Gospel Essentials Unabridged Class Notes

January 20, 2002

(45 minutes)

How will the Lord Preserve Truth in Spite of Apostasy of Early Church?

Gospel Essentials Class Notes January 20 2002

Mention this for Burdina, based on her question last week.

Moroni 6:2 Behold, elders, priests, and teachers were baptized; and they were not baptized, save they brought forth fruit meet that they were worthy of it; neither did they receive any unto baptism, save they came forth with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and witnessed unto the church that they truly repented of all their sins.

How will the Lord Preserve Truth in Spite of Apostasy of Early Church?

Church was in apostacy. Falling away. 2 thess. Woman in wilderness.

In spite of this, THE LORD HAS A PLAN TO PRESERVE THE TRUTH!

Jesus tells parable. Matthew 21:41 KJ (43 IV) vs 35-45; 51, 53-56

Who is he talking about? What does this refer to?

Rejecting of the Jews, for a time anyhow. Luke 21:24 (23 IV)

…Jews to Gentiles, Gentiles time fulfilled….

Jews weren’t elect because they were the only ones saved, but they had been chosen to take the message to the world. This they failed to do.

Other husbandmen..

Jer 11:16, 17 olive tree, branches are broken.

Turn to Romans 11:17. Apostle is speaking to those other husbandmen, the Gentiles, to whom the vineyard was given. Previous verse discusses broken branches.

How long did the Gentiles have it before they became as bad?? It did not come un announced. (even more manifest by IV inclusion of the end of the 21^st chapter of Luke).

The preparation to preserve truth began long before the day of darkness.

Historically

· Israel brought by a mighty hand, Lord tried to educate but they failed to absorb his teachings.

· They rebelled against his form of government and demanded a king. Three kings, Saul, David and Solomon.

· After Solomon’s death, war broke out, kingdom divided, 10 north, 2 south.

· Assyrians took northern

· Judah became wicked, Babylon overran 70 years.

Ezek. 17:3 (Lord carries to Assyria)

Ezek. 17;7 (To Babylon)

Topmost branches are the kings, etc. Tells that the king will die in Babylon.

(Lord grives for his people, does what he can to save. Psm 95:10)

Ezek. 17:22 Highest branch. Highest were nobility, young branches children of the nobles. Did not allow him to fall into the clutches.

Is this a literal mountain?

Mountains used three different ways other than literal:

· Special lands (Ezek 36:1)

· Nations (Amos 6:1)

· Peoples forming a nation (Ezek 6:2)

Ezek 17:23 tells us more of this mountain. Teaches two things:

· First, the twig would grow into a goodly nation

· The land in which they should grow is of the height of Israel. Psm 68:16 says the reason for the height of the mountain of Israel is because this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in.

Why Did God clip a branch??

Isa. 65:8,9 (will not destroy them all) Lord has more than one mountain, and that the seed of Jacob and Judah shall in inherit them.

(Supplemental scriptures on remnant)

II Kings 19:30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

II Kings 19:31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion; the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

II Chronicles 30:6 So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.

Ezra 9:8 And now for a little space grace hath been showed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.

Isaiah 10:20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

Isaiah 10:21 The remnant shall return, yea even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

Isaiah 10:22 For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return; the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

Isaiah 11:11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

Isaiah 37:31 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward;

Isaiah 37:32 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant; and they that escape out of Jerusalem shall come up upon mount Zion; the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

Jeremiah 23:3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase

Where is another Holy Mountain? Zephaniah 3:10 beyond rivers of Ethiopia.

Lord speaks of ‘His dispersed.’

Isaiah 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Ezekiel 36:19 And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries; according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

Zephaniah 3:10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering.

John 7:35 Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? Will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?

3 Nephi 10:5 Verily, I say unto you, At that day shall the work of the Father commence among all the dispersed of my people; yea, even the tribes which have been lost, which the Father hath led away out of Jerusalem.

3 Nephi 10:6 Yea, the work shall commence among all the dispersed of my people, with the Father, to prepare the way whereby they may come unto me, that they may call on the Father in my name;

Mormon 4:19 For no one can have power to bring it to light, save it be given him of God; for God will that it shall be done with an eye single to his glory, or the welfare of the ancient and long dispersed covenant people of the Lord.

Which land? Isaiah 18:1 Shadowing with wings….

Theory is that this was the land that looked like wings. But the word ‘shadowing’ in this context means ‘with a sound of…clattering, whirring, even chirping.’

Verse two tells how they will travel…by vessels of the sea.

Who was blessing on/for??

God did not neglect to mention another land of Israel ‘a mountain high and eminent.’

Deuteronomy 33:13 And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath,

It is significant that of all the blessings on all the tribes, only Joseph’s land is mentioned as being special land.

(What did God do to preserve the real Joseph??? Sent him to another land.)

Genesis 49:26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

What was the blessing for Jacob’s progenitors (forefathers)? The Land of Cannan.

Was Joseph’s blessing limited to the boundaries of his forefathers? No, it says it prevailed above his fathers

To Where? The utmost bound of the everlasting hills.

What was the blessing for Joseph

Deuteronomy 33:17 His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns; with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

All Joseph’s blessing suggest distance.

One more:

Genesis 49:22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall;

What is a wall? Boundary that confines.

What was one of Joseph’s boundaries?

One of Joseph’s boundaries was the sea. In this case, the sea did not confine him.

Joshua 17:10 Southward it was Ephraim's, and northward it was Manasseh's, and the sea is his border; and they met together in Asher on the north, and in Issachar on the east.

Isaiah 16:8 For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof, they are come even unto Jazer, they wandered through the wilderness; her branches are stretched out, they are gone over the sea.

What are the fields of Heshbon and the vine of Sibmah? Investigate be reading from:

Jeremiah 48:32 O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer; thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer; the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage.

What is the historical meaning of the vine?

Psalms 80:8 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.

Who was brought out of Egypt, cleansed and planted? Israel.