4 When a messenger comes saying he has a message from God, offer him your hand and request him to shake hands with you.
5 If he be an angel he will do so, and you will feel his hand.
So this would be a resurrected messenger. I like these verses because I like to think about being visited by good spirits.
6 If he be the spirit of a just man made perfect he will come in his glory; for that is the only way he can appear—
7 Ask him to shake hands with you, but he will not move, because it is contrary to the order of heaven for a just man to deceive; but he will still deliver his message.
Sometimes I am visited in my dreams. I'm going to try and embed this in my subconscious so I can do it next time and I can be sure. I've been visited by bad ones before and I'd hate to get them confused. Satan can be really tricky.
8 If it be the devil as an angel of light, when you ask him to shake hands he will offer you his hand, and you will not feel anything; you may therefore detect him.
9 These are three grand keys whereby you may know whether any administration is from God.
This sounds to me like the story of the brother of Jared and the stones. It sounds like Joseph Smith wanted a way to detect whether it was a good messenger or bad and he came up with the test and the Lord gives the test it's results. I don't know if that's how it happened, I just think it's interesting that a hand shake is the test.
4 Nephi
17 There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in , the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.
18 And how blessed were they! For the Lord did bless them in all their doings; yea, even they were blessed and prospered until an hundred and ten years had passed away; and the first generation from Christ had passed away, and there was no contention in all the land.
I wish this was what the world was like.
19 And it came to pass that Nephi, he that kept this last record, (and he kept it upon the plates of Nephi) died, and his son Amos kept it in his stead; and he kept it upon the plates of Nephi also.
20 And he kept it eighty and four years, and there was still peace in the land, save it were a small part of the people who had revolted from the church and taken upon them the name of Lamanites; therefore there began to be Lamanites again in the land.
21 And it came to pass that Amos died also, (and it was an hundred and ninety and four years from the coming of Christ) and his son Amos kept the record in his stead; and he also kept it upon the plates of Nephi; and it was also written in the book of Nephi, which is this book.
22 And it came to pass that two hundred years had passed away; and the second generation had all passed away save it were a few.
It's hard to imagine growing up in a place with no contention. Some people have been able to do it and that's a nice thought. They must be absolutely horrified about what goes on today though. And for us, most of the bad stuff is just commonplace.
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2 comments:
that first passage reminds me of something in the video I sent you... about the guy... he also said something about meeting messengers, and said we should ask if they are higher or lower representatives, because the lower ones would try to mimic being a higher, but they couldn't lie if you asked them.
The world will soon be like that again, and for a long, long time.
I have this idea that there are some places like that already. If we were ready to live in such places, then we would know (be inspired, feel the urge to go somewhere) where they were. And there are others that although ready to live such a life, know somehow that they would rather stay in this world to help others.
I bet you're right, Dave! Through some weird internet surfing last year I found a few "hippie communes" and I thought that was cool. They probably have their strifes, but at least they are all unified and going for the same goal. I like that.
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