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Becoming Clean from the Blood and Sins of this Generation

When Isaiah says, “Turn away, depart; touch nothing defiled as you leave [Babylon]. Come out of her and be pure, you who bear Jehovah’s vessels. But you shall not leave in haste or go in flight: Jehovah will go before you, the God of Israel behind you” (Isaiah 52:11–12), what is his definition of “pure” that occasions Jehovah’s presence accompanying those who bring Israel’s “vessels” or returnees (Isaiah 66:20) from their scattered state in an end-time exodus to Zion?

When he further says, “Raise the ensign on a barren mountain; sound the voice among them! Beckon them with the hand to advance into the precincts of the elite. I have charged my holy ones, called out my valiant ones: my anger is not upon those who take pride in me” (Isaiah 13:2–3), who are those saved when the end-time king of Assyria—the “ensign,” “voice,” “hand,” and “anger” of the wicked—causes “utter destruction upon the whole earth”? (Isaiah 10:1–23).

Who are those pure, holy, and valiant souls whom the Lord spares from destruction if not those same spiritual kings and queens of the Ephraimite Gentiles whom his righteous “ensign” and “hand” calls to gather Israel to Zion: “I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, raise my ensign to the peoples; and they will bring your sons in their bosoms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. Kings shall be your foster fathers, queens your nursing mothers” (Isaiah 49:22–23)?

Are we not to “prepare yourselves, and sanctify yourselves; yea, purify your hearts, and cleanse your hands and your feet before me, that I may make you clean; That I may testify unto your Father, and your God, and my God, that you are clean from the blood of this wicked generation,” in order “that ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you (Doctrine & Covenants 88:74–75, 80)? What is that “calling”?

Having been commanded of the Lord to “teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom. . . that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand,” those who become “clean from the blood of this generation” are then called to that covenant of brotherhood of God’s special ministering servants (Doctrine & Covenants 88:77–78, 133, 138).

Like ancient servants of God, those who restore end-time Israel are expected to “magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day” (Jacob 1:19).

Are we aware of “how great is your calling,” for which we must “cleanse your hearts and your garments, lest the blood of this generation be required at your hands” (Doctrine & Covenants 112:33)? Unless the spiritual kings and queens of the Ephraimite Gentiles learn to see “what was not told them” and consider “what they had not heard” (Isaiah 52:15), how shall they serve as saviors to the house of Israel to restore them to God’s covenant and bring them to Zion?


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We live in the time Isaiah prophesied would come to the end time world Isaiah Institute weekly newsletter:

Ephraim Fills the Bow of Judah

Israel’s ongoing assault by enemies surrounding it—Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthies—and America’s providing it with ordinance to defend itself, resonates with Zechariah’s prophecy that says, “I have bent Judah for me and filled the bow with Ephraim.” In that day, “his arrows will go forth as the lightning” and he will “subdue with sling stones” (Zechariah 9:13–15).

That is the time when Jerusalem becomes “a cup of trembling to all peoples round about, when they are in the siege against both Judah and against Jerusalem. In that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples. All who burden themselves with it will be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zechariah 12:2–3).

Zechariah goes on to describe Israel’s leaders’ confidence in the Lord: “In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:5–6).

That is also the time when the Jews as a whole convert to the Lord and live in tents for a season while the house of David won’t believe until he shows himself to them on the Mount of Olives: “One will say to him, What are these wounds in your hands? Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends’” (cf. Zechariah 12:7–14; 13:1–6).


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The Timing of the Coming of God’s End-Time Servant

As humanity grows ever more corrupt and God’s Day of Judgment upon the world looms near, many who believe the prophecies of Isaiah and the Book of Mormon wonder at what point God’s servant will come on the scene. According to the Lord’s “pattern in all things, that ye may not be deceived” (Doctrine & Covenants 52:14), several things need to happen and first be in place:

(1) Because God operates according to the faith of his people (Doctrine & Covenants 35:11), there have to be a sufficient number among them who believe in such a person as God’s servant who comes forth and prepares the way for Jesus’ second coming according to the scriptures.

(2) Because Isaiah and the prophets use ancient scriptural events as types and shadows of end-time events, the servant’s coming will to a large extent resemble the coming forth of messianic figures of the past. These include Moses, King David, Joseph Smith, and Jesus Christ himself.

(3) According to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Nephi, because the Lord appoints his end-time servant in response to his shepherds’ abusing and scattering his sheep, the time of his coming will be marked by many zealous souls’ being “shamed” and “excluded” (Isaiah 61:7; 66:5–7).

