Avraham gave me permission to share this as a blog article.

Avraham Gileadi, Religious Studies Center – BYU

Avraham’s Fathers’ Day Sacrament Talk—June 21, 2026

…On the question of there being more than what appears on the outside, I have some bad news. Nephi’s parting words to us whom he saw in vision are hardly flattering: “I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be” (2 Nephi 32:7). In case you’re wondering why I quote this, here’s a scripture from Abraham about fathers and fatherhood that gives some insights but also raises new questions:

Blessings of the Fathers

“I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one  who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers” (Abraham 1:2). Question: What exactly was the “right belonging to the fathers” to which Abraham was ordained and the knowledge that he sought in order to obtain it? I’ll go slow, so we can look for more than what appears on the surface.

I found a clue in the book of Genesis, where God is about to rain down fire and brimstones on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin of sodomy. (BTW, we’re there in our society today, are we not, with pride month and all that?) It says, “When God destroyed the cities of the plane, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow” (Genesis 19:29). Just as Sodom was being erased, angels came and strong-armed Lot out for Abraham’s sake! So we might ask, What theology operated behind that scenario? Was Lot’s escape a fulfillment of Abraham’s “right belonging to the fathers,” a blessing stemming from his knowledge?

Here’s another question: The scriptures say the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel (D&C 20:9; 27:5). But where does that fullness appear? In its teachings, I see only the basic principles of the gospel. The answer is that it appears in the lives of its heroes, people, like Abraham, who could perform miracles, convert thousands, open the heavens, or become translated—persons who kept God’s higher laws pertaining to higher covenants. Their keeping the terms of those covenants bound the Lord to grant those extraordinary blessings. The sons of Mosiah, for example, had “searched the scriptures diligently [not just read them], that they might know the word of God” (Alma 17:2). Once they gained a knowledge of how God’s covenants operated, they were willing to pay any price for making those extraordinary blessings happen.

What I’m trying to show from the scriptures is what it means to be a “father,” to obtain “the right belonging to the fathers” that forms the basis of patriarchy and why these persons could do the great things they did based on their knowledge. And as God is no respecter of persons, or favors one more than another who keeps the same laws, if they could do those things then so can we.

What theology, for example, exists behind the fact that when the sons of Mosiah serve a mission to the Lamanites, and Ammon succeeds in literally disarming the enemy and converting King Lamoni to the truth, and the brother of the one whom Ammon slew by the sword raises his sword to kill Ammon as he lies on the ground, dead to the world, having a near death experience, but, instead of that man killing Ammon, he himself falls down dead? Here’s what it says about that: “Now we see that Ammon could not be slain, for the Lord had said unto Mosiah, his father: I will spare him, and it shall be unto him according to thy faith” (Alma 19:22–23)! So again we might ask, What was the theology they knew that bound the Lord to spare Ammon’s life?

Going one step further: Why did the two thousand stripling warriors call Helaman their “father,” and he called them his “sons” (Alma 56:44–46)? Just because they were young? Or is there more to the story? Like the sons of Mosiah, they too could not be killed, and “their mothers knew it.” That is why they entrusted their sons to Helaman, who was a high priest after the holy order of God. What they knew was the theology of proxy salvation, in which a “father”—by lineage or otherwise—answers to God on behalf of those to whom he ministers in order to obtain their physical protection in the face of a mortal threat. If that “father” keeps God’s law, and those to whom he ministers keep his law, God’s promise is that he will protect both him and them from being slain. That same theology, we have in our own temple covenants if we fully understood them. It goes back to God’s covenant with King David and his heirs, which we are in our day.

Covenant with the Lord God of Israel

We see this same scenario play out with King Hezekiah, a descendant of David. When Assyria began conquering the nations of the ancient world, Hezekiah covenanted with the Lord to be a father to his people, calling them his “sons”: “It is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel that his fierce wrath may turn away from us. My sons, be not now negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him, to serve him” (2 Chronicles 29:10–11). When an Assyrian army of 185,000 men surrounds Jerusalem and demands its surrender, and Hezekiah intercedes with the Lord on behalf of his people, the angel of the Lord goes out and slays the Assyrian host in one night (Isaiah 37:14–20, 36). Again, king and people could not be killed.

