A Look At the Spirit World ...

                                                   Where do the spirits of the dead go?

WHAT comes after death is perhaps man's greatest mystery.
What does happen immediately after death?
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is blessed with a wealth of revelations on that subject, whereas most of the world must rely on the near death experiences of various people for their sketchy information.
First of all, ALL people who die end up immediately in the spirit world. That's an absolute, unless someone is instantly resurrected in the twinkling of an eye.
Second, where is the spirit world?
According to Brigham Young (Deseret News Aug. 27, 1856) and Parley P. Pratt, is it simply on earth.
Elder Pratt said it is in the inward, spiritual realm, invisible to mortals. He said the veil exisits to separate the two (From his "Key of the Science of Theology" book).
Today, we would probably envision the spirit world as occupying the same space, but being in a different dimension from the physical world.
Notwithstanding, it is often stated by church members in obituary notices or funeral talks that he or she "was called home."
Why is the spirit world "home"? It is not anyone's permanent realm and no one who has not died has ever been there before.

  In addition, when we die, our spirit is naked, yes without clothes! Just as we entered the mortal world naked, our spirit is initially naked -- and it appears that someone is dispatched to meet a spirit just before he or she enters the spirit world and gives them a robe to wear.

(Source: Wilford Woodruff, History of His Life and Labors, as recorded in his daily journals. Prepared for publication by Matthias F. Cowley, September, 1909. Reprinted by (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 7^th Printing, 1978), 541.)

 "The Vision," compiled by N.B. Lundwall in 1945 is probably the best overall source for information on the spirit world, outside the standard works.

D&C 138 is another must read to grasp the spirit world.
There is an instant judgment once you arrive in the spirit world. If you are wicked, you will be in misery and separated from the good people.

Read D&C section 76 and it indirectly has some great insights on the spirit world. 
Verse 73 states that it was the terrestrial level residents of the spirit world who Jesus Christ opened up gospel teaching to during his three days there. No mention is made of telestial level spirit world inhabitants being preached too.
In fact, verse 85 states that telestial spirits will NOT be redeemed from Satan until the last resurrection (after the millennium).
So, this implies that telestial level residents of the spirit world are NOT taught the gospel there. They are "they who are thrust down to hell" (verse 84) and are "they who received not  the gospel of Christ, neither the testimony of Jesus" (verse 82).
Telestial level residents of the spirit world are apparently still in the spirit prison and are not able to mingle or interact with those of the other 2 kingdoms.
The spirit world is also organized into two parts, paradise, for the righteous and hell for the wicked (Alma 40:11-14).

It is sin and false traditions that imprison people in the spirit prison, according to Elder Bruce R. McConkie in Mormon Doctrine.
Although Church members tend to think of the final judgment as the big event in the judgment process, a huge partial judgment is evident in the spirit world. (Hence, far better to repent in mortality than think one can wait until they are in the spirit world.)
Those who may have pondered what it may be like to mingle in the spirit world with those who were famous in mortality (like movie stars, great athletes and politicians) may find that activity somewhat limited as some of those "famous" may be locked away in the spirit prison of the spirit world, being telestial level spirits and not even terrestrial worthy.
Notwithstanding, there are seemingly enough terrestrial residents in the spirit world who never heard the gospel in mortality to keep the righteous busy in the teaching process there well into the millennium.

Joy and gladness dominates the attitudes of the faithful in the spirit world, while the opposite engulfs the evil.
The righteous church members are very soon after arrival called to preach the gospel. They meet with immediate family briefly first.
Righteous inhabitants there are organized into families.

There could easily be many billions of inhabitants of the spirit world and that's a lot of people to teach. An increasing number of people are being added now as the world has more residents and thus more daily deaths.
Proportionally, church members who can teach the gospel there is likely very, very small compared to total residents.
Apparently, there are NO wards or stakes in the spirit world, Church members are organized by families instead ....

