BOM 2 Nephi 28

Today’s reading, 2 Nephi 28, leads me to ask a few questions:

Is there any religious contention today?  (See verse 3.)

Are there theologians and ecclesiastical leaders and academics in religious studies out there who take a purely or largely intellectual approach to matters of religion, neglecting revelation and the Spirit?  (See verses 4, 15.)

Do even many religious leaders dismiss modern revelation and miracles?  (See verses 5-6, 29.)

Is our society more, and more openly, inclined to hedonism?  Is sexual freedom increasingly regarded as virtually the highest good, the thing that trumps all else?  (See verses  7, 15.)

Are there teachers out there who preach an easy Gospel (what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace”) and a non-judgmental God, who are uncomfortable, oppressed, even angry, at the idea of holiness and high moral standards?  (See verse 8, 28.)

Are there preachers who live lives of enormous wealth, based upon the offerings of the poor?  (See verses 12-13.)

Are there those in society, and even in the churches, who seek to normalize evil and immorality while denouncing divinely-given standards of good and bad, regarding “intolerance” (very loosely conceived) as the only real moral sin?  (See verses 16, 20.)

Are there voices seeking to dissolve the very distinction between good and evil, at least where it threatens the pursuit of pleasures?  (See verse 22.)

Do prominent leaders and intellectuals assure us that everything is just fine, and that fundamental changes in morality and family actually represent wholesome progress?  (See verses 21, 24-25.)

Are there those, even within the Restored Church, who seek to conform the teachings of scripture, prophets, and apostles to the precepts of men, to the wisdom of the world, and who are embarrassed when those teachings seem to clash with fashionable trends?  (See verse 31; also 1 Nephi 8:26-28.)

Just a few questions to consider while reading this chapter.

 Posted from Ka’anapali, Maui, Hawai’i