One who can draw down the blessings of God’s protection on His people

Another clue into this theology of God’s physical protection of his people comes from Nephi.  Of him, Jacob said: “Behold, my beloved brethren, I, Jacob, having been called of God, and ordained after the manner of his holy order, and having been consecrated by my brother Nephi, unto whom ye look as a king or a protector, and on whom ye depend for safety” (2 Nephi 6:2). Here, Jacob defines the role of a king as a “protector,” one who can draw down the blessings of God’s protection on his people. That is because of Nephi’s pouring out his soul on their behalf, as says in 2 Nephi 33:3–4. But so did Hezekiah on behalf of his people, Helaman on behalf of his stripling warriors, King Mosiah on behalf of his sons, and Abraham on behalf of Lot. If we, then, are to be kings and priests in the house of Israel, is it enough just to be ordained as such without ever inquiring into what it means to fulfill the role of a king under the terms of God’s covenants? Otherwise, wouldn’t we fall short of the scriptural pattern that defines the role of a proxy savior?

A final example of a king’s or a father’s role comes from the Brother of Jared. The Lord didn’t chasten him for three hours simply because he forgot to say his morning and evening prayers. It was something a lot more important than that: “It came to pass at the end of four years that the Lord came again unto the brother of Jared, and stood in a cloud and talked with him. And for the space of three hours did the Lord talk with the brother of Jared, and chastened him because he remembered not to call upon the name of the Lord. And the brother of Jared repented of the evil which he had done, and did call upon the name of the Lord for his brethren who were with him” (Ether 2:14–15). He was failing in his role as their proxy savior—in interceding with God on their behalf for their safety—as did Abraham, King Mosiah, Helaman, Hezekiah, and Nephi.

So what about us? Where do we fit in? Well, in the Book of Mormon, Nephi, Jacob, and Jesus turn the things we just read into a series of types and shadows of us—that is, when we in our day take on the same savior roles we just read about. That creates the context for the scripture that says, “They [meaning us] were set to be a light unto the world, and to be the saviors of men;  And inasmuch as they are not the saviors of men, they are as salt that has lost its savor, and is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden underfoot of men” (D&C 103:9–10). 

In fact, Nephi, Jacob, and Jesus each draw on the prophecies of Isaiah that describe the savior roles of latter-day spiritual kings and queen of the Gentiles who act as “fathers” to the house of Israel. The house of Israel being those whom the Book of Mormon defines as the Jews, Israel’s Ten Tribes, and the Lamanites of our day: “I will afflict thy seed by the hand of the Gentiles; nevertheless, I will soften the hearts of the Gentiles, that they shall be like unto a father to them” (2 Nephi 10:18); “Yea, the kings of the Gentiles shall be nursing fathers unto them, and their queens shall become nursing mothers” (2 Nephi 10:7–9; cf. Isaiah 49:22–23). Continuing:

“I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the peoples; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers” (1 Nephi 21:22–23); “I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the peoples; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers” (2 Nephi 5:6–7). This prophecy from Isaiah 49:22–23 is the only one Nephi and Jacob keep repeating because we are their lifeline. We are to be the saviors of their descendants who as yet remain in a spiritually lost and fallen state.

In other words, as Ephraimite Gentiles—those of whom the prophet Joseph Smith said: “Us, who are identified with the Gentiles” (D&C 109:60)—Latter-day Saints are prophesied to perform the role of spiritual kings and queens who minister to the Jews, Israel’s Ten Tribes, and Lamanites of today. Isaiah’s context of this gathering, however, is a time of chaos and distress among nations. In a great physical exodus out of Babylon, we are to deliver remnants of Israel’s natural lineages out of a worldwide destruction to Zion. Isaiah says we will bring them through the fire, rivers, and seas from the four directions to lands of inheritance (Isaiah 43:2–6; 51:11; 60:18; 61:7).

