askandanswer

There is no mention in the Book of Mormon about the Lord leading Lehi and his family through the wilderness by means of a cloud and fire, as was the case with the children of Israel during the exodus and travails after their departure from Egypt. Much of the direction they needed was provided by the liahona. There is one verse that suggests that Lehi's family had no fire at all in the wilderness until they were ready to start building a boat. 11 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did make a bellows wherewith to blow the fire, of the skins of beasts; and after I had made a bellows, that I might have wherewith to blow the fire, I did smite two stones together that I might make fire. 12 For the Lord had not hitherto suffered that we should make much fire, as we journeyed in the wilderness; for he said: I will make thy food become sweet, that ye cook it not; 13 And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led. (Book of Mormon | 1 Nephi 17:11 - 13) First Nephi 8:1 suggests that they did not rely solely on hunting to obtain food: 1 AND it came to pass that we had gathered together all manner of seeds of every kind, both of grain of every kind, and also of the seeds of fruit of every kind. (Book of Mormon | 1 Nephi 8:1)

Supporting people who leave the military is very topical in Australia at the moment. Yesterday the government, after lots of pressure for more than a year, announced a high level inquiry into the high levels of suicide amongst military personnel. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/veteran-suicide-inquiry-will-be-bigger-and-better-than-a-royal-commission-pm-says

They're still declining? I thought they were gone.

I'm curious about how it was decided that a game involving San Francisco and Kansas was played in Miami?

Thanks for this @Just_A_Guy, its nice to have my suspicious about @pam confirmed, even if it is coming from a lawyer.

Teachings of Harold B Lee, chapter 2 - Plan of Salvation, near the top of page 76, the 8th paragraph from the end of the chapter. We will be in the kingdom in which we are comfortable. Here in the eighty-eighth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord is speaking of the various states to which we will go [when we die]. He says, "And they who are not sanctified through the law which I have given unto you, even the law of Christ, must inherit another kingdom, even that of a terrestrial kingdom, or that of a telestial kingdom" (D&C 88:21). This is logic; listen to this: "For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory" (D&C 88:22). That makes sense, doesn't it? If you couldn't live the law of the gospel here, you wouldn't be very happy in the celestial kingdom where that is required over there, would you? You would have to be more comfortable in another place. If you couldn't live the law of the terrestrial kingdom, you couldn't abide that law of the terrestrial kingdom. You would have to abide the law of the telestial kingdom. (72-44) Man is clay in the Potter's hand. "But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand" (Isaiah 64:8). I've read that verse many times but had not received the full significance until I was down in Mexico a few years ago at Telacapaca, where the people mold clay into various kinds of pottery. There I saw them take clay that had been mixed by crude, primitive methods, the molder wading in the mud to mix it properly. Then it was put upon a potter's wheel and the potter began to fashion the intricate bits of pottery, which he was to place on the market. And as we watched, we saw occasionally, because of some defect in the mixing, the necessity for pulling the whole lump of clay apart and throwing it back in to be mixed over again, and sometimes the process had to be repeated several times before the mud was properly mixed. With that in mind, I began to see the meaning of this scripture. Yes, we too have to be tried and tested by poverty, by sickness, by the death of loved ones, by temptation, sometimes by the betrayal of supposed friends, by affluence and riches, by ease and luxury, by false educational ideas, and by the flattery of the world. (56-07, p. 114) The Lord has given us talents to use on His behalf. Someone asked a great surgeon, "How does it feel to have the power of life and death in your hands as you operate?" The surgeon answered, "I never feel that way. When I was a young, cocksure surgeon, I was proud of my ability and my record. Then one day I had to make a split-second decision. I wasn't correct. For some time, I wouldn't operate. As I sat depressed, thinking of my failure, it suddenly came to me, in all humility, that God had given me these hands, had given me these brains, not to be wasted. I prayed to Him then to let me have another chance. I still do. I pray each time I take a scalpel in hand, 'Guide my hands, O Lord, and give me of thy knowledge.' You see, He is the famous surgeon. I am only His servant." He is also the famous architect. He is also the greatest of all teachers. Did you ever think that scientists have discovered anything that God didn't already know? Think of it. He has given you and me hands. He has given you and me brains, and He hasn't given them to us to waste. He expects us to lean on Him and exercise to the best of our ability in order to use them righteously in righteous purposes. (72-21) When it is celestialized, earth will be the location of our heaven. As an example of the doubts and the vain philosophies in the minds of some of our young people I want to read you a few statements contained in an article that appeared in a publication from our own state university during the last few weeks: "Heaven is for children. To the child's mind it is real. For the adult it belongs to the world of fantasy and make-believe. If we have become adults we have left the idea of heaven behind. Perhaps the only mature individual who finds the everyday exhilarating and promising is the one who has supplanted his childhood beliefs in another worldly heaven with confidence in a heaven on earth. The modern world is concerned chiefly with ethics rather than with theology, with better living than with the methodical analysis of the hereafter." I suspect that that young student was thinking of the kind of heaven that too frequently is pictured, which requires much hymn singing and ever so much praying with rows and rows of saints kneeling in perpetual adoration as a continuous occupation; and perhaps his idea of God and the Creator is similar to that which has been expressed by one writer who spoke of God as "a sleepless active energy that actuates all things, so small and yet so complex as to dwell in the wonderful energies of life and sound and electricity, in the vital processes of human and animal form, in the motivating influences of the human heart," and so on. Such a one, who believes thus, would have no faith in the teachings of the scriptures or an understanding of their import. To one such the Church of Jesus Christ would be relegated to a mere organization of man, lacking either the reason for or the authority to administer the ordinances of salvation. Heaven, as we have usually conceived it, is the dwelling place of the righteous, after they have left this earth life, and the place where God and Christ dwell. Of this happy state the Apostle Paul said, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). The location of the place was made clear by the revelations of the Lord to us in this day when He said that the earth was to be the abiding place of those who were to inherit the celestial glory and that it would be cleansed from impurity in order to become that holy place. How the earth was to be prepared for that condition is indicated in brief visions recorded by a prophet who said he "saw a new heaven and a new earth" (see Revelation 21:1-4). Another said, "And the end shall come, and the heaven and the earth shall be consumed and pass away, and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth" (D&C 29:23). (44-02, p. 284)

