Durzan

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About Durzan

  • Birthday 02/11/1995

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  1. Thats one reason why we have ordinances for the dead. Those who weren't eligible or unable to receive the ordinances and covenants in live have the option to do so in death. God wasn't saying that they never would receive the ordinances... He said that from the time of Brigham Young to 1978, it wasn't a good idea for them to be ordained... in this life. No matter how we might think of it, or how unfair it might seem, God ALWAYS has reasons for how and when he does things. He has not chosen to disclose those reasons to us, because it isn't really necessary for us to know. We can speculate on why, but we will not know until He chooses to confide in us. It is quite possible that some of the reasons he restricted the priesthood we couldn't simply comprehend fully in our mortal state. As for speculation... (And this is my personal believe as to what one of those reasons might be.) IF you think about it a certain way: up until the late 1970's, racism was a very big part of the culture within the US, to the point of lynchings and mob violence. Knowing that, how do you think the racists and bigiots (Both within and without the church) would react if African Americans were ordained to the priesthood before the late 1970's? By 1978, the Civil Rights movement had wound down, and people were just now starting to accept that as the norm of things. The right circumstances which were necessary for Official Declaration 2 had come. African Americans were freed from slavery, and were now on completely equal terms with others, and thus it was much safer for African American church members. How's that for reasoning? Now, This also deals with speculation and personal belief. What I express is what I feel is the truth. I cannot speak for the whole church, or for other members. 1. Does God worship His Father? I cannot say for sure, but I would imagine so. The word "Worship" has many meanings, one of which is "adoring reverence or regard", which basically means that when we are commanded to worship God, he is simply asking us to honor Him, be respectful, and to love Him. Another meaning of the word worship, (more of a connotation than an actual definition) is something along the lines of "To imitate" or "to act like"; or in other words, by trying to be like Christ, we are worshipping him. Why am I explaining this? I'm sure you can see it. God worships his Father: He is like His Father, in the sense that He is a divine being. He honors, respects, and loves His Father... just like He loves us., and as we honor and respect our Father. 2. Does God live with His Father in the Celestial Kingdom? Extrapolation based off of what we know of Heavenly Father would seem to suggest so, although I cannot say for certain. It could be that He literally lives with our Heavenly Grandfather, or it could be that He lives with His Father figuratively. I would probably guess it would be figuratively. 3. "Do you ever feel that introducing all these other Gods detracts from Heavenly Father's glory? I mean, if there are Gods before Him then He's no longer the Almighty, or the Most High, or anything like that." To put it simply, I do not. Heavenly Father's creations are His own. The easiest way to think about it would be to include the theory of Multiple Universes. Each God has their own set of creations, their universe or universes, with each having their own set of laws that determine how they are governed, set up as its Creator sees fit. In each of these universes their respective God is the Almighty, or Most High, because they were created by that being, and that God governs His universe. So by that logic, Heavenly Father is still the Most High... of our universe, because He is the highest authority in this universe, and therefore to us. We answer to Him. 4. "If God has a physical body does He walk around, talk, touch, hug, etc, other people (his wife/wives, spirit children, etc) in Heaven?" Yes, God can walk around and talk, touch, hug, etc. After all, thats what Jesus did, right? He ate food after being resurrected. Since Jesus is like the Father, it stands to reason that he can do so as well. I think He does, if I am to believe what the Scriptures indicate about Him, HOWEVER, I must also point out that he may have other ways of communicating and expressing His love. "Do they have houses?" Well, I did read in the bible that there were many mansions in Heaven, but that could quite easily be a metaphor. I think they may have houses, but I'm not so sure that there is any real need for houses up in Heaven, except maybe as a way for people to show their depictions of beauty or something like that. 5. "If there is a chain of God's (eternal regression along with eternal progression) then where did it all begin? Is there a God out there that always was? I think atheism is irrational because it requires an infinite regress of causes in order to explain existence, and to me the LDS conception of God seems to suffer from the same problem. It's 'turtles all the way down'." "Turtles all the way down" is quite literally how I see it. In order to understand it, you also need to understand how we view Time, which has a very similar "issue" as you call it. The easiest way I can think of to describe it would be to quote from one of my favorite book series, The Wheel of Time: "The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legends fade to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the third age by some, an Age yet to come, an age long pass, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning." Its kinda like that, except time is linear instead of circular, and nothing is forgotten. (The whole time being circular is based on the fact that history repeats itself anyway...) We believe that we all have existed in some form or another for all of Eternity. Eternity literally means infinity... or no beginning or ending... just one continuous line that stretches onward and onward. There is no "THE beginning" or "THE END", but there are beginnings and endings to many things, such as our mortal life, but there is no beginning or ending to Time. Time is the literal definition of Eternity: Infinite. Its very hard to wrap your mind around. It makes sense, in theory, but when you try to wrap your mind around it, you just can't comprehend infinity. Our minds just cannot take that implication, so we segment time, and place a mark here, and another mark there, and call one the beginning and the other the end. So likewise is the reason why the phrase "Turtles all the way down" seems so illogical. Our physical minds are programed to see in limits and absolutes. Birth and Death, the beginning, and the end. As far as I am concerned, there are an infinite number of Heavenly Beings and generations of Heavenly Beings, just as time itself is infinite. It seems logical to me, based on my understanding of Eternity. If time is infinite, and God is Endless, why couldn't there be an infinite number of Generations of deity? (tl;dr: Really? Go back and read it, one bite at a time.)
