important to God and to us that we not miss them.
Consider first the many prophecies about the birth of the Savior, so that His advent to the earth should not be doubted beforehand and the fulfillment of those prophecies would help build faith in Him during His brief mortal ministry. As surely and completely as the prophecies of the birth were fulfilled so would be the prophecies of the Savior’s sacrifice and resurrection.
Next consider—just one rich example among many—the words of Isaiah found in Isaiah chapter 53. Here the prophet foretold, seven centuries before the happening, that the Messiah would be despised and rejected, acquainted with grief, that He would bear our griefs and sorrows—wounded and whipped for our transgressions, providing healing to us—that he would be led as a lamb to the slaughter, that He would speak not a word in reply to the mocking of the tormentors, that He would be judged and condemned without proper trial, executed among the wicked and buried in the tomb of the wealthy, that He would bear the iniquities and provide forgiveness to many.
As richly detailed as are Isaiah’s prophecies of the mortal and atoning ministry of Jesus Christ, they are matched by his predictions of the latter days and second coming of the Savior. Just as sure as the first happened—as completely as foretold—we can be confident that all prophesied about the second coming will evolve as foretold. If we heed the words of the prophets of God and prepare we will not miss them. Rather, we will rejoice in the richness of the unfolding and be waiting and glad when Christ returns, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Jesus as Savior and King.
Break forth into singing, and cry aloud. . . . In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. (Isaiah 54:1, 14)
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. (Revelation 22:20)
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Of Ronald Reagan and Freedom in the Middle East
The 100th anniversary of the birth of Ronald Reagan, the greatest President of the Twentieth Century and one of the three or four greatest Presidents in American history, is a fit time to consider what makes for social freedom and civil liberty. We need to have a clear understanding of such freedom if we are to make heads or tails of the current civil turmoil in the Middle East. American foreign policy since the days of Woodrow Wilson has all too often gotten this wrong.
First of all, we need to understand that the right to vote is an important but far from the most important of civil rights. Demagogues and dictators have long demonstrated their ability to survive and even control elections. Never underestimate the willingness of desperate electorates to vote away their freedoms. From Germans in the 1930s to Venezuelans in the Twenty-first Century we have seen voters elect leaders who promised to exchange liberty for stability. Soviet citizens and the citizens of the old corrupt European communist countries all had the right to vote. In fact, they could be punished for failing to vote. Free suffrage may be an essential part of liberty, but it can also coexist with tyranny.
Consider that our Declaration of Independence pointed to far more important purposes of free government: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What makes these more important is that these are all individual freedoms, founded on the recognition of the worth of the individual. While votes are counted and effective only in mass numbers, life is an individual matter, as is the liberty to use that life to pursue happiness as the individual sees fit.
Of equal importance is how the Founding Fathers sought to secure liberty. They trusted the safety of liberty to the rule of law. The signers of the Declaration of Independence believed that “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men”. The purpose of government is to establish and enforce the rule of law on which freedom rests, freedom that is lost when anarchy and mob rule prevail just as surely as when kings and dictators impose their will on their subjects. The American Founders recognized and proclaimed a new idea, the idea that when government strays from the rule of law, or, in their words, “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”
Bearing these principles in mind, we can be prepared to evaluate what is going on in the Middle East. Without argument, nearly all of the governments of the Middle East—with the important exceptions of the governments of Israel and of Turkey and perhaps the new government of Iraq—are tyrannies, where powerful dictators or oligarchies impose their will on their populations who are unable to trust in the law to protect them in the enjoyment of individual liberties. The cronies of these rulers, whether family or friends, are given special privileges to take property, impose prices, control businesses, and engage in wide varieties of corruption, impoverishing their nations in the process.
It is no accident that standards of living in countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere continue to be depressed, while nearby Israel, with virtually no natural resources and almost no land—but a constitution that protects individual rights under the rule of law—is a comparative economic and social paradise. In fact, Israel’s prosperity based on individual freedom seems to be a fundamental source of the hatred of neighboring despotic regimes, not unlike the reason why despots have persistently fomented hatred of the United States.
The question is, will the rioters in the streets seek to replace despotism and crony capitalism with individual rights and liberties, founded upon the rule of law, or will they merely replace one despotism with another and more pervasive one? Iran gives us one chilling example. Can we really say that the totalitarianism of the Iranian mullahs is better than the dictatorship of the Shah?
