From Shechem to Shiloh

From Shechem to Shiloh-- The Tribe of Ephraim Reigns in Foreordained Righteousness

    Reading through the Bible Dictionary the other night, I read of both Shechem and Shiloh. Not too far apart, early settlement cities in the land of the growing Israel. What was Israel? Twelve tribes, all descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, perpetuating the sons and daughters of Jacob cum Israel, for four hundred years under the Pharoahs of Egypt, down along the banks of the long and life-sustaining Nile. El Neel, the Arabs call it.

    

    Arabs. Fast forward over 3,000 years and we are here still.

    And, unbeknownst to the majority of the religious and the secular worlds, there are Ephraimites, sons and daughters of Ephraim, son of Joseph of Egypt, still roaming the earth.  Not only roaming earth in small packs and little communities, but pretty well organized and forceful, dynamic in their own way.

    Who, pray tell, do I refer to? Myself and a few million others. I am an Ephraimite, of the tribe of Ephraim. That is the belief within the surface beliefs of which I am part and privy to. I am enmeshed in it, as surely as I was born and raised in the faith of my parents, they who chose it for themselves and their family as young married adults. Grafted in, I am.

    And the plan of God as we know it involves many or most of us children, but the seed of the knowledge of the seeds must be known.

    Within the Holy Bible and the other holy scriptures of our modern age, which those of my faith call the Book of Mormon, and the Pearl of Great Price, and our more modern Doctrine and Covenants, and the constant orders, or invitations, of the holy men and women of God that lead us in the latter-days.

    The world, and others who believe that they are divinely inspired, as mentioned both the religious and secular, would mock or rule out of some kind of automatic necessity that the Book of Mormon were false. Not enough historical or scientific evidence. Those that are through and through convinced of the Bible, or the Torah, or the Quran, or the numerous ancient Sanskrit writings of the Hindus, will declaim it, these 15 books translated by a young American Joseph Smith, who was known as a treasure seeker, scally wag and a scandalous figure, until his precocious death at 38 and a half.

    All a made-up fantasy or hoax by an unhinged religious leader? Was he another charismatic psychotic cult leader, planning and scheming his visions and perhaps maniacal machinations of God and His future kingdom on Earth? There were such religious leaders of the past, to include Moses, or David, or up until Jesus Christ Himself.

    How many radical leaders among men must bring up their own agendas and organizations of power and sweeping movements? Forever in history, in India or China or Europe, across the river valleys of Africa or the plains of Latin America, be he King of the Aztecs or Inca of the Quechua. 

    Was the Book of Mormon unburied from the ground for the latter-days? Or does it all go against God's will, as some purposeful deception? Are the Latter-day Saints deceived and following an erroneous trail, as so many of all sides accusatively decry?

    Well, those are large and bold allegations on both sides.

    From time immemorial we have arguments of who can claim true authority, who can claim right to God and His rights. Jewish, Christian, and Muslims of the Abrahamic traditions have posited hopes and foundations of the first fathers and mothers, from Adam and Eve, who battled with the Adversary Lucifer himself, the Master of All Lies, and on through the fathers and sons and generations, who had to overcome their trials and tribulations.

    And then there are the innumerous secular scientists and even philosophers who rule out any connection to an upper power, to God, or Jesus, or the Hindu Gods, or anything else beyond the realm of what is empirically proven. Sight. Sound. Touch. Smell. Taste.

    Logic and rationale? What of those? 

    It can be hard to make sense of all things, especially foolishness and evil. Those exist, I believe that we can all admit. But, the atheists would rule those attributes and characteristics as simply parts of the evolutionary cycle of life and survival.

    Back to Ephraim. Each of the 12 tribes of Jacob, of ancient Israel, was promised blessings and foreordained inheritances well into the future. Reuben, the eldest, had his place as all the rest. Joseph was the dream and was beloved of Jacob, therefore sold into slavery. He became the Savior of his family, which led to eventual bondage in Egypt.

    When they made it back under Joshua and Aaron, the tribe of Moses, the Levites, settled and conquered across the holy land bequeathed to Abraham, their distant patriarch, the one belonging to all of us, that we share still into the 21st century, the sons of Levi had the priesthood to run the affairs and covenants and ordinances of the faith, but it was the Tribe of Ephraim that led in the first settlements, Shechem, then Shiloh.

    Who is in charge today? Who claims the power and authority of the priesthood, the right of God on Earth? We believe that is of Ephraim, alongside with Manasseh. 

    Most of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are we, we are Ephraimites and Manassites.  Descended and inherited claimers and holders of the true lineage of God.

    High and bold, deep claims. This is who we are, this is what we are.

    We speak of the foundational truths that make up our passage to the heavens, to guide us to return to our God and Creator, Father in Heaven, and His Son Jesus Christ. These plans and commands are made manifest in the New Testament, the script that guides most Christian believers in the world today.

    Yet there is more. It does not come from the Book of Mormon alone, but it comes from instructions and revelations given to what we believe to be God's anointed and consecrated since the restoration of the Church in April of 1830.

    It has not been perfect, it has had its flaws. But it has established itself on every continent and clime, and continues to grow.

    Who is at its head, or what Tribe of Israel leads the way in leadership today? Ephraim.

    As promised in the Bible and the other holy writs. As promised by the Lord's anointed today, as many of us believe. It seems like foolish inventions and childish creations in the eyes of the greater world.

    But these are the tribesmen put in charge of Shechem and then Shiloh, back in 1200 or so before Christ. And now, there is another round under the auspices of Ephraimites today, in 2025. With Manasseh right along.

    Confused? We have to do some more analysis, study, and homework.

    Get on it, Tribes of Jacob. This is who we are, and what we are spiritually and physically seeking and committing to.

    Blog on.