rayhale

I have a question, the Word of Wisdom states that HOT drinks are not for the body or belly. I know that even though that hot drinks has been clarified as coffee and tea, my question is, since it does say hot drinks, shouldn't ALL hot drinks be included, like hot chocolate, or any other hot drink?

I know that Joesph Smith said, “Teach the people correct principles....and let them govern themselves”, but I have a question. How can people govern themselves, when the principles are so vague that ten people can have ten or more opinions on what those principles are? For example, the question that we are discussing, what is considered an increase?

I haven’t heard of people joining the Church, and doing all the temple recommend requirements, just to look inside, but I have heard of a man or a woman joining the Church, becoming active, for a woman/man, but as soon as they get married, he/she goes inactive. I feel that no one should state things that they have no personal knowledge of, like stating something that you have heard from somewhere, by someone, at sometime in the past.

Deseret, I think you need to reread the link that you gave me. It states: Which brings me to the topic of whether or not if someone in your group has experince in poitics, or in tax law, or any other form of law?

Deseretgov, in your last post, you have been more forthcoming of what your group intends to do, yet you say that you want to create new currency. How would that be feasible, when you say that you have no intention to succeed from the United States? Native American Reservations are concerned sovereign Nations, yet they still use the American Dollar. How are you going to deal with the American tax system? Are stores in your 'area' going to accept both the American Dollar, and your form of currency? If yes, then how is that going to work? And there is still the question of what are you going to do with the people living in your 'area' but does NOT want to have anything to do with you?

I do feel that Prejean could have answered in a better way, she said, “in MY country” that would suggest that she lives in a different country than the United States. The WHOLE thing is stupid, people expect that these girls to be experts in EVERYTHING, yet clearly they are not! What is the point for the Ms. America, USA, Universe, World, or any other pageant? They discriminate against sex, weight, race (there are more races than white, black, Asian, and Latino; like Native American, Polynesian, to name a few, plus there are all sorts of shades of color within those races), and of course they not only discriminate against, beauty, but they JUDGE people on it. They also, if not officially sponsor it, they don't discourage anyone from anorexia, bulimia, or any other eating disorder, or have anything in their rulebooks, to take a contestant out of the contest, if it is found out that someone had one of these disorders (I might be wrong in this area, so correct me, if I'm wrong). Also, the Ms. California committee said that they paid for her to have breast enhancement surgery. This was clearly a personal attack against her, because, they figured that if she was SO religious by not accepting gay marriage, then why would she accept body enhancement?

One major question I have is HOW? How are going to be totally self sufficient? What forms of power are you going to use? Nuclear, solar, wind, thermal, or some other form of power? Also how can you make a certain area self sufficient, are you going to ask people to move? What are you going to do with people that live in the boundaries of Nation of Deseret? p.s. What are the boundaries?

I think that the Church, as a whole, has been doing a good job at putting out the Gospel in various web sites. The Church has an official Youtube page at: YouTube - MormonMessages's Channel; the official church site: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is LARGE, as is the other official sites, like Mormon.org - Home; and Jesus Christ, The Son of God; ; they (as far as I could find) did not have a FAQ section, they just tell people the Church's basic beliefs. I think that we should answer what questions that we can, and also give out the web page of what is being asked like the 'mini' sites like the scriptures site: http://scriptures.lds.org. I agree that we shouldn't just give out these sites, and say in effect, “good luck”, I think that there is nothing wrong in stating our opinions, as long as you make it clear, that it is just that, your OWN opinion.

Here are some Church history books that are good to read: A comprehensive history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - 6 volumes by B.H. Roberts History of the Church – 7 volumes by B.H. Roberts History of Joseph Smith by his mother – Lucy Mack Smith Journal of Discourses – 27 volumes (church historians have said over, and over, that this is NOT an official publication of the Church) Joseph Smith Papers – this is a volume that is not done yet. The Editors promise that they will publish all documents that Joseph Smith wrote, or had written for him, even the documents that will make the Church look bad. There are other books you can read, but the main thing you have to consider is the date that book was written in. It could have just regurgitated what an earlier book has said. Here is my list of things I would look for, when looking at a Church history book: Does it have sources for what it states, and are the sources independent of each other, or is one quoting another, which is quoting another? Who, or what group, authored this book, is the author pro, anti, or neutral? For those of us who do not have access to private libraries, journals, or anything else not public, how many of the source texts can you buy and read for YOURSELF?

You make an excellent point. A critic of religion thinks it's funny that people in one religion will laugh at other religions unbelievable beliefs, yet they also have unbelievable beliefs, like a virgin becoming pregnant, Jesus coming back to life, and most any other Bible story.

I bring my book bag that has: My Scriptures Our Heritage JS manual A binder that has articles about different subjects, and with articles about all the Scriptures as a whole, the Bible as a whole, The Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. The newest General Conference Ensign

You can go to: GospeLink.com - Search the Deseret Book Online LDS Library to find a lot of books of commentaries of scripture, you have to pay $50 per year, but I think with all the information on the site, it's well worth it.

Go to this web page: Online Catalog - Audio Recordings= you can also go to any LDS bookstore, like Deseret Book.

