<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0"><channel><title>Mike Serovey On Religion</title><description>This blog is where Mike Serovey, an ordained elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, posts his rants, thoughts and some of his research on various religious and spiritual topics. His bias will be toward the teachings of the LDS church, but he will attempt to be objective and will raise some questions not easily answered by any religion that he knows of. Some people may be offended by his questions and proposed answers.</description><managingEditor>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</managingEditor><pubDate>Thu, 5 Sep 2024 15:30:09 -0400</pubDate><generator>Blogger http://www.blogger.com</generator><openSearch:totalResults xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/">38</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/">1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/">25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/</link><language>en-us</language><item><title>A Message from the Gods</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-mesage-from-gods.html</link><category>Allah</category><category>Ancient Aliens</category><category>Elohim</category><category>Gods</category><category>Religion As A Scam</category><category>Yahweh</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jan 2015 04:10:00 -0500</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-3977630713365497633</guid><description>This is a message from Elohim, Yahweh, and Allah!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwI0SdO4qzfJt049JpKvjjqX2vwIE53yNGNe1ZGBfSsmF6WEOjXxnmSogo7D-u5YS2NVze3ZFh1EMI' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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I got some video motion backgrounds and I used one of them along with Camtasia Studio 8 and PowerPoint 2013 to make some slides, run a slideshow and record this. Camtasia Studio 8 converted the edited files into an mp4 with a smart video player included. &lt;br /&gt;
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The first slide does not show long enough to be read, so you may want to pause the playback about a second after it starts. The rest of the slides are easy to read.&lt;br /&gt;
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This video is quite sarcastic, but it reflects how I really feel about religious fanatics and monotheism.&lt;br /&gt;
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A higher resolution version of this can be found at &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqC-Rj4B1gQ"&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqC-Rj4B1gQ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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I did a Google search for this video and I got the results that are in this screen capture.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4eu0RVWN6DiWn7fDXAioPafNzD4TKZyLFs0r_qntsCCV0w28ssVbBPu3LUIF6PgsbYDiXh-LdBZuDGmD1esiUM5IrYhw0kABbK_G01txhIHhwIYKydU08KeghcGkzxsu9E5DULQ/s1600/Message-Screenshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4eu0RVWN6DiWn7fDXAioPafNzD4TKZyLFs0r_qntsCCV0w28ssVbBPu3LUIF6PgsbYDiXh-LdBZuDGmD1esiUM5IrYhw0kABbK_G01txhIHhwIYKydU08KeghcGkzxsu9E5DULQ/s1600/Message-Screenshot.jpg" height="179" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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Michael Robert Serovey, MA, MISM&lt;br /&gt;
</description><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4eu0RVWN6DiWn7fDXAioPafNzD4TKZyLFs0r_qntsCCV0w28ssVbBPu3LUIF6PgsbYDiXh-LdBZuDGmD1esiUM5IrYhw0kABbK_G01txhIHhwIYKydU08KeghcGkzxsu9E5DULQ/s72-c/Message-Screenshot.jpg" width="72"/><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><georss:featurename xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss">Colorado Springs, CO, USA</georss:featurename><georss:point xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss">38.8338816 -104.8213634</georss:point><georss:box xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss">38.4383081 -105.4668104 39.229455099999996 -104.17591639999999</georss:box></item><item><title>Nonsense that Christians Have Told to Me, Part 1</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2014/07/nonsense-that-christians-have-told-to.html</link><category>Ancient Aliens</category><category>Heaven and Hell</category><category>Heaven. Afterlife</category><category>Religion As A Scam</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:50:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-7224298982235076354</guid><description>&lt;span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"&gt;Although I have yet to read any of&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;Zecharia Sitchin's books, I am familiar with some of the things that are contained in those books because they were mentioned in the TV series &lt;i&gt;Ancient Aliens&lt;/i&gt;. You can view&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zecharia-Sitchin/e/B000APVA3G/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"&gt;Zecharia Sitchin's&amp;nbsp;Amazon&amp;nbsp;Author's Page &lt;/a&gt;to get a summary of his life and books. When my budget allows me to I will buy and read his books.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;People who have not watched&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;the TV series&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;Ancient Aliens&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;or read&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;Zecharia Sitchin's books tend to laugh at me and tell me that&lt;b&gt; I &lt;/b&gt;don't know what I am talking about when it is &lt;b&gt;they&lt;/b&gt; who don't know what I am talking about! I find this behavior &lt;b&gt;quite annoying&lt;/b&gt;!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;I have known since the 1970's that a book that tells the same stories as those found in&amp;nbsp;Genesis&amp;nbsp;was written about 1,000 years before&amp;nbsp;Genesis, but I had trouble remembering the name of that book until I had heard it a few times. This book tells about an alien race known as&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;the Anunnaki who lived in Sumer &lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;and their creation of a race of slaves that were called the Adamu (worker). This book is called&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;the Epic of Gilgamesh and is basically an earlier, and more accurate, version of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;Genesis. People who read only the Bible don't know that this book exists or they tend to dismiss it as being uninspired writings&amp;nbsp;because&amp;nbsp;it was not&amp;nbsp;approved by the&amp;nbsp;unbaptized&amp;nbsp;Roman Emperor Constantine when he&amp;nbsp;convened&amp;nbsp;the Council of&amp;nbsp;Nicaea. It was the later Council of Trent that added the Old Testament to the Bible. Again, the Catholics left out any books that were not widely accepted by the early Christians or that contained "too much information". As far as I know, only the&amp;nbsp;Anglican&amp;nbsp;Church&amp;nbsp;accepts&amp;nbsp;The Book of Enoch as scripture.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;I have a neighbor who reads only the King James version of the Bible and refuses to admit that it is the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;b style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;least accurate&lt;/b&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt; English translation of the Bible! He kept telling me that any mistakes in translating the Bible are none of my business and that I should just believe those mistakes anyways! That is absurd! Although I no longer have the list, the King James version of the Bible contradicts itself and history that was&amp;nbsp;recorded&amp;nbsp;elsewhere&amp;nbsp;in &lt;/span&gt;&lt;b style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;over 600 different places&lt;/b&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;! Newer translations of the Bible have corrected most of these&amp;nbsp;contradictions.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;However, I have known Christians who were upset over these corrections because many of their false doctrines were based upon these&amp;nbsp;translation&amp;nbsp;errors! As new manuscripts are found in the Middle East and are translated into English&amp;nbsp;newer&amp;nbsp;versions of the Bible are published based upon these new discoveries. Generally speaking, the older a Bible manuscript is the more accurate it is considered to be. What very few Christians will admit is that we do &lt;/span&gt;&lt;b style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;not&lt;/b&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;have anything that is in the original handwriting of any Old Testament&amp;nbsp;prophet, patriarch or New Testament apostle! At best, we&amp;nbsp;have&amp;nbsp;third and fourth generation copies of these writings. When errors were made in copying a scroll by hand the errors were &lt;/span&gt;&lt;b style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;not&lt;/b&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt; discarded but were set aside. These scrolls that contained errors were later copied as if they were correct. Also, margin notes and foot notes would often be copied as if they were part of the text. These errors were perpetuated for centuries and are just now being corrected. Once again, some people refuse to admit that their beliefs were based upon copying and&amp;nbsp;translation&amp;nbsp;errors and attack those of us who try to teach them the truth!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;I will write more about the religious nonsense that I despise in a later post.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"&gt;Mike Serovey, MA, MISM&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total><georss:featurename xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss">Colorado Springs, CO, USA</georss:featurename><georss:point xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss">38.8338816 -104.8213634</georss:point><georss:box xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss">38.4383081 -105.4668104 39.229455099999996 -104.17591639999999</georss:box></item><item><title>What is the Holy Ghost?