"Peace and Safety" | "Violence and Spoil"

Frequently the “Powers” (or others seeking power or change) latch onto catch-phrases to maneuver people into compliantly (though sometimes violently) accepting or pursuing Utopian futures — phrases and slogans like this one from late 1700s France: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Sometimes they work for good and sometimes for evil. In our own time, we have heard:

Build Back Better
Safe and Effective
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI)
Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)
Make America Great Again (MAGA)
Black Lives Matter
All Lives Matter
(plus many others).

A prophetic phrase that has been cropping up lately is “peace and safety.”¹ Where have we heard that before?

1 BUT of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape (New Testament | 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3)

Is this “peace and safety” pursuit just a build up to another 604-586 B.C. type catastrophe where Jeremiah and Ezekiel quoted the Lord’s own observation — that “violence and spoil” was the state of affairs because justice and judgment were not?​

6 ¶ For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
7 As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds (Old Testament | Jeremiah 6:6–7).

9 ¶ Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD  (Old Testament | Ezekiel 45:9).

For those paying attention to the déjà vus of today’s national and world affairs, this observation of “violence and spoil” seems perfectly apt: war upon war; devastating geo-engineered storm after storm; “wild-fire” arson upon arson; litigation on litigation; misappropriation on misappropriation; scam after scam; scandal after scandal; mockery upon mockery of democratic, Republican, Constitutional principles and ideals.

To some degree we are beginning to see the extent of “violence and spoil” that the USA (and most other “Powers”) have concealed or suppressed from their people's awareness. Yet, even with the recent daily revelations, there are thousands of witnesses and exposés that remain unread, un-watched because we don’t really want to know the full truth — the full depth, the entire long spectrum from Right to Left — of “violence and spoil.” For many a 180° view is more than sufficient because a 360° comes too close to home.

BUT has God, the Supreme Polymath, given us a layered, bifurcated warning of things to come in His laments about JerUSAlem? Might things eventually come in threes: like the  destruction of the first Temple (Av 9, 587/86 B.C.) and the destruction of the second Temple² (Av 9, 70 A.D.) if we do not execute judgment and justice with integrity? — if we remain a hypocritical nation³ or a covenant people asking “what is our sin?”?⁴ Do we have an Av 9⁵ in our future? Do we understand how much Isaiah (at the point of 722 B.C.) and Jeremiah (at the points of 604, 597, 587/86 B.C.) were speaking to us in 2025? — that if we don’t begin to execute justice and judgment 360° that history will repeat itself?​

To me, God’s word seems but one long, déjà vu lament⁶ about and warning to His wayward children, interspersed with pleas, redemptive patterns and promises.

Let us look at our own reality 360°. Let us individually and as families reject the lures and acquisitions of “violence and spoil.” Let us petition every day for individual and national repentance, and where it cannot be found, for justice and judgment.

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1. Just web- or media-search “peace and safety” or “peace and security” to see numerous examples, e.g.: Thessalonians 5 Prophecy! (It’s Happening!) | Buddy Brown | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_UwT84MEo4
2. Per Jewish tradition, destruction of Temples 1 and 2 was on the same date Av 9, 656 years apart, though there is some dispute as to the truth of that coincidence: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/tisha-bav-is-not-the-date-temples-were-destroyed/
3. Old Testament | Isaiah 10:1-6
   1 WOE unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
   2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
   3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
   4 Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
  5 ¶ O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
  6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
4. Old Testament | Jeremiah 16:10
   10 ¶ And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?
Old Testament | Proverbs 30:12
   12 There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
5. Av is the Hebrew fifth month (circa Gregorian July/August).
6. https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2014/01/gods-lament.html
https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2024/03/isaiahs-lamentations.html
https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2024/03/where-are-lamentations.html
.

