LDS Sunday School OT Lesson 28

25 March

old-testament-gospel-doctrine-teachers-manual-35570000The name of the LDS Sunday School Lesson for week #28 is “After the Fire a Still Small Voice” and it centers on 1st Kings and the prophet Elijah.

My heart hurts.  It hurts because of the lies being fed to the Mormon people week after week through the onslaught of misleading statements and downright blatant lies about God and the people He worked through in the Old Testament.  This pain and heaviness is reminiscent of my days in Mormonism.  Going to church every Sunday as a Mormon reminded me of all the works I still had to do in the upcoming week and it was cumbersome.

I’d get home and try to match up the stories of the Bible with the notes they’d given us in class that invariably referenced extra-biblical canon from the Church. My self-loathing would make yet another appearance because of my inability to understand what they were trying to convey. It was a vicious cycle.  I’ve no doubt that when Mormons today read these lessons they’re going through the very same things I was all those years ago.

This time around they compared the miraculous events that God performed through Elijah in 1 Kings 17:1 with the Book of Mormon prophet Nephi in Helaman 10:4-5. This Nephi fellow supposedly lived circa BC 63.

Through “miraculous wonders” Nephi just so happened to have a very similar experience to Elijah when he (Elijah) prayed to stop the rain and then prayed the Lord would allow it to rain.

In their incessant dishonesty you’ll come across another anachronism in this lesson. This time the Holy Ghost makes a much too early arrival to encourage the prophet Elijah “through the “still small voice”. – 1 Kings 19:9-13.  Elijah lived circa BC 863.

“And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? 10 And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. 11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: 12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. 13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?”

The Spirit of God spoke to Elijah when he retreated to the cave; however, this is not the Holy Spirit which came at Pentecost.  The indwelling of the HS didn’t take place until after Jesus was resurrected.  The apostles waited upon word from Jesus and stayed put until He told them to move, this is when the Holy Spirit arrived. Acts 1:8

The Spirit of God rested upon many in the OT era but the key word here is upon or over.  He didn’t dwell inside people until the time of Pentecost.

The object of this lesson is to know when God is comforting you through the Holy Ghost as the Mormons say, but this is a farfetched ideal. Their own doctrines tell them he doesn’t indwell them and can leave whenever he wants.  D&C 130:23

This isn’t the Holy Spirit of the Bible!  Jesus told us the Comforter would come and never leave. John 14:16-19, 23. Besides all that, we’re still dealing with the anachronism in this lesson.

The rest of the lesson tells members to put God first and that the Church operates with the “Spirit of Elijah” when they perform works for the dead in their temples because they’re fulfilling Joseph Smith’s prophecy from God in D&C 110:13-16 which says they hold the power of salvation, ordinances, priesthood, etc to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers.

Actually, performing works for the dead in the temples is necromancy.  The prophecy from Malachi 4:6 (turning the hearts of the fathers to the children..) was fulfilled by John the Baptist when he called on people to repent just before Jesus was setting out on his three year ministry, not Mormons performing dead works in their temples.

With Love in Christ;

Michelle

1 Cor 1:18

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