Transcription
A lot of times people look at the temple and they're like, "Look how cultish this is. It's so cultish. Look at you're acting out these things."
As they reenacted past events as if they were those people. They were like pulling time together. Repent. Believe in Christ as if he's already come. It shines light on our own temple experience. Welcome everybody to another episode on the Stick of Joseph YouTube channel. You know, sometimes people say it sounds like we're saying sticky Joseph.
Stick of Joseph.
Sticky Joseph.
Sticky Joseph.
It goes really quick, but it's the stick of Joseph. And today we have another guest on who we've had twice before and she's blown our mind twice and she wants to do it again. And so we're excited to have Christina Dimmick on. Thank you so much for coming.
Thank you for having me.
Christina Dimmick, just to hit some of your accolades, you're a mother of how many?
Four.
Four. You're an author of how many books?
200 plus.
200 plus.
And what else do you
You're awesome. Yeah,
you've blown our minds twice on the sick of Joseph YouTube channel.
Sick of Joseph. Reached over 50,000 views.
You're amazing.
Thanks.
You're phenomenal.
Thank you.
And uh just like last time, we prefer to just go in blind as students just like all of you. And so Christina, what what journey are you going to take us on today in the scriptures?
So we've talked about the feast schedule and studying the feast. And what I wanted to do today was bring some of that into our temple so that we can connect the dots here and maybe people will be like, "Okay, this is great, but why do I care?"
Um,
because it would it shines light on our own temple experience and the more light we have, the more beautiful our lives are going to be. So that's what I kind of wanted to do was tie it all together.
Okay, let's do it.
So, all right, before we start, we have to have some foundational thoughts in place. Number one is that the temple is a microcosm of the cosmos. So you have the holy of holies is where God dwells. The holy place is where we connect. We go to talk to God through the veil. And then the outer court is the mortal earth kind of thing, right? And the veil is the boundary between. So we've got it. If we've got that and we can understand that before we move on, it's just kind of a basis there. Okay.
Um, another one is the idea of sacred space and time. And I know you guys did the sacred and the profane. Yeah. My favorite books.
Yeah, it's a good one. I just like go read the book. It's so good. Um, so he has I'm just gonna give a real recap real quick. Um, there's the ordinary world that you do your ordinary things in. You go to work, you eat food, you you know, all that kind of stuff. And then there's sacred space and time which is set apart as God time and God space, right?
Okay. So the ancients believed that as they reenacted past events as if they were those people, they were like pulling time together, right? So it was like the past and the present existed in the same moment
and you were a part of that first event. So we talked about this with nativities. Um we are reenacting the birth of Jesus Christ. We get in the costumes, we behave as if we are shepherds or we are wise men or we are angels and we're creating this sacred space and time by doing that. And so it just makes Christmas like that much more holy because everybody is out there creating these little pockets of sacred space and time.
Which is funny because a lot of times people look at the temple and they're like, "Look how cultish this is. It's so cultish. Look at you're acting out these things. And it it has it seems a little weird, but then you think about something like a nativity. We act out the nativity and it it it h it's acting out something sacred that has to do with our salvation, which is the coming of Jesus Christ.
And so when you are going into the temple, you're acting out something sacred, which is the coming to earth for everybody and acting as if you were Adam as as if you were Eve and going through the whole plan of salvation. And so that's really all it is is it's it's you're participating in a play.
Yeah. Yeah. A drama. A temple. A drama.
A temple drama. Okay. So I I love that in the sacred and the profane they're talking about the past and the present coming together.
I think prophets, Book of Mormon prophets, um modern prophets add the future to that. So I I call it folding time. So you're sitting in your present and you fold the past and the future together. So it's like all here. So this is God time, right? This is eternal. So go to DNC 130
um verse seven.
That's actually a pretty cool way. Sorry. That's a really cool way when you think about just like folding a piece of paper, right? You fold the past
and the future
and the future
on top of the present.
