Moses 7:42
Reading 1 - Joseph Smith said: "Then to Noah, who is
Gabriel: he stands next in authority to Adam in the Priesthood; he was called
of God to this office, and was the father of all living in this day, and to him
was given the dominion. These men held keys first on earth, and then in
heaven." (TPJS p157)
Reading 2 - Moses 8:20-22
Moses 8:28
Reading 3 - Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote: The coming of the
flood of Noah, and with it the 'end of the world' for the carnal civilization
of that day, is a perfect type of the coming of the Lord, and the end of the
world for the wicked of the latter-days. In both days all the normal activities
of life continue until Deity intervenes to stay the mounting mass of iniquity.
(Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 1:667)
Moses 9:26
The ultimate purpose of the adversary is to “disrupt,
disturb, and destroy the home and the family” (Boyd K. Packer, “The Father and
the Family”)
Moses 7:33
Reading 4 – 3 Nephi 9:2
Reading 5 – Hugh Nibley wrote, “There comes a time when the
general defilement of a society becomes so great that the rising generation is
put under undue pressure and cannot be said to have a fair choice between the
way of light and the way of darkness. When such a point is reached the cup of
iniquity is full, and the established order that has passed the point of no
return and neither can nor will change its ways must be removed physically and
forcibly if necessary from the earth, whether by war, plague, famine, or upheavals
of nature (Mormon 2:13-15)” (Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol.6, Part.5,
Ch.11, p.140).
Matthew 24:38-39
Reading 6 - President Ezra Taft Benson said, “The revelation
to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as
boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah” (in Conference Report,
Oct. 1987, 61; or Ensign, Nov. 1987, 49).
Reading 7 - Elder W. Don Ladd taught: “When it starts
raining, it is too late to begin building the ark. … We … need to listen to the
Lord’s spokesmen. We need to calmly continue to move ahead and prepare for what
will surely come. We need not panic or fear, for if we are prepared,
spiritually and temporally, we and our families will survive any flood. Our
arks will float on a sea of faith if our works have been steadily and surely
preparing for the future” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1994, 37; or Ensign, Nov.
1994, 29).
Reading 8 - President Spencer W. Kimball explained that when
Noah built the ark, “there was no evidence of rain and flood. … His warnings
were considered irrational. … How foolish to build an ark on dry ground with
the sun shining and life moving forward as usual! But time ran out. The ark was
finished. The floods came. The disobedient and rebellious were drowned. The
miracle of the ark followed the faith manifested in its building” (Faith
Precedes the Miracle [1972], 5–6).
Genesis 7:11-24
Genesis 8:20
Reading 9 - Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote: "When we are urged to put upon the altar
of the Lord the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit . . . we are
following the ancient counsel: 'to obey is better than sacrifice, and to
hearken than the fat of rams' . . . . Outward rituals can become near-empty
ends in themselves. What we are actually placing on the altar to be consumed is
the animal and carnal of our old selves. The need for that sacrifice has not
been done away." (Not My Will, But Thine, p99)
Reading 10 – Genesis 11-1-9
Hugh Nibley wrote:
"An investigation of the oldest temples...concludes that those high
structures were also 'gigantic altars,' built both to attract the attention of
the powers above...and to provide 'the stairways which the god, in answer to
these prayers, used in order to descend to the earth. . . . He comes bringing a
renewal of life in all its forms.' From the first, it would seem, men built
altars in the hopes of establishing contact with heaven, and built high towers
for the same purpose (see Genesis 11:4)." (Collected Works of Hugh Nibley,
4:360)
Matthew 7:13-14
