Gordon B. Jeremiah

[hethathathears]

As I have read the scriptures, I have noticed a real parallel between President Gordon B. Hinckley and the prophet Jeremiah. Both of them were given words and assignments from the Lord to speak, and yet very few listened. In fact, America today is very much like what Jerusalem was before the coming of Nebuchadnezzar. To this, Jeremiah was given the command to go forth and cry repentance unto the people, but nobody listened.

Now I know what your thinking, Jeremiah only preached for 41 years, and if the Lord would have only given him another 6 months, the people would have come around, repented and then slipped gingerly into the Celestial Kingdom. However, that was not to be.

Before I go on, I would like to state that I love America. I love the Church, and I am grateful that the Lord has given us Prophets to lead us in these latter days. However, America has changed from the days of my parents. As one writer put it, one of the most dangerous places to be in America is in a mother's womb. His chances are one in four of being murdered. Since the decision of Roe v. Wade, 48 million abortions have transpired compared to 127 million births.

The same type of thing happened in Jerusalem in Jeremiah's day in some respects, but instead of abortion practices, they practiced burning their sons and their daughters in the fire to the Canaanite god Molech. This happened on the shrines of Topheth in the valley of Slaughter. Jeremiah 7:31 Little did the Israelite know, this same valley is where Nebuchadnezzar would have them killed.

In our day, we regard homosexuality as simply an alternative lifestyle, while we change marriage partners like a fashion statement. Pornography is now one of the major business in America doing over 5 Billion dollars per year.

Again, the same was true in Jeremiah's time. "I supplied all their needs, yet they committed adultery, and thronged to the houses of prostitutes. They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man's wife. Jeremiah 5:7-8 I mean, isn't looking at pornographic pictures neighing after another man's wife? And wouldn't that also be Idol worship, the man or women that could not go a day or two without having to spend time with their idol pornography, whether it is in book form or on the Internet?

Drug addiction isn't far behind which is basically filling every high school and junior high across America. Alcoholic issues are also running rampant in America. In fact America is the number one user in all of these statistics. In an index of leading cultural indicators, over the last thirty years, the United States has experienced a 560% increase in violent crime, a 400% increase in illegitimate births, a 400% increases in divorces, a 300% increase in single-parent homes, a 200% increase in teenage suicides, and a 75% drop in SAT scores. The deterioration of each of these indicators- and dozens of others can be traced to the year that we outlawed the Bible from our Schools. This is perhaps why LDS numbers aren't anywhere as bad as the rest of the country, because we still have the Lord in our school in the form of seminary, that is if you can get your daughter to go her senior year. Teenagers!

It was Billy Graham who summed it up, "If God doesn't judge America, He'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah." Thomas Jefferson put it, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep forever.

The Prophet Jeremiah warned that if the people would only repent and change their ways, then the Lord would withhold his judgement and they could stay.
"Even now, if you quit your evil ways, I will let your stay in your own land. But I will be merciful only if you stop your evil thoughts and deeds and start treating each other with justice. Jeremiah 7:3,5 Jeremiah warned that a great destruction was coming out of the North that would destroy them if they didn't repent. Yep, everyone considered Jeremiah a Prophet of doom and gloom. Maybe if he could have hung out with the people of our day and age he could have blown off the Lord's wording and put his message across in a warm and fuzzy way. You know, be politically correct. But the bottom line was, nobody listened.

Sadly, we have our Prophet in our day and age that gives the same council from the Lord, and we have a few strong and faithful followers, but the rest seem to pick and choose those things that are important to follow. To the people of Jeremiah's day the Lord said, Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well. Jeremiah 7:23 He goes on to say, From the day your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have continued to send prophets, day in and day out. BUT MY PEOPLE HAVE NOT LISTENED TO ME OR EVEN TRIED TO HEAR. Jeremiah 7:25 Another parallel we have with Jerusalem in Jeremiah's day is a host of false prophets. For everything that Jeremiah said, there were a host of others that claimed that it would never happen. They mocked him and called him a doomist.

Again, the same holds true in our day and age. Salt Lake says that we need a year supply of food. They say we need to prepare, both temporally and spiritually, get out of dept, go to the temple, read our scriptures, and live up to our covenants, however, the naysayers say one month supply of food is OK, or maybe three at the most. But nobody needs one year. And then we have the extreme that claim we need to get our guns and move to the hills for America's last stand. I don't know, is that the gospel of love that Jesus was all about.

In the day of Jeremiah, he prophesied that Nebuchadnezzar was coming. When that army came, Jeremiah prophesied that Jerusalem would not escape. He proposed that Zedekiah would be hunted down and taken captive. Prophecy after prophecy came true for Jeremiah and when Jerusalem still fell, the remaining people came to Jeremiah and asked - Please ask the Lord, should we stay here, or should we go to Egypt to live. Of course they ended their petition with the statement, whatever the Lord says, that will we do. Jeremiah 42 When Jeremiah returned 10 days later, he said, if you stay here in Jerusalem and live according to my law, I will bless you and protect you, however, if you go to Egypt you will all die. So guess what the people did? Yep, they said Jeremiah was a liar, that it was not the Lord that prophesed to them but the fallen prophet, and they went to Egypt anyway and were all destroyed.

The people of Jerusalem in Jeremiah's day felt that they were the covenant people of the Lord and that He would protect them, even in their wickedness, and yet Jerusalem was destroyed 3 times under Isreal's leadership. (17 times to date) Why even Zarahemla was destroyed twice. Bummer. The people felt that because they had the temple, the Lord would always protect them. "So just as I destroyed Shiloh, I will now destroy this temple that bears my name, this temple that you trust in for help, this place that I gave to you and your ancestor. And I will send you out of my sight. Jeremiah 7:14-15 Luckily, we have many temples in our day and age, but I'm just thinking that if we are just as foolish about following the word of the Lord in our day and age as the Children of Isreal were back in their day, he just might take away our temples as well. That is one reason we should attend regularly, and cling to the principales taught there in.

All this happened over 2,500 years ago. The question is, haven't we learned anything in the past 2,000 years. Bottom line- If we follow the Lord through his prophets in all things, all will be well.