Please Pray for Canada

Please fervently pray that more Canadians will awaken to the dire situation that is unfolding in the attempted "coronation"¹ of a former Central banker² as the next (unelected) Prime Minister of Canada — a man who has been caught in egregious lies³ and embellishments that have been ignored or glossed over by the captured, corrupted MSM. As a shadow financial advisor to the current scandal-ridden⁴ PM Justin Trudeau, Mark Carney helped plunge Canada into a 21.9 billion overrun of an already shocking 40 billion deficit.⁵ Several years ago, Klaus Schwab of WEF bragged that he had penetrated Canada's inner cabinet with WEFians⁶ and now, Mark Carney, as a member of the Foundation Board of WEF,⁷ is pretending that there is no dissonance between his alleged "love" of Canada and the agendas of WEF for dismantling sovereign nations.

Please pray that leaders who honor rights, freedoms, truth, consequence, and our Constitution will be elected to a majority government as soon as possible to begin the road back to transparency, consequence, integrity, justice, and judgment. Canada has fallen into a pretense of democracy⁸ where corruption after corruption by the powers is met with suppression of facts and impunity for criminal acts, and thus, allowed to continue and escalate.

Please pray that more organizations like Democracy Watch Canada can arise and demand accountability — that no one is above the law.

Democracy Watch applies for prosecution of PM over SNC-Lavalin | Duff Conacher
(Bridge City News | Mar 5, 2025 | Time 15:45 min.) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q0lzIIIdIw

Please pray that crimes, corruptions, deceptions, and conspiracies of those pursuing power for purposes of Utopian control and self-interest be fully exposed; that power abusers be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

And, where needed, fervently pray the same for your own country.

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1. https://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2025/02/coronation-of-carney-not-if-we-mark.html
https://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2025/01/canadians-if-you-vote-for-mark-carney.html
2. https://moc-n-dox.blogspot.com/2024/10/dear-fellow-canadians.html
3. A multitude in one speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B1-a-TYk9s
- LILLEY UNLEASHED: What is Mark Carney not disclosing? | Toronto Sun | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78hnQXAlefw&t=338s
- My fellow Albertans and people from Canada (this man ["the lyin' king"] is Canada's biggest threat) | John Bolton | Mar 7, 2025 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDW20K9XPCM
- Tories accuse Mark Carney of lying about Brookfield move to New York – February 26, 2025 | cpac | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZSBO18snoo
4. https://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2024/12/scandal-mania.html
5. Fraser Institute | https://www.fraserinstitute.org › commentary › fiscal-u... Dec 16, 2024 — The government ran a $61.9 billion deficit last year—$21.9 billion higher than the $40 billion deficit originally projected. | https://www.fraserinstitute.org/commentary/fiscal-update-reveals-extent-federal-government-mismanagement
6. https://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-penetration-of-canada.html
"Who in Canada is Part of the Young Global Leaders?" | Real Estate Media News Network | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kXW9xjz5Hw
7. Carney is a member of the Group of Thirty, an international body of leading financiers and academics, and of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum.[40][41] Carney attended the annual meetings of the Bilderberg Group in 2011, 2012 and 2019.[42][43]   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Carney
8. https://moc-n-dox.blogspot.com/2025/02/mocking-of-canadian-democracy.html

"Privatized Morality"

Warning voices
 from the ARC

If you tuned into the recent ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship¹) conference in London, England, you may have heard David Brooks² use the phrase "privatized morality" which struck me as the perfect two-word summary for a major trend of the past 50-odd years — perfect for the repeating pattern of every person, group, or nation that adheres to the ideology of Korihor³ where:

every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime (Book of Mormon | Alma 30:17; bold emphasis added).

"Privatized morality" also summarizes my post of one-year ago: Moral Orientation: Part III - Self-as-Sovereign.⁴

The moment David Brooks CHALLENGED world leaders at ARC 2025
(Alliance for Responsible Citizenship | Feb 18, 2025 | Time 14:17 min.) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSa52TR9tCA

There were many truth-tellers at this third-annual ARC conference. They didn't all agree on current events and personalities, but they felt free to speak their minds. As it stands, the mix of good and bad is unfolding so rapidly that hindsight may prove the only true understanding of the justice and judgments of our time. Yes, (finally!) much long-standing, pervasive corruption is being rooted out, but are we seeing 360, 180, or less? Where is the Constitution headed in this rout? And if history repeats itself, undoubtedly, so will this observation:

39 We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.
(Doctrine & Covenants 121:39; bold emphasis added)

Let us not be so locked into what is being made visible from the past that we do not observe the present. Let us observe all things 360 and remember the persistence of déjà vu.

