askandanswer

Clearly there still exists enough light and truth about this doctrine for you to have studied it extensively. That makes it hard for me to see how this knowledge has been taken away.

1. Because methods of publication and distribution were not as fast or as widespread as they are now. Compare with how long it took to publish and disseminate the Book of Mormon to England and Canada with how long it takes to do the same with a publication today. 2. Because there were fewer organisations and individuals that were inclined to make the kinds of attacks we are now seeing. Levels of hate, and the organisations of the haters seem to be higher and better organised now than previously. 3. Those who were inclined to make such attacks were focussed on bigger targets rather than a new and obscure group that only had a significant presence in a few US states. I've noticed some changes in the world since I've been in it, and no doubt there were some changes between 1830 and my arrival. Changed circumstances sometimes require a response and sometimes that response involves doing things differently.

To publish the revelations in a publicly available book is to make them available to the world and we know who is the god of this world. I can see some advantages in not signaling your moves to the opposition. I'm not saying this is the reason why the revelations are no longer made publicly available in the way that they used to be, but this possibility does have some plausibility

Perhaps it might be more correct to say that his head was re-placed - from his shoulders to the ground.

This is something that interests me as well. I've always wondered what it would be like to make an error. Sometimes I think about deliberately making an error just to see what it would feel like, but when I actually try to, I just don't know how to do it. (Well, not always )

Yes, this is true. But this doesn't explain why there hasn't been a single revelation quoting the words of God directly that has been added to our scriptures since 1847. The question is why this is? Because it is not necessary.

Perhaps you missed my earlier post on the previous page where I responded to this question. Here is the essence of that post. From a talk that I know some people here highly appreciate https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/ezra-taft-benson/fourteen-fundamentals-following-prophet/ Sixth: The prophet does not have to say “Thus saith the Lord” to give us scripture. Sometimes there are those who haggle over words. They might say the prophet gave us counsel but that we are not obligated to follow it unless he says it is a commandment. But the Lord says of the Prophet Joseph, “Thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you” (D&C 21:4; italics added). I note that this talk was also quoted in the October 2010 session of General Conference. I did a quick search of the scriptures searching for the phrase "Thus saith the Lord" using the search function on the church website. I acknowledge that is not always a reliable search function. The search returned a lot of results for the Old Testament, the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants, one result for the Pearl of Great Price, and no results for the New Testament, when the Lord actually said quite a few things. We should not discount what Christ said in the New Testament simply because it is not preceded by "Thus saith the Lord." Despite the absence of the use of the phrase "Thus saith the Lord" I would value the inspired messages of the Lord contained in our General Conference reports more highly than all the scriptures that say "Thus saith the Lord." I'm often puzzled why people think that the word of the Lord given to people in cultures far distant from our own in time and distance is of equal or greater value than the word of the Lord given to prophets living here and now. The past is a foreign country. Addressing your point about no visions since 1918, if Proverbs 29:18 is true, that where there is no vision, the people perish, it is probable that the reverse is also true - where there is vision the people perish not. With its continuing rate of growth, the church and its members, are flourishing more than perishing, so I guess we can assume that there is vision. Who has it, and where its recorded, is not always clear, but I think its as clear as it needs to be for the Lord's purposes. In addition, I suspect that to be a special witness of Christ, as are, and have been, all of the apostles, you probably need to have witnessed something. I would be happy to consider whatever they have witnessed to be a vision, or something equivalent.

I have some uncertainties about the idea that there is a connection between the availability of the word of God and the wickedness/righteousness of the inhabitants of the world. If people are being bad then perhaps they need more of the word of God to help them become better. If people are being good, then they should be brought to a higher level through the receipt and application of more of the Word. I also have some uncertainties about the idea that there has been a reduction in the quality and quantity of the word of God being received today because the people are wicked and undeserving / unheeding. I reject the notion that the word of God today is being held back because of the wickedness of the people. Never in the history of humanity, not even when Christ was on the Earth has there been such an abundance of the word of God as there is today. More of His word can be found in more places than ever before, and more comes almost every day. I don’t know if we can make any reliable conclusions about the wickedness and righteousness of the people today compared to other times but the multiplicity of temples around suggests that the balance today tips more towards being more righteous.