I've never noticed until just now that at two different times in his life, in order to carry on , Nephi needed a bow and a bowt.

Having said my piece, I might now "bow" out of this discussion.

I'm expecting that at the next conference, we will hear divinely inspired counsel from God's living oracle on the earth and from his two counsellors, and also from the 12 living apostles. What more do you want? What more do you need? Aspects of this thread remind me of both 3rd Nephi 2:1 and 3rd Nephi 8: AND it came to pass that thus passed away the ninety and fifth year also, and the people began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard, and began to be less and less astonished at a sign or a wonder from heaven, (Book of Mormon | 3 Nephi 2:1) 3 And the people began to look with great earnestness for the sign which had been given by the prophet (Book of Mormon | 3 Nephi 8:3)

Perhaps it might be interesting to read this account as just one of many different accounts of the many different ways God has responded, or not, to the hunger of his people. Off the top of my head, some other accounts that come to mind are: Moses and the Israelites being fed manna and the quail falling from the sky Elijah and widow and the cruse of oil Christ feeding the multitudes on several occasions The account in Helaman 11 when the wicked Nephites were about to perish as a result of the famine and the finally decided to call on Nephi to ask him to ask God to end the famine Alma asking Amulek for something to eat in Alma 8 Christ cursing the fig tree when He found that it had no fruit Noah, Lehi and Jared, all making preparations for a long sea voyage Moroni's army in Alma 60, about to perish for want of food No doubt there are many more examples than this of how God has chosen to respond to the desire of His people for food. Now I’m wondering, if we gather enough examples, and then analyse all of them, and the numerous variables involved, would we start to get close to some sort of tentative conclusion or general rule, that would have some predictive power, of how God, in a given set of circumstances, is likely to respond to the desire of His people for food? if the answer is no, we might be left with the conclusions that either a) God is totally random in His actions, or b) we can never figure out why God does what He does. I find both of these possibilities to be unsatisfactory and somewhat unlikely.

I think I can say with some confidence, that not going to see the Bishop will make you feel far, far, worse, for much, much longer, than going to see the Bishop. 22 Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved. (Book of Mormon | 3 Nephi 9:22)

I take your word that it does but I maintain that barring any particular group from participating in the formation of their government is a dilution of democracy. I'm also making the point that diluting a democracy by barring certain groups from participating in the formation of their government is not always a bad thing. And perhaps the framers of the constitution deliberately chose to dilute democracy by barring 18 year olds from voting in the interests of stable government. Or perhaps they had some other reason for doing so.

Perhaps, perhaps not. If we define democracy as the process whereby people get to vote to choose their government, then its hard to argue against the proposition that barring any particular group the right to participate in the choosing of their government is a dilution of that particular democracy, even if you are a framer of the US Constitution. But purity of the democracy is only one concern of many, to be weighed and balanced against many other concerns when you are framing a constitution. Perhaps the framers willingly and knowingly opted for a dilution of their democracy as a trade-off against the benefits of avoiding an unstable and foolish President, which you might get if you had an 18 year old President. Or perhaps not.