-------------------------/
1. https://www.arcforum.com/
- https://www.youtube.com/@arc_conference/featured
The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) is an international organisation whose aim is to unite conservative voices and propose policy based on traditional Western values. It is associated with psychologist and political commentator Jordan Peterson. It was founded in June 2023, with a London conference held in October of that year.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_Responsible_Citizenship
- https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2023/11/time-to-board-arc.html
2. David Brooks (born August 11, 1961)[1] is a Canadian-born American book author and political and cultural commentator. Though he describes himself as an ideologic moderate, others have characterised him as centrist, moderate conservative, or conservative, based on his record as contributor to the PBS NewsHour, and as opinion columnist for The New York Times[2][page needed][3][better source needed]. In addition to his shorter form writing, Brooks has authored six non-fiction books since 2000, two appearing from Simon and Schuster, and four from Random House, the latter including The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement (2011), and The Road to Character (2015). Beginning as a police reporter in Chicago and as an intern at William F. Buckley's National Review, Brooks rose to his positions at The Times, NPR, and PBS[1] after a long series of other journalistic positions (film critic for The Washington Times, reporter and op-ed editor at The Wall Street Journal,[4][full citation needed] senior editor at The Weekly Standard, and contributing editor at Newsweek and The Atlantic Monthly).[when?][citation needed]
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brooks_(commentator)
- https://heroes-and-hydras.blogspot.com/2025/02/58-david-brooks-author-political.html
3. Book of Mormon character: "Korihor, antichrist who was successful in Zarahemla and Gideon, but was run out of Jershon. Debated Giddonah2 and Alma2, was struck dumb, then trodden down by Zoramites (c. 74 BC).[157]" [Book of Mormon | Alma 30] by
4. https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2024/02/moral-orientation-part-iii-self-as.html

Invitation to Pray for the Cardston Alberta Temple

Cardston Alberta Temple
Image source below footnotes

Last year I posted two blogs concerning the Cardston Alberta Temple here¹ and here.² Having just received notice of the planned 2027, 6-month open house for the Salt Lake Temple (now converted from a progressive pattern to single-room instruction), I was reminded of the massive de- and re-construction of the interior of that iconic building following costly seismic reinforcement despite its dedicatory prayer of preservation against seismic events.³ I cannot imagine a similar fate of single-room instruction being forced upon one of the few remaining progressive temples of the Church, if that is the plan.

Cardston, too, has its own preserving dedicatory blessing,⁴ yet the rumor is that seismic upgrade is also planned for Cardston. Who could have imagined what seismic "reason" would result in for the Salt Lake Temple? Yes, the end result for Salt Lake may be beautiful when it is finally seen, but was it done with the knowledge and required  consent of the people⁵?

Cardston is one of the few remaining temples maintaining the progressive pattern of early temple building by the restored church. Is it important to preserve that pattern? Let us  pray that if it is, it will be preserved in its present beauty.  The destruction that would be required to convert it to single-room instruction is beyond comprehension. As to seismic necessity? can we not trust in its re-dedicatory prayer of 1991?

As a side note: the structure of the Cardston Temple is unique in that its capstone can be seen from the ground, uniting the corners in a single peak; into a chief or head cornerstone as it were, symbolizing the unifying, overarching mission of Christ.

19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation* of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:19-22).

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1. https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2024/08/saving-restored-cardston-alberta-temple.html
2. https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2024/10/a-slippery-seismic-slope.html
3. see footnotes 1 & 2
4. Paragraph from the Cardston Alberta Temple Dedicatory Prayer | June 22, 1991
“We dedicate the structure from the footings and foundation to the highest elevation of the roof that it may stand firm and immovable against any trembling of the earth and against the storms of nature that may beat upon these walls. We pray that thou wilt preserve it from desecration at the hands of any with evil intent.” (https://www.thechurchnews.com/1991/6/29/23260491/cardston-alberta-temple-touch-the-hearts-of-thy-people-with-the-spirit-of-elijah-the-prophet/)
5. Doctrine & Covenants 26:2
    2 And all things shall be done by common consent in the church, by much prayer and faith, for all things you shall receive by faith. Amen
Doctrine & Covenants 28:13
    13 For all things must be done in order, and by common consent in the church, by the prayer of faith.
(See also Doctrine & Covenants 104:21)

* Which foundation do we look to (30-34 AD? 1830-1844 AD?) if foundational things change?