  2. I wonder... Who is John Galt? No, seriously... I didn't and don't want to read Atlas Shrugged... but that question still needs to be answered.
  3. Yeah, definitely attend church... you will meet people there, and you will be able to find out about Single Adult activities that if you attend, might help you find someone who is compatible with you.
  4. Actually, the reference is quite simple. I am not referring to mortal laws; rather, you are put into the kingdom of which laws you are willing to abide by. D&C 88:17-31, emphasis added. Pay special attention to verses 22-24. I know that the Celsestial Laws are about serving others, and sanctifying yourself... and I suspect that the worldly laws are after the manner of Telestial Laws, albeit in a mortal form. (Because I heard somewhere that the Earth is currently in a Telestial state...), and the laws of the land are after the manner of an "eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth", so therefore I concluded that the Telestial Laws would be of a similar, if glorified, nature. Does that clarify the question at all?
  5. lol... ROFL. Nice. You are describing what you think its like to live there. My original question was what do you think the law of the Terrestrial kingdom is. While the two are related, there is a specific difference. Sigh... might as well add that to the question in the OP...
  6. I agree with you. You cannot literally sell your soul to the devil, and cutting yourself for a blood offering to do so is just a myth. HOWEVER, I think it originated as a figure of speech, which means that they have dedicated themselves to wickedness and are not likely to repent and turn to righteousness.
  7. For those of you who have responded so far, Thanks. Thanks for sharing, that certainly does fit in with the logic. Being somewhere between the Telestial vigilantism of an "eye for an eye" and the Celsestial Law of "bless them that curse you." That gives us insight into the kind of people that would qualify, but not into the laws they are willing to abide by. I guess we could extrapolate the law that they are choosing to live by the kind of people who are assigned there, though. Please, continue with your line of reasoning. Another viewpoint I heard was from a fellow co-worker at Walmart: Basically, she thought that "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth", because it was a part of the law of Moses, and thus given directly by God, IS the Terrestrial Law, and that the Telestial Law is something close to anarchy. A view that does make sense to me, but that I currently don't agree with. Please, lets continue this discussion, I want to hear more opinions and understandings.
  8. Okay, so as members of the Church, we have (Relatively) a lot of information regarding the laws of the Celestial Kingdom, and we have some understanding of the Telestial Kingdom (Its laws are of an "eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" mentality...). However, as far as I could tell, we have little to no information regarding the middle of the three degrees of glory, the Terrestrial Kingdom. We know the kinds of people who would qualify for that kingdom, but we do not know the laws by which they would have to abide by in order to qualify. Logic would indicate that it falls somewhere in-between the Telestial Laws and the Celestial Laws, but we really don't have anything specific. I am curious to know, what do you think the laws of the Terrestrial Kingdom could possibly be? Edit: What do you think it would be like to live in the Terrestrial Kingdom?
  9. Dang Folk Prophet, I think you may have just solved one of my problems inadvertently. One thing is for sure, the Spirit only gives us information that we are ready to understand, and ready to accept. Failing otherwise, he's just gonna give us warm fuzzies about what we already know... until the time comes that are open to the truth.
  10. Number one is an interesting case. I could make the case that Nephi was the one who initiated the vision that he saw in 1st Nephi, by asking the Lord to show him the things which his father saw. If we can do it in the waking world, then surely we can do it in the dream world as well. Number 2 is one reason why I started this thread... and one reason why I intend to proceed cautiously. I intend to learn more about being lucid before I do anything else there, but I need to actually become lucid before I can start learning. However, I think I already answered the question at least partially in at least one of my previous posts: I remember reading somewhere in the Doctrine and Covenants that Satan cannot read the thoughts of man, but that God can. Logically this extends into dreams, because dreams are in essence, thoughts you are having in the form of images while you are sleeping. The parts in bold above are the main points. This means that the only real spiritual influences you can have in your dreams are due to you, your subconsciousness, and the Spirit of God. Thus the only false communications you have to really worry about are the ones that you trick yourself into believing, which is a very real and distinct possibility in a dream. As for council for protection, well, I would guess that a few of the other bits of council we received would apply here... Such as "Hum a favorite hymn", dwelling on only righteous things, etc. As far as protections specific to the dream world however, I think that it would probably be a good idea to seek advice from Heavenly Father and an inspired priesthood leader before attempting it... . Dreams can do practically anything so the specific advice for dealing with lucidity is likely to be different from advice on how to deal with things in the real world. After all, if I go into a lucid dream with the specific purpose of communicating with Him, I want to make sure that I have a way to make sure that I am actually talking with Him and not a conjuration made by my subconscious to fulfill that request to talk to God. I want to talk with a manifestation of the Spirit, not myself! (Although I could learn a lot about myself from that experience, such an occurrence would defeat the entire purpose of me lucid dreaming in that particular instance in the first place.) ...and number 3... well...
