All of us who chose to come to earth also have an opportunity to become a “True Seer of God.” As Brigham Young has asked, are we “able to withstand all of the false deceptions of the devil?” Have we rejected God and His Holy Priesthood? What would it be like for every worthy person to have a seer stone or an opportunity to see all in the past, present, and future? I look at it as a blessing to live for.

“Joseph Smith, Jr. said, every man who lived on the earth was entitled to a seer stone, and should have one, but they are kept from them in consequence of their wickedness.” – Prophet Brigham Young, “History of Brigham Young,” Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, v. 26, February 20, 1864

Joseph F. Smith also said, “These peep-stone men and women are inspired by the devil, and are the real witches” Make sure we understand the difference!

“The power of seership is one of the greatest gifts ever given to man; and the time is not far distant when every man who bears the Priesthood will be a seer. But it can only be when men have proved themselves able to withstand all of the false deceptions of the devil. Today the powers of crystal ball gazers, astrologers, ouija boards, etc., are abounding because men have forsaken or rejected the true seers of God. Thousands of people seek unto ‘wizards who peep and mutter’ etc., but they will not seek unto the living God. I can say to all the inhabitants of the earth that before what is called spiritualism was ever known in America, I told the people that if they would not believe the revelations that God had given, He would suffer the devil to give revelations that they–priests and people would follow after. .  . I told the people that as true as God lived, if they would not have the truth they would have error sent to them, and they would believe it.”  (Brigham Young, Des. News, June 18, 1871, p. 308) (See Revelation 2:17 and D&C 130:11)

“The place where God resides is a great Urim and Thummim. This earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be manifest to those who dwell on it; and this earth will be Christ’s. Then the white stone mentioned in Revelation 2:17, will become a Urim and Thummim to each individual who receives one, whereby things pertaining to a higher order of kingdoms will be made known; And a white stone is given to each of those who come into the celestial kingdom, whereon is a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. The new name is the key word.” D&C 130:9-11

“Brigham Young tells us a great thing. “I told the people that if they would not believe the revelations that God had given, He would suffer the devil to give revelations that they–priests and people would follow after. .  . I told the people that as true as God lived, if they would not have the truth they would have error sent to them, and they would believe it.” It seems at many times we seek revelations from any source. We just want answers and we don’t take the time to determine which revelations come from God and which ones come from Satan. Our impatience and lack of faith in the Lord’s timing may be our downfall.

Once we receive revelation it is imperative to determine if that was meant just for you, just for your family or for someone to help them. We will not receive a revelation outside of our stewardship. This becomes the cause of great harm when we listen to others who have a great experience and misunderstand it, or the one giving the experience embellishes the story and makes money from publishing it to the world. Bruce R. McConkie as I recall said, “Them that know don’t tell, and them that tell, don’t know.” The Lord wants us to learn how to keep spiritual secrets sacred, as in the Temple.

SUPERSTITIOUS PRACTICES

by Joseph F. Smith. Improvement Era

“It was no uncommon thing for people of eastern nations, almost from time immemorial, to profess to hold communication with the spirit world through the medium of superstitious practices. There were magical formulae, lucky and unlucky days, incantations, horoscopes, and various other devices, and superstitious rites and practices through which magicians, astrologers, soothsayers, divines, wizards, witches, sorcerers, necromancers, conjurers, and enchanters, played upon the ignorance of their victims. It is, of course, impossible to tell what the secrets of their practices were, but it is safe to say that the power of a strong and cunning will over a weak one, was uppermost in their deceptions. The Children of Israel were forbidden to believe in these various classes of superstition, heathenism and idolatry, for they tended to draw men’s minds from God, the true source of knowledge and power. Says Isaiah: “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” They were forbidden to seek wizards that “peep and mutter,” but were commanded to obey the law and the testimony of the prophets.

One would think that in the day in which we live the belief in witches and witchcraft no more exists, and that the counsel given to ancient Israel in this respect would be unnecessary to the Latter-day Saints, but apparently this is not the case. Word comes from a northern stake of Zion which indicates that in a certain settlement the belief in these things is fairly rampant, and a great deal of trouble and unnecessary annoyance have been given to the authorities of the stake and ward because of this absurd belief entertained by certain foolish old men and women of the ward.

It is needless to assert that to those who are intelligent, and not bound by old notions and superstitions, there is no truth in what people call witchcraft. Men and women who come under the influence of a belief therein are bewitched by their own foolish- ness, and are led astray by pretenders and mischief-makers who “peep and mutter.” It is really astonishing that there should be any to believe in these absurdities. No man or woman who enjoys the Spirit of God and the influence and power of the holy priesthood can believe in these superstitious notions; and those who do, will lose, indeed have lost, the influence of the Spirit of God and of the priesthood, and are become subject to the witchery of Satan, who is constantly striving to draw away the Saints from the true way, if not by the dissemination of such nonsense, then by other insidious methods.

One individual can not place an affliction upon another in the way that these soothsayers would have the people believe. It is a trick of Satan to deceive men and women, and to draw them away from the Church and from the influence of the Spirit of God, and the power of his holy priesthood, that they may be destroyed. These peep-stone men and women are inspired by the devil, and are the real witches, if any such there be. Witchcraft, and all kindred evils, are solely the creations of the superstitious imaginations of men and women who are steeped in ignorance, and derive their power over people from the devil, and those who submit to this influence are deceived by him. Unless they repent, they will be destroyed. There is absolutely no possibility for a person who enjoys the Holy Spirit of God to even believe that such influences can have any effect upon him. The enjoyment of the Holy Spirit is absolute proof against all influences of evil; you never can obtain that Spirit by seeking diviners, and men and women who “peep and mutter.” That is obtained by imposition of hands by the servants of God, and retained by right living. If you have lost it, repent and return to God, and for your salvation’s sake and for the sake of your children, avoid the emissaries of Satan who “peep and mutter,” and who would lead you down to darkness and death.

It is impossible for anyone possessing the spirit of the gospel and having the power of the holy priesthood to believe in or be influenced by any power of necromancy.

My advice to the Saints is to so live that they may have the Spirit and influence of the Lord with them; for, having that influence, it is a wall of protection against all powers of evil that may seek an inroad into their hearts and thoughts. The possession of the Holy Spirit is a sure defense against evil thoughts, superstitions, ignorance, and the follies and machinations of evil disposed men and women. Every Latter-day Saint should so conduct himself that he may enjoy this Spirit, and there will be no danger of his being led away by the foolish nonsense that ignorance and superstition seek to implant in the minds of people concerning the existence of witches and witchcraft.

There is no danger to anyone in so-called witchcraft itself; the evil effect lies in the belief therein. The person who believes injures himself through fear and belief; no other person has power to injure him; it is himself who injures himself through the superstition of his own mind. In the Sandwich Islands this superstitious belief was very prevalent, years ago. They call it pule anaana, or the prayer of sorcery. It was no uncommon thing for a person who became beset with the thought that he was being “prayed to death” actually to wither away, and die. I knew a good woman, wife of a leading native Latter-day Saint whom I often visited, who one day became very ill. I asked what was the matter. She said she was being “prayed to death,” and she was actually seriously ill, and getting ready to die; so great was her fear and faith in what some evil-designing, but in himself impotent, person, had whispered about her. I told her it was all wrong, that she must not believe it; it was impossible; she must believe, on the contrary, that she would live, and be well. I labored with her in this way for some time, and she finally believed and was restored, and such nonsense never had power over her again. It was not so with a young native cook whom the missionaries employed. Some of the jealous natives, one day when we were off on a visit, brought him word that be was being “prayed to death,” and it so frightened him, and so great was his belief in this superstition, that he died within a week, and we were without a cook when we returned.

As Israel of old were enjoined to obey the law and the testimony given to them by Moses, so the Latter-day Saints are commanded to turn to the gospel law restored anew to them, and to live so that they may enjoy the Holy Spirit of promise. A sentiment against belief in the power of witchcraft, and all other evil things should be cherished among the Latter-day Saints, for persons who believe or express faith therein are in danger of losing the Spirit of God, and of f lacing themselves under the influence of the adversary whose footsteps lead to death.”

Joseph F. Smith. Improvement Era 5 (September 1902): 897,

“President Joseph F. Smith also weighed in on this divisive and pivotal discussion: no man or woman who enjoys the Spirit of God and the influence and power of the holy Priesthood can believe in these superstitious notions, and those who do, will lose, indeed have lost, the influence of the Spirit of God and of the Priesthood, and are become subject to the witchery of Satan . . . These peepstone-men and women are inspired by the devil . . . “ Improvement Era 5 (September 1902): 897, https://archive.org/details/improvementera0511unse/ page/896; emphasis added

Personal Cults

“Have you noticed there are more and more people in the world who have been left to their own senses and take it upon themselves to be their own god or their own leader, or a member of their own cult?

Man has a tendency to want to find someone that they can idolize in the short term and then conquer or put down that person they idolized and take over his so called congregation.

See today the Rock Stars, Politicians, Sports Heroes, Dancers, Mathematicians, Scientists, Professors, Hollywood Celebrities’ and on and on. They all want to be the best in their field and if there is no God in the way, they can one day become the best in their little haven of happiness. Who wants God around to spoil our party? Why should we listen to Him and so they pretend God is not real. Satan encourages them to do anything, right or wrong so they have no one to answer to, so the evil in the world is climbing rapidly.

One other thing I have noticed is there are many great people in this world who are doing everything they can to follow God and love Him. They may call this a spiritual manifestation, or consciousness, or Father, or Christ, or my conscious, or someone whom I have an interconnectedness with, but they see God as something good that will lead them. I think we members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a special calling to be sure and have all people whether good, evil, righteous, wrong or on the wrong track, teach them who the real Lord and Savior is and that His Book of Mormon is true. That opportunity is coming soon to spread that message to parts of the world never before reached in, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran and Israel. Won’t that be a wonderful opportunity?

Join us at our Live Expo in Sandy, UT

Ark of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

D&C 85:7. Why Are Individuals Still Claiming to Be the “One Mighty and Strong”?

Some modern people have created cults of their own, and among them are those who attempt to take refuge in section 85 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

“They endeavor to say that the Church has gone astray, that the leaders are no longer inspired, and that ‘one mighty and strong’ is needed to take over the affairs of the Lord. And without any evidence of modesty whatsoever on their parts, they themselves volunteer for the position.” (Mark E. Petersen, in Conference Report, Apr. 1973, p. 159; or Ensign, July 1973, p. 110.)

Such people become guilty of the very thing this scripture warns against: they take it upon themselves to “steady the ark” (see Notes and Commentary for D&C 85:8). https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/manual/doctrine-and-covenants-student-manual/section-85-those-who-put-their-hands-to-steady-the-ark?lang=eng

D&C 85:8. What Does It Mean to “Steady the Ark of God”?

This phrase refers to an incident during the reign of King David in ancient Israel. The Philistines had captured the ark of the covenant in battle but returned it when they were struck by plagues (see 1 Samuel 4–6). David and the people later brought the ark to Jerusalem in an ox cart, driven by Uzzah and Ahio. “And when they came to Nachon’s threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error, and there he died by the ark of God” (2 Samuel 6:6–7; see vv. 1–11). The ark was the symbol of God’s presence, His glory and majesty. When first given to Israel, the ark was placed in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, and not even the priest was allowed to approach it. Only the high priest, a type of Christ, could approach it, and then only after going through an elaborate ritual of personal cleansing and propitiation for his sins. The scriptures teach that no unclean thing can dwell in God’s presence (see Moses 6:57). His presence is like a consuming fire (see Hebrews 12:29). Those who bear the vessels of the Lord must be clean (see D&C 133:5).

However well-meaning Uzziah’s intentions, he approached casually what could only be approached under the strictest conditions. He had no faith in God’s power. He assumed that the ark was in danger, forgetting that it was the physical symbol of the God who has all power. We cannot presume to save God and His kingdom through our own efforts.

“Uzzah’s offence consisted in the fact that he had touched the ark with profane feelings, although with good intentions, namely to prevent its rolling over and falling from the cart. Touching the ark, the throne of the divine glory and visible pledge of the invisible presence of the Lord, was a violation of the majesty of the holy God. ‘Uzzah was therefore a type of all who with good intentions, humanly speaking, yet with unsanctified minds, interfere in the affairs of the kingdom of God, from the notion that they are in danger, and with the hope of saving them’ (O.V. Gerlach).” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary, bk. 2: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, “Second Book of Samuel,” p. 333.)

This concept can be a difficult one to understand and obey. By the flesh we mostly feel Uzzah is justified because he wants to save and prevent physical damages to the ark. However the higher law is to not worry about the earthly things and realize that God already has a Spiritual plan to save the Ark or the Church or even our soul.

In modern revelation the Lord referred to this incident to teach the principle that the Lord does not need the help of men to defend his kingdom (see D&C 85:8). Yet even today there are those who fear the ark is tottering and presume to steady its course. There are those who are sure that women are not being treated fairly in the Church, those who would extend some unauthorized blessing, or those who would change the established doctrines of the Church. These are ark-steadiers. The best intentions do not justify such interference with the Lord’s plan. President David O. McKay said:

“It is a little dangerous for us to go out of our own sphere and try unauthoritatively to direct the efforts of a brother. You remember the case of Uzzah who stretched forth his hand to steady the ark. (See I Chron. 13:7–10.) He seemed justified, when the oxen stumbled, in putting forth his hand to steady that symbol of the covenant. We today think his punishment was very severe. Be that as it may, the incident conveys a lesson of life. Let us look around us and see how quickly men who attempt unauthoritatively to steady the ark die spiritually. Their souls become embittered, their minds distorted, their judgments faulty, and their spirits depressed. Such is the pitiable condition of men who, neglecting their own responsibilities, spend their time in finding fault with others.” (McKay, Gospel Ideals, p. 258.)

President John Taylor observed:

“We have more or less of the principles of insubordination among us. But there is a principle associated with the kingdom of God that recognizes God in all things, and that recognizes the priesthood in all things, and those who do not do it had better repent or they will come to a stand very quickly; I tell you that in the name of the Lord. Do not think you are wise and that you can manage and manipulate the priesthood, for you cannot do it. God must manage, regulate, dictate, and stand at the head, and every man in his place. The ark of God does not need steadying, especially by incompetent men without revelation and without knowledge of the kingdom of God and its laws. It is a great work that we are engaged in, and it is for us to prepare ourselves for the labor before us, and to acknowledge God, his authority, his law and his priesthood in all things.” (Taylor, Gospel Kingdom, p. 166.)

David O. McKay warned that unauthorized individuals who attempt to “steady the ark” die spiritually.

THE SACRED CHEROKEE ARK

by Danny (Deni Uguku” Troxell, Bird Clan, a Thunderbolt Cherokee descendant orf Cornblossom. Click here to visit his Aniyuntikwalaski (People of the Lightning and Thunder aka Chickamauga Cheerokee) website

Ta-Ka-E-Tuh said his people had very greatly degenerated from what they were in his early youth: and that many of the observances now kept up had been desecrated from solemn religious rites into mere scenes of revelry. The cause of this, as he said, was the capture, of the Delawares, of their religious deposit, (the interpreter called it the ark,) which contained the symbols of their worship. I inquired what were these symbols? He either could not, or would not, tell me. I feared they might be something like idols, … but he assured me the Cherokees had never worshipped idols, or any visible representation of God. When I told him of the nations that worshipped idols, he said they must be fools.

Reminiscences of the Indians, Cephas Washburn, 1869

But their (Hebrews) modes and objects of worship, differed very widely from those of the Americans (Cherokees) … p170

They are such strict observers of the law of purification, and think it so essential in obtaining health and success in war as not to allow the best beloved trader that ever lived among them, even to enter the beloved ground, appropriated to the religious duty of being sanctified for war; much less to associate with the camp in the woods, though he went (as I have known it to happen) on the same war design; – they oblige him to walk and encamp separate and by himself, as an impure and dangerous animal, till the leader has purified him, according to their usual time and method, with the consecrated things of the ark…

The Indian ark is of a very simple construction, and it is only the intention and application of it, that makes it worthy of notice; for it is made with pieces of wood securely fashioned together in the form of a square. The middle of three of the sides extend a little out, but one side is flat, for the conveniency of the person’s back who carries it. Their ark has a cover and the whole is made impenetrably close with Hickory splinters; the leader, and a beloved waiter, carry it by turns. It contains several consecrated vessels, made by super annuated (ghi ga hu) women, and of such various antiquated forms, as would have puzzled Adam to give significant names to each. The leader and his attendant, are purified longer than the rest of the company, that the first may be fit to act in the religious office of a priest of war, and the other to carry the awful sacred ark. All the while they are at war, the Hessitu, or “beloved waiter” feeds each of the warriors by an exact stated rule, giving them even the water they drink, out of his own hands, lest by intemperance they should spoil the supposed communicative power of their holy things, and occasion fatal disasters to the war camp. In speaking of the Indian places of refuge for the unfortunate, I observed, that if a captive taken by the reputed power of the beloved things of the ark, should be able to make his escape into one of these towns, or even into the winter house of the Archi-magus, he is delivered from the fiery torture, otherwise inevitable. It is also highly worthy of notice, that they never place the ark on the ground, nor sit on the bare earth while they are carrying it against the enemy. On hilly ground where stones are plenty, they place it on them: but in level land upon short logs, always resting themselves on like materials. Formerly, when this tract was the Indian Flanders of America, as the French and all their red Canadian confederates were bitter enemies to the inhabitants, we often saw the woods full of such religious war- reliques. p 168-169

…their strict purity in their war camps; that Opae, “the leader”, obliges all during the first campaign they make with the beloved ark, to stand, every day they lie by, from sun-rise to sun-set and after a fatiguing day’s march, and with scanty allowance, to drink warm water imbitttered with rattle-snake-root very plentifully, in order to be purified – that they have also as strong a faith of the power and holiness of their ark as the Israelites ascribing the superior success of the party to their stricter adherence to the law then the other and after they returned home hang it on the leaders war pole. p170

The ark is said to be so sacred and dangerous to be touched, either by their own, sanctified warriors, or the spoiling enemy, that they durst not touch it for any reason. It is not to be meddled with by anyone except the war chief and his waiter under the penalty of incurring great evil. Nor would the most inveterate enemy touch it in the woods for the same reason. If their war expedition failed then they said it was because of the vicious conduct of some of the followers of the beloved ark… p170

*A gentleman who was at the Ohio, in the year 1756, assured me he saw a stranger there very importunate to view the inside of the Cherokee ark, which was covered with a drest deerskin and placed on a couple of short blocks. An Indian sentinel watched it armed with a hickory bow and the brass pointed arrows and he was faithful to his trust for finding the stranger obtruding to pollute the supposed sacred vehicle, he drew an arrow to the head and would have shot him through the body had he not suddenly withdrawn; the interpreter, when asked by the gentleman what it contained, told him there was nothing in it but a bundle of conjuring traps. p170

When they have finished their fast and purifications, they set off, at the fixed time, be it fair or foul, firing their guns, whooping, and hallooing, as they march. The war-leader (savanoko) goes first, carrying the holy ark: he (or she) soon strikes up the awful and solemn song … The rest follow in one line … now and then sounding the war whoo-whoop, to make the war-leader’s song the more striking …” Adair’s History of the American Indian, James Adair, London 1775

Buttrick: Antiquities p.12- refers to the ark being covered with a deerskin “to be set up when they rested and carried when they journeyed.”

Note added by a 7th great grandson of The war-leader Savanoko:

It was the ONLY duty of the Cherokee Oukah to travel to each Cherokee town annually and to read The Law contained in The Ark. He only wore white, lived in a stone house, traveled in a sedan chair wherever he went, and his feet were never allowed to touch the ground… all indicating that he observed ritual purity from corpse contamination which was required of a levitical priest. http://americancherokeeassociation.com/cherokee-hebrew-roots-connection/cherokee-ark.htm

Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of antiquity. The story of the sacred ark is familiar to many, yet the enigmatic subject is seldom discussed or dissected by the modern theologians of religious studies.

What Is The Ark of the Covenant?
(from Wikipedia.com)

The Ark of the Covenant (Hebrew: אָרוֹן הַבְּרִית‎ ʾĀrôn Habbərît, modern pron. Aron Habrit), also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in the Book of Exodus as containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. According to some traditional interpretations of the Book of Exodus, Book of Numbers, and the Letter to the Hebrews, the Ark also contained Aaron’s rod, a jar of manna and the first Torah scroll as written by Moses; however, the first of the Books of Kings says that at the time of King Solomon, the Ark contained only the two Tablets of the Law. According to the Book of Exodus, the Ark was built at the command of God, in accordance with the instructions given to Moses on Mount Sinai. God was said to have communicated with Moses “from between the two cherubim” on the Ark’s cover.

Where Did The Ark Come From?

According to the Book of Exodus, Yahweh (God) came to Moses during his 40-day stay upon Mount Sinai and instructed him to build a sacred ‘box’ made of shittim wood to house the divine Tablets of Stone, which were the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:20; 24:18). The prophet of Yahweh was given the pattern and furnishings required of the Ark; Moses employed Bezalel and Oholiab to construct the divine chest and built it according to the Creator’s detailed and specific instructions (Exodus 31). The Ark was placed in a special tent known as the Tabernacle, when it was not being carried across the wilderness during the 40 year Hebrew exodus. A description of the Ark can be found in the following chapters of Exodus: 25, 26, 27.

What Was The Purpose of the Ark?

As mentioned above, God instructed Moses to build a sacred box to store the divine Tablets of Stone, that were written by the hand of Yahweh himself, for safe keeping. The Hebrew priests became the vanguard of the Ark, starting with Aaron (brother of Moses) and the first high priest of the Israelite nation. When the Israelites, led by Joshua who was leading the exodus toward the Promised Land, arrived at the banks of the River Jordan, the Ark was carried in the lead preceding the people. During the crossing, the river grew dry as soon as the feet of the priests carrying the Ark touched its waters, and remained so until the priests—with the Ark—left the river after the people had passed over. As a memorial for this great miracle, twelve stones (representing the twelve tribes of Israel) were taken from the River Jordan at the place where the priests had stood (Joshua 3 and 4).

Is this anything unlike the Lord instructing Joseph to have Alvin build him a box to store the Gold Plates, or the Lord having Moroni build a box out of cement to store the plates and the Urim and Thummim in, or a place that the Brother of Jared could hide the plates to be found by Limhi later? That which is sacred is to be protected, or kept out of sight.

