New International Version Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.
New Living Translation Jesus replied, “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended.
English Standard Version He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
Berean Study Bible Jesus answered, “It was because of your hardness of heart that Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but it was not this way from the beginning.
Contemporary English Version Jesus replied, “You are so heartless! That’s why Moses allowed you to divorce your wife. But from the beginning God did not intend it to be that way.
The above is from Matthew 19:8.
Jesus Teaching
New International Version “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied.
New Living Translation But Jesus responded, “He wrote this commandment only as a concession to your hard hearts.
English Standard Version And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.
Berean Study Bible But Jesus told them, “Moses wrote this commandment for you because your hearts were hard.
That is from Mark 10:5
Both are from when Jesus was explaining the law of God to an audience and they challenged him based on provisions in the law of Moses. The response they received from the Christ was that what they saw as their right was actually their condemnation. God allowed them to do things not because it was right, but because their hearts were so hard that they could not abide the law of God.
There are other instances where prophets allowed the people to have their own way.
No one looking at that story concludes that God approved of the golden calf.
Too often we look at things we cannot explain that look less that optimal and wonder what was God’s purpose. Instead we well should ask, what was our weakness, our hardness of heart that God gave us a lesser law.
Well worth thinking about.
Perhaps instead we should be asking God to make us a higher law, a higher love.
What do you think?
What parts of the past, what laws that we follow do you suspect we have not because it was God’s will but because our hearts were too hard to accept the higher law, the law that God intended to write in our hearts if we had been willing to give room to it?
The higher law is love your neighbour as God loves. So any form of discrimination is not Gods way. Obviously racism, and still discrimination against women, and gays.
One that I see — and I’m really not sure what the higher law here is — is the topic of birth control. It is fairly well known that early 20th century rhetoric was very much against artificial birth control, but seemed to become more tolerant as time went on. The trend seems to be from “couples should not limit the number of children” towards “couples should discern for themselves (involving personal revelation from God) how many children”. Some have said that the earlier “couples should not limit the number of children” is the higher law and that we are slipping into a lower law as use of birth control becomes more acceptable. Others would say that receiving personal revelation for such a private decision is a higher law than following the direction of prophets and apostles – in which case we are moving towards the higher law. I admit that I don’t really know — but it could provide an interesting example for discussion.
Perhaps I might sum it up this way — Is Catholicism preaching the higher law about birth control, or is Mormonism?
It is a good question sometimes as to just which law is the higher law.
I think this is the only explanation for the priesthood restriction. It was never God’s intent to exclude people of any race or ethnicity from the priesthood, but He corrected the mistake when both His prophets and the Church were ready for it. It speaks poorly of the Latter-day Saints that it took so long.
Dustin – personally, I’d think the black members were always ready for the higher law.
So I’d phrase it more as God not forcing a higher law on anyone, but allowing individuals and groups to raise themselves to the Higher law as they will.
Stephen,
What is the law in the image? July 17, 1793, was during the Terror and was the execution date of Charlotte Corday, but I’m wondering about the text you displayed.
JI —it was just available legal text from wiki media commons. No significance other than it blocked out nicely.
When it comes to polygamy, god was so set on having his people live the higher law that he sent an angel with a drawn sword to Joseph Smith to command him to bed underage girls. Just like his successors would, with considerably less coercion.
When it comes to racial equality, god was content to wait. No need to rock the boat too much.
As a people, Mormons believe in eternal progression in theory, but in practice are satisfied hearing the same things over and over again every week. Anything hard they are ordered to do becomes a way they are set apart from the world, until suddenly god doesn’t ask it of them anymore and they breathe a collective sigh of relief.
What if you didn’t have to wait for god’s blessing, to stop hurting yourself and your children?
I think too often we think we know what the higher law is so that we don’t even feel a need to ask.
Some of us think we know, because someone else told us.
Others of us have come into contact with people and experiences that don’t fit in the way of thinking encouraged by the lesser law, and have spent a lot of time asking ourselves and others what a higher law would look like.
Which mode of thought is most compatible with a belief in continuing revelation? Which is most common within Mormonism?
For the record, I did ask in prayer — after getting to know some gay friends, and then reading a lot of gay Mormons’ blogs — why things have to be this way for them. The response that I got was pointed silence.
I now feel that it is because the person on the other end was waiting for me to realize that there wasn’t a good reason.
I did my best to repent, of my part in helping to make the world hell for innocent people. I apologized to people I’d been awful to. I mended my ways. I advocated for the people I knew who were in same-gender relationships. In time, I became one of them, in the church’s eyes.
