The Second Coming - The End of the World

My post today is one of education and understanding, and not of alarm. We should look forward to the Second Coming of Christ with great eagerness and not be afraid or fearful.

We live in the last days. For thousands of years prophets have seen our day. They have prophesied about the winding up period of this earth's existence.  The Lord has allowed them to see the events of the last days, and to write about them. Some of the greatest writings of the last days that we have in scripture are the writings of Isaiah, John's Book of Revelations, from Christ himself, as found in Matthew 24, as well as several Old Testament books, and the revelations given through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

In D&C 68:11, the Lord says "Unto you it shall be given to know the signs of the times, and the signs of the coming of the Son of Man." While on my mission, after reading this verse I added the Signs of the Times to my gospel study. I was able to identify 51 Signs of the Times. Over the years that list has remained the same, with a few that have taken place. Bruce R. McConkie has a similar list. The list includes things like the invention of the printing press, wars and rumors of wars, the Lamanites to blossom as the rose, the elements in commotion, worldly knowledge to increase, and so forth.

Speaking of the elements in commotion, here is an interesting chart listing the earthquakes over the last hundred years. You can see that they have intensified.

Another sign of the time is the growth of the Church. Although our numbers are still small in comparison, the growth curve has shot up.

Out of the 51 signs of the times there are just a few left to be accomplished. Here are ones either in process or haven't begun yet:

• The gospel to be preached to every nation.
• The building of New Jerusalem in Missouri.
• The return of the lost Ten Tribes.
• The gathering at Adam-Ondi-Ahman.
• Temple will be built in Independence, Missouri
• The Jews will gather in Jerusalem
• Final great war where 200 million forces will participate and last 3 years.
• Two prophets will preach in Jerusalem, be killed and their bodies will lie in the street for 3 days.

As you can see, there isn't much left to be accomplished. Some of these events can happen quickly.

For me, some of the important signs to watch are the events in and around the Middle East. As things intensify, and they will, we should pay close attention to the conflicts with Israel. The final great war, also known as the Battle of Armageddon,  will take place just 60 miles north of Jerusalem in the great plain of Esdraelon, an area of some 20 by 14 miles. It will be during this war that Christ will return to redeem his people. This war is also mentioned by Ezekiel as the war of Gog and Magog (Exek. 38 and 39)

In Revelations, John, speaking of this war, said "the kings of the earth and of the whole world will be gathered to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, . . . into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. Then Christ will come as a thief." (Rev. 16:14-21)

It is hard to comprehend just what it will be like when the Savior returns. When this does happen, we will see him coming from the East, in the clouds, along with his holy angels.

These are great times that we live in. To think that all the ancient prophets saw our day and wrote about it. We are living in the most exciting times in the history of the world. There is a lot of work for us to do to prepare for the Second Coming of Christ. First and foremost is getting our own houses in order. Second, helping others prepare for this day by doing our missionary work. Third, doing our family history and temple work, for those on the other side of the veil, once their work is done, will be able to do a lot more to help us prepare for the Lord's return. They are working with us now.

I'm grateful for the wonderful family we have. You are all great!

Love, Dad

Temple Manifestations

D & C 110:7-8 says "For behold, I have accepted this house, and my name shall be here; and I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house. Yea, I will appear unto my servants, and speak unto them with mine own voice, if my people will keep my commandments, and do not pollute this holy house."

Having worked in the temple for about 9 years, this scripture is true. Over the years there have been many manifestations to many temple patrons. Some experiences are too personal to share, and some are submitted to the temple presidency to be recorded in the temple history books for that temple. Those books are not shared publicly. We do, however, have many publicly shared experiences. I will share a few with you in this post. My goal in sharing these experience is that it will instill in you a greater desire to attend the temple.

First of all, you should not go to the temple seeking appearances or special experiences. The Lord doesn't work that way. These things come in his own time and in his own way. To open yourself to receiving such experiences, it is important that your mind, heart and body are clean before the Lord. This takes time and preparation.