According to the narrative of the Battle of Jericho, the Ark was carried around the city once a day for seven (7) days, preceded by the armed men and seven (7) priests sounding seven (7) trumpets of rams’ horns (Joshua 6:4-15). On the seventh day, the priests sounding the trumpets of rams’ horns before the Ark marched around the city seven (7) times and, with a great shout, Jericho’s wall fell down and the Israelites took the city (Joshua 6:16-20).

After the defeat at Ai, Joshua lamented before the Ark (Joshua 7:6-9). When Joshua read the Law to the people between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, they stood on each side of the Ark.

In retrospect, the main purpose of the Ark of the Covenant was to not only protect the Israelites, but for the Israelites to give the respect due to their Great Creator.

Where Was The Ark Located?

After a short stay in Gilgal, the Ark was moved to Shiloh by Joshua, not long after the settlement of the Israelites in Canaan, during Samuel’s apprenticeship (1 Sam. 3:3). The Ark remained in the Tabernacle at Shiloh until the time of Eli, between 300 and 400 years (Jeremiah 7:12), when it was carried into the field of battle. The Ark was taken by the Philistines (1 Samuel 4:3-11) who subsequently sent it back after retaining it for seven (7) months (1 Sam. 5:7, 8) because of the unfortunate events said to have transpired. For further information about the capture of the Ark by the Philistines, please visit Philistine captivity of the Ark.

The Philistines, on the advice of their diviners, returned the Ark to the Israelites, accompanying its return with an offering consisting of golden images of the tumors and mice [wherewith they had been afflicted]. The Ark was set in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemesh (1 Samuel 6:1-15). Out of curiosity the men of Beth-shemesh gazed at the Ark; and as a punishment, seventy of them were smitten by the Lord (1 Samuel 6:19). The Bethshemites sent to Kirjath-jearim to have the Ark removed (1 Samuel 6:21); and it was taken to the house of Abinadab, whose son, Eleazar, was sanctified to keep watch over it. Kirjath-jearim remained the abode of the Ark of the Covenant for twenty years. Under Saul, the Ark was with the army before he first met the Philistines, but the king was too impatient to consult it before engaging in battle… hence the capture of the Ark by the Philistines. In 1 Chronicles 13:3 it is stated that the people did consult the Ark in the days of Saul.

During the early reign of King David, he removed the Ark from Kirjath-jearim, but abandoned it before entering Zion. Uzzah, one of the drivers of the cart whereon the Ark was carried, put out his hand to steady the Ark, and was smitten by God for touching it. David, in fear, carried the Ark aside into the house of the Obed-edom the Gittite and there it stayed three (3) months (2 Samuel 6:1-11; 1 Chronicles 13:1-13). When King David learned that God had blessed Obed-edom, he had the Ark brought to Zion by the Levites. The Levites were appointed to minister before the Ark (1 Chronicles 16:4). David’s plan of building a temple for the Ark was halted at the advice of God (2 Sam. 7:1-17; 1 Chron. 17:1-15; 28:2, 3). The Ark was with the army during the siege of Rabbah (2 Sam. 11:11); and, when David fled from Jerusalem at the time of Absalom’s conspiracy, the Ark was carried along with him until he ordered Zadok the priest to return it to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 15:24-29). For further information about the return of the Ark to King David’s possession, please visit: Ark of the Covenant in Zion

King Solomon worshipped before the Ark after his dream in which God promised him wisdom (1 Kings 3:15). During the construction of Solomon’s Temple, a special inner room, named Kodesh Hakodashim (Holy of Holies), was prepared to receive and house the Ark (1 Kings 6:19). When the Temple was dedicated, the Ark was placed in the inner holy room (1 Kings 8:6-9) and there it remained for over the next three hundred years. It is written, when the priests emerged from the holy place after placing the Ark there, the Temple was filled with a cloud, “for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord” (1 Kings 8:10-11; 2 Chron. 5:13, 14)

What Happened to the Ark?

In 586 BC, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple. However, there is no record of what became of the Ark in the Books of Kings and Chronicles. But, the 3rd Book of Ezra (1 Esdras) suggests that the Babylonians:
“…took all the holy vessels of the Lord, both great and small, and the ark of God, and the king’s treasures, and carried them away into Babylon.” (1 Esdras 1:54)
In Rabbinic Literature, the final disposition of the Ark is disputed. Some Rabbis hold that it must have been carried off to Babylon, while others claim that it must have been hidden lest it be carried off into Babylon and never brought back. According to the Jewish book of Second Maccabees and the Greek text in the Septuagint, at the beginning of chapter 2:
The records show that it was the prophet Jeremiah who, …. prompted by a divine message … gave orders that the Tent of Meeting and the ark should go with him. Then he went away to the mountain from the top of which Moses saw God’s promised land. When he reached the mountain, Jeremiah found a cave-dwelling; he carried the tent, the ark, and the incense-altar into it, then blocked up the entrance. Some of his companions came to mark out the way, but were unable to find it. When Jeremiah learned of this, he reprimanded them. ‘The place shall remain unknown’, he said, ‘until God finally gathers his people together and shows mercy to them. The Lord will bring these things to light again, and the glory of the Lord will appear with the cloud, as it was seen both in the time of Moses and when Solomon prayed that the shrine might be worthily consecrated.’ (II Maccabees 2:4-8.)
Note: The “mountain from the top of which Moses saw God’s promised land” would be Mount Nebo, located in what is now Jordan.

In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, the Ark is mentioned in Hebrews 9:4 and Revelation 11:19 and states that the Ark contained “the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.” (Hebrews); and, says the prophet saw God’s temple in heaven opened, “and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple.” (Revelation). But it does not enlighten the reader about what actually happened to the Ark.

In Sura 2:248, of the Islamic Qur’an, the Children of Israel, at the time of Samuel and Saul, were given back the Tabut E Sakina (the casket of Shekhinah) which contained remnants of the household of Musa (Moses) and Harun (Aaron) carried by angels which confirmed peace and reassurance for them from their Lord. The Qur’an states:
“And (further) their Prophet said to them: “A Sign of his authority is that there shall come to you the Ark of the Covenant, with (an assurance) therein of security (Sakina) from your Lord, and the relics left by the family of Moses and the family of Aaron, carried by angels. In this is a symbol for you if ye indeed have faith.”
The Islamic scholar Al Baidawi mentioned that the sakina could be Tawrat, the Books of Moses. According to Al-Jalalan, the relics in the Ark were the fragments of the two tablets, rods, robes, shoes, mitres of Moses and the vase of manna. According to most Muslim scholars, the Ark of the Covenant has a deep religious basis in Islam, and Islam gives it special significance. A Shia sect of Muslims believe that it will be found by Mahdi near the Qiyamah (end of times) from Lake Tiberias.

For further information about the Islamic history of the Ark, please visit Qisas Al-Anbiya (The Stories of the Prophets).

Current Theoretical Locations of the Ark…

There are a few nations that claim to possess the Ark of the Covenant today. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, in Axum, not far from the border with Eritrea, claims to hold the Ark of the Covenant, or Tabot. The sacred chest is currently kept under guard in a treasury near the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion and is used [occasionally] in ritual processions. Replicas of the Axum Tabot are kept in every Ethiopian church, each with its own dedication to a particular saint, the most popular of these include Mary, George and Michael.

The Lemba people of South Africa and Zimbabwe have claimed that their ancestors carried the Ark south, calling it the ngoma lungundu (“voice of God”), eventually hiding it in a deep cave in the Dumghe mountains, their spiritual home. On 14 April 2008, in a UK Channel 4 documentary, Tudor Parfitt, taking a literalistic approach to the Biblical story, described the research and theories of his claim. He says that the object described by the Lemba have several attributes similar to the Ark. It was of similar size, was carried on poles by priests, was not allowed to touch the ground, was revered as a voice of their God, and was a weapon of great power used to sweep enemies aside.

In his book, The Lost Ark of the Covenant (2008), Parfitt also suggests that the Ark was taken to Arabia following the events depicted in the Second Book of Maccabees, and cites Arabic sources which maintain it was brought in distant times to Yemen.

French author Louis Charpentier insisted that the Ark was taken to Chartres Cathedral by the Knights Templar. In 2003, author Graham Phillips hypothetically claimed that the Ark was taken to Mount Sinai in the Valley of Edom by the Maccabees. Phillips concluded it remained there until the 1180s, when Ralph de Sudeley, the leader of the Templars found the Maccabean treasure at Jebel al-Madhbah, returned home to his estate at Herdewyke in Warwickshire, England and taking the treasure with him

Several modern authors of recent times have theorised that the Ark was taken from Jerusalem to the village of Rennes-le-Château in Southern France. Karen Ralls has cited Freemason Patrick Byrne, who believes the Ark was moved from Rennes-le-Château at the outbreak of World War I to America

The Ark of the Covenant was said to have been kept in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, surviving the pillages of Rome by Genseric and Alaric I but lost when the basilica burned.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the Book of Jeremiah, it is referenced by the prophet Jeremiah, who [speaking in the days of King Josiah] prophesied a future time, possibly the end of days, when the Ark will no longer be talked about or be made again:
“And it shall be that when you multiply and become fruitful in the land, in those days – the word of the LORD – they will no longer say, ‘The Ark of the Covenant of the LORD’ and it will not come to mind; they will not mention it, and will not recall it, and it will not be used any more.” – Jeremiah 3:16 Rashi comments on this verse that “The entire people will be so imbued with the spirit of sanctity that God’s Presence will rest upon them collectively, as if the congregation itself was the Ark of the Covenant.”

Yet the question still remains… What really happened to the sacred Ark of the Covenant and where is it today?

Read my Blog here for some of the questions and answers below. or a blog here

“In those days when the Cherokee were a God-loving people, living in peace among themselves, they lived as one people, dwelling in half-moon shaped council houses. They had gone from living in caves to living in log-cabins. They still kept the sacred records of metal, some of which had come across the ocean waters with them, and others which they had con­tinued keeping and making, scribing upon them as had been done before by the leaders of the People. They, too, had possession of the Ark of the Covenant, which they also had brought with them from their place of origin, existing across the eastern waters.” A SPECIAL REPORT on the RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE of the CHEROKEE INDIANS By: J. Murray Rawson

“At the site of an ancient city on the West Bank, archaeologists are hunting for evidence of the tabernacle that once housed the Ark of the Covenant.”

“The tabernacle was destroyed by the Philistines in 1050 B.C., Stripling told Fox News, around the same time that they briefly captured the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelites in a battle nearby. The Ark, however, was soon back in the hands of the Israelites.”

“While Shiloh’s link to the Ark of the Covenant is fascinating, Stripling notes that it was subsequently housed in a number of locations, where other tabernacles were built. “Later, the tabernacle was set up in other places, but we assume that it was rebuilt, reconstructed.”

Who are the Nephites, Jacobites, & Zoramites and the Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites?

16 Nevertheless, my work shall go forth, for inasmuch as the knowledge of a Savior has come unto the world, through the testimony of the Jews, even so shall the knowledge of a Savior come unto my people—
17 And to the Nephites, and the Jacobites, and the Josephites, and the Zoramites, through the testimony of their fathers—
18 And this testimony shall come to the knowledge of the Lamanites, and the Lemuelites, and the Ishmaelites, who dwindled in unbelief because of the iniquity of their fathers, whom the Lord has suffered to destroy their brethren the Nephites, because of their iniquities and their abominations.
19 And for this very purpose are these plates preserved, which contain these records—that the promises of the Lord might be fulfilled, which he made to his people;
20 And that the Lamanites might come to the knowledge of their fathers, D&C 3:16-20

They “among the American Indians and the Polynesians who are mostly the descendants of the Lamanites, is also a sprinkling of the descendants of the Nephites who may have escaped” D&C 3:19 D&C Commentary Page 22

FIRST PRESIDENCY 1923- ABOUT BOOK OF MORMON GEOGRAPHY

The First Presidency in 1923 of Heber J Grant, Charles W. Penrose and Anthony W. Ivins and again in 1950 The Publication Committee of  Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee and Marion G. Romney, assigned by Pres George Albert Smith, approved some historical information from Church History that has much to do with Book of Mormon Geography. The last edition of the commentary was also published in 1978 by Deseret Book and approved by Pres Spencer W. Kimball, N. Eldon Tanner and Marion G. Romney. Other BofM geography items about the Cave at Cumorah and the visit of Nephi to Joseph in the wagon headed to Fayette, are found in my other blog here.

Between 1913 and 1916 Hyrum Smith of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles along with Elder Janne M. Sjodahl articulated a commentary of the Doctrine of Covenants which was approved by these two Presidencies as accurate and approved history as contained in the D&C Commentary of 1923 and 1950.

[The Doctrine and the Covenants Commentary] “A doctrinal and exegetical commentary on the book of scripture, known as the “Doctrine and Covenants” (the “D&C”), sacred to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” The Doctrine and the Covenants Commentary by Hyrum M. Smith (Picture left)

Exegetical Definition:

The message finds its sole source in Scripture. The message is extracted from Scripture through careful exegesis. The message preparation correctly interprets Scripture in its normal sense and its context. The message clearly explains the original God-intended meaning of Scripture. The message applies the Scriptural meaning for today.

The Doctrine and Covenants Containing Revelations Given To Joseph Smith, Jr., The Prophet, with an Introduction and Historical and Exegetical Notes By Hyrum M Smith, of the Council of the Twelve Apostles. And Janne M. Sjodahl.

“Commentaries on the Doctrine and Covenants follow the pattern of many biblical commentaries, supplying the historical context, that is, the time, circumstances, and situation of the revelations. In the most recent (1981) edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, headnotes for each section have been added or enlarged, with a brief synopsis of the historical setting. Additional notes and explanations are provided by the various separately published commentaries discussed here. Commentaries written by members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are given special consideration. Others are recommended as helps to the membership of the Church to provide historical insight to their study of the scriptures.

An early (1916) and still useful one-volume commentary was written by Hyrum M. Smith, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Janne M. Sjodahl. Doctrine and Covenants Commentary contains the text of the Doctrine and Covenants and gives historical background and commentary for each section. It is extensively footnoted with exegetical notes. The volume was later supplemented and expanded under the direction of Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, and Marion G. Romney of the Quorum of the Twelve in 1950.” Doctrine and Covenants Commentaries Author: Garrett, H. Dean

Preface To the Revised Edition of the Doctrine and Covenants Commentary

In the preface to the 1950 Revised Edition of the Doctrine and Covenants Commentary, we find the following:

“While laboring in the European Missions, Elder Hyrum M. Smith, of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, and Elder Janne M. Sjodahl, were impressed very fervently with the desire to prepare a commentary dealing with the revelations given by the Lord to the Prophet Joseph Smith. In their odd moments, when not otherwise engaged, during the years 1913-1916, these brethren carried on a careful research and study and prepared this volume which has met with popular favor.

For a number of years, the commentary has been out of circulation, and because of the increasing demand for it, the First Presidency instructed the Publication Committee to take the matter in hand and revise the volume ready for a re-printing. This the committee has done and after many months of labor has fulfilled the assignment given.

Since the time of the first publication many world-wide events of the greatest importance have occurred many of which have a bearing on the fulfillment of the prophecies found in the Doctrine and Covenants; these have been noted. The Doctrine and Covenants is a sacred volume of Scripture, and in the revision and preparation of the book, the members of the committee have felt their weakness in commenting on these sacred commandments and revelations coming from the Lord.”

The Urim and Thummim WAS Returned to Joseph

Most of the Mesoamerican theorists and revisionist historians say that when Joseph had the Urim and Thummim taken from him because of losing the 116 pages, it was never returned and Joseph then used the peep stone. Wrong!

I quote: “During this period Joseph made a short visit to his parents in Manchester, New York, and then returned again to Pennsylvania. “Immediately after my return home,” he recounted, “I was walking out a little distance, when, behold, the former heavenly messenger appeared and handed to me the Urim and Thummim again for it had been taken from me in consequence of my having wearied the Lord in asking for the privilege of letting Martin Harris take the writings, which he lost by transgression and I inquired of the Lord through it, and obtained the following [section 3]” (Smith, History of the Church, 1:21-22).

So in July 1828 Joseph received Section 3 of the D&C as a Revelation with the use of the very Urim and Thummim which had been lost. Why then would Joseph use a peep stone.? He wouldn’t. He received the Urim and Thummim again to continue to translate.

The Lord tells Joseph to continue the translation here. “Nevertheless, it is now restored unto you again; therefore see that you are faithful and continue on unto the finishing of the remainder of the work of translation as you have begun.” D&C 10:3

Annotated Book of Mormon Information about a page 117?

After Joseph finished translating the original Book of Mormon Plates that were found in the stone box, Joseph asked if he should re translate the 116 lost pages and he was told, “Now, behold, I say unto you, that because you delivered up those writings which you had power given unto you to translate by the means of the Urim and Thummim, into the hands of a wicked man, you have lost them. And you also lost your gift at the same time, and your mind became darkened. Nevertheless, it is now restored unto you again; therefore see that you are faithful and continue on unto the finishing of the remainder of the work of translation as you have begun. D&C 10:1-3

“And now, because the account which is engraven upon the plates of Nephi is more particular concerning the things which, in my wisdom, I would bring to the knowledge of the people in this account— Therefore, you shall translate the engravings which are on the plates of Nephi, down even till you come to the reign of king Benjamin, or until you come to that which you have translated, which you have retained.* And behold, you shall publish it as the record of Nephi; and thus I will confound those who have altered my words. D&C 10:40-42

*Retained: Joseph apparently retained some of what he translated with Martin Harris; i.e., page 117. This may be Words of Mormon 1:12-18, which flow into Mosiah 1. The current Mosiah 1 was originally Mosiah 3; i.e., the first chapter and a half of Mosiah was included on the 116 pages that were stolen.” Annotated Book of Mormon by David Hocking and Rod Meldrum page xxxi (Also, see Appendix, “Two Sets of Plates,” p. 557.) Blog here

Quotes from D&C Commentary 1950

D&C Sec 3:19 Page 22 Commentary

The First Presidency in 1923 of Heber J Grant, Charles W. Penrose and Anthony W. Ivins and again in 1950 The Publication Committee of Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee and Marion G. Romney, assigned by Pres George Albert Smith, approved some historical information from Church History that has much to do with Book of Mormon Geography. The last edition of the commentary was also published in 1978 by Deseret Book and approved by Pres Spencer W. Kimball, N. Eldon Tanner and Marion G. Romney.

Notice what D&C 3:19 says: “And for this very purpose are these plates preserved, which contain these records—that the promises of the Lord might be fulfilled, which he made to his people;”

Notice what the Commentary from these inspired Prophets says:

(See Left) 19. For this very purpose) The Book of Mormon plates were preserved and translated in order that all these should be brought to a knowledge of the Savior. It may be concluded, then, that among the American Indians and the Polynesians who are mostly the descendants of the Lamanites, is also a sprinkling of the descendants of the Nephites who may have escaped the general destruction. D&C Sec 3 page 22 Doctrine and Covenants Commentary by Sjodahl and Smith

So the plates were preserved and translated in order that the Lamanites should be brought to a knowledge of the Savior and we understand that among the American Indians, not the South American or the Central American Indians, but the “American Indians” which lived right in the area of the Heartland during the restoration, were Lamanites.

Who were some of the Lamanites?. Those in the Pacific among the Maori’s.

“Polynesians are descendants of Lehi and blood relatives of the American Indians.” Peterson, Mark E., General Conference, April 1962.

“I would like to say to you brethren and sisters from New Zealand, you are some of Hagoth’s people, and there is no perhaps about it!” Joseph F. Smith As written in Robert E. Parsons, “Hagoth and the Polynesians,

“The best known and most important prophecy, as far as most New Zealand members of the Church are concerned, is that from Paora Potangaroa. In March 1881, Elder Matthew Cowley reported, a large convention was held among the Ngatikahungunu tribe. Many Maori chiefs assembled at Te Ore Ore, near Masterton, to discuss political, social, and religious problems. The established churches were well represented, but the chiefs shared a feeling of discontent about the lack of unity among them. Why, the natives asked, were there so many different churches within the bounds of Christianity?

Which one should the Maoris join so that unity could again be restored among them? After considerable debate and discussion, the chiefs decided to place the questions—specifically “Which of the churches is the church for the Maori race? Which of them should we join?”—before the most respected and wisest chief among them. This was Potangaroa, who, when asked the questions, answered with one word, “Taihoa,” which means “wait.” He retired to his own home and meditated, fasted, and prayed about the problem for three days. When he returned to the convention, he addressed his people, saying: “My friends, the church for the Maori people has not yet come among us. You will recognize it when it comes. Its missionaries will travel in pairs. They will come from the rising sun. They will visit with us in our homes. They will learn our language and teach us the gospel in our own tongue. When they pray they will raise their right hands.”Potangaroa then asked Ranginui Kingi to write his words as he continued to answer the questions which had been put to him. He called the transcription of his words “A covenant for remembering the hidden words which were revealed by the Spirit of Jehovah to Paora Potangaroa.” We again quote from Elder Cowley, who translated the document:

“First, this is the day of the fulness (1881).” Brother Cowley points out that later that year the fulness of the gospel was taken to the Maoris. Actually, President Bromley and his colleagues first visited a Maori village, Orakei, on March 6, 1881, ten days before the “covenant” was given to the Maoris at Te Ore Ore. “Second, the year 1882 would be the year of the ‘sealing’ (or the year they would learn the sealing ordinances). Third, the year 1883 will be the year of ‘the honoring’—of ‘great faith’—as it is written: ‘render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.’ (Rom. 13:7)” In that year the Maoris began to honor the true God by rendering their dues to him and entering The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Members of the Ngatikahungunu tribe, especially, began to enter the Church in large numbers. The Te Ore Ore Branch was organized on December 16, 1883.The document concludes in these words: “This covenant is to be remembered by the generations which follow after us. And the fruits of that which is set forth above [in the covenants] are—we are the lost sheep of the House of Israel. [We will learn of] the scepter of Judah; of Shilo; of the king of peace; of the day of judgment; of the kingdom of heaven; of the sacred church with a large wall surrounding; of the increase of the race; of faith, love, peace, patience, judgment, unity. All this plan will be fulfilled by the people of Ngatikahungunu Tribe during the next forty years. “March 16, 1881Ranginui Kingi ”New Era 1981 by by R. Lanier BritschSee my blog here:https://www.bofm.blog/maoris-you-are-some-of-hagoths…/

Proof of the Existence of the Plates and the Urim and Thummim

D&C Sec 5 Page 30 

(See bottom of picture right) “31. Except Thou do this] Unless the Prophet followed the instructions here given, the plates and the sacred instrument would be taken from him.

