A Gospel Doctrine Class Not Taught
Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 4:54 pm
Yesterday in Sunday school we covered the second half of King Benjamin's speech. I have been making notations in my "reader's edition" of the Book of Mormon and have transcribed what appear to me to be the main themes of the speech. This is what I would have taught had I been the teacher.
Because at least one person has asked that I share my notes from each class here on the board, I am making this post. I submit it for whatever it is worth, with the caveat that the notes are somewhat rough.
___________________________
Now we come to the sermon itself. I will take an overview of the sermon because sometimes we can miss themes if we focus too much on individual verses—especially the two or three verses from this speech that have been made in scripture mastery cards and are supposed to be memorized by seminary students.
I think King Benjamin’s speech may be a good example of the way modern Mormons misunderstand their own scripture. It may sound funny to say that Mormons do not understand the Book of Mormon, but it is really no stranger than to say that Christians do not understand the New Testament, and Mormons frequently say this about any and pretty much all non-LDS Christians. And Christians of pretty much all stripes say that the Jews do not understand their book of scripture, being the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament.
So it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Mormons could misunderstand their own book of scripture. Having established the possibility of such a state of affairs, I will suggest that King Benjamin’s speech is a good example, as illustrated by my experience in Sunday school class yesterday (5/13/12) when this speech was being considered.
The temptation of most Mormons is to read this speech (and everything else in the standard works) in light of contemporary Mormonism and to read modern Mormon doctrine into the speech, with the expected result that they find King Benjamin teaches modern Mormonism.
I think that, if we take the speech on its own terms, and try to understand what Benjamin himself was saying, we may find some interesting items that do not necessarily jibe with what modern Mormons believe.
First, it is important to know the end from the beginning—that at the end of Benjamin’s speech, his people are going to cry to God for mercy and be born again as sons and daughters of God, having received a new nature that has no more desire to do evil but to do good continually.
This will happen with many other characters in the Book of Mormon, but when we come to those stories, we will find it always happens with people who are wicked and who are changed in an instant from their wicked ways to righteousness.
This story is different in an important way—the people of King Benjamin are righteous when this happens. In fact, the text takes pains to state that “they have been a diligent people in keeping the commandments of the Lord.” (1:11)
From a modern Mormon perspective, they are doing everything they need to be doing, inasmuch as “obedience is the first law of heaven.” They are doing everything God has asked them to do; they are obeying all his commandments; they should need to change nothing about their behavior.
But King Benjamin sees it differently. He sees their obedience as insufficient for their salvation. And this is critical. Benjamin believes they have to enter into a personal relationship with God and that somehow, their strict obedience to God’s commandments hasn’t done the trick, nor will it ever do the trick. Something more is required.
That is why this speech is so significant. And by the end of this speech, the people will enter into a personal relationship with God, becoming spiritually begotten of him and becoming his sons and his daughters. This is the relationship that must be attained in order to be saved, according to Benjamin, and in order to avoid the everlasting torments of those outside this relationship, regardless of how methodical they may be in obedience.
Benjamin may indicate as much when he refers to the ball (Liahona) followed by Nephi’s family, which led them “according to the heed and diligence which they gave unto him (God). Therefore, as they were unfaithful they did not prosper nor progress in their journey, but were driven back, and incurred the displeasure of God upon them. (1:16-17) Is Benjamin likening his people to that situation, saying that they have reached a plateau and are no longer progressing toward their personal promised land?
King Benjamin begins his speech, and talks about boasting in good works, which makes sense when you consider that these people were righteous and were likely led on to boasting. Benjamin has to break through this barrier, because the most likely response is that they are righteous and need do nothing more than keep God’s commandments, which they are doing.
Benjamin lays this argument flat with his well-known polemic about how you can never get God in your debt by doing what he says, because he immediately blesses you for that and you are still in his debt.
Benjamin’s goal is to get the people to understand that they are worthless, unprofitable servants, to God, in spite of their rigorous adherence to laws and commandments. This is a tough job and Benjamin seems to succeed.
In chapter 3, Benjamin prophecies of Christ, quoting the words of an angel, and talks about all the wonderful “service” and sacrifice Christ will accomplish on their behalf. Christ accomplishes the atonement which is the only way for people to be saved, not through their obedience.
Benjamin then says one of those classic verses which is largely misunderstood (in my opinion) by the Mormon community:
For the natural man is an enemy to God. (Here I am reminded of C.S. Lewis’ observation that the natural man is not an imperfect being in need of correction, but a rebel who must lay down his arms.)
