Jesus taught in parables a lot. He was trying to teach very mortal people about spiritual things which were abstract to beings who were focused on survival in a very physical place. However, the earth was created by God through Jesus Christ and will some day obtain a celestial glory, just as those of God's children who desire to do so. God did not create an evil world. The world of itself is not evil but those who inhabit it and use it for evil purposes make it wicked. Food is necessary- pleasing to the eye and palate. We need to eat food to give our bodies strength to perform worthwhile labors. Gluttony, wasteful killing of animals and plants, and unwillingness to share sustenance with those in need are all evil. Sexual relations are necessary to multiply and replenish the earth, cause a bond between husband and wife, and was not intended as a means of suffering. Lust, sex for personal gratification, rape and sexual abuse are all evil. Rest is to be enjoyed and is necessary for our bodies to have the strength to perform labor. Laziness, sloth, demanding others to work for us, greed to gain the fruits of labor while avoiding labor ourselves are all evil.
For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. (Mosiah 3:19)
Is it so hard for us to understand that our efforts to "improve" the world God made for us or "improve" His commandments only make things worse? I was thinking about the current fad of organic stuff- mostly foods. Do we not understand how we got to this point of having so many chemicals in and on plants and animals and therefore people? We don't like food with blemishes. We want it to have a certain color and appearance. We want to have cherries in Minnesota in January and broccoli in Arizona in July. We don't want bugs on our food. We don't want to eat the meat of possibly sick animals. We want our food to be cheap so we can eat whatever we prefer. We want our food suppliers to make a profit so they'll stay in business. We want them to be able to ship food to us wherever we are to have it always available. It was in response to all of these demands that chemicals and GMO's were developed. Now we're upset by all this "man-made" stuff that might be causing cancer, allergies, and who knows what else.
Is it so hard for us to understand that our demands to find easier ways to do things has caused the messes we find ourselves in? We didn't want to have to work so hard so now we are obese and out of shape and have to suffer hours of paid hours in a gym also paying a trainer if we lack our own sufficient motivation so we can exercise to avoid heart attacks and strokes and being so big we can't move? We are in constant turmoil over the source of energy, using up fossil fuels, risking nuclear power hazards, and creating pollution and global warming- all so we don't have to work so hard ourselves.
I don't want to go into all the porn in an effort to keep life exciting or the deaths and resulting mourning of the loss of loved ones by people wanting to do more adrenalin-pumping thrills or the greed and chest thumping causing contention and wars or the lust for drugs, alcohol, and other addictions to try to please this natural man in us........ The wisdom of God is foolishness to man but it sure doesn't seem like our wisdom is so great. "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" (James 4:4)
After Jesus was resurrected, he appeared to many and ate food. He, as well as other heavenly beings as described by those who have seen them, was very white. This is not a worldly racist thing. White will be what we are in the absence of color which we have due to blood in our bodies and other physical attributes which effect skin color. White is a sign of purity not just a worldly label for race and ethnicity. When we are resurrected, we will no longer have blood to carry pathogens through our bodies so we will not get sick. We will no longer require sustenance so we will not get fat, although we obviously COULD eat. I just don't quite understand how that works with a resurrected body. But we will also have the blessing or curse (depending on choices made here and now) of not having addictions. We will not smoke or inject drugs or require certain beverages or foods to make us satisfied. Those who "require" those things in order to be happy will only be frustrated because they won't work in bodies quickened by spirit rather than blood. (For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit- 1Peter 3:18) Now is the time to repent/change- not wait until we get old or we have some kind of "proof" that giving in to physical lust is NOT a good idea. Self-control is not evil. There IS a better way to do things than the way the world would promote. We CAN be happy and peaceful FOREVER. There are only two choices and we get to decide.
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