(4) Because Isaiah and John link the servant’s “birth” to a “Dragon” type of Pharaoh in the land of “Egypt” (a codename of America), the political scene of a “cruel master” that Isaiah predicts for “Egypt” must be in place (Isaiah 19:4; 51:9–11; Revelation 12:4–5; cf. 2 Nephi 10:11–14).

The servant’s coming will additionally see his bringing forth the large plates of Nephi that contain Jesus’ words to the Nephites. These words, many of God’s people will reject who take offense at what they say about the self-righteous among them who fight against his word and are “cut off” from his people at that time (2 Nephi 28:24–32; 29:5–14; 3 Nephi 21:10–11; 26:1–11).


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I don’t normally do this, but I just have to take a minute to give some gratitude for our sparkling windows Rigdon seriously gave us a great quote! SPICE the window washing company for the tremendous job they did on our house. 

Call Rigdon for a quote he is earning money for his mission. He just got his call to the South Africa mission

Spice Service Company Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

Wow this is chilling

𝐆𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐧’𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧

When a corrupt few come to power who are upheld by the many—who themselves are on the high road to corruption—they can’t expect the few not to exercise controls over the many contrary to the latter’s expectations when their own lawlessness demands it. Nor—under those same ostensibly lawful auspices—can the many expect the few not to far exceed lawful limits in exploiting their authority as they savor their newfound powers and devise unlawful pretexts to increase their hold on the many. Thus do the few lead the many captive—all because “the time came that the voice of the people chose iniquity” (cf. Mosiah 29:26–27). Meanwhile, the upright minority of the people who did not choose evil now doubly falls victim to evil (1) because they were not the ones who elected the few who deprived them of the freedoms they once enjoyed; and (2) because they have now become convenient scapegoats and whipping boys for the majority who entangled them in the collective guilt of the nation.—Endtime Prophecy: A Judeo-Mormon Analysis, 84–85, by Avraham Gileadi, Ph.D.

Among the Nephites, Gadianton’s band of robbers finally contrived to “obtain the sole management of the government, insomuch that they did trample under their feet and smite and rend and turn their backs upon the poor and the meek, and the humble followers of God” (Helaman 6:39). Their “filling the judgment seats, having usurped the power and authority of the land; laying aside the commandments of God, and not in the least aright before him; doing no justice unto the children of men; condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money; and moreover to be held in office at the head of government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of the world, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and kill, and do according to their own wills,” reduced the people to “an awful state,” readying them “for an everlasting destruction” (Helaman 6:40; 7:4–5).

As a portent to America’s end-time inhabitants, the Book of Mormon tells the backstory to these events within the Nephite nation: “The Lord had blessed them so long with the riches of the world that they had not been stirred up to anger, to wars, nor to bloodshed; therefore they began to set their hearts upon their riches; yea, they began to seek to get gain that they might be lifted up one above another” (Helaman 6:17). While the operation of “secret combinations” today may not be evident to everyone—their existence being secret—America’s Gentiles have indeed long been blessed with this world’s riches, more than all other peoples before them. As the most consumer-driven society of all time, have they not indeed set their hearts on their riches? If there remains any doubt in their minds about the operation, too, of secret combinations, therefore, and their usurping power in our day, isn’t it because “their eyes are glazed so they cannot see; their minds incapable of discernment” (Isaiah 44:18; cf. 56:10)?—Endtime Prophecy: A Judeo-Mormon Analysis, 96–97, by Avraham Gileadi, Ph.D.

𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫: https://isaiahinstitute.com/subscribe/

Some interesting and relevant points

Many of the insights from the Duke University study on happiness remind us to stay optimistic, connected and forward looking.

Sketchnote via

𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡'𝑠 𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡

𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: I don’t fully understand the atonement and repentance. If Jesus paid the price for our sins so that we might overcome spiritual death, why is it we have to pay the price for iniquities? Wasn’t the price paid by Jesus already? What is repentance? I know this seems basic but I have had a really interesting year of what I can only explain as a purging. There are persons in the scriptures who plead with the Lord for deliverance from the chains of Hell.

That is how I’ve felt and in pondering and meditating I am trying to find understanding, but I am at a loss with the bizarre year I have had. I am wondering if it is linked to receiving a remission of sins and if I have misunderstood the atonement and repentance. I am hoping you can shed light on the process of receiving a remission of sins and the atonement and repentance. Thank you.

𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫: Regardless of whether a person repents and is forgiven of his sins, all transgressions against God—against his commandments that are the laws of the universe—have a negative effect on the transgressor and on others who may be impacted. If not reversed, those negative effects on the transgressor can turn into iniquities—habitual sins, addictions, or dysfunctional behaviors—that may continue down the generations. Hence the scriptures say, “Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 5:9).

When people who repent are forgiven their sins, therefore—through the great atonement Jesus wrought by paying the price of humanity’s transgressions—their challenge remains to “retain” that remission of sins, as King Benjamin taught (Mosiah 4:12). If not, they may repeat them until they turn habitual and become iniquities. Then, if they don’t reverse that trend by repenting of them, their iniquities will reach saturation point or become “full” (cf. Genesis 15:16). Because at that point the rising generation will have little chance to reverse that condition, it actually becomes an act of mercy as well as of justice for God to end things.

When a people’s iniquity gets full, therefore, that is when God destroys them: “For the day shall come that the Lord God will speedily visit the inhabitants of the earth; and in that day that they are fully ripe in iniquity they shall perish” (2 Nephi 28:16; cf. 1 Nephi 17:35). Hence Moroni’s ominous warning to us whom he has seen in vision: “And this cometh unto you, O ye Gentiles, that ye may know the decrees of God—that ye may repent, and not continue in your iniquities until the fulness come, that ye may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of God upon you as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done” (Ether 2:11).

Even before God destroys a people, however—as he did the Jaredites and Nephites on the American continent—his judgments begin coming upon them in the form of plagues, natural disasters, political decline, economic failure, etc., which warn of worse to come. Moreover, because God deals with humanity solely within the context of the covenants he makes with his people and with individuals, all of humanity’s actions, whether for good or evil, result in either covenant blessings or covenant curses. Thus, even amidst curses or misfortunes coming upon people collectively, God makes provision for individuals who repent.

A people’s collective curses, however, together with sinners’ hurtful actions toward others, may be used to advantage by persons who take ownership of their own and generational iniquities. The afflictions or opposition they suffer can act as a refiner’s fire to purify and sanctify those who offer them up to God as a voluntary sacrifice. In other words, even in the worst of times, the act of being “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) enables one to simultaneously expiate his own and ancestral iniquities or generational dysfunctions.

We find a beautiful example of this scriptural pattern in the people of Alma who fled the wrath of King Noah. Having repented of their sins and received baptism at the Waters of Mormon, they became clean through Christ’s timeless atonement. And yet, even after they had escaped to the Land of Helam, when Noah’s army sought to destroy them, the Lamanites discovered them and put them into bo***ge—a covenant curse or residual effect of their former transgressions. Only when that bo***ge had purified and sanctified them, enabling them to expiate all iniquities or dysfunctions, did God intervene to miraculously deliver them.

Isaiah’s literary keys characterize the hardships that accompany repenting of sins and iniquities as a descent phase—a time when it seems “all hell breaks loose” upon you as you seek to progress spiritually by learning to keep a higher law. The Hebrew word “repent” (shuv), which also means “return,” signifies turning back from your waywardness and coming wholeheartedly to Christ. After he walks you through such a descent phase—testing you sometimes seemingly past your limit—you will unfailingly experience an ascent phase of spiritual rebirth and regeneration, “if thou endure it well” (Doctrine & Covenants 121:8).

𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐤 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥? 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧?

As Jeremiah freely “came and went among the people,” including among his priestly clan in the land of Benjamin, did that make it possible for him to hide the Ark to avoid its falling into the hands of the enemy? And did Jeremiah’s subsequent imprisonment have something to do with it (Jeremiah 37:4–16 )? In his enigmatic account of that time, what can one read between the lines? A clue to the Ark’s whereabouts may be found in the Book of Psalms, where David declares his wish to build a temple to house it. Although his words, “We found it in the fields of the forest” (Psalm 132:6), refers to Kiriath-Jearim (“City of the Forest”), where the Ark rested for twenty years (1 Samuel 7:1–2), those who believe in the dual nature of Hebrew prophecy might read into that statement the possibility of a second, endtime fulfillment.
Endtime Prophecy A Judeo-Mormon Analysis page 65, by Avraham Gileadi

Davidic Servant | Isaiah's Prophecies of a Latter day David | Avraham Gileadi Ph.D. Isaiah’s Prophecies of the Davidic Servant. Excerpts from Endtime Prophecy, pp 125–189, by Avraham Gileadi Ph.D. Get the book Endtime Prophecy here: https://...