This is a remarkable Revelation. It furnishes an irrefutable proof that the Prophet Joseph actually had the plates. He promised that Martin Harris, on certain conditions, which he could easily comply with, should obtain a view of them. Such a promise, if the records had not been in existence, would have been impossible to redeem. It would have been mere buffoonery. The fraud would have been detected at once. The promise was repeated a few months later (Sec 17) to two more witnesses. Joseph had the plates and the Urim and Thummim, and this Revelation proves the truth of that assertion.” D&C Sec 5 Page 30 

A Clear Message- NO SEER STONE

“Cowdery Wrote the Entire Book (Save a few pages)…by the means of the Urim and Thummim, or, as it is called by that Book, ’Holy Interpreters‘…”

D&C 6 Page 32-33

“According to his own statement at Council Bluffs on October 21^st, 1848, Oliver Cowdery wrote the entire Book (save a few pages) as the words fell from the lips of the Prophet, “as he translated it by the gift and power of God, by the means of the Urim and Thummim, or, as it is called by that Book, ’holy interpreters.’” So that the testimony of Oliver Cowdery was as firm in 1848, two years before his death as it was in 1829, when he first accepted the gospel, although he had been outside the Church for eleven years. When Joseph and Oliver had been engaged on the Book of Mormon a few days, this Revelation was received.” So section 6 of the D&C was also received through the Urim and Thummim along with many other sections.

This is proof itself that Joseph could not only translate using the gift and power of God using the Urim and Thummim, but he did receive revelation as well. If you also look at section 7 in the preface it says, “Revelation given to Joseph Smith the Prophet and Oliver Cowdery, at Harmony, Pennsylvania, April 1829, when they inquired through the Urim and Thummim as to whether John, the beloved disciple, tarried in the flesh or had died. The revelation is a translated version of the record made on parchment by John and hidden up by himself.” D&C 7: Preface. It says “they inquired“, did Oliver and Joseph both see this revelation using the Urim and Thummin? Who knows!

In the preface to the Original Edition, we find the following:

Before laying aside the pen, I may be permitted to express my grateful acknowledgment of the services rendered by Elder Orson F. Whitney and Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, of the Council of the Twelve, who, together with Elder Hyrum M. Smith, carefully read the manuscript of this Commentary before it was given to the printer; also to Elder George F. Richards, of the Council of the Twelve and President of the European mission, and to Elders John E. Cottam, George F. Richards, Jr., and Junius F. Wells, fellow-laborers int he British mission, for most valuable assistance.

Liverpool, May 1, 1919. J. M. Sjodahl.

Janne M. Sjodahl Deseret News Press, 1923, 1932. Reprinted in 1950, 1951, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1971, 1978.

Remember several other BofM geography items about the Cave at Cumorah and the visit of Nephi to Joseph in the wagon headed to Fayette, are found in my other blog here. A North American Setting fot the Book of Mormon is everywhere.

“Certain lands were given to Israel for an inheritance in time and in eternity. America is the land of Joseph; it was the home of Nephite Israel, who were of Joseph, for a thousand years, and it is the headquarters of the Church in this final dispensation in which the church and kingdom of God are in the lands of Ephraim.” 1985 – Elder Bruce R. McConkie

President Monson believes the United States is the Promised Land of the Book of Mormon. Why do Mesoamericanists believe the entire continent of the Americas is the Promised Land. You mean Greenland, Guatemala, and the Northwest Territories are the Promised Lands? I love all of God’s children in the entire world and God loves us all the same, but seriously??? If a person from Greenland comes to the United States legally as a citizen that person can also live in the Promised Land? I’m sure Greenland has muc beauty on its own, but it is not the Promised Land, is it? Please respondents be respectful. I am not belittling other lands. I’m just making a factual statement. Why is the United States and Israel the two Promised Lands? Because Christ said so. See 3 Nephi 20:22,29 By Rian Nelson

“The Lord gave a divine promise to the ancient inhabitants of this favored country (the United States): ‘Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ” (Ether 2:12).
“Our Heavenly Father inspired the leaders of…the United States of America, that they might together, under His direction, having been raised up by God for the purpose, establish the Constitution of this country and…Bill of Rights, that by the year of our Lord 1805 [there would be] a climate where our Heavenly Father could send into this period of mortality a choice spirit who would be known as Joseph Smith, Jr.” Teachings of Thomas S. Monson by Thomas S. Monson 2011 (Ordained an Apostle, 1963; ordained President of the Church, 2008) See my blog here about “Carefully Selected” Land

A good friend just asked me, “Am I creating situations in my own home that allow my family to feel the spirit?” “Do I feel and recognize the spirit even though I am unable to meet with others in church each Sunday?”

Just over a year ago President Nelson prophetically shifted the focus of the church to home based worship and study. We were all encouraged to study and teach in our own homes, allowing our testimony to grow because of spiritual experiences had at home. Little did any of us know that just 1 year after these changes were made, the church would be cancelled all together. Now, what have we learned as the Covid scare is relenting? I believe it was a government scare that was for money and control, but were we able to learn from it?

I invite all of us to seek spiritual moments in our homes even when the outside world seems to be all messed up. I hope we can all recognize and treasure some sacred moments of spiritual growth constantly. I promise that as we seek the spirit in our home, we will find peace of mind and a deep sense of appreciation for everything we have. I testify that President Nelson is a prophet, seer, and revelator who holds and properly exercises all the priesthood keys. And because he does this, we can all benefit from the blessings and guidance of the Holy Ghost in our personal lives at home. Personal revelation is very possible.

“No one can ever take away a witness borne to your heart and mind about what is true.”

You don’t have to wonder about what is true. You do not have to wonder whom you can safely trust. Through personal revelation, you can receive your own witness that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and that this is the Lord’s Church. Regardless of what others may say or do, no one can ever take away a witness borne to your heart and mind about what is true.I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that “if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things —that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.” Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives by President Russell M. Nelson

Evil is Alive and Well

With so many wrong ideas and evil opportunities in the world, how can our personal revelation keep us on Pres Nelson’s “Covenant Path”? There are so many apostates wanting to see the Church fail and to catch the Prophets telling lies, I would say that the Gadianton’s are alive and deceiving many, even the elite.

“Korihor is alive and well at Mormon Stories Podcast. It seems that modern-day apostasy has found a new home at a well funded website dubbed “Mormon Stories Podcast.” As Hugh Nibley once said, if you want to write an anti-Mormon book, just get an old one, dust it off and take a bit of a different slant and republish it under a new name. Now hiding in plain site, the website pretends to be faith-affirming, but then all of the old charges that the Book of Abraham was a ruse or that Joseph Smith dabbled in the occult surface without even an effort to show both sides of an argument. Several my blogs and many articles by the Joseph Smith Foundation have answered many of these phony charges but the website ignores all that. Yes, Korihor is alive and well and now has a website. The ironic thing is that it is a fulfillment of prophecy that “calumny will defame…” But, we know how it ends. In the meantime, “Mormon Stories” continues its deception after the order of Korihor. And, it is well funded. Unfortunately, money talks.” 

Mormon Stories is WRONG. They are selling you you a bill of goods. This gospel is true and you need to follow President Russell M. Nelson who speaks for the Lord Jesus Christ!

Evil Teachings of Today

You will find many other people and organizations who mean well but hide behind certain little lies. They love the Church and believe they are teaching truth, but after you study and pray you get a different feeling. For example the Interpreter Foundation just released their movie called “Witnesses”, it was nicely done, the acting was wonderful and I felt the spirt when the witnesses kept their faith in the Book of Mormon. However, the silly story of Martin hiding a seer stone, and everyone showing Joseph looking in a hat for translation I believe is a serious challenge to faith and what the Prophet said. Joseph Smith said, “Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted “seers” in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.” (Joseph Smith—History 1:34–35) This is clear that Joseph did not use a peep stone or a seer stone to translate the Book of Mormon.

What about Critical Race Theory today, that teaches the White race are all racist and others are constantly oppressed and permanently held back. All Whites need to feel guilt for their whiteness. How absurd.

What about the new word “equity“? What does it mean? “True equity implies that an individual may need to experience or receive something different (not equal) in order to maintain fairness and access. For example, a person with a wheelchair may need differential access to an elevator relative to someone else. … Few people would find [this] unfair.

However, within Critical Social Justice conceptions of the world … invisible systems of power and privilege are understood to hold some people back in often invisible ways because of their race, gender, sexuality, or other marginalized identity factors. Therefore, “equity” requires giving some identity groups privileges in order to redress the perceived imbalance. …” Wentworth Report

What about the 1619 project? “The project dedicated an issue of the Time Magazine to a re-examination of the legacy of slavery in the United States, at the anniversary of the 1619 arrival of the first slaves to Virginia, challenging the notion that the history of the United States began in 1776 or with the arrival of the Pilgrims.” Wikipedia These race hustlers are trying to wipe out our true American history and base it on the slavery question.

What about the problem at BYU and other universities teaching organic evolution as a law and not a science? Some of these professors begin teaching theory as if it were truth. I believe a cat can never become a dog, many professors try and teach us otherwise. Elder Packer said, “Historians seem to take great pride in publishing something new, particularly if it illustrates a weakness or mistake of a prominent historical figure. For some reason, historians and novelists seem to savor such things. If it related to a living person, it would come under the heading of gossip. History can be as misleading as gossip and much more difficult—often impossible—to verify. The writer or the teacher who has an exaggerated loyalty to the theory that everything must be told is laying a foundation for his own judgment. He should not complain if one day he himself receives as he has given. Perhaps that is what is contemplated in having one’s sins preached from the housetops.” The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect Elder Boyd K. Packer

What is the Answer?

Personal Revelation! Like President Nelson said, “You don’t have to wonder about what is true.”

How do you answer the voice of critics? Are you a conservative or liberal? Are you a traditionalist or a progressive? Do you love the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or do you constantly seek to change it’s history? Is your testimony of the Lord growing or remaining neutral? Are you green and growing or ripe and rotten? Do you need to get a check up from the neck up to get rid of stinkin’ thinkin’? Remember, if you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got! I know if you read and pray to the Lord for help, He will answer you. don’t get caught up in all this negative revisionist histroy. Stick to the Lord’s word in scripture and prayer!

Zebedee Coltrin an amazing High Priest of the Lord, while praying with Joseph Smith and others said, “While engaged in silent prayer, kneeling, with hands uplifted each one praying in silence, no one whispered above his breath, a personage walked through the room from from East to west, and Joseph asked if we saw him.  I saw him and suppose the others did, and Joseph answered that is Jesus, the Son of God, our elder brother.  Afterward Joseph told us to resume our former position in prayer, which we did.  Another person came through; He was surrounded as with a flame of fire.  He [Bro Coltrin] experienced a sensation that it might destroy the tabernacles as it was of consuming fire of great brightness.  The Prophet Joseph said this was the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  I saw Him.

I believe the answer to all questions can come from prayer, scripture study, listening to Prophets, reading good books, serving others, and you will receive personal revelation just as many of the saints of old did. You will be amazed at some of the following stories in our Church History that confirm the Lord speaks to us in today’s world. Seek Him and ye shall find Him!

“Many important revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith happened in the Whitney store in Kirtland. The saints had many spiritual experiences in this store and I believe our understanding of these events may assist us in receiving revelation for our own stewardships in these last days. One of my favorite pioneers not well known in the church is Zebedee Coltrin. In 1835 Coltrin was appointed to be one of the first seven presidents of the Seventy. In 1873, John Taylor ordained Coltrin to be a church patriarch, a position he held until his death in Spanish Fork at the age of 82. Visit the Joseph Smith Papers here for details about his life.

“Referred to as the “House of God” in D&C 88, the Newel K. Whitney and Co. store in Kirtland, Ohio, was the site of seventeen revelations recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants and of sacred visions.

House of Revelation

Church life in Kirtland, Ohio, from 1831 to 1834 revolved around the Newel K. Whitney and Co. store. For eighteen months, this store served as the headquarters of the Church, and it was here that the First Presidency was given the keys of the kingdom. (See D&C 90:6; History of the Church [HC], 1:334.) Joseph Smith and family also lived here for eighteen months, and during that time, the Prophet finished his work on the texts of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible.

The first meeting of Joseph Smith and Newel K. Whitney took place in this room, the main part of the store. A post office and the United Firm (a co-op) were also operated here. And it was here that a clerk, Orson Hyde (who later became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve), gained a testimony of the gospel.

In addition, some of the most sacred events of early Church history took place in an upstairs room at a conference held 23 January 1833. Further, the ordinance of the washing of feet was given here for the first time in this dispensation. (See HC, 1:323–24.) Several of those present experienced “divine manifestations of the Holy Spirit,” including a vision of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.

Seventeen revelations were received in the Translation Room from March 1832 to December 1833: sections 78, 84–98, and 101 of the Doctrine and Covenants [D&C 78; D&C 84–98; D&C 101]. It was also here that the Prophet finished his work on the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible.

In recent times, on 18 November 1988, the President’s Historic Preservation Award was given to Church authorities in a ceremony at the White House in recognition of the excellent restoration of this building.

“Thou Art the Man!”

“‘About the first of February, 1831, a sleigh containing four persons drove through the streets of Kirtland and drew up in front of the store of Gilbert and Whitney. One of the men, a young and stalwart personage alighted, and springing up the steps walked into the store and to where the junior partner was standing. “Newel K. Whitney! Thou art the man!” he exclaimed, extending his hand cordially, as if to an old and familiar acquaintance. “You have the advantage of me,” replied the merchant, as he mechanically took the proffered hand, “I could not call you by name as you have me.” “I am Joseph the Prophet,” said the stranger smiling. “You’ve prayed me here, now what do you want of me?” ‘The Prophet, it is said, while in the East had seen the Whitneys, in vision, praying for his coming to Kirtland. ‘Mother Whitney’ [Elizabeth Ann, wife of Newel] also tells how on a certain night prior to the advent … , while she and her husband were praying to the Lord to know how they might obtain the gift of the Holy Ghost, which of all things they desired, they saw a vision as of a cloud of glory resting upon their house, and heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Prepare to receive the word of the Lord, for it is coming.’” (HC, 1:146.)

Conversion of Orson Hyde

“I attended the Saints’ meeting in Kirtland, Sunday, October 30, 1831, and offered myself a candidate for baptism, which was administered to me by the hands of Elder Sidney Rigdon; was confirmed and ordained an elder in the Church on the same day under the hands of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and Sidney Rigdon. Not until about three days after did I receive any internal evidence of the special approbation of Heaven of the course I had taken. When one evening behind the counter, the Spirit of the Lord came upon me in so powerful a manner, that I felt like waiting upon no one, and withdrew in private to enjoy the feast alone. This, to me, was a precious season, long to be remembered.” (Millennial Star, 26 [1864]: 761.)

Joseph Smith III was born in this bedroom on 6 November 1832. He was the fourth of nine children born to Joseph and Emma, but the first to survive to adulthood. The Smiths were also caring for adopted twins at this time. One of them died in March 1832.

The Need for the Word of Wisdom

“Over [the] kitchen was situated the room in which the Prophet received revelations and in which he instructed his brethren [the School of the Prophets]. The brethren came to that place for hundreds of miles to attend school in a little room probably no larger than eleven by fourteen. When they assembled together in this room after breakfast, the first thing they did was to light their pipes, and, while smoking, talk about the great things of the kingdom, and spit all over the room, and as soon as the pipe was out of their mouths a large chew of tobacco would then be taken. Often when the Prophet entered the room to give the school instructions he would find himself in a cloud of tobacco smoke. This, and the complaints of his wife at having to clean so filthy a floor, made the Prophet think upon the matter, and he inquired of the Lord relating to the conduct of the Elders in using tobacco, and the revelation known as the Word of Wisdom was the result of his inquiry.” (Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 12:158.)

Brother Zebedee Coltrin adds the following information to this story: “When the Word of Wisdom [D&C 89] was first presented by the Prophet Joseph … there were twenty out of the twenty-one who used tobacco and they all immediately threw their tobacco and pipes into the fire.” (Minutes, Salt Lake City School of Prophets, 3 Oct. 1883, p. 56.)

The kitchen is about ten by fourteen feet in size, with several pantries. Emma, wife of the Prophet Joseph, fed many people here including members of the School of the Prophets, who came down to the kitchen after fasting and holding meetings.

Visions of the Father and the Son

Zebedee Coltrin shared the following sacred experience: “At one of these meetings after the organization of the school, (the school being organized on the 23rd of January, 1833), when we were all together, Joseph having given instructions, and while engaged in silent prayer, kneeling, with our hands uplifted each one praying in silence, no one whispered above his breath, a personage walked through the room from east to west, and Joseph asked if we saw him. I saw him and suppose the others did and Joseph answered that is Jesus, the Son of God, our elder brother. Afterward Joseph told us to resume our former position in prayer, which we did. Another person came through; he was surrounded as with a flame of fire. … The Prophet Joseph said this was the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I saw Him.” (Minutes, Salt Lake City School of Prophets, 3 Oct. 1883, pp. 56–57.)

The Brethren met here, in the store’s School of the Prophets Room, during the winter of 1832–33. Also, from 3 December 1832 to 21 June 1833, at least eighteen meetings were held here, including the hallowed meeting of 23 January 1833. The nature of the events that took place here lend the room the sanctity of a temple. “Behold, verily, I say unto you, this is an ensample unto you for a salutation to one another in the house of God, in the school of the prophets.” (D&C 88:136.)

This event is corroborated by John Murdock, missionary companion of Zebedee Coltrin at the time and also present at the meeting: “In one of these meetings the prophet told us if we could humble ourselves before God, and exercise strong faith, we should see the face of the Lord. And about midday the visions of my mind were opened, and the eyes of my understanding were enlightened, and I saw the form of a man, most lovely, the visage of his face was sound and fair as the sun. His hair a bright silver grey, curled in most majestic form, His eyes a keen penetrating blue, and the skin of his neck a most beautiful white and he was covered from the neck to the feet with a loose garment, pure white, whiter than any garment I have ever before seen. His countenance was most penetrating, and yet most lovely. And while I was endeavoring to comprehend the whole personage from head to feet it slipped from me, and the vision was closed up. But it left on my mind the impression of love, for months, that I never felt before to that degree.” (John Murdock Journal, typescript, Brigham Young University archives, p. 13.)

Landing between stairway (lower left corner) and School of the Prophets Room (at right).

The Keys of the Kingdom

On 18 March 1833, “Elder Rigdon expressed a desire that himself and Brother Frederick G. Williams should be ordained to the offices to which they had been called, viz., those of Presidents of the High Priesthood, and to be equal in holding the keys of the kingdom with Brother Joseph Smith, Jun., according to the revelation given on the 8th of March, 1833. Accordingly I laid my hands on Brothers Sidney and Frederick, and ordained them to take part with me in holding the keys of this last kingdom, and to assist in the Presidency of the High Priesthood, as my Counselors; after which I exhorted the brethren to faithfulness and diligence in keeping the commandments of God, and gave much instruction for the benefit of the Saints, with a promise that the pure in heart should see a heavenly vision; and after remaining a short time in secret prayer, the promise was verified; for many present had the eyes of their understanding opened by the Spirit of God, so as to behold many things. I then blessed the bread and wine, and distributed a portion to each. Many of the brethren saw a heavenly vision of the Savior, and concourses of angels, and many other things, of which each one has a record of what he saw.” (HC, 1:334–35.)”

[photos above] by Welden Andersen Official Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
© 2014 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All Rights Reserved Jan. 1993
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1993/01/house-of-revelation?lang=eng

The Kirtland School of the Prophets

Zebedee Coltrin: “Coltrin became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy on 28 February 1835. The mouthpiece for that ordination was Presiding Patriarch of the Church Joseph Smith, Sr., with his sons, the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. and Hyrum Smith; Assistant President of the Church Oliver Cowdery; First Presidency members Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams; and apostle David Whitmer, laying their hands upon his head in the Melchizedek Priesthood circle. The next day, Coltrin was appointed to be one of the first seven presidents of the Seventy. When the church hierarchy realized that Coltrin had previously been ordained a high priest, Coltrin was released as one of the presidents of the Seventy on 6 April 1837 and took his place among his brethren of the high priesthood.” Wikipedia Zebedee Coltrin

The Daily Routine:

The first session of the School of the Prophets continued from 23 January into April.  Little is known of the details of the daily classes.  Two interviews with Zebedee Coltrin who participated in the first session of the School of the Prophets, give us our only real look into the daily activities of the School.  In an interview held 3 October 1883, the following was reported:

“The salutation, as written in the Doctrine and Covenants was carried out at that time, and at every meeting, and the washing of feet was attended to, the Sacrament was also administered at times when Joseph appointed, after the ancient order; that is, warm bread to break easy was provided, and broken into pieces as large as my fist and each person had a glass of wine and sat and ate the bread and drank the wine; and Joseph said that was the way that Jesus and his disciples partook of the break [bread] and wine; and this was the order of the church anciently, and until the church went into darkness.  Every time we were called together to attend any business, we came together in the morning about sunrise, fasting and partook of the Sacrament each time; and before going to school we washed ourselves and put on clean linen.”(Salt Lake School of the Prophets Minute Book 1883, p. 38)

In an interview held on 10 October 1883, Coltrin stated:

Elder Orson Hyde was the teacher and saluted the brethren with uplifted hands, and they also answered with uplifted hands. Spoke of the administration of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.  The brethren always went fasting; they went in the morning, remained until about four o’clock in the afternoon, when each had a glass of wine and piece of bread, after the ancient pattern.  Joseph was the president and appointed Elder Orson Hyde teacher, as the school was not only revelations and doctrine, but also for learning English grammar, etc.  The teacher saluted the brethren (one or more) as they came in.  This salutation was given every morning when they met. Brother Sidney Rigdon lectured on grammar sometimes. (Salt Lake School of the Prophets Minute Book 1883, p. 44)

Zebedee Coltrin stated in this interview:

Once Joseph gave notice to the school for all to get up before sunrise, then wash temselves and put on clean clothing and be at the school by sunrise, as it would be a day of revelation and vision.  They opened with prayer.  Joseph then gave instructions to prepare their minds.  He told them to kneel and pray with uplifted hands. (p. 44)

While engaged in silent prayer, kneeling, with hands uplifted each one praying in silence, no one whispered above his breath, a personage walked through the room from from East to west, and Joseph asked if we saw him.  I saw him and suppose the others did, and Joseph answered that is Jesus, the Son of God, our elder brother.  Afterward Joseph told us to resume our former position in prayer, which we did.  Another person came through; He was surrounded as with a flame of fire.  He [Bro Coltrin] experienced a sensation that it might destroy the tabernacles as it was of consuming fire of great brightness.  The Prophet Joseph said this was the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  I saw Him.

