The Church will never be huge before the Millennium

                                 The Church Office Building.

THE number of full-time missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) increased by 41 percent in 2013.
However, the number of converts to the Church increased by just 4 percent in 2013.
Some church members seem troubled, or worried about this disparity.
However, nowhere in the Scriptures does it indicate that the Church will be "large" in the last days.
In fact, the Book of Mormon indicates that the Church will be world-wide in the last days and yet its members "few" because of the wickedness of the world (1 Nephi 14:12). 
So, this isn't about "failure" in any way.
It may well be that the Lord is doing one last surge in preaching, before conditions really get bad before the Second Coming.
Eventually, the full-time missionaries will be called home and then the Lord preaches his own sermons with natural disasters (Brigham Young in Journal of Discourses, 8:123).
Just because a missionary may not convert, or baptize someone on their mission doesn't mean he or she is a failure.
Noah likely converted relatively few in his years of preaching (and any he did left by way of the translated City of Enoch).
The Lord gives everyone a chance to hear the truth, though accepting it is becoming an all-too rare occurrence in these, the last days.

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.

Ogden Temple -- The Background Paradox

Many artists do not seem to favor the background of the Ogden Temple -- the original version, or even the new structure.
I saw one of the new Ogden Temple paintings for sale already in stores today (May 5) and it has changed the temple's background dramatically -- and to absolutely pure fiction.
The painting has the new temple sitting right by the Wasatch Mountains and with tall trees all around it -- instead of it sitting in downtown Ogden -- in an urban setting -- that's really the actual background.
This is one of several paintings I've seen over the years, where the different artists prefer a different background setting for Ogden's Temple, including the original version of the Temple.
The Ogden Temple could have been built originally on the mountainside (like the Provo Temple) and such paintings are proving that point ... though it's not like its actual location is really going to ever change.
Historically, Church leaders did plan at first that the Ogden Temple was to be built just south of today's Weber State University Campus.
Then, downtown Ogden business leaders pleaded for the Church to reconsider and to build the Temple downtown, on the Tabernacle site, to help revitalize the area.
Just inspect various paintings of the Provo and Salt Lake Temples and you will discover that their backgrounds are altered only slightly in their many artistic renditions.

     Copy of a drawing by Keith Wilcox of the original Ogden Temple, set far closer to the mountains.

It seems it is ONLY the Ogden Temple where the landscape changes so drastically.
So, there's the paradox. Unlike the Provo or Bountiful temples, where they sit on a lofty mountainside with scenic backgrounds, the Ogden Temple lacks that.
On the other hand, the Ogden Temple sits in the center of town, among the central business district -- and has thus become a part of that city center, something the Provo or Bountiful temples lack.
--If you want to see the new Ogden painting, cut and paste this link and go to:
http://ldsartco.com/ogden-temple-plaque-personalized/

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.

Church Beliefs on the Great Flood of Noah's Time

MEMBERS of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may be entertained by the new Hollywood movie, "Noah," (2014) but many of their beliefs on the Great Flood and Noah differ a lot from the rest of the Christian and Jewish world.
Here's a list of some LDS beliefs on Noah and the Great Flood:

1. Noah was Gabriel the Angel who visited Zacharias to announce the birth of John the Baptist. He also appeared to Mary to announce the upcoming birth of Jesus. ("Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pages 157-158). Thus Noah stands next to Adam in the authority of the priesthood.

2. Noah and his family WEREN'T the only ones saved from the Great Flood.

Righteous people -- nearly all the faithful members of the Lord's Church -- were translated and taken from Earth. Noah and his family had to remain to perpetuate the human race. Thus. they weren't really the only righteous people left. (Moses 7:27, Mormon Doctrine, page 804).
God also had Noah preach to the wicked for repentance, but to no avail.

3. The entire planet Earth is one great living entity and the Great Flood was its baptism -- it was all covered by water.
Elder John Taylor said all that water needed came from sources unknown to man -- the fountains of the great deep were broken up. That's also where the excess water returned. (Journal of Discourses 26:74-75.)

4. Before the flood, all land on the Earth was centered in one great mass or continent. During the flood, great changes were made to the face of the earth. The land at the time was in the process of division into 7 continents and some islands. Thus, Noah and the Ark probably floated from somewhere near the Garden of Eden (center of the U.S.) and ended up on Mount Ararat, possibly in Turkey -- the other side of the world. (From Joseph Fielding Smith, "Answers to Gospel Questions," 2:94).