Image:

Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cardston_Alberta_Temple.jpg
Attribution: Kim Siever, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Asenath (Wife of Joseph): Hebrew or Egyptian?

See footnote 3

(Since fog and overcast skies have hidden most of the sky of January 2025 I have seen the moon only 3 or 4 times, and thus have no observations to report so, in the meantime, we’ll consider Asenath.)

In the beginning of the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob legacies, particular attention was given to marrying within the Hebrew bloodline. Here are five examples:

26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27 ¶ Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot [Sarai & Milcah].
28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah [Sarai/Sarah¹].
(Old Testament | Genesis 11:26-29)

1 AND Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things.
2 And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:
3 And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:
4 But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.
(Old Testament | Genesis 24:1-4)

1 AND Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
2 Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother.
(Old Testament | Genesis 28:1–2)

34 ¶ And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:
35 Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
(Old Testament | Genesis 26:34-35)

5 And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padan-aram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
6 ¶ When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padan-aram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;
7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padan-aram;
8 And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;
9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.
(Old Testament | Genesis 28:5-9)

The myths and legends that have evolved around Joseph in Egypt are numerous with some contradictory elements and probable embellishments, but nonetheless, a wonderful story of how God might have woven two tragedies effecting two people: Dinah (mother of Asenath²) and enslaved Joseph into an incredible account of how (in the words of Joseph from a verse musical³:)

Surely in these years I have seen
How oft good comes out of bad;
How always light breaks up the night
How my God sets things right
That seem impossibly wrong.

Most are unaware of the fascinating story that goes beyond Genesis where 17-year old, newly minted slave Joseph first encounters Asenath, the 6-year old “foster-daughter” of Potiphar and Zelicah, the woman who plagued Joseph so relentlessly in Memphis. After serving 12-years in prison to white-wash “the stain that might leak, Upon Zelicah’s fair name,” 30-year old Joseph (now second in command in Egypt) visits Potiphar and Zelicah, (now in Heliopolis) where he re-encounters Asenath, now 18-years old; and as they say, the rest is history. But, if you are interested in exploring more of this possible, unsung history, you can find it at:

▪ Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, Trans. by Henrietta Szold, 1968.
     Legends—Vol. 2: 15-23; 38-77; 139; 170-174
     Legends—Vol. 5: Notes (pp. 336/n97; 338/n105; 338/n107; 340/n126; 341/n133; 341/n134; 342/n142; 361/n339; 365/n370; 369/n400
▪ The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Edited by James H. Charlesworth,1983.
     OTP—Vol. 1: The Testament of Joseph |. pp. 819-825
     OTP—Vol. 2: Jubilees | pp. 128-130
▪ The Book of Jasher. Pub. by J. H. Parry & Company, 1887.
     pp. 120-124, 128-134, 136-137, 140-147
▪ Old Testament—Genesis | chpts. 37, 39–41
▪ Josephus, Complete Works. Trans. by William Whiston, 1960.
     pp. 46-49 | chpts. IV–VI

Here are two samples to whet your appetite:

Ginzberg, Louis. The Legends of the Jews — Volume 2 (p. 37). Kindle Edition.
“Asenath was the daughter of Dinah and Hamor [Shechem], but she was abandoned at the borders of Egypt, only, that people might know who she was, Jacob engraved the story of her parentage and her birth upon a gold plate fastened around her neck. The day on which Asenath was exposed, Potiphar went walking with his servants near the city wall, and they heard the voice of a child. At the captain's bidding they brought the baby to him, and when he read her history from the gold plate, he determined to adopt her. He took her home with him, and raised her as his daughter.”
(Pseudo-Philo–314) reference to rape of Dinah by Shechem, the Hurrite.