</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2014/04/what-is-holy-ghost.html</link><category>Heaven and Hell</category><category>Holy Ghost</category><category>Internet</category><category>Magic</category><category>networks</category><category>the force</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 20 Apr 2014 00:47:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-3224078367052449325</guid><description>I posted this some time ago on Facebook and now I am copying it here. When I get enough material I am going to turn this idea into a report or book that I will sell on Amazon. Here is the article&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;span class="userContent" data-ft="{&amp;quot;tn&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;K&amp;quot;}"&gt;A couple of days ago I was listening to a recording of a Google hangout. Lisa Garr was interviewing Mary Morrissey. Near the end of the interview, Mary was describing the Internet. She said that there were 7 billion people but one mind. There were 7 billion computers but one Internet. The Internet was everywhere and had the collected wisdom and knowledge of 6,000 years of human experience. It was&lt;span class="text_exposed_show"&gt;&amp;nbsp;all knowing and ever present. Does this sound like anyone that we know?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Mary's description of the Internet is very close to how Christians describe the Holy Ghost! I have long believed that what George Lucas calls "the Force" is what Carl Jung called "the collective unconscious" equals what Brian Tracey calls "the super conscious mind". All of these are synonyms for The Holy Ghost. But, what if The Holy Ghost is not a spirit in the sense that the ghost of a dead person is? What if The Holy Ghost is a network of conscious beings from multiple inhabited worlds that has its own intelligence and thus is also a conscious being in and of itself?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; The Internet that I am using to write and post this is a network of computer networks. No one really owns the Internet, but some people do control access to it. You need some kind of electronic device to access the Internet, but with the correct equipment, there are very few places here on Earth where you can't get a connection. The Internet is everywhere! If you use a search engine correctly you can find an article on almost everything that you want to know. Someone with Internet access can appear all knowing!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Ever since the days of Joseph Smith, the LDS church has stated that God the Father and his son, Jesus Christ, are two separate and distinct individuals. According to Joseph Smith, the Father and Son both appeared to him in a sacred grove of trees. The Father pointed to the Son and said, "This is my beloved son. Hear him!". Either Joseph was telling the truth or he was lying. Five million Mormons believe that he told the truth. That being the case there are two other possibilities, he either saw something divine or he was tricked. Anti-Mormons believe that Joseph Smith was tricked by the devil because they are still believing in that Holy Trinity nonsense! Joseph Smith's vision, if true, &lt;b&gt;proves&lt;/b&gt; that the Father and the Son are &lt;b&gt;both&lt;/b&gt; resurrected men with superhuman powers and physical bodies! Each of them can only be in one place at one time! However, the Holy Ghost &lt;b&gt;can&lt;/b&gt; be everywhere at once because it is a network that is like our Internet!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; The Internet here on Earth uses electrons, microwaves and other energies that travel at, or just under, the speed of light. In the vacuum of space light travels at 186,282 miles per &lt;b&gt;second&lt;/b&gt;! On a small planet like Earth that is incredibly fast! However, when you want to travel from one star to another, or send a message from one star to another one, that is &lt;b&gt;slow&lt;/b&gt;! It takes four years for the light from Alpha Centauri to reach the Earth. That is too slow for any Internet connection to work! How do space aliens get around this problem? Enter quantum mechanics! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; I have no clue when or how quantum entanglement was discovered and will need to research this. However, Albert Einstein called it, "spooky action at a distance". Whenever a particle of ordinary matter is created a matching particle of antimatter is also created. No matter how far these two particles are separated, if something happens to one particle then the matching particle will &lt;b&gt;instantly&lt;/b&gt; know about it. If electron A changes its spin then positron A will match that change instantly, even if it is 170,000 light years away! Quantum entanglement can make a galactic Internet work! An alien race, say the Klingons, can tap into this Internet and have the collected wisdom of thousands of inhabited worlds going back over millions of years! Throw in some photon torpedoes and phasers and you have a race of "gods" that is all knowing, all powerful and everywhere at once!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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Mike Serovey, MA, MISM&lt;/div&gt;
</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>My New Book on Amazon.com</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2012/10/my-new-book-on-amazoncom.html</link><category>afterlife</category><category>death</category><category>life after death</category><category>Mormon doctrine</category><category>resurrection</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 14 Oct 2012 15:57:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-9175208831720743014</guid><description>Here is a preview of my book that I just published on Amazon.com. If you want to read the entire book, you can get it at: &lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Resurrection-Afterlife-Mormon-Writings-ebook/dp/B009PURFG8/"&gt;http://www.amazon.com/Resurrection-Afterlife-Mormon-Writings-ebook/dp/B009PURFG8/&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Toc337968891"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-AU"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS;"&gt;Death, Resurrection and the
Afterlife as Found in the Book of Mormon and Other Writings of Joseph Smith,
Jr.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-AU"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
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&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;By&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Michael
Robert Serovey, MA, MISM&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Elder
in the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter Days Saints&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bookmark: _Toc336997189;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bookmark: _Toc307051951;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bookmark: _Toc307047160;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bookmark: _Toc296088144;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bookmark: _Toc337968892;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-AU"&gt;Copyright Information Page&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bookmark: _Toc337968892;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bookmark: _Toc296088144;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bookmark: _Toc307047160;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bookmark: _Toc307051951;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bookmark: _Toc336997189;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Heading2Char"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Book Antiqua&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
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&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Michael Robert Serovey, Mike Serovey Enterprises&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;This publication is designed to provide accurate and
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&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoToc1" style="margin: 0in 0in 9pt;"&gt;
&lt;span class="MsoHyperlink"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=13762305#_Toc337968891"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #ff8700;"&gt;Death,
Resurrection and the Afterlife as Found in the Book of Mormon and Other
Writings of Joseph Smith, Jr.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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Page&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoToc1" style="margin: 0in 0in 9pt;"&gt;
&lt;span class="MsoHyperlink"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=13762305#_Toc337968893"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #ff8700;"&gt;Introduction&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoToc1" style="margin: 0in 0in 9pt;"&gt;
&lt;span class="MsoHyperlink"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=13762305#_Toc337968894"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #ff8700;"&gt;Plan of
Salvation - The Seven Ages of Mankind&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoToc1" style="margin: 0in 0in 9pt;"&gt;
&lt;span class="MsoHyperlink"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=13762305#_Toc337968895"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #ff8700;"&gt;Is
There Only One Heaven and One Hell?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoToc1" style="margin: 0in 0in 9pt;"&gt;
&lt;span class="MsoHyperlink"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=13762305#_Toc337968896"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #ff8700;"&gt;Summary&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoToc1" style="margin: 0in 0in 9pt;"&gt;
&lt;span class="MsoHyperlink"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=13762305#_Toc337968897"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #ff8700;"&gt;End
Notes&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoToc1" style="margin: 0in 0in 9pt;"&gt;
&lt;span class="MsoHyperlink"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=13762305#_Toc337968898"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-ansi-font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #ff8700;"&gt;Next
Step&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-no-proof: yes;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-AU"&gt;&lt;br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS;"&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Toc337968893"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Toc337837142"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bookmark: _Toc337968893;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS;"&gt;Introduction&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"&gt;
&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;In this paper I
will attempt to explain, briefly, the teachings of Joseph Smith, Jr. concerning
death, resurrection, and the afterlife. In order to stay within the intende4
length of the paper, I will deal primarily with the Book of Mormon (B of M).