Because the land surface was changed so dramatically during the Flood, it is likely that Mount Everest and the like didn't exist before. With possibly much more moderate mountains in height, they were more easily covered by water. Everest likely came AFTER the flood. Even if Everest did exist at the time of the Flood and somehow it was not covered by water still gave no people hope for survival. Even today, humans can't live high up on Everest for very long -- above 26,000 feet in elevation is a kill zone ultimately.

The Prophet Joseph Smith said on Jan. 5, 1841:

"This earth was organized or formed out of other planets which were broken up and remodeled and made into the one on which we live." (From A Compendium of the Doctrine of the Gospel, by Elder Franklin Dewey Richards & James A. Little.)

Hence it is possible that some fossils on high mountain peaks were part of those earlier worlds. (This could also be why carbon dating is non-conclusive in many respects.)

5. The Flood was an act of mercy, not God's anger. With the Flood, God halted the wicked's rule and their sinful effect on future generations. The world started again with a new slate. (John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, 19:158-159).

6. An immense number of people could have been living on Earth when the Great Flood started. Cleon Skousen in his "First 2,000 Years" book estimated that as many as ONE BILLION people might have been alive at the start of the flood. That's because people were living lifespans in hundreds of years.

7. Noah got drunk after the Flood and cursed Canaan?
Sorry, I don't believe Noah ever got drunk. I believe that part of Genesis was incorrectly translated, or even purposely rewritten that way so as to degrade Noah's character.
There is at least one second-hand reference from a Church member's diary of Joseph Smith supposedly teaching that Noah was in a trance, having a vision and not drunk at all. (Diary of C. L. Walker, 12 May 1881),
That makes more sense.
Noah also didn't curse Ham just because he saw his father naked. Ham may have stole the Priesthood garment from Noah and thus defiled the priesthood. ("Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites," pages 160-162.)
Otherwise, consistent with the "Vision of God" idea, rather than Noah being drunk, did Ham look upon Noah during his divine vision, while his two brothers did not? A curse from that transgression is possible too.

8. People were very wicked at the time of the Great Flood. However, the world in general today is as wicked, or even more so than at the time of the Flood.

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.

Age of the Grand Canyon?

THERE was a scientific debate in the news recently over the age of the Grand Canyon.
The debate was some new, still inconclusive evidence, that might show some of the Grand Canyon to be less than 6 million years old, vs. the traditional 70-million plus age.
Science can have their day, but Gospel of Jesus Christ-wise, the Grand Canyon might be less than 2,000 years old!
Following the death of Jesus Christ in about 34 A.D., the whole face of the Earth changed in the Americas.
Read 3 Nephi Chapter 8 in the Book of Mormon and verses 10, 12 and 17-18 in particular talk about the Earth being deformed and of cracks and even mountains rising up on level ground.
When the Lord wants change, it can come quickly.
The Grand Canyon could have been created then, or at least deepened considerably.
Man's science is believed to be advanced, but it is not. It just at the caveman level to God.
For example, the entire Earth is one giant living thing (Doctrine and Covenants 88). Find one scientific concept based on that eternal Gospel truth!
You can't, yet it is true and so man's science is nowhere near absolute and correct.

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.

When You First Went to The Salt Lake Mission Home ...

      The Church history Library today sits near where the old Mission Home was.


BACK in the olden days, departing LDS Missionaries (English speaking), first went to the Mission Home in Salt Lake City.
There was NO MTC in those days.
From 1925 to 1970, missionaries first went to 31 N. State State Street, where the first such "Mission Home" was used. This was a two-story, red brick home, with a white porch. Missionaries spent up to two weeks there for training.
Later, they slept in nearby residences, or by the 1960s (due to overcrowding), if they lived in the Salt Lake area, many often went home at night and returned the next day.
Starting in 1971, the old Lafyette School, 75 E. North Temple, was used for five days of English speaking mission training.
(Foreign language missionaries went to the Provo LMT, later the MTC.)
Myself, I spent 5 days in late June 1973 at this Salt Lake "Mission Home."
It was a whirlwind of training and pep talks. I recall bars on the bedroom windows, which seemed strange at night as I looked out at the Salt Lake Temple.
We ate at the not-yet-dedicated, new 28-story LDS Church Office Building. The Deseret Gymnasium was across the street, but except for Saturday afternoon -- when many missionaries were receiving last ditch haircuts -- we didn't get to use it otherwise.
Missionaries at the time received a solemn assembly meeting in the Salt Lake Temple with the Church Prophet, Harold B. Lee.
President Lee even opened it up to a Q&A by missionaries. The only question I recall of several being asked was "Where are the lost Ten Tribes?"
President Lee quipped, "Now Elder, if we knew where they were, then they wouldn't be lost now, would they?"
In later years, missionaries would only receive a solemn assembly by a General Authority. And, by 1977, it was usually the Salt Lake Temple President who was at the solemn assembly.
Finally, not only had parents and family said "goodbye" to missionaries as they began their 5-day mission home stint, but in that era, they also returned to the Salt Lake Airport to say bye-bye all over again as missionaries flew out.
By the fall of 1978, this mission home was replaced by the Provo MTC.
The old school was demolished soon after and there was just a parking lot there until the new LDS Church History Center was built in the 21st Century.