Now that teaching concept brings up the issue of one of the most common myths about the spirit world -- that our knowledge of life before birth is instantly restored after death.
That is simply not true. Think about this, if it were true, why would people in the spirit world need to be taught the basics of the gospel, for they knew all this in the pre-earth life and even chose to come to earth to be tested?
Elder Melvin J. Ballard, an apostle from 1919-1939 taught that the dead don't know any more when they die then they did alive, except that they have now passed through the process of death.
A popular church video production, "Man's Search for Happiness," contains the error that knowledge of life before birth will be restored after death. Yes, it will eventually be restored, but not immediately. Such restoration is probably based on worthiness.
He said there is no shortcut to hearing the gospel -- you hear it from the elders in this life or the next, or not at all.
If you refused to hear the message on earth, it is likely you will not want to hear it there either.
Elder McConkie also said that the same attitudes, knowledge, habits, etc. a person has are all carried to the spirit world.
Joseph Fielding Smith also taught that residents of the spirit world can exercise both faith and repentance. (Church News section of the Deseret News, Jan. 5, 1935, p. 7.)
Indeed, Elder Ballard said it is 10 times harder to repent in the spirit world, because we lack our body, a more moldable element.
That's the limiting atmosphere of the spirit world, the "bondage" and absence of not having a physical body (see D&C 45:15, 138:50). We came to earth to receive a body and without it, we are not a complete soul (D&C 88:15).
We likely speak the same language in the spirit world and so perhaps the same language skills we had in the pre-earth life are restored to us.
What about age in the spirit world?
All spirit world residents are adults (Joseph Fielding Smith, "Answers to Gospel Questions," 1:60). Even those who died as babes are adult in appearance, though visions of deceased persons may make them appear as about the age when a person last saw them on earth.

 I'm not certain if different races exist in the spirit world. I think "race" is a mortal condition and as such does not extend beyond that.

Can spirit world residents see us? Brigham Young said so, but I can't believe that's always true or they would be too distracted, concerned or entertained over what we do to do much else in the spirit world.

Certainly when a person's temple work is being done, or perhaps even during a person's funeral, they may tarry nearby and see our world, but a regular and anytime-I-want-to-see-the-earth option seems far too distracting for the work to continue there.
The patriarchal blessing of a few mentions some church members having a gift to see through the veil at times.
What does the spirit world look like? An account in "The Vision" of near death experience by a church member describes it as much more beautiful than our current earth.
It contains incredible looking gardens/flowers and very well-constructed buildings.
If it does cover the entire earth space, it would be huge in size.
-AND, since God the Father and Jesus Christ DO NOT dwell in, or likely visit the Spirit World, prayer is probably an important spiritual exercise in that realm too, as on the mortal Earth.

I certainly don't profess to know everything about the spirit world, I only know what has been revealed to church leaders and is in the scriptures.

-Regarding attire in the Spirit World, some accounts from people who have temporarily died and then returned to life have presented some startling ideas, true or not ...
One is that the more righteous a Spirit World resident is, the whiter his or her attire is. So, some have more gray colored clothing there and anyone in the "Spirit Prison" is dressed in black.
Could this be true? Perhaps, though it does seem a bit too obvious there to all residents there of, if true.
This isn't necessarily doctrine, but it does kind of make sense that there could be some sort of partial judgment -- visible or not --  like this in the Spirit world. 



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.

14th Article of Faith: Long Meetings?

Do you like long church meetings?
"We believe in meetings — especially long meetings. If there is a meeting, we seek after it."
Is this the 14th Article of Faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? It very well could be ...  unofficially.
I commonly envision that gatherings, like Stake General Priesthood meetings, should be approximately one hour (though some go 90-minutes or more).
The worst case of a long meeting I've even seen was in one of my Stake's Saturday stake conference sessions in the mid-1990s. It was a general authority there and he got me all excited about missionary work and inviting neighbors to the Sunday meetings the next day.
However, the problem was the meeting didn't end until 9:50 p.m., after a 7 p.m. start.
I had lost all my enthusiasm by 9:30 p.m. and will never forget how this leader just would not stop talking.
(I still think Saturday night Stake Conference meetings are the most over-rated of church meetings, as well as almost always the most poorly planned and executed of meetings.)
The root cause of long meetings is that too many leaders become overzealous -- don’t watch the clock (or ignore it) and feel a meeting has to be long to do any good.
Another cause is that leaders line up too many speakers for a meeting and these speakers have little clue how long their talk really is -- because they haven't timed them.
As a one-time stake executive secretary in my stake, a newly installed stake president first thought it a wise idea to have me stand up 5 minutes before each meeting we were in was supposed to end. I was to stay standing until the stake president acknowledged me.
That worked well for a few months and then I guess the reality of wanting to teach too much meant that practice went out the window and meetings simply got longer and not necessarily always better.
One stake also used to excel at half-day priesthood preparation seminars, if you were being ordained an elder or high priest. Although these 4 hour meetings had a half-time with some food and drink, they were simply too long. I maintain that 90 minutes of more concise, engaging meeting would do better than this 4 hour meeting ever would.
A recent stake relief society leadership meeting was advertised in an official flyer that it would last 90 minutes. Then, it ended up going more than 3 1/2 hours! (And, that was ALL lecture).
Another stake bishopric meeting went so long one Sunday morning that all 9 a.m. sacrament meetings in the stake started 5 minutes or more late, because of the too long leadership meeting.
Some stakes excel at having 90-100 minutes General Priesthood meetings -- that's far too long for a secondary meeting to be -- and having such at 7 a.m. on Sunday interferes with 9 a.m. block times, let alone it bores the Aaronic Priesthood holders severely.
It's not just long meetings either. Some meetings do not need to be held, or as often.
For example. one former bishop of mine didn’t always strictly follow the stake's advice to always hold priesthood executive meeting (PEC) every single week. On some holiday weekends, when many ward leaders were out of town, he'd say, it simply wasn't worth holding. "What are they going to do fire us?" he would say.
-The Relief Society is no better at times. A few years ago I saw a flyer for a Saturday morning relief society meeting in my stake. It stated lunch served after a 90 meeting meeting, that went from 10-11:30 a.m. -- or so the flyer stated.
In reality, my wife came home from the meeting at 2 p.m. and never even stayed for the lunch. Almost 4 hours was far too long of a meeting.