Where the B of M does not clearly cover a subject, I will refer to the other
works generally attributed to Joseph Smith, Jr. or reputable commentaries
thereon.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Before I begin
explaining the doctrines, I will briefly describe each of the works generally
attributed to Joseph Smith Jr. and there reported respective origins. First is
the Book of Mormon (B of M). The title page, which Joseph Smith, Jr. translated
from the plates themselves, best describes what it is.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;The Book of Mormon&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;An Account Written by&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;The Hand of Mormon&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Upon Plates&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Taken from the Plates of Nephi&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Wherefore, it
is an abridgment of the record of the people of Nephi, and also of the
Lamanites--Written to the Lamanites, who area remnant of the house of Israel;
and also to Jew and Gentile——Written by way of commandment, and also by the
spirit of prophecy and of revelation--Written and sealed up, and hid up unto
the Lord, that they might not be destroyed—-To come forth by the gift and power
of God unto the interpretation thereof——Sealed by the hand of Moroni and hid up
unto the Lord, to come forth in due time by way of the Gentile——The
interpretation thereof by the gift of God.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;An Abridgment
taken from the Book of Ether also, which is a record of the people of Jared,
who were scattered at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people,
when they were building a tower to get to heaven——Which is to show unto the
remnant of the House of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers;
and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off
forever——And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that JESUS is the
CHRIST, the ETERNAL GOD, manifesting himself unto all nations——And now, if
there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the
things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment—seat of Christ.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;TRANSLATED BY JOSEPH SMITH,
JUN.’ 1&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Next is the
Doctrine and Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (D
&amp;amp; C). The D&amp;amp;C contain revelations and official proclamations received
by or put out by the presidents of the church. Most of these are by or through
Joseph Smith, Jr. This book was first published under the title The Book of
Commandments. The title was later changed by Joseph Smith Jr.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;After Joseph
Smith was martyred the church collected several of his writings and published
them under the title The Pearl of Great Price (P of GP). The P of GP contains:
The Book of Moses, which is Joseph Smith’s retranslation of the first six
chapters of Genesis; The Book of Abraham, a translation of a papyrus scroll
found with an Egyptian mummy; Joseph Smith- Matthew; Joseph Smith’s translation
of Matthew— 23; and Joseph Smith—History an extract from &lt;u&gt;History of the
Church&lt;/u&gt; Volume I.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;In addition,
several of the sermons of Joseph Smith, Jr. were recorded by John A. Widstoe.
These records were compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith and published under the
title, &lt;u&gt;Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith.&lt;/u&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Of those listed
above, four are canonized scripture and are called the Four Standard Works.
They are: 1) the KJV Bible; 2) Book of Mormon; 3) D&amp;amp;C and; 4) Pearl of
Great Price. The official doctrines of the Church are found in these works and
any other proclamations of the First Presidency of the Church.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: &amp;quot;Arial Unicode MS&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 22pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 14.0pt;"&gt;&lt;br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" /&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Toc337968894"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-AU"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS;"&gt;Plan of Salvation - The Seven Ages
of Mankind&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-AU" style="text-transform: uppercase;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"&gt;
&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Bruce R.
McConkie in his book The Millennial Messiah points out that we cannot correctly
understand the teachings concerning death, resurrection and the afterlife
unless we understand the entire plan of salvation. We cannot understand the
entire plan of salvation unless we gain an eternal perspective on things.
McConkie outlines the seven ages of man as follows: First is “&lt;u&gt;Creation and
Life as Spirits”&lt;/u&gt;. This is also called the premortal existence. This is when
the great Elohim created the spirits of all who ever had, do now, and ever will
dwell on this earth. This creation included the angels who were cast into outer
darkness and the spirit “Son who is the Firstborn,” YHWH. 2&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;The Book of
Abraham, Chapter 3, tells us of this ante mortal state, before the world was
created. In it we find that God revealed to Abraham the eternal nature of
spirits, pre—earth life, foreordination, the creation, the choosing of a
Redeemer, and the second estate of man.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;“NOW the Lord had shown unto
me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and
among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; And God saw these
souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said:&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;These I will make my rulers;
for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and
he said unto me:&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Abraham, thou art one of them;
thou wast chosen before thou wast born. And there stood one among them that was
like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for
there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an
earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they
will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; And they
who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their
first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their
first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon
their heads for ever and ever.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;And the Lord said: Whom shall
I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me, And
another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send
the first. And the second was angry, and ke not his first estate and, at that
day, many followed after him.” 3&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Second is the “&lt;u&gt;Temporal
Creation and Our Life as Mortals&lt;/u&gt;” This is when the physical earth is
organized. This is when Michael the &lt;st1:place w:st="on"&gt;Archangel&lt;/st1:place&gt;
becomes Adam the premortal man. His wife Eve is created and placed in the
garden with him to be a helper. They fall and become mortal beings, subject to
both spiritual and physical death. 4&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;In the B of M,
2 Nephi &lt;st1:time hour="14" minute="15" w:st="on"&gt;2:15&lt;/st1:time&gt;-25, Nephi
tells his sons the story of the creation, how Adam fell, why the fall was
necessary, and what would have happened if the fall had not occurred.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;“And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed
he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the Garden of Eden. And
all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which
they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever and had
no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained
in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good,
for they knew no sin. But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of
him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they
might have joy.”5&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Third is “&lt;u&gt;Redemption
and the Age of the Atoning One&lt;/u&gt;. This is the meridian of time. This is when
Jesus the Christ is born. We were present when the earth was created, Adam
fell, the flood of Noah, and again we are present to witness the miraculous
birth of our redeemer. We see how he grows up, begins his ministry, is baptized
by John in the &lt;st1:place w:st="on"&gt;&lt;st1:placename w:st="on"&gt;Jordon&lt;/st1:placename&gt;
 &lt;st1:placetype w:st="on"&gt;River&lt;/st1:placetype&gt;&lt;/st1:place&gt;, teaches and works
miracles, agonizes in the &lt;st1:place w:st="on"&gt;&lt;st1:placetype w:st="on"&gt;Garden&lt;/st1:placetype&gt;
 of &lt;st1:placename w:st="on"&gt;Gethsemane&lt;/st1:placename&gt;&lt;/st1:place&gt;, &amp;amp;
bleeds and dies for us on the cross. 6&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;The B of M
tells us that Jesus the Christ was known to the Nephite prophets by that name
before he was born, that this Jesus Christ is the same one who created the
earth, and that he would save us from our sins. In Mosiah 3:8 we read, “And he
shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth,
the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called
Mary.”&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;Again in Mosiah
we read:&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 0.5in;"&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;“And because he said unto them
that Christ was the God, the Father of all things, and said that he should take
upon him the image of man, and it should be the image after which man was created
in the beginning; or in other words, he said that man was created after the
image of God, and that God should come down among the children of men, and take