OTP—Vol. 2: Joseph and Aseneth | pp. 177, 202-238, 245
(202) Pentephres [aka Potiphar] (P) is a wise counselor to Pharaoh and priest of Heliopolis, the place known as Sun City [Heliopolis]; an important centre of the Sun god Rê (footnote e);
(203) Aseneth (A) is very tall and beautiful "beyond all virgins" whose fame of beauty had spread far and wide; in appearance A was like the Hebrews; there was much wrangling amongst her suitors and attempts to fight one another; she lived in seclusion (footnote 2a) and no man had ever seen her; her arrogance was against suitors, not others (footnote 2a);
(204) her rooms contained many gods that she worshipped;
(205) Joseph (J) (while touring the lands to store up corn) sends a message to P of his intention to arrive for "lunch"; P speeds servants ahead to prepare while he and Zelicah (Z) hurry home from their inheritance field / estate (footnote 3i); P is thrilled with the possibilities of a match between A & J; Z is afraid of possible revenge;
(206) P makes his proposal to A that she marry J;
(207) A (who does not know that Zaphnath-paaneah is J replies in shock and rejection just as a servant enters to say J is at the gate;
(208-209) A flees to her room; J offers a heavy-laden olive branch to P & Z [a gesture of “forgive and forget”?]; A sees J from her window [recognizes and remembers him as Joseph of her childhood] and is stricken with remorse for her words and judgments;
(210-213) A & J meet;
(214) J agrees to return in 8 days;
(215-216) A fasts seven days and nights and weeps; she puts on the somber black tunic of mourning that she wore when her brother died; she casts away her idols, goodly clothes, jewelry, and statues out the back window to the poor;
(217-224) A's soliloquies of remorse, fear, grief, repentance; [“Have I been too foolish? Too strangely believing? Giving to the image What the Living deserved?”]; the eighth day, A feels hope, and sees the morning star; an angel appears in her locked room;
(225-231) the angel directs A to put off her mourning tunic and to dress in a new linen robe; he blesses and comforts her and pronounces her betrothal to J if they both accept the plan; he tells her he will visit J and tell him about A’s acceptance of his God;
(235) Pharaoh performs the marriage;
(245) A's prayer: "Lord my God, who make me alive again / and rescued me from the idols and the corruption of death, / who said to me, 'Your soul will live for ever,'" ...

Scholars and readers may differ on who Asenath really is, but the Legends tell an incredible story of human follies and unfathomable futures.

------------------------------------/
1. Ginzberg, Louis. The Legends of the Jews — Volume 1 (p. 89). Kindle Edition.
“For a period of two years Abraham could devote himself undisturbed to his chosen task of turning the hearts of men to God and His teachings.[41] In his pious undertaking he was aided by his wife Sarah, whom he had married in the meantime. While he exhorted the men and sought to convert them, Sarah addressed herself to the women.[42] She was a helpmeet worthy of Abraham. Indeed, in prophetical powers she ranked higher than her husband.[43] She was sometimes called Iscah, "the seer," on that account.[44]” (Bold emphasis added.)
2. Ginzberg, Louis. The Legends of the Jews — Volume 2 (p. 63). Kindle Edition.
[As Jacob was dying in Goshen Egypt] “Joseph received two gifts from his father. The first was Shechem, the city that Jacob had defended, with sword and bow, against the depredations of the Amorite kings when they tried to take revenge upon his sons for the outrage committed there. And the second gift was the garments made by God for Adam and passed from hand to hand, until they came into the possession of Jacob. Shechem was his reward, because, with his chastity, he stemmed the tide of immorality that burst loose in Shechem first of all.[377] Besides, he had a prior claim upon the city. Shechem, son of Hamor, the master of the city, had given it to Dinah as a present, and the wife of Joseph, Asenath, being the daughter of Dinah, the city belonged to him by right.[378]” (Bold emphasis added.)
3. The verse musical was published online in 2019 but has been recently slightly revised and will be republished soon.

Heads Up to God’s Solar / Lunar Festival Calendar?

