Accusers of Our Brethren - The Culture of Destruction

[Rozan]

It is a very sad thing that has happened to the culture in the United States.  It began, perhaps with social media, or perhaps the news channels.  That is the feeling that it is cool and constructive to be critical of each other.  There are new social standards that encourages each of us to be edgy in our interpersonal relationships.  Treating others with cruelty has become a comedy source in television and movies.  What a damaged world view that has taken over the sensibilities and wisdom of nearly all.

It is especially dagger-like in religious circles, with many people judging and accusing others of their faith, certain that some person is worthy of excommunication.  How can a people of faith become a Zion people, if they are ever seeking the mote in each other's eye?  This is against the Lord's will.  We must do better, and be better, or we risk being unprepared to meet our Creator.

It is well to remember that Stephen, the Apostle, was also stoned to death by those of his own faith.  Please ponder how a people who were waiting for the return of Jehovah, and were daily living the Mosaic law, could have gone so far afield that they called for Jesus' crucifixion.  Do you think it could happen again? 

The Lord told the Nephites that His servant would come in the last days, but he would be marred because of them.  Who is them?  According to Isaiah chapter 1, we are told the whole body of God's people is sick, from the head to the foot. 

4 Alas, a nation astray, a people weighed down by sin, the offspring of wrongdoers, perverse children: they have forsaken Jehovah, they have spurned the Holy One of Israel, they have lapsed into apostasy.

5 Why be smitten further by adding to your waywardness? The whole head is sick, the whole heart diseased.

6 From the soles of the feet even to the head there is nothing sound, only wounds and bruises and festering sores; they have not been pressed out or bound up, nor soothed with ointment.

7 Your land is ruined, your cities burned with fire; your native soil is devoured by aliens in your presence, laid waste at its takeover by foreigners.

8 The Daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, a hut in a melon field, a city under siege.

9 Had not Jehovah of Hosts left us a few survivors, we should have been as Sodom, or become like Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of Jehovah, O leaders of Sodom; give heed to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

11 For what purpose are your abundant sacrifices to me? says Jehovah. I have had my fill of offerings of rams
and fat of fatted beasts; the blood of bulls and sheep and he-goats I do not want.

12 When you come to see me, who requires you to trample my courts so?

13 Bring no more worthless offerings; they are as a loathsome incense to me. As for convening meetings at the New Month and on the Sabbath, wickedness with the solemn gathering I cannot approve.
14 Your monthly and regular meetings my soul detests. They have become a burden on me; I am weary of putting up with them.

15 When you spread forth your hands, I will conceal my eyes from you; though you pray at length, I will not hear— your hands are filled with blood.

16 Wash yourselves clean: remove your wicked deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil.

17 Learn to do good: demand justice, stand up for the oppressed; plead the cause of the fatherless, appeal on behalf of the widow.

18 Come now, let us put it to the test, says Jehovah: though your sins are as scarlet, they can be made white as snow; though they have reddened as crimson, they may become white as wool.

19 If you are willing and obey, you shall eat the good of the land. 

20 But if you are unwilling and disobey, you shall be eaten by the sword. By his mouth Jehovah has spoken it.

21 How the faithful city has become a harlot! She was filled with justice; righteousness made its abode in her, but now murderers. 

22 Your silver has become dross, your wine diluted with water.

23 Your rulers are renegades, accomplices of robbers: with one accord they love bribes and run after rewards;
they do not dispense justice to the fatherless, nor does the widow's case come before them.

24 Therefore the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, the Valiant One of Israel, declares, Woe to them! I will relieve me
of my adversaries, avenge me of my enemies.

25 I will restore my hand over you and smelt away your dross as in a crucible, and remove all your alloy.

26 I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counsellors as in the beginning. After this you shall be called the City of Righteousness, a faithful city. 

27 For Zion shall be ransomed by justice, those of her who repent by righteousness.

28 But criminals and sinners shall be altogether shattered when those who forsake Jehovah are annihilated.

Let us seek for a higher and holier way to speak to one another, that we may be like our Savior, a peacemaker.  We can build bridges and work on becoming a united people for the Lord.  We must put Babylon out of our hearts, minds and lives.  The Nemenhah record provides a lot of instruction on how to do that.