Another example of breaking the chains of hell from the Book of Mormon is Alma and his people. His son Alma the Younger explained this to us,
" 6 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers? Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them? And moreover, have ye sufficiently retained in remembrance that he has delivered their souls from hell?
7 Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word; yea, they were encircled about by the bands of death, and the chains of hell, and an everlasting destruction did await them.
8 And now I ask of you, my brethren, were they destroyed? Behold, I say unto you, Nay, they were not.
9 And again I ask, were the bands of death broken, and the chains of hell which encircled them about, were they loosed? I say unto you, Yea, they were loosed, and their souls did expand, and they did sing redeeming love. And I say unto you that they are saved.
10 And now I ask of you on what conditions are they saved? Yea, what grounds had they to hope for salvation? What is the cause of their being loosed from the bands of death, yea, and also the chains of hell?
11 Behold, I can tell you—did not my father Alma believe in the words which were delivered by the mouth of Abinadi? And was he not a holy prophet? Did he not speak the words of God, and my father Alma believe them?
12 And according to his faith there was a mighty change wrought in his heart. Behold I say unto you that this is all true.
13 And behold, he preached the word unto your fathers, and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the dend; therefore they were saved"(Alma 5:6-13)
The oracle above shown "beating a serpent with a iron rod"(also filed no.0029 in the oracle database).
The power of the rod of iron is from the Lamb of God. The Satan was cast by the power of Only Begotten of God(Moses 4:3). (Following drawing is on the painting no.000303 and no.000014 of the oracle database)
"Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked—"(Helaman 3:29)
Priesthood
In Lehi's dream, people searched for the iron rod in the mist of darkness, the right oracle drawing "both hands touching the iron rod", shown as "reach for, look for".
In ancient Chinese oracle drawing, as the hand holding the iron rod was the time that people receiving their first office of the Holy Priesthood of God. This picture of "a hand holding the iron rod" was used as an office about 3000 years ago.
There are several names on the right list. The last character is the first office of the Holy Priesthood in ancient China, and the characters before the office are the Priesthood holders' name. The first man lived in the earliest days without any time records, and the others lived between 1100-800 BC.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we call this office Elder.
Partaking the fruit of the tree of life was also one of offices of the Holy Priesthood in ancient Chinese oracle drawings, like High Priest office of Church today, these are shown on the map of Lehi's dream below.
Prophet Joseph Smith taught us, "Why the first is called the Melchizedek Priesthood is because Melchizedek was such a great high priest. Before his day it was called the Holy Priesthood, after the Order of the Son of God. But out of respect or reverence to the name of the Supreme Being, to avoid the too frequent repetition of his name, they, the church, in ancient days, called that priesthood after Melchizedek, or the Melchizedek Priesthood"(D&C 107:2-4).
People going eastward after the tower of Babel didn't know the change, and they still called "the Holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son of God". Also for the reasons of "out of respect or reverence to the name of the Supreme Being", and "to avoid the too frequent repetition of his name", the ancient oriental people of God used other ways to resolve this problem.
One of ways to resolve this problem is that they never called Him by name.
These two oracle drawings symbolized "the Holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son of God". They kept this holy title for the only Priesthood holder who had all keys, and other holders were only called "the Order of the Son(of God)" without repeating His Name. "The Order of the Son" was also called as "Son" briefly in the ancient days.
Until now, in oriental tradition, It is still rude to call the men of authority by his name, such as father, mother, governor, ruler, and king.
The first office of Holy Priesthood was called as "Father", and "Father" was also one of parents, then it would confuse people with these same titles. Substituting one of the titles for a new calling was neccessary.
"Before a man can be ordained to an office in the Melchizedek Priesthood, he must first have the Melchizedek Priesthood conferred upon him"(Priesthood and Auxiliary Leaders’ Guidebook P4). It was the same in the ancient days. For this reason, receiving their first office of the Holy Priesthood, ancient Chinese people must have "the Holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son",in brief "Son", conferred upon them. Afterward, "Son" also became the first office of the Holy Priesthood in ancient China.
"Son" took place of "Father" as the name of the first office of the Holy Priesthood. Before that, "Father"(A hand holding the iron rod) was used as the first office for a very long time in ancient China. Since then, "Father", this holy calling from Heaven was kept in the family as a honorable, never released title.
Using other characters, like "the man holding the iron rod speaks", to replace the name of the Supreme Being.
Following is the example,this was very common in ancient Chinese Book.
posted by yen-ku hsu @ 3:08 AM
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