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being a common mother by the fact that in the Word the earth represents the
church, which is a common mother. (See Ibid. 585:4)
From what is provided in revelation, then, it appears that for purposes of
better understanding what is represented by the relationships of the sun, moon
and earth in the Word, we are guided to think of the sun as a common father,
and the earth (and possibly including the moon) as a common mother. The
absence of a married relationship being represented by any pair of these bodies
in the Word suggests that we avoid drawing doctrine from such relationships,
no matter how illustrative they may be in a poetic sense.
Lastly, in response to Mr. Rogers’ footnote explaining “true love” as an
alternative to “conjugial love” as a translation, it must be observed that it
misses the point of translation at issue, and offers no improvement.
In Latin the word traditionally transliterated as “conjugial” is used to
describe common love in marriage and even the mating relationship of
animals. When “true love” is meant, the Latin equivalent of “true” is added to
“conjugial.” Nor is “true love,” as claimed, understood by all to mean “exclusive,
eternally devoted love between a man and a woman,” as witnessed by this
sentence taken from a current magazine: “‘My relationship to marijuana
is true love,’ says Hines.” (Bruce Barcott & Michael Scherer, “The Great Pot
Experiment,” Time, vol. 185, no. 19 (May 25, 2015), p. 45)
Rev. Kenneth J. Alden
Lake Worth, Florida
Saving the Lost Generation
To The Editors:
Young people are looking for something to believe in. This is why we see so
much unrest in our culture right now. When I look at protests and unrest in
our young people, and the anger that I see in a lot of them, I see people who are
hurting inside and are reaching for something to believe in. They look at the
civil rights movement in the ‘60s and they see something powerful in which
people joined together to make the world a better place. It gave their lives
meaning, and young people today are reaching for that.
But today all people are being given to stand up for are movements that
really won’t lead to happiness and are ignoring the real spiritual problems that
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