Las Vegas was great. More correctly, the people were great, and Las Vegas is dirty and big and sinful and hot, but I loved my mission.

More to come later. I still don’t have access to my money, and bills are due soon!

I just backed up the database and don’t want an out-of-date backup of my blog, too. But the backup needs to be stored away while I’m gone… so I think it’s about time for blog posts to come to an end.

You can stay updated with my mission by going to my main website (the terminal) for more information.

God speed

“What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God.”

- Powell

“And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”

- 1 Nephi 3:7

Give me a day to adjust to using paper scriptures again… I know… pathetic, right?

1. Deny the Holy Ghost – Unpardonable
2. Murder – Unforgivable
3. Sex-related – Hard to be forgiven of

These are related. They are most serious because they all mess with the power of life, which is the power of God; it is the power that God has.

1. Deny the Holy Ghost – Permanent destruction of spiritual life
2. Murder – Unauthorized taking of life
3. Sex-related – Unauthorized giving of life

There is no recompense for the unpardonable sin, that is to receive a perfect knowledge of the nature of God and to outright deny and betray it (citation needed — I know). The unforgivable sin is not covered by the Atonement of Christ. That remission must come from our own suffering and repentance, and it cannot be achieved in this life.

Murder is not made remiss by the Atonement — but did Jesus suffer that anyway?

“Brother [Wilford] Woodruff spoke… He refered [sic] to a saying of Joseph Smith which he heard him utter (like this) That if the People knew what was behind the vail, they would try by every means to commit suicide that they might get there, but the Lord in his wisdom had implanted the fear of death in every person that they might cling to life and thus accomplish the designs of their creator.”

- Diary of Charles Lowell Walked, ed. By A. Karl Larson and Katherine M. Larson [Logan, Ut.: Utah State University Press, 1980] vol. 1, pp. 465-466.

And it was organized under the direction of an intelligent beings — a god, no less.

“Do not allow darkness and gloom to enter into your hearts. I want to give you a rule by which you may know that the spirit which you have is the right spirit. The Spirit of God produces cheerfulness, joy, light and good feelings. Whenever you feel gloomy and despondent and are downcast, unless it be for your sins, you may know it is not the Spirit of God which you have. Fight against it and drive it out of your heart. The Spirit of God is a spirit of hope; it is not a spirit of gloom.”

“There is nothing on earth, nothing that man can taste or experience that is so sweet, so happifying, so full of delight, as the presence of the Spirit of God. It fills the soul with joy that is inexpressible.”

– George Q. Cannon, Deseret Weekly, January 14, 1987, 48:351; also “Gospel Truth,” page 144

And,

“Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.”

– 2 Nephi 2:25

“Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.”

- D&C 58:27

I wonder how much of my own time is a righteous cause. Hmm.

New posts start again tomorrow.

“[Jesus] kneeled down, and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, by thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

- Luke 22:41-44

And it ends with a  prayer, just before Christ died:

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

- Matthew 27:46

“But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.”

-Moroni 7:47

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

- Isaiah 55:8-9

How foolish we are to think we know better…

What three groups comprised the “parts” in heaven?

It’s difficult to draw this exactly out of what is written in the scriptures, but I would have reason to believe the three parts are the “noble and great ones”, the “not-so-nobles” and the “not-so-greats,” (to quote Brother Randy Bott, professor of religion, at Brigham Young University) and the part that was cast down (sons of Perdition).

I doubt our scriptures clearly outline the answer to this question, but there’s probably enough “reading between the lines” and commentary to draw some sort of conclusion. Of course, there’s an obvious answer: before the world was created. But I am wondering more specifically. There’s a lot of “eternity” behind the Creation.

Here’s a follow-up question you can consider.

Feel free to add your comments, citing scriptures/quotes or not.

“You [sisters] belong to the great sorority of Saviorhood. You may not hold the Priesthood. Men are different. Men have to have something given to them to make them saviors of men, but not mothers, not women. You are born with an inherent right, an inherent authority, to be saviors of the human souls. You are the co-creators with God of his children. Therefore, it is expected of you by a right divine that you be the saviors and the regenerating force in the lives of God’s children here upon the earth.”

- Matthew Cowley (”Matthew Cowley Speaks,” p. 109)

… for women have perhaps the most sacred calling in our eternity.

Too often we throw around the term “free agency” as if prepending the “free” implies freedom. This is a false charge, as agency itself is the definition of the freedom we have to make a choice (D&C 29:36). “Free agency” then is like saying “Free freedom” or likewise “Free lemonade” — costing nothing. Agency was certainly earned both by us and paid for by our Savior, Jesus Christ. We fought for God’s plan in the life before this one, with “one third part” cast down without agency in a body as a consequence of the war of ideas. And the Atonement works to compensate the flaws in ourselves because of our agency: for without the Atonement, our agency would be cause to destroy us in the eternities, because our natural selves are not able to become clean and perfect before God.

