skalenfehl

All we need do is look to past prophets. In every dispensation, prophets have come forward to warn and to call to repentance. And when they speak to their assemblies/write epistles, they have been to declare doctrine and/or correct false teachings, etc. Isaiah warned and prophecied concerning the future of Israel in his time, the future and the last days (repeating cycles of history) Jeremiah warned Jerusalem of coming destruction and called them to repentance. Jesus Christ came to fulfill laws and redeem the world, correcting false doctrines and teachings. He is the greatest prophet. There are many more in the Bible. In the Book of Mormon, Nephi was like unto Isaiah, even quoting much of Isaiah. His primary prophecies and declaration concerned the condescension of a Messiah and coming unto Jesus Christ. Jacob corrected false practices such as having multiple wives. Abinadi called the leaders of the church in the land of Nephi to repentance and corrected them in their beliefs concerning the law of Moses. The list goes on. Mormon wrote epistles to Moroni concerning the baptism of small children. Joseph Smith restored the fullness of the gospel. The common denominator of all prophets (many of which were killed or mocked for doing so) was their testimonies of a living Messiah--the son of God who is the redeemer of mankind and that through Him and only Him, mankind can be saved in the kingdom of heaven. But no single prophet can work out anyone's salvation. They can point the way, as they have always done, but they cannot walk the path for anyone or keep the gate. There is a difference between "receiving" a prophet and "following" a prophet. Nephi said it best: 2 Nephi 32 1 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, I suppose that ye ponder somewhat in your hearts concerning that which ye should do after ye have entered in by the way. But, behold, why do ye ponder these things in your hearts? 2 Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost? 3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do. 4 Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not brought into the light, but must perish in the dark. 5 For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do. 6 Behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and there will be no more doctrine given until after he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh. And when he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh, the things which he shall say unto you shall ye observe to do. This happens at the veil. A real veil. No prophet can ask for you. No prophet can seek for you. No prophet can knock for you. 7 And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be. 8 And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray. 9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul. The key word in his final bit of advice is to pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Consider the parable of the unjust judge. D&C 101 81 Now, unto what shall I liken the children of Zion? I will liken them unto the parable of the woman and the unjust judge, for men ought always to pray and not to faint, which saith— 82 There was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. 83 And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying: Avenge me of mine adversary. 84 And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself: Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 85 Thus will I liken the children of Zion. 86 Let them importune at the feet of the judge; See also Luke 18:1-5. Prophets are very important. That is why the Lord has always sent His prophets. But they are not as important as personal revelation. If saints had always and would always pray and not faint (importuning as the brother of Jared), stripping themselves of all ungodliness and knocking at the veil until the Lord proved them in all things, there would be no need for prophets. Everyone would be a prophet because the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy. (Rev 19:10) The definition of importune is to ask (someone) pressingly and persistently for or to do something. This is what God wants of us. The gift of the Holy Ghost, the first Comforter, is a great gift indeed, but the greater gift is the other Comforter, even Jesus Christ. This is the gift we should truly covet. I wish more prophets and apostles would declare this precious truth!! But only very few in our dispensation have.

Amos 3:7. God does nothing save he'll reveal it to his prophets. Furthermore, Joseph Smith also said: God hath not revealed anything to Joseph, but what He will make known unto the Twelve, and even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to bear them.-History of the Church, 3:380 God revealed to Lehi that he must depart Jerusalem. God revealed to Nephi he must build a ship, etc. As much as prophets reveal things to His people, however, they are not keepers of the gate. Only Christ is and he employeth no servant there. It is the Holy Spirit that brings us to Jesus Christ. There is a distinction.

These protesters need a lesson in economics. Furthermore, if anything, they should be protesting the income tax and the Federal Reserve!

The outnumbered people of Limhi fought the Lamanites like dragons. Mosiah 20:11Â Apparently they had dragons in the land of Nephi. Or maybe their concept of a dragon is different than that of Joseph Smith's or mine. There is so much that has not yet been uncovered, but that doesn't disprove anything. The Lord is not trying to get us to believe in Nephite money or metals or unicorns or dragons. Or elephants. There is a message there and a singular way to come to a knowledge of its truth.

I don't believe everything in the scriptures. I believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. Book of Mormon prophets confessed to being imperfect and if there are any mistakes, they are mistakes of men. Pearl of Great Price is another thing, too. D&C is not without it's flaws (cough132cough). All of that said, I believe the restoration happened. I have a testimony of Joseph Smith and of the Book of Mormon. I also know about things the Lord warned about in D&C concerning us, which Nephi and others obviously foresaw. I won't go into details. But we are all imperfect, fallible human beings doing our best. Our leaders are far from perfect, as they have also confessed. They do their best, too, I'm sure. All is NOT well in Zion. We have so much work to do. And it begins with me. If you have doubts, do your due diligence. Study. Research. There are books and journals and papers out that explain the warts and ugly things of the past. It has always been that way with the Lord's covenant people. We are no different. But we also know our potential.

Yeah...probably a documentary with some drama using resources such as the scriptures themselves, and History of the Church, research, journals, biographies, etc for the contemporary history of not only the church, but of North and South America the Middle East, etc. I would connect the dots between Isaiah's prophecies, John's revelations, Nephi's, our Savior's (in Bountiful and in D&C), Joseph Smith's etc. and put it all in some kind of context that would fit something like the allegory of the tame and wild olive trees, which is a good "timeline" of events. This would be completely separate from the church curriculum and correlation of material. I love Dieter Uchtdorf, but I would pick someone else like Charlton Heston, if he were still alive. The title would be something like In Search of Zion or How Oft Would I Have Gathered You?

"Will a man rob God?" You either believe the Lord or you don't. What the LDS church does with the money is one thing. That you choose to live the law of tithing is another.

