This life isn't set in stone --- there is always hope.
Even though God the Father likely knew if we would be faithful and return to his presence or not before we were born, I strongly believe that outcome isn't set in stone.
Here's why.
God can see the future as it will be and I've always wondered if he ever intervenes and allows the possibility of changing the original outcome.
I believe we have our free agency to choose, but at times God will inspire and/or humble us so that we have time to reflect and consider a difference course of action that could ultimately change what will happen.
If this wasn't true, then why come to mortality in the first place, if God knew already if we would only fail or succeed as he could see into the future?
Sure you might need to have a physical body, but otherwise there's no reason to come to Earth if there no chance for a different outcome.
But I think because God does intervene to some degree, stopping short of taking any of our personal free agency away, that the outcome can be changed at many different points in our lives.
Thus, this means there is a reason to live a mortal life. The outcome is not set or certain yet. We repent or change the course as we listen to the spirit.
This hope alone is worth God letting us live our lives to truly prove if we are worthy to return to him.
(Note that this a different look on the subject of a similar blog posting I did int the past.)
NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
The Unknown Wild Card in Earth Sciences
Man thinks he knows a lot about science. At least as far as the basics go.
But, no he does not!
Man might have landed a small car size rover successfully on Mars, but he has no true concept of Earth science.
According to LDS doctrine, the entire planet earth is one huge, single living thing.
(D&C 88:25-26).
Factor that into today's science!
You can't because God isn't letting man understand that, but it is the wild card in earth science.
No matter how many natural disasters man can learn about as being possible, he doesn't generally understand that God is in control of the entire planet, through the Earth, a living thing itself, that does abide the law of a Celestial Kingdom.
NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.
But, no he does not!
Man might have landed a small car size rover successfully on Mars, but he has no true concept of Earth science.
According to LDS doctrine, the entire planet earth is one huge, single living thing.
(D&C 88:25-26).
Factor that into today's science!
You can't because God isn't letting man understand that, but it is the wild card in earth science.
No matter how many natural disasters man can learn about as being possible, he doesn't generally understand that God is in control of the entire planet, through the Earth, a living thing itself, that does abide the law of a Celestial Kingdom.
NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Pre-Block Time Recollections
Block time" meeting schedules in the LDS Church began more than 32 years ago on March 2, 1980.
Many are too young to even recall that, or weren't even born then …. But this was one of the most significant changes ever in the LDS Church.
Consider this: By my recollection, you spent 4 1/2 to 5 hours in church meetings each Sunday BEFORE the block time schedule came along.
Priesthood was 8 a.m.-9:30 in many wards and Sunday School went from 10-11:30-ish.
(I recall you rushing home as a teenager to grab some breakfast and help get the rest of the family ready for Sunday School.)
Then, you came back at 6 p.m., or so, for a sacrament meeting the routinely went 90 minutes or more -- there was little direction on when the meeting should end.
Today you spend 3 hours only in regular meetings under the block time, or about 40 percent less.
--As I was researching block time I realized my wife's stake, Ogden East, was one of the pilot program stakes and so it actually began block time almost a year earlier in 1979.
--Two significant church milestones were November 1989, when the church discontinued its budget donations from members; and November 1990, when it equalized the costs of full-time missionary service for ALL missions (except senior missions).
(Note: The photo above shows the old wooden junior Sunday School pulpit (cira 1950) that existed in my home ward as I grew up in the pre-block time era. This pulpit has since been donated to a city museum.)
NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.
Many are too young to even recall that, or weren't even born then …. But this was one of the most significant changes ever in the LDS Church.
Consider this: By my recollection, you spent 4 1/2 to 5 hours in church meetings each Sunday BEFORE the block time schedule came along.
Priesthood was 8 a.m.-9:30 in many wards and Sunday School went from 10-11:30-ish.
(I recall you rushing home as a teenager to grab some breakfast and help get the rest of the family ready for Sunday School.)
Then, you came back at 6 p.m., or so, for a sacrament meeting the routinely went 90 minutes or more -- there was little direction on when the meeting should end.
