Ether

1. Ether • By Faith All Things are Fulfilled • Ether 7-15

2. Ether Overview 1 6 7 11 12 15 Jaredite beginnings and journey to Promised Land Series of righteous and wicked rulers Orihah to Ether Faith and examples Ether - prophet Coriantumr - king

3. Mosiah 28:17-19How did this record effect those who first read it? • Mourned • Filled with sorrow • Rejoiced in the knowledge

4. Oriah Son of Jared daughter Nimrod Esrom Cohor Omer Jared Noah Corihor Cohor Shule Kib Coriantumr Ether 7-8 Black = righteous Red = rebelled Corihor

5. Ether 9 • What knowledge can we “rejoice” in here?

6. repent Vs 8 judgments Vs 6-7 Wicked rulers Vs 10 The Cycle of Sin Ether 11:5 Continuing wickedness Vs 11 Reject the prophets Prophets call to repentance Vs 12

7. Follow the prophet • “We live in a world of turmoil where we find sadness and destruction in every corner, much of which is brought about by man’s failure to listen to the words of the true prophets of God. How different would the lives have been of those who lived in all dispensations if they had listened to the prophet Moses and followed the Ten Commandments? • “There has always been a desperate need for the steady and reassuring voice of a living prophet of God—one who will speak the mind and will of God in showing the way to spiritual safety and personal peace and happiness” • Robert D Hales, Ensign, May 1995,15

8. Prophet video

9. What application does Moroni draw for our day from these chapters?Ether 8:19-26 • Awake to a sense of your awful situation • Recognize the power Satan can have over the hearts men • Come to the fountain of all righteousness

10. Ether 7-11 Warning Labels for Life

11. People respond to the judgments by repenting and following the prophets People reject the prophets and judgments of God People accept the prophets and are blessed People continue in wickedness to their destruction Prophets call the people to repentance People become wicked Why don’t we always follow this path? Follow the Prophets

12. Ether 12:5-9 • Ye see not… • The results of following the prophet’s counsel are not immediately apparent • When do we see?

13. World’s Definition: Seeing Lord’s Definition: Believing Results in: Results in: Believing (Faith) Seeing Ether 12:5-9Faith • And it came to pass that Ether did prophesy great and marvelous things unto the people, which they did not believe, because they saw them not. • For it was by faith that Christ showed himself unto our fathers, after he had risen from the dead; and he showed not himself unto them until after they had faith in him… • But because of the faith of men he has shown himself unto the world, and glorified the name of the Father, and prepared a way that thereby others might be partakers of the heavenly gift, that they might hope for those things which they have not seen. • Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift, if ye will but have faith. Kevin Hinckley online

14. Witness after trial of faithEther 12:5-6 • Remember that Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and others could not see clearly the end from the beginning. They also walked by faith and without sight…Remember that there were no clouds in the sky, no evidence of rain…when Noah (built) the ark…There was no ram in the thicket when Isaac and his father left for Moriah for the sacrifice • Spencer W Kimball, CR Oct 1952, 51

15. Things not seen which are true • just as undaunted faith has stopped the mouths of lions, made ineffective fiery flames, opened dry corridors through rivers and seas, protected against deluge and drought, and brought heavenly manifestations at the instance of prophets, so in each of our lives faith can heal the sick, bring comfort to those who mourn, strengthen resolve against temptation, relieve from the bondage of harmful habits, lend the strength to repent and change our lives, and lead to a sure knowledge of the divinity of Jesus Christ. Indomitable faith can help us live the commandments with a willing heart and thereby bring blessings unnumbered, with peace, perfection, and exaltation in the kingdom of God.” • Spencer W Kimball (Faith Precedes the Miracle [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1972], 12.) 

16. Question: • So, what must we do to “have faith”?

17. Faith More Light and Knowledge More Light and Knowledge Obedience Light and Knowledge Obedience Obedience Kevin Hinckley online

18. Blind Obedience?Ether 12:19 • Latter-day Saints are not obedient because they are compelled to be obedient. They are obedient because they know certain spiritual truths and have decided, as an expression of their own individual agency, to obey the commandments of God… We are not obedient because we are blind, we are obedient because we can see. • Boyd K Packer, Ensign may 1983, 66

19. Can you think of modern examples of prophetic counsel that might require patience and faith because the results of obedience are not immediately apparent?