NOTE: There is a photograph of the pre-1970 mission home on the Church's history site, but you have have member log in to see and then there seems no way to download the photo outside of maybe some sort of screen capture.

Go to: https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/122b7d9b-4b2a-402b-a7ad-d3e4ee6907e6/0/0?lang=eng

To see the photo.....

NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

First Vision Date: Sunday, March 26, 1820?

Official records and scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints state that Joseph Smith's historic "First Vision" happened in the Spring of 1820.
Every full-time missionary knows that in particular.
However, why isn't there an exact date?
That loophole is simply because exact records were not kept.
(There is also no exact date for the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood either.)
Two LDS researchers, working apart from each other, have checked various calendars, weather records and the usual dates for maple tree production in New York State -- and both have found that Sunday, March 26, was the likely date for Joseph Smith's First Vision.
Based on Joseph's own description of the weather, that's the only date that fits the bill.
John P. Pratt and Dr. John C. Lefgren both came up with that same March 26, 1820 date.
Lefgren in particular, found that April 6, 1820 was cloudy and freezing weather that day. So, it could not have been on that date.

-A detailed account of Dr. Lefgren's weather research was previously published in the Meridian on-line LDS Magazine.

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.

Assembly Hall: Why 24 spires, including 2 flat spires?

This 2009 photograph shows the Assembly Hall on Temple Square, with its distinctive 24 white spires,  temporarily peeking through to First South Street. The City Creek Center is now located in this line of sight, as City Creek  was under early construction when this picture was taken.

                           The front of the Assembly Hall, 2014.



By Lynn Arave

THE Assembly Hall on Temple Square in Salt Lake City represents a marvelous work of pioneer craftsmanship.
Using primarily leftover blocks from the construction of the Salt Lake LDS Temple, this edifice was directed to be constructed by Brigham Young, just weeks before his passing.
It was built from 1877-early 1882.
I've always had questions about the magnificent white spires on the Assembly Hall.

                                        Note the flat spire, center.

First question: Why are two of the spires flat?
Answer: Because that's where the original fireplace vents were. And, when the building was remodeled, they stayed true to the design and left those two spires as they were.
The only modern change to the spires is that since 1983's remodeling project on the building, they are now covered with fiberglass.

                                      Closeup of a flat spire.

(Now, there is some folklore that has said that the two points of the spires fell off when two General Authorities of that era went apostate. This incorrect tale was widespread enough so that today it is even part of Utah State University's folklore collection.)

Second question: Why does the Assembly Hall have 24 spires?
Answer: No one seems to know for certain. I've asked church historians and other Temple Square employees that over the years and have never received an answer why.

However, I now have a plausible theory: since Brigham Young said the Assembly Hall was needed for regular meeting space for the Salt Lake Stake of the church -- that was its original purpose.
And, in 1899, the Salt Lake Stake had 51 total wards, including 24 wards in Salt Lake City.

That 24th Salt Lake City ward was created in 1898, so I'm leaning towards that the 24 spires were to represent what number of S.L. wards there could and might be in that stake in the near future.
Until someone gives me a better answer, that's the best I have for now -- not 12 spires (like Twelve Apostles or Twelve Tribes, as symbolism often used in the church), but double that...
--Anyway, the Assembly Hall is located where the original bowery, used by the pioneers for meetings sat. This was a poles and braces building only, with branches and greenery on top to block out the summer sun. 
All in all, the Assembly Hall is a very Gothic looking building and has the Star of David and other symbolism on its exterior.

Third question: Why was the Assembly Hall built?
The primary reason was more than just that the Salt Lake City Stake of the Church needing its own meeting place.
According to the Salt Lake Times newspaper of May 16, 1890, the Salt Lake Tabernacle was too large to be adequately heated during its early decades of usage.
Thus, the smaller, more easily heated Assembly Hall was built. Decades later in the 20th Century, heating systems had advanced enough that heating the Tabernacle was not a problem.

NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.