-A friend of mine, who hasn't been active for 40-plus years, believes ours is the church of meetings and he hates meetings. He's right to some degree, though would it not be better if we were more the church of service?
So, there you have it. Don't hold a side meeting (outside block time) unless there is a need and have a firm agenda.
And, keeping meetings short is always better than having longer ones.

The true mission should be better organized and more spiritual meetings, not just more or longer meetings.
Granted, you have to have some meetings, or chaos would rule. But too long of meetings can take away from family time and also lessen how much actual time is left to do service to others.
Less and shorter meetings and more service would be the worthy goal here.

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 Celestial Sport is ...

By Lynn Arave

WHAT is the celestial sport? If there is one, it would probably be basketball. Yes, hoops.
Why? Because almost every chapel in North America and even some outside contain basketball courts. There are some meetinghouse facilities with softball/baseball fields, but these are minimal, compared to basketball court numbers.
Go to any LDS Sacrament meeting where an overflow into the gymnasium area is being used, look up and you will likely see a retracted basketball hoop. They are standard and they are everywhere.
First-time visitors to ward chapels, who notice the hoops, might be somewhat bewildered.
According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism. Basketball was originally a women's sport. In 1900 at Brigham Young Academy, the Y's women's team had won a championship and there was no men's team.
Perhaps men of that era thought basketball wasn't rugged enough. (Too bad they couldn't forsee how rough church basketball would become by the late 20th Century!)
Basketball as a men's sport in Utah didn't begin until 1906, when the Salt Lake 20th Ward formed two teams of young men, according to a Deseret News article on Oct. 4, 2008.
A city basketball league in S.L. began in 1908 and that's when all the Ensign Stake also fielded boys basketball teams. A 1908 article in the Improvement Era emphasized basketball participation and having ward facilities to do so.
However, a 1911 Church conference for activity leaders focused on volleyball, wrestling, fencing, swimming. Gymnastics, running, jumping, vaulting and baseball, — but no basketball.
From 1929 to 1971 an all-church basketball competition brought the best church-wide to a tournament. Church growth world-wide made it impractical to continue the tourney any longer.
Some regional church events continued and virtually all young men have a chance to play basketball in wards today.
Fred A. Baker, who was in charge of LDS Church Physical Facilities from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, said his recollections of church basketball were that it really took off in the mid-1930s, at least in the Ogden area, though facilities were still limited.
Gymnasiums were often built then in stand-alone buildings, next to chapels.
He said by the 1970s, such separate buildings had become too expensive and chapels began including gymnasiums — complete with basketball courts — at the rear of their chapels.
A few stand-alone gymnasiums still exist. There's at in the Ogden East Stake and also the Hooper Utah Stake, still in use.
Why did the church so completely adopt basketball? It was a good, compact indoor sport for the Mountain West, where winter and cool weather can preclude the regularity of many sports.
Basketball also wasn't as rough as football or rugby and was also a good spectator sport.
The sport of basketball is popular, in and outside the church.
There are a few perennial problems with church basketball.
First problem involves a lack of proper sportsmanship by some players.
For example, some years ago, one of my brothers suffered a broken wrist while playing basketball in a Clinton, Ut. Ward. He said he was karate chopped on purpose while taking a shot in a church game. When I asked if he had told his stake sports direction about the incident, he said it was he who broke his wrist.
Another problem: Some players are simply not in proper physical condition to play it all out, without a high risk of injury. I can't count how many times I've seem a man limping to church and been right in guessing it came from a church basketball game.
Next, is a lack of physical conditioning. You can't play the game all-out if you only play it once or twice a week. Men age 30-plus are particularly prone to such hoop injuries.
I can't count how many times I've seen a man limp to church and been correct in guessing he got injured in a church basketball game. You have to be in shape to play the game.
-If you are not a church member, the carpeted floor on some Ward gymnasiums must seem like a pretty strange surface to play a basketball game on ....

