Fulness of Times

"Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord. "And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord;" (D&C 112: 24-25 https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/112.24-25?lang=eng&clang=eng#p23) (photos from https://www.ksl.com/?sid=45591453&nid=1284&title=lds-church-houston-temple-flooded-missionaries-in-the-area-are-safe) Most seem to think the "upon my house shall it begin" refers more to the Church, and more specifically Church members in Utah (probably the Salt Lake area). Until yesterday afternoon, the Houston temple had managed to avoid flooding due to it being constructed on an elevated foundation. Apparently during the planning stages a nearby creak flooded and it was decided to raise...

Hurricane Harvey. Is there a coincidence the worst Hurricane to hit Texas since the 1960s came on the heels of a total solar eclipse? The hurricane started as a tropical storm on Aug 17, and was then downgraded to a tropical depression on Aug 19, and then further downgraded later that same day to a tropical wave. On Aug 23 it regenerates into a depression, becomes a hurricane the next day, and by midnight (Thursday night) it's a category 2. Fourteen hours later (on Friday) it's upgrade to a category 3 and by 6 PM its a category 4. Some will say there isn't a coincidence, especially since the storm started before the eclipse. But, as the abbreviated timeline shows the storm was downgraded twice, and did not become a hurricane until after the eclipse. The record rainfall has resulted in epic flooding. Up to 50 inches of rain is expected through Wednesday in the southeastern part of Texas. The result: the worst disaster in Texas history. An unprecedented weather even...

This should probably be posted on one of my other blogs, which I haven't posted to for months. But, I'll start here. "DEFCON Hackers Found Many Holes in Voting Machines and Poll Systems" http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/networks/defcon-hackers-find-holes-in-every-voting-machine I first heard about this a few weeks ago in one of my cybersecurity classes, and one of the students had actually attended the DEFCON conference. I wasn't surprised to hear about the ability to hack into these systems. I'm not a hacker by any stretch, but I've been interested in computer security for several years and in some posts I have indicated my opinion that security will most likely be a driving factor to push for some kind of personal ID chip, or biometric-based security system. Here are some clips from the article: "E-voting machines and voter registration systems used widely in the United States and other countries’ elections can readily be hack...

There are a couple of references to time I should mention, which relate to the last days and end days. First, Revelation 8:1 was mentioned in the earlier post  http://fulnessoftimes.blogspot.com/2017/08/last-days-vs-end-times.html "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." If this "half an hour" is referencing heaven's time, then it is almost 21 earth years (20.83 years) long. At the end of verse 84 in section 88 of the Doctrine and Covenants it states, "and to prepare the saints for the hour of judgment which is to come." In this verse, what does "hour of judgment" mean? Certainly, the "hour of judgment" refers to a short period of time, such as the time when a wicked nation/city/people is/are destroyed. It could be a literal hour as we understand it, or it could be a metaphorical time. Often it is understood to be the time when the Savior returns at his Secon...

This is a purely opinion post as I have no actual scriptural or doctrinal references, beyond this first statement: We are living in the time period known as the Last Days. Regarding that statement, there are plenty of prophetic and scriptural statements (mostly in the Doctrine and Covenants) which make it very clear that we are in the Last Days. The question is, how long do the "Last Days" last? How many years or centuries does the Last Days encompass? We also know that the Last Days last up until the Second Coming of the Lord. And we are familiar with a period of time just prior to the Second Coming which many Christians refer to as the tribulation. Most think it's a period of seven years, but, if you've read other posts of mine, you know I question whether there is a definitive seven years or if a sole seven-year period of tribulation is just something Gospel scholars calculated, based on adding several 3.5 year periods and comparing them to other scriptures. ...

The title is a little misleading. I heard about this yesterday on the radio and looked up an article from Deseret News "LDS Church issues statement of support for LGBTQ concert event" http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865686887/LDS-Church-issues-statement-of-support-for-LGBTQ-concert-event.html I am certain the majority of Church members will probably fall into three opinions regarding this. First, there are those who will be excited about this statement of support, and believe that it is indicative of increasing change among the leaders of the Church, and that, eventually, the Church will become fully supportive and "tolerant" of LGBTQ+ movement. Perhaps even accepting and allowing for gay marriage. The second group is almost opposite. These people will feel that the Church is becoming misguided and swayed by a desire to become popular in the world by supporting a LGBTQ event. They likely feel that this is wrong, and that the Church should not be issuing...

I saw this reported in a few places, but here's the Fox News link: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/16/california-is-no-1-haven-for-hate-groups-report-says.html The above report was brought to light after the anti-protesters and white supremacist groups clashed in violence this past weekend. If you didn't catch the title, "California is No. 1 haven for hate groups, report says." That report is from the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Hate Map they created https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map Isn't it interesting that in the states with greatest populations, there are also higher numbers of hate groups. I suspect the liberals in California are not going to take it well that their state "ranks highest among the 50 states, with nearly 80 different hate groups." I'm sure they will begin to protest such a ranking and work to "eradicate" hate from their state. This ranking puts a big black eye on the inclusive, accepting, progres...

There has been some misinformation that the coming solar eclipse next week is the first one to cross the nation since 1776. For example, this CBSnews page, http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/solar-eclipses-in-history/2/, makes the 1776 claim, and cites a space.com page. " The August event will go down as the first total solar eclipse whose path of totality stays completely in the United States since 1776, experts say, according the Space.com Total Solar Eclipse 2017 guide." But I could not find any reference to a 1776 total solar eclipse on the linked page (https://www.space.com/33797-total-solar-eclipse-2017-guide.html) The critical item mentioned, but missed by many, is the path of totality is apparently "completely in the United States." A simple search shows a 1776 total eclipse across America did not happen, and the total eclipse that happened in November of that year did not even come into what would become the United States. Most likely some of the colon...

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in Sunday School listening to the discussion. I can't remember what the topic was but I do remember that charity was mentioned. For some reason the discussion made me consider a new description for charity. Moroni 7:47 defines charity as "the pure love of Christ." It is because of the love of our Heavenly Father that we are here, and why he sent his only begotten son to be our Savior. Redefining charity, my mind came us with "charity is the pure love of a parent." Obviously, it could be the pure love of a mother, or father, but I decided to use "parent" to cover both. Since getting married and having children I have learned more about what being a parent is really like. I've discovered that being a parent is probably one of the best laboratories for testing us and preparing us to become more like our Father in Heaven. So, let me rewrite Moroni chapter 7 verses 45-47. 45 And the love of a parent suf...

This was an interesting read, "The source of up to half of the Earth’s internal heat is completely unknown – here’s how to hunt for it" https://phys.org/news/2017-08-source-earth-internal-unknownhere.html http://theconversation.com/the-source-of-up-to-half-of-the-earths-internal-heat-is-completely-unknown-heres-how-to-hunt-for-it-81524 In the article was this heat map of the earth: (the map was credited to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_internal_heat_budget#/media/File:Earth_heat_flow.jpg) When I saw the image, I thought it reminded me of arteries. Which got my mind thinking along other lines. Here's another heat flow map of the earth (major faults/plate boundaries are in this image). (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/R_Cardoso2/publication/291830385/figure/fig12/AS:321932252729355@1453766038975/Figure-12-Global-heat-flow-map-derived-from-mixed-data-sets-For-oceanic-regions-with.png) And, this heat flow map: from http://eqseis.geo...