Fulness of Times

One of the signs I think will come to pass before the big destructions happen is the Church will withdraw from the Boy Scouts of America. Not because the program of Scouting has failed or diminished, but because those who lead the organization have lost their way, and the organization will no longer fulfill the Church's purpose as the activity arm of the Aaronic Priesthood. A couple years ago one blow happened to start to severe the ties. That was when the Boy Scouts changed its policy to allow gay leaders. They did still allow chartered organizations the freedom to determine if they would allow gay leaders within their own units, and the Boy Scouts would support them and (supposedly) defend them in court if needed. Yesterday the Boy Scouts of America has changed its membership policy. In 2014 the Scouts had changed its policy to allow openly gay youth. Now the policy has changed to allow all transgender youth, any who "identify" as being a boy. http://www.cnn.com...

I was surprised (pleasantly) that Trump won the election, and relieved that he made it through to actually become the president. He is far from a perfect president, but he was better than the alternative. I am not a die-hard Trump fan, and up until about two weeks before the election I was considering alternatives (with Clinton NOT being an option). Even though I'd basically decided to vote for Trump, it was still up in the air until I cast my ballot. One of the convincing reasons to vote for Trump was I saw him kind of like Omni, he might not keep all of the "statutes and commandments of the Lord" (Omni 1:2), but he would be more likely to fight to preserve the liberties of the people. The globalists--those seeking for power and control over others, who want to eliminate constitutional liberties, who believe some people have more "rights" than others, who believe government (or an elect few) should control and dictate how the general citizenry lives and...

Here's a follow-up to an earlier post of a similar title. To all those who complain about those who share only part of their visions, here is just one example from the Book of Mormon: "And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be." - 2 Nephi 32:7 The Prophet is not the only person who can receive revelation. Nor is revelation confined to those whom the members of the Church sustain as "prophets, seers, and revelators" (the president of the Church, his counselors, and the 12 apostles). Certainly those men, and more specifically the prophet (the president), are the only ones who can receive revelation for the entirety of the Church. But there is nothing that states that revel...

"But, behold, in the last days, or in the days of the Gentiles—yea, behold all the nations of the Gentiles and also the Jews, both those who shall come upon this land and those who shall be upon other lands, yea, even upon all the lands of the earth, behold, they will be drunken with iniquity and all manner of abominations—  "And when that day shall come they shall be visited of the Lord of Hosts, with thunder and with earthquake, and with a great noise, and with storm, and with tempest, and with the flame of devouring fire." - 2 Nephi 27:1-2 I have a journal I use to record some thoughts, impressions, ideas, etc. when I read in the scriptures. I don't write it in every day, but often enough. Yesterday the above verses were my focus, with specific interest on verse one. I've read the Book of Mormon on average once per year for the past 25 years, so I've read those verses a few times. This time the word "drunken" stood out. I realized it was...

Recently I was reading in 2 Nephi chapter 13, one of the Isaiah chapters. I won't discuss all the verses, but one in particular stood out, verse 16: "Moreover, the Lord saith: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet." It is my understanding that when the scriptures refer to a specific people "of Zion," in this case "daughters of Zion," it is more in reference to members of the Church. It can certainly apply to people in a broader sense as well. But in a general sense, Zion is in reference to the land of America (more particularly North America) and Jerusalem refers to the land of Israel. So, "daughters of Zion" could refer to both members of the Church and those who live in America. Before I get into an impression/thought I had regarding verse 16, we need to define a few words. Too often we think we know what a...

This is week-plus old news, the fact that President Obama took a page out of the Clinton handbook and designated a huge chunk of Utah land as a federal monument. Technically it's a "national monument" but the reality is the land is to be controlled by the federal government and not Utah, and Utah doesn't really have any say in how to utilize any of the designated acreage, so it's a federal monument. Another monument to overreaching power. New Bears Ears Monument for Utah http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=42708529 Normally I would probably post this on a different blog, but the news article got me thinking, could this monument designation actually be a good thing? It occurred to me as I looked at the area that this is near the areas described by several people as being places of refuge in the four corners area. And, while there are few towns in the nearby area, a monument designation will essentially ensure little expansion or growth occurs in nearby tow...

During my scripture study for three of the last four mornings, I have studied Moroni chapter 9. It's not the most uplifting set of verses. The chapter heading states: "Both the Nephites and the Lamanites are depraved and degenerate—They torture and murder each other—Mormon prays that grace and goodness may rest upon Moroni forever." The time shows "about A.D. 401", but in reality this was written by Mormon, who died sometime after the great battle that occurred in A.D. 385. My guess is this was written sometime after Mormon returned to take command of the Nephite armies. Remember in Mormon chapter 3, Mormon resigned from the command (about A.D. 362). "9 And now, because of this great thing which my people, the Nephites, had done, they began to boast in their own strength, and began to swear before the heavens that they would avenge themselves of the blood of their brethren who had been slain by their enemies.  "10 And they did swear by the ...

Except in a spiritual sense, there isn't much about being prepared in the Bible. Most of the scriptures about becoming prepared in the physical sense are found in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C). Why is that? To me the most obvious reason is the changing societal structure. In Joseph Smith's time, it was at the beginning of industrial revolution. Agriculture and farming were still a big part of society, but work was shifting from the fields to the factories. Prior to that time, there was more agriculture being done because huge, monster farms operated by single corporations just didn't exist and a large scale. Most people were familiar with storing foods. Most knew that they needed to have some kind of food storage, if for no other reason than to make it through the winter. As more people moved into the cities, the idea of storing food wasn't seen as being so necessary. The market or general store was easily accessible. Getting money was more important, bec...