Yes. That is that to me is what sacred
you when you think about Isaiah, right? You think about Isaiah like what does he do? Why does Isaiah why does Isaiah why does Jesus say that Isaiah testifies of things that have been and will be? And Isaiah when he is writing these things, he's talking about things that are happening right then as well. And so there's this great folding of the past, present, and future all in one.
Yeah. For a Book of Mormon example, Nephi's vision of the tree of life.
Uhhuh.
Past, present, and then to the end of days. Like he sees all the way through. Uh John the revelator
folds folds time. He's folding time. Prophets are folding time. So go DNC 13:7.
That's a cool way.
This is why I call it God time.
I like that. In verse six, it says, "The angels do not reside on a planet like this earth. But they reside in the presence of God on a globe like a sea of glass and fire where all things for their glory are manifest past, present, and future and are continually before the Lord." Okay,
that's crazy. That's a crazy that's a crazy verse to be in our scripture by the way.
I know. But if you think about the fact that you're folding time when you're with God, then
then it's not crazy. It's like, oh, we have entered his time. He is this time.
Yeah.
When we enter sacred time, we are entering his time. It's not that he we he comes to us and leaves. We go to him and we enter it. So um so I think the Nephite prophets thought this too. I think so. Lehi gets kicked out of Jerusalem for prophesying that Christ is going to come right to his people.
So, we've talked about the feasts and how they foreshadowed Christ and every role that Christ had. Um, but I think part of the thing that everybody was like is you hear the argument in the Book of Mormon, you can't know what's going to happen. Like Antichrist would say that all the time, right? They're like, you can't know that there's going to be a Christ. You can't know this. And Lehi, who is a prophet, in his vision, past, present, future, folded for him. And he knew that there would be a Christ that came. He was able to see that. He was kicked out because
there was also this future tense to his folding.
Guys, if you love what Christina Dimmick has to say, then you're going to love her book, Hidden Holy Days, Unveiling the Hebrew Feast in the First Book of Nephi. This is going to be coming out in March. If you want to be notified when it comes out, go to the link in the description and you'll be able to sign up to be notified so you can be among the first to buy the book. Uh it's an amazing book. We're super excited about it. And also, look at that cover. One of our favorite cover designs so far. So, if you want that link in the description, back to the video.
So, if you go to Messiah 3:13, we'll look at this Mosiah's um
King Benjamin.
It's King Benjamin. Yeah.
3:13.
Okay, I'll read that.
Okay.
So, it says, and I quote, Okay, here it is. Um, and the Lord God hath sent his holy prophets among all the children of men to declare these things to every kindred, nation, and tongue, that thereby whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he had already come among them.
Yeah. So, you're seeing that they're living this sacred time, right? They're like, "Repent,
believe in Christ as if he's already come."
Yeah.
It's that folding of the future in onto them. So, there's just one.
That's a really That's a weird verse. Honestly, that's interesting.
Yeah. And honestly, I think about this all the time. Like, do we think it would have been harder to have faith in a savior pre
him coming or after?
Or post, right? Yeah.
Or present.
Or present. Apparently, really hard present time.
Mhm.
Yeah. Dang.
Who knows?
I don't know.
I don't know if we got the short end of the stick, though. I think we got that.
Honestly, I don't think that there is a posit like all, you know, it's all the same. The folding of time.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Okay. So, those are our foundational principles. Folding time and that the temple is a cosmos. Okay. So, let's talk about the Day of Atonement ritual.
We'll just focus on the two goats, the scapegoat and the Lord's goat. The scapegoat was the one that had the sins placed upon it and it was sent out into the wilderness.
Mhm.
And the Lord's goat was the one that would be the blood sacrificed to pay the price for sin. And then it was the that blood was used to cleanse the temple. Okay. So we talked you have to have both. You can't have a complete atonement with only one goat. You have to have both. So Christ had to both take our sins away and pay the price for them in order for us to return to the father. Mhm.
So, it's just super important that we remember you have to have both. Yeah.
Okay. As we move forward, I guess that should have been another
foundational thing. You've got to have both. So, and both of them testify of Jesus Christ, right?
Okay. Okay. So, um in the day of atonement, what are they looking forward to? What are the uh Book of Mormon prophets looking forward to? We can answer the A amulet tells us. Go to Elma 34 10-14. Somebody want to read that one.