upon Him flesh and blood, and go forth upon the face of the earth.” 7&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;If you want to read the entire book, you can get it at: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Resurrection-Afterlife-Mormon-Writings-ebook/dp/B009PURFG8/"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;http://www.amazon.com/Resurrection-Afterlife-Mormon-Writings-ebook/dp/B009PURFG8/&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size: 11pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Mike Serovey, MA, MISM&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Funny True Stories</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2012/04/funny-true-stories.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:22:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-5874880163256278605</guid><description>&lt;br /&gt;While walking along the sidewalk in front of his church,&lt;br /&gt;our minister heard the intoning of a prayer that nearly made&lt;br /&gt;his collar wilt. Apparently, his 5-year-old son and his&lt;br /&gt;playmates had found a dead robin. Feeling that proper burial&lt;br /&gt;should be performed, they had secured a small box and cotton&lt;br /&gt;batting, then dug a hole and made ready for the disposal of&lt;br /&gt;the deceased.The minister's son was chosen to say the&lt;br /&gt;appropriate prayers and with sonorous dignity intoned his&lt;br /&gt;version of what he thought his father always said: 'Glory be&lt;br /&gt;unto the Faaather, and unto the Sonnn, and into the hole&lt;br /&gt;hegoooes.' &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A little boy opened the big family Bible. He was&lt;br /&gt;fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly,&lt;br /&gt;something fell out of the Bible. He picked up the object and&lt;br /&gt;looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that had been&lt;br /&gt;pressed in between the pages.'Mama, look what I found,' the&lt;br /&gt;boy called out. 'What have you got there, dear?' With&lt;br /&gt;astonishment in the young boy's voice, he answered, 'I think&lt;br /&gt;it's Adam's underwear!'</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>A Prophetic Dream</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2011/01/prophetic-dream.html</link><category>Prophetic Dreams</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sat, 1 Jan 2011 17:53:00 -0500</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-6743852459247211733</guid><description>Back in 1978 I was a private in the US Army who lived in the barracks and ate in the mess hall. I had recently joined the LDS (Mormon) church and had a few dates with some of the young women in my ward (the Single Adults Ward). However, I didn't really "click" with anyone at that time. After having a dream about a mermaid I went to the latrine and then prayed to God to reveal to me in a dream whom I should marry. I had had an earlier dream that had left me with the impression that I would marry someone in Tampa and that I would have to wait for her. This time, shortly after falling asleep, I had the following dream.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I saw a photograph of a young woman with glasses and red hair. The glasses had a gold frame to them. I didn't recognize the girl but thought that she was pretty. I also saw a white wall and a white desktop or table top that the photograph was lying upon. I also saw some letters that reminded me of what people would write in a high school yearbook. On the table was a white, studded, vase that had a single long stem red rose in it. That is all of the dream that I can remember.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;About a month after having this dream I went on leave from Fort Carson, Colorado to Tampa, Florida. While on my way to Tampa I had the feeling that something was going to happen. I was going to meet the woman that I would marry or maybe even get married. While in Tampa I asked a few girls for dates and they all declined. My sister felt sorry for me and fixed me up with a girl that she knew from her work. When Cathy told me that Shirley had red hair I told Cathy about my dream. Cathy said, "Wouldn't it be funny if you married her?" Well, a few months later I did marry Shirley and it wasn't funny at all!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I married Shirley in June of 1979 in the LDS chapel in Tampa. I spent a few days with her in Florida and then brought her back with me to Colorado Springs, Colorado. While unpacking her things I found a white, studded vase just like the one in my dream! I asked Shirley where she got the vase and she told me that her flowers that I sent to her when I proposed to her came in that vase! The thing is, when I bought the flowers (long stem red roses) I paid for a &lt;strong&gt;box&lt;/strong&gt;, not a &lt;strong&gt;vase&lt;/strong&gt;! The florist that delivered her flowers knew the family and gave me a free upgrade!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I was married to Shirley for almost 11 years but eventually divorced her due to incompatability. We fought way too much! What I &lt;strong&gt;still&lt;/strong&gt; can't figure out is this, if Shirley is the one whom God wwanted me to marry why didn't the marriage work out in the long run? I asked for a wife and I got a wife. Now, when I pray for the perfect wife I don't even get a girlfriend! I have had &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;ONE DATE &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;in the past 11 years! I have spent four fifths of my life single! I'm still clueless about what is going on with the wife situation!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;real&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; comment about this would be appreciated. Spam will just be deleted!&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>When Was Jesus Really Born?</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2010/12/when-was-jesus-really-born.html</link><category>Christmas</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 19 Dec 2010 18:39:00 -0500</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-4645856712395976066</guid><description>Most Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25, which is near the Winter Solstace. The Mormon church beleives that Jesus was born in April and I have heard some other people say March. Even so, most Mormons celebrate Christmas in December and also follow most other Christian traditions. I also celebrate Christmas in December, but don't know when Jesus was really born. I'm inclined to go with March because that is what most Bible scholars beleive.</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Privacy Policy</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2009/04/privacy-policy.html</link><category>Privacy Policy</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:15:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-8278516136327649569</guid><description>Any comments posted to this blog are available for the whole world to see. Do &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; put anything in a comment that you don't want the world to know. I will probably never contact you directly if you do post a comment but I reserve the right to do so if I wish to.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Third party advertisers&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our site. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits in order to provide advertisements to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html"&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt;.</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Silly Christmas Songs</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/12/silly-christmas-songs.html</link><category>Christmas Songs</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:08:00 -0500</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-3400906321505720449</guid><description>Christmas is about a week from today. I thought that I would post the lyrics to some silly Christmas songs that I learned as a kid. You should already know the melodies but you may not have heard these lyrics before.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;First we have Randolph the Bowlegged Cowboy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Randolph the bowlegged Cowboy had a very shiny gun&lt;br /&gt;and if you ever saw it you would turn around and run.&lt;br /&gt;All of the other cowboys used to laugh and call him names.&lt;br /&gt;They never let poor Randolph join in any poker games.&lt;br /&gt;Then one foggy Christmas eve Sheriff came to say&lt;br /&gt;Randolph with your gun so bright, won't you shoot my wife tonight?&lt;br /&gt;Then how the cowboys loved it as they shouted out with glee&lt;br /&gt;Randolf the bowlegged cowboy, you'll go down in the penitentiary!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We Three Kings of Orient Are&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We three kings of orient are&lt;br /&gt;trying to smoke a rubber cigar.&lt;br /&gt;It was loaded and exploded.&lt;br /&gt;Now we're on yonder star.&lt;br /&gt;Oh star of wonder star of light&lt;br /&gt;hope you see a ghost tonight.&lt;br /&gt;It will haunt you and it will scare you&lt;br /&gt;all the days of your life.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hark the Herald Angels Shout&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hark the herald angels shout&lt;br /&gt;three more days 'till we get out.&lt;br /&gt;Three more days of misery&lt;br /&gt;in this penitentiary.&lt;br /&gt;So grab your balls and grab you chains&lt;br /&gt;run for the nearest trains.&lt;br /&gt;Hark the herald angels shout&lt;br /&gt;three more days 'till we get out.</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Are You Going to Heaven?</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/09/are-you-going-to-heaven.html</link><category>Heaven and Hell</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 9 Sep 2007 16:05:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-6002180816176350312</guid><description>Yesterday I watched a movie called Bridge To Terabithia. There was a scene in the movie where a girl named Leslie Burke goes to church with here neighbors. On the way back they have a discussion about Jesus and the Bible. Jess and his sister are telling Leslie that if they don't believe the Bible they will go to Hell. Leslie doubts this, but likes the story about Jesus' sacrifice anyway. Later in the story Leslie dies and there is some concern about here going to Hell because she didn't believe the Bible.