What about DC49:18-21 and
1 Timothy 4:1-6
DC49:18-21
is the scripture that is least understood in our current
English language syntax and grammar. So commonly misinterpreted,
it becomes a favorite "club" for beating vegetarian saints, as I am now,
as it is grappled and swung vigorously by defensive --
meat loving, meat consuming or meat producing members—
as I used to be. However once understood in its reality, this scripture
is the strongest scriptural support and encouragement for moving to a harmless-to-the-creatures
"vegetarian" millennial lifestyle, while it straight out condemns those
who would chose to deny you your right (as I used to do) to make that choice.
The following is my personal interpretation
of this scripture. You will notice my opinion is strong and far from
conventional; certainly not that which is held by most members generally;
so I do not anticipate that you will happily agree with me (though I would
take it as a comforting compliment and an assurance to the existence of
some intelligence in me, if by some slim chance you did!). I really
only hope you might first consider it, then make your own decision. And
though I speak as if I have authority, my only authority is the truth perceived
and understood inside me, as yours is within you. So I can only assume
responsibility for me and my attitudes; not for you, your attitudes, your
path to understanding, nor even your final understanding or consequences.
You and the Greatest Teacher of Heaven and Earth only is responsible for
you. So please check ultimately with Him and trust only finally in
His promptings! Certainly not in mine!
But with my personal health experience,
backed in what I now see as real-life science enjoined to my old cowboy
knowledge, logic, experience -- and
empirical books-and-lab science, and in my desperate worry for my brothers
and sisters of my same faith and of the whole human family, I make no apology
for the vigor in my speaking, my observations, and my very expensive and
hard learned attitudes and opinions. I only hope my expression --
no matter how imperfect it may be --
will stimulate, maybe even provoke, you to serious thought and will somehow
benefit you and all others we both love and care about.
Sincerely,
Thomas Rodgers
First reveiw DC 49:18-21. Please
pay attention to every word and carefully print into your mind "every jot
and tittle" and petition the spirit for clarity! Do it as if your
blessings of health depend upon it --
because
they do!
DC 49:18-21:
18. And whoso forbiddeth to abstain from meats,
that man should not eat the same, is not ordained of God;
19. For, behold the beasts of the field and the fowls
of the air, and that which cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use
of man for food and for raiment, and that he might have in
abundance.
20. But behold it is not given that one man should posses
that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin.
21. And wo be unto man that sheddeth blood or that wasteth
flesh and hath no need.
Then footnote 21a:
TG Life, Sanctity of.
JST Gen 9:11 And surely, blood shall not be shed, only
for meat to save your lives; and the blood of every beast will I require
at your hands.
Now lets look carefully at DC49:18-21 (then follow with footnote
21a):
In Verse 18,
"And whoso forbiddeth to abstain from meats, that man should not eat
the same, is not ordained of God". Our challenge in English is
with "our" double-negative rule! But in essentially all other languages
world wide, especially in ancient languages like old Hebrew or Aramaic,
the use of a double-negative is comfortable and normal. So the original
scriptures abound in double-negatives. So what language structure would
be natural in that of the Lord and the angels speaking to Joseph?
And would not Joseph put it down as close to that spoken form as he could?
So is this is
not why the Brethren forbid us to abstain
from reading the scriptures? (Notice my pushy use of double, even
triple, negatives often used to set stronger feeling!) The plea of
the Prophet
is for persistent study!
Is it not to help us become familiar with the language
forms of heaven - in hope that some day we will finally "get it?"
So you will have to think beyond current English. For me that's
also hard; but I know enough of other current languages to help me stretch
and easily understand this common use of the double-negative in the ancient
language grammar of the scriptures.