When asked about the kind of clothing the Father has on, Bro Coltin said; I did not discover His clothing for He was surrounded as with a flame of fire, which was so brilliant that I could not discover anything else but His person.  I saw His hands, His legs, his feet, his eyes, nose, mouth, head and body in the shape and form of a perfect man.  He sat in a chair as a man would sit in a chair, but This appearance was so grand and overwhelming that it seems I should melt down in His presence, and the sensation was so powerful that it thrilled through my whole system and I felt it in the marrow of my bones.  The Prophet Joseph said:  Brethren[,] now you are prepared to be the apostles of Jesus Christ, for you have seen both the Father and the Son, and know that They exist and that They are two separate Personages.

This appearance occurred about two or three weeks after the opening of the school. (p. 38-39)” 
“House of Revelation” from the Ensign in 1993.

As Moroni said, “And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” Moroni 10:5. Develop your own plan for receiving Personal Revelation and then share that revelation with your calling as head of the household.

Gematria (/ɡəˈmeɪtriə/; Hebrew: גמטריא‎ or gimatria גימטריה, plural גמטראות or גימטריאות, gimatriot)[1] is an alphanumeric code of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to its letters. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher used.

Gematria is a Hebrew alphanumeric code or cipher that was probably used in biblical times and was later adopted by other cultures. It is still widely used in Jewish culture. Similar systems have been used in other languages and cultures: the Greeks isopsephy, and later, derived from or inspired by Hebrew gematria, Arabic abjad numerals, and English gematria.

A type of gematria system (‘Aru’) was employed by the ancient Babylonian culture but, because their writing script was logographic, the numerical assignations they made were to whole words. The value of these words were assigned in an entirely arbitrary manner and correspondences were made through tables.[2] This practise was very different from the gematria systems used by Hebrew and Greek cultures, which used alphabetic writing scripts. Similar systems have been used in other languages and cultures derived from or inspired by Hebrew gematria, Arabic abjad numerals, and English gematria. There is currently no academic consensus over whether Hebrew gematria or Greek isopsephy was used first.

Gematria sums can involve single words, or a string of lengthy calculations. A well-known short example of Hebrew numerology that uses a gematria cipher is the word חי chai (lit. “alive”), which is composed of two letters that (using the assignments in the Mispar gadol table shown below) add up to 18. This has made 18 a “lucky number” among the Jewish people. Donations of money in multiples of 18 are very popular.[3] Unlike numerology, gematria sums are usually derived from a written text and tend to only involve the nouns for calculation. For instance the nouns from Genesis 1:1 בראשית אלהים השמים הארץ that mean ‘In the beginning, Elohim, the Heavens, the Earth’ add up to 700 (using the biblical gematria cipher) to represent the seven days of creation.

Gematria Calculator

Here is an interesting website that assists you with typical words or phrase concerning the Latter-day Saints. I share it for entertainment value and for an interest of other information in this world of knowledge. Don’t go too far with any interpretations as it is all meant as enjoyment. Latter Day Saints Value In Gematria Calculator

Scripture Notes-
Gematria – Good Clean Fun

Support our great friend Oak Norton with his amazing Scripture Notes App. Oak will be presenting at out Sept 23rd Conference in Sandy Utah. He can get you started in making scripture study fun and efficient.

Numerology Explains Why Utah is the Mormon Capital: The Power of Numbers

In the United States, the number 5 is sacred, especially 555.  This is not known to most, but it becomes evidently true when one looks at the architecture and hidden numerical code of the 50 States.  If you would like to look at the numerical code for all 50 states, that information is here.  With regards to 5 and 555, one need only look at the Nation’s Capitol for the first significant evidence.  The Pentagon, the nation’s war department, is a five sided, five story structure, with 77 foot tall walls, and a five acre court in the middle.  Construction began on the Pentagon, September 11, 1941, 60 years before the tragic events of 9/11.  The structure is located on the 77th Meridian, also known as the “American Meridian”.  I throw that detail in so you know numbers have had significance in history.  The Washington Monument, the world’s tallest structure when it was completed, stands 555 feet and 5 inches tall.  That is a lot of fives, don’t you think?

Out of the entire 50 states, only Utah sums to the digit 5.  Mathematically, if it were all random, approximately 5.555 states should sum to the number 5 out of 50 total states, with numbers running 1 through 9.  In this case however, only one state sums to the number 5.  That seems all the more odd when you realize that 555 has been coded into the names of States that do not sum to 5.  Let us examine.

• New Jersey = new = 555
• Pennsylvania = enn = 555
• Connecticut = nne = 555
• New Hampshire = new = 555
• New York = new = 555
• *Tennessee = enne = 5555
• Minnesota = nne = 555
• New Mexico (555+33) = new = 555

When we look at the United States as a whole, we find something very special about this 555 sequence.  Eight states have the number 555 coded within them.

1. Pennsylvania, the second state and home of the first capital, Philadelphia
2. New Jersey, the third state
3. Connecticut, the fifth state
4. New Hampshire, the ninth state
5. New York, the eleventh state
6. Tennessee, sweet 16, which has 6-fives coded within it, enne-ee
7. Minnesota, the 32nd state, with a numerology of 5
8. New Mexico, the 47th state, with a numerology of 11, and summing to 555 and 33. 

We also find that the only states to sum to 33 are the first State Delaware, the sixth State Massachusetts, and the fiftieth and final State, Hawaii.  The sum of 33, is 6, the state Massachusetts is in order of statehood.  Illinois has 33 coded into the lettering, the only to do so, and is also home of the 60606 area code.  Illinois is also the twenty-first state, with a numerology of 3, as 21 = 2+1 = 3.

To put this in greater perspective, to see that these numerical sequences aren’t just coincidence, let us look at some other numerology stats for the entire fifty states as a whole.

• Five of the first 13 colonies have 555  coded into their names
• There are four States with the name “New”, and new = 555
• There are 8 states with 555 coded into their name total
  • Several more cities, such as New Haven, where Skull and Bones is
    • New = 555 Haven = 5
• The United States was established in the “new world” as we were taught.
  • 555 is often used in the movies, 555 = new
  • Many of us are addicted to new and consuming new, are we not?
  • In numerology, 555 means the creation of a big change
    • One could say the U.S.A. has brought it.

Utah is home of Zion National Park.  Mount Zion is the mountain outside of Jerusalem where Temple Mount was once built according to religious historical records.  Zion National Park has some very interesting reported facts and statistical numbers.  Zion National Park is 590 square km or 229 square miles. in total area  It is 15 miles or 24 km deep, and 1/2 miles or 800 meters across.

• 590 km = 5+9 = 14 = 5
• 229 sq.m = 2+2+9+13 = 4
• 15 m  = 6
• 24 km = 6
• 1/2 m = .5
• 800 = 8

If you’ve ever wondered why we keep multiple measuring systems in the United States, perhaps the answer is in numerology.  When such parks are built, perhaps the powers that be want two options to calculate numbers, so that they can have greater capability of achieving their numerical goals.  Just a thought.  Beyond the numbers however, is the name Zion, which has much influence in our world today.  If you’re not familiar with the term Zion and Zionism, it carries many different meanings.  To Rastafarians it means the safe return to the homeland, Africa. To a certain sect of Jews, they refer to themselves as Zionists.  Zionists are essentially the people behind the creation and governance of modern day Israel, and according to Orthodox Jews, Zionists have stolen the Jewish faith and corrupted their religion for an immoral cause.

Fort Douglas is another major attraction in the state of Utah.  Today it is just a museum, but it has been many things in history, from protection for the Mormons in the 1800s to an internment camp for German citizens during World War I starting in 1917.  In 1922, Fort Douglas became the home for the 38th infantry.  In the year ending ’22, it became the home of the infantry summing to 11 in numerology.  Let us quickly also examine the numerology of 1922.

• 1922 = 1+9+2+2 = 14 = 5. 

After World War II, Fort Douglas would become the home of the 96th Army Reserve Command.  96 sums to 15, the same total as 555.  Maybe just another coincidence.  In 2002, the fort was used to house the “Olympic Winter Village.”  This was the Winter following the September 11 attacks, of 2001.
The fort was built in 1862 at coordinates:

• The numerology of Fort Douglas, names aren’t arbitrary
  • FORT = 6+6+9+2 = 23 = 5
  • DOUGLAS = 4+6+3+7+3+1+1 = 25 = Five 5s

Do you see as many fives as I see in those coordinates?

Utah, the United States and Mormonism
Let us move onto what Utah is most popularly known for, that being the site of many of the nation’s Mormon citizens, the home of the fastest growing sect of Christianity in the country.

MORMON = 13+15+18+13+15+14 = 88 = 16 = 7
MORMON = 4+6+9+4+6+5 = 34 = 7

GEORGE = 7+6+7+9+7+5 = 39
WASHINGTON = 5+1+1+8+9+5+7+2+6+5 = 49
GEORGE WASHINGTON = 39+49 = 88 = 16 = 7

• See the 88 connection between Mormon wand Washington
• 55+33 = 88
• In the 9/11 Tribute to Light, 88 lamps were used to salute the fallen towers
  • Two beams, each made of 44 lamps

JOSEPH SMITH = 64+69 = 133 = 7
JOSEPH SMITH = 10+6 = 16 = 7

• JOSEPH = 10+15+19+5+7+8 = 64 = 10
• JOSEPH =1+6+1+5+7+8 = 28 = 10
• SMITH = 19+13+9+20+8 = 69 = 15 = 6
• SMITH = 1+4+9+2+8 = 24 = 6

It is believed by most people that Mormonism originates from Utah.  This however is not true.  It is actually originating from Upstate New York, the eleventh state, the number representing Satan in numerology, also commonly called ‘The Big Apple’, as in the big temptation, as in the fruit that causes sin in the Bible originally, in the first story from the Book of Genesis.  Mormonism dates back to the 1820s, with Joseph Smith, before even Utah was an established state or the religion had reached as far West.  New York is also one of eight states to have 555 coded into its name, and let us recall, Utah is the only state summing to 5 in numerology of State Names.  In a land where numerology is important, this is not a coincidence.

Smith was born in Sharon, Vermont (14 state = 1+4 =5) and by 1817 had moved with his family to western New York, then the site of intense religious revivalism as part of the Second Great Awakening. There, according to Smith, he saw and heard a series of visions that directed Smith to a buried book of golden plates inscribed with a Judeo-Christian history of an ancient American civilization. In 1830, Smith published what he said was an English translation of these plates, titled the Book of Mormon. Also in 1830, he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian church. Church members were later called “Latter Day Saints” or “Mormons”.

LATTER = 3+1+2+2+5+9 = 22 = 4
LATTER = 12+1+20+20+5+18 = 76 = 13 = 4
DAY = 4+1+7 = 12 = 3
DAY = 4+1+25 = 30 = 3
SAINTS = 1+1+9+5+2+9 = 27 = 9
SAINTS = 19+1+9+14+20+19 = 72 = 9
LATTER(4)+Day(3)+Saints(9) = 16 = 7

• Mormon = 7
• Joseph Smith = 7
• George Washington = 7

In the second post I ever did on this blog, I commented on how I noticed the number 44 seemed to coincide with assassination.  Joseph Smith would lead the Mormon Church through its early growth stages, from 1820 to 1844, when he would die on June 27, 1844, after being stampeded by a mob, in Illinois, before Mormonism even reached what is present day Utah.

• June 27, 1844 = 6+2+7+1+8+4+4 = 32 = 5
  • June 27 = 6+2+7 = 15 (The sum of 555)

Before Joseph Smith’s death, in 1831, he and his followers moved west with plans to build a communalistic “American Zion”, as he put it. They gathered in Kirtland, Ohio first, and then established an outpost in Independence, Missouri, which was intended to be Zion’s “center place”. During the 1830s, Smith sent out missionaries, published revelations, and supervised construction of an expensive temple to gain attention. However, due to the collapse of a previously church sponsored bank and violent skirmishes with angry non-Mormon Missourians, Smith’s dreams of building Zion in Missouri and Ohio failed by the end of the decade. In the early 1840s, Smith established a new city called Nauvoo, Illinois, where he was a spiritual and political leader. In 1844, Smith and the Nauvoo city council angered non-Mormons by ordering a printing press destroyed after it was used to publish an editorial critical of Smith’s power and practice of having multiple wives. During the ensuing controversy, Smith was imprisoned in Carthage, Illinois and killed when a mob stormed the jailhouse. 

After the death of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young would become the leader of the Latter Day Saints.  He would move the religion to the West, and settle the city of Salt Lake City, Utah.

• SALT = 1+1+3+2 = 7
• LAKE = 3+1+2+5 = 11
• CITY = 3+9+2+7 = 16 = 7
• SALE + LAKE + CITY = 7 +11+7 = 25 = 7

On September 11, 1857, 13 years after the passing of Joseph Smith, the Mormons would have a September 11 of their own, when the Mountain Meadows Massacre would occur.  Like Jamestown, the incident is blamed on Natives, but the facts and history from locals weighs something different.

Courtesy of Wikipedia-
On Friday, September 11, 1857, two militiamen approached the Baker–Fancher party wagons with a white flag and were soon followed by Native American agent and militia officer John D. Lee. Lee told the battle-weary emigrants that he had negotiated a truce with the Paiutes, whereby they could be escorted safely the 36 miles (58 km) back to Cedar City under Mormon protection in exchange for turning all of their livestock and supplies over to the Native Americans. Accepting this, the emigrants were led out of their fortification. The adult men were separated from the women and children. The men were paired with a militia escort. When a signal was given, the militiamen turned and shot the male members of the Baker–Fancher party standing by their side. The women and children were then ambushed and killed by more militia that were hiding in nearby bushes and  ravines. Members of the militia were sworn to secrecy. A plan was set to blame the massacre on the Native Americans. The militia did not kill some small children who were deemed too young to relate the story. These children were taken in by local Mormon families. Seventeen of the children were later reclaimed by the U.S. Army and returned to relatives in Arkansas.

JOHN = 10+15+8+14 = 47 = 11
D = 4
LEE = 12+5+5 = 22 = 4

Doesn’t it seem interesting the man who lead the conflict, had a name with a numerology of 11-4-4?  Knowing what we know about 44, and the fact that Joseph Smith’s life came to an unexpected death in ’44.  We should not overlook these numerical names, numbers and dates of history.  Of course, the September 11 date is also very curious, and it coming thirteen years after the death of Smith.  Here in the United States, September 11, 2014 will mark the 13 year anniversary of 9/11 as we have come to know it in the present.

After Smith’s passing, Brigham Young would lead the Mormons from after Joseph Smith until his death, August 29, 1877, when he would pass at 4:00 PM, from what is believed to be a burst appendix.  The deaths of Smith and Joseph were thirty-three years and sixty-three days apart.

• 33 years = 3+3 = 6
• 63 days = 6+3 = 9
• 6/9
• Joseph and Brigham

Two years before his death, the Brigham Young University was established, October 16, 1875

• October 16, 1875 = 1+1+6+1+8+7+5 = 29 = 11

Utah has been a nation of new, from westward expansion, to the founding of the nation’s first department store; Zion Cooperative Mercantile Institution, to the beginning of the environmental movement.  It is also the state where the world’s first transcontinental train was established and celebrated.  In additions to firsts, it has many significant numbers, as evidenced by where Interstate 70 ends at Highway 15.  The stretch of Highway 70 connecting Utah to Colorado, is considered the most deserted stretch of highway in the nation.  In this report, the numbers 5, 555 and 7 have come up often.  70 sums to 7 in numerology, and 15 is the product of three fives.  Five and seven also have two other major connections in Utah; the state has five national parks and seven national monuments:
National Parks:

• Arches
• Bryce
• Canyonlands
• Capitol Reef
• Zion

National Monuments

• Cedar Breaks
• Dinosaur
• Grand Staircase-Escelante
• Hovensweep
• Natural Bridges
• Rainbow Bridge
• Timpanogos

Utah is also the only state to have a capitol made of three words, each with four letters. 4:4:4. Also, Utah mountain peaks, on average, are the tallest in the country. The average elevation of the tallest peaks in each of Utah’s counties is 11,222 ft.-higher than the same average in any other state.  Altogether, it makes Utah a very unique place, having many major numerical significances.

Let us close with Chapter 9, Passage 11, from the Book of Mormon.
But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.

• ABRAHAM = 1+2+9+1+8+1+4 = 26 = 8
• ISAAC = 9+1+1+1+3 = 15 (911 and 113… also 15, the sum of three 5s…also, Isaac is 5 letters)
• JACOB = 1+1+3+6+2 = 13 (113 and formed by 5 letters)
  • USA = 311

Source: free to find truth

The United States of America was chosen and carefully selected for a righteous people to dwell and prosper. The Book of Mormon uses it in the last connotation: “And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto the land of promise, which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people.” (Ether 2:7)

This does not mean that the land of North America is ‘superior’ to all other lands. However, it was ‘carefully selected’ for a special purpose. For the Jaredites it was a land chosen for a ‘righteous people.’ For the Nephites, it was ‘carefully selected’ as a land of promise and a covenant land for a remnant of the House of Israel.“

“I should like to say a few words about America… No land is without its beauty, no people without their virtues, and I hope that you who come from elsewhere will pardon my saying a few words concerning my own native land, America…surely this is a good land, a choice land, a chosen land. To me it is a miracle, a creation of the Almighty.” Gordon B. Hinckley Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled”, BYU Speeches of the Year, October 29, 1974, pp. 267-68

How is it possible to read the Book of Mormon and read the promises about a Promised Land, and not know these prophets are speaking about the United States of America? There are many choice lands in the Americas, but not like the USA with its constitution, liberty and missionary work. We truly are blessed to be in this chosen land of America. With this blessing, we are under covenant to share the gospel to the rest of the world and if we don’t we shall be swept off this chosen Land. President Dyer shares in plain language as an ambassador of the Lord, this same sentiment.

The Destiny of America by President Alvin R. Dyer

Of the First Presidency Conference Report, October 1968, pp. 106-110

“My brothers and sisters and friends of our vast television audience, I occupy this position this morning by assignment from our beloved leader, President David O. McKay. We are so grateful he is present with us this morning, and I bear record that he is a prophet of God.

The Destiny of America

My talk this morning concerns the destiny of America, which directly and indirectly affects all of mankind.

Since the founding of this country, political leaders have spoken of the greatness of America and of its place in the world as the cradle of freedom and democracy, with a destiny to disseminate these principles throughout the world.

We have witnessed America’s attempt at this by various methods, but she is learning by hard and costly experience that freedom cannot be taken or given to any people, nor can it be bought. America of today will need to learn the lesson, as did our Founding Fathers, that freedom must be sought after with courage and sacrifice, and that she cannot maintain it at home or convey it unto others unless this type of pursuit is involved.

As to the destiny of America, politically speaking, I am not prepared to say, but I do know that long before the ships of Columbus touched the shores of the New World, long before our independence and our Founding Fathers established a new nation, events had long since transpired to give unto this land, which we now call America, its committed purpose and destiny.

True destiny spiritual

I have a firm conviction that the true destiny of America is religious, not political; it is spiritual, not physical.

Much has been said by many of the purpose of its founding. The Prophet Joseph Smith himself declared its constitution to be heavenly inspired, and because of this we earnestly pray for its purposeful continuity. But noble and great as are the political phases of its establishment, its real significance lies in its spiritual purpose, for which it was truly founded. I have chosen two of these spiritual and therefore God-purposed reasons for reference:

First: America was founded to fulfill a covenant that God made with the patriarchal ancestors of the house of Israel. The Lord, speaking unto a remnant of this house who had inhabited this land, had thus to say:

“For it is wisdom in the Father that they should be established in this land, and be set up as a free people by the power of the Father, that these things might come forth from them unto a remnant of your seed, that the covenant of the Father may be fulfilled which he hath covenanted with his people, O house of Israel” (3 Ne. 21:4).

Preservation of moral agency

Second: America and its constitution were founded to preserve unto mankind the God-given right of moral agency. I quote from a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith on this subject:

“According to the laws and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles;

“That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.

“Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another,

“And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood” (D&C 101:77-80, italics added).

The people whom Columbus found were the ebbing remnants of those who came to this land by heavenly direction and in fulfillment of the covenants which God had enacted long before their migrations and occupancy of the land, which the Lord announced to them as a land of promise and inheritance.

Migration of Jaredites

According to the Book of Mormon, the Jaredites began their migration to this land at the time when the great tower of Babel was under construction. This occurred in about the year 2200 B.C. At this time the language of the people was confused. This tower has been identified in our modern time at a place called Hillah in modern Iraq, southwest of the city of Baghdad, on the east bank of the Euphrates River. Here is found a ruin known as Birs Nimrud, standing like a watchtower on a vast plain. Inscriptions on the pyramid-shaped ruins were found by Professor Rawlinson to bear the name of “The Temple of the Seven Planets.” This ruin is supposed to be what is left of the Tower of Babel.

In the course of the travels of the Jaredites, first northward into the valley of Nimrod and then, after crossing many lakes and rivers, eventually reaching the great sea which separated the continents, they established a community named Moriancumer after their great leader, the brother of Jared (see Ether 2:1-6,13).

We learn that the Lord gave instructions to the brother of Jared for the building of submersible barges that would enable his colony to cross the great waters to a land of promise, concerning which Mahonri-Moriancumer wrote:

“And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity.

“For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God” (Ether 2:9-10).

Lehi led to promised land

About 1,600 years later, or 600 B.C., a prophet by the name of Lehi with his family left doomed Jerusalem, as the Lord had directed him. Lehi and his colony, as with the Jaredites many centuries before, were to be led to the promised land. Speaking unto Nephi, the son of Lehi, while they were yet in the wilderness prior to their embarkation, the Lord said:

“And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands” (1 Ne. 2:20).