  11. _________________ I never said that communication with your subconscious is bad... just that it can potentially confuse/distract you or get in the way IF you are trying to communicate directly with the Spirit while lucid. But then again it could also help you in some form or fashion. Its just that I imagine that dealing with your subconscious would be a natural challenge should I or anyone else try to communicate with the Spirit while lucid. I do believe that you can get spiritual inspiration from your subconscious, but that is another topic for another thread. Definitely useful information if you are awake, which is clearly what D&C 129 is supposed to be addressing. A dream however, is much more fickle than reality, and is subject to the whims of you and your subconscious. One, the fact that you are asleep and inside your own head acts as a protection against evil spirits... I think. Two, an image of an evil spirit could be your subconscious trying to tell you something, or it might be the real thing, albeit that I would be skeptical because of reason 1 given above. Three, If you are in a dream, then reality is subject to the whims of you and your subconscious, because your desires would become real, and thus this method may or may not be reliable while you are lucid. _______________ A gateway that I myself am trying to open...
  12. One, I'm guessing that the handshake test would probably be moot in a dream, as you and your subconscious can bend the dream to your wishes, which means that if you want to be able to shake hands with the figure, then you will be able to, and if you don't, then well, it doesn't happen. Two, I'm more worried about accidentally confusing my subconscious AS the Spirit than I am about receiving a visitation from an evil spirit. An evil spirit would only be able to try to influence you through your subconscious. This I think is downright difficult, as Satan a) cannot read minds, and thus b) would have no idea what you are dreaming, and c) would have little direct influence with which to tempt you, save the ability to plant thoughts in your head... which brings us back to point one: your subconscious is the main thing you have to deal with/worry about in a lucid dream. Normally, it wouldn't be much of a problem, however, if your trying to communicate with the Spirit in a Lucid Dream, you run the risk of your subconscious somehow interfering, or trying to fulfill the desire on its own. In a lucid dream, you are the one in control... unless you are lucid in a Dream that God sent you, in which case you are aware but probably have little to no control unless you choose to wake up. Somehow I get the feeling that you both understood what I was trying to say and misunderstood it at the same time. Perhaps I should clarify: I am not saying that we dictate it, as it would be a two way street. Most of the time, I think the Lord initiates the dream. However, I think that it would be possible for us to get into a lucid state and put ourselves into as spiritual environment as possible. This isn't based off of Scriptural evidence, but rather using logic. Like you said, there is no scriptural evidence to support this theory that we can initiate a Dream with God ourselves, save the assumption that whenever God communicates with us through a Dream, it seems as though we are at least partially aware of what is going on. If we are aware that we are in a dream, we are, by definition, lucid. If we can get into a lucid dream without the Spirit communicating with us through visions, (which we can) then it stands to reason that we could also potentially communicate with Heavenly Father while lucid. Anyway, moving on... The word dictate would imply that we force the Spirit to come to us, which as you stated earlier is impossible, and IMO also sinful in nature to even try. Do we force the spirit to come to us when we wish to have a spiritual moment? No, we can't. Just as Heavenly Father cannot force us to do something, neither can we do the same to Him, as such would violate the Law of Agency. Rather we put ourselves in a situation where we can feel the spirit, and then just listen hardly for the spirit. We INVITE the Spirit to come to us to tell us God's will. I imagine that something similar is what you would do in while lucid, if you wanted to communicate with the Spirit. Like I said above, a better way of articulating what I am trying to say is that we INVITE Him to communicate with us while we are lucid, and then let Him decide. We put up the spiritual decorations and then open the door. What happens next depends on God's will... If it were to happen it would happen IN His own time and His own way, as it would require the consent of both sides in the party, aka you and God. ...Good point. You seemed to have brought up the response I was going to give... Dreams and visions are an added witness to prayer. God initiated visions and such because the prophets were already extremely faithful. I would also point out that visions are probably easier to communicate with, simply because of the fact that humans are usually visual people, and having access to a visual form of communication allows us to grasp and understand certain concepts better. Through dreams, the Spirit is making it easier for us to comprehend the the concepts and points the Lord is trying to make. Images that come to our minds in answer to our prayers would also be in the same vein. Often its easier for us to understand something in visual terms, rather than it is to have it described to us. However, I would rather say that using lucid dreaming to communicate with the Spirit would