It is also very likely that Balaam was a prophet after the same order as Noah and Abraham.

Did Moses created a different religious order than the one Balaam was a member of and Balaam group had to be replaced for the Isralites to be in charge of?

Any thoughts on this?

The people Balaam was the Prophet over would not have been Jews. Remember the Jews came from the loins of Jacob and Jacobs family was in Egypt for several generations. So if the people of Balaam had the Gospel (and we assumed they did since Balaam was a Prophet) why would the Jews kill Balaam and his people? Could an answer be that since the winner writes the history books that the story of Balaam was written to give an excuse for killing a righteous man?

What if one of the large Mormon families from Mexico came back to their promise land (their old farm/ranch in Utah) and killed the people who live on the land currently and took possession of the land. Would it be any different than what the Jews/Mosses did to Balaam and his people?

Abraham married Hagar who begot Ishmael who built the base for Islam to come forth. Islam strongly identifies with Abraham.

Abraham married Sarah who begot Isaac and went on to build the twelve tribes which had a tribe that brought forth the lineage of Christ. Each tribe was blessed. Many societies believe Christ visited them during the time he was buried and resurrected (Tonga, Mongolia, and so on) and we are now finding through missionary patriarchal blessings that these groups have lineages that also coincide with the migration patterns of the lost tribes. Today, these peoples may practice a splintered religion, but it is still grounded in monotheism and Abraham.

Abraham married Keturah who begot seven sons who were blessed before they were sent to travel eastward. Eastward was to China, India, etc., where religions grew from monothesistic belief (yes, even Hindus ultimately believe in one God – but also acknowledge deities). Religious thought during this time and later, morphed in many teachings of the Jews and Abraham – and remember, the seven sons were blessed by Abraham.
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On Balaam…
Balaam was indeed a prophet – however he sorely lacked discernment and could not fully use the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Balaam led a group of non-practicing Jews and according to Torah study, he was highly favored by these people – and considered an equal to Moses in their eyes.

God just couldn’t get through to him to use the gift of discernment – and he became an allegory for us to “listen to the still small voice”.

Balaam is also an allegory for us to be aware of those leaders of churches that rack in the dough for personal use and for using to forward their own political-religious ideas.

The numbers that are not discussed is the number of members who leave the church each year. They may not take their names off the rolls but they stop attending.

During the past 4 years, my ward is shrinking at an alarming rate yet no one wants to admit that something is wrong. 4 years ago we filled the overflow. Now we clsoe the curtains and still cannot fill the pews. We really do have empty pews. Yes some have moved away but lots of families have simply stopped coming.

We had a convert baptism last week but 1 person does not replace a family that quit coming.

I would like to know the number of baptisms vs the number that go inactive. If we could keep the inactives coming, we would need to build more buildings.

When a church gets to a certain size, growth becomes stable. For the last three years in a row, the number of converts coming into the church has been just over 240,000. Perhaps we have reached the point where we will not see accelerated growth. Perhaps we are at the point where we simply have sustained growth.

There were people who believe just has Abraham did and this same religion was still there when Mosses return with Abraham’s children out of Egypt. Remember how Abraham paid tithes?

The religion Balaam was the Prophet over had been there for hundreds of years while the Jews were in Egypt. Balaam spoke with God so he would have the same religion right?

So why did Mosses have the existing members of the Lord’s Church killed?

Is the Israelite religion an off-shoot of the orginal religion that Noah taught?

Think about this – What if a family of Mormons had moved away when BY was the Prophet and now a hundred years later they come back to SLC in the thousands and were killing and taking over city by city in Utah all in the name of God. If you lived in SLC and this new group had their own Prophet – which group would would want to associate with?

History is written by the winner.

So – could God have different religions that appeal to different people with the goal of having his children taught his gospel?

If so, could the other religions be of God like LDS is?

My gut feeling is that when missionaires had to memorize the lessons, they did a better job then the current plan does. Much like the 2 year mission converted more people than the 18 month plan did.