Eventually, after much tribulation and a perilous journey over the great waters in a ship built as directed by the Lord, Lehi and his colony, somewhat enlarged since their departure from Jerusalem, reached the promised land, probably in the year of 589 B.C.

Later, Nephi made this declaration:

“But,” said he, “notwithstanding our afflictions, we have obtained a land of promise, a land which is choice above all other lands; a land which the Lord God hath covenanted with me should be a land for the inheritance of my seed. Yea, the Lord hath covenanted this land unto me, and to my children forever, and also all those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord” (2 Ne. 1:5).

Land of man’s beginning

While the Reformation and the surge for freedom were gaining momentum in Europe and England, events were transpiring that led to the rediscovery of the land of America, for God touched the heart of a mariner by the name of Christopher Columbus, who eventually pioneered a passageway to the promised land in 1492. But neither Columbus, the Nephites, nor the Jaredites were its original discoverers, nor did they establish the purpose of America’s destiny. This had already been established in the infancy of earth’s habitation. In these migrations they were but directed to the land of man’s beginning upon the earth.

Christ’s visit to America

We have learned that following his earth-life ministry among the Jews, visiting the sheep of another fold here in the land of America and establishing his Church among the people, the resurrected Christ tells of the founding of America and the coming forth again of his gospel unto the remnant of the seed of those then occupying this land, and unto all of the children of God. This was to follow a period of spiritual darkness upon the earth. In this declaration the Lord tells of the sacred destiny of the great land of America, and I quote the words of the Savior:

“And verily I say unto you, I give unto you a sign, that ye may know the time when these things shall be about to take place—that I shall gather in, from their long dispersion, my people, O house of Israel, and shall establish again among them my Zion” (3 Ne. 21:1).

The land of inheritances

The lord in the following declaration designates the land of America as the land of inheritances unto those who are of the house of Israel, who shall be gathered from throughout the earth, for, said he:

“And then shall the remnants, which shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth, be gathered in from the east and from the west, and from the south and from the north; and they shall be brought to the knowledge of the Lord their God, who hath redeemed them.

“And the Father hath commanded me that I should give unto you this land, for your inheritance.

“And behold, this people will I establish in this land, unto the fulfilling of the covenant which I made with your father Jacob; and it shall be a New Jerusalem. And the powers of heaven shall be in the midst of this people; yea, even I will be in the midst of you” (3 Ne. 20:13-14,22).

To speak of America, both north and south, as “the choice land,” “a land consecrated” (D&C 57:1), we will need to go back to the beginning for an understanding.

The Garden of Eden

From the writings of the prophet Moses, dealing with the placement of man upon the earth, this statement is made:

“And I, the Lord God, planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there I put the man whom I had formed” (Moses 3:8).

Then, as it was not good for man to be alone, a helpmeet, or a woman, was placed beside him, that both man and woman together could occupy the garden thus planted.

As to what and where the Garden of Eden was, it is well to call to mind that in the process of the creation, during the third period, all waters were gathered in one place, and the dry land was in one place. The land was called earth and the waters sea (Gen. 1:10).

The dry land, or earth, is also given other name, that of Eden, and it was eastward in Eden or eastward on the dry land that the garden of our first earth-life parents was placed (Gen. 2:8).

In the course of time from the creation, in the days of Peleg (Gen. 10:16 (JST)), or about the year 2200 B.C., Just prior to the confusion of the languages, the single continent of land that had continued from creation was divided to produce the hemispheres as we now know them. But notwithstanding this, the geographic location of the Garden of Eden was made known to the Prophet Joseph Smith by revelation as here in the land of America, in Jackson County, Missouri, with Independence as the center place.

Beginning of mortal life

When Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden, they traveled in a northerly direction less than 100 miles to settle in a place that we now have come to know by the revealed word of God as Adam-ondi-Ahman (see D&C 116:1). Here is where mortal family life began, as Adam and Eve begat sons and daughters, all of this here in the land of America.

Adam and Eve, shut out from the presence of God, settled in the place of their earthly abode and called upon God. They were instructed to offer the firstlings of their flocks upon altars as a sacrifice unto the Lord, to which commandment they were obedient even though they did not know the reason. An angel of the Lord then appeared and explained the similitude of the sacrifice of Christ the Lord, who would come to earth at an appointed time. Thereafter the gospel plan of salvation and exaltation, by reconciliation with God the Father, from whose presence they had been banished, was revealed for the first time to man upon the earth (Moses 5:4-8).

Keys of salvation given to Adam

The Holy Priesthood, after the order of the Son of God, which “administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God” (D&C 84:19), was conferred upon Adam. Hence, unto Adam, the great progenitor of the human family, were given the “keys of salvation” (D&C 78:16). The Lord, or Ahman, thus made known unto Adam and Eve that though they had fallen and were subject to both physical and spiritual deaths, they could be redeemed and reconciled with God the Father.

In conferring the “keys of salvation” upon Adam, the revealing and unlocking of the conditions of salvation were made known to them and through them to mankind. In this we can understand the true meaning of the term “Adam-ondi-Ahman,” or simply: from “Ahman,” who is the Lord—”ondi,” meaning through Adam unto mankind.

In the revelation referred to, but to which more attention is now given, the Lord speaks clearly of the “keys of salvation” having been given to Adam (or Michael (D&C 27:11), his premortal name), identifying the purpose for which they were conferred.

“That you may come up unto the crown prepared for you, and be made rulers over many kingdoms, saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Zion, who hath established the foundations of Adam-ondi-Ahman;

“Who hath appointed Michael your prince, and established his feet, and set him upon high, and given unto him the keys of salvation under the counsel and direction of the Holy One, who is without beginning of days or end of life” (D&C 78:15-16).

“. . . for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fulness of times, which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed from the days of Adam even to the present time” (D&C 128:18).

A choice land

Thus, from these brief accounts we see the reasons why America, or the continent of America, is the promised and choice land, choice above all other lands, for it was here that the habitation of man began, and here that the covenants of God were first established. And it is from the center of this land that God has started his great latter-day work that will carry to the finish.

It is of compelling interest to learn that in the sequence of the Lord’s time, the earth and the waters will return to their original place. On this subject we have this revelation from the Lord:

“And he shall utter his voice out of Zion, and he shall speak from Jerusalem, and his voice shall be heard among all people;

“And it shall be a voice as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder, which shall break down the mountains, and the valleys shall not be found.

“He shall command the great deep, and it shall be driven back into the north countries, and the islands shall become one land;

“And the land of Jerusalem and the land of Zion shall be turned back into their own place, and the earth shall be like as it was in the days before it was divided.

“And the Lord, even the Savior, shall stand in the midst of his people, and shall reign over all flesh” (D&C 133:21-25).

Zion will not fail

America as Zion will not fail. Since America is the land choice above all other lands (1 Ne. 2:20), and it is in the “Center Place” that Zion will be established (D&C 57:3), it will not fail.

America as Zion will not fail, not simply because it is, the land of our illustrious independence and constitutional fathers, but because it is the land of Joseph, the son of Jacob, and has been so established by God’s covenant. It is the land for the gathering of Israel in the culminating period of the last dispensation, which God has established through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

To accomplish his purposes in the destiny of America as Zion, we have these words from the Lord concerning his people:

“But first let my army become very great, and let it be sanctified before me, that it may become fair as the sun, and clear as the moon, and that her banners may be terrible unto all nations” (D&C 105:31).

I bear testimony of the fulfillment and the destiny of the land of America as Zion, and I do it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.” (The Destiny of America by President Alvin R. Dyer Color and highlights added)

“He that eateth this bread, eateth of My body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine, drinketh of My blood to his soul, and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled.” 3 Nephi 20:8

2 Nephi 15:1-2 (Compare Isaiah 5) “And then will I sing to my well-beloved, a song of my beloved, touching His vineyard: My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein, and He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes”

Where do you think the wine spoken of in the Book of Mormon is most likely to come from? Mesoamerica, USA Heartland, or somewhere else?

Vinland was the name given to part of North America by the Icelandic Norseman Leif Eríksson, about year 1000 A.D. The exact meaning of this Norse name has not been yet established but seems historically to mean the “land of vines” (or “land of wine”) where he discovered wild grapes, as shown in the above photo of Vitis labrusca, or “fox grape.” “The earliest record of the name Vinland is found in Adam of Bremen’s ‘Description of the Northern Islands,’ ch. 39), written c. 1075, where he reported one island [Newfoundland], discovered by many in that ocean, ‘which is called Vinland, for the reason that grapevines grow there by themselves, producing the best wine.’” – Birgitta Linderoth Wallace, “Westward Vikings: The Saga of L’Anse aux Meadows,” St. John’s, Newfoundland: Historic Sites Association of
Newfoundland and Labrador in association with Parks Canada [2006]. (Note: the Managing Editor’s Cape Cod High School Mascot is a Viking and the above photo of wild fox grapes was taken on the Cape.)

“Leif Eriksson was the son of Erik the Red, founder of the first European settlement on what is now called Greenland. Around A.D. 1000, Eriksson sailed to Norway, where King Olaf I converted him to Christianity. According to one school of thought, Eriksson sailed off course on his way back to Greenland and landed on the North American continent, where he explored a region he called Vinland. He may also have sought out Vinland based on stories of an earlier voyage by an Icelandic trader. After spending the winter in Vinland, Leif sailed back to Greenland, and never returned to North American shores. He is generally believed to be the first European to reach the North American continent, nearly four centuries years before Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492.

Leif Eriksson’s Early Life and Conversion to Christianity
Leif Eriksson (spelling variations include Eiriksson, Erikson or Ericson), known as “Leif the Lucky,” was the second of three sons of the famed Norse explorer Erik the Red, who established a settlement in Greenland after being expelled from Iceland around A.D. 980. The date of Leif Eriksson’s birth is uncertain, but he is believed to have grown up in Greenland. According to the 13th-century Icelandic Eiriks saga (or “Saga of Erik the Red”), Eriksson sailed from Greenland to Norway around 1000. On the way, he was believed to have stopped in the Hebrides, where he had a son, Thorgils, with Thorgunna, daughter of a local chief. In Norway, King Olaf I Tryggvason converted Eriksson to Christianity, and a year later sent him back to Greenland with a commission to spread the faith among the settlers there.

Did you know? After Leif Eriksson returned to Greenland, his brother Thorvald led another Viking expedition to Vinland, but all future efforts to settle in the region failed due to bitter clashes between the Norsemen and the local Native American population. Thorvald himself died in a skirmish somewhere north of the Viking base.” https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/leif-eriksson

“And it came to pass that Jesus commanded His Disciples that they should bring forth some bread and wine unto Him. And while they were gone for bread and wine, He commanded the multitude that they should sit themselves down upon the earth. …And it came to pass that when He said these words, He commanded His Disciples that they should take of the wine of the cup and drink of it, and that they should also give unto the multitude that they might drink of it.” (3 Nephi 18:1-2; 8; emphasis added). “A choice land above all others” (Ether 13:2) has to have the right climate and seasons for growing grapes that can be made into wine.

Earlier in the book of Mosiah we learned that King Noah was fond of wine: “And it came to pass that he planted vineyards round about in the land; and he built wine-presses, and made wine in abundance; and therefore he became a wine-bibber, and also his people” – Mosiah 11:15, emphasis added. Vineyards are plantations of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for making wine. Annotated Book of Mormon by David Hocking and rod Meldrum Page 327

I believe it’s important to think about the source of the wine that is spoken of in the scriptures. Does it make more sense to you that the wine of the Book of Mormon came from Mesoamerica or from the Heartland? You may not care and that is fine, but I wanted to give you two sides of the story and then let you decide which makes more sense to you.

Pulque in Mesoamerica

Pulque [‘pulke](Classical Nahuatl: metoctli), or octli, is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey (agave) plant. It is traditional to central Mexico, where it has been produced for millennia. It has the color of milk, somewhat viscous consistency and a sour yeast-like taste. Source Wikipedia

During the times of the Book of Mormon I think the symbolism of white pulque instead of red wine doesn’t make sense to me. “When the Vikings arrived in America they called the land Vinland. Vinland was the name given to part of North America by the Icelandic Norseman Leif Eríksson, about year 1000 A.D. The exact meaning of this Norse name has not been yet established but seems historically to mean the “land of vines” (or “land of wine”) where he discovered wild grapes.” See Page 327 Annotated Book of Mormon

“Close analyses of glyphic, iconographic, and ethnographic evidence from the Maya area reveal that pulque, often associated exclusively with the cultures of central Mexico, was known, valued, and consumed in the Maya area as well. Such studies also reveal numerous parallels between the ritual significance of pulque in the Maya area and its meaning in the Aztec world. Both groups appear to have associated pulque with water, blood, and vomit, all of which were deeply connected with themes of purification, sacrifice, and renewal. Far from being the sinful substance so often maligned in colonial accounts, pulque appears instead to have played a significant and complex role in the religious practices of widespread Mesoamerican cultures”  

https://www.academia.edu/3811531/Blood_Water_Vomit_and_Wine_Pulque_in_Maya_and_Aztec_Belief

Still, being aware of the different possibilities invites questions perhaps never before considered.You have only given us one possibility and that is somewhere in Mesoamerica. BMC why won’t you consider other possibilities? For example, visualize that sacred moment when the risen Lord asked the disciples to retrieve both bread and wine for the sacremant [sic] (3 Nephi 18:1–3, 8), and then shortly thereafter Lord Himself miraculously provided wine and bread for a second performance of that sacred ritual (3 Nephi 20:5–8). Was the miraculous wine from the Savior the same variety of wine the disciples brought? If not, why not? Why wouldn’t it be? The disciples were deeply religious and they would know what the correct wine was. They definitely knew the type of wine available and the Lord would use the wine of the country. Why would the Lord change the wine? For what purpose? Why force a situation that requires two types of wines?

Although speculative, one possible answer is that perhaps the available native wine did not strongly enough symbolize the blood of Christ.10 (Why was it the wrong color”) While accepting the disciples’ humble offer the first time, for the second occasion Christ may have chosen to miraculously produce traditional red wine from the Old World in order to more strongly convey to them His important teaching, “he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled” (3 Nephi 20:8). If the available native wine was white or yellow, it would not symbolize the blood of Christ would it?

This could have provided a powerful visual for Nephites accustomed to drinking yellowish colored wines. This is a shot in the dark. Why would you even mention a yellowish wine? Is that because that is the only kind of wine that is in Mesoamerica?  Even if this is not the case, being aware of the different possible types of wine allows readers to better visualize Book of Mormon life. How? This is especially insightful with wine, since it is so frequently mentioned within the text of the Book of Mormon. Wine is frequently mentioned and critically important and that is why it would be the same wine in both the Old and New World. Awareness of different possible types of wine or wine colors does not help me decide or visualize the Book of Mormon. Having the wine of the Bible which is also available in the USA that may of been brought from Israel, and it would grow in North America, to me is a huge evidence of the Book of Mormon in North America.

Notice all or most of the quotes below are from current advocates of a Mesoamerican setting:

Further Reading

John L. Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2013), 307–308.

Kirk Magleby, “King Noah’s Wine,” Book of Mormon Resources, November 12, 2011, online at (accessed April 5, 2016).

---

• 1.See 1 Nephi 4:7; Mosiah 22:7, 10; Alma 55:8–11, 13, 30, 32; 3 Nephi 18:1–3, 8; 20:5–8; Moroni 5:1–2; Moroni 6:6.
• 2. Wikipedia, s.v., “Wine,” online at Wikipedia.org (accessed April 5, 2016).
• 3. See John A. Tvedtnes, “Vineyard or Olive Orchard,” in The Allegory of the Olive Tree: The Olive, the Bible, and Jacob 5, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and John W. Welch (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1994), 477–483. Outside of old-world writings of Isaiah (in 2 Nephi 13 and 15), and Zenos (in Jacob 5), vineyards are only mentioned twice in the Book of Mormon, namely in Mosiah 11:14 (regarding Noah’s novel expansion) and Alma 28:14 (in the metaphor “to labor in the vineyards of the Lord”).
• 4.S ee John L. Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2013), 307. Sorenson uses “maguey” when talking about agave.
• 5. 2 Nephi 15:2 is a quotation of Isaiah 5:2.
• 6. Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex, 307.
• 7. Kirk Magleby, “King Noah’s Wine,” Book of Mormon Resources, November 12, 2011, (accessed April 5, 2016). Several different models place the land of Nephi in this area. See Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex, 131–133; V. Garth Norman, Book of Mormon–Mesoamerican Geography: History Study Map (American Fork, UT: ARCON and the Ancient America Foundation, 2008), 31 (no. 48); Joseph L. Allen and Blake J. Allen, Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon, revised edition (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2011), 404–405.
• 8. Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex, 307–308. Sorenson is citing Alejandro C. Martínez Muriel, “Don Martín, Chiapas: Inferencias económico-sociales de una comunidad arqueológica” (thesis, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1978), 102ff., 125.
• 9.Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex, 308.
• 10.Agave, banana, and pineapple all, unsurprisingly, produce a yellowish or cider colored wine.
  

  ---

If you would like more information about Native American wine, there are articles below. 

Native Wine Grapes of America

“America has been covered with grapevines even before varieties like Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon were transplanted from Europe. Several of these native species play an important role in the world of wine, but most have been cast aside and their stories are threatened to disappear into history… Nearly all the wines that we drink today are produced with one species of grape: Vitis vinifera. V. vinifera traces its roots back to grapes in ancient Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, etc). Vinifera grapes include all the most popular wines in the world: Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, etc. and have been studied extensively. The idiosyncrasies of making wine with V. vinifera have been fine tuned for several thousand years.”

Indigenous American Grape Varieties, A Primer
by David Mark Brown June 23, 2010 FCG, Wine Spotlight

“Of the eight species of grapes in the Vitis genus, six are native to North America, while only vinifera is native to Europe and amurensis to Asia. The powerhouse species native to Europe gives us varieties (also called cultivars) such as merlot, cabernet sauvignon, riesling, chardonnay, and sauvignon blanc. Basically every wine grape most of us can think of.

Of the six native species that had been growing in North America long before European settlers arrived, some may sound more familiar than others: rotundifolia (muscadine), aestivalis (summer grape), riparia (frost grape), labrusca (fox grape), mustangensis (Mustang grape), and rupestris (sand grape).

Rotundifolia (muscadine) was the first species in North America to be heavily cultivated, and has a history of over 400 years. The living proof resides on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Known simply as the Mothervine (right), this ancient muscadine is the oldest known grape vine in North America. North Carolina is the largest producer of muscadine, but over three hundred improved muscadine cultivars are currently growing throughout the southeastern United States.

“Wine from the same vine that Sir Walter Raleigh’s colonists likely plucked grapes from will soon be available to the public. MotherVine Premium Scuppernong Wine will be introduced on Tuesday on Mother Vineyard Road, the site of the more than 400-year-old Mother Vine, reputed to be the oldest cultivated grapevine in the world. “Nobody in Europe has come up with one as old as that – and we’ve challenged them,” said David Fussell Sr., the owner of Duplin Winery in Rose Hill.” The virginian Pilot Newpaper

---

A History of Wine in America 

The Beginnings, 1000-1700

The history of the vine in America begins, symbolically at least, in the fogs that shroud the medieval Norsemen’s explorations. Every American knows the story of Leif Ericsson, and how, in A.D. 1001, he sailed from Greenland to the unknown country to the west. The story, however, is not at all clear. Historians disagree as to what the records of this voyage actually tell us, since they are saga narratives; they come from a remote era, from a strange language, and are uncritical, indistinct, and contradictory. Most experts, however, will agree that Leif—or someone—reached the new land. There, at least according to one saga, while Leif and his men went exploring in one direction, another member of the company, a German named Tyrker, went off by himself and made the discovery of what he called wine-berries—vinber in the original Old Norse, translated into English as “grapes.”^[1] The Norsemen made Tyrker’s “grapes” a part of their cargo when they sailed away, and Leif, in honor of this notable part of the country’s produce, called the land “Wineland.”

As a German, Tyrker claimed to know what he was talking about: “I was born where there is no lack of either grapes or vines,” he told Leif. But the latest opinion inclines to the belief that the vines of Leif Ericsson’s “Wineland”—most probably the northern coast of Newfoundland^[2] —were in fact not grapes at all but the plants of the wild cranberry. ^[3] Another guess is that what the Vikings named the land for was meadow grass, called archaically vin or vinber , and misinterpreted by later tellers of the saga. ^[4] No wild grapes grow in so high a latitude. Though it is powerfully tempting to believe that the Vikings really did discover grapes in their Vinland, the evidence is all against them unless we suppose that the climate of the region was significantly warmer then than now. Their name of “Wineland,” however, was excellent prophecy. For the continent that they had discovered was in fact a great natural vineyard, where, farther to the south, and from coast to coast, the grape rioted in profusion and variety.