In Verse 19,"For,
behold the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which
cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use of man for*
food and for* raiment,
and that he might have in abundance". You will have to think
beyond accepted conventional thought and also seek some root definitions
of the words used by Joseph Smith. You have to reach to some older
thought forms and meanings to see what God meant when He said he put the
animals here for our use and benefit. (see DC59:15-20)
If you do not comprehend the value
of a living cow, that it for thousands of years has been the farmer's hard
pulling, challenge-loving friend; or serving as his organically-powered
smoke free engine, miller, motor, truck and tractor, for the righteous
ancients, for the Israelites, or for the pioneers (as was "Ben" for Joseph
F Smiths and his "ox-consecrating" mother, Mary Feilding Smith) and for
most of all our ancestors; if you do not know of the food, clothing and
clean water production made possible through living fish, living fowl and/or
all other live creatures, when permitted to fill the measure of their natural
existence! -- do not apologize!
Even most modern farmer's have forgotten their true timeless value!
But as with most modern farmers and humanity, you need some serious, but
now truly beneficial re-training within nature's real live living
and life sustaining program; you need to extend your perceptions to natures
much broader and more timeless sustainable plan.
As an old farmer and as an independent
researcher, not trapped or surrounded by asphalt, glass, steel (or a finance-worried
administration); or by sterile urban chemical-treated-lawns and nets of
sidewalks, streets, telephone connections, TV cables and power lines; and
now, not tied by directing grants or any industry dependent paychecks (anymore);
I have the advantaged to know (and can voice) those creature's values in
natures reality. The animal's living value far exceeds
that of the once presumed economic and appetite driven gain
that their infectious extortions of life-fluid and ova in my (past)
dairy and egg production or their butchered dead bodies (sold as your food)
brought to and profited me.
A living animal helps provide pleasing
balance and abundance from the earth all its life! --
A short lived dead one, only a few greasy meals for a temporary moment!
--
then fat clogged arteries, a plethora of infections, the triggering of
antigenic-autoimmune responses -- and
the transfer of the neurological horror of their slaughterhouse violation,
infusing into your tissues -- for the
rest of your consuming life!
Verse 20, "But behold it
is not given that one man should posses that which is above another, wherefore
the world lieth in sin", is an easy one to understand - but the hardest
to live. But the compassion required for living fairly and equally with
our fellow human beings, is only learned by living with kindness and reverence
for the diminutive creature beings that we are asked (in our preparatory
training for Celestial stewardships) to preserve in the preceeding verses
of 18, 19 and warned of the consequences, in 21, if we do not.
Verse 21, "And wo be unto
man that sheddeth blood or that wasteth flesh and hath no need".
As closure and warning, this must be received, understood, embraced and
conformed to, to release us from the destroyers blood and horror power
of enmity! Enmity locks man into discompassionate, destructive, even
murderous, behavior and thoughts; --
and so, as is Isaiah's warning (Isaiah 66:3&4) into a clouding and
veiling his mind from knowing the mind of the Creator and Savior of life.
As destroyers of innocent life, and consequently (usually ignorantly) including
his own, man cannot be trusted with higher dominions, blessings or responsibilities.
So, so far, we have not been given them.
So if we presumably look forward to
the millennium, when the lamb and lion are not harming each other, then
our habit, belief or presumed acceptance "as some acceptable, or sparingly
principle" in killing and consuming blood and flesh --
as is read by too many of us into this scripture and others --
is in hard conflict with Millennial and Celestial principles and with this
scripture's own closer in verse 21 (and especially its JST 9:11 footnote).
So we must face it, if our understanding
is true, no killing is allowed in the millennium, and you know the lamb
and lion will live together in peace; one will be hard pressed to find
any righteous quorum gathering or a picnicking celestial family having
parts of a creature in a streak, chicken or fish barbecue in the millennium!
In fact, those are meals that will be impossible or expressly forbidden!
So! Why impossible or forbidden?
Number one: Interference
with agency!
The agency (that privilege) spoken
of in God's own words (in His own house) in behalf of all creatures (as
with -- and like you) was --
and still is! -- to live out the measure
of its creation, and find joy therein! --
whatever measure and whatever that joy that that animal chooses, for itself,
for it to be!
