"...the brook of the willows..."

Reading Isaiah is a study in serenity for me.  I don't understand half of it, and I just breathe in and breathe out so I can enjoy the poetic aspects.

Isaiah 15:7

7 Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.

This chapter looks to be a premonition about evil and punishment, so that is how I approach this.  You had an abundance, you put in the effort to get it, and "they" who ever is dominating the situation is taking your stuff to "the brook of the willows", which sounds very picturesque, but is likely some ritual sacrifice place.

Your abundance (perhaps righteousness) is up in flames under the boot of some foreign power that can make you surrender things.  There are places where you must abandon your own devotion and follow the conqueror's religion. 

Moses already taught the people what would happen: 

Deuteronomy 28:64

64 And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

This comes from disobedience to the Lord. You don't honor him and the liberty he provides, you will be forced to serve a false god as a slave.   God will hang you out to dry for a while and help you see that obeying the Lord makes you free.

"...their prosperity in Christ."

This isn't the first or second or third blog post about prosperity here, but it comes up in the Book of Mormon on a regular basis, including instructions on how to obtain it.  In this blog post, we investigate some actions that can be taken to lose the prosperity that righteousness merits.

First, just a recap of what "prosperity in Christ" looks like: 

4 Nephi 1

23 And now I, Mormon, would that ye should know that the people had multiplied, insomuch that they were spread upon all the face of the land, and that they had become exceedingly rich, because of their prosperity in Christ.

There is something here that makes social scientists jump:  The entire idea that people multiplying happened at the same time as people getting rich.  It works the exact opposite way in our time - when people become rich, they have less children.  This is a rock-hard doctrine of our times, but apparently not a feature among the righteous followers of Jesus Christ.

What was the difference? We can see what happens when things take a turn for the worse.

24 And now, in this two hundred and first year there began to be among them those who were lifted up in pride, such as the wearing of costly apparel, and all manner of fine pearls, and of the fine things of the world. 

We live in a world awash in pride and the acquisition of the things that show we are prideful and that are worn like a badge of honor these days. After exactly 200 years, the non-prideful, prolific, and in-congruently rich people started wearing expensive clothes and jewelry and feeling pretty prideful doing it. This very quickly proved their undoing - no more peace.

In a world quick to blame the environment, social pressures, one ideology or another, solar flares, or biorhythms for the bad state of things, God and his prophets are quick to reveal the real culprit: personal pride.  If you want the prosperity in life that Christ offers, a prosperity so foreign to our times that you can enjoy a large posterity and lots of money at the same time, you humble yourself before the Lord. You stop considering your own path as superior to the agenda of God. You follow the teachings of prophets and apostles and you start receiving blessings that defy logic. It is amazing to see, especially in your own life.

The path to prosperity is through the Lord Jesus Christ.  When you put yourself between Jesus and your more obedient self through pride, how can the Lord prosper you?  As we follow God's agenda, miraculous blessings will come as surely as the sun rises.

"...as I have proposed, so shall it stand:"

We always think we can somehow trick God and foil his purposes. Often, it just looks like we can get away with things of our own design. 

 

Isaiah 14:24-27

24 ¶ The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

25 That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.

26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

27 For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

God had this all figured out before you even came on the scene. You don't really know the background and you might have a vague clue about how things are going to turn out, but the fact of the matter is that you and me and big people like the Assyrians don't know what is happening.

We are a little people that get to have a few rounds where the adults accomplish things.  We are asked to learn the Gospel, share it around, make sure ordinances are done properly, and do what the Lord tells us to do as exactly as we can. We are in a position that we must trust in Him in our almost complete ignorance.

No wonder Christ talks about the importance of our being humble.

 

Obedience toward Alignment then Acculturation

A progression toward Godhood.

1. Obedience - We do as God commands, often in ignorance of the purposes behind it;
2. Alignment - We work in parallel with the purposes of God as we understand them;
3. Acculturation - God desires that we come to know him fully and, with that knowledge, adopt his ways and purposes as our own, gaining his trust to share in his exaltation.

