12 Whenever a high council of the church of Christ is regularly organized, according to the foregoing pattern, it shall be the duty of the twelve councilors to cast lots by numbers, and thereby ascertain who of the twelve shall speak first, commencing with number one and so in succession to number twelve.
13 Whenever this council convenes to act upon any case, the twelve councilors shall consider whether it is a difficult one or not; if it is not, two only of the councilors shall speak upon it, according to the form above written.
14 But if it is thought to be difficult, four shall be appointed; and if more difficult, six; but in no case shall more than six be appointed to speak.
15 The accused, in all cases, has a right to one-half of the council, to prevent insult or injustice.
16 And the councilors appointed to speak before the council are to present the case, after the evidence is examined, in its true light before the council; and every man is to speak according to equity and justice.
I wonder if this is still how it is. These verses are about when there are problems in the church and how they go about meeting and fixing them. I have a hard time thinking they just draw numbers. It feels like a more spiritual thing.
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8 It is an iron yoke, it is a strong band; they are the very handcuffs, and chains, and shackles, and fetters of hell.
9 Therefore it is an imperative duty that we owe, not only to our own wives and children, but to the widows and fatherless, whose husbands and fathers have been murdered under its iron hand;
10 Which dark and blackening deeds are enough to make hell itself shudder, and to stand aghast and pale, and the hands of the very devil to tremble and palsy.
11 And also it is an imperative duty that we owe to all the rising generation, and to all the pure in heart—
This is talking about the persecution. This is so powerful because they were in the midst of all the terror and they were being told that they must persevere for the sake of the others who don't have the truth because they don't know where to find it. That is a bold thing to say to someone in such a terrible situation, and amazing. They found their strength in God and it shows in some of the writings.
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2 comments:
the second part makes me think of a recent movie I watched about the templars. they also felt it was of greatest importance to last if only to preserve an idea.
also, it was why they carved on plates of metal that would last through all time.
for the first part... I do believe they still do it that way. Since they are all going to speak, drawing lots or numbers takes out any preference according to rank in the 12.
I know they still hold courts like that for things that could end up in excommunications.
Good point Dave!
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