Sunday School Old Testament: Lesson 24

21 March

old-testament-gospel-doctrine-teachers-manual-355700001JST 2 Samuel 12:13; “And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath not put away thy sin that thou shalt not die.”

KJV 2 Samuel 12:13; “And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.”

I want to direct attention to the rewrite of God’s word by Joseph Smith and let people know the Church thought it was important that Smith “had” to rewrite scripture to change God’s truth. We’ll be looking at it a little further into this lesson but keep those verses in mind.

The title of the LDS Sunday School OT Lesson #24 is “Create in Me a Clean Heart” and its purpose said; “…part of this lesson deals with the consequences of dwelling on unclean thoughts. The lesson also discusses ways to free ourselves from unclean thoughts.”

The lesson gives their own interpretation of what 2nd Samuel means, however, I’d be remiss if I didn’t warn you beforehand the lesson is more about not cheating on your spouse than anything to do with King David. At one juncture they made the comment that David was “one of the important kings of Israel”.  I sat in stunned silence for a moment pondering their evaluation and subsequently decided they don’t know what they’re talking about.

If King David isn’t the most important king of the nation of Israel in the OT then who is?  Who are the other “important kings” of Israel and how do you rank them in order of importance?

The lesson suggests that members listen to sacred LDS hymns when unclean thoughts come to mind and replaying the words in their head will help them escape from the temptation to sin.

Now if you’re a Christian we know the Holy Spirit is the one who does this work inside of us. We can use little things like scripture memorization to help us, but ultimately it’s through the omnipotent power of God these things are overcome.

As a Christian I use scriptures to remind me of whom I am and that God is ultimately in control of me so in a way this is a good idea.  I counsel new Christians to choose a favorite verse to memorize and use it as a “go to verse” to fall back on whenever spiritual warfare invades your thoughts.  One of my personal favorites is 2 Cor 10:5 which in essence says; “…hold all thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ”.

The problem with the suggestion in the LDS Sunday school lesson is how they’re replacing a sinful thought with a commandment or saying from a false god.  Oh the tangled web we weave…

This week’s lesson is almost as shallow as last week’s had it not been for the lies they taught about King David’s sin with Bathsheba and the consequences thereof. The lesson seems to be focused solely on what David did and his punishment from the rewrite of Joseph Smith’s god.

One of Mormonism’s trademark doctrines is well known amongst all LDS members and many non-members alike. The Mormon god doesn’t forgive anyone for murder, thus the whole blood atonement doctrine and all.

D&C 42:79; “And it shall come to pass, that if any persons among you shall kill they shall be delivered up and dealt with according to the laws of the land; for remember that he hath no forgiveness…”

Strangely enough (or maybe not), they also teach that God doesn’t remember sin once you’ve repented. As you can see, D&C 58:42 contradicts what the Mormon god does for man when he repents;

“Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.”

Matthew Henry noted in 2 Samuel 12:10-12 that David had shown he despised God by disobeying His word (commandments). He said that those who despise the word and law of God despise God Himself and shall be lightly esteemed. In 2 Samuel we read the horror of King David’s realization that he’d sinned against God and the grief it caused him. Psalm 51 is the cry of David’s heart seeking forgiveness and for God to create a clean heart in him. As Christians we all know the beautiful song “Create in me a clean heart, o God” so the irony here shouldn’t be overlooked.  The Mormon Church doesn’t sing this song.

Matthew Henry’s comments and that Psalm gives us great insight into the character of Joseph Smith. If he’s ignoring God’s commandments by rewriting them then how does he really feel about God?

Two other important insights that were lost in the LDS Sunday school lesson was the rest of the prophet Nathan’s message to David about his house always being ruled by the sword and that David’s wives would taken from him and shamed publicly – vss. 11 and 12 respectively.

“Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.”

This is important to point out because of Joseph Smith’s teachings on the eternal fate of King David and in justifying his own (Joseph Smith’s) sin of polygamy. In D&C 132:39;

“David’s wives and concubines were given unto him of me, by the hand of Nathan, my servant, and others of the prophets who had the keys of this power; and in none of these things did he sin against me save in the case of Uriah and his wife; and, therefore he hath fallen from his exaltation, and received his portion; and he shall not inherit them out of the world, for I gave them unto another, saith the Lord.”

Remember those verses at the beginning of this lesson? The JST (Joseph Smith Translation) said that David would die in his sin while the KJV stated the exact opposite.

The truth is what we saw in 2 Samuel 12:10-13. Nathan told David he would be forgiven and live (meaning eternally), but his house would be ruled by the sword and the fulfillment of David’s wives being publicly shamed was fulfilled in 2 Samuel 16:20-22 when Absolom was advised by Ahithophel to go into his father’s concubines and shame them.

Ironically, Ahithophel was a foreshadowing of Judas and the Mormons missed out on that as well.  When it was found out that Ahithophel was the counselor for Absolom to do these things he was embarrassed, went home and hung himself because he had shamed the King of Israel in front of the whole nation. Jesus even referred to this in John 13:18 as the fulfillment of David’s shame being made public and Judas’ shame in selling out as well.  John 13:18 is a quote from Psalm 41:9;

“Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.”

You see, Ahithophel was a sage for David and a very close old friend. It’s speculated that he was also the grandfather of Bathsheba. Instead of gaining new insights about God and the history of Israel, the Mormon’s heads are filled with the lie that King David’s wives would be given to another god in the Mormon Celestial Kingdom.

Once again we come across an entire passage in the Bible that’s vitally important for us to know so we can put things in context. It’s a strong lesson and one of the many that God uses in His word as a framework to show how He’s dealt with His people throughout history.

These things are so important and here the Mormon Church is squandering away the truth and lying about it as well.

Share the truth about the forgiveness David received from God today!

With Love in Christ;

Michelle

1 Cor 1:18

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