Significantly, Jesus Christ confirmed both the existence and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah during his earthly ministry. The Savior has warned that his second coming will occur (1) just as did the flood in Noah's time and also (2) as the raining of fire and brimstone on Sodom - as a surprise (except to the very faithful). We would do well, therefore, to ponder the lessons of the past as well as the possible parallels between our own society and the society of Sodom, for Sodom was not just a place, but a way of life. A modern prophet, President Spencer W. Kimball, has warned us "...when toleration for sin increases, the outlook is bleak and Sodom and Gomorrah days are certain to return." His predecessor, President Harold B. Lee, warned of the growing social acceptance of "that great sin of Sodom and Gomorrah...adultery; and beside this, the equally grievous sin of homosexuality, which seems to be gaining momentum with social acceptance in the Babylon of the world..." Neal A. Maxwell
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"Is there a single ordinance to be dispensed with? Is there one of the commandments that God has enjoined upon the people, that he will excuse them from obeying? Not one, no matter how trifling or small in our own estimation. No matter if we esteem them non-essential, or least or last of all the commandments of the house of God, we are under obligation to observe them." "Why have they wandered so far from the path of truth and rectitude? Because they left the Priesthood and have had no guide, no leader, no means of finding out what is true and what is not true. It is said the Priesthood was taken from the Church, but it is not so, the Church went from the Priesthood and continued to travel in the wilderness, turned from the commandments of the Lord, and instituted other ordinances." "If the candle of the Almighty does not shine from this place, you need not seek for light anywhere else." "To know the truth of my testimony he must have the visions and revelations of God for himself. And when he gets them, and turns aside becoming a traitor to the cause of righteousness, the wrath of God will beat upon him, and the vengeance of the Almighty will be heavy upon him." "He will make false prophecies, yet he will do it by the spirit of prophecy; he will feel that he is a prophet and can prophesy, but he does it by another spirit and power than that which was given him of the Lord. He uses the gift as much as you and I use ours." Discourses of Brigham Young pgs 82, 107, and 221. "Some seem to have forgotten that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” That is the authorized way to raise public awareness and to focus on injustices in the content or administration of the laws... ...a minority of participants and supporters of these protests and the illegal acts that followed them seem to have forgotten that the protests protected by the Constitution are peaceful protests. Protesters have no right to destroy, deface, or steal property or to undermine the government’s legitimate police powers. The Constitution and laws contain no invitation to revolution or anarchy. All of us—police, protesters, supporters, and spectators—should understand the limits of our rights and the importance of our duties to stay within the boundaries of existing law. Abraham Lincoln was right when he said, “There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.” Redress of grievances by mobs is redress by illegal means. That is anarchy, a condition that has no effective governance and no formal police, which undermines rather than protects individual rights. Dallin H. Oaks Socialism violates the commandments of God.
"I am a real Christian, that is to say a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor saw. They have compounded from the heathen mysteries a system beyond the comprehension of man, of which the great reformer of the vicious ethics and deism of the Jews, were he to return to earth, would not recognize one feature." Thomas Jefferson "I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn." Is not that "Firstborn" incompatible with the idea of the eternity of the Christ-Intelligence? Who from the beginning was with God, and was God? Why "Firstborn"? It can be no other than this: That mighty, self-existent, Intelligence, which was the "Word," and was in the beginning with God, the Father, was begotten a spirit; and in the order of our earth, and the spirit intelligences connected and associated with it, was the "firstborn" of the spirits the "firstborn" of many brethren; (Romans 8:29) and the Christ illustrates what takes place with all intelligent entities of the divine human species. Intelligences are begotten spirits, and these spirits no doubt are more definite personalities, and of greater tangibility, and possessed of higher powers than many suppose them to be. It is written in Hebrews that God had revealed himself to men through the Son, "who was the bightness of his glory, and the express image of this person...by whom also he made the worlds" (Hebrews 1:2-3). This making of worlds, was previous to the earth life of the Christ, and hence was a work accomplished when he was a spirit personage, in which spirit life he was the "Firstborn." See Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:6; Romans 8:29; Acts 17:26-28 B. H. Roberts Media driven hysteria concerning CORONA virus. Who owns the media? Any enlightened American knows who owns the media and they believe not only in magic (illusion over the mind) but numerology. What is the fascination with the number of the year 2020? Why does the number 400 always appear in connection with the virus? Take the number of the year 2020. 