Seven of Everything

Their are many who are wicked in this life, who will remain wicked after they die, never accepting Jesus, but not denying or rejecting the Holy Ghost. They will be capable of being saved, and be clean and spotless before God at the judgement day, because they will have paid the penalty of their transgressions which alone cleanses them. They will do this by suffering the wrath of God and the vengeance of eternal fire for their own sins for a thousand years which will cleanse them and justify them before God. They will not rely on the sufferings, mercies, or merits of Jesus because they rejected Him, His testimony, His gospel, His prophets, and His everlasting covenant in this life and the next. While remaining in their wicked state, yet being saved, they will receive a portion of God's glory, but certainly not a fullness. They will receive glory because they were not as wicked as the sons of perdition and yet they will still be in hell, incapable of being good. They will still be l...

I have been studying salvation for over 20 years. There is a lot to understand and a lot of opinions out there as to what it is and isn't. In order to remove opinion and understand core doctrine, I often resort to the scriptures to understand it more correctly and sometimes find that they contradict prominent or well accepted opinions. I have also discovered that to understand it better we must understand its opposite. This is a compilation of all scripture in the Book of Mormon with reference to the state of the soul after the resurrection. I started with the Book of Mormon because of its plainness and easiness to understand. This started out focusing on salvation and then, with my latest run through, decided to include everything relating to the state of the soul after resurrection (meaning after judgement). There are several verses which refer to this state of the soul after the resurrection which are either hypothetical or stated by those who were not prophets. These verses ar...

I want to preface this blog post with the fact that I am Christian and love Christmas music and hymns. My critiques below will not stop me from singing these hymns and does not mean that I think that the lyrics should be changed. There is much leeway given for artistic license and that is ok despite introducing incorrect concepts to the story of Christ's birth. Joy to the World Joy to the world, the Lord is come; Let earth receive her King! Let ev’ry heart prepare him room, And Saints and angels sing, And Saints and angels sing, And Saints, and Saints and angels sing. There is nothing wrong with Joy to the World being a Christmas hymn, but most verses are focused on the second coming. The first verse above can be seen referring to both the birth of Christ as well as the second coming of Christ. It is perfectly appropriate when thinking about Christ's birth to look forward to the second coming because that is one of many things that make His birth worth celebrating. ...

There is only one study comparing vaccinated and un-vaccinated children that discusses scoliosis that I have found. ( Vaccine Information Network ) This is a study done with raw data used for another study and analyzed independent of that source. In the study there were 17,641 children, 17,509 were vaccinated with at least one vaccine, and 132 children who were either not vaccinated or did not have proof of vaccination. Out of those vaccinated, 5.3% had scoliosis. Out of those not vaccinated, 0.00% had scoliosis. If this number were 5.30% then this is 928 children. Since it is not 5.30% but rather 5.3%, this allows for a range from 920 to 936 children who may have had scoliosis, taking into account rounding factors. The equivalent would be 7 children in the non-vaccinated group. However, there were none. In this study 100% of scoliosis cases were vaccinated and 0% of the non-vaccinated group had scoliosis. This turns out to be highly statistically significant. And in my opinion that...

There are many diagrams, graphics and visual aids used to depict the plan of salvation including one generally used throughout the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and known to most members of the church. I used to like it and use it until I found that it often promoted some concepts that are not scripturally accurate and even some false concepts. I have found a few that are better than the traditional one but still don't want to use them to teach primary children or investigators for one reason or another. Here is a visual aid that is both simple and scripturally accurate. There probably isn't much weaknesses in it due to its simplicity which is meant for explaining it to children and investigators. It may open a little can of worms for members of the church who have been taught some false opinions that have persisted in the church for many years and which have been detailed out in previous posts. Below is the visual aid and an explanation for it - not how i...

According to Elder Bruce R. McConkie: “Eternal life is not a name that has reference only to the unending duration of a future life; immortality is to live forever in the resurrected state, and by the grace of God all men will gain this unending continuance of life. But only those who obey the fulness of the gospel law will inherit eternal life. ( D&C 29:43-44 ) It is ‘the greatest of all the gifts of God' ( D&C 14:7 ), for it is the kind, status, type, and quality of life that God himself enjoys. Thus those who gain eternal life receive exaltation; they are sons of God, joint-heirs with Christ, members of the Church of the Firstborn; they overcome all things, have all power, and receive the fulness of the Father” (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 237). The first thing I want to say is that this quote, from the book Mormon Doctrine, was the opinion of its author Bruce R. McConkie. It was never agreed upon or declared as doctrine by the leaders of The Church of Jesus Chri...

"We are in the telestial kingdom" was a phrase stated at this last general conference which I would like to elaborate on. There are 9 verses in scripture using the word telestial and one Joseph Smith Translation (D&C 76 , 88 and JST 1 Cor 15:40 ). There are an additional 33 making reference to that kingdom in these three chapters; there may be more I did not catch. There is another verse in D&C 88:25 stating, "the earth abideth the law of a celestial kingdom." Out of all 44 of these verses, there is not one that makes any reference to us currently living in the telestial kingdom. So where did this idea come from, is it true, and what does it mean? This idea that we live in the telestial kingdom comes from the temple. It is a true principle but has been and continues to be largely misunderstood. It implies the world that we live in right now is the telestial kingdom. The incorrect interpretation for this is as follows: The world we live in is a fallen ...