What about alcohol and tea being used in foods from a Word of Wisdom standpoint?

                                                             -Photograph from Wikipedia Commons.

I'm seeing this more than ever now -- substances that are against the Word of Wisdom used in various food products.
I'm betting no General Authority is likely to ever address this gray area, but I will ...
If something's consumption is against the Word of Wisdom, then why is it OK to use it for cooking or in other things you eat?

EXAMPLE 1: Whiskey (and other alcohol) is sometimes used in cooking meat. I personally say that should be avoided whenever possible. 
Yes, the alcohol itself may evaporate in the cooking process, but the flavor of whiskey remains in the food. Why is that OK?
Seems as much as anything like the alcohol companies' ploy to get consumers to use more alcohol than anything else.
I don't think a temple worthy member should be doing it. If an LDS Church member has to buy whiskey to cook with, then they have certainly already patronized the alcohol companies.
If you buy meat with a whiskey flavor, then at the very least this has the appearance of evil.
(Now some may argue, what about mouthwash -- it has alcohol in it ....? Yes, it does. But you don't swallow much and alcohol is an antiseptic agent as its natural, God-given use and that's what the alcohol in mouthwash is being used for -- to clean, not to consume.)

EXAMPLE 2: Some other products just contain names that are things to avoid in the Word of Wisdom and yet they don't really contain the harmful products themselves. "Root beer," for instance; or "beer nuts."
No problem really here, but what can you expect from an alcohol-crazed world like ours????


Yes, these are gray areas of the Word of Wisdom. Members can do what they think best, but I've given you my advice to ponder.
Perhaps this is being too picky, or concerned about a small matter, but the Scriptures seems to stress that small things matter ....

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.

Handcart 'Treks' -- Missing the Pioneer mark

      Handcart lore is so popular in Utah, that the Rainbow Greenery Restaurant, in Ogden,  now uses it          in their latest logo -- even though handcart travel was only used by less than 4 percent of pioneers.

OK, let's make this clear -- I've never been on a so-called handcart "trek," but every four years my LDS Stake sponsors one for all its youth, age 14 and older. Several of my children have been on a 'trek.'
Notwithstanding, I have some concerns about what these pseudo activities really teach LDS youth.
First and foremost, a "trek" like this would not be my personal choice for a mega stake event. No, I fail to see much rationale in having one. 

If you want to give youth a rugged wilderness experience, 

then youth need to backpack somewhere remote and really 

see how it is to live for a few days with only what you 

have on your back...

--Still, if you have a handcart trek, here are 2 things to 

remember:



1. You've got to realize that handcart treks were NOT a vastly popular way of LDS pioneer travel. Only 4.23 percent of all Mormon Pioneers traveled by handcart. That is just 1,962 travelers vs. the total of some 70,000 pioneers before the railroad came along.

(-Source: Deseret News, July 24, 2008.)



The problem historically I see is that youth come away from 

a handcart trek thinking that was the "normal" mode of

travel for pioneers, when it really wasn't. Trek leaders need 

to stress this.



2. Also, the only really way I see that a pioneer trek has much 

value is by making it come alive and that is best done

if  it is actually done on the trail, or at least near where actual 

pioneers would have traveled  to Utah.


-Furthermore, the handcart disaster is a good example of 

man's mistakes and misjudgment.

"There are several causes for the unhappy disaster which 

overtook these two handcart companies," Milton R. Hunter 

wrote in his "Utah in Her Western Setting" history book (pages 395-396). The  emigrants themselves were somewhat foolhardy in their over-enthusiasm to reach Utah Much of the blame is due those officials who permitted them to start on their journey so late in the year, contrary to the instructions of Governor (Brigham) Young, which were so emphatic on this subject."

Hunter said adjustments were made in the next handcart companies so none ever left so late in the season -- and had better equipment. 

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.

Not all Church Artwork is doctrinally correct

THERE'S some great, inspiring artwork out there in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, sometimes the best of art takes significant liberties in accuracy. That factor is almost expected.
Artwork doesn't have to be totally doctrinally correct to be spiritually uplifting, but it is nice to always know correct doctrine.
Take the above artwork, found in several mortuaries in Utah. Done with a Church accent, it is inspiring and uplifting, but not strictly correct in doctrine.

For example:

Christ’s influence is in the Spirit World, but he personally is not. No person meets Christ in the Spirit World after death. Only spirits can reside or visit there. Hence, why during the 3 days of Christ’s body in the tomb, that’s where his Spirit was – in the Spirit World, setting up missionary work there that continues to this day. 

Also, the popular painting of Christ with angels in the clouds that hangs in many temples is also not perfectly doctrinally correct as Christ will be dressed in red at the Second Coming, not white.
My roughly colored in red alteration to the original white painting (see picture below) is doctrinally more accurate.

In addition, there's one popular artist who uses people she knows to paint and represent church prophets and their families.
One Sunday some years ago, I was puzzled over who was represented in a painting at the entrance to the Relief Society Room in my ward meetinghouse. My wife said, "That's Joseph and Emma!"
I replied, "It can't be ... Doesn't look anything like them."
Sure enough, this popular artist gets by with such outrageous liberties, though I would never buy her work when they don't even resemble the originals.
-And it isn't just artwork in the Church that can be doctrinally incorrect, so can some popular hymns be so.