I testify to you: That there is no
agency! There is no joy in a slaughterhouse! There is only slaughter's
obligate inhumanity presented in dark and hate-filled enmity, blood and
horror-mayhem! Horror so ungodly, so demoralizing and so brutal, so suffocating
to any goodly feelings or spirit; simply for a portion, potential pathogenic
piece of an animal's body to package, sell and put into you! --
I personally now repent, labor and pray to one day receive forgiveness
because of the helpless beasts, that I, in ignorant appetite and profit,
needlessly destroyed! -- certainly not
ever within any qualifying famine, untenable cold or starvation!
My ears were deafened with innocent's
cries, my heart hardened against those innocent's pain and my hands filled
with their innocent blood! It is a soul blinding insanity that is supported
in animal assassinry so both the killer and the consumer pay! It
appears that any unrepentant agency-abating and life-stopping accomplices
will not be invitees to the millennium. No single piece of flesh,
for me any more, is worth my health or to be denied eternal peace!
So follows, Number two:
Your righteous compassion!
To not participate in harm! How can
we elevate ourselves celestial candidate as human beings if we are not
elevated as humane beings!
Number three: Your calling
to walk in the footsteps of the Savior!
To follow His call to act as saviors
ourselves and fill that order of God to act as protecting and preserving
stewards over the earth and all she holds! We are to multiply and replenish,
not destroy, deplete and diminish!
Number four: Good health!
(This is an easy one for selfish old me, now that my science and understanding
has been harshly corrected and collaborated!)
I want now! --
No! I need now! -- and will want forever!
--
especially to help prepare my family for the millennium --
the blessings of health and function, and the happiness that only that
good health brings! I do not want, do not need, nor will I ever again
accept, the viruses, bacteria, parasites, prions, hormones, fats, genetic
adultery, antigenic, autoimmune disease producing proteins, fats, and second-hand
adulterating chemistry that the animal's violated tissues brought when
I, in my past, put them into my own or my children's bodies (and yours)!
--
So if you desire to prepare for, or enter the millennium, or want it for
you with your children, or if you need any of its promised blessings, including
its promised acceptable health, then wouldn't it be to your advantage to
begin to live for it now? -- Joseph
Smith, Brigham Young (and Pres. Hinckley)
clearly suggested you should!
Here is a suggestion for easier understanding
of DC49:18-21 -- if at all possible
--
if
you speak another language besides English --
translate it directly yourself, you will have an advantage on it's "old
Hebrew" understanding. If you don't speak another language, find a (unbiased
open) friend who does and have him do it; then ask him to explain it back
to you in english from his "second language" translation --
word by word.
But before you read again DC: 49:18-21or
try the translation technique, read first the footnote 21a, then make
it all fit!
21aTG*
Life, Sanctity of.
JST Gen 9:11
And surely, blood shall not be shed, only for meat to save your lives;
and the blood of every beast will I require at your hands.
(Wow, that's pretty clear!)
Another Scripture
supporting this harmless stewardship and God's call to protect of all life
is in the Book of Mormon:
Ether 8:19
19. For the Lord worketh not in secret combinations,
neither doth he will that man should shed blood, but in all
things hath forbidden it, from the beginning of man.
(Notice word "all", then consider the safest moral
position you can take, to live completely free of all bloodshed,
free of all violence or violation of any life!)
Now again read DC 49:18-21:
18. And whoso forbiddeth to abstain from
meats, that man should not eat the same, is not ordained of God;
19. For, behold the beasts of the field and the fowls
of the air, and that which cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use
of man for* food
and for* raiment,
and that he might have in abundance.
for*:
Notice
that it says for; it does not say
as!
There is a big difference between the word for and the word
as!
For means: to facilitate, to make
possible...
As means: is, it is, to serve specifically
(or precisely) as...
Check any old unabridged dictionary - preferable the
1828 Noel Webster Dictionary - the one Joseph would have used!
20. But behold it is not given that one man should posses
that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin.
