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So an idea that has been circulating in my ward has been that God has favorites. It’s extracted from Nephi mentioning that he was highly favored of the Lord in 1 Ne 1:1. This came from a recent fireside given by Susan Easton Black. She explained that the way to see His merciful and loving qualities was to be obedient and the way to receive His wrath and torment was to be rebellious. This is not the God I know.
His love and mercy are unconditional. He extends his love and mercy to everyone. We do not always accept it, but that does not mean it is not there.
I don’t believe that God is wrathful or angry with the rebellious. Torment and pain is almost always the natural consequence of poor decisions. I simply can’t imagine the God I know proverbially spanking his chlidren for doing things they barely even understand is wrong. If he is perfect, he will not lose his patience with us. He has no need to yell at us. When we do something that causes harm to ourselves, he does not blame us for it, he hugs us. I believe it is only when we harm others that God steps in and delivers punishment- it’s just that most of that punishment is mental/emotional and whatever is left is doled out on judgment day (if not repented of).
Commandments are not prescriptive; they are precautionary. They are not the conditions for his love. He loves us. Always.
Careful – we learned from Elder Christofferson in Oct 2016 conference that God’s love is actually NOT unconditional. (I hated that talk, by the way)
I tuned out when he mentioned that. Beefster wrote:
His love and mercy are unconditional. He extends his love and mercy to everyone. We do not always accept it, but that does not mean it is not there.
Rather like sunshine and rain?
Quote:
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
So this idea floating about in your ward… Jesus calls the opposite of it
perfection. It’s unfortunate that the scriptures teach it both ways.
To understand better, you mean they are teaching that the favorites are the people who obey god, not that favorites are a specific group of people – like Israelites or Mormons. We’ve probably got it all memorized by now, but here it is:
Quote:Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.
In that context I take “highly favored” to be the equivalent of saying “I’ve been really blessed,” not that god gave Nephi preferential treatment.
If we do go the preferential treatment route, remember who is speaking, Nephi. I, Nephi, declare that I’m god’s favorite. When you put it like that… Laman and Lemuel probably hung in there longer than most people would.
We are in the Isaiah chapters now in the Book of Mormon – with a whole lot of “God has a favorite nation – except when they are sinning”. Right now, I view the whole “favorite people” thing as an extension of the prosperity gospel cycle, so I am very skeptical. I get why Isaiah was calling Israel to repentance. I also can see why Nephi and Jacob would cherish these words and relate the prophesies to their children. I can even see beauty in some of Isaiah’s words.
I just struggle with 90% of the reading assignment…
I don’t like the idea of favorites and non-favorites. Everyone is an individual and needs to be treated differently as a result. I do think that people who act trustworthy deserve privileges that untrustworthy people do not merit. At the same time, my son gets all kinds of perqs and motivators that my daughter never needed to do the right thing. Each are different, and need to be handled differently. And this can appear to be favortism, when really, it’s simply management….
Reuben wrote:
It’s unfortunate that the scriptures teach it both ways.
I agree. There are many stories or narratives that we can use to frame our mortal journeys. The scriptures teach both grace/mercy and wrath/hellfire for the unrepentant.
Beefster wrote:
She explained that the way to see His merciful and loving qualities was to be obedient and the way to receive His wrath and torment was to be rebellious.
As a missionary I was struck by the rod of iron as the word or law of God. For those that follow the law, it is a guide and a protection. For those that break the law, it is a punitive barrier. I restricts and confines them. I felt that I saw this theme over and over again in the scriptures. At the time I felt that I had been given a “key” to understanding the scriptures. It felt good.
I now feel that the scriptures (like life) can be framed/interpreted/spun to fit a surprising variety of narratives.
AmyJ wrote:
We are in the Isaiah chapters now in the Book of Mormon – with a whole lot of “God has a favorite nation – except when they are sinning”.Right now, I view the whole “favorite people” thing as an extension of the prosperity gospel cycle, so I am very skeptical. I get why Isaiah was calling Israel to repentance. I also can see why Nephi and Jacob would cherish these words and relate the prophesies to their children. I can even see beauty in some of Isaiah’s words.
I just struggle with 90% of the reading assignment…
Have you read the same chapters in a better translation of the Bible?
That is one of the things I am doing now, actually… 
Reuben wrote:
AmyJ wrote:
We are in the Isaiah chapters now in the Book of Mormon – with a whole lot of “God has a favorite nation – except when they are sinning”.Right now, I view the whole “favorite people” thing as an extension of the prosperity gospel cycle, so I am very skeptical. I get why Isaiah was calling Israel to repentance. I also can see why Nephi and Jacob would cherish these words and relate the prophesies to their children. I can even see beauty in some of Isaiah’s words.
I just struggle with 90% of the reading assignment…
Have you read the same chapters in a better translation of the Bible?
I highly recommend the New Oxford Annotated Bible.
And on topic, I don’t believe God has favorites and agree with others here that the idea seems to be part of the prosperity gospel and I lean more toward the interpretation that Nephi just meant he was blessed. However, I do think Nephi was a jerk and I’m glad I wasn’t his brother.
I definitely agree that Nephi was just saying he was blessed. That’s why I thought the “favorites” interpretation was so strange. Then there’s the other cases where God seems to bless some people more than others for no apparent reason. A recently threadcromanced topic was uprooted about the same time, which sort of sparked this question in my mind.
DarkJedi wrote:
I highly recommend the New Oxford Annotated Bible.
I wanted to go back to a Jewish bible for the Isaiah passages figuring that the closer I got to the “source” the better.
I found this one that seems to work for me so far:
DarkJedi wrote:
And on topic, I don’t believe God has favorites and agree with others here that the idea seems to be part of the prosperity gospel and I lean more toward the interpretation that Nephi just meant he was blessed. However, I do think Nephi was a jerk and I’m glad I wasn’t his brother.
At this point, I view the idea of “favorites” in several ways:
1.
Confirmation bias to account for diverging life choices. For example, I think that Nephi includes a lot of prosperity gospel comments to justify all the grief that came because his choices diverged from his brothers’ choices. 2.
Carrot for Repentance/Obedience.Main theme of the Old Testament “You have sinned. Repent and come back to God and He will bless us.” 3.
Narrative built to explain the unexplicable. Whole reason the Israelites were transferred out of Egypt with Moses. 4.
Self Esteem Correction issue on a Nation-wide scale. Israel was able to maintain a more or less cohesive cultural identity because they remembered their “blessed” state.
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