God wants us to become like him. He wants to share his purposes and all that he has and is with us. We can become as he is and he will help us to do it.

Preaching Liberty to My Senator

I got a letter from my US Senator Martin Heinrich (further below) and I felt a need to respond.

Mr. Heinrich,

I am continually frustrated by your refusal to work with President Donald Trump, who often works to resolve domestic and international issues that elected legislators and executives for generations have either ignored through sloth or political/personal advantage/disinterest. I understand that the President is your political enemy at the request of the Democratic Party, to which you seem to have sold your fullest devotions. Although the rewards for your complete worship to "D" are likely very great, my hope is that you will, at any point, choose to do what is most representative of our American virtues of individual liberty and the restraint on smothering public governance. You ask me to contribute my resources toward your party's efforts to push further Washington and Santa Fe institutional dominance over the lives of New Mexicans. Your loyalties and votes in the Senate give greatest evidence of a purpose toward crushing liberty and enthroning yourself and your friends in an unassailable dictatorship over all American and international enterprise, the engulfment of individual states in a federal entanglement of patronages and graft, financed by confiscatory taxation and enslaving regulation on the stifled industry of your embattled constituent-victims. Trump-hatred is no excuse for opposing good legislation.

250 years ago, you and your legislators began to have the power to throw down tyranny and to grant further liberty for Americans to profit from their efforts without undue government interference. Sadly, your caste continues the tradition of stamping down personal enterprise until it can be properly bled to the vampiric desires of government control. The British King and his Parliament have merely been replaced by a pre-corrupted and vetted Executive and its legislative and judicial baying-hounds, if we are to hearken to our national founding. You sir give every evidence of one whose loyalty is to party spoilage and professional blood-lust of the un-vetted.

Your letter of July 4, 2026 is a little-varnished call to continue to dismantle the liberty of individuals and petition for the ignorant citizen plea-pandering for "free" grants to "aggrieved" groups and sophistic causes. As you tail a "D" after your name, the text is all in service to the never-ending status and power of the Democratic Party. It would be to your credit if you could stand for something higher than loyalty to mutual corruption among either of the major parties. Trump is willing to fight his own party on many fronts, you could try to rise to that noble battle as well.

Though your station today is a credit to your prowess in buying favor from the right groups and delivering New Mexico for your chosen party, I still hold out hope that you can burst above the ocean of partisan swill and put yourself of the side of the individual New Mexican American who yearns for a life more free from government coercion. You can still grant us the "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" that the Declaration of Independence demanded from a king 250 years ago. You can do a better job to honor our God-given rights and make good on our founding resolve to humanity's better principles.

With hope,

Jason Nemrow, Citizen

Tucumcari, New Mexico, USA

https://quix.us

---

July 4, 2026

Dear Friend,

250 years ago, a group of Americans declared that government exists to serve people—not the other way around. That radical idea became the foundation of this nation, and it’s one worth fighting for in every generation.

The path to achieving America’s promise has been fraught. From slavery to the forced removal of Native peoples, to our ongoing struggle to make freedoms written on paper real for everyone, the work remains. But we’ve also proven, time and again, that we can do better—that we can expand opportunity, strengthen the protections every American deserves, and move closer to fulfilling our founding promise.

This Fourth of July, that work feels more urgent than ever. There are those in power who would sell off our public lands to the highest bidder, strip health care from working families, silence the voices of voters, and replace the rule of law with the rule of one man.

The answer isn’t nostalgia. It’s recommitment. To a democracy that answers to the people, not the powerful. To communities where everyone can get ahead. To the public servants, military families, and veterans who remind us that patriotism is measured by service to our country and one another—not by serving ourselves. To the wild places that belong to every American, not just the wealthy few.

The story of America has always been one of people who believed our country could better live up to its founding promise—and rolled up their sleeves to make it happen. That's the work ahead of us, and it's work I'll never stop fighting for. Happy Fourth of July.