"Praise to the Man," "Come, Come Ye Saints" and "If You Could Hie Unto Kolob" are examples of LDS hymns, though very rousing tunes, contain a little incorrect doctrine in their words.


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.

Can the evil dead return to earth?

                                    This LDS Church book examines the spirit world.

THERE'S mention of "unclean spirits" in the New Testament (Mark chapter 5, Luke 11:24 are two examples).

How are these different from "evil spirits"? I'm not sure of that.
However, I am certain that "unclean spirits" are NOT any of the evil dead who have returned to earth.
Yes, the spirit world may also be on earth, but it is in a different dimension.
Also, when an evil (or unclean) person dies, they are in spirit PRISON.
A prison denotes confinement, being bound. So, how does an evil person die and return to haunt their house, or possess the body of a living person? They don't. 
(Yes, men may sometimes escape from the prisons of men, but I'm sure God's prison is escape-proof ...)
Repentance is the only possible means of escape from spirit prison.
On the other hand, the one-third of the host of heaven who were cast out in the pre-earth life for rebellion are loose all over earth, tempting us and are eager to possess even in a swine's body for a brief time.
These evil spirits have watched the lives of people, so they can impersonate them, perhaps even mimic their appearance.
If the righteous dead can only interact with mortals on very special occasions, then why can the evil dead run loose on earth? No, that's not consistent with an orderly plan of God.
(Such a scenario also unbalances the "temptation equation," if the evil dead have such power ... and the righteous dead do not.)
When Ted Bundy or Hitler died, they went to spirit prison and are confined there, tormented by their own heavy weight of sins. They are NOT roaming about the planet tempting, impersonating or possessing anyone.
Yet, I don't doubt that those 1/3rd of the host of Heaven cast out are eager to impersonate Hitler or Bundy to fool, confuse and further torment, afflict and lead mortals away from the truth of the Gospel.
It is these 1/3rd evil spirits who keep getting mistaken for the real deal -- the departed dead -- and they probably get a thrill out of that deception.

-This, of course, also means there are no REAL ghosts on Earth. No one who lived before as a mortal haunts any place. That is all done by impersonators, whose entire existence resolves around deception.

-So, it is looking more as if "unclean spirits" and "evil spirits" are pretty much the same -- both of the 1/3rd of the host of heaven who were cast out. 
The Biblical translation is confusing at the least in that regard. Too bad the Prophet Joseph Smith didn't have time to finish his revision of the Bible.

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.

Legends and curses in the England Bristol Mission area

                      The Wells Road Chapel in Bristol, in 1973.



By Lynn Arave

I SERVED as a full-time missionary in what was called the England Southwest Mission and then re-named the England-Bristol Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) from 1973-1975.
Most of that mission (except South Wales and perhaps some small areas) was part of the London South Mission for many years thereafter. In 2022, the original mission area returned, with Bristol as its capital again.
Legends of possible past curses on various areas of S.W. England used to abound during my mission. About four decades later, here's a look at what I recall, plus some historical facts about some of the earliest of missionaries to the area ...

 (NOTE that this article isn't trying to belittle the LDS Church, or its members in the United Kingdom. It is hoped that this will simply 'stir the pot' a little and lead to a discovery of more facts about the legends and history of missionary work in the area. I didn't make up any of the legends, just heard about them. Sadly, too many members and former missionaries want to avoid/shun and even censor these tales, though they are all about history.)

-I do recall that my second mission president, Arnold R. Knapp, finally responded to habitual comments from some missionaries about a possible widespread curse by former Elders in that area of the country.
As best of recollection as I have, President Knapp scoffed at the idea and said there were no such curses, or if there had been some, they were now retracted.
Of course, in retrospect, I don't know if President Knapp had researched any of the so-called curses, or what he may have really known about any of them.

-Dan Johns, a missionary in England Bristol in the late 1970s, did some extensive research on some of the legends of his former mission.
These were conducted as part of a 1985 BYU project.
The result was a 28-page document, "Folklore of the England, Bristol Mission."
However, even though BYU's Harold B. Lee Library lists this work on its public document list, access is NOT allowed until the year 2055, since certain public permission papers were not filed.
(I e-mailed Dan Johns on his folklore project, but never received a reply.)

       The first house in Bristol where I successfully left a copy of the Book of Mormon in July 1973.

-Years after my mission, I started to become a student of history and read and studied the entire Journal of Discourses, all 26 volumes
(The Journal of Discourses are nothing more than a reprinting of church sermons previously published in the Deseret News ... so their accuracy is pretty good, as "reporters" of that era were merely secretaries who tried to record everything said word-for-word.)
I even compared many J.D. sermons with those of the original Deseret News editions (that I accessed on microfilm) and found no discrepancies between the two.