Another facet of agency that’s interesting to look at is governance – perhaps another law of the universe, ordained to man before the world was. We know the idea of government is God-given too, as Adam was charged with “having dominion over all the land,” and the Constitution of the USA arose from inspired men as stated in D&C 101:80. He gave us government to allow our agency to prevail in an organized society.

I don’t intend this blog to be political, but may I interject that while both [US parties] have pros and cons, there are “right and correct” values in the way of thinking that offers to the citizens more control than the other, because of agency’s sacred role. For example, we ought to be wary of petitions and policies that provide more power to the government, for that limits what the citizens have control over: a concept that is contrary to what God intended. Ever wonder why all three pillars of eternity (Creation, Fall, Atonement) revolve around agency?

“When we allow the State to replace the Creator in our minds as the source of our freedoms, we invite the government to treat our liberties as temporary favors, rather than irrevocable properties of our human existence. To seek for prosperity at the hands of government is a mockery of our most sacred and solemn virtues. To attempt to delegate authority that is not ours to give is neither just nor sensible.”

- Brian Ensign

We know also in 1 Nephi 13:12-19 that this country, the United States, was founded for the allowance of man’s agency and freedom in the world, a land where Christ’s Gospel could be restored because of the agency allotted to man by government.

Agency is also our power against the devil. We can choose to not follow him and instead follow the one and only true God who knows us better than we know ourselves. That is what makes our judgment fair. It is not an accident we have it. I can’t imagine a world without it. These things, along with what was mentioned in the last post, are what make agency so sacred and important.

“Some people want to believe that free agency means there should be randomness in our Father’s plan — as if it’s important that we have the ability to surprise Him — even though, in my mind, that would undermine faith.

“However, to add spice to the discussion, let me throw a wrench into your example. D&C 137:7:  ‘All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God.’  By the same reasoning,  all who die without the opportunity to choose for themselves in mortality will be assigned whichever Kingdom suits them based on our  Father’s knowledge of how they would have decided had they been permitted to tarry.

“Too often we fall into the trap of believing that the only reasons we are here are to get a body and be judged.  But we are also here to gain experience. D&C 130:18, ‘Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.’ In a very real sense, we are not here to prove ourselves worthy of a particular Kingdom — our Father knew before the world was made which kingdom each of us would attain — but to prepare ourselves to serve in the kingdom we receive.  There would be no value in handing us the proverbial keys of the kingdom, even if we deserved them, had we not first been prepared to receive them.

“And yet, it would seem that some do not need this experience.  When I was young, I believed that the revelation of D&C 137:7 was unfair because it granted the Kingdom to people who hadn’t lived to earn it. But as I grew, I learned that we simply don’t yet know everything about that revelation.  Mosiah 29:12, ‘Now it is better that a man should be judged of God than of man, for the judgments of God are always just….’  The judgment of God will be fair and those who did not experience this life either didn’t need it or will yet receive it in another way — and whether my belief is right or wrong, I know that I will be judged fairly, and that is enough for me.”

- President Howick

In a later post, I will add some more commentary on the topic of our agency: why is it not “free agency,” how does the mere fact of having agency affect our salvation, and what does a truly fair judgment imply? Go read it.

“Behold, I am Moroni, your chief captain. I seek not for power, but to pull it down. I seek not for honor of the world, but for the glory of my God, and the freedom and welfare of my country.”

- Alma 60:36

Our founding fathers (of the United States) had this conviction. Imagine if today’s presidents did. Do they? I suspect not. If they cave to believe the corruptness of the people, then it’s not “politically correct” for them to have this conviction.

If a leader truly had this conviction, they would declare it; for it defines who they are, and they would not lie, being whole with integrity and revering God.

What if Clinton revered God? Obama?

“The rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon principles of righteousness. … They may be conferred upon us, it is true, but when we undertake to cover our sins or to gratify our pride, … behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or to the authority of that man.”

D&C 121:36-37

And what is a without the priesthood, that God-given authority and power? “… Behold, he is left unto himself.” (v. 38)

If I make them my friends, then who are my enemies?

Yes, of course God loves His children. The Lord reminds us in D&C 121, 122, and 123 why afflictions are allowed on good people by our loving and devoted God. From these sections, I can conclude at least six main reasons for them.

1. Sin — Transgressing God’s law will bring negative consequences.
2. Experience — Trials bring to our spirits vital experiences through which we learn new things.
3. Agency — Man has the freedom to choose, and God must allow it, and He cannot forbid it. It was decided upon in the Counsel of Heaven before the world was.
4. Covenants — The righteous are rewarded for keeping them, and those who falter are offered the way to make it right through trials.
5. Trust — Trials build a relationship between the Godhead (our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost) and an individual.
6. To condemn the wicked — Tribulation caused by wicked men who persecute the righteous dominion can then be judged accordingly.

Items 2, 5, and 6 are particularly interesting. Many non-members, or those who are unfamiliar with the Gospel are frustrated or mad at a god that could send destruction and other bad things to righteous or innocent people. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, as proclaimed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, answers these types of questions.

What other questions have the teachings, doctrine, and scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints answered for you? Or, if you are not a member, what questions might you have?