10 through what?
10. Elma 34. I have 10 through 14.
Okay, For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice. Yay, Not a sacrifice of man, neither of beasts, neither of any man manner of fowl. For it shall not be a For it shall not be a human sacrifice, but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice. That's interesting.
Yeah. Right. Eternal, huh? There's our folding of time.
A sacrifice is eternal. Now, there is not any man that can sacrifice his own blood, which will atone for the sins of another. Now, if a man murderth, behold, will our law, which is just, take the life of his brother. I say unto you, nay. But the law requireth the life of him who hath murdered. Therefore, there can be nothing which is short of an infinite atonement which will suffice for the sins of the world. Therefore, it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice, and then shall there be, or it is expedient that there should be a stop to the shedding of blood. Then shall the law of Moses be fulfilled. Yay, it shall be all fulfilled, every jot and tit, and none shall have passed away. And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law. Every wit pointing to the great and last sacrifice, and that great and last sacrifice will be the son of God, yay, infinite and eternal.
Okay,
awesome. So that's what Book of Mormon prophets
believed that the law of Moses that the sacrifices that everything about that is pointing to Jesus Christ and his infinite and lost sacrifice.
Yeah. Help me understand then when I think there's a verse in Doctrine of Covenants where it talks about such and such will happen until the sons of Levi offer a righteous sacrifice to me again. You know what I'm talking about?
I don't.
No, but I will look that up.
Okay, I'll look it up and I I'll I'll bring it up one time.
Okay. All right. So, um Jesus was the scapegoat in Isaiah 5346. It says, "Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. The Lord hath laid him on him the iniquity of us all. And then he's also the Lord's goat in Matthew 26:28. This is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of their sins.
So we know what they were looking forward to. But in order for this to be sacred time, they have to also look backward. And for those who like might be feel like they're a little confused, go back and link in the description will be Christina Demick's previous video where we in previous two videos, but specifically the last one on the nativity, uh we talk about the day of atonement and and all the elements there. So if you feel a little bit lost, go there, watch that, and then come back.
Okay, pause. We'll give you a minute to hit that pause button. Come back. Okay. So, we need to know what they're looking back
at in order to know how they were creating sacred space and time. So, this is really interesting. If you go to um Genesis,
because we know that they in acted out the creation story, right? So, somewhere in the creation story, there has got to be a lord's goat and escape goat.
Yeah. Okay. Let's look. Genesis what? Um, Genesis 16. We'll do the Lord's goat first. So, this is right after Adam and Eve have partaken of the fruit of the tree of life.
Wait, so this is Genesis 21:16. You said
3:16.
3:16. So, they have partaken of the fruit of the tree of life. They have confessed to the Lord what they've done. And Satan has they've said, you know, Satan begiled me and I partake of the fruit. And um
then there's the curse given to Satan. He will crawl on his belly. But now the Lord is going to turn and talk to um Eve. And so verse 16,
unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy concept and thy conception. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
All right? So he has now given us the Lord's goat.
The woman represents the Lord's goat. She is the blood sacrifice that makes mortal life possible.
Interesting.
Every month she makes a sacrifice
that makes mortality possible and she is the one that makes life possible. Like Christ's blood sacrifice made eternal life possible where we can live with God again.
Her sacrifice will make mortal life possible. She is now identified as the Lord's goat. Um, we talked in the last video about how women would go to the mikvah and have a ritual cleansing.
Um, so after their monthly sacrifice, they were just pronounced clean.
Clean.
So when um we go to the temple and we do our washing and anointings, women are pronounced clean
during those washing and anointings. So okay,
interesting. the blood sacrifice, the menstrual cycle, the the mikvah being pronounced clean. That's crazy.
Yeah.
I feel like I need to sit and think about that for a while.
I got time. I
Yeah. Gosh, that's really cool. Okay. So, okay. If if the woman is the is the Lord's goat,
then who is is Adam the the other goat?
Yeah. So, let's get verses 17 through 19.
