The most important issue (and therefore the focal point of our website) is truth, and, more specifically, the truth concerning salvation; the answers to all other questions must wait until one settles both how one can know truth and how one is made right with God so that he or she can return to Him.  However, these two questions are quite extensive in their answering and one can become quite overwhelmed with attempting to answer them as a starting point.  With this in mind, we hope to address in this section what are clear, 'bite-sized' but nonetheless important questions concerning the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the teaching of the Bible.  We will present many different issues for consideration covering a wide range of topics.  Please let us know if you have any questions or comments!  You may either browse or select an issue from the list below...

It is very significant how these names, Elohim and Jehovah (YHWH - see below), are used in the Bible.  In order to grasp this, you must understand the rules that were used when translating these two into English; here is a synopsis:

...the most common word used for deity is God, a translation of the original Elohim...Yet there is another name which is particularly assigned to God as His special or proper name, that is, the four letters YHWH (Exodus 3:14 and Isaiah 42:8).  This name has not been pronounced by the Jews because of reverence for the great sacredness of the divine name.  Therefore, it was consistently pronounced and translated Lord.  The only exception is when it occurs in immediate proximity to the word Lord, that is, Adonai.  In that case it is regularly translated God in order to avoid confusion [in the English translation]...

So, we can see that, as we read the Bible, the English word 'God' is the translation of the Hebrew word 'Elohim' and Lord represents 'JeHoVaH', or 'YHWH'.  This becomes important as we read various scriptures while keeping in mind that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintains that Elohim is the 'exalted name title for Heavenly Father just as Jehovah is for Jesus.  Here are some texts to consider:

Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,... (Psalms 13:3)

Judge me, O LORD my God, according to Your righteousness, and do not let them rejoice over me. (Psalms 35:24)

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. (Isaiah 40:28)

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalms 18:2)

For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God,... (Psalms 18:31)

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance. (Psalms 33:12)

"Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, are God." (Isaiah 37:20)

"You are My witnesses," declares the LORD, "And My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. "I, even I, am the LORD, and there is no savior besides Me. (Isaiah 43:10-11)

"Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. 'Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; yes, let him recount it to Me in order, from the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place. 'Do not tremble and do not be afraid; have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other Rock? I know of none.'" (Isaiah 44:6-8)

"I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other,... (Isaiah 45:5-6)

"I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek Me in a waste place'; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, declaring things that are upright. "Gather yourselves and come; draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; they have no knowledge, who carry about their wooden idol and pray to a god who cannot save. "Declare and set forth your case; indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me. (Isaiah 45:19-21)

These texts (and many others like them) are sufficient to illustrate that the LORD, or YHWH (i.e. Jehovah) is God, or Elohim, in three different ways.  First, there is the phrase, "the LORD my/our God", which actually says, "Jehovah/YHWH my/our Elohim".  In other words, Jehovah is their Elohim, rather than Jehovah being a separate and distinct being from Elohim.

This is supported by the second, observable pattern are phrases like these: 'the everlasting God, the LORD', 'the LORD is my rock,...my God', 'Who is God but the LORD' and finally, 'Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD'.  If we insert the Hebrew names for God, we would come up with the following: 'the everlasting Elohim, Jehovah/YHWH', 'Jehovah/YHWH is my rock,...my Elohim', 'Who is Elohim but Jehovah/YHWH' and 'Blessed is the nation whose Elohim is Jehovah/YHWH'.  As can be clearly seen, the writer's intention is not to think of Jehovah/YaHWeH as being a separate being from Elohim, but rather to say that Jehovah/YaHWeH is the special name of our Elohim (our God).  This is in keeping with the introduction of the name YaHWeH (Jehovah), as Moses asked whom he should say is sending him to the Israelites:

Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM [YHWH] WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM [YHWH] has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3:13-14)

Here, we see that Elohim (God) says that His (special, covenant) name is 'I Am', which in Hebrew is written 'YHWH'.  Being that Elohim and Jehovah/YHWH are used in the Bible as described above, it makes it very difficult to see Jesus as Jehovah and Elohim as Heavenly Father, as then the above texts would be indicating that Jesus is Heavenly Father!