And has been from the fall of Adam, and will be forever and ever, unless he . . .
The next word will be critical. We are to understand there is no way out of being an enemy to God unless we do something. What great work is it that is required of us in order to stop being enemies to God?
The next answer should surprise us. It is “yield.”
And has been from the fall of Adam, and will be forever and ever, unless he YIELDS to the enticings of the Holy Spirit.”
What do we have to do? We have to yield. We have to get out of the way. Here I think of the card game of Hearts which I have played for a number of years at lunch time with friends. I confess I am no expert at the game, but the basic idea is to stick other players with as many points as possible while taking none yourself.
It is a four person game and often two other more experienced players are trying to stick the low guy with a bunch of points. Unfortunately, I don’t know what they are trying to do, and I have another plan in mind to accomplish the same end, but I end up getting in the way of what the more experienced players are trying to do and fouling it all up.
I have heard many times from them, “Get out of the way!” That is what I hear Benjamin saying. Quit trying to do it your own way. Stop trying to do it under your own power. You are keeping the commandments and you think that is the way to salvation, but you are all wrong about that. You need to get out of the way and let God accomplish his own work in you, instead of you trying to do God’s work on your own.
Get out of the way and yield to the enticings of the Holy Ghost, and then you will be in line with God’s plan for you and you will allow him to work in and through you, but before that can happen, you first have to recognize that all your obedience is worthless and you are still unprofitable servants.
Benjamin concludes his first part of the speech and the people are struck by what he said, recognize he is right, and cry “aloud with one voice saying, O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ.” (4:2) The Spirit comes upon them (because they yielded), they are filled with joy and this is exactly what Benjamin wanted.
Now Benjamin launches into part 2 of his speech, which deals with how to maintain this salvation his people have just received.
Interestingly, there is not a lot of focus on keeping the commandments of God here. Instead, it focuses on the new relationship with have with God as his children. God has heard our cry for mercy and has abundantly answered the plea. God now wants us to treat others of lesser status to us in the same way God has acted.
We now take God’s place in the scheme of things, being his sons and daughters, and in order to maintain our status in this heavenly family, we must act toward others as God has acted toward us.
We must retain our humility—this is a theme Benjamin hits again and again; forgetting our worthlessness before God will undo this relationship. “I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility.” (4:11)
Next Benjamin talks about our children, who are in a state of dependence on us as we are on God, and God wants us to treat them accordingly:
And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil.” (4:14)
Somebody in our class suggested that “suffer” must mean something different because we should not make our children obey or that would be compromising their agency. I think that not only does this show an aptitude for interpreting scripture against its plain meaning, it also misses the mark of what Benjamin is talking about. I think he is saying that we are in a position relative to our children as God is to us. God doesn’t want us fighting with each other, and so we shouldn’t allow our children to fight with each other, either.
This is emphasized by the fact that Benjamin established peace in the land by virtue of this speech and his people’s reaction. (6:7) They are not fighting with each other. We need to do the same with our children.
At no place is this idea of putting ourselves in God’s shoes more evident than in the next section dealing with our response to beggars. We have been as beggars crying to God for mercy and he has heard our prayers and given us accordingly. Now that we are in this relationship with God as his children, we must act the same way toward those who beg things of us. This is how we maintain the salvific relationship of being God’s children, by acting toward others as God has acted toward us.
And so Benjamin says we are to give to beggars whenever they ask. We are not to judge the beggar and say he has brought his situation upon himself (4:17). Benjamin makes the equation clear, “For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same being, even God, for all the substance we have . . . ? And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you.” (4:19-20)
(By the way, it is almost always the case that when Mormons discuss this passage, they will immediately look for ways to avoid its obvious meaning, and try to say it is okay to not give money to beggars because they are going to use it in wrong ways. This runs afoul not only of the plain meaning of the text, but also the meta message being delivered by Mosiah—it is not for us to judge but to be merciful when mercy is requested. If a person chooses to abuse that mercy, that is on them. And we abuse God’s mercy if we refuse to give mercy to others.)
“And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God . . .?” (4:22)
This is how we retain a remission of our sins, by acting as God acts toward those less fortunate. “And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, . . . “ (4:26)
This is a very different pattern than in contemporary Mormonism. In fact, it could be suggested that Mormons are in the position of King Benjamin’s people before the speech, and that as long as they believe keeping God’s commandments is the key to salvation, they are being thwarted in asking God for mercy and entering into the new relationship as his children which is the only true way to eternal life.
___________________
All the Best!