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As I stated in a previous post, I believe that there is more than one heaven and there may be more than one hell. I do &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; believe that God will send someone to eternal torment because he or she doubted the Bible or joined the wrong religion. I believe that a just and merciful god would never do that! I do believe that getting into the highest heaven does require faith in all of the scriptures and obedience to all of God's commandments. Those who are lacking a little in faith and righteousness will go to a heaven, just not the best one. I believe that it is as hard to get into Hell as it is to get into the Celestial Kingdom. One has to work at both! Total rebellion against God may get you into Hell. Mass murder may do it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The LDS church teaches that there are 5 steps to repentance and one of them is restitution. You must return or pay for what you stole or damaged. In the case of murder, you normally cannot bring someone back to life. So, the only way to make restitution is to forfeit you own life. In our Doctrine and Covenants it states that murderers must be destroyed in the flesh and then delivered unto Satan for buffeting. So, murderers do go to Hell, but after they have paid for their sins they get out and go to the lowest heaven.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Even if a man lived to be 120 years old, that is only a few hours of God's time. What sin could a man commit that would be terrible enough to deserve torment that lasts for millions of years? I can agree with some punishment for sins that are not repented of prior to letting someone into Heaven, but I am having a real problem with the idea of eternal torment!</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Mark Twain and Brigham Young</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/09/mark-twain-and-brigham-young.html</link><category>Plural Marriage</category><category>Polygamy</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 9 Sep 2007 15:58:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-4207017113962614927</guid><description>There is a story, supposedly true, about Mark Twain and Brigham Young. They were having a debate about plural marriage. Mark Twain was trying to prove from the Bible that a man should have only one wife at a time and Brigham Young was trying to prove from the Bible that it was OK to have two or more wives at the same time. At some point Mark Twain realized that he was losing the debate, so in desperation he quoted Matthew 6:24 "No man can serve two masters...".&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I don't know if this story is really true, but it definitely could be!</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Vampires and Demons</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/08/vampires-and-demons.html</link><category>Vampires and Demons</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:06:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-9129482190450234745</guid><description>As mentioned in a previous post I like watching old episodes of both &lt;em&gt;Angel&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Buffy the Vampire Slayer.&lt;/em&gt; I find them both entertaining but disagree with the theology of the writers. According to the writers of these two shows vampires are demons that take over a human body. They have the memories of the former owners of the bodies, but no souls. The souls get lost somewhere. Angel is a vampire who was cursed by gypsies for killing one of them. His curse is that he does have a soul and remembers everyone that he killed while he was an evil vampire. Because he feels guilty about his evil life he tries to make up for this by helping humans and killing demons and other vampires. Part of his curse is that if he ever has a moment of true happiness he will lose his soul and become evil again. In the two shows Angel lost his soul twice and got it back twice. Vampires are supposed to be immortal but they can be killed by a wooden stake through the heart, decapitation, drinking holy water, and exposure to direct sun light. They can also be killed by fire.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What I disagree with is that a soul is not something that you have but something that you are! In Genesis Chapter 2, verse 7 It states, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Adam didn't &lt;strong&gt;have&lt;/strong&gt; a soul, he &lt;strong&gt;became&lt;/strong&gt; a soul after God put the breath of life into him! A living soul is a spirit housed in a mortal body and an immortal soul is a spirit housed in a resurrected body. All of the other definitions of souls that I have been given are totally wrong!</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Update On Big Brother 8</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/08/update-on-big-brother-8.html</link><category>Gays On TV</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:57:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-4400150163610044436</guid><description>On Thursday, August 16, 2007 I turned on Big Brother 8 and got a pleasant surprise when Dustin was nominated for eviction. I was quite pleased when he was finally evicted from the Big Brother house. Dustin is one of two homosexuals that got into the house this season. Now that both queers are gone I can watch the show without my stomach turning! They &lt;strong&gt;both&lt;/strong&gt; disgusted me with the things that they said and did on that show! Unfortunately, they both will be back for the final episode when they vote for a winner.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have never applied to be on Big Brother and doubt that I ever will. I would like to, but being couped up in that house with a queer could be more than I can handle. If so, he would most likely be the first person that I would try to get evicted. For the record, I &lt;strong&gt;don't&lt;/strong&gt; hate homosexuals but I find much of their behavior disgusting. I still believe that homosexuality is a sin and will never change my mind on that!</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Lesbians In My Favorite TV Shows</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/08/lesbians-in-my-favorite-tv-shows.html</link><category>Gays On TV</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sat, 11 Aug 2007 20:55:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-3678613265855326506</guid><description>I have a membership with blockbuster online. I have been watching old episodes of the TV shows &lt;em&gt;Angel&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Buffy the Vampire Slayer&lt;/em&gt;. I have enjoyed watching both shows but I do have a problem with some of the "theology" the writers have and the evolution of the character Willow Rosenberg. Willow starts out as a normal Jewish girl who has a crush on her best friend Alexander Harris. I think that it was in Season Two of Buffy that she met Oz and fell in love with him. Oz turns out to be a werewolf, but Willow stays with him anyway. In Season 4 of Buffy Oz kills a female werewolf to save Willow and that freaks him out a little. He ends up leaving Willow. She is heart broken and eventually meets Tara. By the end of Season 4 Willow is in a lesbian relationship with Tara. It is &lt;strong&gt;very&lt;/strong&gt; unusual for a girl to change sexual orientation in her twenties and it was &lt;strong&gt;totally unnecessary&lt;/strong&gt; for the character to make the switch! In the first 4 seasons of Buffy she is an only child. Sometime during Season 5 she gets a younger sister named Dawn. By Season 6 Dawn is 15 years old and thinks that it is OK for two lesbians to be living in the same house with her! Buffy exposes her younger sister to this sexual perversion as if there is nothing wrong with it and has it going on in her own house! I strongly object to that! It was &lt;strong&gt;totally unnecessary&lt;/strong&gt; for the writers to put this &lt;em&gt;garbage&lt;/em&gt; into the show!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They also had Willow make the switch from being Jewish to being a witch. She ends up being a good witch who helps people with her magic, but she has gotten into trouble using magic for selfish purposes. At least the writers put into the show that using magic has consequences that are sometimes hard to predict.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In both shows there is more than one Hell and more than one Heaven. Demons come from several different hell dimensions and have physical bodies. There are several different species of demons and &lt;strong&gt;some&lt;/strong&gt; of them are good. I believe that there is more than one Heaven and I have no clue how many hell dimensions exist. I believe that there is only one kind of demon and those are the rebellious angels that got kicked out of Heaven. I agree with the writers that demons were on the earth long before mankind was. For some reason that I don't fully understand God allowed those fallen angels to come to Earth and to tempt mankind starting with Adam and Eve. Those demons still roam the Earth causing problems for us and they &lt;strong&gt;cannot&lt;/strong&gt; be killed by a vampire slayer!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Even though I don't agree with some of what goes on in these shows, I like watching them.</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>More On Big Brother 8</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/07/more-on-big-brother-8.html</link><category>Big Brother</category><category>Gays On TV</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 22 Jul 2007 21:10:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-216217997972615588</guid><description>Last Thursday I missed Big Brother 8 because I was having a problem with my cable provider and could not get the channel that it was on. When I turned  it on today I was pleasantly surprised to find that Danielle was taken off the block and was replaced by Joe. Joe was voted out 9 to 1. I am glad that Joe is gone because I like Danielle and want her to stay for a long time on the show. Also, Joe is gay and I wanted him gone because of that. Let me state for the recored that I do &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; hate gays. However, I am &lt;em&gt;quite tired&lt;/em&gt; of seeing them on TV and find the flaming ones quite disgusting! Dustin and Joe both do things that get under my skin and I am very glad that one of them is gone. They caused a lot of drama in the beginning and now that will be over with one of them gone. I am also glad that Dick, aka Evil, gets to spend more time with his daughter, Danielle. I hope that by the time that one of them leaves the house that they have worked out all of their problems.