As the prophet Joseph Smith said, we are to be “a light unto the Gentiles, and through this priesthood, a savior unto my people Israel” (D&C 86:11). That, brothers and sisters, is what it means to be a “father” and a “king” in the fullest sense of those terms. We should be preparing for it. I testify of the truth of these things in the sacred name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

To know more about Avraham Gileadi, watch Stick Of Joseph’s YouTube video talking about his conversion story.

Mary, Lazarus’s sister, anoints Jesus in preparation for Him giving us the Infinite Atonement

Infinite Love from Heaven Above

I met Kayla Jessop on the 5^th of June 2026 at a LAND OF PROMISE conference. She had some of her very impressive artwork displayed about the Savior. I learned from her father, Shem, that she was an extremely talented lady: an artist, a music composer, a pianist, and she has a beautiful soprano voice.

At the conference I shared a talk about my new book: THE INFINITE ATONEMENT OF JESUS THE CHRIST, AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN THE LAST DAYS. We bought fifty copies of the book for my publisher, Boyd Tuttle, to sell and we sold them all and have orders for more.

The Infinite Atonement is the most important event in the history of this earth. While writing the book I had the strong impression that there is no hymn describing the Infinite Atonement. Perhaps only celestial choirs can do that! I taught institute of religion for the Moroni Stake for our church for eleven years. I enjoyed creating lyrics for hymns in the LDS hymnal during that time. Several of these can be found in my book “My Life Stories” in the chapter beginning on page 93, which book Boyd sells: Digitalegend.com.

As an example, I believe everything God does is motivated by love. I felt impressed one morning that hymn 87 “God is Love,” needed a fourth verse. I went into my office in prayer and the Lord gave this to me:

God so loved the world that He;
Gave His Son for you and me.
This He did to bring us home;
As a family to His throne.
Filled with love from heav’n above;
Knowing, singing, God is Love.

You will find that hymn on page 99 of “My Life Stories.”

As I finished my book on the Infinite Atonement, I felt led to Hymn 44 in the LDS Hymnal: “Beautiful Zion, Built Above,” for the music to go with the lyrics I wrote on page 199 describing the Infinite Atonement. I felt impressed to ask Kayla if she would be willing to sing that for us. She kindly agreed. She created an MP3 file for me which you can find in my blog article “The Hymn of All Hymns,” on my book’s website: ItsAboutTimeBook.com.

Given her talented perspective she suggested I shorten it. I shortened from eight to six verses and she kindly did another MP3 file for that version. That version is shared in the blog article as well.

Kayla had an incredibly successful career before marriage, which is described in part on her websites listed in my blog article, “The Hymn of all Hymns.” She continues sharing her talents and love of God as a wife and mother. My perspective is that the two positions doing the most good on this planet in sharing God’s love are mother and teacher. I greatly honor Kayla’s choice.

Given her inspiring talent to share God’s love, I reached out to her again to compose the music while she plays the piano and sings the seven dimensions or steps of the Infinite Atonement that I learned about several years ago: https://itsabouttimebook.com/the-infinite-atonement-of-jesus-christ/ . She has added significantly to my lyrics with this most inspiring hymn of her own composition. She has also shortened the time to five moving minutes. I am in tears of JOY every time I listen to her sing this. The MP3 audio is here and her words are below.

Infinite Love from Heaven Above
sung by Kayla Jessop

Step 1 – In the Garden of Gethsemane
Infinite love from heav’n above,
The matchless gift of God is love;
In lone Gethsemane He trod,
And bore each grief as Son of God;
From ev’ry pore the crimson fell,
To ransom souls from death and hell.
The Lamb of God, Suffered for us.
Infinite love given for us.

Step 2 – Humiliation and Rejection by the Jews
Lazarus raised who once was dead
From blind man’s eyes the clay was shed.
The Jews decided He must die;
Blasphemy their battle cry.
The Holy One, so meek, so mild,
Endured as God’s Beloved Child.
Jesus bore it all—Grief and loss—
Infinite Love sent to the cross.

Step 3 – Rejection, Scourging, Crown of Thorns
He gave His back to the smiters’ blows,
His back to them who were His foes;
He hid not from the shameful scorn,
Nor from the spitting, nor the thorn;
Pilot found, “no fault in Him,”
The ransom for our every sin
Our loving Lord, hope of all men
Gave himself humbly to them.

