The following comes from
Everett Landon, “I Saw . . . A Woman,” The Book of Mormon
Foundation (April-May 1970): 5-6:
"I SAW....
.. A WOMAN"
(The following article is taken from a letter in reply to
the question asking the identity of the "Woman clothed with the sun"
of Revelation 12)
Editor
In order to give an opinion concerning Revelation 12, we are
under necessity to take some liberty with the propositions which reflect LDS
traditions. These do not always quietly retreat from our minds in a moment's
time. Often, to this day we find ourselves tripping over them.
In the fullest and most fundamental identification, Israel
and the Church of God are one and the same! Far fetched? Unlikely? Let us see!
If the Sacred Scriptures establish such to be the case, the
WOMAN is not one or the other. She is both Israel and the true Church of
Christ.
It was no mere historical happenstance that Jesus was born
of the line of Israel in the lineage of Judah and specifically of the House of
David. Certainly all of those circumstances had been adequately provided for in
prophecy long before His nativity.
Nor was His choice of disciples a narrow provincial
expedient. The Apostles were Israelites to a man and the Church, the building
of which He announced to his disciples was FOUNDED IN ISRAEL. Then, not
until Judah had demonstrated a very definite disinclination to follow did He
send His ISRAELITISH preachers to offer salvation to the Gentiles.
And as the power and divine inspiration accompanying those
Jewish servants of Christ disappeared with their own passing, so did the
spirituality and validity of the church among the Gentiles wane into total
apostasy.
Of Latter Days, who shall demonstrate for us that no sooner
had Gentiles received the Book of Mormon than eagerness to set up a Church with
a Gentile identification led them into a continuing chain of
"revelations" to gather and build, adding one spurious and exotic
doctrine after another. Did not all of these things depart as had the New
Testament Gentiles, falling away and deserting the divinely inspired teaching
of Jesus through His own appointed Jewish Apostles?
The Church which Christ as a grown man built in Judah
did not hear Him, that is, it did not bring Him forth
except as it inherently existed already in the heritage of His people Israel as
the heirs of Jehovah’s plans of salvation according to the promises made to
Abraham.
Nor did the UNBUILDED church at the beginning of Jesus'
ministry bring forth the PRIESTHOOD of those men nor the power in which they
ministered. Again we say, not except as the church already existed in a
basic way in Israel. Remember, Jesus did not say, "I will create my
church," nor "I will begin my church." His church had
existed for many years before among the Nephites. His declaration was that He
would "build" His Church among the Jews and a bit later among the
Gentiles among neither of whom it had been functioning.
What of the "woman's flight into the wilderness"
and modern claims of a RESTORED CHURCH, with the PRIESTHOOD and the HOLY ORDER
according to LDS-ism? We ask, did the Church literally and historically
pass anywhere to be nourished for a time, times and a half a time from the face
of the serpent? If so, who can deny Catholicism's claim to being the remnant of
the Church of Christ? For many centuries she was the only Church (?) on earth.
Therefore, if what happened to the Church in Rome was "nourishment from
the face of the serpent?" LDS-ism (and this writer) will have to interpret
the meaning of the "nourishment" in an entirely new light.
But this is not so with the view that sees the
"Woman" as Israel. She disappeared from Jerusalem into a
wilderness of oblivion, yet in a manner preserving her for a better day.
Moreover, in view of Jesus' assurance concerning His church, that "the
gates of hell" would not prevail against it, must we bow to the Catholic
claim to continuous succession from Christ and the Apostles? Or must we concede
that the "gates of hell" did prevail? Or was the woman's flight
something else entirely?
For this reason we must begin again and examine our own
thinking by asking ourselves, What is the Church? Who is the
"woman?"
Realistically speaking, in all that God has done for (or
against) Israel, He has sought to make them His people — His in heart and soul.
He has never abandoned that effort. And though by the passing of centuries the
Gentiles have written them off as the religious custodians of the Lord upon
earth, He has not. Nor will He!
