prejudices

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Recently I was speaking with a new friend, usually when you have a new job you have new friends, so I was just speaking regarding my favorite topic:religion. He is a believer, we didn't know what kind of church we attend but we were aware that both of us were Christians. We were talking about symbols in the Bible, one of my favorite topics. I shared with him several of them, he was enjoying and feeling the spirit, at least according to his words He said: Those things are coming from the Lord! He expressed the idea that I was a very good man and a special believer until he made the key question: What church do you attend?
I am an LDS! I answered. He was stupefied :I can't believe that! He said. "Why?" I asked. "How could you possibly believe that the book of Mormon and all the things related to it are true?" and after that he was saying so many bad things regarding my beliefs. At the beginning there was nothing wrong in it, but while I was giving my testimony of the truth he treated me like a devil, while 5 minutes before I was a great guy inspired by the Lord in that moment, only 5 minutes after, I was an adept of the Devil.

Another interesting and informative experience was with my web page. When I was writing "the Bible and the Book of Mormon" my study from the Bible, I felt that it would have been better to leave aside Ezekiel 37. Too common, I thought, too used, so I didn't use it. For 2 times others webmasters of webpages against the church wrote me that my study is not worth to read because Ezekiel 37, according to their opinion is not related to the book of Mormon. When I wrote them that they were quoting a scripture that I didn't quote , I told them that I was sure that they didn't take a look at my article but they were just assuming.
Have you ever heard the word "prejudices"?
This is a key word for Satan.
What is is real meaning? To form (as an opinion) prior to actual knowledge or experience
prejudice1prej�u�dice\'pre-je-des\n[ME, fr. OF, fr. L praejudicium previous judgment, damage, fr. prae- + judicium judgment _ more at JUDICIAL](13c) a(1) : preconceived judgment or opinion (2) : an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge b : an instance of such judgment or opinion c : an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics syn see PREDILECTION2prejudicevt-diced; -dic�ing(15c)
1 : to injure or damage by some judgment or action (as in a case of law)
2 : to cause to have prejudice
preconception preconception [n] idea formed before event occurs or facts are received
assumption, bias, delusion, illusion, inclination, notion, preconceived idea, predisposition, prejudgment, prejudice, prepossession, presumption, presupposition
prejudiceprejudice [n] belief without basis, information; intolerance
ageism, animosity, antipathy, apartheid, aversion, bad opinion, bias, bigotry, chauvinism, contemptuousness, detriment, discrimination, disgust, dislike, displeasure, disrelish, enmity, foregone conclusion, illiberality, injustice, jaundiced eye, mindset*, misjudgment, narrow-mindedness, one-sidedness, partiality, pique, preconceived notion, preconception, prejudgment.
That was really the case for my new friend and for those 2 webmasters do you know why? They told me that they totally depend on the Bible for their religious beliefs and while I was quoting scriptures by the Bible showing to him (to my friend) the strong possibility that the Book of Mormon was the one prophesied in the scriptures he said: That is no possible! "Why" I asked "Because it is not possible!" "Why?" "because I know that the book is not true!" "Why?" Because I know it and people believe the same!" "That is not true" I said," I firmly believe that the Book of Mormon is true and there are millions like me, Have you ever read it?" "No!" he said "So how could you possibly maintain that you KNOW that is not true?" I replied. He didn't answer to this question but he was saying that he had mercy for my soul and stuff like that, I thanked him but I told him that I didn't need his mercy because fortunately he was not my Judge. Anyway we are talking about "Walls" "barriers" this is a classic case in which people build their own idea and after put walls around it to defend it.
Prejudice. This word sounded in my mind several times and it was clear to me how the devil builds barriers in the minds of the mankind, those barriers are built to avoid the truth. This was the real problem by which the Jews didn't accept the Savior.
They said:"We have Moses and the prophets!" and it was true. On the other hand Jesus replied:"If you don't change and become like infants you will not enter in the kingdom of God!" and how is an infant?
Humble and willing to learn.
Prejudices, we have seen are mental barriers built from the person himself and when this person is confortable with his ideas he will defend them by all means. These ideas instead of giving him an open mind, they lock him up in his convictions and he will refuse every discussion on these absolute truths that he accepts and defends with stubbornness. It is true that each one of us can have this kind of problem, even the people that have the truth, like the Jews they had the truth but they didn't want more of it, or like a member of the church that doesn't' accept a new revelation because he can't understand it. Even the apostles had this problem when Jesus was speaking about the resurrection."your speaking is tough" They said in several occasion and Jesus once asked:"Do you want to leave me too?" and Peter answered:" No because you have words of eternal life"
Jesus must have fought all his life against these prejudices. At the very beginning of His mission, when he took and read Isaiah and declared that in that moment it was fulfilled, everybody said:"The Son of the carpenter? It is not possible!" or "Could something good come from Nazareth?" He performed miracles, and those were supposed to help people to understand, specially when he, before performing the miracle, forgave the sins of the person. It was an evident proof of His authority, but above all the proof that The Heavenly Father was His personal supporter .In fact, if in that moment he took an inappropriate authority, would God have fulfilled his miracle? Surely not.
Notwistanding this the Jews maintained that He had a devil and that He performed miracles by the power of the devil. See what powerful barriers they had in their minds? These barriers can be born from our legacy, tradition or predisposition. How it is possible to prevent this severe problem? It is not easy but possible. God teaches the truth, line upon line and precept upon precept, few here and few there, therefore the man needs an open mind, ready to receive it step by step, a mind like the clay available to be shaped by the Most High God.