Step 4 – Infinite Pain with Horrific Crucifixion
“Crucify Him!” arose the cry,
The sinless Lamb was lifted high;
A crown of thorns upon His head,
By wicked hands His blood was shed;
By scourge His sacred flesh was torn,
The nails His suffering form had borne.
Jesus bowed His head—“It is done”
—Thy will fulfilled, victory won

Step 5 – No man taketh it from me (John 10:17:18)
Therefore doth my Father love me,
because I lay down my life, to take it again.
No man taketh it; I lay it down
and I have power to take it again.
By commandment of my Father.

Step 6 – Paradise Rejoices.
Paradise opening prison gate;
Missing their bodies in that state.
Souls awaiting from Adam’s time;
He shared the gospel most sublime.
Their spirits yearned to be made whole;
Rejoining body and the soul;
Jesus, their long redeeming light;
Infinite love; nations delight.

Step 7 Glorious Resurrection Morning
That glorious morn’ the stone rolled free,
Conquered death–He rose in glory;
And saints arose in robes of light,
Filled the earth with songs of delight;
Rejoicing swelled from shore to shore
While loved ones met forevermore;
In raptured praise all voices sing.
To Infinite Love, The Risen King

Lyrics by David W. Allan and Kayla Jessop

The blood stains from the crown can be seen in the Shroud of Turin.

Mary with the crown of thorns driven into Jesus head by the Roman soldiers.

He asks us all, ” Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” (John 15:8)

“Feed my Sheep” Be fishers of human kind to bring all who will to Christ.

I share her remarkable story from her websites:

My Story

Every soul has innate and distinctive gifts and a mission to enrich the world.

Creator of Beauty. That’s the identity I claim.  Painting, composing and performing music, weaving, dancing, writing poetry; they’re as easy as exhaling. And the more I seek to create beautiful things, the more I see the beauty in everything.

When I was a child, I daydreamed about composing and conducting symphonies. When I was a high school freshman, I learned music theory, form, and notation and began to arrange and compose right away. I involved myself in nearly every choir and music class in the school, and I was named Sterling Scholar of Music.

In 2009, I entered the music program at Utah Valley University as a piano major. I was invited to be a student conductor. I toured China as a member of the UVU Chamber Choir and traveled to Kenya for ethnomusicological research. I changed my emphasis and finished my degree as a voice major. ​

I kept myself busy composing. I began to win national and international composition competitions, and I received some notable commissions. After graduation in 2014, I married and started a family. I loved composing music for the community and school choirs I conducted, and I wrote and co-directed a musical play.

In 2021, I had an opportunity to study art with a distant relative for 5 weeks. Here was another avenue of creating beauty, and I excelled in it. In 2024, I spent 500 hours painting murals in an edifice in Mexico. I applied myself to learning the Spanish language that year and realized the intrinsic beauty of language. My next goal? Hawaiian!

In early 2025, my 4th child was born.  While experiencing profound perinatal depression, some unresolved emotional wounds from young adulthood resurfaced. I registered for Irish dance classes over the summer to lift my spirits, but a few weeks before our showcase, I broke my foot. I was literally brought to my knees, though my heart was already on the floor.

Every heart is a diary of griefs and joys etched in flesh.

What happened next can be described in one word: Grace.

Since I couldn’t walk, I took extra time self-reflecting, studying, and meditating. I craved praise and worship songs and became reacquainted with contemporary Christian music for the first time in 15 years. I began to see life, people, and opportunities through a new lens. I learned how to pray powerful prayers. Lifelong prejudices and fears began to crumble.

Though I had spent my life creating beautiful things about Jesus and for Jesus, I hadn’t done it with Jesus and in Jesus. Genuine worship was the missing link. Once I understood this, praise songs began to spill out of me. Lyrics, melodies, and harmonies came easily, as they usually do, but I felt extroverted about them. There’s something contagious about the joy of redemption; one can’t help but want to share it with the entire world. ​

Every masterpiece is a legacy of faith.