Okay. Okay. I think I know what you're going to say. Yeah. This is crazy. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also, and thistles shall bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field, and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread, till thou return unto the ground. And for out of it was thou taken. For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Okay, so here we have our scapegoat identified.
He's supposed to go out into the wilderness. If you want to read um 23,
therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground. And it's specifically saying sent him forth.
Yep.
To till the ground from whence he was taken.
So Adam has become our scapegoat. Interesting. Okay. So
sorry because well I'm just thinking the other thing that's interesting right is we talked about this with the nativity story. So John came before right just because the scapegoat um was also chosen before the lot was cast on him. So you have Adam, he's created first and then you have someone that is create, you have Eve created from his rib, right? Like showing
they're genetic.
They're next to each they're genetic twins almost. You know, he's she's made out of the same thing he is. And we talked about, you know, goats and like 60% of them give birth to twins. And it was really interesting. You have to go back if you haven't watched that.
Okay, that's really cool actually.
Yeah. So now you have your scapegoat and we have our lord's goat. and the scapegoat is sent forth. Um, it very interesting here is that um he says that in 21 read 20. So thinking about our washing and anointing read 21
says unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them.
He places a garment upon them
in this moment.
So so difference between um the washing and anointing between the men and the women. And this is really what got me questioning and wondering like I ask this question all the time. How come the men are told that they may become clean? Yeah.
From the sins and blood or what is the blood of the generation generation whereas women are pronounced clean.
Well, women are washed clean
in the mikvah. And then pronounced clean because they have to go into the temp that sacrifice goes into the temple. The blood sacrifice goes into the temple. The scapegoat didn't go into the temple. So he didn't have to be washed clean. He could be sent out.
Yeah. So, but through his faithfulness in that wilderness, he can become clean. So, I I have I'm like curious because I know that women for us this is like just such a natural thing, right? We
have babies, we do this. This is this happens with our bodies like
Yeah.
But I'm wondering if Yeah. If as scapegoats you feel the weight of this I mean I've heard it called the curse of mortality or the the weight of mortality or all those things like the sins blood and sins. Do you feel that? Does that affect you on a daily monthly yearly basis? Where are you guys?
Well, I think I mean as I'm thinking about this, right, it is really this whole sins being on our on our head essentially that the sins because that's the other thing that I never understood as well is why am I responsible for the blood and sins of the whole generation?
You know what I mean? Yeah. But in this idea of the Lord's goat and the scapegoat and if if the man represents the scapegoat then it may like that makes it's the first time that I've ever seen scripturally like okay there's something there's
a reason for this
that's really cool. Now I will say and you know it's hard when you're talking about men and women because not all men men are not a monolith and neither are women right so everyone's there's differences. Yeah,
there are women who are more masculine and there are men who are more feminine in nature and so but I think generally speaking like men are I don't know men are outward facing to the world you know what I mean they're they're doing things outward facing women are inward facing to the home to their to their kin right they're worried about relationships right their individual relationships men are out trying to affect
affect the world you know what I mean so That's that's what came to my mind when you said like when you said do men think about that you know about the blood and sins of the generation. I don't know I don't know but man gosh now I need to go to the temple
and I need to sit
yeah I honestly haven't thought much about that because I was I I mean I focus more on the part of through your faithfulness you can become clean of the blood and sins of this generation. So I'm like oh like I'll just be faithful as as faithful as I can. Yeah.
Um,
does it feel like a responsibility?
Yeah. I mean, well, think about what the priesthood is, right? And maybe that's where you're going here is like, and that that is that is the method by which we it is through service because, okay, sorry. I mean, this is the sick of Joseph, right? We're thinking out loud live on camera.
I just kind of I just kind of dropped the ball.
Everybody, please drop drop your comments on thoughts about this, too, because I'm interested to see what you guys have to say. But the thing that's coming to my head right now is, you know, this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. That is that's God's mission statement and that's a mission statement we're supposed to participate in. Now, uh priesthood forces you to participate in that work. If you take on the it doesn't force you because you have to willingly take on the priesthood, but once you've taken on that responsibility, it causes you to engage. Now, think about what, you know, a bishop does in his ward, right? He's dealing with the blood and sins of his ward of of those around there.