I'd like to start off with a few from the Kirtland Temple. This temple was the first temple built in the latter days, and because of that, had many spiritual manifestations. The Lord was pleased and the angels rejoiced. Heber C Kimball wrote this in his journal:

"During the ceremonies (The dedication of the temple), an angel appeared and sat near President Joseph Smith, Sr., and Frederick G. Williams so that they had a fair view of his person. He was a very tall personage, black eyes, white hair, and stoop-shouldered; his garment was whole, extending to near his ankles; on his feet he had sandals. He was sent as a messenger to accept of the dedication. During the whole of the dedication each quorum was placed in its respective station. Everything was conducted in the best of order, and profound silence maintained. While these things were being attended to, the beloved disciple, John, was seen in our midst by the Prophet Joseph, Oliver Cowdery and others.

One early church member left this interesting account of a meeting held on January 28th, 1836: "The Lord blessed His people abundantly in that Temple with the Spirit of prophecy, the ministering of angels, visions, etc. I will here relate a vision [30] which was shown to me. It was near the close of the endowments. I was in a meeting for instruction in the upper part of the Temple, with about a hundred of the High Priests, Seventies and Elders. The Saints felt to shout, "Hosannah!" and the Spirit of God rested upon me in mighty power and I beheld the room lighted up with a peculiar light such as I had never seen before. It was soft and clear and the room looked to me as though it had neither roof nor floor to the building; and I beheld the Prophet Joseph and Hyrum Smith and Roger Orton enveloped in the light: Joseph exclaimed aloud, "I behold the Savior, the Son of God." Hyrum said, "I behold the angels of heaven." Brother Orton exclaimed, "I behold the chariots of Israel." All who were in the room felt the power of God to that degree that many prophesied, and the power of God was manifest, the remembrance of which will remain with me while I live upon the earth."

The late Apostle Marriner W. Merrill, President of the Logan Temple, related this extraordinary incident:

He was sitting in his office one morning, he said, when he noticed from the window a company of people coming up the hill to the Temple. As they entered the Temple grounds they presented rather a strange appearance, not only in dress but in their mode of travel. Some were riding on horses, others were in conveyances, and still others were afoot. He wondered who they could be as he was not looking for a company of such size that particular morning. They dismounted from their horses, stepped down from their conveyances, put their animals under the shade and walked about complacently as if they had a perfect right to be there.

A little later a person unknown to Brother Merrill entered the room. Brother Merrill said to him: "Who are you and who are these people who have come up and taken possession of the Temple grounds unannounced?" He answered and said: "I am Satan and these are my people." Brother Merrill then said: "What do you want? Why have you come here?" Satan replied: "I don't like the work that is going on in this Temple and feel that it should be discontinued. Will you stop it?" Brother Merrill answered and said emphatically, "No, we will not stop it. The work must go on." "Since you refuse to stop it, I will tell you what I propose to do," the adversary said. "I will take these people, my followers, and distribute them throughout this Temple district, and will instruct them to whisper in the ears of people, persuading them not to go to the Temple, and thus bring about a cessation of your Temple work." Satan then withdrew.

President Merrill, commenting on this strange interview with the Evil One, said that for quite a period of time the spirit of indifference to Temple work seemed to take possession of the people and very few came to the House of the Lord. The presumption was that Satan had carried out his threat which caused a temporary lull in Temple work.

Here is one that happened in the Salt Lake Temple to one of the laborers who helped to build the temple: Along about March, 1893, I found myself alone in the dining room--all had gone to bed. I was sitting at the table when to my great surprise my old brother Alfred walked in, sat down opposite me at the table and smiled. I said to him (he looked so natural): "When did you arrive in Utah?" (He had lived in New Zealand and from whom I had not heard in years.)