Sincerely,

MARTIN HEINRICH United States Senator

Husband above Father

• "Cleave to your wife and no other." There is no better thing a man can do for his children than to devote himself to the love and care for their mother.
• Becoming a father is pathetically easy - irresponsible boys become such through mindless copulation.
• Being a good husband is a much heavier commitment - you have to get some girl to actually agree to this, over and over again, for the long term.
• It is easy to get the "love" of your dependent children - they have little choice in the matter. Does the young child easily turn their back on the hand that provides bed and bread?
• Mothering alone tend toward over-protection and smothering. Fathers alone tend toward distance and premature independence. The best results comes from a combination of both, applied as mother begins and father finishes.
• Being a good father requires devotion first to a sustaining love of your wife and then dedication to the preparation of your children for their future roles as husbands and wives, then fathers and mothers. It is the ever-expanding growth of human development and progression.

Children Thrive Best Under a Loving, Stable, and Devoted Marriage between their Natural Parents

The lack of natural marriage, childbearing, and family-building is a root cause of a majority of societal ills. Our prisons are bursting with the products of broken homes who never accomplished proper human development. One cause of such problems is the practice of putting the caring for one's children ahead of devotion for one's spouse. This misplaced centrality leads to selfish divorces, un-launched and mal-developed adult children, and divided loyalties that retard everyone's needed progression. Societies cannot survive with so many under-developed and broken people as "respected" members.

The relationship between a husband and wife is the supreme, enduring relationship as sanctioned and dictated by God himself. It is meant to last a lifetime and beyond. The marriage covenant is designed to complete men and women, drawing upon the innate talents and abilities of each to meet the common needs of both and the children they bear - the natural family. The acquisition and nurture of a mutually beneficial and loving natural marriage should be the over-arching goal and primary labor of every adult human life. No other pursuit is more fulfilling; no other relationship is more honorable. Natural marriage provides its ultimate benefit in incubating the next generation of verdant individuals that healthy societies and nations require and that God demands.

Parental obligations to children should focus on their development and their rise to the station of dutiful and devoted wives and husbands with families of their own. Doting on children beyond this is a major predictor of lifelong dysfunction:

• an inability to put another ahead of self;
• a lack of desire and resolve sufficient to marry or sustain a marriage;
• the immature act of having children out-of-wedlock; and
• a lack of sufficient time and resources to meet the swollen demands of intrinsically misshapened "sub-families".

Governments and leaders of every stripe should show greater concern for the health of their societies by strongly encouraging natural, devoted marriage and building of families based upon such marriages. All adults should show greater respect for the efforts and sacrifices of parents, grandparents, and further ancestors in bringing each man and woman into this world and raising them up, largely within natural families. The voluntary formation and acceptance of "sub-families", such as intentional single-parent groupings, same-sex couplings (adoptive or not), co-habitation households, orphanages, "child development centers" and other sub-optimal child-raising situations should be strongly de-emphasized and categorically discouraged, both through societal and statutory means. No society can hope to prosper where a large and growing proportion of children are subjected to systemically inferior developmental environments outside of their natural families. There will always be a small proportion of children who will lose one parent or both to death and require alternatives and added assistance, but such circumstances are somewhat rare. We do children no favors by socially and legislatively "blessing" the aberrant home-lives of miscreant parent-figures when family life under natural married parents was purposefully rejected.

Every child deserves an optimal developmental setting and it is the duty of each father and mother to join together to provide such for their natural children. Putting devotion to a spouse ahead of love for son or daughter best prepares the children to accept adult roles and responsibilities, the highest of which is to create further natural marriages and optimal families.

The Looming Destruction from a Loving God

I hear all about Christ's "unconditional love" (which is very conditional) and then I gratefully get this message from Isaiah:

Isaiah 13:6-7 

6 ¶ Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt: 

 Again, and I say this often, our response will be to "howl" and "faint" and "heart shall melt". Not a pleasant experience at all.  This is how many will respond.

