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Posts Tagged Last Days

This, the Greatest of All Dispensations – Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Jan 4

Posted by mbrinson in Gospel | No Comments

We should watch for the signs, we should live as faithfully as we possibly can, and we should share the gospel with everyone so that blessings and protections will be available to all. But we must not be paralyzed just because that event and the events surrounding it are ahead of us somewhere. We cannot stop living life. Indeed, we should live life more fully than we have ever lived it. After all, this is the dispensation of the fulness of times.

… 

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—that is the first principle of the gospel. We must go forward. God expects you to have enough faith, determination, and trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. He expects you not simply to face the future; He expects you to embrace and shape the future—to love it, rejoice in it, and delight in your opportunities.

God is eagerly waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can’t if you don’t pray, and He can’t if you don’t dream. In short, He can’t if you don’t believe.

… 

The other verse I refer to is from the Savior, spoken to His disciples as He faced His Crucifixion and as they faced fear, disarray, and persecution. In His last collective counsel to them in mortality, He said: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

So, in a world of tribulation, let’s remember our faith. Let’s recall the other promises and prophecies that have been given, all the reassuring ones, and let’s live life more fully, with more boldness and courage than at any other time.

Christ has overcome the world and made a path for us. He has said to us in our day: “Gird up your loins and be prepared. Behold, the kingdom is yours, and the enemy shall not overcome” (D&C 38:9).

… 

Lastly, let me share this from President Gordon B. Hinckley, our modern prophet, who currently guides us through the challenging times of our present hour: “We of this generation are the end harvest of all that has gone before. It is not enough to simply be known as a member of this Church. A solemn obligation rests upon us. Let us face it and work at it.

“We must live as true followers of the Christ, with charity toward all, returning good for evil, teaching by example the ways of the Lord, and accomplishing the vast service He has outlined for us.

“May we live worthy of the glorious endowment of light and understanding and eternal truth which has come to us through all the perils of the past. Somehow, among all who have walked the earth, we have been brought forth in this unique and remarkable season. Be grateful, and above all be faithful.”3  

…

Over a representative period of time, our prophets have focused not on the terror of the times in which they lived and not on the ominous elements of the latter days, in which we are living, but they felt to speak of the opportunity and the blessing and, above all, the responsibility to seize the privileges afforded us in this, the greatest of all dispensations. I love the line from the Prophet Joseph Smith saying that earlier prophets, priests, and kings “have looked forward with joyful anticipation to the day in which we live; and … have sung and written and prophesied of this our day.” What were they so joyful about? I can assure you they weren’t concentrating on terror and tragedy. President Woodruff’s words were: “The eyes of God and all the holy prophets are watching us. This is the great dispensation that has been spoken of ever since the world began.” Let me repeat President Hinckley’s words: “Through all the perils of the past, [s]omehow, among all who have walked the earth, we have been brought forth in this unique and remarkable season. Be grateful, and above all be faithful.”

I don’t know how all of that makes you feel, but suddenly any undue anxiety about the times in which we live dissipates for me, and I am humbled, spiritually thrilled, and
motivated at the opportunity we have been given. God is watching over His world, His Church, His leaders, and He is certainly watching over you. Let’s just make sure we are the “pure in heart” and that we are faithful. How blessed you will be. How fortunate your children and grandchildren will be.

…

Let me add another element to this view of the dispensation. Because ours is the last and greatest of all dispensations, because all things will eventually culminate and be fulfilled in our era, there is, therefore, one specific responsibility that falls to those of us in the Church now that did not rest quite the same way on Church members in any earlier time. We have a responsibility to prepare the Church of the Lamb of God to receive the Lamb of God—in person, in triumphant glory, in His millennial role as Lord of lords and King of kings.

We have the responsibility as a Church and as individual members of that Church to be worthy to have Christ come to us, to be worthy to have Him greet us, and to have Him accept, receive, and embrace us. The lives we present to Him in that sacred hour must be worthy of Him!

