D&C Bits

37:1  “And let every man choose for himself until I come.”  More there than meets the eye.

38:11  “All flesh is rotten before me.”  We are so used to this metaphor we don’t even notice it anymore.  We automatically translate it as “all people are corrupt.”  But what does corrupt mean?  It also means rotten.  You should read this scripture as “everyone is rotting flesh.”  The world is your charnel house.

38:17-20  These scriptures are promising land for a family inheritance, meaning for the children to grow up and farm, and the grandchildren, and on and on.  We don’t have or understand this mindset any more.  We live like nomads but without the willingness to get up and leave.  We are fettered by temporary things.  No generational ambition any more.

38:28  “but if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.”  “Ye” is plural.  We have to be prepared as a people.  If its just you who is prepared, you should fear.    We badly underestimate the degree to which the scriptures are collective, not individual.  Nephi says ‘liken the scriptures unto us’ and we mentall convert it to ‘liken the scriptures unto me.’

38:39 Interesting balance in the phrase about being the richest and about having the riches of eternity