Um,
think about stake president does all the way all the way up. You know what I mean? Like the the high priest at the time um of the first and second temple period, right? He represented like he took on the blood and sins of all of Israel and that's why these sacrifices were made. You know what I And and so maybe it has something to say about why men hold the priesthood and it has to do with this whole scapegoat thing and ah it's crazy. There's just so much I need to keep thinking on it.
You want to do you want a couple examples of scapegoats?
Yeah, please.
All right. So, we talked about John the Baptist.
Uhhuh.
What did he do?
He came before Christ and he
called repentance in the wilderness
and he baptized people for the remission of their sins.
Do I remember all the points? One more prepared the way.
He prepared the way
prepared the way for the Lord of God. And then um he also says that I must decrease so that he can increase
which is a really interesting one. So let's go through preparing the way for the Lord. Yeah.
Like if you're John the Baptist, you know,
if that's an example of a scapegoat.
Yeah.
Preparing the way for the Lord. So in what ways do you guys prepare for the second coming? I mean this is us. This is our time. We are looking forward to the second coming of Jesus Christ, right?
So,
how how do you help prepare the world for the second coming of Jesus Christ?
Preach repentance.
Never inviting her back.
No, no, no. It's good. Preach repentance. Participate in ancestral and temple works so that when the Lord comes, it may not be the earth may not be cursed.
Um,
yeah.
Do a lot of things. I mean, all the things that John the Baptist did. Yeah. Essentially, yeah. Preach repentance, baptize for the remission of sins. The things that your son's doing on a mission, that I did on a mission, and that we should be doing with our neighbors, you know, inviting them to repent and make covenants with God.
Yes. Yeah. I love all of that. That's awesome.
Um, and so then the other one that I wanted to ask about is this, it's really interesting, this decrease so that he can increase. Um so the natural man decreasing so that Christ can increase within us right like so this is this idea of the within us
we are going to decrease so that Christ can be seen better that make sense so it's marshalling our own selves
bringing in I say are but I'm not a scapegoat so sorry I don't want to point at you though and be like you guys are smart
you guys do it
um so
getting rid of those natural tendencies um anything that's in the way of and you don't have to be a scapegoat to do this. Like
earlier this year, you know, I prayed and asked what what do I have to get rid of um in my life for you to be more here, to have more space in my heart. And I started having dreams of people in elementary school who had like hurt my feelings or like and and it was like this this overall reaching forgive them and I was like I don't even remember this happened but I would have this dream and I would be like okay and I'd get up in the morning and I'd be like okay I forgive them like this is easy and then they started then I started having dreams of people like it was like going through my life.
Yeah. and working through forgiving of people throughout my life that I hadn't consciously
knew you were harboring.
Yeah. I had no idea that I still had that inside of me. And then he got to the ones that I knew about. I was like, "Whoa, whoa, hang on. That's a little personal there." Like,
so are all these random people just getting Facebook messages out of the blue being like, "Hey, I'm sorry.
You did this to me and it hurt me greatly, but I forgive you."
A lot of it was with me and Jesus were like sitting down. And so, yeah. So there have been a couple that I and then it's that I have had to ask forgiveness
from and it's been this whole entire journey and it's been amazing because you know it's brought me closer to Jesus but I was like what made me want to pray that prayer again after so deep into it. So I think you don't have to be a scapegoat in order to decrease so that Christ can increase.
For sure. Hey, Dakota, if you're watching this, uh, I forgive you if you're not in prison.
Uh, then I forgive you.
Oh, that one guy. There's just there was there was a wild kid in my elementary school. He he punched me one time in the face.
No.
Did you punch him back?
I kicked him in the chest.
Yeah. Dad taught me to.
He taught you how to kick someone in the chest?
We didn't. He just said that I
I never got that last.
And there's one time I just kicked him in the chest. He didn't bug me after that, though. But I don't think I ever forgave him. So
there you go.