Waxing Crescent Moon
* Image info & 
source below footnotes

Considering these words:

14 ¶ And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: (Old Testament | Genesis 1:14; bold emphasis added);

should we be paying more attention to God’s “sky calendar”? How much awareness do we give to the mechanics of the sun and the moon in determining Biblical festivals / feasts, appointed days, and prophetic signs and seasons, or do we just trust in “authorities” who make (or change) calendars. In Leviticus 23 and Exodus 12, God gave all Twelve Tribes of Israel directions to inaugurate feasts and days of anticipatory prophetic events. For many, the Spring feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) were all fulfilled in the first coming of Christ and therefore, the subject now of commemoration and thanksgiving, but that the Fall feasts remain anticipatory recognitions of a Second Coming.

Despite understanding this in part, I have been distracted over past months from paying attention to the celestial “sky calendar” until this past week when I encountered an almost 3-year old series of vlogs that seem enlightening and timely.

So once again, I take up the desire to understand how it all works. My personal preference is for even numbers: no quarter days that require a February leap day every four years or so; no annual 11 day shortage between the solar year (365.25 days) and the lunar year (circa 354 days) that requires a thirteenth lunar month every two or three years to realign the two cycles — a thirteenth lunar month that most of us aren’t even aware of because it just happens as part of God’s design; and also unaware because our solar, Gregorian calendar pays no attention to the moon or its first waxing crescent that marks when each of God’s calendar months begin. Enoch’s alleged calendar of four 91-day seasons¹ (364 days) that repeat (on paper) with exactness seems so perfect, but for some good reason God’s “sky calendar” has fractions and shortages (like the monthly, lunar, waning / waxing cycle of 29.53 days) that requires regular adjustment to keep assigned days, festivals, and seasons from wandering through every month of the year. And what can we make of the Metronic cycle² of 19 years that the moon repeats?

I have yet so much to observe and learn, so I just give a brief intro to some principles that pod-caster Lani Finley of Grace and Truth Ministries shares:

▪ God’s Solar Year begins on the Vernal Equinox and ends at the next Vernal Equinox;
▪ God’s Lunar Festival Year begins on the first of Abib (Nisan) and ends at the next first day of Abib;
▪ The first day of Abib (being the beginning of the lunar year and first Festival month) is determined by observing the first waxing crescent moon that always appears in the west just after sunset on or after the Vernal Equinox;
▪ God’s day begins at sundown [disputed by some but adhered to be Mr. Finley];
▪ The Vernal Equinox marks the beginning of the spring season which may or may not coincide with the first day of Abib / Nisan;
▪ Every two or three years, the celestial mechanics gives the world a thirteenth lunar month to reconcile its normal 354.36 day lunar year with the sun’s 365.25 day year.

I may not understand or agree with all of Mr. Finley’s insights, but his research, in my opinion,  merits further study in the spirit of the Bereans.³

God's True Biblical Calendar Revealed At Last! - Part 8
(Grace and Truth Ministries | Apr 16, 2022 | Time: 58:14 min.) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBFnduhDYG8
Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBFnduhDYG8&t=317s

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1. https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/search/label/Enoch
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonic_cycle
The Metonic cycle or enneadecaeteris (from Ancient Greek: ἐννεακαιδεκαετηρίς, from ἐννεακαίδεκα, "nineteen") is a period of almost exactly 19 years after which the lunar phases recur at the same time of the year. The recurrence is not perfect, and by precise observation the Metonic cycle defined as 235 ;synodic months is just 2 hours, 4 minutes and 58 seconds longer than 19 tropical years. Meton of Athens, in the 5th century BC, judged the cycle to be a whole number of days, 6,940.[3] Using these whole numbers facilitates the construction of a lunisolar calendar. A tropical year (about 365.24 days) is longer than 12 lunar months (about 354.36 days) and shorter than 13 of them (about 383.90 days). In a Metonic calendar (a type of lunisolar calendar), there are twelve years of 12 lunar months and seven years of 13 lunar months.
3. New Testament | Acts 17:11
   11 These [people of Berea] were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word [delivered by Paul and Silas] with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

* Image Info & Source:
Description: Waxing Crescent Moon
Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crescent_Moon_Image_by_JCG.jpg
File URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Crescent_Moon_Image_by_JCG.jpg
Author: Jennifercastanedagutierrez
Attribution: Jennifercastanedagutierrez, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
No changes were made.