In the language of the scriptures we are the ones designated in all of history who must prepare the bride (the Church) for the Bridegroom (the Savior) and be worthy of an invitation to the wedding feast (see Matthew 22:2–14; 25:1–12; D&C 88:92, 96).

So, setting aside fear of the future, I am filled with an overwhelming sense of duty to prepare my life (and to the extent that I can to help prepare the lives of the members of the Church) for that long-prophesied day, for the time when we will make a presentation of the Church to Him whose Church it is.

I do not know when this singular day will come. I do not know who will be present to see it. But this I do know: when Christ comes, the members of His Church must be looking and acting like members of His Church are supposed to look and act if we are to be acceptable to Him. We must be doing His work, and we must be living His teachings. He must recognize us quickly and easily as truly being His disciples.

 
 

Pasted from <http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=86bde5e18be63110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1>

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Lost tribes – The north countries

Oct 19

Posted by mbrinson in Companion Study, Last Days | No Comments

These revelations will, doubtless, be among the records which the tribes are to bring forth in the latter-days, and which are to be united with the Bible and the Book of Mormon, showing the dealings of God among these three separate sections of the house of Israel, bringing to pass the sayings of the prophets of old, and aiding in the consummation of the great work of the latter-days. Thus, while the gathering of scattered Israel is being partly fulfiled in the bringing in of people who are of the blood of Israel from the various nations where it was scattered, there is yet to come to pass the word of the Lord a portion of which is here cited, and we may confidently look for its fulfilment as literally as that concerning the house of Joseph and their record, and the house of Judah and their record.

We recommend students on this problem of the probable locality of a body of Israelites, descendants of the tribes that escaped from Assyria, and concerning whom great promises have been made, to look at a globe showing the conformation and countries of the earth, about which something is known, or a plan of the earth’s surface, exhibiting both hemispheres, and then, with the understanding that the Ten Tribes, in their journey from Assyria northward, passed through continental Europe away up to the regions of ice on that hemisphere, and they will see the possibility, even the probability, of the existence of a body of people who will yet fulfil to the very letter the predictions of ancient prophets concerning their restoration in the latter-days. This will detract nothing from the views held concerning the great work of gathering of the people who have been mixed among the Gentiles, and whom the Lord is gathering from the east and the west, the north and the south, and giving them an inheritance in Zion.


via ldslastdays.com -> “Something about the last days” – Charles W. Penrose

Amber and I spent a little bit of time looking at google maps and seeing what could be seen of the area Elder Penrose mentions here.  It’s interesting to see just how much of the earth we probably know next to nothing about.  In an age when we can see all of the world (like on google maps) it seems like we must know everything about it all.  That is obviously not the case.  There is so much we don’t know.

Crazy to think that there could actually be people living in ice conditions like that.

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Kingdoms and being translated

Sep 21

Posted by mbrinson in Companion Study, Gospel, Last Days | No Comments

At his coming a great many of the faithful dead will be resurrected and caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And some of the righteous who are then living upon the earth will be changed from mortality to immortality in the twinkling of an eye to join that impressive company in the air. Certainly this is something to look forward to.

At the time of Adam’s fall, a curse was placed upon the earth, and since then it has existed in its fallen or telestial state. For nearly six thousand years it has brought forth thorns, thistles, and noxious weeds, while crime, corruption, war, and sin have flourished upon its face. But at the second coming of Christ, the earth will be cleansed by fire. It will then be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory as it is raised to the status of a terrestrial sphere.

via LDSLastDays.com.

Learned two new things in our companionship study this morning.  Not only will there be the faithful dead who are raised from the dead at the coming of Christ and will be caught up to meet Him in the air, but also some of the righteous who are living will be translated at His coming and will be caught up to meet Him.

Also, hadn’t realized or thought about how the earth will be raised to the status of a terrestrial sphere at the coming of Christ.  Relates a lot to the temple.  The earth starts out in a telestial state of existence, changes or passes through to a terrestrial state at the second coming, and then finally will change to a celestial state at the end of its temporal existence.