20 times 20 equals 400 . The number 400 is used in computer science as a "bad request error." The sun (Corona) is supposed to be exactly 400 x bigger than the moon. Wuhan-400 is the fake disease in the Dean Koontz novel. Don't the witches and warlocks that run the media refer to the virus as the "novel coronavirus?" The mass populace is being played as their minions - a toy thing to be controlled and conditioned to believe, act and obey as they demand that you believe, act and obey to be. In a scientific paper done in collaboration with James Hartle, Stephen Hawking was able to propose that the universe did not have to begin with a "Big Bang." The "Big Bang" concept has to do with what is known as a singularity. A singularity is a concept in physics wherein a dying star collapses in upon itself causing what is known as a Supernova. When a star dies and collapses in upon itself the gravitational pull can cause a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass back into space. It is theorized that the whole universe has gone through this process causing what is known as the 'Big Bang!' Well, in this paper Hawking shows that there is no need for a "Big Bang." Hawking proposes it in this way: "Jim Hartle and I showed how a universe like our own could be born without the troublesome singularity. It involved the use of what is called imaginary time. This may sound like science fiction but it is a well defined scientific concept that science fiction borrowed. The idea was that in imaginary time the universe has no boundary, no beginning or end, it just curls round on itself like the surface of the earth. I had to make it clear that the no boundary universe is just a proposal. But it has some interesting implications. Without boundaries the universe has no beginning and no end. We don't have to explain its creation. The universe simply exists. But the consequences of a no boundary proposal cannot be worked out fully without a complete quantum theory of gravity that will unite general relativity and quantum mechanics." -Stephen Hawking The Apologia Church teaches a message that sounds so similar to Christianity, but is fundamentally a different Gospel that cannot save. The Apologia Church has taken upon itself the need to confront members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and tell them that the doctrines of the Restoration do not "correspond" to the teachings of the bible. The tactics the Apologia Church takes is by confronting members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at LDS gathering places. They then pretend to be their friend to open a dialogue with the member of the Church and then proceed to practice as the apostle Paul taught and warned "cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive" (Ephesians 4:14). Read more here.... On the settlement of the colonies now composing the United States, and the settlement of a legislature in each of them, that legislature, in some cases, finding that the enacting a complete code of laws which should reach every transaction needing legislation, would be far beyond their time and abilities, adopted, by an express act of their own, the laws of England as they stood at that date, comprehending the common law, statutes to that period, and the chancery law. In other cases, instead of adopting them by an express statute of their own, they considered themselves as having brought with them, and been, even on their passage, under the constant obligation of the laws of the mother country, and on their arrival they continued to practice them without any act of adoption, which practice or usage is evidence that there was an adoption by general consent. In the case of Connecticut, they did not adopt the common law of England at all as their basis, but declared by an act of their own, that the law of God, as it stood revealed in the Old and New Testaments, should be the basis of their laws, to be subject to such alterations as they should make. In all the cases where the common law, or laws of England, were adopted either expressly or tacitly, the legislatures held of course, and exercised the power of making additions and alterations. As the different States were settled at very different periods, and the adoption for each State was the laws of England as they stood at the moment of the adoption by the State, it is evident that the system as adopted in 1607 by Virginia, was one thing, as by Pennsylvania was another thing, as by Georgia, in 1759, was still a different one. And when to this is added the very diversified modifications of the adopted code, produced by the subsequent laws passed by the legislatures of the different States, the system of common law in force in any one State on the 24th of September, 1789, when Congress assumed the jurisdiction given them by the Constitution, was very different from the systems in force at the same moment in the several other States: that in all of these the common law was in force by virtue of the adoption of the State, express or tacit, and that it was not in force in Connecticut, because they had never adopted it. -Thomas Jefferson "To such laws of the church as have warrant in holy scripture, our law giveth credence." - Finch
"To such laws as those of holy church have in ancient writing [ancient written laws], it is proper for us to give credence." - Pisot "Christianity is parcel of the laws of England." - Hale "The essential principles of revealed religion are part of the common law." -Lord Mansfield Bible, Testament and all are part of common law. Anglo-Saxon priests interpolated into the laws the 20th, 21st, 22d, and 23d chapters of Exodus, and the 15th, of the Acts of the Apostles, from the 23d to the 29th verses. -Christianity and Common Law, The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, page 162. The apostle saith, "After the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God to save believers by the foolishness of preaching." That is to say, since the mere systems of reason were eventually insufficient for the salvation of mankind; and since it was impossible that their speculations should obtain the true knowledge of God; God took another way to instruct them; he revealed by preaching of the gospel what the light of nature could not discover, so that the system of Jesus Christ and his apostles supplied all that was wanting in the systems of the ancient philosophers. -The Evening and the Morning Star "To such laws as those holy church have recorded, and preserved in their ancient books and writings, it is proper for us to give credence; for so is, or so says the Common Law, or law of the land, on which all manner of other laws rest for their authority, or are founded; that is to say, the Common Law, or the law of the land common to us all, and established by the authority of us all, is that from which is derived the authority of all other special and subordinate branches of law, such as the canon law, law merchant, law maritime, law of gavelkind, Borough English, corporation laws, local customs and usages, to all of which the common law requires its judges to permit authority in the special or local cases belonging to them. The evidence of these laws is preserved in their ancient treatises, books and writings, in like manner as our common law itself is known, the text of its original enactments having been long lost, and its substance only preserved in ancient and traditionary writings. And if it appears, from their ancient books, writings and records, that the bishop, in this case, according to the rules prescribed by these authorities, has done what an ordinary would have done in such case, then we should adjudge it good, otherwise not." -John Prisot Concerning the period of the Creation as recorded in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament of the bible, it reads, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." Genesis 2:1-2 To elaborate on the 7 days of Creation, the apostle Peter in the New Testament taught "...be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." 