Grapes grow abundantly in many parts of the world: besides the grapes of the classic sites in the Near East and in Europe, there are Chinese grapes, Sudanese grapes, Caribbean grapes. But, though the grape vine is widely tolerant and readily adaptable, it will not grow everywhere, and in some places where it grows vigorously, it still does not grow well for the winemaker’s purposes. The main restrictions are the need for sufficient sun to bring the clusters of fruit to full ripeness, yet sufficient winter chill to allow the vine to go dormant. There is another consideration. The so-called “balance” of a wine requires that the sugar content of the grape—essentially the product of heat—not overwhelm the acid content. Too much heat leads to too much sugar and reduction of flavor. Too little, to too much acid. Either extreme destroys the balance of elements. Since the continental United States lies within the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere, it is, most of it, potential vineyard area—though not necessarily good vineyard area. In fact, more species of native vines are found in North America than anywhere else in the world. The number of its native species varies according to the system of classification followed, but it is on the order of thirty, or about half of the number found throughout the entire world. ^[5]

One must emphasize the word native . The vine of European winemaking, the vine that Noah planted after the Flood, is the species vinifera—”the wine bearer,” in Linnaeus’s Latin—of the genus Vitis , the vine. Vitis vinifera is the vine whose history is identical with the history of wine itself: the leaves of vinifera bind the brows of Dionysus in his triumph; the seeds of vinifera are found with the mummies of the pharaohs in the pyramids. It was the juice of vinifera, mysteriously alive with the powers of fermentation, that led the ancients to connect wine with the spiritual realm and to make it an intimate part of religious ceremony. In the thousands of years during which vinifera has been under cultivation, it has produced thousands of varieties—4,000 by one count, 5,000 by another, 8,000 by yet another, though there is no realistic way to arrive at a figure. ^[6] The grape is constantly in process of variation through the seedlings it produces, and the recognized varieties are only the tiny fraction selected by man for his purposes from among the uncounted millions that have grown wherever the seeds of the grape have been dropped…

All of the explorers and early settlers made note of the abundant and vigorous wild grape vines—they could hardly help doing so, since they were obviously and everywhere to be seen along the coast of eastern North America. Within two years of Columbus’s discovery, for example, the Spaniards reported vines growing in the Caribbean islands. ^[9] The Pilgrims in New England found the species now called Vitis labrusca growing profusely in the woods around their settlements. ^[10]The labrusca, or northern fox grape, is the best looking of the natives, with large berries that may come in black, white, or red. It is the only native grape that exhibits this range of colors. Labrusca is still the best known of the native species because the ubiquitous Concord, the grape that most Americans take to be the standard of “grapeyness” in juice and jellies, is a pure example of it…

Hundreds of miles to the south of the Pilgrim settlements, and even before the Pilgrims landed, the gentlemen of the Virginia Company at Jamestown encountered a number of native grape species, among them the very distinctive one called Vitis rotundifolia —round leaf grape—that grows on bottom lands, on river banks, and in swamps, often covering hundreds of square feet with a single vine…

Both Pilgrims in the north and Virginians in the south would have known the small-berried and harsh-tasting Vitis riparia —the riverbank grape—which is the most widely distributed of all native American grapes…

Another grape widespread throughout the eastern United States is Vitis aestivalis , the summer grape, the best adapted to the making of wine of all the North American natives, though not the most widely used. Unlike the rotundifolia and others, it has adequate sugar in its large clusters of small berries; and it is free of the powerful “foxy” odor of the labrusca…

Take, for example, the earliest reference on record to the grapes growing in what is now the United States. In 1524, only a generation after Columbus, the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, coasting north along the Atlantic seaboard, encountered a region so lovely in his eyes that he called it Arcadia.^[15] Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison, the latest student of the subject, is of the opinion that Verrazzano meant Kitty Hawk, of Wright brothers fame, off the North Carolina mainland—a region that no one would identify as Arcadian now.^[16]…

They might have suspected some difficulty from the fact that none of the Indians they saw had any knowledge of wine; in fact, no eastern Indians had any fermented drinks of any sort, though this fact tells us more about the accidents of culture than about natural possibilities.^[19]…

The first reference to the actual making of wine in what is now the United States is in the report of his voyage to Florida in 1565 by the rich and respectable pirate Captain John Hawkins, afterwards Sir John…

Wine and silk, those two luxurious commodities, were constantly linked in the English imagination as the most desirable products (other than gold) that America could yield; as one writer has said, the duet of the vine and silk formed from the beginning “one of the major themes in the vast symphony of colonial hopes that enchanted, for half a century, the England of Elizabeth and James the First.”^[26]…”

Complete Article Here: A History of Wine in America From the Beginnings To Prohibition Thomas Pinney

I think Mesoamerican Theorist’s who think there is any Wine described in the Book of Mormon coming from South or Central America is very unlikely.

What is a Liberal? From Oxford Dictionary, “open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.” Open to new opinions is good isn’t it? Of course it is. But what if the new opinion is to change a proven or traditional law that God has given us? What if we get a majority of opinion that agree with us and disagree with what a so called God says? Does everyone have a right to their own opinion? Of course. This is the tricky part. Not all people have faith in God and don’t even believe in God. Shouldn’t we respect their opinion? Of course, but we don’t have to agree with their opinion do we? No! There is a God! This is 100% for me, by FAITH and study and prayer.

What is a conservative? Oxford says, “holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.” It seems to me that a Conservative is one who treats values coming from God as traditional. I think a conservative has a strong faith in God and chooses to follow Him, and I believe a liberal can have faith in God but tends to believe in man more than God. Both a liberal and a conservative, sin and make mistakes, but conservatives seem to be more forgiving than a liberal. Conservatives seen to judge others more harshly especially if the other one doesn’t seem to love God. I believe Liberals are more inclusive to anyone regardless of race or religion. These things are very simplified but I find them basically true in the world today.

Witness to All

The point? As you listen to President Lee below, you will see that he believes basically what I do. I’m sure he loves all people as I do, but there is a profound difference between a conservative and a liberal. They both have good qualities, but I believe that having faith in the Son of God is far more important that believing in the arm of flesh. I am not saying a Conservative is better than a Liberal as I will not judge, but I know I am a Conservative and I believe it is the best way for anyone to live. I also believe in a Conservative Government of Freedom in a Capitalist society with high morals. I believe our Creator gave us all Life, Liberty and Happiness and no man can take those things from us. I believe in the 10 Commandments and I believe The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true and the Book of Mormon is the Word of God and Joseph Smith is and was a prophet of God. We have a living Prophet today even President Russell M Nelson.

“The self-called liberal [in the Church] is usually one who has broken with the fundamental principles or guiding philosophy of the group to which he belongs.” John A. Widstoe

There are those in the Church who speak of themselves as liberals who, as one of our former presidents has said, “read by the lamp of their own conceit.” Joseph F. Smith

Thank you Kevin Price again for sharing a profound article with me.

The Iron Rod

by Harold B. Lee Address delivered at general conference Sunday afternoon, April 4, 1971

I sincerely pray for the spirit of this great conference during the few moments that I shall stand here.

Sometime ago there appeared in the Wall Street Journal a thought-provoking article, written by an eminent theologian at the Columbia University, under the subject heading “An Antidote for Aimlessness,” which you recognize as a condition that is prevalent in the world today. I quote from this article by Rabbi Arthur Herlzterg:

“What people come to religion for, is an ultimate metaphysical hunger, and when that hunger is not satisfied, religion declines … the moment that clerics become more worldly, the world goes to hades the faster.

“… Religion represents the accumulation of man’s insight over thousands of years into such questions as the nature of man, the meaning of life, the individual’s place in the universe. That is, precisely, the question at the root of man’s restlessness.

“Man seeks something to end his state of confusion and emptiness … in the latest parlance, an antidote for aimlessness. We do not know if the truths of religious tradition can be interpreted to satisfy this need, but we are sure that here, not in political activism, is religion’s path to relevance.”

As an answer to those who may be wandering aimlessly, searching for something to satisfy their need and to end their state of confusion and emptiness, I would like to introduce a few thoughts by relating a remarkable vision which came to an ancient prophet by the name of Lehi—600 years before Christ. To the faithful members of the Church this will be an oft-related incident recorded in the Book of Mormon. To those not of our faith this may, if they will ponder seriously, be very significant in the light of many trends in our modern society.

In this dream, or better called a vision, the prophet Lehi was led by a heavenly messenger through a dark and dreary waste to a tree laden with delicious fruit which proved to be very satisfying to his soul. He beheld a river of water nearby along which was a straight and narrow path leading to the tree laden with delicious fruit. Between the river bank and the path was a rod of iron, presumably to safeguard the travelers from falling off the narrow path into the river.

As he looked, he saw large groups of people crowding forward to gain access to the spacious field where the tree with fruit was located. As they pressed forward along the path, a great mist of darkness arose, so dense that many who started lost their way and wandered off and were drowned in the murky water or were lost from view as they wandered into strange paths. There were others, however, likewise in danger of being lost because of the blinding mist, who caught hold of the iron rod and, by so doing, held their course so that they too could partake of the delicacies which had beckoned them to come, despite the hazardous journey. Across, on the opposite side of the river, were multitudes of people pointing fingers of scorn at those who made the journey safely.

As with many other ancient prophets in biblical history, dreams or visions of this nature were effective means by which the Lord communicated with his people through prophet-leaders. Just so, this dream had great significance, as the Lord revealed to the prophet Lehi. The tree laden with fruit was a representation of the love of God which he sheds forth among all the children of men. The Master himself, later in his earthly ministry, explained to Nicodemus how that great love was manifested. Said he: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”; and then the Master added: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:16–17.)

The rod of iron as seen in the vision interpreted was the word of God, or the gospel of Jesus Christ, which led to the tree of life that the Master explained to the woman at the well in Samaria was as “a well of [living] water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14.)

Those, as seen in the vision, who were across the river pointing fingers of scorn represented the multitudes of the earth which are gathered together to fight against the apostles of the Lamb of God. The scorners, so the Lord revealed, represented the so-called wisdom of the world, and the building itself in which they were gathered was the “pride of the world.” (See 1 Ne. 11–12.)

If there is any one thing most needed in this time of tumult and frustration, when men and women and youth and young adults are desperately seeking for answers to the problems which afflict mankind, it is an “iron rod” as a safe guide along the straight path on the way to eternal life, amidst the strange and devious roadways that would eventually lead to destruction and to the ruin of all that is “virtuous, lovely, or of good report.”

These conditions as they would be found in the earth when these scriptures, now called the Book of Mormon, were to be brought forth were foreseen by the prophets. As I read some of these predictions, I would have you think of conditions with which we are surrounded today:

“And I know that ye do walk in the pride of your hearts; and there are none save a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts; unto … envying, and strifes, and malice, and persecutions, and all manner of iniquities … because of the pride of your hearts.

“… behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.” (Morm. 8:36–37.)

The apostle Paul also spoke of a time of peril when “men [would] be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

“Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those things that are good,

“Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. …” (2 Tim. 3:2–5.)

There are many who profess to be religious and speak of themselves as Christians, and, according to one such, “as accepting the scriptures only as sources of inspiration and moral truth,” and then ask in their smugness: “Do the revelations of God give us a handrail to the kingdom of God, as the Lord’s messenger told Lehi, or merely a compass?”

Unfortunately, some are among us who claim to be Church members but are somewhat like the scoffers in Lehi’s vision—standing aloof and seemingly inclined to hold in derision the faithful who choose to accept Church authorities as God’s special witnesses of the gospel and his agents in directing the affairs of the Church.

There are those in the Church who speak of themselves as liberals who, as one of our former presidents has said, “read by the lamp of their own conceit.” (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine [Deseret Book Co., 1939], p. 373.) One time I asked one of our Church educational leaders how he would define a liberal in the Church. He answered in one sentence: “A liberal in the Church is merely one who does not have a testimony.”

Dr. John A. Widtsoe, former member of the Quorum of the Twelve and an eminent educator, made a statement relative to this word liberal as it applied to those in the Church. This is what he said:

“The self-called liberal [in the Church] is usually one who has broken with the fundamental principles or guiding philosophy of the group to which he belongs. … He claims membership in an organization but does not believe in its basic concepts; and sets out to reform it by changing its foundations. … “It is folly to speak of a liberal religion, if that religion claims that it rests upon unchanging truth.”

And then Dr. Widtsoe concludes his statement with this: “It is well to beware of people who go about proclaiming that they are or their churches are liberal. The probabilities are that the structure of their faith is built on sand and will not withstand the storms of truth.” (“Evidences and Reconciliations,” Improvement Era, vol. 44 [1941], p. 609.)

Here again, to use the figure of speech in Lehi’s vision, they are those who are blinded by the mists of darkness and as yet have not a firm grasp on the “iron rod.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, when there are questions which are unanswered because the Lord hasn’t seen fit to reveal the answers as yet, all such could say, as Abraham Lincoln is alleged to have said, “I accept all I read in the Bible that I can understand, and accept the rest on faith.”

How comforting it would be to those who are the restless in the intellectual world, when such questions arise as to how the earth was formed and how man came to be, if they could answer as did an eminent scientist and devoted Church member. A sister had asked: “Why didn’t the Lord tell us plainly about these things?” The scientist answered: “It is likely we would not understand if he did. It might be like trying to explain the theory of atomic energy to an eight-year-old child.”

Wouldn’t it be a great thing if all who are well schooled in secular learning could hold fast to the “iron rod,” or the word of God, which could lead them, through faith, to an understanding, rather than to have them stray away into strange paths of man-made theories and be plunged into the murky waters of disbelief and apostasy?

I heard one of our own eminent scientists say something to the effect that he believed more professors have taken themselves out of the Church by their trying to philosophize or intellectualize the fall of Adam and the subsequent atonement of the Savior. This was because they would rather accept the philosophies of men than what the Lord has revealed until they, and we, are able to understand the “mysteries of godliness” as explained to the prophets of the Lord and more fully revealed in sacred places.

There were evidently similar questions and controversies in the Master’s time. In one terse answer, he gave the essential ingredients to safety amidst the maze of uncertainty:

To settle an apparent controversy among his disciples as to who would be the greatest in the kingdom of God, he said: “… except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of [God].” (Matt. 18:3.)

To become converted, according to the scriptures, meant having a change of heart and the moral character of a person turned from the controlled power of sin into a righteous life. It meant to “wait patiently on the Lord” until one’s prayers can be answered and until his heart, as Cyprian, a defender of the faith in the Apostolic Period, testified, and I quote, “Into my heart, purified of all sin, there entered a light which came from on high, and then suddenly and in a marvelous manner, I saw certainty succeed doubt.”

Conversion must mean more than just being a “card carrying” member of the Church with a tithing receipt, a membership card, a temple recommend, etc. It means to overcome the tendencies to criticize and to strive continually to improve inward weaknesses and not merely the outward appearances.

The Lord issued a warning to those who would seek to destroy the faith of an individual or lead him away from the word of God or cause him to lose his grasp on the “iron rod,” wherein was safety by faith in a Divine Redeemer and his purposes concerning this earth and its peoples.

The Master warned: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better … that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matt. 18:6.)

The Master was impressing the fact that rather than ruin the soul of a true believer, it were better for a person to suffer an earthly death than to incur the penalty of jeopardizing his own eternal destiny.

The apostle Paul impressed also the danger of false teachings by bad example. Said he: “But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak. …

“And through thy knowledge shall the weak … perish, for whom Christ died?

“But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.” (1 Cor. 8:9, 11–12.)

Speaking to the learned and highly sophisticated generation in his time, the prophet Jacob said something which seems to be so often needed to be repeated today: “… When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. …

“But to be learned is good if they hearken to the counsels of God.” (2 Ne. 9:28–29.)

We fervently thank the Lord for the faithfulness and devotion of many in and out of the Church who are in high places in business, in governmental circles, in the legal profession, doctors, trained social workers, nurses, and those in the fields of the sciences and the arts. Particularly are we grateful for those who accept positions of leadership in the Church, who serve as home teachers or class leaders in the priesthood or in the auxiliaries, who make themselves available for volunteer service in helping to care for the unfortunate in all lands and among minorities within and without the Church, and in giving particular attention to the needs of the widows and the orphans.

I say to all such, as did Jesus to Zacchaeus: “This day is salvation come to [their] house.” (Luke 19:9.) These are they who are holding fast to the “iron rod” which can lead us all, in safety, to the tree of life.

I read recently from a column in the Washington Post, by George Moore, who styled himself as the “hermit of Mount Vernon.” (Mount Vernon, of course, was the ancestral home of George Washington.) In this article he said, “I have spent the last twenty years of my life at Mount Vernon reducing my ignorance.” He claimed that a person never learns anything until he realizes how little he knows. In this article he makes this most illuminating observation about George Washington:

“Washington never went to school. That’s why he was an educated man, he never quit learning.”

What George Moore said of himself I suppose could be said of many of you and of myself: “I have spent more than three score years of my life reducing my ignorance.”

Therein, it is my conviction, is the challenge to all who achieve distinction in any field. Some quit learning when they graduate from a school; some quit learning about the gospel when they have completed a mission for the Church; some quit learning when they become an executive or have a prominent position in or out of the Church.

Remember, as George Moore said of Washington, “We can become educated persons, regardless of our stations in life, if we never quit learning.”

The late President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote this: “Any man who does his work well, who is justifiably self-confident and not unduly disturbed by the jeers of the cynics and the shirkers, any man who stays true to decent motives and is considerate of others is, in essence, a leader. Whether or not he is ever singled out for prominence, he is bound to achieve great inner satisfaction in turning out superior work.

“And that, by the way, is what the good Lord put us on this earth for.” (“What Is Leadership?” Reader’s Digest, June 1965, p. 54.)

With the restoration of the true gospel of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Church in the dispensation of the fulness of times, we were given instructions by revelation, the magnitude of which, as the late President Brigham H. Roberts explained, was “not merely as to whether baptism should be by immersion or for the forgiveness of sins, but the rubbish of accumulated ages was swept aside, the rocks made bare, and the foundations of the Kingdom of God were relaid.”

It may seem preposterous to many to declare that within the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may be found a bulwark to safeguard against the pitfalls, the frustrations, and the wickedness in the world. The plan of salvation formed in the heavens points clearly to the straight and narrow path that leads to eternal life, even though there are many who refuse to follow that way.

In a great revelation, the Lord gave instruction by commandment to the leaders of the Church of that early day that they should be seekers after truth in many fields.

First, of course, he commanded that they should “teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom … in all things that pertain [to] the kingdom of God. …” (D&C 88:77–78.)

Then he counsels as to the wide sweep of learning about which we should seek. His church was not to be an ignorant ministry in various fields of secular learning.

And then the Lord addressed his revelation to all others who may not have faith: “… seek learning, even by study and also by faith.” (D&C 88:118.)

One might well ask: How does one get “learning by faith”? One prophet explains the process: First, one must arouse his faculties and experiment on the words of the Lord and desire to believe. Let this desire work in you until ye believe in a manner that you can give place even to a portion of the word of the Lord; then, like a planted seed, it must be cultivated and not resist the Spirit of the Lord, which is that which lighteneth everyone born into the world; you can then begin to feel within yourselves that it must be good, for it enlarges your soul and enlightens your understanding and, like the fruit of the tree in Lehi’s vision, it becomes delicious to the taste. (See Alma 32.)

It was an English novelist who was quoted as saying: “He who seeks God has already found him.”

Let no one think that “learning by faith” contemplates an easy or lazy way to gain knowledge and ripen it into wisdom.

From heavenly instructions and added to which are the experiences of almost anyone who has sought diligently for heavenly guidance, one may readily understand that learning by faith requires the bending of the whole soul through worthy living to become attuned to the Holy Spirit of the Lord, the calling up from the depths of one’s own mental searching, and the linking of our own efforts to receive the true witness of the Spirit.

The mission of this church is to bear witness of the truths of the gospel and put to flight the false teachings on every side that are causing the restlessness and the aimlessness that threaten all who have not found the straight path and that which could be an anchor to their souls.

My fervent prayer is that I may hold up that true Light of Christ to all the world. I would that all may know with assurance, as I, from study, prayer, and faith, know for a certainty, as the Master declared to Martha, who was mourning the death of Lazarus, that the Lord and Master is indeed “the resurrection, and the life; [and] he that believeth in [him], though he were dead, yet shall he live:

“And whosoever liveth and believeth in [him] shall never die. …” (John 11:25–26.)

I thank the Lord that I can answer, as did Martha and as did Peter of old: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matt. 16:16.)

“Yea, Lord: I believe … thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.” (John 11:27.)

To this I do bear my solemn witness, in the sacred name of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, even so. Amen.

See my blog here https://www.bofm.blog/revelation-traditionalists-vs-progressives/

Joseph Smith stands at the head of this last, greatest of all dispensations

“The Book of Mormon reveals the inheritance of Joseph, son of Israel“

“Josephs inheritance was to be a land choice above all others“

“Joseph Smith stands at the head of this last, greatest of all dispensations (see JD 8:224). From his position today in the spirit world, he undoubtedly presides over the day of the Lamanite which now has arrived (see Kimball “The Day of the Lamanites”). In that sphere, with the cultural biases, the language difficulties, and the centuries of tradition put aside, one wonders if Joseph is not now preaching those very words and seeing the budding and blossoming of that rose which will, in due course, both there and here, reach the perfection of its bloom.” Byron R. Merrill, “Joseph Smith and the Lamanites,” in Joseph Smith: The Prophet, The Man, ed. Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1993), 187–202

The Book of Mormon reveals the inheritance of Joseph, son of Israel, who was not forgotten when land was distributed to the tribes of Israel. This was promised in the Abrahamic covenant…  Josephs inheritance was to be a land choice above all others. Choice because it was chosen to be the repository of sacred writings on golden plates from which the Book of Mormon would one day come. Choice because it would eventually host the world headquarters of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ in the latter days. And it was choice because it was a land of liberty for those who worship the Lord and keep His commandments.” Russell M Nelson President, Quorum of 12 June, 2016 Provo Missionary Training Center

JOSEPH SMITH AMONG THE NATIVE AMERICAN INDIANS OR LAMANITES

“Although the Gentile threat may have temporarily halted extensive activity among the Native Americans, the ardor of the members in contemplating the Lamanites’ eventual redemption was not abated. William W. Phelps wrote to Oliver Cowdery in 1835: Our government has already gathered many of the scattered remnants of tribes, and located them west of the Missouri to be nationalized and civilized; . . . I rejoice to see the great work prosper. The Indians are the people of the Lord; they are of the tribes of Israel; the blood of Joseph, with a small mixture of the royal blood of Judah, and the hour is nigh when they will come flocking into the kingdom of God, like doves to their windows. (193).

Editors Note: Unfortunately Joseph and the church thought the government was going to take care of the Native Americans by gatherings them up and giving them land. But, it ended up the government was preparing to take land away from the Natives for their own selfish reasons which Joseph found out about later.