Today you spend 3 hours only in regular meetings under the block time, or about 40 percent less.
--As I was researching block time I realized my wife's stake, Ogden East, was one of the pilot program stakes and so it actually began block time almost a year earlier in 1979.
--Two significant church milestones were November 1989, when the church discontinued its budget donations from members; and November 1990, when it equalized the costs of full-time missionary service for ALL missions (except senior missions).
NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.
My Ward's Best Example
The then oldest member of my ward, Elizabeth Hess, died Jan. 3, 2010 at the age of 84.
"Beth" was always a great example — upbeat, faithful and always doing what she should.
When she died, she was praying and kneeling along the side of her bed. So, even in death, she set a great example.
The next time I'm too lazy to kneel and say my prayers, I need to recall Sister Hess, who never felt too tired to do so.
"Beth" was always a great example — upbeat, faithful and always doing what she should.
When she died, she was praying and kneeling along the side of her bed. So, even in death, she set a great example.
The next time I'm too lazy to kneel and say my prayers, I need to recall Sister Hess, who never felt too tired to do so.
Fascinating Church Trivia
OK, let's get this straight -- this isn't a gripe session, or an anti-Mormon article on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It is simply a collection of some unusual trivia, if you will, of things I have discovered over the years about what has to rate from the most unusual church on the planet:
Fascinating Church trivia -- (some of it unique content to this article):
-The Church Office Building in downtown SLC, was originally proposed to have 38 floors, that number to honor Joseph Smith's total years of life. However, heating and design, plus cost, lowered the total floors to 28 only.
-Joseph Smith didn't go down without fighting at Carthage jail, despite what some movies or accounts depict. Clearly, he had a gun and shot some of his assailants before he died. Just read the footnotes to official church history for the complete story.
-There is ANOTHER Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The small, "Strangite" church, mainly in the Wisconsin area, is a breakoff from the original Church, but has legal rights to the title written in this paragraph. Note there is no dash in Latter Day in their title or a beginning "The."
I dare you to go to Google and search for "Strangite" and click on their Web Site to see that almost identical church title pop up.
-Check out the copyright on most printed materials or other media and you will see the name Intellectual Reserve Inc. To some, that name may be shades of Sunstone, but it is a name the church started using early in the 21st Century as a legal requirement and no, the church leaders didn't choose the name, some church attorneys did.
-Ensign Peak, located just north of downtown Salt Lake City, is probably the LDS Church's most sacred mountain, a Mormon version of Mount Sinai.
-Not one of the original and first group of Mormon Pioneers who entered the Salt Lake Valley on Juny 24, 1847, died en route.
-The Seagulls and the cricket event in Utah not only happened when Brigham Young had traveled east and was not around, but this happening was apparently not considered a miracle until weeks or months afterwards.
-There was no "lone tree" standing in the Salt Lake Valley when the Mormons arrived. There were many other trees standing along creek banks. However, there may have been a single cedar tree standing not far from the center of Salt Lake City. The lone cedar tree has a special monument to its honor, located at about 600 E. and 300 South in Salt Lake City.
-The Mormon Pioneers came through Emigration Canyon and into the Salt Lake Valley. Why that route? Because of Devil's Gate, a rugged and narrow geographical feature only a few miles east of the mouth of Weber Canyon. Advance scouts for the pioneers were considering coming through Weber Canyon, but Devil's Gate halted that idea and caused the detour to East Canyon and then Emigration. A wagon train had actually made it through Devil's Gate a year or so earlier, but was bogged down a lot.
-What are "Blue Cards"? They were reports that mission presidents completed on every LDS missionary until sometime in the late 1970s. They were a subjective report on the missionary's attitudes and work. They were accessed later, if the missionary applied for employment with the church, or the church needed to provide a reference on a particular former missionary. A former LDS Seventy told me the Blue Cards were discontinued, because they were too subjective. What he didn't tell me was if all the old cards were kept and are still referred to at all.