Art, music, beauty in all its forms – they are vehicles for glorifying God and bringing His children closer to Jesus. As I compose and paint, every note and each brush stroke is infused with these intentions. ​​

Neither canvas nor musical score can duplicate the beauty of our Savior, but His grace and truth can frame and echo every artistic act of worship. ​

He makes all things new, including me. And the more He recreates me, the more I want to create.

​                      Something graceful.
Something beautiful.
Something new.

___________________________________________

Ether 3:6 His promise is to us: “Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am;” (D&C 93:1) May we see His smiling face as we lovingly serve Elohim’s children.

The Brother of Jared sees the Savior on Mt. Shelem

David W. Allan

Kayla Jessop painted the pictures and provided them for this article.

Why did I wake up this morning with this equation in my head?

Some memories have a way of resurfacing unexpectedly. This morning, I woke up thinking about an equation I taught for many years—one that represents some remarkably elegant mathematics. It may not be 250 years old, but it’s been around long enough to earn its place in the history of timekeeping.

Warning: Math ahead!

You can think of this equation in very simple terms:

1. Two clocks are synchronized if they display the same time.
2. Two clocks are syntonized if they run at the same rate, or frequency–same tone. The difference in their time readings will remain constant.
3. In reality, every clock experiences frequency drift, D.

As I often taught in our Time and Frequency seminars, every clock is wrong. The only clock that is “right” is the one we define to be right when generating official time—a responsibility I had for much of my 32 years at the laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. I also taught this equation to Air Force personnel as they learned to use atomic clocks in the development of GPS.

Since every clock is wrong, the question becomes: How wrong is it?

We can describe a clock’s synchronization error as x₀ and its syntonization (frequency) error as y₀. The time error of any clock can then be written as:

x(t) = x₀ + y₀t + ½Dt² + ε(t)

The final term, ε(t), represents the long-term random variations found in all clocks due to flicker-noise frequency modulation (FM). Together, these four terms account for both the systematic and random variations that determine a clock’s behavior over time.

This equation transported me back to my first days at the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) in Boulder, Colorado, in 1960—before digital computers were available. At that time, high-quality quartz-crystal oscillators were the finest timekeeping devices in existence. This equation provided a remarkably accurate mathematical model of their performance.

Using an analog computer, we were able to model the behavior of one of these quartz-crystal oscillators, which served as part of our national timekeeping system before atomic clocks became available.

What came vividly back to me this morning was a device we designed and built to automatically remove all of the systematic terms in the equation while optimally predicting time into the future in the presence of flicker-noise FM. For a period of time, it effectively kept the nation’s time, calibrated by the primary NBS cesium-beam frequency standard and later by commercial cesium-beam atomic clocks as they became available.

I still regret that we never took a photograph of it.

I built the instrument with a Plexiglas front panel so you could watch the mechanism at work. Inside were gears that drove a phase shifter, two ball-disk integrators, and two differentials—similar in principle to the differential in an automobile—that combined signals mechanically. The two integrators continuously corrected for both the oscillator’s frequency offset and its frequency drift, allowing the analog output of to perform much like an atomic clock.

For anyone interested in the technical details, they are described in this paper from NIST:

https://tf.nist.gov/general/pdf/180.pdf .

Smart Clock Patent

In 1992 we turned this equation around and showed how every clock could be made to read the correct time. I used the data from a wrist watch as an example in the patent. My current wrist watch operates this way. Each night it listens to the standard radio broadcast from WWVB, which is synchronized with the correct time in Boulder at NIST/NBS. Then using this equation it predicts time forward to the next night’s signal reception. So my wrist watch always has the correct time to within a fraction of a second.

GPS Signal Degradation Removal

Also back in 1992 GPS had two signals, L1 and L2. L2 was free to be used by the civilian community. L1 and L2 were used by the military to get the best time and position accuracy. At that time L2 was purposely degraded to the level of about a hundred nanoseconds to prevent civilians from approaching military accuracy. I figured away to remove that degradation for precision timing purposes. Hewlett Packard hired me as a consultant and with the SMART CLOCK patent, I designed a special GPS receiver to synchronize cell towers. I was pleased that the final product worked better than my design simulations and HP sold these across the world.

