The Trial of the Witch and the sale of Indulgences

So here is the dialogue from "The Holy Grail" that got me thinking.

The Witch

Peasant 1: A witch! We have found a witch! Can we burn her?
Belvedere: How do you know that she is a witch?
Peasant 2: Because she looks like one!
Witch: I am not a witch! I am not a witch! They dressed me up like this, and this is not my nose it is a false one!
[Belvedere pulls off the false nose and opens his helmet]
Peasant 1: Well, we did do the nose, and the hat.
Peasant 2: She has a wart.
Belvedere: Why do you think that she is a witch?
Peasant 2: Well, she turned me into a newt.
[Belvedere gives him a disbelieving look]
Belvedere: A newt?
[Silence]
Peasant 2: Well I got better.
Peasant 3: Burn her anyway.
[Yells of "Burn her!"]
Belvedere: There are ways of telling whether she is a witch. Tell me, what do you do with witches?
Peasants: Burn them!
Belvedere: Now, what do burn besides witches?
Peasant 3: More witches! [receives a punch from Peasant 1; silence]
Peasant 2: Wood?
Belvedere: So, why do witches burn? [more silence]
Peasant 2: Because there made of wood?
Belvedere: So, how do you tell if she is made of wood?
Peasant 3: Build a bridge out of her!
Belvedere: Ah, but cant you also build bridges out of stone?
Peasant 3: Oh, right.
Belvedere: Tell me, does wood sink?
Peasant 1: No, it floats.
Belvedere: What also floats in water?
[lots of yelling and many wrong and random answers including very small rocks]
King Arthur: A duck!
Belvedere: Exactly!
Peasant 2: So if she weighs as much as a duck she is made of wood.
Belvedere: And therefore?
Peasants: A witch!
Belvedere: We shall use my largest scales.
[Having been revealed to weigh the same as a duck, therefore proving her a witch, the crowd goes insane]
Witch: It's a fair cop.

Hilarious! But for some reason it made me think of the sale of indulgences. The reasoning for indulgences is about as logical as the reasoning in the duck and the witch.

"...indulgences are procured by men on earth to reduce the period in which men suffer in purgatory; and since the Catholics teach that the church leaders have authority to designate the term in which the punishment can be reduced, indulgences vary in value, the specific value being designated on the indulgence in years and days...Therefore, Catholics believe that there is a safety or insurance feature in obtaining as many indulgences as possible. "
American Religions and the Rise of Mormonism, Milton V. Backman, pg. 42

The logic is sound. LOL. If a Bishop needed to build a new Cathedral or a small summer Cottage just let the peasants view some relics and pay the fee and they receive the "promissory note" for 100,000 years of time served in purgatory, signed by the Pope himself (Ibid pg, 56-57)

Thank goodness Martin Luther saw the light. His tone sharpened in his Ninety-Five Theses as he said there is no divine authority for preaching that the "Soul flies out of purgatory" immediately as "the money clinks into the money chest." (Ibid pg63)

Anyway, this has all brought into sharp focus for me the need for a restoration; or the realization that witches weigh the same as ducks and God is just waiting for me to stare at a wood chip masquerading as a relic and a C-note to forgive my pride.


Big UP!

Lamanite

Will a man rob God?

King James Version (KJV)

Malachi 3

8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.

12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.


Tithing is a pretty simple commandment. There is not a whole lot of wiggle room (except for the whole, net vs. gross issue). You either do it or you don't. Anyway, I was reading these verses and a few things stood out to me.

1. I believe the Lord always fulfills His part of promises. He promises here that he will "open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. So if I pay my tithing then this has, and is, happening. The fun part was looking for blessings that amount to my not having "room enough to receive" them. 

2. In verse 11 it mentions the "devourer". Who or what is that? If God rebukes the devourer, will we be rich? Or does this apply to both spiritual and temporal things? And if both temporal and spiritual can you give me examples that qualify for vs. 11?

3. Vs. 12 mentions a "land". Is this just the "Church" or if all people in America lets say, paid tithing, would we be doing a little better economically?

Anyway, it never ceases to amaze me how a few scriptures can consume and occupy my mind. These quiet moments of pondering are when it is most likely that I hear/feel the quiet whisperings of the Lord.

1 Kings 19

11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:

12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

Big UP!

The Lamanite

Baptism for Health, Papers of Joseph Smith vol. 2 edited by Dean C. Jessee

I was reading through the year 1842 in Jessee's book. Mostly for the express purpose of finding out more about the condition of the relationship between Emma and Joseph at that time.