“Planned Polarization” – The Way of History

How many times have we seen disparate groups living without conflict for generations who suddenly erupt into hostile factions? We have witnessed it in nigh every age and land at some time or other when intense polarization is ignited through politics, culture, race, religion, ideology, opinion, theory, and on and on. Have we observed that a recycling, prominent theme in the Book of Mormon was polarization for purposes of power, gain, glory, and domination?

Today, especially in this land of promise, we seem to have an explosive mix of them all. So as our 2024 Book of Mormon study course winds down, let us review a few insights from Hugh W. Nibley’s Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 4: Transcriptions of Lectures presented to an Honors Book of Mormon Class at Brigham Young University. (All square brackets are in Nibley’s text; bold emphasis is mine.)

... It’s always good guys against bad guys. You’ll always have them and you’ll always have equals against each other and never solve that terrible thing. I’ll give an example of how this works. In the fourth century St. Basil was writing about it. “In the confused political situation everybody wants to give orders, and nobody wants to take them. Men are willing to cooperate on anything only as the most effective means of crippling a common enemy, after which they turn against each other.”

This was in Antioch, too, remember, the city where [men wanted] everybody to be wiped out so they’d be the richest man left. The final survivor and undisputed Number One was Constantine the Great. He interrupted and made them stop fighting. But, to quote our own study on the subject, no sooner had Constantine removed his last civil and military opponents than the issue between the Christians and pagan subjects became acute.² He had to settle that, so he settled that He put the pagans in their place, and then the churchman started accusing each other of heresy in wild abandon. Then it had to be Arias against Athanasius. The whole Christian world was then split again. Then the emperor took sides, came down with one side, and removed the last heretic, and received the undying thanks from the church. The true believers were at each others’ throats as never before. So this is the way it goes.

Nowhere is this process more sharply brought into focus than with Moroni’s inserts in his father’s book on the supreme results of polarizing. This is a very important principle—that the two poles conceive an ever greater antipathy to each other the more they come to be alike. Everyone knows that like poles repel each other, and only opposite poles attract each other. Now we’re talking about right from the beginning. As soon as Trajan and Hadrian took over and took half of Asia, then the trouble began with the two worlds fighting each other. It’s very old, of course. It goes back much further than that. It goes back to the battle of Thermopylae and much older than that: it’s always been going on. The emperors of East and West were fighting each other, in this case the emperors of Rome and Asia. I have particularly Justinian and Chosroes in mind, both very powerful emperors of a revived empire. The emperors of Rome and Asia describe themselves in absolutely identical terms, while each accuses his rival of being nothing but a base forgery and depraved imitation of himself. This is not a real clash of ideologies at all, but only a rivalry of parties that are [motivated] by identical principles and have the same objectives. What they are both after is the Book of Mormon formula, power and gain. The secret of commanding loyalty on both sides was, of course, to play up the wickedness of the other. The empire of the fourth century, when Rome collapsed, was at its very strongest with the biggest army and everything else. The empire of the fourth century was the world of displaced persons, inevitably drawn toward the big city. ... To take the place of the old lost loyalty to hearth and homeland—the prisca fides, the primitive belief in fate—strong measures had to be taken. New super loyalty was needed to guarantee the permanence of the social order. Men were taught to declare allegiance to a super thing—a noble abstraction loosely designated as Romanitas, the binding cement which was carefully cultivated in hostility to barbarians. “We’re the Romans: they’re the barbarians.” Well it was the same with the Babylonians and the Moslems. It was ager pacatus and ager hosticus with the Romans; Dār al-Islām and Dār al-Harb with the Moslems.

You see, that’s being very strongly emphasized. You’re never going to come to an agreement with the Iranians or the Iraqis as long as they say Dār al-Harb. Islam means “to submit”; it means peace also. All those who have submitted are the real people. All outside are the Dār al-Harb. And they threaten us. They were always being threatened and that’s why the emperor expanded [the empire]. They couldn’t stand anyone beyond their borders threatening them. Remember the last line of the fourth eclogue that got Vergil made a saint: “The emperor must inevitably rule over a pacified earth. All the earth must be pacified under his rule according to the virtues of our virtuous ancestors.” We’re the virtuous people, and we must rule the earth because we’re the good guys (p. 273; Nibley's footnote 2 from The Prophetic Book of Mormon, Vol 8-Collected Works ..., 438).