The spiritual blossoming of Israel will be the donning of
the bride's apparel by the Church of Christ, and happy will be those Gentiles
who will be brought in and numbered among that household. (3 Ne. 10:1)
If the woman be ISRAEL she would at the time of John's
vision, have been "New Testament Israel". The law of Moses having
then been fulfilled, may very probably have been depicted as the moon under
Israel's feet. If that be true and Israel had divested herself of that old
garment, would not the dropping away underfoot by it for the donning of the NEW
GLORY of the SUN be the putting away of the lesser law for the glorious Law of
Christ? (Heb. 9:1-15, 2Ne 11:44-59)
And as the keeping of the OLD LAW entailed the observance of
many feasts, fasts, sacrifices, duties and bans, so the clothing of the Woman
with the glory of the sun meant her covering with the more excellent way, THE
WAY OF CHRIST. It was of this that Isaiah was speaking.
"Awake, awake, put on thy
strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city for
henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the
unclean.
"Shake thyself from the
dust, arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem loose thyself from the bands of thy
neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
"For thus saith the Lord, Ye
have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money."
(Isa. 52:1-3)
In the final sense, then, by keeping Christ's Law, JERUSALEM
will be clothed upon with the beauty of holiness and righteousness.
Notice too, that the Jewish martyr, Stephen thought the
church as being Israel in referring to Moses' and God's people in the
wilderness of Sinai. (Acts 7:37,38)
Truly, salvation IS for all, Jew, Gentile, Black. White —
all! who will repent of their sins and follow Christ with real intent and full
purpose of heart. Nevertheless, God works by plan, not by catch-as-catch-can
courses and expediencies. This statement is a prelude to repeating that from
remote times, God has followed a specific design. Through a chosen people — a
nucleus of humanity — namely ISRAEL, The leaven of His word and His Spirit
should work throughout all nations for the rise and establishment of His
Kingdom upon earth.
At the risk of being regarded as dogmatic and arbitrary, we
again say, that is the way it is. This is the way it is in God's
Word and if we would participate in His work we are simply going to find it
necessary to re-arrange our prejudices accordingly or "correct our
beliefs!" and the direction of our efforts. We must be in accord with that
which the Bible and Book of Mormon fairly shout to be Jehovah's way and His
redemptive plan.
Weigh again these thoughts concerning Rev. 12. Compare
scripture in support of a GENTILE ZION and CONSIDER ITS SOURCE. Re-examine
doctrines advocating Gentile establishment and control of God's Church and
Kingdom; God's rejection of Israel in favor of the Gentiles. Such search and
consideration will undoubtedly reveal Israel to be the nucleus, the hub around
which we all must rally — with Christ at the very center — for the consummation
of the Lord's work.
Everett Landon
(Study Scriptures)
|
ISRAEL AS THE CHURCH |
HER FLIGHT INTO THE WILDERNESS |
|
Acts 7:37,38 |
Isa. 19:12–17 |
|
ISRAEL AS THE WOMAN |
17:16–18; 32:1–18; |
|
Isa. 54:6–17 |
39:1–10; Joel 1–13 |
|
Jer. 3:20; Ezek. 16:14–20 |
42:1–25; 43:15–22; |
|
23:1–49 |
44:1–8 |
|
SHE IS THE BRIDE |
Hos. 2:21–23; 9:16,17 |
|
Isa. 62:1–5; John 3:28,29 |
13:9–16 |
|
Matt. 9:14–15 |
Mic. 4:8–10; I Ne. 2:43–64 |
|
HER CHILD |
2 Ne. 10:39 |
|
Rev. 12:5 |
Ezek. 20:33–37; 34:1–31 |
|
Isa. 9:6; Mic. 5:2 |
REMNANT |
|
PRECEDENT FOR THE STARS |
B of M 1 Ne. 10:1–104 |
|
Gen. 37:9 |
1 Ne. 25:19 |