He said: "I have just come from the Spirit World; this is not my body that you see, it is lying in the tomb. I want to tell you that when you were on your mission you told me many things about the Gospel, and the hereafter, and about the Spirit World being as real and tangible as the earth. I realized that you had told the truth. I attended the Mormon meetings." He raised his hand and said with much warmth: "I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart. I believe in faith and repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, but that is as far as I can go. I look to you to do the work for me in the temple." He continued: "You can go to any kind of sectarian meeting in the Spirit World. All our kindred there knew you were trying to make up your mind to come and work on the temple. You are watched closely, every move you [107] make is known there; and we were glad you came. We are all looking to you as our head in this great work. I want to tell you that there are a great many spirits who weep and mourn because they have relatives in the Church here who are careless and are doing nothing for them." He then disappeared.

This following experience I heard first hand, when I was serving as an Elder's Quorum President, when Mom and I were first married. Back in those days the temples allowed you to hold special firesides inside the temple. I had planned a fireside in the Provo Temple. We had the temple president, President Orville C. Gunther, speak to us. I loved hearing President Gunther speak, because he was so open on talking about the endowment, it's symbols and meanings. It was from President Gunther that I learned a lot of what I know about the temple robes and the endowment. 

During this fireside President Gunther related an experience he had one night. He woke up in the middle of the night and felt an urgency to go down to the Provo Temple. He didn't know why, but got dressed and was heading out his door, when the phone rang. It was President Harold B. Lee. President Lee said "Brother Gunther, I've been asked to call you. I know that you feel an urgency to go to your temple. The Savior is at your temple right now doing some work and doesn't need your assistance at this time, so go back to sleep. Well, President Gunther said he couldn't go back to sleep.

President Gunther said that he shared this experience, one of many, to illustrate that the work that goes on in the temples is the Lord's work and he is closely envolved in this work.

While serving last year in the Jordan River temple, I had President Chamberlin relate many similar types of experiences. He said that the Lord is constantly in the Jordan River Temple. He considers this his workhorse temple. More work is done in this temple that any other temple in the Church. I'll relate one experience that President Chamberlin related.

He, President Chamberlin was in the upper rooms of the temple observing the work and had a temple patron come up and ask who that person was over there, as he was not wearing the same temple robes as everyone else. President Chamberlin asked if he saw him. And the patron said that he did. He then told him that he has just seen the Savior, and that he is there often overseeing the work in this temple.

There are many more that I could share with you, but I don't want this post to go too long. If we are together some time, ask me and I would be glad to share a few more.

Again, my goal in sharing some of these experiences is to motivate you to attend the temple often. Know that when you attend, you are not alone. There is just as much in attendance, maybe more, from the other side of the veil as there is from this side.

Isn't this work wonderful?

Love, Dad

Dec 21, 2012 - The End of The World...or the Beginning?

According to a lot of news hype for the last couple of years, there has been much said about the Mayan calendar ending on Dec 21, 2012. There has been a lot of news suggesting that this is the end of the world.

Before I explain what this really means, ask yourself this question:

"What if the world were to end on Dec 21, 2012?"

Are you personally ready for it? If you were called home this year, do you feel your life is such that you would feel comfortable meeting your maker? Those are some sobering questions. Hold that thought for a moment, and let me explain what I know about the Mayan calendar issue.

This whole thing came about from an ancient Mayan monument whose inscriptions were translated. The original translation was misunderstood and caused some to argue the Mayan calendar ended in 2012 , and it would mean either a time of destruction or the beginning of a new age. Mark Wright, a BYU religion professor who earned a Ph.D. in mesoamerican archaeology, said this interpretation is simply false. (http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=18589688)

"The Maya themselves never said anything about destruction at any point," according to Wright. "So all the tings you hear about 2012, the Maya never said any of it all, and I try to make it very, very clear that it's not open to interpretation basically.

According to Wright, the monument commemorates the dedication of a sacred structure. It uses the word B'ak'tun, which is roughly 400 years in the Mayan calendar. The inscription records the dedication in reference to the 13th B'ak'tun, which marks the end of one major period and the beginning of another. However, this means nothing more than when our calendar hit Jan. 1, 2000.

