Seven of Everything

This blog post has a compilation of all verses of scripture using the words shine and shone. It does not go further into related words such as light, bright, fire, radiance, or glory, which could all give further insight into the topic. I divided the verses into related categories and some verses fit into more than one. I will summarize a couple of these. The different areas are: Men shining with glory here on earth, Men shining with glory in the future, Men commanded to shine forth, God's glory shining from Him, His angels, or from heaven, Objects in nature shining. Men Shining with Glory Here on Earth The prophet Moses was the first man on record to shine like God. His face was so bright that he had to put on a veil to protect the children of Israel from his brightness. He received or absorbed that brightness and glory from God while he stood in His presence and then that light emanated from his face for some time afterwards. Later, we had the prophet Abinadi, when the spirit of ...

As some of you may know, the Parable of the Good Samaritan is also an allegory and gives details of the God's plan of salvation. If you want to read more about the details behind it, there were two great articles written at the following links ( Simplified , Complete PDF ). I highly recommend reading them. This, however, is not what I am focusing on here. It appears to me that there is a structure of seven in this allegory and I intend to outline it here. It was not obvious but I think that the structure that I did find is fitting. Before I go into the structure, I do want to point out that there were two questions asked by the lawyer. The first is answered by the allegory and the second is answered by the parable. After telling the story, Jesus has the lawyer answer the second question and then he answers the first. And who is my neighbour? (Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?) He that shewed mercy on him. Master, what...

I've heard the phrase, Jesus did not need to be baptized. This simply isn't true. If it had a qualifier, perhaps it could be true. But Nephi, in 2 Nephi 31:5, specifies that Jesus "should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfil all righteousness." Then he went on to show how He fulfilled all righteousness in doing so. In verse 7, "He showeth unto the children of men that, according to the flesh He humbleth himself before the Father, and witnesseth unto the Father that He would be obedient unto Him in keeping His commandments." What would have happened if Jesus hadn't been baptized because He was righteous, without sin, and didn't need to repent? He would have broken the commandment of God to be baptized in order to be saved and return to live with God. By breaking that commandment, He would no longer have been righteous and would have had need to repent and be baptized, not just to obey the commandment, but also to be cleansed from sin; which...

I believe that the opposite of denying the Holy Ghost is receiving the Holy Ghost, that is through baptism. Everyone will have the choice to either receive or deny the Holy Ghost, there is no in between. The only exception to the water baptism requirement is outlined in the scriptures and I believe that those who do not need water baptism (because they don't need to repent) will choose to receive the Holy Ghost through whatever other means God has provided. This is a little confusing, possibly, because Jesus needed baptism to be saved but did not need to repent. However, the only exceptions are to those not accountable. Christ was accountable. The only reason that there are exceptions is because the merits and mercies of Christ save all those who are not accountable for sins, their own or that of others.

I created a paragraph in a previous blog post titled,  The False Doctrine of Telestial Glory , which is considered to be completely true by some members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I created it as an exercise to see if you could spot what was false and what was true. If you haven't done that, go ahead and read it, then come back to this post after you have tested your own knowledge of the telestial kingdom. The False Doctrine of Telestial Glory In reality every sentence of the paragraph was false doctrine. I will outline the details here:       "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." This is false because all those who remain wicked, deny and reject the Holy Ghost in their wicked nature. The Holy Ghost does not dwell in unholy temples. For someone to choose wickedness, they inherently reject the Holy Ghost. I don't know where th...

I was recently made aware of these two videos about a potential location for the river Lehi named Laman and the valley he named Lemuel. I like these videos. I like the suggested location for the valley of Lemuel, but I have issue with this concept: In the first video he states, 1:40, "we know that Lehi fled Jerusalem and traveled south to the borders of the Red Sea; and then from this point traveled 3 days further south to the valley of Lemuel." Then he states, 5:30, "the distance between here and here, was about a 2 weeks journey, about 250 miles." Then again, 6:18, "after they came to the borders of the Red Sea, the text says that they traveled three more days south until they came to a place... that Lehi called Lemuel." Both videos suggest the same concept that after traveling to the borders of the Red Sea the family further traveled three days into the wilderness. In the Book of Mormon it says, "He taketh three days’ journey into the...

As mentioned in a previous blog post, there is a phrase in the scriptures, "it had been better for them never to have been born." ( D&C 76:32 ) As stated in this scripture, this phrase specifically identifies sons of perdition, "the only ones on whom the second death shall have any power." ( D&C 76:37 ) If something only applies to sons of perdition, then the opposite applies to the kingdom of God, aka all kingdoms of glory. In 3 Nephi 28:34-35 , it refers to those sons of perdition with these words: "And wo be unto him that will not hearken unto the words of Jesus, and also to them whom he hath chosen and sent among them; for whoso receiveth not the words of Jesus and the words of those whom he hath sent receiveth not him; and therefore he will not receive them at the last day; and it would be better for them if they had not been born." The opposite of this could be stated, 'blessed be he that will hearken unto the words of Jesus, and also ...