nuclearfuels

God and guns.

President Monson has said in General Conference:
April 2008
As bearers of the priesthood, we have been placed on earth in troubled times. We live in a complex world with currents of conflict everywhere to be found. Political machinations ruin the stability of nations, despots grasp for power, and segments of society seem forever downtrodden, deprived of opportunity, and left with a feeling of failure.

October 2014
As bearers of the priesthood, we have been placed on earth in troubled times. We live in a complex world with currents of conflict everywhere to be found. Political schemes ruin the stability of nations, despots grasp for power, and segments of society seem forever downtrodden, deprived of opportunity and left with a feeling of failure. The sophistries of men ring in our ears, and sin surrounds us.
--
Any thoughts on this? Makes me think it's time to prepare, like a lot; like buying antibiotics, weapons, fuel, year supply of food, etc.  Makes me wonder also if the Restored Gospel is compatible with any political party, and I think the answer is no because God's goals aren't subject to being re-elected. 
 

God and guns.

Khan's son died due to a war Clinton repeatedly voted for, when she wasn't voting to limit the funds required to send the military the weapons and defenses they needed.  Trump never supported the Iraq War. 
Everyone who died in Benghazi was a direct result of Hillary Clinton.  Trump had nothing to do with this.

My family is visiting Washington DC, and we stopped at the Jefferson Memorial yesterday. A very moving place.
My wife and I both got choked up reading the preamble from the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights."
I also noted the following on a facing wall:
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, even that his justice cannot sleep forever."
Is there any doubt that Jefferson was one of the principle people the Lord referred to when he said:
 

 

 
Quotations on the Jefferson Memorial
https://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/quotations-jefferson-memorial

My wife of 1 month was just baptized on July 23 and confirmed a member on July 24.  What can I do as her husband to bring the gospel more into our home in a positive influence?  I am a former member who is coming back to church so I am not re-baptized yet.

I've always felt that I probably wouldn't but that it would happen in my kids lifetime.  Just my thoughts.

its only confusing if you don't pay attention to what happened with David and Solomon.   They had many wives.   Which were justified because they have approval to do so.    Then they took wives that they were not approved to take and that was an abomination.  Thus both Jacob 2 and D&C 132 are in harmony... they just focus on different sides of the approval process.
Jacob focus on what his people were doing..  "Taking many wives without permission" and pointed out that was both David and Solomon's mistake.  D&C 132 focus on teaching us how to do it right and that David and Solomon were good in the sight of God in doing so until they transgressed
 

President Monson's 2008 quote reminds me of what Benedict XVI  wrote in his book Jesus of Nazareth. My limited memory remebers him stating that empires and countries come and go. Alexander the Great is no longer with us, or othe rulers in history. He did write however that we always have the poor (downtrodden). His question then was, what do we do with the poor?
As a bit of an anarchist, I do not believe the bureaucrats in the world have an answer. Regardless of their political and economic points of view.
I do believe, however, the answer is found in the Book of Mosiah. Plato's ultimate political ruler was the philosopher king. In Mosiah we have King Benjamin, who I think Plato would have shed tears over. 

You understand that the Millennium is mortality.
Lehi

Well said. 
It's almost more exciting anticipating what will be revealed in coming years, than, i imagine, actually practicing what will be revealed: law of consecration, plural marriage, everybody move to SLC or Missouri, etc.

The eternal laws and principles by which God operates remain intact and in force on all of His creations.  God didn't create these eternal truths but he complies with them and IMHO we all will have to if we want to become like Him. The problem comes in assuming there is some huge, giant gap between scientific laws and eternal laws; no gap, just compliance and understanding and appreciating the Atonement and Plan of Salvation.

In theory Lehi could have met Buddha. Buddha is a semi mythological person, and the facts about his life are uncertain. "He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE"  according to Wikipedia.
 Several famous people live around the time of Lehi. Hugh Nibley speculated that Lehi being a rich merchant could've traveled widely, and could have known Solon of Greece, for example

Also, an active, unabashed LDS, of the Restoration time-frame in leanings

Re: your side thought: not sure about that, other than in Siam or other than in "The King and I"
My wife's ancestors, like most early LDS Pioneers in UT, were poor farmers and plural marriage practitioners. 
She didn't tell me about her ancestors who practiced that until after we'd been married for several years.  I hadn't really thought about plural marriage before she brought it up since my parents are converts.  She said she'd live it if it was commanded / re-instituted; not sure I would, at least without several prescription medications, regardless of the number of mothers in law.

This I would never do; sorry, but even I have my limits

Interestingly, though, Mormonism does have a relatively high number of unwed females who are not (pardon the crassness) "producing" babies, but might be if polygamy were re-introduced.  This article deals with some of that (and compares us with Orthodox Jews).  The article suggests that a lot of the problem comes from a) higher rates of apostasy by males, particularly in the gap between graduation from high school and the beginning of missionary eligibility; and b) disparate marrying ages between Mormon men and Mormon women--at least in part, a function of the different missionary eligibility ages for men versus women.  The article further suggests that the problem will be somewhat alleviated as a natural consequence of the Church's recently changing the ages for missionary service.
With regard to the original post:  The notion that the secular world would see a need for polygamy, presupposes the secular world's seeing a need for marriage generally.  I think we would need a monumental change of course in current social trends, for that to occur.  Fish and bicycles, and all that . . .