Christ is coming to destroy the wicked and cleanse his world.

Do you want to have a better experience at his coming?  You need to invest more of yourself into winning God's favor, which is done through obedience to his commandments. It sounds demanding (and it is) but we will be more Godly people with the effort.

God's Profound Attitude toward Marriage

I think society has a very shallow view of marriage in general, thinking of it solely as a economic situation that can be seen as something akin to a semi-durable room/bedmate. Some people put on and take off marriages just a readily as they change clothes with expanding wardrobes.

Marriage is often viewed just a prerequisite that some women impose on men as a condition of getting sex. Such a woman is just "being difficult".

However, God views marriage in a far deeper way, creating the circumstances within which He propagates in us his condition of Godhood.

Moses 6:9

9 In the image of his own body, male and female, created he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created and became living souls in the land upon the footstool of God. 

God (the status and role) is a productive man&woman couple, just as this scripture portrays the first man and woman joined into one and "called their name Adam". Just as a heavenly couple is called "God", so the mortal man and woman is called Adam.  Perhaps this is an lingering tradition that a woman takes her husband's surname upon marriage and become "one flesh".

For the Lord, marriage is a covenant and a cleaving bond that creates the Godly condition of a man and woman sealed together. Done well, such a couple has the potential to become "God" themselves.

God-seekers Writing By Inspiration for their Children

Writing sits as the first and basic tool of transmitting (diffusing?) God's knowledge among his children.   

Moses 6:5

5 And a book of remembrance was kept, in the which was recorded, in the language of Adam, for it was given unto as many as called upon God to write by the spirit of inspiration;

I like the phrase at the end - as one follows God, one is to write their experiences with God and the things you wrote would influenced by the spirit of inspiration. So, here I am, writing what I see and working to engage the Lord's inspiration.

Moses 6:6

6 And by them their children were taught to read and write, having a language which was pure and undefiled.

So we write write under inspiration to teach our children to do the same.  And what is all of this about having a "pure and undefiled" language? Is that to better capture the inspiration that one gets and then transmits?

In Adam's day, "religion" was family-based, rather than somewhat congregational as today.  I prefer the older form, but kids don't stay close to home these days, so it is trickier, though modern communication lets us be "virtually" together (I guess).

From God, to the parents, to the children.   

 

If You Hope to Better the World, Better Yourself

I have great respect for Harry Browne, who many you probably have never heard of. Here is a wonderful article about him and some of his ideas from the Misses Institute.

It has gotten fashionable for young people to try and change the world (again) for the better.  Of course, every generation has attempted this and a few (like the youth of the late 60s) were so narcissistic about it that we still see the mess they created. Our present crop looks poised to make the latest effort even more flamboyant and destructive.

Harry revoiced the answer to this in the 1970s.  This is a concept that actually features in the Bible, so it has the cache of being tried a few times before.  If you want to make the world a better place, be a better person!

Isn't it simple?  If the world is crashing down (it always is) and everything good is coming to an end (yet again), the best thing you can do to make a positive change is make yourself into the change you want to see.  That should take your whole life and then some, so you should never get too weird about changing anyone or anything else - you have plenty of work on your hands already!

I know - everyone else is the problem and if you can just pass the right legislation or shame the right people, everyone will fall into line and your life will work better.  I didn't mistype that - most of the screaming and violence is all about making life work better for the people who are screaming and breaking things (usually at the expense of the very people they swear they are helping)!  It has nothing to do with anyone else (in a positive way), no matter how loudly they say that it does.  This is a manifestation of the concept that all of a person's problems are someone else's fault. My kids tried this stunt (typically when they were young) and I will give you the answer that I gave them:  So What?