I hope you forgive me for kicking in the
I'm going to ask dad for that lesson.
It's like a I am Sparta kick. It was pretty sick.
Nice.
Two fourth graders on the playground.
Okay, cool.
Love it. Okay, so
so sorry.
You're good. Okay, let's talk about another uh scapegoat. Elma the Elder.
Mhm. Elma the Elder. So we've got Abinadai who the blood sacrifice, life sacrifice. And by the way, what was Abinadai's crime,
preaching Jesus,
saying that Jesus was going to come in the flesh?
Quoting Elma 53. So yeah, so Abinadai is killed for preaching that Jesus Christ will come in the flesh, right? Elma heads into the wilderness. And what is he doing out there?
Preaching.
Preaching.
Baptizing.
Yep. Yep.
Preparing the way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Interesting. And then he starts the church in Zahla
and prepares the way
Jesus Christ.
Interesting.
Yeah. So, we've got another scapegoat.
Another scape here's another scapegoat uh one that just came to mind and it's interesting because you don't ever you don't ever picture and this is when we were talking about the day of atonement in our last episode. This is one of the hurdles. I'm still trying to figure out how to reconcile because uh you know you have the scapegoat scenario with Jesus and Barbus kind of. It seems like a day of atonement thing, but like Barbas is a bad guy, you know what I mean? And so I always looked at Lucifer and Jesus and like that relationship as as that too, which it might be as well,
but multivalent, right?
Yeah. Cast out into the lone world to crawl on his belly.
Yeah. Like Satan's also cast out, right? Which is which is interesting.
Yeah. I guys as the embodiment of the sins of the sins. They are the embodiment of it. They are how they're able to use. Yeah.
Yeah. That's one way of looking at it, too. But yeah, thinking about Cain and Abel, right?
Um, so Cain is, as far as I understand, he's the older brother. Um, Cain is the older brother. At least in the apocryphal accounts in Jonah's books, he talks about Kane's the older brother. Um, Kane's the older brother.
No. And it literally says, "And Adam knew his wife and she conceived and Cain."
Oh, yeah. Cain first. Okay, cool. So Kane's the older one. He comes before then, uh, Abel's blood is literally spilled. Yeah.
Right. And Cain is cast out into the wilderness. Uh, and like his sins are on his head like forever, like to the point where it's like no one can kill him, right? Don't touch him.
So, that's another uh scapegoat scenario.
Yeah. And the Book of Mormon uses um Antichrist as examples, too. Yeah. So I think this was and a lot of Jacob's preaching is the opposite preaching like
you know he does kind of
he'll give you the bad example in order to teach you the good
sometimes the best example is the worst example you can see the results of
for sure
so then you can teach consequences.
Okay.
So
so yeah this scapegoat thing. So going back to the temple and so obviously we're seeing this day of atonement the scapegoat and the the Lord's goat thing playing out. And so for us specifically going back, it it it seems like man's role and Adam's role is to be the scapegoat and Eve's role is to be, you know, the blood sacrifice. Yep.
Interesting.
Yep. Okay. Really cool.
So in Jesus Christ, these two come together. The scapegoat and the Lord's goat come together in his sacrifice and it makes eternal life possible.
Yeah.
When Adam and Eve come together, it makes mortal life possible. Right. So in our temples, we seal our goats together.
Yeah.
Why? I mean, beyond the marriage idea, but if we're going to carry this through, there's got to be some type of life that is created by that ceiling.
Mhm.
What kind of life do we have?
I mean,
because we're anointed to be what?
Kings and queens, priests and priestesses,
exalted life, too. Yeah. Eternal life as families is made possible. Okay. So um if we go to so we talked about the temple being a cosmos. So as they would cleanse the temple it would cleanse the earth. Jesus Christ did his atonement. It cleans all of us. Cleanses all of us.
So at Christ's second coming there's going to be another cleansing of the earth. His glory is going to come through and burn.
Right. It says burn the wicked I think but it's like it's going to cleanse the earth.
If we don't have those ceilings then the earth is going to be wasted. So, if you want to go to um let me see which one it is. Uh DNC 88, I think. Nope. DNC 2.