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Quote from Harold B. Lee

Sep 10

Posted by Mike in Freedom, Gospel, Last Days, Politics | No Comments

This is a great quote that mom sent a little while ago in an e-mail.


This is a quote from Pres. Harold B. Lee‘s writings, “Ye Are the Light of the World.”   pg. 350.

“Men may fail this country, earthquakes may come, seas may heave beyond their bounds, there may be great drought, disaster, and hardship, but this nation, founded on the principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail.   This is the cradle of humanity, where life on this earth began in the Garden of Eden. This is the place of the New Jerusalem. This is the place that the Lord said is favored above all other nations in the world. This is the place where the Savior will come to his temple. This is the favored land in all the world. Yes, I repeat, men may fail, but this nation won’t fail.
I have faith in America; you and I must have faith in America, if we understand the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are living in a day when we must pay heed to these challenges.   I plead with you not to preach pessimism. Preach that this is the greatest country in all the world. This is the favored land. This is the land of our forefathers. It is the nation that will stand despite whatever trials or crises it may yet have to pass through.”


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Joseph's prophecy on second coming..

Aug 22

Posted by Mike in Gospel, Last Days, Scripture Study | No Comments

I’m sure most of you have read that statement by Joseph Smith that “There are those of the rising generation who shall not taste death till Christ comes.”

I had an interesting thought relating to this statement that I’d never considered before.  Bruce R. McKonkie states “it is not unreasonable to suppose that many young men had babies at the time of this prophecy and also had other children as much as 50 or 75 years later, assuming for instance that they were married again to younger women. This very probable assumption would bring the date up to, say, the 2nd decade in the 20th century — and the children so born would be members of that same rising generation of which the Prophet spoke. Now if these children lived to the normal age of men generally they would be alive well past the year 2000 A.D.” (Mormon Doctrine pp. 692-693)

While that may be true, it doesn’t make sense to me that Joseph would say “there ARE those”  not “there WILL be” seeming to indicate those that were then alive.  Then again, I can see how it can be construed the way Bruce R. McConkie states.  Anyway, the thought that came to me was the possibility that Joseph was saying that there were those of the rising generation who, like the 3 nephites and John the baptist, would have a change wrought upon them because of their faithfulness that would make them “not taste death till Christ comes.”  When you search the scriptures for the phrase “not taste of death” you find that in every case except one it has reference to translated beings.  The one exception is D&C 42:46 which says, “And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them”  which could also be an explanation.

Anyway, just thought it was interesting and thought I would share.

Gmail – Joseph’s prophecy on second coming.. – mbrinson@gmail.com.

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Expectations for youth

Aug 5

Posted by Mike in Gospel, Last Days | No Comments

In 2004, Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Council of the Twelve gave a powerful talk in a CES broadcast in which he spoke to this particular subject:

We share a consuming concern. Night and day we ask ourselves: What can I do better to strengthen the faith of young people? . . .

Our concern is deepened by what we know it will take to be a missionary and a parent in the days ahead. It will take deep conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It will take the companionship of the Holy Ghost. . . . One of the dangers of the times we are passing into is that we might be tempted to lower our expectations for ourselves and for those young people we serve. As the world darkens, even a partial conversion and a few spiritual experiences may seem more and more remarkable, compared to the world. We might be tempted to expect less. . . .

. . . [But] if you expect little, they will feel your lack of faith in them and in the Lord’s promised outpouring of the Spirit. If you communicate, by word or action or even by your tone of voice, that you doubt their spiritual capacity, they will doubt it. If you see in them the potential Joel describes, they will at least have the chance to see it in themselves. Your choices of what you expect will have powerful effect on their choices of what to expect of themselves. [“Raising Expectations,” CES Satellite Training Broadcast, Aug. 4, 2004, 1–2]

via “Let No Man Despise Thy Youth” by president Dhalquist – Young Men Open House, Spring 2006

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Scriptural sources for prophecy – IMPORTANT