"You will know the truth and the truth will make you free!" I truly believe that when Jesus declared this truth He was referring to the human prejudices that they made mankind like a slave. The Hebrews had received indeed the Law, but they forgot why they had received it. It was their disobedience that brought to them the Law. It was the golden calf that provoked Moses to break the first 2 stones and when He received the second set of stones, it was understood, like Paul explained, to be a teacher to lead to the Gospel. Unfortunately when a person has not an open mind, like the Jews were, they think static instead of dynamic. Like I wrote even he who knows the truth can build barriers and prejudices if he is not open to better understand the full significance of a concept or doctrine. I'll give an example:" Verily verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." if you build a prejudice on this truth, probably he will never accept an updating on this like:" The little ones and the people that can't understand (mentally handicapped) they don't need to be baptized" Probably somebody could say "It is written......"
All these things are true, but it is the way in which we put them in our brain that they can become prejudices, if we put these bricks in the right way in which it's possible to build up, we will surely receive line upon line and precept over precept and step by step we will arrive to finish our home, a celestial home. Instead if we will hoard one above another without a specific order they will become great barriers very difficult to climb. If it is true that the faith is the first principle of the Gospel and if it is true that "without faith it's impossible to please Him" Then it becomes clear that man should do the things before knowing the full significance of them, and consequently if he will practice he will know why. John 7:17 "If any man will do His will, He shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself". God gave the law of sacrifice in the garden, otherwise we have no explanation why Adam and his sons performed them, but from the latter day revelation we learn that Adam didn't know the meaning of that:' Why do you offer sacrifices to the Lord? Asked the angel. I know not, answer Adam, the Lord commanded me and I do." This was the humble and innocent answer of our ancestor, at that point came the explanation:"It is in similitude of the sacrifice of the Son of God." God gives us the basic and if man entrusts in the faith of his creator the knowledge will come line upon line and precept over precept. In this way mankind will be free from the prejudices, humble and willing to listen the Father in every occasion.Our article of faith number nine declares:"We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God." This is a specific request for an open mind. God compares mankind to the clay, that is the way we can please Him, easy to be shaped, humble like children, only he who is able to listen to His voice will arrive and will endure to the end. Like I wrote before Jesus found his greatest barrier in the human prejudices,and sometimes in his apostles too. He called Peter:"Satan" because he didn't understand the resurrection. Even knowing the truth we should stay alert. The continual revelation is an enemy of the prejudices. A good suggestion to avoid this problem is to assimilate a true principle, but we don't have to fossilize on that rather we should be ready to build up, like the Gospel was built upon the Law. If God had explained the whole truth in one strike, He would have overwhelmed the human mind with an unbearable weight, for this specific reason, His scriptures or revelations also came line upon line and step by step until at this particular point of time in which we are close to the second coming of the Lord, we are now in the dispensation of the fullness of times in which are gathered all the doctrines. Before the second coming mankind should be ready because this is eternal life:" That they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." John 17:3. This is possible only having the fullness of the Truth. Is not intelligence "The Glory of God"? and Joseph Smith taught that man can't be saved in ignorance.
Line upon line and precept upon precept is a divine process which is applied to all the laws of life. The man is a child that at the beginning goes to the kindergarten and step by step to the university. In nature we have the time for seeding, for growing and for harvest. It is part of the divine wisdom to do everything with wisdom and order like the book of Mormon explains Mosiah 4:27 "and see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order."
Prejudices are great barriers in our personal progress, they are static and they cloud the clearness of the simplicity.
Kids cannot have prejudices, this is why the Savior indicated them having the right to the kingdom of God and He said also that the knowledge will be manifested to them and that from the infants' mouth comes the praise to the Lord.
The truths to learn and assimilate are so many and sometimes so shocking (like the Apostles demonstrated) for the human mind that without the principle line upon line, the human mind would be overwhelmed. When you assimilate a truth, you are ready and wish to receive another one and this will not happen if you stay static on the former truth.What happened to the Jews, is now happening to the Christians, not only do they don't accept the book of Mormon (that it is not a prejudice), the prejudice begins to start when they refuse it without even reading or discussing it. Here is the prejudice and the mistake.
I will write here several samples of how God builds line upon line.
The law was the base on which the Gospel was built.
The concept that we can't enter in the kingdom of God without baptism is true, but we see here, that many Protestants don't baptize because they are saying we are saved by grace. We have here a prejudice from another doctrine cancelling another doctrine.
The tithe will be complete in the united order. Sacrifices were completed by the Atonement.
When Paul was speaking about milk and beef, it was another way to say line upon line.
We have to hope that we can be without this kind of problem in our life and that our goatskin could be always ready to receive the new vine of God.

I have found a very interesting explanation about this problem in a book written by Bryant S. Hinckley "Not by bread alone"

Prejudice is one of man's worst enemies, and we are all guilty of in a measure.

The dictionary defines prejudice as an opinion formed without due examination of all the facts, a mental decision made on other grounds than reason and justice. Its effects are manifest and baneful. To overcome and rise above it is proof of fortitude and soul power. Prejudice narrows one's life, abridges one's influence, breeds intolerance, distrust, and hatred.

The best way to overcome prejudice is to make a deliberate and costant effort to discover the good that lies in others. This effort will be rewarded in many ways. It brings with it a warmth of satisfaction that enlarges the soul, gladdens the heart, and sweetens the life.

Racial and religious prejudices have led to strife and bloodshed, to bitterness and war. In the early frontier days, the Omaha Indians had a strange and interesting custom. If an indian of one tribe wished to visit the lands of another, on the night before leaving his home the chief would ask him to sit with them around the campfire. And just before the flames died down, he was asked to stand up and speak this prayer:"Great Spirit, help me never to judge another until I have walked 2 weeks in his moccasins."

What a different worlds this would be if we put aside our prejudices and walk in other men's shoes for a while! So often this would to understanding, and understanding is the foundation of peaceful and happy relationships.

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