DNC.
I was ahead of myself.
What verse?
The whole thing.
Okay. You want me to read it?
Yeah.
That's a long section. Holy cow. All right.
Here we go. Buckle up, everybody.
Buckle up, everybody. It says, "Behold, I will reveal unto you the priesthood by the hand of Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming."
Okay. So, there's a couple different versions or interpretations of what the utterly wasted. Yeah. One could be physically
it can literally be burned and our ceilings are going to save it
from the or going to preserve the celestial part of it. I guess
um another one is that it would be utterly wasted if we didn't have these ceilings because there would be no one here to live on it.
It would be like a waste
pun waste of time and space.
Yeah. Yeah.
Is because nobody would be here. It was like that whole experiment was
that whole plan was made for nothing. We did all this work
and then we have this celestial earth and there's no celestial beings to be on it. So that would be another utterly wasting at his coming.
Yeah.
So um I I just wanted to bring this all about that number one in our temples we are also creating sacred space and time. We are folding time. We're doing past, present and future. And if you think about even the fact that you take a name of somebody through the temple from the past
in the past
in the present I'm doing work
with the hope of living with this person eternally
in the future. So I'm putting all of that together and my where's my heart? It's turned to them and they're turned to us. Right?
This is a whole new
turning idea when we're all they're literally standing in front of me. Well, even I mean even with if you just stick with the names themselves, you're taking someone's past name
and
you use your present name
to talk about to present them with a potential future name.
Yeah.
If they want to accept that, right?
Yep.
And so like you have the past, present, and future in their names all all in one in the temple.
All in one just in the name. Folding folding folding.
Yeah. So we have our that's how learning all this stuff about the feast has answered questions about my current temple experience and I don't go in it the same way like I had that question like why do men have this and why do women have this and why are we this way it's because it's ancient
it is ancient temple also Joseph Smith there is no way he could have known that
he's saying that
you know Brigham Young nope they did not they wouldn't have understood
this and so But it's all there. And so bringing in the scapegoat thing for me just kind of opened up so much about the temple that I
had had pieces of but it connected.
Yeah.
So that I was able to make that connection. So it changed my temple worship.
Here's a question.
Okay.
Have you do you teach temple prep?
I I have before. You have before?
Oh yeah.
This
I feel like
this would be great temple prep. Don't you think? Well, the emphasis clearly, I mean, at least with President Nelson for the last, you know, however many years, eight years has been go to the temple because it is the place that you will be able to commune with God the best. Go to the temple, perform these ordinances. But I feel like the emphasis of being in the temple has been so great. And I talked to so many way too many people that go to the temple and they really just don't even try to understand what they're doing there and they just, you know, it's a quiet place. I don't have my phone with me and I feel like I'm doing good things. Yeah.
But I just don't feel like
I mean we've lost the inability to speak this an ancient language that's so symbolic and makes things so much deeper than just the actions that we're doing at the temple. Yeah, we do it every Sunday in sacrament, too. Do you want to do a sacrament prayer?
Pull the sacrament purse. Let's do that.
What is that in 20 also? Then I have this question about the sacrifice thing. And it may not be a big thing, but I just I've always do that first.
Uh, okay. Okay.
I may not know. So in section 13 um it says basically an extract from Joseph Smith's history recounting the ordination of the prophet and Oliver Cry to the ironic priesthood near Harmony, Pennsylvania. The ordination was done by the hands of an angel who announced himself as John the same John who is John the Baptist in the new New Testament. The angel explained that he was acting under the direction of Peter, James, and John and ancient apostles who held keys of the Mckazic priesthood.
And it says, it's just one verse. It says, "Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels and of the gospel of repentance and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. And this shall never be taken away.
There we go. taken again from the earth until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness. And so my question is like I've heard this many different times like it's an ongoing restoration. One day we'll even perform you know animal sacrifices again. But I'm like if Jesus kind of did away with that, what does that mean? The sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.
Um okay. So just a brief but not the full answer.
Mhm.
Um there's different offerings. Now they he didn't say make a sacrifice. He said make an offering. So that's different.
