6. "Cast Out"

In the evening after I completed the typesetting of the parallel between 2^nd Thes. ii and Isaiah 66, I ran across something that further witnessed the significance of what I had just discovered and bespoke the hand of the Lord in directing me to these things according to a foreordained plan.

Above, I mentioned the significance that wording plays in the scriptures -- that the Lord has very carefully and intentionally designed the usage of words in scripture. I don't say this from the standpoint of a scholar who has studied the history behind the writing and translating of scriptures over the years. I say this as one who has studied the words of scriptures very carefully and observed this harmony of usage.

What I found this evening remains among the most astonishing examples I have ever run across, if not the most remarkable example of this. This discovery cannot be attributed to intention on the part of man.

When I completed the parallel of which I spoke, my thoughts returned to a chiasm in Alma 26 I had been led to discover some time earlier. I will not try to explain here the amazing and grueling circumstances of that discovery. All I need to mention for the purposes of this account is that I asked myself the question of who the Lamanites represented in my life. In other words, in seeking to know the Lord's will for my life, I wanted to know what audience the Lord would have me address primarily.

As an excommunicated Mormon, certainly no one in the mainstream flock would pay attention to me. And I didn't see myself going to the Lamanite descendants -- not yet anyway, for it is still the time of the Gentiles. Because of my love for the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants as well as other LDS sources, a non-LDS, Christian audience is ruled out. In a very short time, a light clicked in my mind. The "apostates." For me the Lamanites represented those who have been spurned and even cast out by the main body of the corrupt culture because of their zeal for the Lord.

I then fired up Infobases on my computer and did a computer search on the words "cast" and "out." At first, I was somewhat puzzled, for I wasn't finding any references for the righteous being cast out by the wicked. Then I finally came upon one and saved it to my disk. Then another one, and soon I had quite a few collected, going through all 268 verses that have these two words.

What astonished me was what I found when I went back over my compilation. I realized that of the 62 verses that use these two words to talk about the righteous being cast out, only two of them come from the Old Testament. The first of these is in Gen. 37:22 in which Joseph is cast out by his brethren and sold into Egypt. However, the usage of "cast" and "out" is not grammatically linked. In other words, "cast" occurs early in the long verse, and "out" comes later, in a completely different phrase. Therefore there is only one verse in the entire Old Testament that uses these two words grammatically link. That verse is:

Isaiah 66:5

"Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified [i.e. "good riddance"]: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed."

This is from the very chapter I had just spent several days uncovering its parallel to 2^nd Thes. ii!

  Scripture Search on "Cast" "Out."

As you glance through the other scriptures from my compilation of that day, note that being cast out is more the rule than the exception both in times past as well as prophetically speaking (such as Isaiah 66:5). Included in the list of those who were cast out are: Christ, Moses, Joseph, and the prophets -- not bad company.

Six months prior to this discovery, on the second day of the solemn assembly in which Howard W. Hunter was put in as President of the Church, I had an experience related to this discovery about being cast out.

As an excommunicated member, when the congregation was called to stand and sustain the new prophet, by order of the council, all I could do was stand there. I had long before developed the tough skin to handle the scorn of those who might be looking on and notice that I was not raising my hand along with the sea of lemmings. Of course they think something must be terribly wrong with me to not participate: either I can't because I'm excommunicated, or I don't want to, which is just as bad. There is no way they could see my heart that is wholly committed to serving the Lord.

The next day, as I sat listening to the Tabernacle Choir broadcast prior to conference, my catholic friend whom I had invited leaned over and answered the question I had asked earlier that morning. I had asked what her favorite scripture was. Her belated reply: "Zephaniah."

When she saw the puzzled look on my face (most Mormons aren't even aware there is such a book in the Old Testament, and she is Catholic!) she explained that it was a name given her in a Catholic ceremony when she was a child.

Though I read the three chapters that day, it took a couple of days for the significance sink in of the perfect application of one verse in particular:

I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. (Zephaniah 3:18,19.)

When I later uncovered the chiasm of this chapter, I was amazed to find that the following verses at the beginning of the chapter are lined up with the two verses I just quoted.

Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow. Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law. (Zephaniah 3:3,4.)

This prophecy cannot be written off as moot, applying to another people of another time, for its setting is very clearly in these latter days when God, undoing the curse of Babel, will "turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent" (3:9). And speaking of casting out, this will come in the day when the Lord will "cast out thine enemy" (3:15), overturning the unrighteous dominion that has for too long ruled this earth.

click here to continue with book (7. JST-Mark 9 = Isa. 66 "Worm shall not die")

"Would God that ALL the Lord's People Were PROPHETS"

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