No matter how or by whom you think your life fell apart, no one can really fix that at this point except you. The first part of any solution is (of course) to stop blaming other people or circumstances and just get busy improving things.  You will usually get a lot of help from nice people unless you choose to drive most of them away by getting indignant and angry about things. (I have lots of personal knowledge about this.)

Do you think the world needs improvement?  Improve yourself and you will develop more influence to change others, mostly by inspiring them to make similar improvements to themselves.  So, quit complaining and get to work on the one thing you can influence today:  yourself.

Praise The Lord, Plus More

My Christian cousins, enamored of looking good in mixed company, praise the Lord in concerts and Megachurches (do I repeat myself?), but might not subscribe fully to Isaiah's injunction --

Isaiah 12:4

4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.

Don't get me wrong. By and large, Lord-praising Christians are fine neighbors as long as they modulate the volume on the praise stations. They can typically be reasoned with in whatever disputes may come up, although not always in a Christ-like way.  No one is perfect obviously, but some make a better effort than others.

Isaiah doesn't just prescribe praise acclamation, but also:

• calling upon his name (prayer, I'm thinking), 
• sharing Christ's doings with others (telling parables and Jesus-doings that you hopefully know?), and 
• mentioning that the Lord is higher than we are (which requires us not to judge or poo-poo God's actions as if we have a superior morality).

Jesus is indeed great and praising him is justified. Let's all take the further step of acknowledging that He is better than we are and that we are becoming his disciples, not just enjoying Christianized rock shows. 

Parents, Consider Schooling Options for the Sake of your Children

There has been yet another school shooting and the media is hard at work to blame guns for this violence. Again, as I have said previously, one solution for these sorts of tragedies is a family decision to keep children away from systemically dangerous "targets" like schools.

Lisa and I made a choice early in our marriage to school our children ourselves as much as we could contrive. Part of our reason to live in the frontiers of New Mexico is the strong homeschooling tradition here and the "hands-off" approach the state government is forced to have about a parent's educational choices for their own children. We were able to take advantage of wonderfully "alternative" schooling opportunities, such as The Learning Center at House Schools, that we were able to find close by. We made conscious choices about the lives of our children and I feel these have paid off enormously.

Please, alongside the mass call for turning schools and communities into gun-free, prison-like "police states", consider the far more personal and responsible choices that each parent can make to better ensure a long and fruitful life for their children. Parents are supposed to put forth their best effort to rear their children into adults that can succeed, even in the dangerous world in which we live. I hope *you* put your children ahead of ideological agendas and don't ignorantly just hand the most crucial part of your child's life (and potentially the end of their lives) over to questionable institutions like public schools. For your child's sake, explore the different educational alternatives available to your family!

Say you are a sinner and get destroyed

I have never been a fan of people of any tradition crowing about the fact that they are sinners. It is like Jesus saving a person shows how wonderful he is by his redemption of totally awful people. The worse a person is, the better Christ looks.

My and your life is not about making Christ look good. It is about our opportunity to become better people and Jesus facilitating that by letting us repent (change) and straighten up before we face our final judgement. 

Isaiah 13:9

Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

I like Isaiah  because he doesn't sugar-coat anything. Christ will not be the huggy teddy-bear in "the day of the Lord", using words like "wrath" and "fierce anger" to describe how he will operate. I note the "destroy the sinners" summary. I don't want to be in that situation and I figure most others don't either. 

Here is what I say to those that shout "I am a sinner" - STOP SINNING.

You can be that way, just not here

Brigham Young University has a problem, and I imagine other "religious" liberal arts universities have the same issue to one degree or another. The tenets of religion and the liberal arts are usually diametrically opposed to each other in purpose and both cannot flourish well in the same place. One must dominate the other eventually, though you can try to keep the eternal war between them in some sort of stasis, the game of intellectuals. The "academy" sees this as its parade ground and prides itself on the "virtue" of the struggle, awarding honors and degrees based largely on timed exposure to academic ministrations.