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are a couple of supposedly straight guys in the house that have made comments that suggest that they may swing both ways. So, I hope that Dustin, who is definitely gay, and Nick, who may be bi, both get voted out soon.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If I ever go into the Big Brother house I am not sure how long I would last. If they put me in the house with a gay guy he would be the first one I would target unless someone else got on my nerves even more.</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Are Ghosts and Magic Real?</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/07/are-ghosts-and-magic-real.html</link><category>Ghosts</category><category>Magic</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 22 Jul 2007 16:36:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-5707082599664227334</guid><description>Are Ghosts and Magic Real? I believe that the answer to both questions is yes. Let me tell you why. I have cable TV where I live and I get both A &amp; E and the Sci Fi channel. On A &amp;amp; E is a show called &lt;em&gt;Chris Angel, Mindfreak&lt;/em&gt;. I understand that a good illusionist or magician does &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; reveal how he does his tricks. Even so, Chris blurs the line between illusion and reality. It is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. I have seen Chris walk through solid glass without breaking it, levitate, make other people and objects levitate, walk on water, and other strange things that I cannot explain. Chris &lt;em&gt;insists&lt;/em&gt; that he is &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; using camera tricks or CGI to do his illusions and that what we see is what we get. He insists that he can really defy gravity by walking up and down a wall or crawling down the outside of a building without wires or a harness. He doesn't even use any kind of safety net or air bag in case he falls. I have also seen him dematerialize and teleport and move solid objects into and out of a painting. I do &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; believe that he is doing these things by the power of the Devil! However, some of his magic does seem to be real! This is why I believe that &lt;em&gt;some&lt;/em&gt; magic is real.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I also believe that &lt;strong&gt;some&lt;/strong&gt; faith healings are real because I have done them. I have given blessings to people who were sick or had some other physical problem and most of them got better faster than I would normally expect. I am well aware of the placebo effect but I doubt that this explains all cases of faith healing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The reason that I believe that ghosts are real is because of stories that I have heard and read plus what I have seen on a TV show called &lt;em&gt;Ghost Hunters&lt;/em&gt; on the Sci Fi Channel. These ghost hunters use all kinds of electronic equipment to get solid evidence of paranormal activity. They use night vision and infra red cameras to see in the dark, they use meters that measure the amount of electro magnetic energy in an area, and they use digital voice recorders to catch voices that the human ear may miss. They have captured with these devices voices that didn't come from a living human being. Sometimes they can tell if the voices are male or female and sometimes they can make out what the voices are trying to say. They call this EVP or Electronic Voice Phenomena. I have seen captured on film solid objects moving by themselves and I have seen a couple cases where people got knocked down by some unseen force. So, either ghosts are knocking these people down and moving these objects or we have an alien using some kind of cloaking device. I am more inclined to believe in the ghosts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Believe what you want, but if you watch several episodes of both &lt;em&gt;Ghost Hunters&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Chris Angel, Mindfreak,&lt;/em&gt; you might be convinced that ghosts and magic are real too!</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Big Brother 8</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/07/big-brother-8.html</link><category>Big Brother</category><category>Gays On TV</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 8 Jul 2007 21:30:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-8058568836511695048</guid><description>I have watched the first two episodes of Big Brother 8. Normally, I like watching the show. However, I have gotten tired of seeing queers and weirdos on TV! This season, they have a weirdo named Dick. His nickname is Evil. He is in bad need of a hair cut and he has an ear ring in each ear and in his left eye brow. He has tattoos all over both of his arms. In the house with him is his daughter, Danielle. She is a hot looking blond who is just under 21. Danielle seems like a nice normal girl. However, she hasn't spoken to her dad in the two years prior to going on this show. She can't remember why she doesn't like her dad. I do hope that Dick and Danielle work out their problems because I do know what it is like to have a daughter that will not speak to me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Dick I can deal with. The two people that I want off the show &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;NOW&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; are Dustin and Joe. They are both gay and one has accused the other of giving him gonorrhea, on national TV! I stated before that I am tired of seeing queers on TV and I meant it! I plan to stop watching Big Brother 8 until they get &lt;strong&gt;both&lt;/strong&gt; of these queers off the show. That is unfortunate because there are some really pretty girls in the house right now and I would enjoy watching them. However, the bickering between the two queers is just getting on my nerves and they just plain disgust me!</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>The Devil Made Me Do It!</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/07/devil-made-me-do-it.html</link><category>Accepting Responsibility</category><category>The Devil</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 1 Jul 2007 16:06:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-7175620554446514199</guid><description>A long time ago there were people who would say, "The Devil made me do it!" whenever they got caught doing something that was wrong. I have believed for many years that the Devil got &lt;strong&gt;far too much&lt;/strong&gt; credit for what happens here on Earth. The Devil may tempt people, but he can't make them do anything that they don't want to do! To illustrate my point I will give you an extreme example. Let's say that I point a loaded gun to your head and tell you that if you don't do exactly what I tell you to do, when I tell you to do it I will pull the trigger and blow your brains out. Even then I cannot make you do anything. You can still refuse and let me kill you. However, most people will do what they are told because they don't want to die.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many years ago I knew some people who were Jesus freaks. They knew the Bible but not much else! And, their understandings of the Bible was quite flawed! Anyway, they would explain anything that looked supernatural as being done by the power of the Devil. They condemned things like hypnosis and Reiki healing as being evil. They would condemn anything that they didn't understand as being done by the power of the Devil! I think that this is utter nonsense! What these ignoramuses failed to understand is that we have supernatural powers because we are the children of God. We are literally the spirit children of God and not just his favorite pets. As His children we have inherited several abilities that seem supernatural. Mind over matter is &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; done by the power of the Devil as one minister claimed and therefore is &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; evil. Our spirits have amazing abilities that most of us simply don't know how to use. For those who do know how to use these abilities they can control matter.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All physicists know that matter and energy are the same things. All matter is made up of very tiny particles that are bound together by energy fields. When the energy fields at the nucleus of an atom are broken the result is a very powerful explosion. Our thoughts are also energy and can be measured with an EEG. It doesn't take supernatural power to get the energy of our thoughts to control the energy that makes up matter. It just takes a firm belief in a very powerful mind.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One last thing has to do with responsibility. Our laws state that insane people are not responsible for the crimes that they commit because they don't know right from wrong. The same applies to very small children. Maybe, but most of us are responsible for the choices that we make and should accept responsibility for our actions whenever we get caught doing something that is wrong. Take charge of your own lives and accept the consequences of your actions! Quit blaming things on the Devil!