Wright said a losse translation of the inscription is "the building was dedicated 1343 years before the ending of the 13th B'ak'tun, equals Dec 21 of 2012, but says nothing about the end of the world. So we have that out of the way, and we should all not pay any attention, or lose any sleep over the world ending in December.

However, I want to pose the question again, "What if the world were to end?" Are you ready for it? Is your house in order?

I think our best approach to this should be to live each day as though it were our last, and that the next day is a gift of time. If we were living with such an outlook, would our attitude be different about the present? I heard a quote recently that "The future is purchased by the present." (Samuel Johnson) Meaning that the decisions you make, and how you live your life today, will influence how your life, and it's outcomes are in the future.

So live today as if it were your last day on earth. Your life will take on a whole new meaning. Life is too precious and too important, from the eternal perspective, to be wasting away a lot of days filled with discouragement, doubt and fear.

Spend your day with others - serving others. Look for ways to make others around you happy. Spent more time in the scriptures, allowing the Spirit to teach you and inspire you. Love life...and live it today!

Love, Dad

Faith - What, How, Obtain

Faith, the first principle of the Gospel, is a principle that I know a lot about, yet know very little. I remember, as a young man, listening to President Marion G. Romney in a General Conference speak on faith. He said that he has studied faith all his life and has just barely scratched the surface of understanding it.

Well, if a General Authority is just barely learning its deep meaning, we are infants in our understanding of it. But, none-the-less, I felt it is important enough for us to discuss it.

Some of you may be struggling with faith, and some may feel their faith is much stronger than it has ever been, but realize you have a long way to go. Our faith is always in a growing, challenging process. We never really arrive at a point when our faith is complete. Even Deity is always exercising faith. Now that may sound odd, that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ need to exercise faith. I'll explain more about this below.

My goal with this blog post is for us to try and understand what faith is, how we can exercise faith and how to grow and develop it . I will be using a lot of scriptures, as well as quotes from Joseph Smith's, Lectures on Faith.

What is Faith?

"Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." (Alma 32:21)

"From this we learn that faith is the assurance which men have of the existence of things which they have not seen, and the principle of action in all intelligent beings... but faith is not only the principle of action, but of power also, in all intelligent beings, whether in heaven or on earth" (Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith)

How is Faith Exercised?

In Hebrews 11:3, the Apostle Paul tells us that through faith the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

The Prophet Joseph Smith said "By this we understand that the principle of power which existed in the bosom of God, by which the worlds were framed, was faith; and that it is by reason of this principle of power existing in Deity, that all created things exist; so that all things in heaven, on earth, or under the earth, exist by reason of faith as it existed in Him. Had it not been for the principle of faith the worlds would never have been framed, neither would man have been formed of the dust. It is the principle by which Jehovah works, and through which he exercises power over all temporal as well as eternal things. Take this principle or attribute - for it is an attribute - from Deity, and he would cease to exist."

So if God would cease to exist without faith, so would we. Faith is the foundation of our existence. If you stop and think about it, we are exercising faith constantly. Again, faith is to have hope for things which are not seen, which are true.

Is it not the assurance that going to school would give us greater knowledge and understanding that would help us to be a better contributor to society? Isn't it an assurance we have that when the sun goes down in the evening, it will rise again the next day? As Joseph Smith said in the School of the Prophets, " Would you have ever sown, if you had not believed that you would reap? Would you have ever planted, if you had not believed that you would gather? Would you have ever asked, unless you had believed that you would receive?"

All of these things work on a foundation of faith. It is the underlying power of everything. If this is the case, then why do some things not happen when try to exercise faith? My feeling is that we allow doubt and fear to enter in, where faith and hope needs to be. Consider the faith of a child. A child has undefiled faith, because he is innocent and his mind and heart has not been filled with the doubts of the world.

President Monson said "Faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other.

How do we grow our faith?

I can't think of any better answer to this question than the counsel given to us by Alma, in Alma 32. In this chapter he not only defines what faith is but he then outlines how it grows, and what we must do to encourage the growing process. Careful study of this chapter will uncover some deep doctrines of the Gospel.
We are all familiar with the oft-quoted verse 21 defining faith, but some of the real gems are the verses that follow. There are several key ingredients of faith that are outlined by Alma.