At a meeting in Kirtland, during that same year, Joseph Smith proposed a mission for the Twelve throughout the eastern states. It was there resolved that Brigham Young should “go immediately from this place to an adjacent tribe of the remnants of Joseph, and open the door of salvation to that long dejected and afflicted people” (HC 2:224–25). Brigham Young was not then president of the Quorum of the Twelve, but the promise that this appointment would “open the door to the whole house of Joseph” (222) seems prophetic in view of his labors among the Lamanites when the Saints moved to the Rocky Mountains. There is no record, however, that his early mission resulted in any substantial work among that people (see Young 11). Indicative of the continued concern for this chosen remnant was the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland temple, received by revelation, wherein Joseph prayed: And cause that the remnants of Jacob, who have been cursed and smitten because of their transgression, be converted from their wild and savage condition to the fullness of the everlasting gospel; That they may lay down their weapons of bloodshed, and cease their rebellions. And . . . come to a knowledge of the truth, believe in the Messiah, and be redeemed from oppression, and rejoice before thee. (D&C 109:65–67).” Byron R. Merrill, “Joseph Smith and the Lamanites,” in Joseph Smith: The Prophet, The Man, ed. Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1993), 187–202

“What of Joseph’s Efforts? There seems to be a perception that Joseph’s efforts among the Lamanites were not only relatively unsuccessful but even superficial. It has been argued that “the initiative for [such] missionary work lay more with the members of the Church than with Joseph Smith” (Parry 74), and that Joseph did not see the redemptive work among the Lamanites “as essential to the ‘building up of Zion’” (72). To the contrary, Joseph’s commitment to the Book of Mormon promises to the Lamanites and the need to find a long term home for his people appear to have been closely connected priorities. Oliver B. Huntington recorded that early in the settlement of Nauvoo, Joseph Smith, Sr., confided in him that it had been revealed to the Prophet that the Church would stay in Nauvoo just seven years and “when we left there, we would go right into the midst of the Indians, in the Rocky Mountains” (18). Similarly, efforts by Lyman Wight and Jonathan Dunham appear to have combined proselyting the Lamanites and exploring for a new home for the Saints in their midst (Esplin 90–97). An 1845 mission call by the Council of the Kingdom was to “fill Joseph’s measures originally adopted . . . to seek out a location and a home where the Saints can dwell in peace and health . . . and proceed from tribe to tribe, to unite the Lamanites. . . .” (Ehat 269). Had Joseph done nothing more than translate the Book of Mormon, his contribution would have been greater than all other efforts to help the Native Americans; yet an examination of his life indicates his concern for and involvement with them went much further. But his time and energy were limited. He was faced with continual personal persecution, legal battles, and imprisonment. He conducted the defense, movements, and growth of the Church and the founding of cities. The Lord gave him many assignments including the new translation of the Bible, the translation of the Egyptian papyri, the organization of the Priesthood, the revelation of temple ordinances and their dissemination, etc. All of these required concentrated effort and substantial time. Spencer W. Kimball summarized: The very first thing before the Church was organized, Joseph Smith caught the vision of this work. He sent Oliver Cowdery, Ziba Peterson, and Parley P. Pratt and Peter Whitmer to the Indians immediately. They didn’t do very much. The brethren had their hands full: there were persecutions and the expulsions and the exodus and the settlement of this country. So missionary work with the Indians was limited in the Church to whom the great responsibility came. (Kimball, “The Children” 6) Brigham Young indicated that “there was a watch placed upon [Joseph] continually to see that he had no communication with the Indians” (Journal of Discourses 4:41; hereafter JD). Perhaps the Lord inspired Joseph to proceed cautiously in the face of false accusations which so negatively impacted the Saints. One wonders if the Lord also revealed to him that as important as this work was, only the seeds thereof were then being planted, that the fulfillment of the promises awaited a future day. Whereas this effort had originally been a primary objective of Joseph’s ministry, as the flood of revelation broadened his assignments, it became one of the principal objectives in the midst of many others. In the Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles issued 6 April 1845, many of the 115 paragraphs discuss the Lamanites, giving a more balanced perspective of their place in the overall picture than perhaps would have been the case had such a mission statement been issued in 1829 (see Clark 252–66). In Nauvoo, Joseph was heavily occupied in the restoration of the blessings given to Abraham as part of the gathering of the house of Israel, the initial stages of which were just then beginning. Who, in Joseph’s mind, would have fit more prominently into the family of Abraham (for whom the blessings were being restored) than the Lamanites? It seems Joseph knew they were of Israel before he knew he was. Was it not the spirit of the Book of Mormon and the continual leadership of the Prophet in this regard that led individual members of the Church to have special personal encounters with the Lamanites? (see Johnson 76). Contrary to general assumption, there were a few Lamanites baptized in his day. Panina S. Cotton, a Cherokee, and Lewis Dana, an Oneida, received their temple blessings in Nauvoo (Black 11:760, 13:194).” Byron R. Merrill, “Joseph Smith and the Lamanites,” in Joseph Smith: The Prophet, The Man, ed. Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1993), 187–202

“Ultimately, what did Joseph accomplish? By the gift and power of God, he translated the Book of Mormon which revealed who the Native Americans are, their heritage of prophets and priests, of repentance and righteousness, and of pride and destruction. It discloses promises to this remnant of Israel, so diligently sought by their ancestors and vouchsafed by the covenants of the Lord. It proclaims their glorious future in the face of their state of poverty. In a personal way, Joseph seemed to feel a kinship to this people whose culture was so very distant from his own. He knew he and they were both descendants of Joseph of old, the son of Israel. He knew that Joseph of old, their prophet ancestor, had foretold that a mighty seer would be raised up from his posterity to bring to pass much restoration to the remnant of his seed (2 Nephi 3:6–12). From his early tutoring by Moroni to his personal visits with numerous Native American chiefs, Joseph Smith sought to bring to this chosen people the glad tidings of the restoration. But what did he see in the way of fulfillment for his efforts? In mortality he saw very little, but in vision he must have seen the Lamanites “blossom as a rose” (D&C 49:24). Byron R. Merrill, “Joseph Smith and the Lamanites,” in Joseph Smith: The Prophet, The Man, ed. Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1993), 187–202

Lewis Dana First Indian in Council of Fifty and Solomon Tindall, a Mohegan Indian

Saints Volume 1 Chapter 46 Endowed with Power

In the fall of 1844, the Quorum of the Twelve sent an epistle to all Saints everywhere. “The temple,” they announced, “necessarily claims our first and most strict attention.” They encouraged the Saints to send money, supplies, and laborers to speed the work along. An endowment of power awaited them. All they needed was a place to receive it.

The Saints shared the apostles’ urgency. In late September, Peter Maughan wrote Willard Richards about the Saints’ new coal mine a hundred miles up the Mississippi River. Peter and Mary had recently sold their home in Nauvoo, used the money to purchase the mine for the church, and moved their family to a rough cabin near the work site. But already Peter longed to be back in Nauvoo cutting stone for the house of the Lord.

“The only thing that rests on my mind,” he told Willard, “is that the temple is being built right up and I am cut off from the privilege of helping.”

With the temple walls climbing higher, Brigham was determined to continue the work Joseph had begun. Following the prophet’s example, he prayed often with the endowed Saints and asked the Lord to preserve and unify the church. Baptisms for the dead, which had stopped after Joseph’s death, began again in the basement of the temple. Elders and seventies returned to the mission field in greater numbers.

But challenges were never far away. In September, Brigham and the Twelve learned that Sidney Rigdon was conspiring against them and denouncing Joseph as a fallen prophet. They charged him with apostasy, and Bishop Whitney and the high council excommunicated him. Sidney left Nauvoo soon after, predicting that the Saints would never complete the temple.

What happened to Sidney Rigdon?
Conflict and Change

“After the Saints settled in Nauvoo, Sidney Rigdon’s relationship with Joseph Smith was sometimes strained. Joseph charged Rigdon with neglecting his duties as Joseph’s counselor, aiding the Church’s enemies, and “defraud[ing] the innocent.” In August 1843, Joseph denounced Rigdon and asked the congregation to support him in withdrawing fellowship from his counselor. At the next Church conference in October, Joseph reluctantly agreed to retain Rigdon as his counselor if he would “magnify his office, and walk and conduct himself in all honesty, righteousness, and integrity.”

Despite these rifts, Rigdon was selected to run as Joseph Smith’s vice-presidential candidate in the 1844 United States presidential election. The campaign was cut short in June 1844, however, when a mob murdered Joseph. Rigdon rushed back to Nauvoo from Pittsburgh, where he had been living, and claimed the right to act as a “guardian” to the Church in Joseph’s absence. In response, Brigham Young declared that Joseph had given the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles all the keys and ordinances needed to lead the Church going forward. The vast majority of the Saints in Nauvoo voted to sustain the leadership of the Twelve.

Though members of the Twelve reached out to Rigdon, he refused to accept their leadership, was excommunicated from the Church in September 1844, and then returned to Pittsburgh. There he formed an independent church organization. His Church of Christ only lasted until 1847, when internal strife and a failed prophecy of Christ’s Second Coming caused the organization to crumble. With Stephen Post, Rigdon later organized another movement called the Church of Jesus Christ of the Children of Zion, which he led until his death in 1876.”

“Rigdon Sidney,” josephsmithpapers.org. Elizabeth Maki, “‘Go to the Ohio’: D&C 35, 36, 37, 38,” in Matthew McBride and James Goldberg, eds., Revelations in Context: The Stories behind the Sections of the Doctrine and Covenants (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2016), 70–73.” Sidney Rigdon Church History Topic

Disputes over Joseph’s Papers

Endowed with Power chapter 46 continues, “Still concerned about her family’s well-being, Emma Smith also refused to give her full support to the apostles. She cooperated with the trustees-in-trust they had appointed to sort out Joseph’s estate, but disputes over Joseph’s papers and other property rankled her. It also troubled her that the apostles continued to teach and practice plural marriage privately.

The women who had been sealed to Joseph as plural wives made no claim to his estate. After his death, some of them returned to their families. Others married members of the Twelve, who covenanted to care and provide for them in Joseph’s absence. Quietly, the apostles continued to introduce plural marriage to more Saints, married new plural wives, and started families with them.

At the start of 1845, the Saints’ greatest challenges came from outside the church. Thomas Sharp and eight other men had been charged with murdering Joseph and Hyrum, but none of the Saints expected them to be convicted. State legislators, meanwhile, sought to weaken church members’ political power by repealing the Nauvoo city charter. Governor Ford supported their efforts, and by the end of January 1845, the legislature stripped the Saints living in Nauvoo of their right to make and enforce laws and disbanded the Nauvoo Legion as well as the local police force.

Without these protections, Brigham feared, the Saints would be vulnerable to attacks from their enemies. Yet the temple was far from finished, and if the Saints fled the city, they could hardly expect to receive their endowment. They needed time to complete the work the Lord had given them. But staying in Nauvoo, if only for another year, could put everyone’s lives at risk.

Brigham went to his knees and prayed to know what the Saints should do. The Lord responded with a simple answer: stay and finish the temple.

Lewis Dana

On the morning of March 1, thirty-eight-year-old Lewis Dana became the first American Indian to join the Council of Fifty. After Joseph’s death, council meetings had stopped, but once the Nauvoo charter was repealed and the Saints realized their days in Nauvoo were numbered, the Twelve had called the council together to help govern the city and plan its evacuation.

A member of the Oneida nation, Lewis had been baptized with his family in 1840. He had served several missions, including one to the Indian territory west of the United States, and had ventured as far away as the Rocky Mountains. Knowing Lewis had friends and relatives among Indian nations to the west, Brigham invited him to join the council and share what he knew about the people and lands there.

“In the name of the Lord,” Lewis told the council, “I am willing to do all I can.”

Gathering Place in the West

Over the years, the Saints had grown deeply resentful of their nation’s leaders for refusing to help them. Church leaders were now resolved to leave the country and carry out Joseph’s plan to establish a new gathering place where they could raise an ensign to the nations, as the prophet Isaiah foretold, and live the laws of God in peace. Like Joseph, Brigham wanted the new gathering place to be in the West, among the Indians, whom he hoped to gather together as a branch of scattered Israel.

Addressing the council, Brigham proposed sending Lewis and several other members of the council west on an expedition to meet with Indians from several nations and explain the Saints’ purpose for moving west. They would also identify possible sites for gathering.

Heber Kimball agreed with the plan. “While these men are finding this location,” he said, “the temple will be finished and the Saints get their endowment.”

The council approved the expedition, and Lewis agreed to lead it. For the rest of March and April, he attended council meetings and advised fellow councilmen on how best to outfit the expedition and achieve its goals. By the end of April, the council had appointed four men to join Lewis on the journey, including Brigham’s brother Phineas and a recent convert named Solomon Tindall, a Mohegan Indian who had been adopted by the Delaware.

The expedition left Nauvoo soon after, traveling southwest through Missouri to the territory beyond.” Saints Volume 1 Chapter 46 Endowed with Power

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/saints-v1/46-endowed-with-power?lang=eng

“The Priesthood was first given to Adam; he obtained the First Presidency, and held the keys of it from generation to generation. He obtained it in the Creation, before the world was formed, as in Genesis 1:26, 27, 28.” Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith Section Four 1839-42, p.157 “I saw Adam in the valley of Adan-Ondi-Ahman.” ibid pg.158

THIS LAND IS CHOICE
Hartman Rector Jr. said, “I thrill when I see the flag. I hope you do, too. It stands for the USA. This is a land choice above all other lands. We have revelation on the subject. There’s nothing like the USA anywhere. There never has been, and I presume there never will be. The Lord has made that comment in respect to this earth. There are those who feel that we in the Western Hemisphere are the New World but, of course, we aren’t the New World at all this is where it all began; thus the USA is really the “Old World.”

It was on this continent, near the center of this continent (in fact, very near Missouri, which is the center of this continent), that the Garden of Eden was located. Life didn’t start off over in what they call the “cradle of civilization” or today’s Holy Land. No, it started in the central part of the United States. That’s where Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden. They moved out to earn their bread by the sweat of their brows. Also it was there that Cain slew Abel. It was there that Noah built an ark, in the middle of a continent like the United States. No wonder they thought he was a little bit “strange,” to say the least. It was there that he and his wife and his three sons and their wives embarked on the ark and floated for many, many days. The ark finally came to rest on top of Mount Ararat. They came down out of the ark, and civilization supposedly started from there. But that was the second start. Civilization had already started here.

The Book of Mormon says that, when the waters receded off of this land, it became a land choice above all other lands—a land of promise to those who would obey the God of this land, who is Jesus Christ. If the people would not obey the God of this land, then they would be swept off (see Ether 2:7–12). That has happened at least three times previously as far as we know. It happened in Noah’s time, certainly. It happened again to the Jaredite civilization. It happened again in the Nephite civilization, which included the Mulekites. It may have happened at other times. We’re not sure. We don’t have all the records that deal with this land, but what records we do have are consistent. The warning to us in this day and time is that unless we live these commandments, unless we serve the God of this land, we too can be swept from this land. I don’t believe that will happen again because this people, the Lord’s people, the Latter-day Saints, are going to keep the commandments of God. If they don’t, they will no longer be Latter-day Saints.” Hartman Rector Jr.

Editor’s Notes: This information from Elder Hartman Rector Jr is truth. Many scientists believe very differently. But it just makes sense that the area of Missouri is a promised land forever. What was this part of Missouri originally called? Look at Moses 6:17. “And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan. And Enos and the residue of the people of God came out from the land, which was called Shulon, and dwelt in a land of promise, which he called after his own son, whom he had named Cainan.” Not Canaan; that was near Jerusalem. Cainan is the New Jerusalem and Canaan is the Old Jerusalem.

So the flood began in North America where Noah built the ark. When the waters receded, the ark landed in the Old World in Turkey at Mount Ararat.

“After the waters had receded from off the face of this land [USA] it became a choice land above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord; wherefore the Lord would have that all men should serve him who dwell upon the face thereof; And that it was the place of the New Jerusalem [USA], which should come down out of heaven, and the holy sanctuary of the Lord.” Ether 13:2-3

Which is the first civilization after the flood? Egypt or Turkey or Europe? Or, is it the USA? The following article adds new light to the old theories of Egypt being the cradle of civilization.

If you look back at the time when humans first decided to give up their nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle in favor of settling down at one place, six distinct cradles of civilization can be clearly identified: Egypt, Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and Iran), the Indus Valley (present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan), China, Mexico and Peru.

These are the regions where our very first cities were built, the expanses where harvesting of crops and raising of livestock first took place, the areas where the first innovations in technology were made, and the places where language was developed and complex social orders came into being.

Since these regions needed to be hospitable and capable of sustaining life, you will notice a common thread between the early civilizations: They all sprung up near rivers. And this development took place around 3000 BCE for each of them except China, who joined the scene only in 2100 BCE. Source: https://mapscaping.com/blogs/geo-candy/mapped-the-6-cradles-of-civilization

The following article has been very insightful to me about Joseph of Egypt. It also shares important information about the age of important cities in the past. Maybe Egypt wasn’t as old as we may think. Maybe Europe is just as old after all the Ark landed in Turkey and spread from there. What culture was the first to develop and where do we find the most ancient of evidence? They report and you decide.

A Mysterious Mummy in Cairo: The Surprising True Identity of Joseph with the Coat of Many Colors

Since the days of Adam we have been told that the Sabbath day is a special day of the Lord’s. How are we doing on the Sabbath? Lehi and Nephi kept the Sabbath day holy as we read in Abinadi’s words of the Book of Mormon, it is important enough to be one of the amazing 10 Commandments, it is critical enough that the first Pilgrims kept the Sabbath in 20 degree weather, Joseph Smith and Zion’s camp kept the Sabbath day holy as you read below, so how are we doing?

Seriously, have you thought of that lately? How can we expect to be blessed if we aren’t even do the basics? Is our day today so important that we can’t take a few hours per week to take His Sacrament and worship Him? Can we just do the minimum and pray and read scriptures and pay our tithing, or can we do better? I know myself, I can do much better and that’s why I write this message. I am amazed at the devotion of the Pilgrims and Saints and and Nephites and the many good brothers and sisters today that I know. Are we teaching our children or are they ignoring us?

Is it harder to get our children back to church after this long and stupid (made in the lab) flu scare? Unfortunately in my opinion it was made up and Fauchi will go to jail. I feel the 99.7% curable Covid never needed a Emergency Use Authorization Trial or as they say the “Jab” vaccine. It was meant to hurt us and not help us, but we can and will still be blessed. If we had the Jab I believe there will be medical ways to help us if necessary. We need a better awareness of the evil in this world including our own government. Follow the prophet and stay close to the Lord as He is in charge. Pray for Trump as I believe he will be back soon to bless our lives as I feel he is guided by the Lord to help.

Native American and Pilgrims Kept the Sabbath Day Holy- Do We?

“Now, to my story again. Besides the Delawares, Shawnees, Kickapoos, Wyandots, Pottowattomies, Osages, Choctaws, Cherokees, Kaskaskias, Kansas, &c. &c. which our nation and the missionaries are domesticating as they are gathered, upon the southern limits of the land of Israel, the Pawnees, the Sioux, the Rickarees, the Mandans, the Nespersees, the Blackfeet, the Sacs, the Foxes, and many other tribes, rove and hunt from prairie to prairie, from river to river, from hill to hill, and from mountain to mountain, and live, and are blessed before the face of heaven daily as well as their contemporary whites; and, perhaps I may add, are as justifiable before God, as any people on the globe, called heathens. No church bell from its elevated steeple, rings “Go to meeting; it is Sunday,” while a dozen lesser ones, for stages and Steam boats, peal a ding dong “for parties of pleasure, as a holiday,” among these rude sons of the west.—And it is a difficult matter to make one soul of them believe the Great Spirit ever said, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” while they know, that the majority of the white nation, use it for a holiday. No politicians boast of freedom and equal rights, while thousands are imprisoned for debt, or are in bondage: No; when the tribes are at peace, the Indian is free; his land is free; his game is free; his time is free, and all is free.” LETTER NO. II. From WW Phelps to Oliver Cowdery Liberty, Mo. Nov. 6, 1834

The First Sabbath in Zion

“The first Sabbath after our arrival in Jackson county, Brother W. W. Phelps preached to a western audience over the boundary of the United States, wherein were present specimens of all the families of the earth; Shem, Ham and Japheth; several of the Lamanites or Indians–representative of Shem; quite a respectable number of negroes–descendants of Ham; and the balance was made up of citizens of the surrounding country, and fully represented themselves as pioneers of the West. At this meeting two were baptized, who had previously believed in the fulness of the Gospel.”  HC 1:191 The First Sabbath in Zion.

The Pilgrims’ First Sabbath on Shore

“They do not believe that their present necessities are sufficient to justify a suspense of the Sabbath law in the sight of God.”

J.S. Clark, “The Pilgrims’ First Sabbath on Shore,” in The Illustrated Pilgrim Memorial (1872), p. 8:

“Why has no painter immortalized his name by transferring to canvass this Sabbath scene [on Clark’s Island], the first ever witnessed on the shores of New England? As an illustration of the true Pilgrim spirit, nothing can exceed it. We see them now, in imagination, grouped in devout posture around a forest fire, while “Deacon Carver,” the newly elected governor, reads from his pocket Bible an appropriate chapter, and “lines” a favorite psalm, which gives vent to full-hearted and high-sounding praise. We hear the fervent prayers and earnest prophesying’s of Bradford and Winslow, who, though yet young, are much experienced in these exercises. We behold the solemnity that rests even on the sailor’s countenance, as, silently musing on perils recently passed, he participates in the service, while not a rising cloud, nor breaking wave, nor frightened sea-gull escapes his ever watchful eye.

But why are they there, under the open canopy of heaven, on that raw December day? Because it was just there that the Sabbath overtook them, while searching to find a place of settlement for themselves and their little ones, whom they left four days ago at the end of Cape Cod, on board the May-Flower, in charge of a captain who begins to talk of setting them all ashore on the sand, unless they find a place soon.* But how is it that, under such a pressing necessity they can spare the time for so much psalm-singing, and prayer, and prophesying? Do they not know that works of “necessity and mercy” are lawful on that day? Yes, but they do not believe that their present necessities are sufficient to justify a suspense of the Sabbath law in the sight of God. They are even more scrupulous than that; rather than approach the Lord’s Day under such bodily exhaustion as will unfit them for religious worship (an essential part of their Sabbath observance), they would spend the whole of Saturday in recovering tired nature from extra fatigue, and in preparing for the Sabbath, — as they actually did.

Here we have the Pilgrim Sabbath, not as discussed in a learned treatise, not as explained in a catechism; not as enforced in a sermon, but as actually kept, and that, too, under circumstances which exclude all suspicion of any sham observance — any mere pretence of religious strictness.

* In Bradford’s Journal, lately discovered in the Fallhane library, England, and printed by the Massachusetts Historical Society, the account is given thus, immediately after the record of their perilous escape to Clark’s Island on that stormy Friday night. “But though this had been a day and night of much trouble and danger unto them, yet God gave them a morning of comfort and refreshing (as usually he doth to his children), for the next day was a fair sunshining day, and they found themselves to be on an island secure from the Indians, where they might dry their stuff, fix their pieces and rest themselves, and give God thanks for his mercies m their manifold deliverances. And this being the last day of the week, they prepared to keep the Sabbath.” https://virginiahuguenot.blogspot.com/2009/11/pilgrims-first-sabbath-on-shore.html

Pulpit Rock, Clark Island, where the first sermon is said to have been preached.