21. And wo be unto man that sheddeth
blood or that wasteth flesh and hath no need.**
(**compare verse 21 above, to verses 13 and 15 in
DC
89. Also pretty clear!)
As an unindentured, independent, research
specialist of zoonotic epidemiology (including hormone, antigenic crossover
and autoimmune response) I know full well the hormonal over-doping folly,
disease organisms transfer, and "anti-genetic" antigenic protein, fat and
alien glucose danger of the human-animal (us) eating another (dirtier)
animal's tissues! So I abstain from all meats, all animal
tissues, all animals fluids, all animal ova, all animal byproducts and
I teach all my students "that
all man should
not
eat the same!"
This scripture specifically warns anyone
who attempts to forbid, interfere, remove or impede me or
anyone else who choses to abstain, act in our agency,
to live, and to teach or promote with
all man, this health blessing and Millennium opening wisdom,
to
do the same!
Sharply and clearly stated here is:
any man who thinks or even believes he is supposed to stand in the way
of, forbiding anyone, me, my or anyone else's students, his own family
members, children, friends or fellow saints in making this their wise personal
choice -- is out of order! --He
is not ordained of God! --
Even if he thinks so! -- period!
(Compare to DC121:39-42;
esp. pure knowledge - NOT ignorant presumption! - without
guile!)
So if I, my family or my students choose
to not risk contracting "Mad Cow", E-coli, Influenza, RSV, Epstein
Barr, Herpes (cold sores), Staph, Strep, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Chicken
Pox, Diphtheria, Pertusis (mumps), Tetanus, Polio, and all
the other endless animal hosted and consumed tissue-transmitted,
antigenic
(autoimmune), hormone
and neural-interrupting diseases,
NO
man had better attempt to coerce me, my children, my students or my loved
ones to touch or incur the tissues of, or eat (ingest) any diseased and
mad cow, or any diseased and "mad" anything!
-- This Earth's most important heavenly
educated man, and those honorable men gathered with him (that I know and
reverence) -- have never interfered
with this rightful individual agency and choice!
-- and never will!
-- so as is clearly set forth to all,
in this scripture! -- neither
should you! tlr
1
Timothy 4:1-5
Integrally connected to DC
49 above is 1 Timothy 4:1-5. Click
here to see it in original Greek, with direct English and the King
James translation at sides.
See it, -- then go to the
core scripture of this principle: Doctrine
and Covenants, Section 89: "The Word of Wisdom"
*Note: TG = Topical
Guide; is a reference guide inclusively published, at the
rear of the Bible as part of LDS Standard Works of The Bible, Book of Mormon,
Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. It cross- references
scores of associated scriptures for each of its hundreds of indicated words
and topics.
TG Life, Sanctity
of.
Final caution!
Do not pass off any disease to just chance or fate! --
that is never the case! Though you may not have been the one making initial
choices that brought some disease, you do have the agency and responsibility
to improve or heal it as much as is possible, and to prevent added damage.
That is done only by understanding the root*
source, causes and conditions of disease, then acting to avoid it. *root;
see: Times and Seasons, Hyrum Smith,
'Engine of Health'
DC130:20-21
20. There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before
the foundations of this world, upon which all blessing are predicated—
21. And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by
obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.
In this scripture (and in real science), clearly the responsibility
for the health of our bodies and our body-chemistry-dependent minds is
here placed upon us as individuals—
and the law truly is:
Health: is gained
by understanding and obedience!
Disease: on the other hand, only comes and increases
in the lack of knowledge or within our choices to act against it!
Our body was created within, so was best adapted to the garden!
— never the slaughterhouse!
We ourselves only have made that deadly blood and horror,
paradise lost choice! — God and our divinely created bodies did not!
So in our own (humanity based) ignorance, or disobedient
choices, we pay the price!
But in God's promise, if we return to his plan, ask,
search, learn, understand and comply—
we will receive the blessings!