CHOOSING RIGHTEOUS JUDGES

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KING MOSIAHOld Testament

JUDGES

KINGS

Book of Mormon

RIGHTEOUSJUDGES

500 YEARSOf KINGS

CHOOSE YE THIS DAYMosiah 29:25

MOSIAH 29

Land of Liberty

Verse 32

Verse 32

Every man may

enjoy his rights

IMPORTANT POINT

MOSIAH 29

Land of Liberty

Verse 32

Verse 32

Every man may

enjoy his rights

…a willingness

to answer for his own sins

Verse 38

B.H. ROBERTSTo my mind Joseph Smith, in bringing forth

that principle through the Book of Mormon--the principle of personal, moral, responsibility to God for the government that obtains in free republics—

has contributed one of the mightiest thoughts to the political life of the age in which he lived, that any man has brought forth in all the contributions that have been made to political thought in America.

…Jefferson's great doctrine of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed with the inalienable rights of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, is not greater than this Book of Mormon doctrine.

…The great doctrine of direct, moral responsibility to God of a free people is indeed a soul-inspiring utterance, but it is also an awe-inspiring condition, and on its face bears evidence of the divine source whence it comes. (Conference Report, Oct. 1912, pp. 33-4)

PRIMARY THREAT TO THAT FREEDOM

Alma 1:3

ST. HUGH NIBLEYSOPHISTS AND RHETORIC

Lucian tells us that the public simply laughed at the hard courses of the philosophers and went across the street to the rhetorical schools that advertised the same knowledge available in quick and effortless courses with positive assurance of a good job and big pay. …

As their courses became ever simpler, shorter, and spicier … the rhetoricians supplanted content with glamor, which they cultivated with great skill. … they saw that if the lost, witless world… hungered for intellectual and spiritual guidance, it was simply mad for entertainment.

So with their wonderful art the Sophists, the great traveling orators, supplied everything at once. Performing foxes, a tightrope artist, a fifteen-minute domestic skit, a couple of clowns telling dirty jokes, and a famous traveling rhetor would make up an afternoon in the theater.

In the schools they were sensational… Topnotch rhetors amassed immense fortunes by fabulous gifts and fees… and the whole world zealously followed every detail of their private lives. 9

… Every town in the empire kept its own staff of high salaried Sophists, and boasted of being a little Athens in its own right. And it was all just show: the deliberate cultivation of appearances as the surest road to money and success.

"It is astounding," writes Professor Schanz, "with what silly stuff the public was fed." But the public asked for no better, and the rule of rhetoric was: Give people what they want, and you have them where you want them.Hugh Nibley, World and the Prophets, 108.

FINALLYTIMELINE AND A WARNING

4th year, Reign of the Judges (Alma 1:29-31)

Prosperous but Humble

7th Year, Reign of the Judges (Alma 4:4)

3500 New Converts8th Year, Reign of the

Judges (Alma 4:6) Prosperous and

Prideful