In the 13th Article of Faith, it states: I highlighted the last sentence to make a point, some of these beliefs that are considered to be of Satan, and worship him, don't. One example that I can think of is Voodoo, just go to wikipedia, and search for the term of voodoo, and you get several different religious, and cultural suggestions. Hollywood just makes things even more confusing, when they stereotype, and make generalizations that are not true. A faith, or belief that is considered 'un-Christian' might have more truth than some Christian. A person could argue that prayer is just like an incantation. The main point that I'm making is that people need to learn about all beliefs and not to assume, or take other people's thoughts on a religion that is against it.

I've seen in several commentaries that the people in the Bible, was more concerned with the moral of the story than the truthfulness of it. A great example is the Parables of Jesus. Were all his parables based on real life circumstances or were they just generalizations? Now to the story of Noah's Ark, there are several different things about that story that doesn't make sense, like the number of animals; even at a very small amount of 5,000 if you divide it by 8, the number of people on the ark, then that is 625 animals per person to feed, and that leads me to the next problem, food, even if there was enough space for the animals and people to be on the ark, there needed to be at least one or more arks, full of food, just to feed everyone, now that leads to the next point, what goes in, MUST come out, now I don't want to be too graphic, but it would, not only, be a mess, but no one would be able to breath. Now I'm not discounting the Noah's Ark story on just that, because God could put all the animals to sleep, like He did to Adam, in the Garden of Eden. Or God could have had Angels helping out, having food 'appearing' like he did with the loaves and the fishes, during the Sermon on the Mount, and the Manna in the Old Testament.

Great video, I just feel I need to add to what was presented, and say that on the first Sunday of each month, worship service is a testimony meeting, where no one is assigned talks, but are for anyone in the congregation to stand up and share their testimony with everyone. Also on the first weekend of April, and October, there is General Conference, this you can watch on TV (where available), on the Internet, or at your local Stake Center. The Church has Stake Conferences as well, but you need to talk to your local Church leaders when that takes place.

There has been several Apostles that have been excommunicated and have gotten rebaptized back into the Church. An Apostle is a special witness of Jesus Christ, yet if one is excommunicated, he, as far as I know, is not considered a Son of Perdition, so I highly doubt any one else, will be one.

I think applepansy is confused, the online scripture ‘highlighting’ feature is just for easier reading a passage that has been quoted from a talk. For example if your reading 2 Nephi 10:15-17, the highlighting feature makes it easier to see and to read those passages, you can’t (as far as I know) highlight scriptures for all time.

Living like a missionary is great, but like several other posts have stated, you will have to pick and choose what you do. You might not be able to read your scriptures for a full hour a day, yet you can still read as much as you can, like half an hour, or even for ten minutes. During your mission, you only had one concern, doing missionary work, preaching, teaching, and expounding the gospel, yet after your mission, you have work, family, and church responsibilities. This is a balancing act that is not always perfect.

If you want to, you can go to the temple within a few weeks of your baptism; you can do baptisms for the dead.

Since the class is Missionary Preparation, then one of the most important things to do, is to apply what they learn, like to ask local missionaries to come in and talk to the class, and answer questions. Role-playing is used on the mission field, have your class to break into small groups, if you have enough students, and have them act like missionaries, and investigators. Like most everyone said, teach out of the Preach My Gospel, and if possible, see if you can get a copy for everyone in the class, so they can follow along, and to study it while at home. Also teach the lessons as if your class knows nothing about the gospel, since this is going to be the way they are going to teach the gospel on the field. I would also talk about non-gospel orientated things that most people don’t think of, such as doing your own laundry, cooking, cleaning, and shopping. In addition, by all means, make sure they realize that, when they are on their mission, they are using, and spending, the Lord’s money, so they should treat it as such.

Whether or not you consider your ‘government’ to treason against the United States government, the simple fact that you are trying to acquire all ready occupied land, and if by some miracle, you do get your own ‘country‘ within United States of America, what will you do with all the millions of people that live inside ‘your’ country? Even if the U.S. government doesn’t consider what you are doing is an act of treason, or an act of war, the people that don’t want to live in your country, will! In the eighteen hundreds, when the Nation of Deseret was first envisioned, we weren’t displacing anyone, taking away any ones freedom, besides the natives of this country, which is a discussion for another time. You may not think that you’re declaring war on the United States government, but for all the millions of people inside your country, territory, or whatever you want to call it, it will be WAR!!! So don’t think that acquiring your country won’t be a bloody one.

deseretgov, on the NoD website in the Why Choose Deseret section, I feel it is written unprofessionally. Mainly the statements on Economy and Finances. In addition, your comparison to the Presidential Candidates is written unprofessionally. It just brings up hot button topics, like CEOs that destroy a company, yet get a bonus, while a schoolteacher that has students that become doctors, lawyers, and other major jobs, get barely over minimum wage. You don’t make any solutions, just state problems.

I have read the Quran too. I agree with Hemi, the Quran is not scripture. What most Christians may not realize is that the Quran talks a lot about Jesus; they feel that He was a prophet, but not the Messiah. Also Mohammed may have been a wise man, and inspired, but he was not a prophet of God.

Angels, spirits, and souls, have been used interchangeably. Generally, Angels are the servants of God, or the devil in Heaven or Hell, and can be said that they are ministers to God or Satan. Spirits is the more general term. The Soul is the Sprit and the body together.