act as an extension of/to the communication method that prayer is based off of rather than as a separate method of communication. I would liken this to how FaceTime uses the same method of transmission that a cellphone uses, but adds video to the audio. Audio only is the most commonly used, but those who learn to use FaceTime can have visual aid to help with communication. However, both are depended upon one making the call, and the other picking up the phone to answer. In my opinion, Prayer functions like a telegram or email. We send a message to Heavenly Father and then he responds. that response can arrive at you immediately, while you are having the prayer, or in a few weeks. Can it become a communication like a cell phone? Absolutely, but such requires great faith. During the day,it would definitely be more practical for us to use "e-mail/audio only" aka prayer. Its quick and easy. It gives time for Heavenly Father to prepare a response (He probably already had one waiting.), and gives us time to ponder and listen for the Spirit. But at night, when you are already asleep, prayer is less practical, as well, most of the time you are unconscious. Heavenly Father has to either wake you up, wait until you wake up, send you a dream and have you be able to remember it, or make you lucid in order to communicate with you directly through the Spirit. But if you are already lucid, then it becomes even more practical you have the ability to add in the visual aspect communication to prayer, by manipulating your dream into a prayer. If Heavenly Father replies as part of the dream, then you have this two way communication going on that is really flipping awesome, with you being able not only articulate your thoughts verbally/mentally but also visually, and Heavenly Father being able to show you his responses in a way that prayer and scripture study as we know it just can't do... (I think.) Not to mention that the communication would be almost instantaneous. Of course, such a form of communication would most likely require sufficient faith and righteousness in the first place in order for it to take place, as well as the ability to lucid dream, should we be the ones who wish to invite the Spirit to communicate with us this way. Makes sense?
  13. (Not sure if this is the right place to post this thread...) Okay, so for those of you who do not know, lucid dreaming is the capability of gaining consciousness and awareness within a dream. When in a lucid state, you can interact with the dream world as if it was the real world, and be fully aware of just what the heck you are doing, and you can interact with the dream world that you obviously couldn't do in real life. If you are conscious within a dream, and you are able to realize that you are in a dream, without waking up, then you can do some pretty interesting things with a bit of practice, such as interviewing your subconscious, flying, etc. For the past six months or so, I have had a desire to teach myself how to lucid dream, but have never followed through with it. That being said, I will now move on to the main reason I posted this: So I was at work, and I was pondering the fact that I wanted to lucid dream, when a thought popped into my head along the lines of "can you communicate with Heavenly Father by initiating a lucid dream?" This perked my interest, of course, and I began to use some logic... God can communicate with people by sending them symbolic Dreams, or allowing them to see visions. The scriptures seem to indicate that some prophets were aware that they were receiving a Dream. Lehi's vision in 1st Nephi 1 to me seems states flat out that he was asleep when it occurred. If I assume that Lehi was aware and conscious within the vision, as I am sure he was, then I can logically conclude that he was Lucid Dreaming. If that is the case, then I can reasonably conclude that some if not all Dreams sent by Heavenly Father have the potential to become Lucid, at least to the point of self awareness within the dream. Thus a Dream sent by Heavenly Father is always a lucid dream (Without the ability to change the dream itself), but a lucid dream does not necessarily = a Dream sent by Heavenly Father. (Does my logic make any sense to you? Do you see any flaws? I do have a different wiring of my brain than most people, as I show some Asberger tendencies...) So, now that we established that a lucid dream can be a way Heavenly Father can communicate with us, we are now left with a few interesting follow up questions: 1. Is this a one way communication, or is it two way, like prayer? Heck, it could be both, depending on the circumstances. To this question, I have no definite answer. I would have to think and ponder on it some more, although I suspect it would count as two way communication. 2. If this is a two way communication, (Which I suspect it is), then could we potentially, initiate a conversation with Heavenly Father and/or the Spirit through Lucid Dreaming, assuming of course that we were worthy, had a tremendous amount of faith, had the Spirit with us at the time, AND if Heavenly Father was willing to communicate with us this way? 3. Would this be just as effective as prayer, more effective, or less effective? I think I can see both advantages and disadvantages to this when compared to prayer. (such as the risk that you end up communicating with your own subconsciousness instead of the Spirit... yes, you can do that.) Now after all this time, I decided to get an iPhone app or two that can help me start to Lucid Dream. The question is could I use Lucid Dreaming as a way to draw closer to Heavenly Father?