Watch which liberties the emerging leaders of the rioters advocate. Surely they will call for elections. So did the Red Army in the wake of World War II, as did the ayatollahs in Tehran. But what about the rights to private property, what about freedom of worship, what about security from arbitrary arrest, the ability to start up and own a business and enjoy the fruits of individual labor. Most importantly, look for independent courts with authority and power to protect the rights of minorities and individuals. These are the rights that America should advocate and the promotion and protection of these rights that we should foster. When we have, in places like Poland, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and West Germany, the results have been sustainable freedom and dramatic prosperity.
Not quite 30 years ago, on March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan spoke to a big labor union meeting of the AFL-CIO. He explained why the U.S. economy was on the rocks and how to get it going again, stronger than ever. The problem, he said, was that America was not acting like America:
First of all, we need to understand that the right to vote is an important but far from the most important of civil rights. Demagogues and dictators have long demonstrated their ability to survive and even control elections. Never underestimate the willingness of desperate electorates to vote away their freedoms. From Germans in the 1930s to Venezuelans in the Twenty-first Century we have seen voters elect leaders who promised to exchange liberty for stability. Soviet citizens and the citizens of the old corrupt European communist countries all had the right to vote. In fact, they could be punished for failing to vote. Free suffrage may be an essential part of liberty, but it can also coexist with tyranny.
Consider that our Declaration of Independence pointed to far more important purposes of free government: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What makes these more important is that these are all individual freedoms, founded on the recognition of the worth of the individual. While votes are counted and effective only in mass numbers, life is an individual matter, as is the liberty to use that life to pursue happiness as the individual sees fit.
Of equal importance is how the Founding Fathers sought to secure liberty. They trusted the safety of liberty to the rule of law. The signers of the Declaration of Independence believed that “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men”. The purpose of government is to establish and enforce the rule of law on which freedom rests, freedom that is lost when anarchy and mob rule prevail just as surely as when kings and dictators impose their will on their subjects. The American Founders recognized and proclaimed a new idea, the idea that when government strays from the rule of law, or, in their words, “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”
Bearing these principles in mind, we can be prepared to evaluate what is going on in the Middle East. Without argument, nearly all of the governments of the Middle East—with the important exceptions of the governments of Israel and of Turkey and perhaps the new government of Iraq—are tyrannies, where powerful dictators or oligarchies impose their will on their populations who are unable to trust in the law to protect them in the enjoyment of individual liberties. The cronies of these rulers, whether family or friends, are given special privileges to take property, impose prices, control businesses, and engage in wide varieties of corruption, impoverishing their nations in the process.
It is no accident that standards of living in countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere continue to be depressed, while nearby Israel, with virtually no natural resources and almost no land—but a constitution that protects individual rights under the rule of law—is a comparative economic and social paradise. In fact, Israel’s prosperity based on individual freedom seems to be a fundamental source of the hatred of neighboring despotic regimes, not unlike the reason why despots have persistently fomented hatred of the United States.
The question is, will the rioters in the streets seek to replace despotism and crony capitalism with individual rights and liberties, founded upon the rule of law, or will they merely replace one despotism with another and more pervasive one? Iran gives us one chilling example. Can we really say that the totalitarianism of the Iranian mullahs is better than the dictatorship of the Shah?
Watch which liberties the emerging leaders of the rioters advocate. Surely they will call for elections. So did the Red Army in the wake of World War II, as did the ayatollahs in Tehran. But what about the rights to private property, what about freedom of worship, what about security from arbitrary arrest, the ability to start up and own a business and enjoy the fruits of individual labor. Most importantly, look for independent courts with authority and power to protect the rights of minorities and individuals. These are the rights that America should advocate and the promotion and protection of these rights that we should foster. When we have, in places like Poland, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and West Germany, the results have been sustainable freedom and dramatic prosperity.
Not quite 30 years ago, on March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan spoke to a big labor union meeting of the AFL-CIO. He explained why the U.S. economy was on the rocks and how to get it going again, stronger than ever. The problem, he said, was that America was not acting like America:
We’ve gone astray from first principles. We’ve lost sight of the rule that individual freedom and ingenuity are at the very core of everything that we’ve accomplished. Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.A few minutes after that speech, President Reagan was shot. He recovered, and because he recovered and persisted with his policies of returning power to the individuals, America recovered. His policies led to America winning the Cold War and succeeded in a dramatic economic boom that lasted for almost 20 years. His advice, pointing to the fundamental principles for the success of America, are just as important now as they were then, just as important for us in the United States as they are for the people of the Middle East.
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