--Consiglieri
Because at least one person has asked that I share my notes from each class here on the board, I am making this post. I submit it for whatever it is worth, with the caveat that the notes are somewhat rough.
___________________________
Now we come to the sermon itself. I will take an overview of the sermon because sometimes we can miss themes if we focus too much on individual verses—especially the two or three verses from this speech that have been made in scripture mastery cards and are supposed to be memorized by seminary students.
I think King Benjamin’s speech may be a good example of the way modern Mormons misunderstand their own scripture. It may sound funny to say that Mormons do not understand the Book of Mormon, but it is really no stranger than to say that Christians do not understand the New Testament, and Mormons frequently say this about any and pretty much all non-LDS Christians. And Christians of pretty much all stripes say that the Jews do not understand their book of scripture, being the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament.
So it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Mormons could misunderstand their own book of scripture. Having established the possibility of such a state of affairs, I will suggest that King Benjamin’s speech is a good example, as illustrated by my experience in Sunday school class yesterday (5/13/12) when this speech was being considered.
The temptation of most Mormons is to read this speech (and everything else in the standard works) in light of contemporary Mormonism and to read modern Mormon doctrine into the speech, with the expected result that they find King Benjamin teaches modern Mormonism.
I think that, if we take the speech on its own terms, and try to understand what Benjamin himself was saying, we may find some interesting items that do not necessarily jibe with what modern Mormons believe.
First, it is important to know the end from the beginning—that at the end of Benjamin’s speech, his people are going to cry to God for mercy and be born again as sons and daughters of God, having received a new nature that has no more desire to do evil but to do good continually.
This will happen with many other characters in the Book of Mormon, but when we come to those stories, we will find it always happens with people who are wicked and who are changed in an instant from their wicked ways to righteousness.
This story is different in an important way—the people of King Benjamin are righteous when this happens. In fact, the text takes pains to state that “they have been a diligent people in keeping the commandments of the Lord.” (1:11)
From a modern Mormon perspective, they are doing everything they need to be doing, inasmuch as “obedience is the first law of heaven.” They are doing everything God has asked them to do; they are obeying all his commandments; they should need to change nothing about their behavior.
But King Benjamin sees it differently. He sees their obedience as insufficient for their salvation. And this is critical. Benjamin believes they have to enter into a personal relationship with God and that somehow, their strict obedience to God’s commandments hasn’t done the trick, nor will it ever do the trick. Something more is required.
That is why this speech is so significant. And by the end of this speech, the people will enter into a personal relationship with God, becoming spiritually begotten of him and becoming his sons and his daughters. This is the relationship that must be attained in order to be saved, according to Benjamin, and in order to avoid the everlasting torments of those outside this relationship, regardless of how methodical they may be in obedience.
Benjamin may indicate as much when he refers to the ball (Liahona) followed by Nephi’s family, which led them “according to the heed and diligence which they gave unto him (God). Therefore, as they were unfaithful they did not prosper nor progress in their journey, but were driven back, and incurred the displeasure of God upon them. (1:16-17) Is Benjamin likening his people to that situation, saying that they have reached a plateau and are no longer progressing toward their personal promised land?
King Benjamin begins his speech, and talks about boasting in good works, which makes sense when you consider that these people were righteous and were likely led on to boasting. Benjamin has to break through this barrier, because the most likely response is that they are righteous and need do nothing more than keep God’s commandments, which they are doing.
Benjamin lays this argument flat with his well-known polemic about how you can never get God in your debt by doing what he says, because he immediately blesses you for that and you are still in his debt.
Benjamin’s goal is to get the people to understand that they are worthless, unprofitable servants, to God, in spite of their rigorous adherence to laws and commandments. This is a tough job and Benjamin seems to succeed.
In chapter 3, Benjamin prophecies of Christ, quoting the words of an angel, and talks about all the wonderful “service” and sacrifice Christ will accomplish on their behalf. Christ accomplishes the atonement which is the only way for people to be saved, not through their obedience.
Benjamin then says one of those classic verses which is largely misunderstood (in my opinion) by the Mormon community:
For the natural man is an enemy to God. (Here I am reminded of C.S. Lewis’ observation that the natural man is not an imperfect being in need of correction, but a rebel who must lay down his arms.)
And has been from the fall of Adam, and will be forever and ever, unless he . . .
The next word will be critical. We are to understand there is no way out of being an enemy to God unless we do something. What great work is it that is required of us in order to stop being enemies to God?
The next answer should surprise us. It is “yield.”