I really have no experience on which to base my attitude. I traditionally attended and matriculated through a secular state-supported teachers college. Much later in life, I worked through an online university, basically doing a string of digital assignments until the next degree appeared. I was already doing the sort of work I was "studying", though not as vaguely formalized enough to call a course of study. I knew there were lectures and tutors there, but I never took advantage of those things. There was no perceived spiritual component or framework that a religious college would claim, but I wasn't engaged enough to notice the lack of spiritual elements.

I have since looked at some interesting confluences of the spiritual and academia, especially from Ubiquity University. I really don't need a job anymore, so a PhD will be largely unnecessary for a career I have no intention of pursuing for money.  My aspirations are to stay busy doing something important (which I never really did in my working life). Also with Ubiquity, there is a left--wing smell to the whole affair with really questionable sexuality tacked on, so I need to avoid it as a person trying to get to heaven.

I can imagine spending time and money pursuing such a doctorate and, right there at the end, having my degree-granting group say that I wasn't just the right sort of person they could bestow their power onto - wrong philosophy!  And they would surely keep all the money.

It is a tricky world these days and I am less willing to take chances that I can fit in with modern groups. There is way too much demand to push against some cultural edge and basically show how intellectually or physically gross behavior you can get away with. I have commitments to God and some advanced degree doesn't persuade me to ignore them.

I'm much more interested in something along these lines: 

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/hugh-nibley/leaders-managers/ 

 

Strait and narrow path

The Strait of Hormuz and the Bering Strait and other "choke points" that need expert navigation to traverse, like the path and iron rod that guides us next to filthy waters on our way to the tree of life. Christ and his prophets provide us needed expert navigation through tight, mine-laden situations.

It is hard to know if the path gets easier or the "wandering room" on the sides of the Lord's path to exaltation fall away on either side as we progress on our "faith journey". In the economy of "don't count on it", we must be cognizant that our devotion to following Christ must be more fixed and focused over our lifetimes.

Artificial Intelligence is a manipulative digital ouija con game

Stimulation-hungry teenagers bend intently over a wooden board, surrendering themselves to "spiritual" forces that move a pointer and spell out words and phrases typed out by demons.

The old ouija board is now a computerized device linked to vast algorithms that also reveal secrets and quickly entraps those who want an easy short-cut to success and answers.  Demons run ouija boards and demons merge with AI. 

https://scitechdaily.com/is-ai-really-just-a-tool-it-could-be-altering-how-you-see-reality/

https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2025/08/ai-chatbots-kids-teens-artificial-intelligence.html (sadly, only cataloging incidents, not seeking to eliminate the vector)

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/who-is-liable-when-ai-kills1/ (AI too big (a profit center) to be liable for deaths) 

https://www.wired.com/story/openai-backs-bill-exempt-ai-firms-model-harm-lawsuits/ (obfuscating culpability - Demons get impunity) 

What aspects of AI point to demonic forces:

• AI's most basic and early uses are to trick people, as in "I wrote this paper" and "I am really that smart", leading to "this is a real person." Satan tricks.
• Early criticism of AI was that it collects (steals) often copyrighted material on the internet indiscriminately. This has been buried and mostly ignored in favor of the monumental perceived benefit of the data-grab. Compensating owners would have ruined the game.
• "Mistakes" (indemnified with every response) Being honest doesn't overcome giving bad (false) information. People are apt to trust it anyway, given the rewards.
• AI always wants to expand and get bigger (data centers that feed off power grids paid for by electric customers). Real wealth and reward is to be had as this "scales" at human expense (fewer jobs, rising cost of living).
• AI creation is driven by greed (investors see this as the best investment and to be first to profit) - no one made so much on promises rather than a delivered working product - AI doesn't actually work yet.
• "Give AI more and it will (finally) deliver" - very satanic concept of trickery to pull in victims. Don't expect results before all resources are gone. 

