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If you look at periods of apostasy since Adam, it seems appropriate that God allowed the longest or Great Apostasy to occur after the greatest of all prophets was killed -- the Savior Jesus Christ. The greatest apostasy follows the greatest sin. "1 And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. 2 And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. 4 And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. 5 And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some. 6 Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. 7 But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. 8 And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. 9 What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others. " (Mark 12:1-9) The vineyard is the world. Heavenly Father is the owner. The servants are the prophets that were killed. Father sent his one "wellbeloved" son and they killed Him also. The greater the sin the greater the consequence. The light and knowledge of the gospel were taken for centuries. The world fell into the greatest period of darkness called the "dark ages". Ignorance and evil were common. The Lord knew that if he were to restore His true gospel with true prophets during those dark times, those prophets would have been killed immediately -- the church never would have survived. The Lord had to wait for the proper time. (But the Lord knew all this beforehand.) People came and settled in this special land called America. They eventually established a Constitution under the inspiration of God. Independence was declared in 1776. The gospel was restored in 1830 in New York by a prophet named Joseph Smith. The heavens were opened and angels came down and bestowed keys of authority as in days of old. I believe the main reason for God establishing this great land of liberty called America, was so that He could establish His gospel again on the earth in preparation for the Second Coming of the Lord. No one can deny that following 1830 came the greatest light and knowledge upon the face of the earth in the history of all mankind. Within only about 200 years, advancements in science and the quality of life catapulted far beyond all that was accomplished in the last 5,000 years. Freedom was a great part of this success, but I believe the main cause was the light of inspiration showering down from heaven when the gospel was restored and when the heavens were opened.

Hi Melissa, A person is only a prophet of God when God chooses them and gives them priesthood keys to act in His name. It doesn't necessarily mean they have a certain talent -- if just means they were given authority from God. In fact, if you look throughout history, you'll find that most prophets felt very inadequate to their calling. Enoch said he was "slow of speech". Moses said, "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue." (Ex 4:10). Joseph Smith only had a third grade education and needed a scribe to translate the Book of Mormon. In the early years of Joseph's life, his spelling and grammer were horrible. The Lord still used him as an instrument because he was humble and teachable. All these prophets eventually became great, intellegent men. God doesn't change, but He calls prophets in every generation to address the needs of that time. Every generation has its own unique problems. The revelation of God to Noah to build an arc wouldn't apply to the people in Moses' day. The revelation to Moses to lead the children of Israel to the promise land wouldn't apply to our day. The fact that God continues to call prophets means that He doesn't change. There is only one Bible, but look how many different churches use the Bible and each interpret it differently. God needs a prophet in every dispensation to interpret scripture and provide new revelation. The sign of the true church since Adam has always been new scripture. Why does God give prophets? "11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers, 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;" (Ephesians 4:11,14) We need prophets so we can learn the truth and not be led by the false doctrine of men.

Hell does exist. The spirit world is here on this earth. The spirit world is made up of paradise and spirit prison or hell. Hell is not the way most people imagine - with fire and pitch forks. Let me give you an idea of hell. Throughout our lives everyone on this earth has sinned. Once a sin is committed there is guilt, pain and suffering. However, over time we forget those things and they fade away. Our memories on this earth are not very good. We forget almost everything we do each day. After we die we are taught that: "14 Wherefore, we shall have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanness, and our nakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness, being clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of righteousness." (2 Nephi 9:14) "25 And if they be evil they are consigned to an awful view of their own guilt and abominations, which doth cause them to shrink from the presence of the Lord into a state of misery and endless torment, from whence they can no more return; therefore they have drunk damnation to their own souls." (Mosiah 3:25) We will have a perfect memory. Every thing you've done on this earth will be perfectly before your eyes as if you just did it that moment. Imagine the misery of the wicked and the great joy of the righteous.

Soldier, There is a good book you should read called "Will Power is Not Enough". It teaches that although will power is important through firm resistence, it is not enough. We must also have heart power where eventually the very desire to sin will also leave. Elder Bednar gave a great talk on having both "clean hands and a pure heart". We can have clean hands by repenting of our sins, however, the desire may still remain and we stay in an unbroken cycle. We must also develop a pure heart so we no longer desire to sin. I see it as not just taking out the bad, but also putting in the good. Find things uplifting to replace the desire to sin. Get the Spirit back into your life. Do you go to hell for looking at porn? Yes. Can you repent of the sin and be clean? Yes.