This is further demonstrated with a closer inspection of the Hebrew word (Jehovah/YHWH), from which the pronunciation/English word 'Jehovah' comes.  Unlike all the other words in the original Hebrew manuscripts, YHWH does not have the 'jots' and 'tittles' (otherwise known as 'vowel points') that are normally present so that the reader of the Hebrew could know how one should pronounce the word.  The reason is that, as stated above, the Israelites considered the proper name of God too sacred for their unclean lips to speak out loud, and therefore these marks were omitted in an attempt to prevent same.  The result is that there is no absolute certainty as to how one should pronounce YHWH.  The pronunciation of the Hebrew word YHWH as 'Jehovah' came from a Spanish Catholic monk in the 13th century, though it first appeared in an English bible in the 16th century.  However, the Hebrew letter represented by the Y in YHWH is correctly pronounced just as it sounds in the word 'You'.  Most who are experts in linguistics and the Hebrew language agree, therefore, that a more accurate spelling/pronunciation of this word would by YaHWeH ("Yah-Way").  Therefore, in addition to the uses of the words Elohim and Yahweh as described above, it would seem even less likely that the correct, inspired name for Jesus is 'Jehovah'.

So What Are Ezekiel's Two Sticks?

Another question we have is concerning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' interpretation of Ezekiel 37:15-23:

The word of the LORD came again to me saying, and you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it, 'For Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions'; then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.'  "Then join them for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand.  "When the sons of your people speak to you saying, 'Will you not declare to us what you mean by these?', say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand."'  "The sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.  "Say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. "They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.

The LDS church uses this text to claim that the Bible supports the Book of Mormon; they say that it predicts its coming based upon two premises: 1) the sticks Ezekiel refers to here in this text actually represent books (which, back then, where scrolls rolled up on 'sticks') rather than actual sticks and 2) the one stick that has 'for Judah' represents the Bible whereas the other on which is written 'for Joseph' represents the Book of Mormon.  In short, the claim is that Ezekiel is looking forward to a time of bringing together these two 'sticks' as one set of scriptures.

However, the word used for 'stick' in the Hebrew cannot mean, even figuratively, scroll, as it was not used that way back then by those who spoke Hebrew.  The Hebrew word,  or 'ets', is used 328 times in the Old Testament with the following meanings: tree, wood, timber, stock, plank, stalk, stick, gallows, tree, trees, wood, pieces of wood, gallows, firewood, cedar-wood, woody flax.  It is never used, either in a figurative or literal sense, to indicate the stick on which a scroll or parchment would have been stored, which is the LDS perspective on this passage.  In all occurrences of this word in Bible where it is translated as 'stick', the meaning is clearly and simply to mean a literal stick rather than a stick holding scriptures: Num 15:32-33, 1 Kings 17:10, 1 Kings 17:12, 2 Kings 6:6, Lam 4:8.  Finally, Ezekiel does refer to a scroll in verse 2:9-10, but he uses the proper Hebrew word , or 'm@gillah',  which  means  'roll,  book  or  writing', rather that 'ets':

Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me; and lo, a scroll was in it.  When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back, and written on it were lamentations, mourning and woe.

In other words, if Ezekiel wanted to refer to books that were to be united, then, as he did earlier in his prophetic vision, he would have used the proper word for scroll rather than a word that is never used to refer to scriptures, books or scrolls.

In addition, the Book of Mormon was, according to itself, written on bound metal plates of brass and gold rather than on a scroll of papyri.  As metal plates would not do so well wrapped around a stick, it becomes impossible to believe that Ezekiel was alluding to the Book of Mormon, a 'metal book', being united to the 'scroll of Judah'.

As to what Ezekiel did intend to mean by the 'two sticks', he makes this clear himself in verses 21-23:

"Say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. "They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them.  And they will be My people, and I will be their God.

It is clear from the text alone that God's promise through Ezekiel is to reunite the divided tribes of Israel (His people) back into one kingdom under one king, rather than uniting two books of scripture.