In the beginning of Oct of 1942 both Joseph and Emma had taken ill. On 5 October 1842 - Wednesday the entry reads in part:

QUOTE

Sister E. (Emma) is worse, many fears are entertained that she will not recover. She was baptised twice in the river which evidently did her much good. Jessee pg 486 emphasis added

The footnote to this entry reads:

1. On the practice of baptizing for health, see D. Michael Quinn, "The Practice of Rebaptism at Nauvoo," BYU Studies 18 (Winter 1978):226-32.

I wasn't able to locate Quinn's paper (who I find to be a wonderful historian.), so I turned to some friends for help. "LifeOnAPlate" was able to help in that he did a very nice post over at "Life On Gold Plates" on Re-Baptism and the early Saints. Anyway he gave me a link to Quinns paper. I have included the portions I found germain to the topic of this particular post, but the entire paper is well worth the read.

Read more >> Options >>

Although Quinn is not the only source that mentions or discusses this type of Baptism, it is surely the most comprehensive. Nevertheless it leaves some questions unasked and unanswered.

1. How many baptisms are there that were practiced in the early days of the Church?

My guess is around 4.

1. Baptism for the remission of sins. Still practiced today.
2. Baptism for the dead. Still practiced today.
3. ReBaptism for Ecclesiastical purposes. No longer practiced.
4. ReBaptism for Health. No longer practiced.
   

Allowing the first two to go without comment, I would like to take a quick look at 3 an 4. Upon searching I found the documentation to be fragmentary at best. So for our purposes we can stick with Quinn and Jessee as source notes.

Quinn States:

"Rebaptism for Health


The frequent use of rebaptism at Nauvoo as a means of healing sickness
may have derived from evidences of healing that occurred upon original
baptism. For example, Rhoda Richards (sister of Apostle Willard
Richards and subsequently a plural wife of Joseph Smith) recorded in her
journal that when she was baptized a member of the LDS Church on 2 June
1838: “In obeying the commands of the Lord I found great good. Health
was improved, poison disappeared, the cake of ice was melted from my
stomach. I found no need of Thomsonian medicine.”20 The first instructions
concerning baptism for health were given by Joseph Smith when he
dedicated the baptismal font of the Nauvoo Temple on 8 November 1841,
as recorded in a journal of William Clayton:
Brother Samuel Rolfe being present, and being seriously afflicted with a
felon on one hand president Joseph instructed him to wash in the font, and
Rebaptism at Nauvoo 3
told him he would be healed, although the doctors had told him it would not
be well before spring, and advised him to have it cut. He washed his hands in
the font and in one week afterwards his hand was perfectly healed.
After this time baptism was continued in the font, and many realized
great blessings both spiritually and bodily.21
Word of this use of the temple font was widely circulated and within a
few months a Mormon in a distant branch of the Church wrote to the
Prophet: “I have confidence that if I can be Baptized in the font I shall be
healed of a hereditary disease I am, and ever have been laboring under.
what is known by the name of sick head ache. I hope to be with the Saints
soon.”22 In time, baptisms for health were extended to the outlying
branches of the Church, as indicated by the baptisms for health performed
in October 1843 at Philadelphia by Jedediah M. Grant.23
Although some were baptized for health purposes in the Nauvoo
Temple font, still others resorted to the Mississippi River for this ordinance.
The most notable example occurred when Joseph Smith baptized
his wife Emma twice in the Mississippi River on 5 October 1842 because of
her serious ill health, and then went with her on 1 November 1842, “to the
temple [the font being the only part completed] for the benefit of her
health.”24 The Prophet’s anxiety for his wife to receive baptism for health
was such that a non-Mormon businessman reported that Joseph Smith
had interrupted a business interview because “Mrs Smith lay Dangerously
ill at the time and they ware about to administer the Rights of Baptism to
her.”25 Apostle Willard Richards also baptized his wife frequently for her
health.26 Certainly one of the most extraordinary examples of baptism for
health at Nauvoo occurred in December 1842, when Horace S. Eldredge
cut holes in the frozen river seven mornings in a row for the purpose of
baptizing John Bills for rheumatism and bleeding lungs.27 For the Mormons
of Nauvoo, baptism for health was both a priesthood ordinance and
a dramatic demonstration of personal faith."