-Do you subscribe to the Salt Lake Tribune, or read it on-line? Back in the 1890s, just having a subscription to the Salt Lake Tribune was grounds to hold an excommunication hearing on a church member, as the newspaper was that anti-Mormon in its early years.
-The original plans for the Salt Lake Temple called for 2 Angel Moroni statues, one on each end. However, only the east Angel became a reality. In the "Brigham Young" room at Cove Fort is a drawing by Truman Angell that clearly shows angel statues on each end.
-If someone is excommunicated from the Church today, only the main ward and stake leaders usually know about it. In the 1940s and into the early 1950s, it was standard practice for the church to publish excommunication lists (and full names) in the Church News section of the Deseret News. So, it has gone from too public to perhaps a much too private knowledge policy today.
NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.
It is simply a collection of some unusual trivia, if you will, of things I have discovered over the years about what has to rate from the most unusual church on the planet:
Fascinating Church trivia -- (some of it unique content to this article):
-The Church Office Building in downtown SLC, was originally proposed to have 38 floors, that number to honor Joseph Smith's total years of life. However, heating and design, plus cost, lowered the total floors to 28 only.
-Joseph Smith didn't go down without fighting at Carthage jail, despite what some movies or accounts depict. Clearly, he had a gun and shot some of his assailants before he died. Just read the footnotes to official church history for the complete story.
-There is ANOTHER Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The small, "Strangite" church, mainly in the Wisconsin area, is a breakoff from the original Church, but has legal rights to the title written in this paragraph. Note there is no dash in Latter Day in their title or a beginning "The."
I dare you to go to Google and search for "Strangite" and click on their Web Site to see that almost identical church title pop up.
-Check out the copyright on most printed materials or other media and you will see the name Intellectual Reserve Inc. To some, that name may be shades of Sunstone, but it is a name the church started using early in the 21st Century as a legal requirement and no, the church leaders didn't choose the name, some church attorneys did.
-Ensign Peak, located just north of downtown Salt Lake City, is probably the LDS Church's most sacred mountain, a Mormon version of Mount Sinai.
-Not one of the original and first group of Mormon Pioneers who entered the Salt Lake Valley on Juny 24, 1847, died en route.
-The Seagulls and the cricket event in Utah not only happened when Brigham Young had traveled east and was not around, but this happening was apparently not considered a miracle until weeks or months afterwards.
-There was no "lone tree" standing in the Salt Lake Valley when the Mormons arrived. There were many other trees standing along creek banks. However, there may have been a single cedar tree standing not far from the center of Salt Lake City. The lone cedar tree has a special monument to its honor, located at about 600 E. and 300 South in Salt Lake City.
-The Mormon Pioneers came through Emigration Canyon and into the Salt Lake Valley. Why that route? Because of Devil's Gate, a rugged and narrow geographical feature only a few miles east of the mouth of Weber Canyon. Advance scouts for the pioneers were considering coming through Weber Canyon, but Devil's Gate halted that idea and caused the detour to East Canyon and then Emigration. A wagon train had actually made it through Devil's Gate a year or so earlier, but was bogged down a lot.
-What are "Blue Cards"? They were reports that mission presidents completed on every LDS missionary until sometime in the late 1970s. They were a subjective report on the missionary's attitudes and work. They were accessed later, if the missionary applied for employment with the church, or the church needed to provide a reference on a particular former missionary. A former LDS Seventy told me the Blue Cards were discontinued, because they were too subjective. What he didn't tell me was if all the old cards were kept and are still referred to at all.
-Do you subscribe to the Salt Lake Tribune, or read it on-line? Back in the 1890s, just having a subscription to the Salt Lake Tribune was grounds to hold an excommunication hearing on a church member, as the newspaper was that anti-Mormon in its early years.
-The original plans for the Salt Lake Temple called for 2 Angel Moroni statues, one on each end. However, only the east Angel became a reality. In the "Brigham Young" room at Cove Fort is a drawing by Truman Angell that clearly shows angel statues on each end.