</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>PECANS IN THE CEMETERY</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/07/pecans-in-cemetery.html</link><category>Religious Joke</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sun, 1 Jul 2007 16:01:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-2861377994156015429</guid><description>Here is a funny story that my son sent to me. I think that you will like it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began&lt;br /&gt;dividing the nuts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me," said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down to ward the fence.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, "One for you,&lt;br /&gt;one for me. One for you, one for me."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He just knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Come here quick," said the boy, "you won't believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The man said, "Beat it kid, can't you see it's hard for me to walk." When the boy insisted though, the man hobbled slowly to the cemetery.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Standing by the fence they heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The old man whispered, "Boy, you've been telling me the truth. Let's see if we can see the Lord."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At last they heard, "One for you, one for me. That's all. Now let's go get those nuts by the fence and we'll be done."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They say the old man made it back to town a full 5 minutes ahead of the kid on the bike.</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Why Do They Call Her "The Virgin Mary"?</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/06/why-do-they-call-her-virgin-mary.html</link><category>Mary</category><category>the Mother of Jesus</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Mon, 18 Jun 2007 20:29:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-9015997403010423663</guid><description>The original meaning of "virgin" was a young woman who had never been married. At age 14 Mary fit this definition of "virgin". Many Bible scholars believe that Mary had Jesus at age 15. Although the Bible is silent on how many children Mary and Joseph had, we do know that Jesus had brothers and sisters. Mark 6:3 reads, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?" (KJV) I have a book in my personal library that is all about James the Just, the brother of Jesus. I have yet to actually read the book, though. The fact that someone could write an entire book about James would suggest that there are other sources of information about him outside of the Bible.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are two possibilities about these brothers and sisters of Jesus. One is that Joseph had a wife prior to Mary and that these are the children from his first marriage. However, the Bible is silent about this and it is easy to assume that Mary was the only wife of Joseph. There is no mention of any children traveling with Mary and Joseph when they made their famous trip to Bethlehem. So, the more reasonable conclusion is that Mary had some children after Jesus. That being the case, she is no longer a virgin! She had sex with Joseph in order to have these other children! Stop calling her a virgin when she obviously is not! I mean, even if all of these brothers and sisters all came from Joseph's prior wife, it is quite asinine to believe that Mary never had sex with Joseph even once after Jesus was born! I don't care how old Joseph was when he married Mary. There is &lt;strong&gt;no way&lt;/strong&gt; he is going to pass up the chance to have sex with a teenage hottie! I am not being vulgar here, just honest. I am quite sick and tired of people calling a 2,000 year old woman who had children after Jesus a virgin! Get real folks and stop calling her a virgin!</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Here Is a Story About Friendship</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/05/here-is-story-about-friendship.html</link><category>Friendship</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Tue, 22 May 2007 16:12:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-722839529469053423</guid><description>Here is a story about friendship and how it helped one boy. I think that you will enjoy this story.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class walking home from school.  His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books.  I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday?  He must really be a nerd."  I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.  As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him.  They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt.  His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him.  He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes. My heart went out to him. I jogged over to him and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eyes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As I handed him his glasses, I said, "Those guys are jerks."  They really should get lives.  "He looked at me and said, "Hey thanks!"  There was a big smile on his face.  It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.  I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived.  As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to private school before now.  I would have never hung out with a private school kid before.  We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books.  He turned out to be a cool kid.  I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends, he said yes.  We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him.  Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again.  I stopped him and said, "Boy, you are going to really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!  "He just laughed and handed me half the books.  Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends.  When we were seniors, we began to think about college.  Kyle decided on Georgetown , and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem.  He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business on a football scholarship.  Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation.  I was so glad it was not me having to get up there and speak.  Graduation day, I saw Kyle.  He looked great.  He was one of those guys that really found him self during high school.  He filled out and actually looked good in glasses.  He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him. Boy, sometimes I was jealous.  Today was one of those days.  I could see that he was nervous about his speech.  I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be great!"  He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled.  "Thanks," he said.  As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began "Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years.  You thank your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your friends.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them.  I am going to tell you a story."  I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met.  He had planned to kill himself over the weekend.  He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom would not have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home.&lt;br /&gt;He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile.  "Thankfully, I was saved.  My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable."  I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment.  I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize its depth.  Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture, you can change a person's life, for better or for worse.  God puts us all in each others lives to impact one another in some way.  Look for God in others.  "Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly."  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Yesterday is history.&lt;br /&gt;Tomorrow is mystery.&lt;br /&gt;Today is a gift.</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>The Greatest Scam Continued</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/04/greatest-scam-continued.html</link><category>Religion As A Scam</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sat, 14 Apr 2007 16:25:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-3741078819084996848</guid><description>As I mentioned in a previous post, telling people that you are a god or a messenger of a god is a great scam! I cannot think of an easier way to get people to do what you tell them to do than to put the fear of a god into them! Starting your own religion is also a great scam. Most religions &lt;strong&gt;don't&lt;/strong&gt; pay any federal income taxes! I'm not sure about state income taxes, but I believe the same to be true there too. A preacher can take a modest salary that he or she pays taxes on and live in a luxurious house that is owned by the church tax free. He or she can drive a car that is owned by the church and have several other benefits that are paid for by the church and &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; have to pay taxes on &lt;em&gt;any&lt;/em&gt; of these!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now, lets take a different look at starting your own religion. How many churches tell their members that &lt;strong&gt;they&lt;/strong&gt; are the &lt;strong&gt;only ones&lt;/strong&gt; going to Heaven and all of the rest are going to Hell? Quite a few! In fact, it seems that &lt;strong&gt;most&lt;/strong&gt; do this! I heard on TV that the Amish tell their members that if they ever leave the Amish faith that they will not only be shunned by their communities but will go to Hell too! What a scam! There is nothing like the fear of going to Hell to keep people in line!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have to ask this question. If God is a loving Father who created all of the spirits of all humans, and He loves all of us equally, why would He send the majority of his children to a place of eternal torment and horror? I &lt;em&gt;cannot&lt;/em&gt; think of &lt;strong&gt;anything&lt;/strong&gt; that I could do that would be so awful that I would deserve to go to a place of great anguish and torture for millions of years with no possibility for escape! Joining the wrong religion certainly does &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; merit such punishment! Failing to get baptized does &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; merit this kind of punishment! Nothing short of genocide would!