By Steven Ray Montgomery
I loved it when the Church published their own edition of the Bible (wasn’t this about 1980? It seems like yesterday.) and also cross-referenced all four of the standard works with each other. But one thing I noticed is that the cross-referencing isn’t perfect–at least not to me.
For example they could have cross-referenced Proverbs 4:18 with D&C 50:24. But they don’t. But this post is not meant to overly criticize a few very minor blemishes in an otherwise fantastic work the Church has produced. I guess it just segues into my next point.
A few months ago I obtained a reference Bible from a local thrift store. I don’t know the name of the reference Bible or the copyright date as those pages are missing, but otherwise the Bible is in excellent condition. So I’m looking at Isaiah 55:6 and in my reference Bible there are several Bible scriptures cross-referenced here. But first here is the text of Isaiah 55:6:
The first cross reference is Psalms 32:6:
Implying that there is a limited time in which the Lord can be found, and in the time of Noah it was certainly before the flood. The next is Amos 5:6:
While Amos was warning the Israelite’s of the coming calamity when their land would be seiged and they would be carried away captive into Babylon I believe it also has a dual Latter-day meaning. That we had better seek the Lord before that “great and dreadful” day when Christ comes in his glory and the wicked are burned at his coming.
But Amos 5:6 also parallels Psalms 32:6. The latter scripture has reference to seeking the Lord before the flood and the first having to do with seeking the Lord before the fire.
So then the next scripture referenced is Matthew 5:25-26, which reads:
Now up until now I’ve always read this scripture as applying to quickly agreeing with an enemy, before you have real trouble. Or something like that. But why would Christ phrase it this way? About being delivered to the judge, and the possibility of being cast into prison and having to pay the uttermost farthing?
I now see this as a parable of what we should do while we are in mortality, while we are in the “way with him.” Our adversary, if you will, is Christ, and the fact that we need to come to an at-one-ment or agreement with him while we are in mortality before it is too late and we have to go to Spirit Prison and pay the penalty for our own sins. Or the adversary could be Justice personified so to speak and our need to satisfy the demands of justice.
There are several other Bible scriptures referenced. Among them 2 Corinthians 6:2:
Again implying that we only have a set time to seek the Lord and accept salvation. Which finally brings me to a scripture not cross-referenced in my reference Bible but could or should have been (if the editors had only known), Alma 34:31-33:
So in conclusion let us seek the Lord while he may be found. And call upon Him while He is near.
Moral Liberal Contributing Editor, Steven Ray Montgomery, is a constitutional scholar, former pundit Newsmax.com (2001), and author of The Perfect Law of Liberty.