-If someone is excommunicated from the Church today, only the main ward and stake leaders usually know about it. In the 1940s and into the early 1950s, it was standard practice for the church to publish excommunication lists (and full names) in the Church News section of the Deseret News. So, it has gone from too public to perhaps a much too private knowledge policy today.
NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.
The Simple Truth About the Creation of Man
Sometimes man loves to complicate things.
Take the creation of the Earth for example. You've got all those evolution theories and even so-called scientific principles out there, claiming humans only came about after millions of years of natural evolution on this planet.
I say baloney. If you believe in God and the Gospel, why accept such ideas?
Science at one time wrongly believed the earth was flat and the center of the universe. One day, all mankind will see how simple it was that life came to be on earth….
(Now creating the planet and preparing the earth to receive life is another matter and a much more complicated process, I'm sure.)
I believe what Brigham Young (Deseret News April 30,1856, Journal of Discourses 3:319; 7:285) and Joseph Fielding Smith (Answers of Gospel Questions 5:170-171; "Man, His Origin and Destiny," Deseret Book, pages 276-277) ) said -- man (Adam) came to Earth directly out of Heavenly Father's presence.
The "dust of the earth" references are purely symbolic.
Thus, essentially mankind was transplanted, as was all life. No need for evolution. All creatures on earth already existed elsewhere.
Brigham Young once taught that God the Father created Adam and Eve by births in the pre-mortal realm. They were his direct off spring (Deseret News May 7, 1862; J.D. 11:122; 9:282).
At another time, President Young said God the Father has a dual capacity for procreation (Deseret News Sept. 4, 1872; J.D. 15:137, 9:283).
This means that God the Father can produce spirit children (like we were) when he desires and that seems to be mostly what he does.
However, when he wants to start a new earth, he creates a man that is more like him -- flesh and bone.
This means these children are not immortal or resurrected, but rather "unmortal," (as President J.F.S. said in the Church Section of the Deseret News on March 2, 1935). Adam and Eve would have lived forever, if they had not partaken of the forbidden fruit.
But they made themselves mortal and that's how we eventually came to be.
Simple isn't it?
We are literally God's children on two levels. The only "evolution" required was for Adam and Eve to choose to make themselves mortal.
NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.
Take the creation of the Earth for example. You've got all those evolution theories and even so-called scientific principles out there, claiming humans only came about after millions of years of natural evolution on this planet.
I say baloney. If you believe in God and the Gospel, why accept such ideas?
Science at one time wrongly believed the earth was flat and the center of the universe. One day, all mankind will see how simple it was that life came to be on earth….
(Now creating the planet and preparing the earth to receive life is another matter and a much more complicated process, I'm sure.)
I believe what Brigham Young (Deseret News April 30,1856, Journal of Discourses 3:319; 7:285) and Joseph Fielding Smith (Answers of Gospel Questions 5:170-171; "Man, His Origin and Destiny," Deseret Book, pages 276-277) ) said -- man (Adam) came to Earth directly out of Heavenly Father's presence.
The "dust of the earth" references are purely symbolic.
Thus, essentially mankind was transplanted, as was all life. No need for evolution. All creatures on earth already existed elsewhere.
Brigham Young once taught that God the Father created Adam and Eve by births in the pre-mortal realm. They were his direct off spring (Deseret News May 7, 1862; J.D. 11:122; 9:282).
At another time, President Young said God the Father has a dual capacity for procreation (Deseret News Sept. 4, 1872; J.D. 15:137, 9:283).
This means that God the Father can produce spirit children (like we were) when he desires and that seems to be mostly what he does.
However, when he wants to start a new earth, he creates a man that is more like him -- flesh and bone.
This means these children are not immortal or resurrected, but rather "unmortal," (as President J.F.S. said in the Church Section of the Deseret News on March 2, 1935). Adam and Eve would have lived forever, if they had not partaken of the forbidden fruit.
But they made themselves mortal and that's how we eventually came to be.
Simple isn't it?
We are literally God's children on two levels. The only "evolution" required was for Adam and Eve to choose to make themselves mortal.
NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.
Do UFOs Really Exist?