2 Peter 3:8 If 1 day with God is 1,000 earth-years and 1 year is 365 days then - 365 God days or 1 God year is 365,000 earth-years; 1,000 God years is 365,000,000 earth years; 7,000 God years is 2,555,000,000 earth years. Returning to Peter's teachings, "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." In the second part of Peters statement, the 7,000 God-years can then be considered 7 days. In addition to this the Times and Seasons teaches: "When the house of Israel begin to come into the glorious mysteries of the kingdom, and find that Jesus Christ, whose goings forth, as the prophets said, have been from of old, from eternity; and that eternity, agreeably to the records found in the catacombs of Egypt, has been going on in this system, (not this world) almost two thousand five hundred and fifty five millions of years; and to know at the same time, that deists, geologists and others are trying to prove that matter must have existed hundreds of thousands of years; -it almost tempts the flesh to fly to God, or muster faith like Enoch to be translated and see and know as we are seen and known!" (Times and Seasons vol. 5, pg 758) "In the first thousand years, was witnessed the fall of man; the building up of Zion, when Enoch with all his people, walked with God three hundred and sixty five years on earth, and then were taken up into heaven. In the second thousand years, the world was deluged with a flood for its wickedness; the tower was built that man might go to heaven; the language was confounded; the earth divided into continents and oceans; the people scattered upon the face of the whole earth; and America was peopled by the Jaredites. In the third thousand years, Pharaoh and his host were swallowed up in the Red Sea; Israel, the chosen of the Lord, was overshadowed by his glory in a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night; and the building of the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem. In the fourth thousand years, the ten tribes of Israel were led away captive out of the land of Canaan, and taken to a place by the hand of the Lord that has not yet been discovered by the Gentiles; the Jaredites were destroyed because of their wickedness; Lehi was guided by the matchless power of God to this continent. In the fifth thousand years, the Savior of the world was born, crucified, and rose again from the dead; and most of the apostles were slain for preaching the gospel; and Jerusalem was destroyed. In the sixth thousand years, America, the land of liberty, choice above all others, was settled by the Gentiles; the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ came forth in the Book of Mormon, the Church established, and the gathering of the saints, commenced, preparatory to the second coming of their Lord, that in the seventh thousand years the earth may rest." -The Evening and the Morning Star Article II Section I of the United States Constitution provides the manner in which the executive power of the United States is to be granted to a President and Vice President. "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress." Each state is granted two Senators. The House of Representatives is allocated by a process known as "reapportionment" based on population changes as recorded each decade by the Census. A slate of Electors representing the number of Representatives and Senators of each state then vote based on the popular vote of that state. For example the state of Maryland has two Senators and eight Representatives which gives the state of Maryland a total of ten electoral votes. When the general population of the state of Maryland vote for the President of the United States the majority vote for that candidate is the person the Electors cast their vote for. The Electoral College protects against voter fraud on a national level. It is almost impossible on a national level to completely stop or abolish voter fraud. The Electoral College process keeps voter fraud in check. For example the largest cities within the nation tend to sway for a particular political party. Voter Fraud would increase and be practiced and encouraged within certain areas of the nation if the Electors of the Electoral College were forced to cast their vote for the candidate that won the national level popular vote. The Electoral College reduces the impact of voter fraud within the Nation. James Wilson (1742-1798), delegate from Pennsylvania and member of the Constitutional Convention concerning the Electoral process stated, "By it we avoid corruption; and we are little exposed to the lesser evils of party intrigue... The Constitution, with the same view, has directed, that the day on which the electors shall give their votes shall be the same throughout the United States... With this regulation, it will not be easy to corrupt the electors, and there will be little time or opportunities for tumult or intrigue." We have fallen upon other times than the church of God ever saw before; times in which the same amount of religious and moral influence which once availed to advance the cause of Christ will not enable it to hold its own. The intellect of man, wakened up to new activity, has burst the chains that bound it, and the barriers that confined it, and with ten-fold means of influence, is going forth in its mightness to agitate society. Old foundations are broken, and principles and maxims are undergoing a thorough and perilous revision, and that too upon a mighty scale.
