mordorbund

We could claim all kinds of arguments for this based on historical precedents and entymology, but the relevant answer for why this church dictates this amount is that Joseph received a revelation on it. See D&c 119:3-4 There's a great quote from Joseph Smith that members like to quote. "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" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 149). About three years later, he gave a similar quote. "There was nothing made known to these men (well-known church leaders) but what will be made known to all the Saints of the last days." (History of the Church 5:2) This remark was given after the Prophet gave the Endowment for the first time. So I chuckle on the inside at the perception that the temple ordinances are secret, since they're secrets we want to let everyone in on (in the proper context of course).

I went to my bookshelf to look up the full story in The Book of Noah (it's next to The Sealed Writings of Joseph Fielding Smith). Turns out it was a literal, fully-immersed baptism - by proxy.

I'm not a fan of the spots you're wearing. And the material -- maybe you should try wool instead of leather.

That is correct. We also pray our way into heaven. And proselyte, and preach, and testify our way into heaven. We also abstain, and forsake, and repent our way into heaven. We also serve, and minister, and administer our way into heaven. We also praise, and rebuke, and forgive our way into heaven. If tithing is all that's holding you back, I think I'd like to trade vices with you.

Maybe I understand "one eternal round" in the wrong way, but I imagine that when one "generation" is done, then you start on the next (just like singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat). I haven't been so bold as to settle whether the "generation" should be associated with Christ or Adam. If we associate the Grand Council with the generation of Christ, then Satan does indeed go around and torment other earths. If, on the other hand, we associate the Council with Adam and his posterity, then Satan is probably only on this earth.The question of a Satan on other earths gets a bit more fuzzy since we need to account for his myriad roles. Let's start with daily temptations. That one is simple in my mind because I can find plenty in life to tempt me without an imp or dark prince coercing me. I'll sum it up by saying we don't just have heavenly and hellish beings enticing us, but our own minds as well (should probably be a different thread if we want to go there). When Satan acts as the accuser (think Job), that role may be filled by other children of Adam (of that other hypothetical earth). The one that I don't have a simple answer for is when he gives the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil to Adam and Eve. If no one rebelled in the Council, then who takes this fallen role? Maybe it's not even needed. Although innocent, perhaps the primordial parents can choose mortality without a tempter (we made a similar decision to leave Father's presence and enter mortality - I don't think we necessarily needed a tempter). Or perhaps a clever God has a backup plan for a Satan-less Fall. I like to think sometimes that Area 51 is a tourist stop for the aliens before shuttling to Jerusalem .Your line of thinking reminds me of the anthrocentric notions of the Universe. Because we are here, we wonder if they are out there. But if the sludge didn't align right, there wouldn't be a mind in the whole Universe to entertain such ridiculous thoughts. So the action is here because we are here. Let's suppose that after the Ascension, Christ took up residence on Earth[Awesome]. In fact, he's been living there the whole time with all the descendants of Adam[Awesome]. Let's even crank it up a notch and say that anytime a prophet from this earth was taken up to an unknown mountain, that mountain was on Earth[Awesome]. Then while you are sitting at your computer wondering why all the action of the life and crucifixion of the Son of God happens here, some dude[Awesome] is wondering why he gets the privilege of living in the neighborhood of Christ - which is so popular that alien prophets come to visit. On a Universal scale, where is the action really happening? I hope I got my points across English is my second language - I started with baby talk, and now can't even remember that anymore.

I've heard this before, and it seems to be a very popular idea. Does anyone know where it came from? I've seen 2 Nephi 10:3, but that only applies to the wickedest portion of this world.

Moses 1:34 makes it sound like there are others, "And the first man of all men have I called Adam, which is many." (I guess you could argue that the Lord is saying that "Adam" signifies "many", but that's not a very popular reading). So how do we fit all these Adams in the Universe? We could say that God places these Adams veeeeeeerrrrrrrry far apart so they don't interfere with each other (or maybe they do, but we're the ones in the armpit of the Universe). Or we could say that it works on an Epoch model and each timeline only gets one Adam. Or we could go with a Sagan model and have only one Adam per Universe, and several Universes in a Cosmos. As to evidences, SETI is 50 years old and only has a single WOW moment. And there's too many unknowns in the Drake equation for me to take it seriously.

Don't forget this easy-to-read version of The Book of Mormon by Mike Allred (it's coming in installments)

Sounds like you just lack the confidence to ask her out. So you gotta get confidence. That should come with some Kung Fu training. But you need money to take the courses, so you should get a job at a local diner. Oh, and practice conversating with anyone who drives a VW bug. Topics like the weather in California is welcome. And don't forget to compliment her on being thorough. There's an instructional movie called The Phone Call that you can watch for further guidance.

Recycling speeches, eh? So does that mean in 2012 his platform is still about change and how to get us out of the crisis caused by a presidential term of executive mismanagement?

Actually, "y'all" can be singular and "all y'all" plural. (I know technically "y'all" is a contraction of "you all", but in practice it does get used in the singular as well.)

Do you think there's room in God's omniscience to deal with probablistic outcomes? (Let's have Moses tell Pharaoh to release my people. hmmm... 15% chance of Pharaoh going along with it, so if he doesn't I'll have Moses call down one plague after another. Looks like a 7% chance that Moses won't go along with it so I'll have Aaron come along with a rod and knock some sense into the lot of them...) Whenever that happens, I think he usually commands us to move it so we can "grow".

Many prophets saw God in the throne room of His heavenly temple. (I also think that Lehi's vision of God on His throne takes place in the heavenly temple). I'm guessing you're statement that there won't be a temple on the celestialized earth is based on Revelations 21:22 But John just got done describing the temple there Just because we will no longer perform work for the dead doesn't mean we won't have temples. There's more to a temple than an endowment house.

Agreed. Abstinence is not repentance.