UNIDENTIFIED Flying Objects ("UFOs") have received lots of notice in recent decades. Anything that's a mystery to man catches the fancy of many people.
For the atheists, the "God is an astronaut" approach fits the bill, with UFOs used to explain away deity.
For others, it may simply be a quest to try and find evidence of UFOs.
Aside from errant, high altitude weather balloons or top secret government aircraft (as the Stealth bomber certainly might have appeared as a UFO to many before it was publicly unveiled), can UFOs really exist?
There's something out there flying around that people keeping seeing — it's not all from their imagination.
For the Latter-day Saints, what might a UFO be? There are some possible answers that fit into the gospel framework.
Scripturally, "there are no angels who minister to this earth but those who do belong or have belonged to it." (D&C 130:5)
This seems to me to totally preclude any "aliens" from being angels.
However, God has created other earths and all "inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God." (D&C 76:24).
Humans are his standard, made in his likeness (Genesis 1:17). So, non-human aliens as intelligent beings would NOT exist then, except in science fiction.
These worlds were also created by Jesus Christ and are saved by his same redeeming power. But, Christ died on this earth, the wickedest of all God's creations (Moses 7:36) and even many non-Christians accept that Christ was at least a historical figure in earth's history.
Yet, what about these other earths? Christ's atonement still redeems the people there and so what do they know of him? Their scriptures must at least mention another planet, our earth, where he died for the sins of all. They know of us.
Since ours is the wickedest earth and focused on weapons and warfare, we might have the best weapons, but what about other technology?
Could one of these other earths be very far advanced in say space travel, because they are more righteous and haven't wasted all their time and efforts on war?
If so, that would be the first possibility to UFOs. Are they resident humans of other earths come as a pilgrimage to see the wickedest earth, the one planet where Christ, who is also their Savior was born in mortality, died and was resurrected? Perhaps.
These people seem to simply be observers, who don't harm or threaten people. Crop circle markings and occasional, unexplained animal mutilations are among the only physical traces attributed to UFOs (and those evil twists could be more like Satan's power manifested than that of aliens).
Actual abductions of people are more likely fabricated tales, or the unreal experience of mentally ill people.
Another possibility of UFOs fitting into the gospel is if angels and exalted beings do travel in such vehicles and they are occasionally glimpsed.
Do celestial beings need vehicles to travel in?
There are references in the Old Testament to celestial "chariots" (Isaiah 66:15, Jeremiah 4:13).
In 2 Kings 2:11, "a chariot of fire and horses of fire" were used to take Elijah to heaven (translate him). Unless that is pure symbolism, it does imply a vehicle was used. How might a person in ancient times describe a flying vehicle? They knew chariots, but they did not know space vehicles.
When God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith, they didn't need a vehicle of any sorts, at least for short range travel. Neither did the Angel Moroni.
Another possibility for UFOs in the gospel sense is that they could be coming from the City of Enoch or the Lost 10 Tribes. Both these are to return to the earth in the last days. Would they have scout ships here first?
Neither of those two lost groups of people are likely on earth, at least not in this dimension. So, them being off planet, it does make some sense that they are scouting around.
If they physically live on another planet, they may have vehicles and those could be far advanced of anything the earth has.
Otherwise — without explaining UFOs away as "other earth" visitors, UFOs could be some sort of tool by Satan to lead us away.
Some people do spend much of their life seeking UFOs, a distraction from the gospel and serving others.
Is the rise of UFOs somehow related to the world's increasing wickedness and that Satan and his hosts can somehow grandstand some physical signs in the sky because of that?
The Scriptures do talk of signs and wonders in the heavens before Christ returns. (D&C 45:40).
Could UFOs be some part of that prophecy? Perhaps.
Of course if you believe in UFOs abducting people, then that's certainly a sinister side to UFOs, but why the Lord would allow Satan and his demons to do that kind of kidnapping is not logical.
So, unless UFOs are pure apparitions, there are humans piloting them and they could be connected with another earth, the lost 10 tribes, or City of Enoch.
And, it is only the unwise person who simply believes UFOs don't exist at all.
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