The Book of Esther
Ben and Shiloh continue with the discussion of the Sermon at the Temple. When Jesus Christ visited the people in the Americas, he was doing more than bringing them a great new message. He taught, identified, and led them into a completely new way of experience and being. All too often, we unwittingly interpret scripture through the biased lens of our own language, culture, past experiences, and a host of other filters that often distort the intended message as it was given. Through this episode, Ben and Shiloh use Jesus Christ's message in the Sermon at the Temple as the lens to view and understand Isaiah, Malachi, and the rest of Jesus Christ's message throughout 3rd Nephi. Using the Sermon at the Temple as the lens produces some fascinating new insights into the nature of God, the end of days prophecies, the building of Zion, and of how God views the state of the wicked. ...
Shiloh and Ben open up a discussion to consider God’s perennial nature and work. This discussion starts in an unlikely place by talking about the archetype of Satan. Section 10 contains more references to “Satan” than almost any other, and there is a lot to learn about ourselves through this archetypal recognition. Whereas Christ is our anointed advocate with the Father, Satan is “The Accuser” that interacts with and justifies the perceived existence of the “false self.” In these verses we see a beautiful revelation of God helping us identify and deal with the accusing voice within each of us that we feed, nurture, and cherish. It is this accusing voice that most commonly motivates our feeling to justify our opinions, put others in their place, and tells us that our worthiness/unworthiness has any conditional power over God’s love, compassion, and grace. Consider the point of view of Joseph Smith’s persecutors and those who had taken the 116-page manuscript. Surely they believed and felt their actions were motivated from a sense of justice in ridding the world of a charlatan, a fraud, a cheater, and a liar, and certainly they saw no problems in entrapping Joseph in his seeming dishonesty. Today, our society and culture completely accepts the same use and tactic of Joseph’s old persecutors in justifying lying-to-a-liar in our own “justice system” to catch supposed cheats, fraudsters, and criminals in the act. The Accuser teaches us to “Deceive and lie in wait to catch, that ye may destroy [evil from among you],” and that “it is no sin to lie that they may catch a man in a lie, that they may destroy him” (D&C 10:25). ...
Ben is joined by Christopher Hurtado for a discussion about the Kirtland Temple dedication. How did the early Saints view the temple and what does the Lord invite us to by way of the symbolism of the temple itself? Does God need a building or is the structure a mode by which we manifest our intention as a people? Prayer is often perceived as a way to inform or persuade God, but if God’s knowledge and will are perfect, prayer can only be a mode of changing us and our perceptions to align with God’s. How does Joseph Smith’s dedicatory prayer show us a pattern of worship and prayer? What can contradictions and inconsistencies teach us about the purpose of prayer? What is the veil that covers our minds and how are we to understand the purpose of the appearance of Jesus and other prophets in the Kirtland temple? ...
