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“I Will Bless The Lord At All Times”: Blessing God In The Old Testament, Dana M. Pike
“I Will Bless The Lord At All Times”: Blessing God In The Old Testament, Dana M. Pike
Faculty Publications
Because of his love for them, God is disposed to bless all his children to some extent (see Matthew 5:45). However, in addition to God’s graciously bestowed blessings on all people, many divine blessings are primarily relationship dependent; that is, existing in a particular relationship with God allows one to obtain certain blessings that are often greater than those bestowed upon someone outside such a relationship.1 The Bible indicates that by his power God blessed Adam and Eve (Gen 1:22, 28) and their faithful descendants, including Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and many others. For example, after Noah’s family left their ark, …
Before Jeremiah Was: Divine Election In The Ancient Near East, Dana M. Pike
Before Jeremiah Was: Divine Election In The Ancient Near East, Dana M. Pike
Faculty Publications
FRAGMENTS OF GOSPEL TRUTHS are often detected by Latter-day Saint scholars studying ancient texts, especially texts from the ancient Near East. This essay focuses on one example of this phenomenon. Divine election—the academic designation for the choosing of people by deity for position and opportunity in mortal life—is a claim that is well attested in ancient Near Eastern texts, including the Hebrew Bible.¹ Latter-day Saints correlate certain aspects of this concept with premortal foreordination and are familiar with a few key biblical passages, such as Jeremiah 1:5, that feature divine election. However, many Latter-day Saints are less familiar with the …