First of all, the book is apparently drawn from ancient texts found with mummified remains bought by Joseph Smith. He then proceeded to translate them into what would become part of the text. There is much controversy concerning the Book of Abraham in particular, because the facsimiles are now known to be from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. This is just the sort of thing that I would take to be solid evidence against the Church, and a couple of years ago I struggled to find a reason to believe in a religion that was scripturally based on lies. Since then I've taken to heart the words found in Moroni 10:8:
And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them.
Yes, it doesn't help me much considering that this little bit comes from a book also contested to be false, but what it does suggest is that it really doesn't matter. Whatever the source of a scripture is, it is still meant to profit men. Whatever we can gain from morally is good. All good things are of God. So what does it matter to me that The Pearl of Great Price is originally a lie made by a possible con man trying to start a cult? Considering what these scriptures teach, they are good and of God. This is the approach I've adopted in studying any religious text, and I'm ready to take on a previously daunting (size means nothing, as we've learned from Napoleon) task.
Tonight I'm reading Moses 5, which basically runs through the story of Cain and Abel. Cain gets some major slack in Christian lore, and I don't want to undermine that in the least. Cain worships Satan. Cain hates Abel. Cain kills Abel. Cain gets in trouble with God. Cain STILL worships Satan. Okay, really? If God were talking to you in such a straight forward manner, wouldn't you not have done the things to get you in trouble with Him? But hold on a minute, do we really expect that kind of intimate communication between God and Man at that time?
It seems to me that we sort of expect more from scripture than we should. It's why we have such a hard time believing now. 'If God talked to men then, why doesn't He now?' What makes you think he doesn't now, or that He didn't talk to them the way He talks to us today? When you feel that God is telling you something, isn't He then talking, if not literally?
Let's assume then that Cain wasn't talking to God directly, face to face. He wasn't talking to Satan face to face either. Both he and Abel had nothing to go on save for their own intuition and the things their parents had told them about God and Satan. They were the first to have to show faith rather than perfect knowledge, making them all the more subject to falling away from God. In those early days I would think that the problem facing the children of Adam was apathy towards God, not so much sin, since sin wasn't quite invented yet.
In this go around with Cain and Abel, I was struck most with the sacrifices the brothers make to God. Bearing in mind that they were both in touch with God and Satan no differently than we are, I don't know that it's completely fair to say that Cain made his sacrifice because Satan told him to. At least, not knowingly. Isn't it the way of Satan to tempt us in stealth? After my own sort of revelation in writing on the subject of sin some time ago, I should know that sin isn't always so straight forward and blatantly obvious.
Perhaps, then, Cain did love God. Perhaps he loved God more than he thought he loved Satan. That is, after all, a harsh accusation to make. I can imagine that Cain was a good kid who did what his parents asked and worked hard in the fields. He wasn't some shady figure with fingers tapping against each other and a grimacing smile twisting across his face. Not at all. Cain's problem was his spiritual apathy.
No Man's Land is where we find ourselves on the spiritual plane when we entertain apathy. We're easy targets for either side. Being caught in the crossfire, it's hard to tell where the bullets are coming or going. We don't want to be shot, but a bullet is still a bullet, and once shot, there's really no telling what side is responsible for our wounds. You have a better chance of being killed running around out there than safely situated on either side, making apathy more dangerous even than being on the side of Satan. This is where Cain could become a sympathetic character. We all suffer apathy from time to time. Being a cautionary tale, however, we shouldn't feel sympathy at all for his plight.
Cain makes a sacrifice to God after being told to by Satan whom, I believe, is imitating the Holy Spirit. Don't we sometimes feel the need to make sacrifices to God? Only sometimes, and never consistently. Faith isn't something that can grow and strengthen after a sudden burst of spiritual energy. It's a muscle that needs to be worked. This was Cain's mistake, and this is what God called him out for. Of course, in Godly fashion, it was done out of love. A gentle, chiding wake up call to prompt Cain into a more active faith. Cain doesn't deserve sympathy then because he chose to do otherwise.
I must reiterate here though that Cain can't have caught on to God's prompting. I imagine that Abel was granted blessings for his faithfulness expressed in his sacrifice. His consistency would be commendable. Cain must have been hurting and in need of some blessings. Perhaps he prayed and felt that the answer was to make a sacrifice. One sacrifice. His burst of spiritual energy, hoping to lose a few pounds off his apathy gut in one fell blow. But we know it doesn't work like that. It's not fun giving up what you think is alot, only to reap nothing, while your brother gives and gives and gains everything. I think that the murder in question came about because Cain was at his wits end in desperation by the time he thought to make a sacrifice, and when it didn't work he cracked. The story is all the more tragic and frighteningly close to home in this light.
We may be good at dodging bullets, and perhaps we haven't had to dodge them at all, but all it takes is one to take us down. Best it be a shot of faith and not malice (an imperfect analogy, I know), but unless we work to get out of Apathetic Man's Land then we are essentially up for grabs. This is a lesson to be learned from Cain and Abel. We can only survive so long before we either see the truth or give in to darkness without really knowing it. I don't think Cain was in his right mind in the end. He probably just struck Abel with a shovel in the middle of an argument.
Thinking this over in the few minutes it took to read chapter 5 of Moses, it makes the story all the more potent for me. Cain wasn't evil. None of us really are. Cain wasn't even really bad or vindictive, I think. He was simply aloof. The moral? Get your act together.
No comments:
Post a Comment