Hello and welcome to the Scriptures A Real Podcast.

This is the podcast where we talk about elements of the scriptures that have become more real to us

so that we can draw more power from the scriptures because we need that power.

I'm your host, Kerry Mielstein, and this is a special edition of the podcast. It's a joint broadcast with the Sunday on Monday podcast with Tammy Hall, sponsored by Desiret Book. I hope you enjoy it. Welcome to the Sunday on Monday Study Group, a Desert Bookshelf Plus original, brought to you by LDS Living, where we take the Colony Lesson for the week, and we really dig into the scriptures together. I'm your host, Tammy Usalak Hall. And also, welcome to The Scriptures Are Real, a podcast by me, Carrie Milstein, a host for that podcast, where we look at elements of the scriptures that make them very real for us. And we're doing a joint

podcast today. I'm so excited to be able to have this go to both of our audiences as we discuss

and discover this together. Hala, it's going to be so good. I can't wait. In this segment,

we are going to talk about Ecclesiastes. And we're going to start with this quote. And this is from the Old Testament Seminary Manual on Ecclesiastes. Melinda, we read this for us.

Sure. It says, it is important to remember that the author of Ecclesiastes, the preacher,

wrote it as if there is no life after death. These statements are made with that thought in mind

and fail to account for truths about life after death taught elsewhere in the scriptures.

Therefore, the writer of Ecclesiastes was not making a doctrinal declaration that nobody thinks, feels, or works after they die.

He was simply illustrating the perspective on life after death for someone living under the sun with no understanding of life beyond mortality.

And that's from the Old Testament Seminary Manual.

Thank you.

Just so you know, I'm going to disagree with that at some point.

I knew you would.

I think in chapter 12, or is it, what's the last chapter?

Chapter 12, yeah, that at the very end, he shows us that's not what he's thinking that he

has been showing us the the way you would see it from this perspective but then he gives us the real

perspective at the end so okay that's okay no no no this is they love it at s and i when i disagree

with them they're they're always happy about well maybe the manual little outdated. There's been more scholarship since then. Terry, especially. Okay. Well, no, I'm, that's why I wanted to start with this, because when you read this and then you dive into Ecclesiastes, it's sort of like, wah, wah, it's such a, just a downer of a book, kind of for me, but Carrie disagrees. And so I love how we just start out with,

I disagree. So Carrie, hit it. Teach us about Ecclesiastes. Go over like this, everything we need to

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