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Showing posts from December, 2018

Salvation and Damnation in the Book of Mormon

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

Christmas Hymn Inaccuracies

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.