Um
yeah,
a little bit different. Um so it's not law of Moses stuff. He's not saying that the sons of Levi are going to be doing the law of Moses again,
but because it uses the sons of Levi, it makes you immediately think about that, right?
Yeah. So, I would be happy to do some research on this and get some more answers for you, get some more in depth.
My initial my initial thought is like um you you know now we're asked to offer up a a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
Um and so and the sons of Levi like it's a priest. It's a priest class. like this this could be this could actually have something to do with what we're talking about with being clean from the blood blood and sins of this generation. Maybe in some way this is a call to the priesthood to rid themselves through the offering of their contrite heart and and uh or broken heart and contrite spirit in order to become clean, you know? So it maybe it's as simple as that. You know what I mean?
Yeah. But yeah, interesting.
Very well.
Okay, I will get answers.
Okay, so now we're in uh I got the sacrament prayers right here.
Let's just do one and we'll look at P. Look for past, present, future.
Okay, cool. Uh which one do you want me to read?
Either one.
Okay, I'll do the uh bread.
Okay. Oh God, the eternal father, we ask thee in the name of thy son Jesus Christ to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy son and witness unto thee, oh God the eternal father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he hath given them, that they may always have his spirit to be with them. Amen.
So, past, what are we remembering?
Christ sacrifice.
Christ sacrifice. Present, what are we doing? There's quite a lot that we're doing.
We're eating in remembrance. We're making, we're showing that we're willing. Um, we're partaking of the bread.
And is there his name?
Uh, we're saying we're willing to take upon the name of
We're professing our willingness to do. Okay. And then to what extent, what are we looking forward to?
That we will have his spirit to be with us.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So it's past, present, future
all folded into one.
And we're doing this in sacrament.
Uhhuh. Yeah. Yeah.
Every week.
Interesting.
Like understanding that changed sacrament for me. I mean
temple's awesome, you know, but like Sunday sacrament meeting to know that we're sitting in a sacred space and we're folding time
in these prayers and that what we were doing is entering God time
is when we do that changed sacrament for me.
That's cool.
Yeah. Huh. So, yeah. Okay.
So, we do this and it's also a renewal of our baptismal covenant, right? So, that's a past
thing.
And in that moment, we're renewing it and we're washed clean,
right? So,
future.
Yeah.
Cool. That's awesome.
So, it's it's taking all of this and putting it into our worship
so that we're worshiping with in sacred space and time.
Yeah.
That's cool.
I like that.
Yeah. So, and then I just wrap up the cosmos thing like we have we talked about the cleansing of the temple being cleansing of the world, Christ's cleansing. So, at his second coming, there's another cleansing and because of our ordinances and our ceilings, um that cleansing will
create it and turn it into the paradise glory that it's going to have when it when it comes when Christ comes. So, there's another the temple and the cosmos. So what we're doing in the temple is affecting the cosmos.
Wow,
that's really cool. Yeah, man. I got some real things to think about here. I really like the the conception of of God time being the past, present, and future all folded into one and how we are essentially modeling that through the ordinances, through the way that we worship and do these sacred things. Mhm.
And then I really got to think about the scapegoat thing and the blood and sins of this generation. I really want to understand that better.
Well, and I just want to point out that that role is just as important
as and represents Jesus Christ just as much as the Lord's goat. Because when I would ask people,
why are women just cleaned and men are not? And they're like, oh, it's because we're willing to risk our lives to bring life into which is true.
Yeah. But it is equal to I mean it's a partnership, right? It's a partnership. An equal partnership. And so yeah.
Crazy. Wow.
Christina, you got anything else for us or is that the Is that the boat?
Not today.
Not today. Holy cow.
Yeah, that was awesome. I hope you guys enjoyed it as well. If you enjoyed it, share it with other people. Uh, like I said, if you felt like you're lost with the in the sauce, but you uh you kept watching anyway, go back to the two previous ones we did with Christina, and it will just enhance your understanding. And I'm so grateful for you coming in. You're amazing. Thank you. Um, and until next time, stay curious and hungry.