The historical context of Ezekiel's prophecy makes this even more evident, in that this division of the kingdom of Israel was both prophesied of and came to pass.  The prophesy was made to Solomon when he fell into sin after becoming wealthy and acquiring many wives: 1 Kings 11:6-13.  The result of Solomon's infidelity was to be that all but one tribe was to be taken out from under the rule of the house of David (i.e. Solomon's kingdom authority) during the reign of his son.  We then see this prophesy fulfilled when his son, Rehoboam, became king after Solomon's death.  All of Israel departed from under the rule of his except the tribe of Judah (as the Lord had promised) because of his foolish and harsh rule over them (1 Kings 12:1-20) and, more in heavenly reality, because the Lord had decreed it (1 Kings 12:1-15).

Ezekiel, then, is prophesying to address this division that God had decreed (in the face of His promise to David) because of the disobedience of David's son Solomon.  God's new prophetic promise through Ezekiel, then, is to once again reunite the tribe of Judah (the stick reading, "For Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions") back together with the other eleven tribes of Israel (the stick reading, "For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions") all of the sons of Jacob/Israel back under one king in one consolidated kingdom: "one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms".

Though it is fairly easy to see why Ezekiel was told to write the first message for the tribe of Judah, it may not be as readily apparent why the Lord had him write, "For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim..."  However, source of this inscription as a representation of the other eleven tribes becomes more self-evident when we look at the historical beginning of the twelve tribes, specifically when Jacob/Israel blessed his son (and his son's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh) just before his death ( Genesis 48:8-20).  First, we remember that Jacob/Israel loved Joseph more than his eleven brothers (Genesis 37:3).  Secondly, we seen in this blessing that Israel blessed and favored Ephraim over Manasseh in the same way that Joseph, the youngest, ended up being over the rest of his brothers.  In this, it becomes clear why, in view of God's promise, the other eleven tribes are represented by Joseph, the stick of Ephraim.

The Lord also refers to Judah and Ephraim as the representatives for these two divisions of the twelve tribes in Hosea 5:3-14, 6:4:

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot, Israel has defiled itself.  Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God.  For a spirit of harlotry is within them, and they do not know the LORD.  Moreover, the pride of Israel testifies against him, and Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also has stumbled with them.  They will go with their flocks and herds to seek the LORD, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn from them.  They have dealt treacherously against the LORD, for they have borne illegitimate children.  Now the new moon will devour them with their land.  Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound an alarm at Beth-aven: "Behind you, Benjamin!"  Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke; among the tribes of Israel I declare what is sure.  The princes of Judah have become like those who move a boundary; on them I will pour out My wrath like water.  Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to follow man's command.  Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim and like rottenness to the house of Judah.  When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jareb.  But he is unable to heal you, or to cure you of your wound.  For I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah.  I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away, I will carry away, and there will be none to deliver...  ...What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?  What shall I do with you, O Judah?  For your loyalty is like a morning cloud And like the dew which goes away early.

In conclusion, Ezekiel's prophecy cannot be about uniting two books of scripture, but rather about reuniting to groups if Israelites back into one kingdom.

The nature of this kingdom, however, is an interesting question, however, because of the verses that come on the heels of the promised kingdom:

"Say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. "They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God. (Ezekiel 37:22-23)

Though this is not the place to explain this passage in detail, it seems clear that the new, united kingdom which God promises Israel will be of a much different character than the one they had under Saul, David, Solomon and Rehoboam before they were divided because of sin.  This united kingdom will be one in which they will not sin, will be cleansed from the sins they have committed and will be His covenant people (without separation or failure is implied by this Biblical phrase).  In other words, as numerous New Testament passages allude to, it was the kingdom inaugurated by, through and in the Lord Jesus Christ that broke down the barrier of the dividing wall both between God and man and men who were at odds or separated from one another.  The promise given to Abraham and his seed was fulfilled in Christ's spiritual kingdom!  (See Galatians, Hebrews and several others for further details...)

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