Here are samples of some mentions of Southwest Britain in 19th Century missionary work, from Church History sources: 

-In an August 8, 1852 sermon in Salt Lake by Brigham Young, he said:
"I recollect, in England, sending an Elder to Bristol, to open a door there, and she if anyone would believe. He had a little more than 30 miles to walk; he starts off one morning and arrives at Bristol; he preached the Gospel to them and sealed them all up to damnation, and was back next morning. He was just as good a man, too, as we had. It was want of knowledge caused him to do so." (Journal of Discourses 3:91).

After that segment on England, President Young stressed patience in preaching the Gospel and that he would keep preaching as long as people would listen and not drive him away.

-In a similar sermon by President Brigham Young, almost six years later, on April 6, 1857, he stated:
"Thousands of Elders go upon missions, and conduct themselves like a man by the name of Glover. He was preaching in Herefordshire, and we sent him to Bristol, about 30 miles distant, telling him to go there and start the work. He would get up and preach a splendid discourse. He went to Bristol and cried. 'Mormonism,' or the Gospel, and no person would listen to him. On the next morning he was back at Ledbury, and said, 'I came out of Bristol, washed my feet against them, and sealed them all up to damnation.' This is the way in which some of our Elders operate."
(Journal of Discourses 4:305).

President Young was obviously talking about the same incident in both discourses. This was likely the FIRST curse of any sort given by an Elder in S.W. England, by this Elder "Glover."

In the second sermon, President Young then talked about how he had never been refused food or lodging by strangers when he asked for such.

                                A 1974 photograph of the so-called cursed Plymouth church.


-There is the rumor that Brigham Young himself cursed a particular Church of England, Charles Church, in the center of Plymouth for threatening him. The then Elder Young prophesied that the day would come when that church building would stand, but no one would attend it. 

During the "Battle of Britain" phase of World War II, the church was bombed and left a shell during World War II and today it is a war memorial  in the center of a roundabout on the highway in the center of Plymouth.
This bombing took place on the nights of March 20-21 1941 and fires ravaged the inside of the church.
The church was encircled by a roundabout in the early 1950s.

                     A roundabout in Plymouth circles the church memorial.



I have found no evidence that any such curse in Plymouth ever happened, or that Brigham Young ever got that far south in England. (It is about 120 miles from Bristol to Plymouth.)

(Still, it is a great story, if ever proven true .... )

-From an Ensign Magazine article of June 1987, about Brigham Young on his mission in England (and the spelling left uncorrected):

"Wherever Brigham Young went he found friends. “I find Fathers & mothers sister & Brothers whare ever I goe,” he wrote in December. Only the ministers actively opposed the LDS missionaries, and that to no avail, for they only “drive the people to us,” he wrote .....
"Brigham Young spent November and December 1840 and early January 1841 traveling throughout the mission, visiting elders, preaching, holding conferences."

-Brigham Young arrived in England on April 6, 1840 and returned to America on Brigham in the spring of 1841, spending no more than about a year there.
Documents say he went as far south as "Hardin Wales" in October of 1840 with Elder Heber C. Kimball. (I could not locate any town named Hardin,or even Harden in the United Kingdom, though there is one in Australia.)

-Elder Ezra T. Benson, an early apostle, also talked about the Saints in Bristol and Bath England during a January 24, 1858 discourse in Salt Lake City. (Journal of Discourses 6:179).
Elder Benson chided the members there for keeping out of sight of their enemies and holding their church meetings in secret and of having "no faith to brook the insults cast upon them, and hence they hide up and keep out of sight of their enemies."

-I also recall Elders while on my mission talking about one of the isles in the mission, I think it was the Isle of Wight and that it contained a war prison that had a lot of murders there. Access by missionaries there may have been either discouraged or forbidden, I can't recall, but many Elders seemed fascinated by such tales.

-It is also apparently true that missionaries in England-Bristol were chastised in the early 1990s for their low baptism/convert numbers.

-AND, yes it is true that the "Mormon Bomber" -- Mark Hofmann -- served his full-time mission in England-Bristol during the mid 1970s -- right when I was serving there too....

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.

Historical Changes in the Church Sacrament Service

                      A typical Sacrament cup and pitcher.
                      Photo from the "West Layton/Layton 2nd Wards" history book, 1895-1995; 


THE Sacrament Service in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hasn't always been as it is today.

-For a time in the 19th Century, all members of the congregation also kneeled down as the two Sacrament prayers were given.

-Also, for some years, music was often played during the passing of the Sacrament.

-There weren't always Sacrament trays for the water. A pitcher and mug were used for many decades, stretching into the early 1950s in some areas.
It certainly didn't seem very sanitary to share the same cup, but other churches did this too. Members tried to drink at a different spot around the rim of the cup than others, but most used the area opposite the handle.

SOURCES: "West Layton/Layton 2nd Wards" history, 1895-1995; Deseret News Archives.

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 the bishop paid young mens' tithing by a loan ...

THE Bishop of the Layton Utah Second Ward, Wayne H. Flint, thought it so important for all Aaronic Priesthood holders to be a full-tithe payer in the Church, that he paid their tithing for them, if they were unable to do so.
From about 1959-1966 this took place.
However, the young men were charged with responsibility of paying the Bishop back. And, according to the book, "West Layton/Layton 2nd Wards, 1895-1995," "All loans were repaid."