Verse 22 indicates that we can receive the mercy of God, (his blessings and easing of pain and suffering) by simply believing on his name. Believe in him, get to know him. To do this, Alma says to believe on his word, and then describes how the word is imparted, by angels unto men, women and children. What is his word? His word is found through personal revelation (Righteous thoughts, impressions, ideas), the holy scriptures, talks from Apostles and Prophets.

Verse 25 he talks about humility. We must be humble and teachable to receive the word of God and allow our faith to grow.

Verses 26 through 41 are the most important of all the counsel given by Alma. It outlines, in very simple terms how to grow our faith. We do so by nourishing the "word of God," as we do in nourishing and growing a tree. Notice that, as quoted by Paul in Hebrew 11:1, that the worlds were created by "the word of God." I think that is very significant to understand that the word of God created the worlds, and that we develop our faith by nourishing the word of God. Something to not gloss over lightly.

I think it is interesting that he did not pick a flower or plant for this analogy, but a tree. Remember our discussion about trees, and their symbolic nature in our lives. Pay attention to the tree comparison, remembering the significance of other trees - The tree of life, olive trees, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There are some deep and important doctrines here.

So our faith will grow as we nourish the revelations that come to us, the spiritual communications we receive as we read and study the scriptures, and the impressions we receive as we listen and read the words from our Prophets and Apostles. If we are lax in doing these things, then our faith will be weak and underdeveloped. If our faith is weak, we then will have doubt and fear in our lives. We will be critical of others and find fault. We will lack a desire to do good continually.

However if we do these things, as outlined by Alma, we will have joy and happiness in our lives. We will think of others instead of ourselves. We will be willing to serve others. And most importantly, our faith will be strong.

I hope this discussion has helped us understand faith a little better in our lives, what faith can do, and how we can grow it.

Love you all,

Dad

The Savior, a Personal Relationship

Earlier this week I was having a discussion with Becca about my blog, and she asked how I decide on what topic to write on. I told her that sometimes I think about topic all week and then write about it on Saturday. And then sometimes I don't think about it at all during the week and sit down and wait for a thought or an impression to come to me. Either way, I feel great responsibility to write on something that one or several of you may need, and let the Spirit tell me what it is.

This week I thought I would wait until conference, and listen to the talks and write on a topic that impressed me the most. I actually had two topics, but felt impressed about one more so than the other. The other topic I'll write on it maybe next week.

So this topic, that of having a personal relationship with the Savior, to me, seemed to be the theme of the talks today.

I want to start off sharing an experience I had in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1996, while participating in a UN Conference with a United Family International group. I believe most of my family has heard this, but spouses probably have not.

For the sake of time, I won't share all of the details. But let me say this, my experiences in Istanbul was the most spiritual, next to my temple sealing, that I have ever had. We saw and felt the personal influence of the Savior throughout the trip. The outcome of the conference, that of preserving the standards and rights of families, was guided and inspired.

My first night in Istanbul, as I was saying my prayers, I was visited by Satan. He was dark and evil. After casting him out, I lay there pondering why that experience happened. I concluded that he knew the importance of this conference for preserving the family, and that he did not want me or our group to be successful.

My second night, as I was saying my prayers, my hotel room began to fill with light. Keeping my eyes closed (I did not feel worthy to open them) I had the completely opposite feeling than the night before. I was filled with joy, warmth and the love of my Savior. In my mind I could distinctly see him standing beside me as I knelt at my bedside. I saw his face, his features, his robe. He was brilliant and white. I was so overcome with the immensity of his love and his presence I sobbed. I didn't sleep much that night, being so overcome with what I had just experienced. I again felt that what I and my group were doing was so important to perserving the sanctity of families.

