Walking Blameless Before God:

[David Bokovoy]

I

[charity]

David, I wouldn't want you to get a swelled head, or anything, but I really appreciate your insights, as you share them with us. You are fast becoming a stellar light in the ranks of LDS scholars. Keep those insights coming, please.

[David Bokovoy]

Thanks for the kindly encouragement.

The truth of the matter is that I

[Daniel Peterson]

David:

I echo Charity's encouragement.

I hope you're not just sending these into the ephemeral ether of cyberspace, and that you're keeping notes for eventual compilation or publication as separate little pieces. Several clearly deserve that.

-dcp

[David Bokovoy]

The one I haven

[sailgirl7]

1 Ne. 16: 3 (Mosiah 18: 29; Alma 1: 1; Alma 45: 24; Alma 53: 21; Alma 63: 2; D&C 46: 7; D&C 68: 28; D&C 90: 24) walk uprightly before God.

2 Ne. 33: 9 walk in the strait path which leads to life.

Mosiah 2: 27 served you, walking with a clear conscience before God.

Mosiah 4: 15 teach them to walk in the ways of truth.

Mosiah 4: 26 walk guiltless before God.

Mosiah 23: 14 man of God, walking in his ways.

Mosiah 26: 38 walking in all diligence.

Alma 5: 27 Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless.

Alma 5: 54 (Alma 7: 22) humble themselves and do walk after the holy order of God.

Alma 41: 8 whosoever will may walk therein and be saved.

Hel. 6: 34 Lamanites . . . walk in truth and uprightness.

Hel. 15: 5 walk circumspectly before God.

Ether 6: 17 (Ether 6: 30) taught to walk humbly before the Lord.

D&C 5: 21 (D&C 18: 31) walk more uprightly before me.

D&C 19: 23 walk in the meekness of my Spirit.

D&C 25: 2 walk in the paths of virtue before me.

D&C 88: 133 walk in all the commandments of God.

D&C 90: 24 walk uprightly and remember the covenant.

D&C 100: 15 (D&C 109: 1) work together for good to them that walk uprightly.

D&C 107: 49 he saw the Lord, and he walked with him.

Moses 5: 26 (D&C 20: 69; D&C 21: 4) walked in holiness before the Lord.

Moses 6: 34 abide in me, and I in you: therefore walk with me.

Moses 6: 39 no man laid hands on him . . . for he walked with God.

Looks like it's a theme throughout the Book Of Mormon, even D&C and Moses- that is really cool- thanks for pointing that out- it's really neat.

[William the Conqueror]

Thanks for the kindly encouragement. 

The truth of the matter is that I

[David Bokovoy]

Hello William,

==In your humble opinion do you believe very many Mormons walk blamelessly before the Lord?

Yes. Every single one of them. But especially your's truly.

[Daniel Peterson]

However,  I am quite excited by the fact that I have it on very good authority that the FARMS Review has now become the review of anything that catches the editor

[William the Conqueror]

Hello William,

==In your humble opinion do you believe very many Mormons walk blamelessly before the Lord?

Yes.  Every single one of them.  But especially your's truly.

Thanks for the link Daniel. As it is 134 pages I'll have to read it later.

To David:

If every single faithful LDS walk blamelessly before the Lord, then again in your humble opinion, how do most EVs walk in that regards? And since you can't know every EVs heart , to make it easier, how do those walk who have been critical of the LDS, particularly on this board?

I'll accept that you might take the 5th, and in that case how do the ex-mos walk such as Bammer, and FormerLDS, who are critical of the LDS now?

[Tom]

Hello William,

==In your humble opinion do you believe very many Mormons walk blamelessly before the Lord?

Yes.

[sailgirl7]

Sorry I didn't paste the references I found that included both the "blameless" and "walking before God"-in addition to Alma 5:27

here they are:

Mosiah 2: 27

27 Therefore, as I said unto you that I had aserved you, bwalking with a clear conscience before God, even so I at this time have caused that ye should assemble yourselves together, that I might be found blameless, and that your cblood

[David Bokovoy]

Hello William,

Since blamelessness in the Old Testament frequently describes the blemish-free sacrificial animals presented to God in the temple, the Book of Mormon clearly teaches that this status is only available to human beings in and through the Atonement of Christ.

That being said, I really am more than happy to leave any sort of judgment up to him.

[Tom]

I'd like to ask a couple questions with regards to your post.

1. The passage about Noah seems to indicate a literal walk, like Adam walked with God in the garden. The Book of Mormon "walk" sounds like it is being used as a simile of "live". Do you agree that there is a different connotation? If so, does it matter to the parallel that you'd like to draw?

2. Someone arguing for a 19th century origin of the Book of Mormon could say that the phrase, "walk with God" is quite common in protestant Christianity. After all, they've read the Bible too. To connect the word "blameless", or one of it's synonyms, to "walk with God" isn't all that surprising is it?

[sailgirl7]

David Bokovoy

But here

[David Bokovoy]

Hello Tom,

Thanks for the exchange.

==The passage about Noah seems to indicate a literal walk, like Adam walked with God in the garden.

