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Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Why did Ammon consider himself an unworthy servant? Mosiah 21:33

Why did Ammon consider himself an unworthy servant? Mosiah 21:33

Ammon (Book of Mormon Explorer) apparently did not feel worthy enough to baptize people. Lots of the people wanted to be baptized but "there was none in the land that had authority from God. And Ammon declined doing this thing, considering himself an unworthy servant."

The majority of mankind has lived in a time and place where there was no physical access to priesthood authority. Baptism and all other ordinances performed without it are not valid, though I am not convinced they are meaningless or worthless.

Jesus Christ compared the kingdom of heaven to leaven, aka yeast. A woman took a bit of yeast and put it in three measures of meal, which supposedly equates to something like 2 gallons (7.3 liters). That's a lot of flour. You aren't going to use that much flour when you make your daily bread. Trust me.

She waited, and after a long time the entire thing was leavened. 

Yeah, this totally does work, by the way. She's basically making sourdough starter. Yeast is all around us. Super weird, fascinating substance.

The series of parables that Christ is talking about in Matthew 13 are all about the kingdom of heaven on earth. In other words, they describe what his church looks like. The parable of the wheat and the tares show us that we don't get to decide who is "good" or "bad", but we have to learn to live with it and Christ himself will judge in the end. The parable of the mustard seed shows that small and simple things can bring to pass great things. The parable of the pearl of great price is to show how valuable it is when somebody finds the gospel - the true gospel of Jesus Christ - and recognizes it for what it is, he will sacrifice everything to obtain it. The parable of the treasure found in the field is similar, but it's also about how becoming a member of God's church in the correct, proper way requires going all in. The man found some treasure in a field that he didn't own. He wanted the treasure so to obtain it properly he sold everything that he had and bought the field. It requires drastic life changes to decide to commit yourself to the church.

The leaven is about how God's church may be small at first but eventually it will fill the earth. This is the same meaning of the dream that Daniel saw, by the way, when he saw the stone cut out of the mountain without hands. I think "fill the earth" means both that there will be a church presence in every nation on earth (there is not today) but of far greater importance, I think it is referring to the promise that every human soul who has ever lived will have their temple ordinances performed for them either live or by proxy. That is what the leaven filling all three measures of meal means to me. 

Answer:
I don't know why Ammon felt like he was unworthy. I suppose he felt like he did not have the authority from God. Maybe he did not have the priesthood authority. Maybe he felt like he was not worthy of it. It doesn't work if you are not worthy anyway. 

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