Now the Baptism for health seems very much like a Priesthood blessing that is rooted in the wonderful symbolism of that ritual. The immersion in death and uprising into life seems more than applicable, in fact it's very powerful and at the same time very lovely to me. This baptism as we've read was sometimes done in the unfinished baptismal font according to great faith by some, but the idea of someone walking out into the cold waters of the Mississippi in October, under the loving hand of her husband to seek comfort and healing is a testament of their faith and dedication to God and His Priesthood. I have to wonder thought what the words to the prayer were?

And Then I ask what of the Ecclesistical Rebaptism? Again we turn to Quinn:

Rebaptism for Entering a New Ecclesiastical Relationship
The earliest suggestion of rebaptism in LDS history was in the 1830
Book of Mormon description of the righteous Nephites being rebaptized at
the command of the resurrected Christ when he visited them.4 Then,
although Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery had baptized themselves and
others for remission of sins for nearly a year prior to the organization of
the Church in 1830, the previously baptized followers of Joseph Smith
were again baptized as members of the newly organized Church of Christ.5
These two examples have been described as necessary ordinances to introduce
gospel followers into a new Church organization.
Although the documents are fragmentary, there is evidence that during
the Nauvoo period of the Church, previously baptized Latter-day Saints
were baptized again when they moved from a distant branch of the Church
to the Nauvoo area. Between 1841 and 1843, for example, ten members of
the Church who moved to the Nashville, Iowa Branch were added to the
branch by being rebaptized.7 The specific reason for this rebaptism is not
indicated. It might have been an absence of records proving their prior baptism,
or it might have been that the newly arrived Saints wished to demonstrate
their rededication after making a long journey to the new branch.

The ecclesiastical ReBaptism makes sense on many levels. For the Saints in the 30's I think it was a necessary thing to get them committed and bound by covenant as soon as possible. It seems a wonderful stroke of Genius/Revelation on Josephs part. As Joseph strives to create Zion it seems obvious that an outward token of an inward conversion be displayed when new Saints arrive as well as those who currently may reside with the Saints but may be re-converting as the flood of new Doctrine continued to flow from Joseph to his people.

It also seems likely that this pattern was inspiration or genesis for that which Brigham was doing during the Mormon Reformation. Again there was a need to establish Zion and to take people into the waters of Baptism and reconvert and well as recommit these individuals.

Lastly, why are these versions of Baptism gone? I don't know, I could definitely guess, but that may be a two steps backward and one forward kind of game.

Big UP!

Sione

Satanic Origins of Money.

After reading "Life on Gold Plates" newest post, it made me think of this quote.

Satan, "is in a powerful position to bargain. He explains that this glorious earth is his private estate, that it all belongs to him to the ends thereof; in articular he owns the mineral rights and the media of exchange, by controlling which he enjoys the willing cooperation of the military, ecclesiastical, and political establishments, and rules with magnificent uproar. He keeps everything under tight control, though, for all the blood and horror- nobody makes any trouble in his world from the rivers to the ends thereof. Well can he ask Adam, "what is it you want?" for he claims to be the God of this World, and the Lord himself grants him the title of Prince of this World. All who are not working for him on his estate he charges with trespassing, including even heavenly messengers, whom he accuses of spying out his vast property with an eye to taking over the whole of it. But he is willing to make a deal if they have any money. To have merely sufficient for your needs, however, is not what he has in mind...this developer has a vision of unlimited sweep and power". "You can have anything in this world for money!" Work We Must but the Lunch is Free, Hugh Nibley

Surely the lust of money is not a good thing. But to what degree do we say "Lord, we are the exception to the rule, let us try having a little money, and see if we do not become lustful, prideful, and God's unto ourselves!"

Mat 19:23 ¶ Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 19:24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.



These scriptures are straightforward, and yet a great many of us try to superimpose qualifications and exceptions, when there are none to be found within the text. Nor do I think any were implied. (For those who have heard the eye of the needle represented a gate into Jerusalem, you are mistaken. If you still don't believe me, provide a reference.) I think the message is simply that it's damn hard not to be prideful when we have an abundance. And when we are prideful we've cut ourselves off from the Lord; and in essence we have apostatized to a degree.

I could go on and on with references to scripture and the almost inevitable outcome of the money/pride cycle but I think I've made my point.

Why is it that we want so badly that which cannot satisfy?

I don't know either...


Big UP!


Sione

Making the switch

Over at paunifam.blogspot.com, I somehow thought that I could combine my family stuff with my theological musings and still be left with a coherent linear blog. Not even close, it was a jumbled mess. I hate that. So I banished myself from my family site and decided to do something simple over here in my own little slice of cyber heaven.


Respect!


Sione