... [this is quoting J.B. Bury] ...“To command loyalty became part of the public education policy. To the lessons of the schools, carefully supervised by the government was added a more aggressive policy of deliberately widening the gulf between the two worlds [planned polarization]. For centuries, barbarian and Roman east and west had been mingling on terms of the greatest intimacy, producing a borderline culture in which it was quite impossible to draw the line between one culture and the other. Priscus, who was sent back in the sixth century, remembers quite casually the presence of people from the West visiting relatives in the camps of the Asiatics. He notes the busy coming and going of merchants between the two worlds. He describes the kind hospitality shown him, a complete stranger, in the home of the Easterners. But with this he gives us the other side of the picture, the official side—the ubiquitous activity of spies and agents in Roman pay, the infusion into the very court of Attila of large sums of Roman money to corrupt and divide. The insane mounting conviction of the rulers of the two halves of the world, both barbarians, each that his was the divine calling to liberate the human race from the intolerable ambition of the other.” It still is going on today (p. 274).

So what should we do with all the latest “planned polarization” in our present world? On the same page as the above quote, Nibley references the counsel of the prophet Joseph — that we don’t accuse, aspire, contend, coerce; that we don’t react in kind to polarizing tactics; that we don’t resist evil with evil.¹ But how are we to understand this in light of other scriptures, such as

20 Contend against no church, save it be the church of the devil
(Doctrine and Covenants | Section 18:20);

and the many instances of “speaking truth to power” found and / or counseled in scripture.² I believe that the prophet Joseph’s counsel is to be understood as: don’t falsely accuse³; don’t aspire to replace God's will with your own⁴; don’t contend against truth; don’t coerce to your or another’s will or ideas.

But what do we do when so much truth seems so elusive? This is the best I can think of in our flawed human condition —  propagandized, opinionated, and stiff-necked as we are.

• Pursue truth by prioritizing facts over feelings.
• Live with intent to receive its proofs.⁵
• Study the repeating patterns of history.
• Speak truth when moved upon by the Spirit.
• Refuse to live by coercion.
• Be awake (as commanded) to our awful situation.⁶
• Pray as Mormon counseled his son Moroni:

27 ... Behold, the pride of this nation ... hath proven their destruction except they should repent.
28 Pray for them,^[7] my son, that repentance may come unto them.
(Book of Mormon | Moroni 8:27–28).

• Above all, pray for our own awakening, awareness, repentance, discernment.

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1. New Testament | Romans 12:17 ~ Recompense to no man evil for evil.
New Testament | 1 Thessalonians 5:15 ~ See that none render evil for evil unto any man;
New Testament | 1 Peter 3:9 ~ Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing;
New Testament | Matthew 5:39 ~ But I [Jesus] say unto you, That ye resist not evil [with evil]:
2. https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2022/03/speaking-truth-to-power-new-testament.html
 https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2016/01/part-two-evil-speaking-discernment.html
https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2023/10/respecting-obeying-authority-what-did.html
https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2023/10/respecting-obeying-authority-what-of.html
https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2023/10/when-to-disrespect-authority.html
3. (and since much of the time, we don’t have all the facts, we let those who have the facts step forward and if they don’t, we either pursue the facts in a lawful way, or, if necessary, pray for exposure of the facts, and wait on God to act.)
4. Old Testament | Isaiah 14:12-14
   12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
   13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
   14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
Pearl of Great Price | Moses 4:3-4
   3 Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;
   4 And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice.
5. New Testament | 1 Thessalonians 5:21
   21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
6. Book of Mormon | Ether 8:24-26
   24 Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up.
   25 For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning.
   26 Wherefore, I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved.
7. (those who accuse, aspire, contend, coerce)

How to Pray for Enemies: https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2024/03/what-how-to-pray-for-enemies.html