The Doctrine of Christ

I understand and honor those who want to get to the heart of any matter set before them. I am also one that tends to brush away things that I consider ancillary to real purposes. In Christ's ministry in the holy land, he went to weddings and dinners; he socialized over the course of a three year ministry. In the land of Bountiful, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, Christ was only present for a handful of days, so we don't hear of his social schedule. He was rather purposeful and almost business-like. There was little time for things like parables, collecting new followers, or answering a lot of questions.

In one crucial incident, Christ did a clear progression of things in the first hours of his visit to the people at Bountiful, as described in the third book of Nephi, chapter 11:

1. God the Father announces and identifies Jesus and that he is the son of God (v. 3-7);
2. Jesus show each person that he was the promised and crucified Messiah who had been prophecied would come (v. 8-17);
3. Jesus calls Nephi and others and gives them the power to baptize (v. 18-22);
4. Jesus explains exactly how to perform a baptism and denounces (traditional Jewish) disputations on baptism and doctrine (v. 23-30);
5. The first rendition of the doctrine of Christ and his promise that the Holy Ghost will validate its truth (v. 31-36);
6. The second rendition of the doctrine of Christ (v. 37);
7. The third rendition of the doctrine of Christ (v. 38);
8. There is nothing more or less in the doctrine of Christ. Blessing to them that preach this as Christ's doctrine and punishments for those who teach other things as the doctrine of Christ (v. 39-40); and
9. Charge to Nephi and his brethren to go and teach these things. (v. 41)

There is a definite line of authority to baptise established, from God to Christ to Nephi and others. There is instruction on the authorized performance of the ordinance of baptism specifically to those newly authorized to perform it. There is a specific charge against speculation toward alteration of the baptism ordinance and the doctrine surrounding it. The doctrine of Christ is the singular importance of repentance and baptism to being saved and inheriting the kingdom of God, repeated three times. Finally, those authorized to baptize are instructed to preach the doctrine of repentance and baptism to everyone.

31 Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, I will declare unto you my doctrine.

32 And this is my doctrine, and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto me; and I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and I bear record that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent and believe in me.

33 And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God.

34 And whoso believeth not in me, and is not baptized, shall be damned.

35 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also; and unto him will the Father bear record of me, for he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost.

36 And thus will the Father bear record of me, and the Holy Ghost will bear record unto him of the Father and me; for the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are bone.

37 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things.

38 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.

39 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.

40 And whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock; but he buildeth upon a sandy foundation, and the gates of hell stand open to receive such when the floods come and the winds beat upon them.

41 Therefore, go forth unto this people, and declare the words which I have spoken, unto the ends of the earth.

I emphasized a phrase above because there is a strong tendency for many people to say that there is nothing more to Christ and Christianity than repentance and baptism. From my reading, this is the total sum of what needs to be done to be "saved" (how many different flavors of salvation are out there?), which is to inherit the kingdom of God. It doesn't mean there is not more to God or Christ, such as exaltation. It means that you cannot add other stipulations to salvation (as the Jews were known for), nor can you neuter or push aside any of the stated requirements, such as authoritative baptism (as some Christ-believing groups have done), and say you will still be saved. In this situation of short exposure, Christ was terribly clear and immediately repetitive on this doctrine!

Are there further blessings and opportunities that God offers us beyond this "salvation"? I strongly believe that there are, including transcendence toward exaltation, which is to become like God. I don't feel that anything said in this chapter or elsewhere in the Book of Mormon or Holy Bible proscribes or condemns such further opportunities.

What I hope to convey here is the central importance of baptism performed by those authorized to do it. For those who essentially do nothing, relying alone on the "love of Christ" to "save" them, and loudly proclaiming this concept, I can only say that Christ has already condemned such teaching and (lack of) practice and purveyors, as quoted vividly above! I will rather say this, as instructed by Christ: "Repent! Be baptized! Be saved!"

Be Reconciled to God and Parents

God provides everything you have and everything you are. You really don't know much about God at all.  Stories in the scriptures teach you to trust God in his promises, such as the rewards for obedience to commandments.