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In short, I believe that &lt;strong&gt;most&lt;/strong&gt; religions are a scam! I do believe that &lt;em&gt;some&lt;/em&gt; religions started off as sincere efforts to get closer to God, but then the preachers got greedy and turned these religions into great scams. So, if you are shopping for a religion to join, let the buyer beware!</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>Notice To CBS</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/04/notice-to-cbs.html</link><category>Gays On TV</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Mon, 9 Apr 2007 20:17:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-9158310430879072044</guid><description>I have no idea how many people read this blog and seriously doubt that anyone from CBS ever will! Even so, this is my public notice to them. As a healthy, normal male I do &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; like seeing gays and weirdos on TV! I like watching The Amazing Race, Big Brother and Survivor, but I &lt;strong&gt;don't&lt;/strong&gt; like some of the contestants that they have had on these shows! Richard Hatch is gay and has been on Survivor twice. There have been one or two other gay guys and I believe one lesbian on Survivor. There has also been this weirdo named Jessica, AKA Flicka, that had tattoos and piercings all over her body! I &lt;strong&gt;don't&lt;/strong&gt; want to look at someone like her in a bikini! Big Brother has had Marcellus on twice, Bunky and a gay guy named Will. I &lt;strong&gt;don't&lt;/strong&gt; want to see these queers on TV either! Big Brother has had a weirdo named Jennifer, AKA Nakomis on twice. I &lt;strong&gt;don't&lt;/strong&gt; want to look at her ugly face and body either! Recently, on The Amazing Race All Stars there was Team Guido and they were a gay couple. This is their second appearance on The Amazing Race. They have had a lesbian and a supposedly straight team that acts gay. I get &lt;strong&gt;disgusted&lt;/strong&gt; when I see people acting gay on TV!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Maybe CBS is worried that they will get sued if they don't put some gays and weirdos on TV. However, they risk losing normal people like I am if they do! This is my official notice that I plan to &lt;strong&gt;stop&lt;/strong&gt; watching The Amazing Race, Big Brother and Survivor if they continue to put queers and weirdos on these shows!</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>The Greatest Scam Of All Time</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/03/greatest-scam-of-all-time.html</link><category>Religion As A Scam</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:11:00 -0400</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-6408006383951601840</guid><description>I once had a friend who stated that starting a religion was the greatest scam ever. I am somewhat inclined to agree with him. Think about it, what better way to get people to do what you want them to do or to give you what you want than to tell them that you are either a god or a messenger from a god? Somewhere in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&amp;C) is a verse where the Lord is speaking and he says that whether it comes form God's mouth or from his servants the prophets it is the same. Wow! Disobeying the prophet is the same as disobeying God! All the prophet has to do is to threaten you with God's wrath, which could include eternal damnation, and you will do almost anything that he says! Who wants to have a god angry with him? Obviously, disobeying the true prophet of the true God would have some consequences which &lt;strong&gt;could&lt;/strong&gt; be serious, but how do you tell the true prophets from the false ones?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have met some Christians who claim that prophecy and revelations ceased when the last apostle died almost 2000 years ago. I &lt;strong&gt;don't&lt;/strong&gt; believe that! I don't believe that Mohamed was a prophet either! There is &lt;em&gt;no doubt&lt;/em&gt; in my mind that parts of the Bible are missing and that the Roman Catholic church went astray over a thousand years ago! It only makes sense that a true prophet would be needed to restore the true church to the Earth. The only question is this one, is Joseph Smith the true prophet of the restoration as the Mormons believe or are we still waiting for the true prophet and restoration? The majority of evidence available to me indicates that Joseph Smith was a flawed man, but still could have been a true prophet. I believe that the restoration has taken place and that is why we have an explosion of new knowledge and technology taking place now. I believe that this explosion started around 1830 when the LDS church was officially organized and will continue until the Second Coming of Jesus the Christ.</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item><item><title>What is Heaven?</title><link>http://msreligion.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-is-heaven.html</link><category>Heaven. Afterlife</category><author>noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)</author><pubDate>Sat, 3 Feb 2007 18:28:00 -0500</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13762305.post-2893992712844711597</guid><description>This post continues the theme of "Where did we come from?" and adds a new question, Where are we going from here? Back in the 1970's Erich von Däniken wrote a book called &lt;em&gt;Chariots of the Gods&lt;/em&gt;. In that book, and others like it, he proposed that the gods and angels of ancient literature, to included the old Testament, were astronauts from another planet or dimension. He stated that the flaming chariots were space ships and other conveyances described in ancient literature could have been helicopters or jet planes. He then set forth his evidence to back up these claims. I read these books when they first came out and wondered if he was not onto something. To this day I still can't help wondering if some advanced alien race came to Earth and found primates that resembled them. They then monkeyed around with the DNA of these primates and produced the first human beings. The Book of Genesis states that Eve was made from one of Adam's ribs. I believe that Eve was a female clone of Adam and basically had the same DNA as Adam and thus resembled him greatly. Adam couldn't help finding her attractive because she was nearly identical to him in appearance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Book of Genesis states that the sons of God found the daughters of men desirable and mated with them. The LDS church believes that fallen priesthood members mated with non believers and that is what that verse refers to. Some scholars believe that the sons of God were fallen angels or ancient astronauts. The fallen angels do not have physical bodies and therefore cannot mate with those of us who do. That is part of their curse for rebellion. Ancient astronauts, on the other hand, do have physical bodies and thus can mate with humans. The question them becomes one of whether or not the two kinds of DNA are compatible and thus can produce offspring.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The above addressed where we may have come from. Now I want to address where we are going from here. Most people that I talk to want to go to Heaven. It is supposed to be a place of peace and happiness where there is no disease, crime, war, poverty or anything else that could make us unhappy. I cannot help wondering if this Heaven is nothing more than the home planet for an ancient and highly advanced race that visited the Earth thousands of years ago. What will happen when we finally get there? The Bible makes it clear that some people in Heaven will be honored guests at a wedding feast while others will be servants. Others still will be shut out all together! Jesus mentioned that the first will be last and the last will be first. Those who serve well in this life will be the ones getting served in the next. My fear about this is a little on the scary side for me. What if &lt;em&gt;everybody&lt;/em&gt; who makes it to Heaven ends up a slave to the master race that lives there? True, we will live forever in physically healthy bodies that don't need to eat or sleep and never get sick. That means that we never need any time off from work! There will be no physical handicaps or disabilities so the entire work force will be able bodied. Some people won't mind being slaves to the master race because their working and living conditions will be better than anything that they knew here on Earth. Even so, I cannot help but wondering if there won't be another rebellion when this home planet is over run with millions of humans.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Bible tells us that this Earth will be transformed into a sea of glass and then it will be inhabited by those people who have earned the right to live in the Celestial Kingdom. So, this Heaven that we are all trying to get to is right here on Earth. Those who have earned a lesser degree of glory will not end up here on Earth but somewhere else where they will be servants to those who have earned the Celestial Kingdom. The Doctrine and Covenants of the LDS church explain each of the three degrees of glory in detail. The lowest of these kingdoms is called the Tellestial Kingdom and it is supposed to be so beautiful that you would kill yourself to get there if you saw it in a vision. The middle kingdom is called the Terrestrial Kingdom and it is better than the Tellestial Kingdom, but not as good as the Celestial Kingdom. The best is the Celestial Kingdom. Within the Celestial Kingdom are three degrees of glory, but it appears that only the highest one has a name and it is called exaltation. You can be "saved" without being exalted.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I. personally, am striving to get into the Celestial Kingdom and then go on to exaltation because I want to be an honored guest and ruler in Heaven and not a servant, or worse, a slave. If you want to know how to become exalted in the Celestial Kingdom talk to a person who is an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon).</description><thr:total xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0">0</thr:total></item></channel></rss>