Clark’s Island/Cedarfield

The DRHS owns approximately 17 acres of land on Clark’s Island, located in Plymouth Bay. These holdings include land on the west shore, the eastern shore, Pulpit (Election) Rock, a boat house called Hop House, and the house property known as Cedarfield (built in 1836 and the second-oldest house on the island). The property was donated to the DRHS in 1969 by the Pilgrim Rock Foundation. The property had been part of the estate of Sarah Wingate Taylor (d. 1964).

History of the Island:

The Island’s European history extends back to the landing of the Pilgrims when, during a blinding storm in December of 1620, a band of Pilgrim explorers rowed into Plymouth Bay. Leaving the Mayflower anchored off Cape Cod, this group of 18 had been sent ahead to find a suitable place for settlement. John Clark, the first mate, spotted the shore of what is now known as Clark’s Island and was the first of them to set foot there. Historical legend goes on to say, that as the next day was the Sabbath, the explorers could not begin repairs on their battered vessel. Instead, the group, including William Brewster, Myles Standish, and William Bradford, marched to the top of the nearest hill in search of a place to worship.  They found an enormous boulder at the crest of the Island, and there elected to hold their first worship service ashore. Today, the boulder is known as Pulpit (Election) Rock and is inscribed with words from William Bradford’s journal, “On the Sabboth Day Wee Rested.”

A darker episode in the island’s history was its use as an internment camp for the local Native population during King Philip’s War (1675-1676). Despite little evidence of a threat, Plymouth authorities feared a Native insurrection and they voted to relocate over 1,000 people on the island, “and there to remain and not to depart from there…upon pain of death.” With very few resources, starvation was inevitable.

The Town of Plymouth sold Clark’s Island to a group of individual families in 1690, many of whom would continue to hold the properties for centuries. From Cedarfield, Sarah Wingate Taylor directed the Pilgrim Rock School for American Studies beginning in 1963, inviting talented students and scholars to engage in discussion and advanced learning. Notable visitors to the island throughout the history of the house, include Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, and Truman Capote.

The DRHS maintains Sarah Wingate Taylor’s tradition of education each year through its Sarah Wingate Taylor lecture series, and the annual picnic and commemorative service at Pulpit (Election) Rock. This property is private property and has a caretaker present. Visitation is possible during the summer season. For more information or to make an appointment for your visit, please call 781-934-6106. Thank you.

Eighteen men on board the Shallop sailed into Plymouth harbor on Friday, December 8, 1620 in the midst of a storm.

Eighteen men on board the Shallop (small sailing vessel) sailed into Plymouth harbor on Friday, December 8, 1620 in the midst of a storm.  They had lost their mast as well as their rudder and became shipwrecked on an island.

After drying out on Saturday and repairing their Shallop, it was too late to land that day.  The next day was Sunday, and since they honored the Sabbath, they would not land on that day but held a church service, probably near the large boulder now known as Pulpit Rock in the center of Clark’s Island.  Then, on Monday, December 11, they landed on what is now known as Plymouth Rock.

The interesting providence is that the pilgrim church had been taught that religious liberty is internal, and civil liberty external.  The first precedes the second and is in proportion to it.  They held a service at Pulpit Rock before landing on Plymouth Rock, and the first boulder is more than 20 times larger than the second.  If our religious convictions do not exceed our civil ones, we lose both. Category: Pilgrims By Dr. Paul Jehle
February 25, 2019 Author: Dr. Paul Jehle

No, God’s base of operations will not be destroyed

No, God’s base of operations will not be destroyed. But it may be weakened and made less effective. One of the first rules of war strategy-and we are at war with the adversary and his agents-is to protect the base of operations. This we must do if we are to build up the kingdom throughout the world and safeguard our God-given freedom.

We must protect this base of operations from every threat-from sin, from unrighteousness, from immorality, from desecration of the Sabbath day, from lawlessness, from parental and juvenile delinquency. We must protect it from dirty movies, from filthy advertising, from salacious and suggestive television programs, magazines, and books. We must protect this base from idleness, subsidies, doles, and soft governmental paternalism which weakens initiative, discourages industry, destroys character, and demoralizes the people. To protect this base we must protect the soul of America-we must return to a love and respect for the basic spiritual concepts upon which this nation has been established. We must study the Constitution and the writings of the Founding Fathers.

If we are to protect this American base, we must realize that all things, including information disseminated by our schools, churches, and governments, should be judged according to the words of the prophets, especially the living prophet. This procedure, coupled with the understanding which will come through the Spirit of the Lord, if we are living in compliance with the scriptures, is the only sure foundation and basis of judgment. Any other course of action leaves us muddled, despondent, wandering in shades of gray, easy targets for Satan. If we fail in these pressing and important matters, we may well fall far short of the great mission the Lord has proffered and outlined for America and for His divinely restored Church. [6]

I testify to you that this is a choice land, that God held this hemisphere, as it were, in the palm of His hand for hundreds, yea, thousands of years in order that the great mission of this land might be undertaken and might be accomplished. [7] This is a great country and certainly this greatness was foreshadowed and foreseen by ancient prophets who lived here, prophecies made by the brother of Jared [8], by Lehi, by Jacob [9], and by Nephi of old [10]. It is enough to know that this nation has a prophetic history. All of the great events that have transpired here, including the coming of Columbus and of the Pilgrim fathers, were foreseen by ancient prophets [11]. It was predicted that those who came to this great land would prosper here, that they would humble themselves before the Almighty, that the power of God would be with them, and that this nation would move forward to its great destiny. [12]. [13] I bear witness that America’s history was foreknown to God; that His divine intervention and merciful providence has given us both peace and prosperity in this beloved land; that through His omniscience and benevolent design He selected and sent some of His choicest spirits to lay the foundation of our government [14]. These men were inspired of God to do the work they accomplished. They were not evil men. Their work was a prologue to the restoration of the gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ. It was done in fulfillment of the ancient prophets who declared that this was a promised land, “a land of liberty unto the Gentiles,” and that is us [15]. [16]

I testify that America is a choice land. (See 2 Nephi 1:5.) God raised up the founding fathers of the United States of America and established the inspired Constitution. (See D&C 101:77–80.) This was the required prologue for the restoration of the gospel. (See 3 Nephi 21:4.) America will be a blessed land unto the righteous forever, and is the base from which God will continue to direct the worldwide latter-day operations of His kingdom. (See 2 Nephi 1:7.) Ezra Taft Benson, This Nation Shall Endure Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson; “I Testify”, General Conference, October 1988 “Responsibilities of Citizenship,” BYU, Provo, Utah, 1954

Early Sabbath Keeping in North America

By COGwriter

When was the Sabbath first kept in North America?
Did the pilgrims on the Mayflower keep the seventh-day Sabbath?
Many have wondered about all of this.

Did the Pilgrims Who Arrived on the Mayflower Keep the Seventh day Sabbath?

“Some have believed that the Sabbath was kept by the pilgrims who arrived in Plymouth Rock in 1620.

Notice the following accounts in A History of the True Church Traced From 33 A.D. to Date by Andrew N. Dugger and Clarence O. Dodd:

It will not be thought strange that the churches of God in London were reduced from seven congregations down to three from 1646 to 1677, when severe persecutions were being carried on against the Sabbath-keepers of England during this period, and in America there was an open door offered the Church of God. “The earth helped the woman,” as John the Revelator expressed it in Revelation 12:16. It was to this country the Pilgrims, the Puritans, and the Quakers came, the first ones landing at Plymouth the year 1620, and many others followed. It was quite natural that churches in England at this time would come to America, the only place in the world where freedom of religion was offered the persecuted ones.– In the next chapter we shall trace the Church of God from England and Europe to America, and it will be shown that among the Pilgrim fathers, who risked their lives on the Mayflower, and landed at Plymouth 1620, were Sabbath-keepers, observing the seventh day of the week, who baptized by immersion, and called themselves the “Church of God.” …

That the Pilgrims were Sabbath-keepers, and evidently from the same line of Sabbatarian-Puritan preachers mentioned in this work, the following evidence will confirm.

While one of the authors was living in the city of St. Joseph, Missouri, during the winter of 1934, the following editorial appeared in the St. Joseph, Mo., Daily Gazette, during the Christmas season, written by the editor, Mr. Hugh Sprague.

“Strange as it may seem, in the early history of America there was an attempt at suppression of Christmas spirit. The stern Puritans at Plymouth, imbued with the rigorous fervor of the Old Testament, abhorred the celebration of the orthodox holidays. Their worship was on the Sabbath (Saturday), rather than Sunday, and Christmas in particular they considered a pagan celebration. Later immigrants attempted to observe Christmas as a time of joy, but were suppressed. Governor Bradford, Elder Brewster, Miles Standish and other leaders were firm against the yuletide spirit as we know it today.”

The author’s wife, having first noticed the above editorial, called his attention to it. He immediately drove over to the Gazette office where, upon finding Mr. Sprague, he asked him where he obtained the evidence of the Pilgrim Fathers keeping the Sabbath or Saturday. He said, “Why do you desire this information? Do you doubt the truth of the statement!” He answered, that from information already at hand he had frequently made the statement that they were observers of the seventh day of the week, but thought he might have something additional. He said he did not know of any book mentioning this, but that he had additional evidence. He said, “The Pilgrims are my direct ancestors, and we know very well their religious practice, and belief.” He assured him that all his grandparents and great-grandparents knew that the Pilgrims of the Mayflower days were strict Sabbath-keepers on the seventh day of the week instead of Sunday.

 Notice also something from the late John Kiesz (died 1993) that was republished in 2016:

The history of the Church of God organization, as we know it in the 20th century, seems hard to trace accurately as to its origin. But, if we look into articles and letters still available to us that have been published in The Review and Herald (a Seventh-day Adventist paper), the Home of Israel (a Church of God paper) and a few references from the Seventh Day Baptist publications, etc., we may draw some conclusions regarding our faith and heritage. Sabbath-keepers in America can be traced to early colonial days. It is evident that there were seventh-day observers among those who landed on the American shores when they arrived on the Mayflower in 1620. Local congregations developed in several of the New England states, in some of the Eastern, Southern and later even in the Midwestern States, as time rolled on. …

Sabbatarianism

“Sabbatarianism advocates the observation of the Sabbath in Christianity, in keeping with the Ten Commandments. The observance of Sunday as a day of worship and rest is a form of first-day Sabbatarianism, a view which was historically heralded by nonconformist denominations, such as Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists, as well as many Episcopalians.” Wikipedia

Did the Pilgrims Who Arrived on the Mayflower Keep the Seventh day Sabbath continues, “Were there really any Sabbatarians on the Mayflower, which brought the Pilgrims to America? The evidence seems to be in favor of their presence in the Plymouth Colony. In the month of December 1934 Hugh Sprague, editor of The St. Joseph Gazette (Missouri) wrote an editorial on this very matter, as follows: “Strange as it may seem in the early history of America there was an attempt at suppression of the Christmas spirit. The stern Puritans at Plymouth, imbued with the rigorous fervor of the Old Testament, abhorred the celebration of the orthodox holidays. Their worship was on the Sabbath (Saturday), rather than Sunday, and Christmas in particular they considered a pagan celebration. “Later immigrants attempted to observe Christmas as a time of joy, but were suppressed. Governor Bradford, Elder Brewster, Miles Standish and other Leaders were firm against the yuletide spirit as we know it today.”

Sabbatarian and Similar

In a private conversation between Elder A.N. Dugger and Hugh Sprague after this editorial appeared, the latter stated that the Pilgrims were his direct ancestors and that he very well knew their religious beliefs and practices. In addition he stated that all his grandparents and great-grandparents knew that the Pilgrims of the Mayflower were strict Sabbath observers on the seventh day of the week instead of on Sunday.

Now, just because a Sabbath keeping person makes a claim that does not mean the claim is correct. All need to be careful about the truth.  Here is essentially a rebuttal to the Mayflower claim by another Sabbath keepting elder, Doug Ward:

However, despite the claims of Hugh Sprague, there is strong evidence that the Pilgrims actually observed a Sunday Sabbath. One good source of information on this question is the Journal of the English Plantation at Plimoth, which was published in London in 1622. This book is our earliest record of the voyage of the Mayflower and the establishment of the Plymouth colony. It gives a first-hand, day-to-day account of the experiences of the Pilgrims.

Two of the entries in this journal indicate that it was the custom of the Pilgrims to rest and meet for worship on Sunday. In early December 1620, the Mayflower was off the coast of what is now Massachusetts as the Pilgrims looked for a good location for a settlement. According to the journal,

“10. of December, on the Sabbath day wee rested, and on Monday we sounded the harbour, and found it a very good Harbour for our shipping … .”

Then for January 1621, the notes include the following:
“Saturday 20, we made up our Shed for our common goods.
Sunday the 21. we kept our meeting on Land.
Monday the 22. was a faire day, we wrought on our houses, and in the after-noone carried up our hogsheads of meale to our common storehouse.”

All the sources on the Pilgrims that I have examined agree that the Plymouth Colony kept a Sunday Sabbath. It is true, though, that Edmund Dunham, the grandson of Plymouth settler John Dunham, later became a prominent Saturday Sabbatarian [2, pp. 111-112].

Presuming the above account is true, then while ancestors to Hugh Sprague, possibly with some ties to an early European in North America, kept the Sabbath, this would mean that the original pilgrim settlers to Plymouth Rock did not. Furthermore, I did my own research into the Journal of the English Plantation at Plimoth and found the following accounts:

But the next morning, being Thursday the 21st of December … Saturday, the 23rd, so many of us as could, went on shore, felled and carried timber, to provide themselves stuff for building.

Sunday, the 24th, our people on shore heard a cry of some savages (as they thought) which caused an alarm, and to stand on their guard, expecting an assault, but all was quiet.

Monday, the 25th day, we went on shore, some to fell timber, some to saw, some to rive, and some to carry, so no man rested all that day. …

Friday and Saturday, we fitted ourselves for our labor, but our people on shore were much troubled and discouraged with rain and wet, that day being very stormy and cold. We saw great smokes of fire made by the Indians, about six or seven miles from us, as we conjectured.

Monday, the 1st of January, we went betimes to work. …

Saturday, 20th, we made up our shed for our common goods.

Sunday, the 21st, we kept our meeting on land.

Monday, the 22nd, was a fair day. …

Sunday, the 4th of February, was very wet and rainy . . . Saturday, the 17th day, in the morning we called a meeting for the establishing of military orders among ourselves, and we chose Miles Standish our captain, and gave him authority of command in affairs.^[4]

The accounts show that the pilgrims were working on Saturday, and seemed to rest on Sundays.

The Bible teaches:

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:8-11)

The account of the pilgrims showed that they worked on the seventh day, and hence did not obey God’s command. More on the Sabbath can be found in the article The Sabbath in the Early Church and Abroad.

It is not wise for Sabbath keepers to claim that those from the Mayflower kept the Seventh day Sabbath as the evidence is against it. Making improper claims can get people to blaspheme the way of truth (2 Peter 2:1-2)https://cogwriter.com/early-sabbath-keepings-america.htm

Excerpt Mentioning the Pilgrims from State of the Union Address

During the 400th anniversary year of the arrival of the Mayflower Pilgrims in Plymouth, President Donald Trump references their role in America’s legacy of heroism before millions of Americans during his 2020 State of the Union Address.

“As the world bears witness tonight, America is a land of heroes. This is the place where greatness is born, where destinies are forged, and where legends come to life. This is the home of Thomas Edison and Teddy Roosevelt, of many great Generals, including Washington, Pershing, Patton, and MacArthur. This is the home of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Amelia Earhart, Harriet Tubman, the Wright Brothers, Neil Armstrong, and so many more. This is the country where children learn names like Wyatt Earp, Davy Crockett, and Annie Oakley. This is the place where the pilgrims landed at Plymouth and where Texas patriots made their last stand at the Alamo.

The American Nation was carved out of the vast frontier by the toughest, strongest, fiercest, and most determined men and women ever to walk the face of the Earth. Our ancestors braved the unknown; tamed the wilderness; settled the Wild West; lifted millions from poverty, disease, and hunger; vanquished tyranny and fascism; ushered the world to new heights of science and medicine; laid down the railroads, dug out canals, raised up the skyscrapers — and, ladies and gentlemen, our ancestors built the most exceptional Republic ever to exist in all of human history.” 

President Donald Trump

“Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise!” ~William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation

America is a country with deep-seated roots of faith planted by pilgrims seeking religious independence. It was these men and women who paved the way for a free nation under God in this promised land—but what if those early voyagers were brought here for a much greater purpose? What if their arrival in this new land heralded the fulfillment of ancient prophecy, laying the foundation of a country that would allow for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the beginning of the gathering of scattered Israel? In The Pilgrim Hypothesis, readers are presented with a gripping new investigation by best-selling author and historian Timothy Ballard as he uncovers what the early colonists—a people who believed themselves to be the “New Israel”—may have known about their role in the restoration of the gospel. Delve into a complex history bridging the centuries and spanning the globe, as each clue leads to one compelling conclusion: history and scripture may be far more intertwined than you’ve ever realized.

Two Apostles Testify of the Puritans and Pilgrims

“It was not by chance that the Puritans left their native land and sailed away to the shores of New England, and others later followed. They were the advance guard of the army of the Lord, predestined to establish the God-given system of government under which we live and to make America, which is the land of Joseph, the gathering place of Ephraim, an asylum for the oppressed of all nations, and prepare the way for the restoration of the gospel of Christ and the establishment of his church upon the earth” – Heber J. Grant, Conference Report, April 1930.

“Nephi saw in vision also the coming of the Pilgrims, who came to escape religious persecution. He foresaw the coming to America of peoples from many nations, their wars and contentions. As Nephi said, they did humble themselves before the Lord. Thus the American colonies attained their independence and set up the government of the United States, all under the divine intervention of God in preparing this land for its divine destiny. We believe that both freedom and the continuing reformation that flourished here occurred in preparation for the restoration from heaven of the full gospel of Jesus Christ. That restoration began in the United States of America in the 1820s, through the [assistance] of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who was chosen by the Lord and who, through [visits] from heavenly messengers, received … records that contained the authentic record of early American peoples and God’s dealings with them. He received the priesthood and authority to reestablish the church of Jesus Christ in these latter days. At the time of this restoration, God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ actually appeared to Joseph Smith, as they had appeared to leaders of previous dispensations. They announced to him that Christ’s church would be reestablished upon the earth. … This restoration was the greatest event in the history of mankind since the birth, death, and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” A Choice Land President N. Eldon Tanner, First Counselor in the First Presidency

Editor’s Note About Tim Ballard

About 8 years ago I remember speaking with my good friend Rod Meldrum about Tim Ballard. By that time I had only met Tim briefly a few times as he spoke at our different conferences over the years. Rod would tell me amazing stories about Tim and how brave he was and how much knowledge he had about America and his love for God and Country and his support of the Heartland Geography.

At this time, many years ago, I remember Rod speaking to me about Glenn Beck and how he and Tim Ballard were great friends and taught the same great message about the Gospel and our Country. Rod said something similar to this to me, “You watch one day Tim Ballard will run for the President of the United States. Glenn Beck has felt that as well and Tim has many donors already lined up to see him run one day.” I don’t know if Rod would even remember that, but it sure has stuck with me the past many years.

Tim Ballard is simply a “stud” as I would call him. He loves the Lord, honors our country, has a wonderful wife and eight children, loves rescuing sex slave children and even has adopted several. He now has 8 or 9 books he has written and I suggest you read them all. He is an awesome man and I know he has a future in politics to help our nation. Above all else he loves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and honors his priesthood. I have always said, Tim Ballard could be one of the Elder’s who help our Constitution from being destroyed. He has been working with President Trump for a few years now to help rid the evil sex trafficking trade from here in the US and in the world.

The American Covenant set. Volumes 1 & 2 by Timothy Ballard (Books)

$45.90 $39.95 The American Covenant I and II by Timothy Ballard.  Volume 1, Discovery Through Revolution, gives a profound understanding of the true and eternal purpose of America.  Witness ancient prophecies and promises of God’s glorious plan for his children on His Promised Land of America, the United States. Vol. 2 tells the covenant story from Abraham to the signing of the Constitution and on to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.  Buy the set and save. The rest of his books are at Deseret Book and Seagull Book.

Tim Ballard Explains How a Copy of the Book of Mormon Signed by Joseph Smith Ended Up in the John Adams House Library

“Tim Ballard, author and CEO of Operation Underground Railroad, recently released his book called The Pilgrim Hypothesis, which explores the connection between US history and the Restoration.

In one of the videos, Ballard discusses what he discovered after seeing Emma Smith’s copy of the Book of Mormon, which was signed by Joseph, in the John Adams House Library. Ballard was so intrigued by how this copy could have gotten there, that he began reading through Adam family journals until he found his answer.

Charles Francis Adams, son of former US president John Quincy Adams, and his cousin Josiah Quincy—who was a Massachusetts legislator, the son of a Harvard president, and later the mayor of Boston—were near Nauvoo and decided to pay a visit to Joseph Smith. They were both involved in politics and wanted to talk to Joseph because of what they’d heard about his claims of being a prophet and because he was running for president at the time.

Adams and Quincy were welcomed by Joseph, who talked to them about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. In the video, Ballard explains the two men’s reaction to Joseph and his teachings.

“Their response is so interesting. These men are verbose, they are opinionated, they are conclusive. But with the Mormon prophet they didn’t know what to think. They said, ‘There is a mixture of knowledge and ignorance of wisdom and folly in his whole system that I am somewhat at a loss to find definitions for it,’” says Ballard. 

Ballard goes on to explain that Adams and Quincy had expected to find a wild prophet, but within Adams’s diary it is evident that he sees wisdom in Joseph’s philosophies. Joseph was not what they expected.

Before the men left, Joseph signed a copy of the Book of Mormon (evidently Emma’s copy as her name was on the spine) and gave it to them.

Ballard also shares the story of John Howland, who was nearly drowned when he was thrown from the Mayflower during a storm while coming to America. Howland’s survival was a miracle and his posterity would come to include prominent early Church members and United States presidents.” By Emily Abel LDS Living

► You may also like: https://www.bofm.blog/pilgrim-john-howland/
https://www.bofm.blog/america-is-a-covenant-land-by-tim-ballard/