Volume 3, Issue 4 – November 2007

Posted on 11/29/2007 at 12:44:34 PM

Contents

Plural Marriage & The Parable of the Talents

Circumcision – A Covenant Fulfilled

The Latter-day Saints and Pork

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Pork & Latter-day Saints

Posted on 11/28/2007 at 8:58:43 AM

Jessica: “I shall be saved by my husband; he hath made me a Christian.”
Shylock’s servant: “This making of Christians will raise the price of hogs: if we all become pork-eaters, in no time we’ll not be able to afford to cook bacon.” (The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare)

From the days of Noah there was a distinction between clean and unclean animals. It was only the unclean animals that went in two by two.(1) It does not say, however, exactly which animals were deemed unclean. Read the rest of this entry »

Circumcision – A Covenant Fulfilled

Posted on 11/22/2007 at 11:15:41 AM

The Old Covenant & Circumcision

Circumcision, the practice of removing part, or all of the foreskin, is generally associated in the world today with the Jews or Muslims.1 It is symbolic of a promise made between Abraham and God that He, “will establish a covenant of circumcision with thee, and it shall be my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations; that thou mayest know for ever that children are not accountable before me until they are eight years old.”2

Thus it was a covenant between Abraham and his descendants that their children were not accountable until they reached eight years of age;3 the age they were eligible for baptism. Associated with this practice was the giving of a child a name4, just as the Lord gave Abraham a new name following his own circumcision.5 It was also possibly God’s alternative to pagan ceremonies performed on or for the birth of a child.

Although the scriptures speak of many other principles in the first few chapters of the book of Genesis, such as the sabbath and baptism, there is no indication that circumcision existed prior to Abraham’s day: 4000 years after Adam left the garden of Eden. As far as we know Abel, Seth, Enoch, Peleg, Jared and his brother, Noah, and Melchizedek – who was Abraham’s priesthood head – were all uncircumcised. Yet Seth was called perfect6, and both Enoch and Melchizedek (along with their cities) were translated.7 It is also important to note that Abraham, the friend8 of God, found favor9 with the Lord before His circumcision. As the apostle Paul explains:

“… we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.

“… For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”10

There is no passage of scripture which explicitly states that circumcision is related to salvation. The law of Moses required circumcision to partake of the Passover.11 But the law of Moses was instituted after Abraham’s covenant, as was the Passover, and its lesser laws were given by God to the wayward children of Israel.

Circumcision served an important purpose in reminding parents of their responsibility towards their children, and in separating ancient Israel from her heathen neighbors. But was God’s covenant intended to always be kept through circumcision, or could it be fulfilled somehow on our behalf?  Read the rest of this entry »

The Parable of the Talents
and Plural Marriage

Posted on 11/17/2007 at 3:43:45 PM

Because of the sacred nature of many of the doctrines revealed to Joseph Smith, and due to the ridicule and persecution that many of the world would have given them, the Prophet taught many things in secret to only his most trusted associates. However, not all of his friends proved to be trustworthy, and they shared with the world, usually in some twisted form, those things he had taught them in purity.
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