I do believe that the reference to Noah suggests a literal walk. The only other person whom the Bible depicts walking with God is Enoch in Genesis 5:22, 24.

Abraham, Isaac, and Israel

[David Bokovoy]

Hello Sailgirl7,

Sincere thanks for posting some interesting ideas to consider.

==Some take the declaration that Noah was perfect in his generation to mean that he was righteous his whole life. Others take it to mean that he was righteous in comparison to the other inhabitants of the earth. Which do you think is more likely? Why?

Personally, I view the idea of perfect, i.e.,

[David Bokovoy]

So, I guess that's it. No more interest? Alright, I'm going to go write the article.

[The_Monk]

Dan Belnap wrote a paper (perhaps his BYU MA?) on hithallek indicating a walk of measuring, as part of creation. (I'm paraphrasing wildly because it's been a long time.) Thus, when Satan responds in Job that he has been walking about (hithallek) on the earth, it's another case of usurpation.

[sailgirl7]

I found a cool jewish meditation about walking blameless before God

http://www.jewishhealing.org/downloads/MeditationWalking.doc

But you probably already knew about it.

Also from:

http://www.berkland.org/qt/filesComm/Genesis%2017-Comm.doc.

This portrait of an obedient Abraham is reminiscent of the picture of Noah who also "walked with God" and was "blameless" (6:9). In light of the sparsity of these terms in Genesis, it seems likely that the author expected an association to be made between these two great men based on the close recurrence of both terms. "Blameless" (tamim) occurs in Genesis only in these two texts; "walk before God" (hith hallek) occurs more frequently but in carefully planned contexts (Enoch, 5:22, 24; Noah, 6:9; Abram, 17:1; 24:40; and 48:15 [with Isaac]). Thus Abraham and Noah are presented as examples of those who have lived in obedience to the covenant and were therefore "blameless" before God because both obeyed God (v.23b; cf. 6:22; 7:5, 9, 16). 

I thought it was neat because I found one New Testament link with walking blameless because of keeping the commandments-

Luke 1: 6

6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and aordinances of the Lord blameless.

[Number 9]

So, I guess that's it. No more interest? Alright, I'm going to go write the article.

Sheesh, you're impatient! Some of us don't get on here more than every couple of days.

With regard to question of whether walking with God is literal or symbolic of the way we live our lives, I don't really think the distinction is important. Certainly if Adam was walking physically with God, then he was walking with God in the way he lived his life. Perhaps it is significant, afterall, for that very reason, though, or in reverse, rather.

What I mean to say is that if Adam walked physically with God and we can easily conclude that this indicates the manner in which he was living as one of symbolically walking with God, then can we not turn it around and see that if we walk symbolically with God then we will one day be able to walk physically with him, as Adam did?

I love this concept. Thank you so much, David, for posting your thoughts. I look forward to your paper.

[William the Conqueror]

Hello William,

Since blamelessness in the Old Testament frequently describes the blemish-free sacrificial animals presented to God in the temple, the Book of Mormon clearly teaches that this status is only available to human beings in and through the Atonement of Christ. 

That being said, I really am more than happy to leave any sort of judgment up to him.

the Book of Mormon clearly teaches that this status is only available to human beings in and through the Atonement of Christ.

That being said, I really am more than happy to leave any sort of judgment up to him.

Well David,

As you said on another thread EVs are worshipping a different Jesus, ('...no way we are worshipping the same Jesus...') and if that be true, is the Atonement of this other Jesus valid?

And if yes then when did this other Jesus provide His sacrifice?

[urroner]

Hello William,

Since blamelessness in the Old Testament frequently describes the blemish-free sacrificial animals presented to God in the temple, the Book of Mormon clearly teaches that this status is only available to human beings in and through the Atonement of Christ. 

That being said, I really am more than happy to leave any sort of judgment up to him.

the Book of Mormon clearly teaches that this status is only available to human beings in and through the Atonement of Christ.

That being said, I really am more than happy to leave any sort of judgment up to him.

Well David,

As you said on another thread EVs are worshipping a different Jesus, ('...no way we are worshipping the same Jesus...') and if that be true, is the Atonement of this other Jesus valid?

And if yes then when did this other Jesus provide His sacrifice?

William, take it to another thread please. Purposefully attempting to hijack a thread by baiting could be frowned upon by the mods.

[Doctor Steuss]

Well David,

As you said on another thread EVs are worshipping a different Jesus, ('...no way we are worshipping the same Jesus...') and if that be true, is the Atonement of this other Jesus valid?

And if yes then when did this other Jesus provide His sacrifice?

I'm guessing you missed this post by David:

http://www.fairboards.org/index.php?showto...=0entry431322

[Number 9]

the Book of Mormon clearly teaches that this status is only available to human beings in and through the Atonement of Christ.

That being said, I really am more than happy to leave any sort of judgment up to him.

Well David,

As you said on another thread EVs are worshipping a different Jesus, ('...no way we are worshipping the same Jesus...') and if that be true, is the Atonement of this other Jesus valid?

And if yes then when did this other Jesus provide His sacrifice?

Hey, what's with the regular text/italic thing you keep doing? Do you have DID?