And has been from the fall of Adam, and will be forever and ever, unless he YIELDS to the enticings of the Holy Spirit.”
What do we have to do? We have to yield. We have to get out of the way. Here I think of the card game of Hearts which I have played for a number of years at lunch time with friends. I confess I am no expert at the game, but the basic idea is to stick other players with as many points as possible while taking none yourself.
It is a four person game and often two other more experienced players are trying to stick the low guy with a bunch of points. Unfortunately, I don’t know what they are trying to do, and I have another plan in mind to accomplish the same end, but I end up getting in the way of what the more experienced players are trying to do and fouling it all up.
I have heard many times from them, “Get out of the way!” That is what I hear Benjamin saying. Quit trying to do it your own way. Stop trying to do it under your own power. You are keeping the commandments and you think that is the way to salvation, but you are all wrong about that. You need to get out of the way and let God accomplish his own work in you, instead of you trying to do God’s work on your own.
Get out of the way and yield to the enticings of the Holy Ghost, and then you will be in line with God’s plan for you and you will allow him to work in and through you, but before that can happen, you first have to recognize that all your obedience is worthless and you are still unprofitable servants.
Benjamin concludes his first part of the speech and the people are struck by what he said, recognize he is right, and cry “aloud with one voice saying, O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ.” (4:2) The Spirit comes upon them (because they yielded), they are filled with joy and this is exactly what Benjamin wanted.
Now Benjamin launches into part 2 of his speech, which deals with how to maintain this salvation his people have just received.
Interestingly, there is not a lot of focus on keeping the commandments of God here. Instead, it focuses on the new relationship with have with God as his children. God has heard our cry for mercy and has abundantly answered the plea. God now wants us to treat others of lesser status to us in the same way God has acted.
We now take God’s place in the scheme of things, being his sons and daughters, and in order to maintain our status in this heavenly family, we must act toward others as God has acted toward us.
We must retain our humility—this is a theme Benjamin hits again and again; forgetting our worthlessness before God will undo this relationship. “I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility.” (4:11)
Next Benjamin talks about our children, who are in a state of dependence on us as we are on God, and God wants us to treat them accordingly:
And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil.” (4:14)
Somebody in our class suggested that “suffer” must mean something different because we should not make our children obey or that would be compromising their agency. I think that not only does this show an aptitude for interpreting scripture against its plain meaning, it also misses the mark of what Benjamin is talking about. I think he is saying that we are in a position relative to our children as God is to us. God doesn’t want us fighting with each other, and so we shouldn’t allow our children to fight with each other, either.
This is emphasized by the fact that Benjamin established peace in the land by virtue of this speech and his people’s reaction. (6:7) They are not fighting with each other. We need to do the same with our children.
At no place is this idea of putting ourselves in God’s shoes more evident than in the next section dealing with our response to beggars. We have been as beggars crying to God for mercy and he has heard our prayers and given us accordingly. Now that we are in this relationship with God as his children, we must act the same way toward those who beg things of us. This is how we maintain the salvific relationship of being God’s children, by acting toward others as God has acted toward us.
And so Benjamin says we are to give to beggars whenever they ask. We are not to judge the beggar and say he has brought his situation upon himself (4:17). Benjamin makes the equation clear, “For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same being, even God, for all the substance we have . . . ? And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you.” (4:19-20)
(By the way, it is almost always the case that when Mormons discuss this passage, they will immediately look for ways to avoid its obvious meaning, and try to say it is okay to not give money to beggars because they are going to use it in wrong ways. This runs afoul not only of the plain meaning of the text, but also the meta message being delivered by Mosiah—it is not for us to judge but to be merciful when mercy is requested. If a person chooses to abuse that mercy, that is on them. And we abuse God’s mercy if we refuse to give mercy to others.)
“And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God . . .?” (4:22)
This is how we retain a remission of our sins, by acting as God acts toward those less fortunate. “And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, . . . “ (4:26)
This is a very different pattern than in contemporary Mormonism. In fact, it could be suggested that Mormons are in the position of King Benjamin’s people before the speech, and that as long as they believe keeping God’s commandments is the key to salvation, they are being thwarted in asking God for mercy and entering into the new relationship as his children which is the only true way to eternal life.
___________________
All the Best!
--Consiglieri
), is that obedience is merely the first step in our progress. Liken it to the Law of Moses, and the Higher Law of Christ, which supersedes it. The relationship with Christ is the next level of progress. It doesn't take the place of obedience; it adds to it, and brings more depth and meaning to the obedience already taking place.