How does one pop a bubble a little less or a little more than any other way?
Lehi

A) yes it does stand to reason that Christ suffered more pain from some individuals than others. And it is also reasonable that there was an amount to the pain.... its just that it is beyond anything that we could imagine or experience in this life.

And i would say that the more truth there is in something the more valuable it is. i also think there is a sheer value in something if only for historical reasons if nothing else..... But ya you'll see the same themes and characters across almost all the old religions, tweaked and rearranged depending on which culture but still there.

Having competed in some sports in my younger years – one of the concepts of fencing was rather interesting.  One defensive goal in fencing is to slightly alter the opponents attack just enough to prevent a score (rather than to completely block or prevent their attack) and then gain advantage of their attack momentum to win the score.  In essence, when we miss or fail short, the opposition always wins regardless of how far off the mark one is.
But I would comment on your cataloging of sin – Jesus taught that to fail to forgive another of their transgressions was a greater sin than was the initial transgression.
 
The Traveler

Maybe a 1 in a 1,000,000 chance of it happening in our lifetime. So...there is a distinct possibility that your father might be correct.
 

Since murder and sexual sin are the worst and second worst sins a person can commit, does it stand to reason or "make reason stare" to postulate that:
- During the Savior's Atonement, He suffered specific amounts of pain for each sin, suffering the most for murder and lesser pain for lesser sins?
- some of the truths taught to Adam and Eve and their children, which were apostatized / taken and tweaked without the priesthood authority, are more...valuable / important to eternal salvation than others?
Specifically I'm thinking of eternal progression. As we grow from intelligence to spirit body to physical body with spirit body to death to resurrection (and then 1 Trillion googleplex years later) to godhood, that shows the truth of eternal progression; there never was a time when we didn't exist, in some form or another.  Now when you look at Buddhism, Hinduism and other Eastern Religions, they seem to understand eternal progression at a much higher level than people/religions in other parts of the world - like the areas that don't believe in a premortal life but believe Jesus saved everyone, even the people who lived before He was born. 
So...seems to me that claiming the Bible is all there is vs. claiming eternal progression exists (even though reincarnation is not part of that), is a closer grasp to a heavier / more important concept of the eternal gospel.

If a devout LDS was to visit an ancient or long standing Buddhist grave yard and look around they would see things and wonder where such things had roots in the past.  Likewise Buddhism underwent some rather interesting “transformations” of refinements in the first century BC up through the 3rd and 4th century BC – similar to Christianity.  It is also interesting that at the end of this cycle of transformation and refinement that much of the great texts being preserved in libraries (such as the great Library of Alexandria in Egypt were destroyed – all about the same time period in history) which were destroyed from Eastern libraries.  Hmmmmm where did the Kings come from???
One of the greatest archeological finds of the most ancient hidden Buddhist manuscripts also contain New Testament texts.  But Christians are not interested in ancient Buddhist archeological finds – they cannot even deal honestly with the Dead Sea Scrolls – calling the texts Essen when many of the scribes at what Christians call Qumran were also at Masada and no one has ever suggested that Masada was Essen.  And the biggest cover up of all – is the ancient name of the settlement – Big hint – it was not Qumran it was Damascus.
My point being my friend nuclearfuels – you do not have to make anything up with wild theories of speculation – a detailed study of history will provide all the fuel to controversy one can handle.
 
The Traveler

Well said, my friend

Maybe I haven't made my point clearly, so I apologize. 

Legalized? Maybe.

Authorized and commanded by God after polygamy being legalized? I don't know.

This part of this quote is intriguing as it was given in 1881, and then 9 years later the Church abandoned (at that moment and currently) polygamy. In light of polygamy, Mormons were forced to follow the ways of men, rather than the ways of God.
Polygamy, I can't see being accepted as a nation by law, except through the viewpoint of religious freedom. We live in a time where we will receive a "restoration" of all things, which includes polygamy. People can argue that it has already been restored and taken away, or people can argue that polygamy existed previously, accepted by the Lord, and will one day be commanded again. As to reasons why, I haven't personally experienced any spiritual witness to agree with your father, or the notion that plagues will result in a declaration to live it once again; however, a plague which would cost human lives...definitely could be a result for the need.
As the nation continues to increase in wickedness, we (the world) are already in a state of wickedness where the Lord could come any day now, and yet we still wait. Polygamy could definitely be restored in our lifetime. This may be a reason for greater righteousness, as honorable priesthood holders are able to bear more children with multiple wives.
The reality...nothing has been revealed, but if we are honorable priesthood holders we will move forward in righteousness in doing as the Lord commands, or as with other generations we will continue to kick against the pricks, mock the prophets, and leave the Church -- because we know better than the Lord's annointed. I simply have faith and hope, with whatever direction the Lord moves his prophets, seers, and revelators toward I will move forward with them, as I already have witness they are lead by God, as this is his Church.