Upon returning from this conference, I was contacted by the secretary to the Quorum of the Twelve and was asked if I could come down to the Church Administrative Building and meet with Elder Scott and Elder Maxwell. Myself, along with five others from our group, met with these two brethren. I sat right next to Elder Maxwell around a big conference table, and he shared with me that the brethren, in their Thursday morning meeting, prayed for our group. He also shared some things with me that he possibly couldn't have known about concerning our experience in Istanbul. I figured that the Savior communicated those things to him.

I wanted to share this experience to start off my discussion about a very sacred and important topic, that of having a personal relationship with your Savior. I don't feel that I'm anyone special or more worthy than anyone else to experience what I did. I feel I was in the right place at the right time, doing something that was really important.

So the point I want to emphasize is that we each can get really close to our Savior and have a personal relationship with him. The Savior has said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." (Matt 11:28, 29)

He has also said, "Verily, thus said the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am." (D&C 93:1)

Many of the talks today addressed this very point, that we can have a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. He is very interested in us and our lives. I feel he is very close to us in our lives. In D&C 84:88 he said, "...there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to hear you up."

I know that he walks the halls of his temples on a regular and frequent basis. I have heard temple presidents share some pretty amazing stories in this regard.

So, what I hope we each can understand is that we are not beyond having some amazing experiences with our Savior. He wants us to come to him, and he wants to come to us. That is not a figurative thing, but one that can be real in each of our lives.

At times in our lives, and maybe even now, we may feel he doesn't know us or care about us. If you have, or are now thinking this, know that it is simply not true. Satan would have you think this. Your Savior knows you better than you know yourself. He is the Shepherd and knows his sheep. Don't ever feel he does not care. Even at times when we feel discouraged and down, he knows and feels your feelings.

The way we can get close to him is by living ALL his commandments. Live the type of life that he lives.  Read his words in the scriptures. Pray, ponder and think about him. Go visit him often in the temple. He is there. It is his house and he is home.

If you are doing things that would not invite him into our lives, change what you are doing. Do and say things as if you were standing in his presence. Because he does visit us often, and unbeknownst to us, he is amongst us.

Now, I want to end with one more thing. Can we have a personal, physical appearance of the Savior to us, while still in this life? The answer is yes. It doesn't happen to a lot of people, but it does happen. Just as I quoted in D&C 93:1 above, that is a promise to us to "see my face and know that I am." Those Saints who have had such an experience, will not talk about it or share it with others. Most of the time those appearances take place in the temples. But it can happen outside of the temples.

Can you imagine what such an experience would be like? To help you understand what such an experience might be like, let me share a dream that Melvin J. Ballard, one of the past apostles of the Church, had while doing some church work up in Montana. I first heard this experience while serving my mission in Montana.

Melvin J. Ballard:
Away on the Fort Peck Reservation where I was doing missionary work with some of our brethren, laboring among the Indians, seeking the Lord for light to decide certain matters pertaining to our work there, and receiving a witness from him that we were doing things according to his will, I found myself one evening in the dreams of the night in that sacred building, the temple. After a season of prayer and rejoicing I was informed that I should have the privilege of entering into one of those rooms, to meet a glorious Personage, and, as I entered the door, I saw, seated on a raised platform, the most glorious Being my eyes have ever beheld or that I ever conceived existed in all the eternal worlds. As I approached to be introduced, he arose and stepped towards me with extended arms, and he smiled as he softly spoke my name. If I shall live to be a million years old, I shall never forget that smile. He took me into his arms and kissed me, pressed me to his bosom, and blessed me, until the marrow of my bones seemed to melt! When he had finished, I fell at his feet, and, as I bathed them with my tears and kisses, I saw the prints of the nails in the feet of the Redeemer of the world. The feeling that I had in the presence of him who hath all things in his hands, to have his love, his affection, and his blessing was such that if I ever can receive that of which I had but a foretaste, I would give all that I am, all that I ever hope to be, to feel what I then felt!

I hope we each can remember how special we are to our Savior. He loves us, and wants us to be happy. He wants to come to us into our lives.

Invite him in...

Love, Dad