-The Evening and the Morning Star Mr. Darwin, and a kindred school of modern philosophers, would fain try to impress upon us their theory of evolution, and would have us believe we are descendants from, and only a little in advance of our ancestor, the monkey; and that other inferior grades of animals are aspiring to become monkeys; they fail to demonstrate their theories, simply because they are not demonstratable. Where do you find any species except man endowed with the capacity of subduing the earth and controlling the elements upon it? Moses tells us that God said unto man, have thou dominion over the earth and subdue it, and exercise dominion over all the lesser species of animal life, and over the fruits and herbs which shall be given to you for meat. Has any other branch of the animal kingdom done this? When man is first ushered into being, he seems more helpless than the calf or the goat, but in his progress and development he exhibits the power of the Gods; he seizes the elements, and commands them into form and shape to suit his convenience, and to serve his purposes; not only does his superior intelligence cause the king of beasts, and all branches of the animal kingdom, to crouch beneath him, but every element found to exist is at his service; by reason of this divinity in him, in its exercise and development, he chains the lightning, and makes it his servant to flash his thoughts or mandates over the earth; he touches the steam and makes it a motive power to waft him over land and sea. He makes all the elements within his reach subserve his purposes, and he invents the means by which he controls and handles them. I use the word "invent" because it suits the pride and vanity of a man a little better; but the more appropriate term, I should say is, inspiration, for no great truth was ever revealed to man that was not an inspiration. -Erastus Snow As the influence of the sun upon the earth; or the light of the moon upon the blackness of night; so is hope to the soul. It is hope that enkindles the spirits when dimmed by disappointments, and chilled by the cold touch of despair. It is the boon of heaven to man, and serves as a faithful pilot to guide him through the dark avenues of life, nor ever shrink from the parts assigned it. Mankind are all inspired by this kind soother of anxious toil - it is coeval with our creation, and as lasting as our existence. In childhood it amuses; in youth it encourages and animates; in manhood it promises greater preferments and more eminent distinctions; and in the declivity of life, it strengthens and supports - it strews roses on our path way to the tomb, and although the pleasures and allurements of earth may cheat, hope still clings to us with enthusiastic fondness; nor does it wane with the decline of our existence, 'but travels through nor quits us when we die.' Sweet harbinger of joy! Life without thee, were a world without light - a deathlike song - a frightful dream! Where could we flee in adversity but to thee! When sorrow and sadness pour upon us like a mighty deluge - when grief corrodes within the breast - when cares perplex the mind, and disappointments bring their train of melancholy, or despair fixes her talons deep upon the heart; it is hope alone that can light up the dark paths of life, and bear us up from shrinking under the heavy hand of affliction. A well founded hope presents the future illuminated by its own unfading radiance; it refers us to a nobler world than this - to the beautiful shores of immortality; and when the last convulsive throb of nature ceases to beat within the breast, hope with radiant finger points to realms of ever lasting felicity and joys unspeakable.
-The Evening and the Morning Star Truth, is the glory of time, and the daughter of eternity; a title of the highest grace, and a note of divine nature; she is the life of religion, the light of love, the grace of wit, and the crown of wisdom; she is the beauty of valor, the brightness of honor, the blessing of reason, and the joy of faith; her truth is pure gold, her time right precious, her word is most glorious; her escence is in God, and her dwelling with his servants; her will in his wisdom, and her work to his glory; she is honored in love, and graced in constancy; in patience admired, and in charity beloved; she is the angel's worship, the virgin's fame, the saints bliss, and the martyr's crown; she is the king's greatness, and his council's goodness; his subjects peace and his kingdom's praise: her heart never faints, her tongue never trips, her hand never fails, and her faith never fears: her church is without schism, her city without fraud, her court without vanity, and her kingdom without villany. In sum, so infinite is her excellence in the construction of all sense; that I will thus only conclude in the wonder of her worth; she is the nature of perfection in the perfection of nature, where God in Christ shews the glory of Christianity.
-The Evening and Morning Star Our nation was founded on prayer, it was preserved by prayer, and we need prayer again. I plead with you this evening to pray for this country, for our leaders, for our people and for the families that live in this great nation founded by God. Remember, this country was established and preserved by our founding fathers who repeatedly acknowledged the hand of God through prayer.
-Pres. M. Russell Ballard "The apostasy of the Gentiles is a subject, that I believe, is no where disputed in all the professing world - It is acknowledged by all, that the present generation of religious Gentiles is in a state of confusion and distraction: the cry of heresy, delusion, false prophet, and false christ, which is every where sounded in our land, is testimony to the point, and not only to the point, but is conclusive also, that this generation have departed from the principles of the true faith, and are led by false spirits, and teach one another doctrines which are not according to godliness." -Messenger and Advocate |