Just finished watching the LOTR trilogy on DVD. I love this epic story.

Mine would be about the history of the world through the lens of the Lord's work (covenant to Abraham, church history/separating facts from fiction, Book of Mormon, etc). I don't think anybody would watch it, though. Maybe a very few.

I'm sure he meant well. He didn't see his reasoning through to conclusion, though. But to have the ultimate relationship with our Savior is for Him to make His abode with us as He promised in the NT (John 14). This also means His Father making His abode with us. Receiving the Second Comforter and membership into the church of the Firstborn (D&C 76) is to be brought back into His presence. I believe Joseph Smith was the first in our dispensation to receive this gift, but as Joseph, himself said, "God hath not revealed anything to Joseph, but what He will make known unto the Twelve, and even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to bear them..." HC 3:380

Just for fun: Are Books of Scripture Missing from the Bible? « FAIR

So what was his reasoning/explanation?

A testimony is a witness. There is no greater witness than that of the Savior as the Brother of Jared had. All others are simply appendages to this. There is having faith and there is knowledge. Moriancumer had knowledge, nothing doubting.

+1 Finrock. Fully agree. The Lord isn't idle. He is truly laboring in the vineyard with very few servants (Jacob 5). But as you say, he is fully engaged and working to fulfill all covenants. Then comes the end. He declared these things very specifically to the people at Bountiful in 3 Nephi.

I apologize. Of course you are correct. He kept it for eight months. At this juncture of research and study, I have not ascertained the amount of time spent actually reading the book. What I have read and researched so far, however, points to facts that Lincoln spent considerable amounts of time in seclusion/scripture study. Dravin, have your read the book or watched the video? I invite you to conduct your own research, of course.

To answer the question I posed above, here is a screen grab. Abraham Lincoln went through a period of "crystallization" where he was converted to upholding the new covenant. As a result, he drafted the Emancipation Proclamation just days after reading this book: He spent eight months reading the Book of Mormon before returning it to the Library of Congress.

Mine's on its way. Really looking forward to reading it. This guy has put so much research into this work, which is what excites me. In the meantime, I'm reading other books such as The History of Mexico, which chronicles the history from its roots (Aztecs) and the natives who were themselves conquerors. Their empire ranged from Central America (conquering the later Mayans) to farther north approaching what is today Texas. When Brigham Young took the saints to Rockies, the place they settled was still Mexico. Understanding these parallel histories has begun to shed a new light on Isaiah's prophecies about Manasseh and also Nephi's prophecy about the Gentiles in America (North and South).

Not one reply? Who can tell me what book Abraham Lincoln read for eight months before receiving inspiration to write the Emancipation Proclamation? Coincidence?

You're welcome! I was planning on saving up to buy the books, pricey as they are, but after having discovered this resource, I won't have to. I've been buying up and reading a lot of books lately from a wide variety of authors on specific subjects.

Abraham in Egypt by Hugh W. Nibley An Approach to the Book of Mormon by Hugh W. Nibley The Ancient State by Hugh W. Nibley Approaching Zion by Hugh W. Nibley Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints by Hugh W. Nibley Enoch the Prophet by Hugh W. Nibley Lehi in the Desert; The World of the Jaredites; There Were Jaredites by Hugh W. Nibley Mormonism and Early Christianity by Hugh W. Nibley Old Testament and Related Studies by Hugh W. Nibley The Prophetic Book of Mormon by Hugh W. Nibley Since Cumorah by Hugh W. Nibley Teachings of the Book of Mormon: Semester 1 by Hugh W. Nibley Teachings of the Book of Mormon: Semester 2 by Hugh W. Nibley Teachings of the Book of Mormon: Semester 3 by Hugh W. Nibley Teachings of the Book of Mormon: Semester 4 by Hugh W. Nibley Temple and Cosmos by Hugh W. Nibley Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass by Hugh W. Nibley When the Lights Went Out: Three Studies on the Ancient Apostasy by Hugh W. Nibley The World and the Prophets by Hugh W. Nibley So many books, so little time!!

Oh, how I wish that we could embed videos in these posts!!! PLEASE take some time this weekend to watch this. Yes, it's just over an hour long, but is WORTH your time. I plan to buy this book and devour it. My list of books to read keeps growing (add to the fact that I'm working on my own books), and there's just not enough time in the day. Tim Ballard presents "The American Covenant" - YouTube I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this.

On The Turning Away...

Definitely this one! 6 I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell.

Thank you. In as far as how our understanding of prophecy is in alignment, I can only confess that my focus is primarily on prophecies concerning the Lamanites in the last days, the times of the gentiles, and the events leading up to the building of New Jerusalem. D&C 49:24 But before the great day of the Lord shall come, Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose. I think that there is definitely some crossover in our individual studies and research. I will let you know as soon as my book is available. If I'm lucky, it will be ready within the next year. I will either make it available through Amazon.com (self publish) or as a pdf. Either way, I don't plan on making any profit and would rather it be available freely to anyone interested. If it is published for purchase, all money earned will go directly to the church missionary fund. I don't care to make any money from my books.

If I wrote more specifically, it would turn into a book, which, by the way is what I'm working on (By the time I'm done, if I ever get done, I will have written four). In any case, they are perfectly applicable and in harmony to the Bible and the BoM and the D&C, which I have studied intently for over twenty years now. I am fully aware of the covenants made to Abraham and also to Jacob and also more specifically to Joseph who was sold into Egypt and also to Lehi. I know that our Savior will fulfill each and every covenant made to man. Yes, I wrote somewhat generally, but left it as a springboard for anyone who might want to pursue it with their own research. I appreciate your passion and your testimony, your enlightenment and your relationship with the Lord. Keep fighting the good fight!