Every now and then, I go back to the Mormon world to see how many have come to the same realizations. Every now and then, I am left hurting and disappointed.
Stephen,
I dug a little, and found the text in English — it made for interesting reading.
Man’s laws will never be like God’s laws.
More and more, I have come to believe that God’s laws are for the growth and perfection of the individual, not for the security of the group. I need to patiently and humbly adapt myself to evolving understanding of God’s law instead of dogmatically and uncharitably demanding that others adapt themselves to my rigid characterization of God’s law.
ReTx – I also agree that it was not Black people who needed to be prepared (although moments in history from the 13th Amendment through the Civil Rights Movement certainly placed many in a better position to receive the priesthood), but the White members of the Church who needed to soften their hearts, repent, and accept a higher law.
The highest law is 17. It will make sense to those that are ready for it.
The higher law is love your neighbour as God loves. So any form of discrimination is not Gods way. Obviously racism, and still discrimination against women, and gays.
One that I see — and I’m really not sure what the higher law here is — is the topic of birth control. It is fairly well known that early 20th century rhetoric was very much against artificial birth control, but seemed to become more tolerant as time went on. The trend seems to be from “couples should not limit the number of children” towards “couples should discern for themselves (involving personal revelation from God) how many children”. Some have said that the earlier “couples should not limit the number of children” is the higher law and that we are slipping into a lower law as use of birth control becomes more acceptable. Others would say that receiving personal revelation for such a private decision is a higher law than following the direction of prophets and apostles – in which case we are moving towards the higher law. I admit that I don’t really know — but it could provide an interesting example for discussion.
Perhaps I might sum it up this way — Is Catholicism preaching the higher law about birth control, or is Mormonism?
It is a good question sometimes as to just which law is the higher law.
I think this is the only explanation for the priesthood restriction. It was never God’s intent to exclude people of any race or ethnicity from the priesthood, but He corrected the mistake when both His prophets and the Church were ready for it. It speaks poorly of the Latter-day Saints that it took so long.
Dustin – personally, I’d think the black members were always ready for the higher law.
So I’d phrase it more as God not forcing a higher law on anyone, but allowing individuals and groups to raise themselves to the Higher law as they will.
Stephen,
What is the law in the image? July 17, 1793, was during the Terror and was the execution date of Charlotte Corday, but I’m wondering about the text you displayed.
JI —it was just available legal text from wiki media commons. No significance other than it blocked out nicely.
When it comes to polygamy, god was so set on having his people live the higher law that he sent an angel with a drawn sword to Joseph Smith to command him to bed underage girls. Just like his successors would, with considerably less coercion.
When it comes to racial equality, god was content to wait. No need to rock the boat too much.
As a people, Mormons believe in eternal progression in theory, but in practice are satisfied hearing the same things over and over again every week. Anything hard they are ordered to do becomes a way they are set apart from the world, until suddenly god doesn’t ask it of them anymore and they breathe a collective sigh of relief.
What if you didn’t have to wait for god’s blessing, to stop hurting yourself and your children?
I think too often we think we know what the higher law is so that we don’t even feel a need to ask.
Some of us think we know, because someone else told us.
Others of us have come into contact with people and experiences that don’t fit in the way of thinking encouraged by the lesser law, and have spent a lot of time asking ourselves and others what a higher law would look like.
Which mode of thought is most compatible with a belief in continuing revelation? Which is most common within Mormonism?
For the record, I did ask in prayer — after getting to know some gay friends, and then reading a lot of gay Mormons’ blogs — why things have to be this way for them. The response that I got was pointed silence.
I now feel that it is because the person on the other end was waiting for me to realize that there wasn’t a good reason.
I did my best to repent, of my part in helping to make the world hell for innocent people. I apologized to people I’d been awful to. I mended my ways. I advocated for the people I knew who were in same-gender relationships. In time, I became one of them, in the church’s eyes.
Every now and then, I go back to the Mormon world to see how many have come to the same realizations. Every now and then, I am left hurting and disappointed.
Stephen,
I dug a little, and found the text in English — it made for interesting reading.
Man’s laws will never be like God’s laws.
More and more, I have come to believe that God’s laws are for the growth and perfection of the individual, not for the security of the group. I need to patiently and humbly adapt myself to evolving understanding of God’s law instead of dogmatically and uncharitably demanding that others adapt themselves to my rigid characterization of God’s law.
ReTx – I also agree that it was not Black people who needed to be prepared (although moments in history from the 13th Amendment through the Civil Rights Movement certainly placed many in a better position to receive the priesthood), but the White members of the Church who needed to soften their hearts, repent, and accept a higher law.
The highest law is 17. It will make sense to those that are ready for it.