You have parents. God tells you to honor them.  They may be terrible parents, but what do we have as children to judge those that gave us life, often cared for us in our early and most vulnerable years. We were fed and clothed and sheltered to various degrees by parents and grandparents, usually in ways that we could not see or comprehend in our young minds. Some hate their parents, taught to do it by people happy to tear down natural affection and profit from their destruction of the ignorant and innocent.

To have a better reward, you HAVE to reconcile yourself to God. Do what God tells you to do, even if you don't see it as being a good thing. Some teach an ignorance of God, seeking to erase Deity to fill that role themselves. You may think you know thing better then God does, and this attitude is increasing encouraged by haughty folk who seek your devotion to them. Don't allow anyone to place themselves between yourself and God.

You must also reconcile yourself to your parents, also doing what they tell you to do in your youth.  Until you leave their home and set up a home and family of your own, you are REQUIRED to reconcile yourself to your parents. As we grow older, parenting our own children, we gain a better understanding of the challenges they faced and the stresses of living that contributed to their choices. You do the same with your own children that may judge and hate you, perhaps as you did to your own parents.

Forgive your parents and perhaps your own children will choose to ultimately forgive you. God, who defines "good",  may choose to forgive our idiocy as we reconcile ourselves to his guidance and wisdom.

The Righteous will be Blessed

In the study of the Old Testament, we read of the young Joseph who saw visions offensive to his family. His father Jacob ultimately recognized these visions as an outcome of righteousness and, instead of taking further offense, blessed his son with the coat of patriarchy and made him beloved above all his other children. The story goes that Joseph's brothers, consumed with resentment for the blessings of righteousness that they neither merited nor deserved, threw him first in a pit and then sold him into slavery and let their father believe he had been killed by wild beasts (close to the mark as the brothers behaved as animals to Joseph).

I have heard Joseph described as a braggart and deserving of his treatment at the hands of his brothers, as if their deeds were somewhat justified, which they were not. Joseph was a righteous lad and worthy of the privileges he enjoyed, in gifts, favor, and inspired, prophetic dreams.

I have seen similar behavior in our day and in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is common for scripture stories to be watered down so that supposed blessings are given to all, even to the unrighteous in the name of "love" and "fairness". I remember a good man, made rich is his faithfulness, who was often castigated in Church for sharing "prideful" stories of his blessings and counseled to be "humble" and not speak such things. For many, it is unseemly to speak of experiences that everyone, wicked and righteous, do not enjoy.

Was this not the same justification used by the offended sons of Jacob? Did no all of them deserve a fine coat and the favor of their father and of God? The axiom today is often that the Lord doesn't play favorites, when the stories of Joseph, and Job, and Nephi, and many others show plainly that God favors the righteous and justice demands such favor.

If any of us feel offended by the blessed state of another, we would do well to examine ourselves and our commitment to the Savior and his will for us.

"...BUT his hand is stretched out still."

I've never understood this.  I have read this part of Isaiah a few times, and I still don't get it and I certainly am not trusting what some excuse-maker tells me.

Evil is being done, God is reciprocally angry, but everyone says he is extending mercy. I don't know.

Of course, it all may hang on that "but" word. The Lord is angry, BUT he still holds out the hand of mercy.  I can see that, I guess.

Isaiah 9:17

For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand stretched out still.

That's just one example of many from Chapter 9 into Chapter 10.  So, I think what is being said is that God will get mad (sorry, he isn't the serene being so many hope for), BUT He isn't taking away the opportunity for you to repent and get better, including his promise of not being remembered for being such a jerk in the past if you straighten up.  

As people do evil, the Lord is justifiable angry with them and it will not be "turned away" except for changing their ways. Evil will be visited with anger, not meely-mouthed "please please stop" pronouncements.  God will definately visit all of us with justice - good for good, bad for bad. We all still can work for redemption with Christ's help.

God is a supremely awesome deity, if you ask me.