All Things Witness

Thoughts on the mission and power of Jesus Christ


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The Things of My Soul

I am something of a broken mess. I’ve known this for many years, although some of the reasons for this have only begun to become apparent to me over the last few months. My life-long struggle with depression, repeatedly escalating into debilitating episodes, now has some explanation. I am grateful for that, although the path to find my way out of it is long and currently shows no potential end. I trust that in either this life or the next, my soul will finally be free of the pain and affliction that have tormented me these past 50+ years.

As I was pondering this morning, the words came to me, ‘the things of my soul’. I thought it sounded like Nephi in the Book of Mormon, and a quick search led me to 2 Nephi 4:15 

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People standing on beach practicing Yoga


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Mental Gymnastics

A phrase I see a lot in discussions about faith, politics, social cohesion and more these days is ‘mental gymnastics’. I’ve used it myself more than once. It seems that whatever ‘side’ of an issue you’re on, the ‘other side’ must engage in mental gymnastics in order to justify their conclusions. It suggests that there is an obvious, plain explanation of the issue – an Occam’s Razor if you like – and that your position is precisely that one. Everyone else, on the other hand, is having to come up with convoluted, irrational arguments just justify their own position.

On the one hand, scriptures confirm that truth is something that should make sense and be, to some degree, rational. ‘Let us reason together,’ the Lord says in both Isaiah and the Doctrine and Covenants (see Isaiah 1:18, D&C 50:10-11).

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A man removing a blue mask, and a woman removing a red mask


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Am I Severed?

I’m currently something of a fanboy of the Apple TV series Severance. It doesn’t neatly fit a genre, being mystery/thriller/sci-fi/horror/drama. It’s what you call a slow-burn. There’s not much in the way of action. There are long gaps between dialogue. Indeed, you could get to the end of an episode and wonder whether anything much had even happened. And yet it’s absolutely riveting.

Every scene, every image, every word has significance, and the whole show acts as a giant metaphor. It’s the sort of series that when something is revealed in, say, the 4th episode of the 2nd series, you feel like you have to watch the entire show from series 1, episode 1 again. What it’s a metaphor for is the question that has been delved into online in abundance, with a ton of theories around. It truly is a work of sublime art.

It is the metaphor (or one possible metaphor) I want to talk about in this post, but I need to explain the show a bit first. Warning: spoilers coming. If you haven’t watched it yourself, another warning if you’re going to check it out, for strong language.

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Refugees


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Being Right and Wrong

It seems I upset a few people with my post of yesterday. That wasn’t my intention. Given two of the three examples I used for living according to the scriptural injunction were based on my experience in the LDS church (tithing and polygamy), and that most of my readers are LDS, I knew there might be some discomfort for some people. But I expected it to be in relation to tithing and/or polygamy. I did receive one message from a lovely LDS woman about tithing, but every single other comment was about immigration – and not a single person had a positive thing to say about it. Indeed, quite a few were angry that I dared suggest a scriptural approach to the issue.

On the one hand, I probably should have foreseen this. I know immigration is a hot-button issue for a lot of people, and it does appear to be more prevalent amongst the Christian right, which the Mormon church definitely identifies with.

But on the other hand, it is both bewildering and soul-crushing.

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Open Bible


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Discerning Truth From Counterfeit

‘Today Christians … stand at the head of [this country]… I pledge that I never will tie myself to parties who want to destroy Christianity … We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit … We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press – in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past … (few) years.’ – Adolf Hitler (Cline, Austin. “Adolf Hitler on Christianity: Quotes.” Learn Religions, Apr. 5, 2023, learnreligions.com/adolf-hitler-on-christianity-quotes-248190.)

Angel Studios recent film release, Truth and Treason, has been getting a fair amount of publicity in the circles I inhabit online. I haven’t seen it yet, but I want to. It tells the true story of a young 17 year old Helmuth Hübener who resisted the Nazis and was executed by them. What the film doesn’t tell you is that Helmuth was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that he was also excommunicated by the Church for his resistance to the Nazis.

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Samuel the Lamanite on the walls of Zarahemla


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Do We Need Another Samuel the Lamanite?

One of the YouTube channels I follow is Connor Boyack. For those who don’t know him, Connor is a fairly well-known commentator and activist in Utah, probably of a more Libertarian bent, and active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Sometimes I agree with him, and sometimes I disagree but I usually find his ‘Sunday musings’ well thought-out and researched.

Yesterday, he entitled his musing ‘What would a modern Samuel the Lamanite sound like?’ You can watch his musing here.

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Nephi with Sword of Laban


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The Sword of Laban

The story of Laban and his sword in the Book of Mormon has long fascinated me. For many, it’s a problematic story, because Nephi cuts off Laban’s head with his own sword, as commanded by the Spirit and, well, that sort of thing is more likely to be a sign of mental illness in our days and times. So, I get that.

But I think we’ve long misinterpreted this passage and today I’d like to perhaps recast this tale and hopefully help us to all understand it in a new light.

First off, it’s probably worth emphasising a couple of things. One, although told in narrative story form, Nephi isn’t writing in order to tell us a story. He is teaching us about how to come to Christ. He is most explicit about this effort in 2 Nephi, but it’s the same message in 1 Nephi – just expressed differently.

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Jesus and Children


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The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven

I find that some of the most tender scenes in the scriptures are when Jesus is with children. For Latter-day Saints, perhaps the scene in the Book of Mormon when Christ visits the people after his resurrection comes to mind.

‘Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full. And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them. And when he had done this he wept again; And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones. And as they looked to behold they cast their eyes towards heaven, and they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them.’ (3 Nephi 17:20-24)

Any parent would desire such a blessing for their children.

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Lehi teaches his family


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Arise From the Dust

In my last post, I talked about one way to interpret the writings of Nephi in the Book of Mormon is to assume that the characters of Laman and Lemuel represent you and me. Remember, they were always obedient to the Law of Moses – Nephi never once calls them out on that. They were also just like the majority of the Jews at Jerusalem – those who were about to be destroyed because of their wickedness (see 1 Nephi 2:13).

Although this approach makes us feel uncomfortable – after all, none of us likes to believe that we are included amongst the wicked – it causes some deep introspection and self-examination. We start to look more closely at how Nephi describes his older brothers. If he never criticises them for their approach to the Law of Moses, when does he call them to repentance?

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Nephi and Laman arguing


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Being Laman

I don’t believe there is any single ‘right’ way to read or interpret the scriptures. Throughout my life, passages of scripture have meant different things to me at different times. You might have had the experience of reading a verse for the umpteenth time, only to have it jump out at you for the first time, and saying to yourself, ‘I’m sure that verse wasn’t there last time I read.’ It happens to me a lot.

The Jews had 4 ways to read the scriptures:

1. Peshat: the literal, simple level.

2. Remez: the allegorical level

3. Derash: the sermonic level – what the text means to individual people applying it in their lives

4. Sod: the mystical level

I often tell myself that I ‘should’ really spend more time examining the scriptures with each of these four ideas in mind. And when I listen to talks given by Robert Kay, for example, on understanding what it means to call upon the name of the Lord in Ether 3-4, it blows my mind at what there is to discover (see the video here). Robert is totally fascinating and I encourage you to give him a listen if you haven’t previously.

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