No doubt you remember it well

Denying the 18 year old the opportunity to run for President dilutes the quality of a democracy because it lessens the range of choices available to the populus. One would sincerely hope that the 18 year old does not win the election, and perhaps strongly campaign against him, but if that is what the majority of the people want, and its a fair election then let the 18 year old become President.

Not sex?

What I'm trying to get at here is the question of the balance between those forces/influences that help us get to heaven, and those influences which hinder us our journey. I'm using the idea of a particularly dense mist of darkness as indicative of a strong, powerful, influence seeking to hinder our journey and the width of the path as indicative of a safe, easy, path. So, to restate my question, how and by whom, and on what basis was it determined how strong/powerful/effective/ successful the hindering influences would be, and how strong/powerful/effective/successful the helpful influences would be, and what the relative balance between these two opposing forces would be. I agree in part with @CV75's comment that to some extent, the amount of power those influences have over us is a matter of choice, but I also believe that evil has its own power, seperate from, and additional to, whatever power we may grant it, just as do righteous influences. Evil and good influences, ie, thick mists and wide paths, are part of the environment in which we live and I suspect that that sort of good and evil is beyond our ability to influence. Evil and good influences also impact on us individually, and that is something that we can do something about.

Yes, I agree, so much depends on the atonement and our individual choices, but it seems to me that the choices we make are very much influenced by the relative strengths of good and evil influences operating on us at the time we make those choices. The factors that shape the setting in which we make those choices are likely to have an impact on the choices made within that setting.

Well, I sincerely hope for my sake that there might be at least a few wh ites.

Clearly things were better back in the 1940's. There was no @MormonGator back then......... or was there?

I think the following from verse 3 of section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants might be applicable here: 3 Given for a principle with promise, adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints, who are or can be called saints. (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 89:3) I'm not trying to say you are weak. The point I'm trying to draw your attention to is that some principles might be adaptable, according to the capacity of the saints. However, I will add that cautionary note that we need to be very careful about deciding if and how we will adapt any principles to fit our own circumstances. Such decisions are best made in consultation with local Priesthood leaders.

Unless you're a dad - in which case you should be a stay at home dad.

Our Sunday School lesson today was about Lehi’s dream. I see this dream as a metaphor for our journey through mortality towards exhaltation. In his dream, Lehi saw both helps to exhaltation – the path and the iron road – and hindrances – the mists of darkness and the filthy river. It occurred to me that in real life, in this mortal situation we are all now in, both the nature and the degree of the helps and hindrances, and the relative balance between helps and hindrances, might not be random. In the context of Lehi’s dream, how was it decided how thick, or thin, the mists of darkness should be, and how was it decided how wide or narrow the path should be? The value of these variables would have had a significant impact on how many people ended up at the tree and how many ended up at the river. To give a more concrete example, one help we have on our path is the guidance of the Spirit, and one hindrance is the temptations of the devil. I suspect that to a certain extent these two forces – the pull towards good from the Spirit, and the pull towards evil from the devil – are an ever present, constant part of the conditions under which we all live, but the degree to which they influence individual’s actions depends to some extent on factors specific to the actor. So then I started to wonder who decided, and how was it decided, what the helps and hindrances would be, what the balance between them would be, and what factors determined what the balance was going to be. It seems to me that the relative balance between these two forces will have a greater impact than a great many other factors in determining the ultimate outcome of the Plan of Salvation, so I think it might be worth wondering how that balance came to be. I’m wondering if it’s something that God decided entirely according to His own free will, or was it something that had to be decided in accordance with some sort of universal law that God is subject to, or did He simply approve a recommendation from the relevant Plan of Salvation design committee, or perhaps it is what it is because that’s how it has always been, worlds without end. Any thoughts, comments, questions or answers on any part of these musings would be welcome. I realise that much of this is speculative and that there might not be a lot that is readily transparent in the scriptures or modern day prophetic teachings on these questions however I don’t see that as a barrier to considering different possibilities; it just means that we have to exercise caution in how much reliance we can place on any conclusions we may come up with.

Just by way of information, some time last year, one of the states in Australia passed legislation removing the protection of the confession. Leading Catholic bishops in that state have said they will not comply with that legislation. I believe that another state is now preparing similar legislation. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/priests-to-report-confessed-sex-abuse-under-new-laws/news-story/692361e008269272ce4b175609db739f

I'm not sure if you have this kind of slang in the US, but from my reading of these posts, it appears that somebody is being taken for a ride.