Lastly, young men still sneak into the chapel at times to play basketball without any adults or leaders around to supervise them.

In conclusion: Mormons don't worship basketball, but it certainly is their sport of choice.

(Note: the accompanying photo shows a typical basketball hoop in a typical Utah ward chapel cultural hall, in the retracted to the ceiling position.)

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.

Clarifying Strict Doctrine vs. The Purpose Of ...

Too often members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints think in narrow terms.
For example, doctrine is strictly correct or it isn't. Right?
May be not!
Take the accompanying photograph of what appears to be the most popular, official LDS Church drawing for the early 21st Century.
Drawn by a world-renowned artist, who also happened to be a Seventh-Day Adventist, this drawing is now a key fixture in many LDS Temples, like Bountiful. Church leaders comissioned the painting and apparently lengthened Christ's hair in it, as well as down-played  angel wings.
However, this drawing is still strictly NOT doctrinally correct. Is that a problem?
 In recent years, I'm realizing that correct relates to purpose in the church and church leaders seem to think this painting can so evoke the spirit of the Lord, that the fact that it isn't absolutely doctrinally correct doesn't matter in that context.
D&C 133:48 clearly states that Christ's apparel will be red in color at his Second Coming. Several Biblical scriptures, like Isaiah 63:2 concur.

So, an image can not be fully doctrinal correct and still promote the spirit? Yes. (However, I still chose to color Christ in red in the above drawing that's in my house.)
And, this is only the tip of the iceberg of such purpose vs. doctrinal corrrectness in the church.
For example, the creative days in the church's Endowment temple ceremony do NOT correspond to any of the Standard Works. So, is the Temple Ceremony wrong? No, again it relates to the purpose of.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie said back in the mid-1970s that if members go to the temple often and study and are worthy, they will understand why the temple's creative day sequence is different.
Also, the Book of Mormon is said to be the most correct book on the earth. (not said to be perfect, though). So, why are some of the incorrectly translated verses of Isaiah in the Old Testament still repeated in the Book of Mormon, though some were corrected by Joseph Smith in his "Inspired Version" of the Bible?
Again, I believe it has to do with purpose. The Book of Mormon is correct for its purpose, to be a familiar voice like the Bible -- a solid missionary tool -- but not so different it turns away investigators to the Gospel.
Confused?
"Correct" doctrine  simply isn't always black and white, at least in a telestial world.
As long as a church member lives worthy, studies and keeps the spirit, these inconsistencies in doctrine won't be stumbling blocks, but will be harmonious, though probably not to the outside world itself.

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.

Best Book of Mormon License Plate?

Here's a photograph of the best Book of Mormon-oriented license plate I've ever seen.
Kind of puts all those BYU-ish license plates, a dime a dozen, to shame!
Noticed in the Jordan River Temple Parking Lot:

Rainbows and the Second Coming of Christ

Spot a rainbow after a rainstorm or by a waterfall and you will usually simply be amazed by its simple beauty.
Scientifically speaking, a rainbow is an optical/meteorological phenomenon, where a spectrum of light appears in the air when the sun shines into droplets of moisture in the atmosphere.
No mystery here. It is a cause and effect event.
But rainbows are one of the greatest earthly signs that God has ever used to convey his promises.
After the Biblical Great Flood, God declared the rainbow to be a sign that he would never flood the Earth again (Genesis 9:11-17).
Now whether the rainbow made its first appearance then, or if God simply said the rainbow, an existing phenomenon, would be his sign, I don't know.
Anyway, the rainbow is one of the simplest and easiest to spot signs of the impending end of the world ("end of the wicked") in the last days.
Joseph Smith taught:
"The inhabitants of the earth are asleep; they know not the day of their visitation. The Lord hath set the bow in the cloud for a sign that while it shall be seen, seed time and harvest, summer and winter shall not fail; but when it shall disappear, woe to that generation, for behold the end cometh quickly." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith," page 305.)
Also by Joseph Smith:
"I have asked of the Lord concerning His coming; and while asking the Lord, He gave a sign and said, "In the days of Noah I set a bow in the heavens as a sign and token that in any year that the bow should be seen the Lord would not come; but there should be seed time and harvest during that year: but whenever you see the bow withdrawn, it shall be a token that there shall be famine, pestilence, and great distress among the nations, and that the coming of the Messiah is not far distant." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith," page 340.)
So, the year you do not see the rainbow, the end of the world is not far away.
How could rainbows disappear? God withdrew all light for three days following the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (3 Nephi 8:21) and while that seems scientifically impossible, it happened.
Perhaps, there's some scientific law he will use to prohibit rainbows.
Otherwise, if there was enough fog, smoke, and/or haze around, that might prevent rainbows from being seen.
Still, it is not a matter of how God is going to withhold the rainbows, simply that he will do it.
Note that I have spotted a rainbow in the spring of 2013 and so don't panic yet ....