A latter-day Prophet describing how he received revelation https://www.thechurchnews.com/1998/8/1/23250349/inspiration-came-for-smaller-temples-on-trip-to-mexico/

From a talk that I know some people here highly appreciate https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/ezra-taft-benson/fourteen-fundamentals-following-prophet/ Sixth: The prophet does not have to say “Thus saith the Lord” to give us scripture. Sometimes there are those who haggle over words. They might say the prophet gave us counsel but that we are not obligated to follow it unless he says it is a commandment. But the Lord says of the Prophet Joseph, “Thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you” (D&C 21:4; italics added). And speaking of taking counsel from the prophet, in D&C 108:1, the Lord states: “Verily thus saith the Lord unto you, my servant Lyman: Your sins are forgiven you, because you have obeyed my voice in coming up hither this morning to receive counsel of him whom I have appointed” (italics added). Said Brigham Young, “I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call scripture” (Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot], 13:95).

I have vague memories of PResident Hinckley describing how he received revelation about the design of small temples. I think it happened while he was on an overnight plane trip ahd he started with some skeches on the back of an envelope. I'm not engaged in this discussion enough to go and search for that talk. However, the topic does resonate with something I've been thinking about lately, and that's Amos 3:7. 7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, abut he brevealeth his csecret unto his servants the dprophets. If this verse is true, I think what happened with covid, specfically, the lack of a clear warning, would support the conclusion that if the Lord does reveal everything to the prophets, the prophets don't then pass everything on to us. The way the Prophet, and the church as a whole, responded to covid seemed to suggest that they were unaware, and unprepared, that it was coming.

The imagery/analogy is faulty given that the sun is a star.

It would have been very helpful if you had mentioned this earlier! I've been trying to work out what I've been doing wrong. Perhaps I should start trying to go through trees instead of trying to go around them. I'll have to think about that a bit.

As someone involved in education, I'm really disappointed at the number at the number of students who take a literal interpretation to the first line of this quote.

This is the main reason why I'm thinking of ending this universe and starting again with a new one. All that effort involved in creation, just to lead to an outcome like this! It hardly seems worth the effort.

I believe that few, if anybody, and more likely, nobody, knows the details of the atonement. What we know is how to make it effective in our lives Knowing that is the most important thing to know, but only a tiny fraction of all there is to know, about the atonement.

So is it the case that the term God is both a collective noun, referring to one organisation consisting of three Gods and a personal pronoun, referring to each member of that organisation? And now I'm starting to wonder where God's wife fits into things, and Christ's wife. What is their part or role? Is God, in the collective sense, composed of 5 individuals? Or perhaps God and His wife count as one individual and Christ and His wife count as one individual?

4 And they are aone God, yea, the very bEternal cFather of heaven and of earth. Does the use of the pronoun they in this verse add support to the idea that Jesus and His Father are, collectively, one God?

Its an odd situation where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is funding the missionary efforts of the Community of Christ.The next time I renew my temple recommend I'm going to be asked whether I support or promote any teachings, practices or doctrine contrary to those of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter_Day Saints. If I'd provided just $1,000 to support the missionary efforts of a church whose missionaries taught that this was a false church I think I might have to answer yes to that question. I'm not going to say that the church should not have done this because its not my place to say such things. I'm just saying its an odd situation.

I have vague memories of reading about a discussion between the leaders of the two churches many decades ago in which the then Reorganised church offered to sell the LDS church the Kirtland Temple and the LDS church turning the offer down with the reason that the time would come that the Reorganised church would be so poor that they would give the Temple to us. It appears that that has not happened. Does anybody else recall something like this?

How interesting! I've never seen a baby wombat in a pouch before. Lots of joey kangaroos in pouches, but never a wombat.

We encountered this wombat wandering along the side of the road when we were on a trip to the south coast. It was unusual to see a wombat wandering around so close to a road during the day so we got out and had a closer look. Something, maybe us, must have scared it because suddenly it started running. I think it was heading for its hole. Unfortunately, I see far more dead wombats than live ones by the side of the road. There is a place about an hour from where I now live that does jumping crocodile tours. You can take a boat the size of a small ferry which puts you well above the water line or you can take what is commonly referred to as a "tinnie" which is a very small boat which puts you almost at the same level as the crocodils. We took the tinnie. This part of the Adelaide River has a very dense crocodile population. We saw about 10 crocs in less than a kilometer. https://www.adrenaline.com.au/tours/darwin/jumpings-crocodile-cruise-adelaide-river/

Its really hard to imagine a wombat maintaining that sort of speed for more than, at a guess, 90 seconds on flat ground. I suspect they would have considerable energy reserves given how fat they are and how little they generally move.

I thought that happened during covid. I know the mission I am living in shrunk to less than 20% of its normal size during covid.

I remember being amazed the first time I saw a wombat run. Until then I had only seen them move at a very slow pace. For a moment I thought it was chasing me and I got a bit worried , but when I changed direction it ran straight past me.