20. Trials • Young Man: "If there really was a God, he never would have let my mother suffer and die as she did." • Then President Kimball, in that wonderful sweet way of his, put his hands on the shoulders of my nineteen-year-old friend and said, "My boy, your mother is all right. Sit down, and let's talk about you." • "My boy, I've had a lot of health challenges. I had cancer of the throat. I've had my body opened from here to here with open-heart surgery in my mid-seventies. I've had all kinds of challenges healthwise." Then he looked at my friend and at me and said, "And through my suffering I have come to know God." • M Russell Ballard, BYU Dev, 6 Sept 1992

21. Ether 12:3-4What do we learn about faith and hope? • How can faith and hope be an anchor for us? Hope =

22. Anchor to the soul • Just as ships need anchors to keep them from drifting away on the open seas, people need spiritual anchors in their lives if they are to remain steadfast and not drift into the sea of temptation and sin. Faith in God and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ is the main anchor we must have in our lives to hold us fast during times of social turbulence and wickedness that seem to be everywhere today. • M Russell Ballard, Ensign, Dec 1993,50

23. "Daily hope is vital, since the "Winter Quarters" of our lives are not immediately adjacent to our promised land... Those with true hope often see their personal circumstances shaken, like kaleidoscopes, again and again. Yet with the "eye of faith," they still see divine pattern and purpose." • --Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, Nov. 1994

24. Ether 12:5-6Trial of faith • Shortly after I was called as a General authority, I went to Elder Harold B Lee for counsel. He listened very carefully to my problem and suggested that I see President David O McKay. President McKay counseled me as to the direction I should go. I was very willing to be obedient but saw no way possible for me to do as he counseled me to do. • I returned to Elder Lee and told him that I saw no way to move in the direction I was counseled to go. He said, “The trouble with you is you want to see the end from the beginning.’ I replied that I would like to see at least a step or two ahead. Then came the lesson of a lifetime: “You must learn to walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness; then the light will appear and show the way before you.’ Then he quoted these 18 words from the book of Mormon: “Dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.” • Those 18 words from Moroni have been like a beacon light to me. • Boyd K Packer, The Edge of the light, BYU Today, March 1991, 22-23

25. Ether 6: Hebrew 11What do we learn from the examples of faith? Ether 12:3 By faith all things are fulfilled Faith precedes the miracle

26. Heb 11Examples… • Abel • Enoch • Noah • Abraham • Sara • Isaac • Jacob • Joseph • Moses

27. By Faith (Hebrews 11) • Faith caused Abel to offer up an acceptable sacrifice to God.  Cain had little or no faith as demonstrated by his sacrifice (v4). • By faith Enoch was translated. (v5). • By faith Noah prepared an ark (v7) • By faith Abraham went out to find the place of his inheritance (v8). • By faith Sara was delivered a child when past age (v11). • Abraham offered up Isaac believing that the Lord would deliver on his promises (v17). • By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau (v20). • By faith Isaac blessed the sons of Joseph (v21). • By faith was Moses' life preserved (v23). • By faith, Moses forsook Egypt (v27). • By faith, Moses and Israel kept the Passover (v28). • By faith they passed through the Red Sea (v29). • By faith the walls of Jericho fell down (v30). • By faith, the life of Rehab, the harlot, was preserved (v31).

28. Faith = Action • What are some examples of how faith leads to good works that glorify God? • • Someone said long ago, when great events occur, there are three types of persons manifested: • First, the one who doesn’t realize that anything great is happening; • second, the one who realizes something is going on but doesn’t know what it is; • and third, the one behind the scenes making it all happen.

29. Two kinds of faith… • “I recognize two kinds of faith. The first is the kind which is apparent in the world. It is the common denominator of most everything that goes on. It is the thing that lets us exist. It is the thing that gives us some hope of getting anything done. Everyone has it, some in a larger measure than others.

30. Two kinds of faith… • The second kind of faith, remarkably rare, unusual to find, is the kind of faith that causes things to happen. Faith is a power as real as electricity except a thousand times more powerful. Now did you ever exercise faith—exercise it, practice it, you see, not just take it for granted? When you look at yourself, ask yourself how faithful are you? It is a first principle of the gospel according to the Lord. Is it a first principle in the gospel according to you?” • Boyd K Packer (Your Articles of Faith, Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year [21 Mar. 1962], 8).

31. Faith is power • Had it not been for the principle of faith the worlds would never have been framed, neither would man have been formed of the dust. It is the principle by which Jehovah works, and through which he exercises power over all temporal as well as eternal things. Take this principle or attribute – for it is an attribute – from the Deity, and he would cease to exist… Faith, then, is the first great governing principle which has power, dominion, and authority over all things; by it they exist, by it they are upheld, by it they are changed, or by it they remain, agreeable to the will of god. Without it there is no power, and without power there could be no creation or existence! • Lectures on Faith, 16,24

32. Ether 13;1-12New Jerusalem and Old Jerusalem prophesies • a. The Old Jerusalem (“from whence Lehi [came]”), will be “built up again, a holy city unto the Lord” (Ether 13;5). This will be done by the descendants of Judah before the Second Coming. • b. Before the Second Coming, “a new Jerusalem should be built up upon this land [the Americas]” (Ether 13:6). The New Jerusalem will be a holy city built by a remnant of the house of Joseph (Ether 13:8). • c. The City of Enoch will come down out of heaven and become part of the New Jerusalem (Ether 13:3, 10; see also Revelation 21:2, 10). This will occur after the Second Coming.

33. Ether 13:10-11Description of people worthy to live in these holy cities • “washed in the blood of the Lamb”? • To be cleansed from sin through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

35. Next Week: Moroni