(The photograph above is Arches National Park, a picture by Elizabeth Arave Hafen.)

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 Huge Danger of Living in Coastal Areas!

                      Some Southern California homes are mere feet above sea level.

THE world's greatest ever Earthquake is coming!
Are you prepared for the greatest earthquake of all time — a planet-wide shaking event?
The Bible predicts such a tremendous cataclysm. Revelation 16:18 states: "And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great."
Two verses later, Revelation 16:20, it reads: "And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found."
The recently Tsunami-hit Samoas highlights this great danger of living along a coastal area. Church members and even just Bible-believing people you would think might consider otherwise.
Earthquakes are bad enough inland, but you can have the delayed danger of tsunamis on coastlines, besides the initial shaking damage and dangers.

                         Just a cement wall protects some S. California homes.

Like anyone, I'm drawn to a coastline. I love the Oregon Coast, for example. but, knowing the Gospel and prophecy, I wouldn't consider living there.I feel I tread on thin safety just visiting there and staying overnight a single night there in a motel.
I've been aware of tsunami dangers since the late 1980s, when I first visited Crescent City, northern California, near the Oregon border.
You can visit Crescent city and see what the Alaskan Quake sof the early 1960s did there ...
Zechariah 14:4 also mentions changes in Jerusalem, probably because of quakes.
God has used earthquakes in the past to denote important events. Matthew 27:50-54 illustrates there were quakes during Christ's crucifixion. And a quake heralded Christ's resurrection (Matthew 28:2).
An earthquake also broke prison doors down for Paul and led to the conversion of the prison keeper (Acts 16:25-26).
For centuries, earthquakes have been hot topics.
The largest ever recorded was an 8.5 Richter scale event in Chile on May 12, 1960. Given the gigantic quakes prophesied in the Bible and knowing what tsunamis they could spawn would likely put those residents along coastlines or on small islands in double jeopardy.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes that "the earth shall tremble and reel to and fro as a drunken man" (Doctrine and Covenants 88:87) in the last days.
"There are voices, thunders, lightnings and the greatest earthquake in earth's history; cities of nations fall; islands flee, and mountains are leveled; a great plague of hail," as stated in the Ensign, Oct. 1993, of the last days in a "Book of Revelation Overview" article.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie said in his Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, that he believed that the greatest ever earthquake is part of the earth's return to like it was before it was divided in the days of Peleg (Genesis 10:25). Meaning all the earth's land masses shall unite into one island.
In Mormon doctrine, Elder McConkie explained that by earthquakes God "delivers his servants from perils, destroys the wicked, and leaves a sign that his hand has been in transcendent events."
Brigham Young also stated that when the elders are called home, the Lord will teach his own sermons with fire and earthquakes (Journal of Discourses 8:123 and D&C 88:88-92).
So, church members can choose to live where they want, but knowing all the above, why would they remain along an ocean coastline? It is Gospel common sense not to!
"We need to make both temporal and spiritual preparation for the events prophesied at the time of the Second Coming," Elder Dallin H. Oaks said in a May 2004 Liahona address.
"And the preparation most likely to be neglected is the one less visible and more difficult — the spiritual. A 72-hour kit of temporal supplies may prove valuable for earthly challenges, but, as the foolish virgins learned to their sorrow, a 24-hour kit of spiritual preparation is of greater and more enduring value," he said.
In addition to dangers in coastal areas, a huge earthquake would also burst open many dams and so living in the flood plane of a large body of held back water would not be a wise place to live.
Also, living below a mountain side where it could rain boulders of landslides from a giant quake would not be a Biblically wise place to live either.

You obviously can't guard against all last day disasters, but the above three are perhaps the most obvious and avoidable ones of all.
UPDATE: Even without earthquakes and tidal waves, hurricanes, as Hurricane Sandy proved in 2012, can be another incredible danger along coastlines and even inland for many miles.

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.