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Showing posts from June, 2009

The Olive Tree and the Gospel

I would like to connect the gospel with the allegory of the olive tree, the sacrament prayer and your life to see if I can help the spirit inspire you to live better. When we were born we died spiritually because of the fall of Adam; that is, we left God's presence to come to earth. The Lord caused that we should die physically, symbolic of that spiritual death and the second spiritual death that should come except we live by certain conditions. Those conditions were taught to us and shown to us by Jesus Christ and his prophets and faithful saints. In the allegory of the olive tree the Lord compares the tree to the house of Israel or to you who are of the house of Israel . In the allegory the Lord talks about what He does to bless you and help you come back to Him. He starts out with your spiritual fall and what He does to keep you from falling further ( v4 ). Then talks about how He puts thorns in your side (wild branches) to inspire you to rely on your roots - your covenants ma

The Line between Heaven and Hell

To some it is difficult to tell what the dividing line is between heaven and hell. Here I am not talking to Christians as a whole, I am talking to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: The question 'what is the dividing line between heaven and hell?' is answered by many members of this church as the celestial kingdom. That is where God the Father dwells. That is where faithful members of this church go. Some say that it is the only kingdom that requires baptism. All those who do not dwell with God the Father are in hell. Other people would say - its not that easy - heaven is the celestial kingdom and hell is outer darkness but there are two kingdoms in between. Well, as far as the scriptures are concerned there is no in between; either one goes to heaven or to hell. Others would say that the dividing line is between the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms because everyone that goes to the telestial kingdom are the murderers, whoremongers and liars. Those wh