Jul 24

Posted by Mike in Gospel, Last Days | No Comments

President Harold B. Lee – October, 1972

There are among us many loose writings predicting the calamities which are about to overtake us. Some of these have been publicized as though they were necessary to wake up the world to the horrors about to overtake us. Many of these are from sources upon which there cannot be unquestioned reliance. Are you priesthood bearers aware of the fact that we need no such publications to be forewarned, if we were only conversant with what the scriptures have already spoken to us in plainness? Let me give you the sure word of prophecy on which you should rely for your guide instead of these strange sources which may have great political implications. Read the 24th chapter of Matthew, particularly that inspired version as contained in the Pearl of Great Price. (JS-M 1.) Then read the 45th section of the Doctrine and Covenants where the Lord, not man, has documented the signs of the times. [D&C 45] Now turn to section 101 and section 133 of the Doctrine and Covenants and hear the step-by-step recounting of events leading up to the coming of the Savior. [D&C 101; D&C 133] Finally, turn to the promises the Lord makes to those who keep the commandments when these judgments descend upon the wicked, as set forth in the Doctrine and Covenants, section 38. [D&C 138] Brethren, these are some of the writings with which you should concern yourselves, rather than commentaries that may come from those whose information may not be the most reliable and whose motives may be subject to question.

via LDSLastDays.com

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Location of Magog, Rosh, Meschech, etc.

Jul 24

Posted by Mike in Gospel, Last Days | No Comments

The Hebrew word for chief is "Rosh". Just as in the English language a word can have multiple meanings, the Hebrew word Rosh has different meanings. One meaning for Rosh is: chief, head, captain. Another meaning of Rosh is the name of a foreign nation.

(The Interlinear Bible, Hebrew Greek and English, Strongs Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary)

The correct translation for these verses is as follows:

2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal:

(Ezekiel 38:2-3)

In the Septuagint (Greek) translation of the Bible, it describes ‘Gog’ as the ‘prince of Rosh.’ Rosh was the name of a tribe living in the area of the Volga. In some languages, Rosh is the word for the country of Russia. The ancient form of the name Russia, is ‘Ros.’ The Chinese had called the Scythians ‘Rosh.’ The King James version translated ‘Rosh’ to mean ‘chief prince’, because in Hebrew it means chief or head; but in the Septuagint version, ‘Rosh’ is used as a proper name, as it should be. The descendants of Meshech (known to the Assyrians as ‘Mushku’), settled in western Russia, where they established a city called Meshech, later known as Mosach, then Moscovi (Muscovy or Moscow), which is the capital of Russia.

Here are the modern nations accompanying these regions:

(The Harper Bible Atlas, p 92-93)

via LDSLastDays.com. 

Ancient Nation

Modern Area

Magog

Russia (Mongols)

Rosh

Russia

Meschech

Moscow

Tubal

Tobolsk (an area in Russia)

Persia

Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan

Gomer

Germany, Eastern Europe

Togarmah

Turkey, Southeastern Europe

 

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Magog location

Jul 24

Posted by Mike in Gospel, Last Days | No Comments

In subsequent verses Ezekiel mentions other nations such as Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer, Togarmah and “many nations with you.” What are the regions Ezekiel has reference to in these verses? Prophecies often refer to latter-day peoples by indicating regions settled by the descendants of Noah. In the third chapter of Genesis, there is a list of the sons of Japheth, who was a son of Noah: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubul, Meshech, and Tiras, who repopulated the Earth after the Flood.Magog’s descendants settled in the area of Armenia, which is in southern Russia. This race came to be known as the Scythians, and were called ‘Magogites’ by the Greeks. The Chinese name for the Caucasus mountains running through Russia mean ‘Fort of Gog’, while the Russians call their peaks, the ‘Gogh.’ The Arabic term for the Great Wall of China is ‘the wall of Al Magog’, because it was erected with the intention of keeping out the armies of Magog. Their descendants include the Tarters, Cossacks, Kalmuks, and the Mongols. The Kesses HaSofer, a Jewish commentary, indicates that the word ‘Mongol’, which identifies the Siberian-Russian people, comes from the word ‘Magog.’

via LDSLastDays.com.

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