THE SCIENCE OF TIMEKEEPING

I consulted for HP from 1993 until 1997. They also asked me to write an application note for their user community, “The Science of Timekeeping.” I asked Professor Neil Ashby, who we had contracted with to do the relativity needed for the GPS atomic clocks, to help, along with Cliff Hodge from the NPL in England and a space clock expert. The 88-page application note came together well and has a lot of interesting information not generally known.

For example Figure 12 is a chart of the timekeeping errors of everything from egg-timers to atomic clocks and including official time, UTC. It includes the instabilities of the spin rate of the earth as well as the time error associated with measuring how long it takes for the earth to go around the sun. The application note became quite popular and is available on my website: www.AllansTIME.com and on line as well: an1289.pdf.

GPS ADVANCED COMMON VIEW RECEIVER

While consulting for HP I asked Dr. Robin Giffard if he would help me design and build a GPS Advanced Common-view receiver with the goal of removing all the systematic errors and being just left with the measurement noise. Robin did a super job and we had one receiver at HP Palo Alto, CA, and the other at USNO in Washington D. C. to gather data and test them. The results are shared in Figure 14 of the application note. We achieved our goal of effectively removing the systematics and ended up with a time-error measurement noise of 6 nanoseconds improving as tau^(-1/2). Such that for an averaging time of a month we were able to compare frequency standards to seventeen significant digits.

These receivers were 50 times better than the GPS Common-view receivers we built in 1981 in the lab at NIST in Boulder, CO. These GPS Advance Common-view receivers have never been replicated. Robin died while jogging of an aneurism, and my wife and I had saved enough money to go on a mission for our church to West Africa, Cote d’ Ivoire. The basic idea is still out there.

THE LAND OF THE FREE

Happy 4th of July USA! May freedom continue to ring throughout our great nation, and may the gospel liberty we enjoy here be magnified during our next millennial epoch. God bless America! We are so grateful for those who gave us our inspired Declaration of Independence, US Constitution and Bill of Rights and for the restoration of the fullness of the gospel to be shared with the world to bring as many as will to Christ. His inspiration in my career path has been my main stay. THANK YOU, LORD.

David W. Allan

How good is a clock?

Timekeeping accuracy and stability have improved a billion fold in my life time and society has benefited enormously; look at GPS for example. Atomic clocks are the heart of GPS. I was privileged to help in the development of GPS. The invention of atomic clocks has brought about this enormous improvement.

No Clock is Right!

When I used to teach seminars in Boulder, CO, at NBS/NIST, I would tell the attendees that every clock is wrong except the one you define as right. I feel the Lord gave me the algorithm for optimally combining the readings of an ensemble of atomic clocks so that the computed output was better than the best clock in the ensemble. That AT-1 algorithm was used to generate official time for the USA. It was a software clock calibrated by the Primary cesium-beam frequency standard that we had in the laboratory in Boulder. I was the nation’s timekeeper for most of my 32 years in Boulder.

Who invented the Atomic Clock?

Isidor Isaac Rabi came up with the idea of an atomic clock back in the 1940s and was a Nobel Prize recipient as a result. The Rabi Award was named after him and he was the first recipient of the award in 1983. I was privileged to have breakfast with him the day he received the Award in Philadelphia at an international Frequency Control Symposium.

A Clock is a Two-Part Device for Keeping Time

Atomic clocks are no different than previous clocks. One can think of a clock as a two part device: an oscillator (like a pendulum) and a counter (like the clock face giving you clock’s time reading). The oscillator for an atomic clock is a photon’s frequency. The counter is the electronics adding up the number of cycles of the photons. Physicists don’t like to call microwaves photons, but the concept is the same–and electromagnetic wave.

Astronomical Time

Historically time was kept astronomically. Solar time is as one counts the cycles of the sun going over head as the earth spins. Ephemeris time is as one counts the years as the earth goes around the sun. Lunar time is as one counts the cycles of the moon orbiting the earth. The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar. The sidereal year is as one counts the earth’s rotation with respect to the stars. And the tropical year is as one counts the time from one vernal equinox to the next.

The equinoxes and the solstices are tied to the spin axis direction of the earth with respect to the sun. Since the spin axis direction in space is like a spinning top with a precession rate of about 26,000 years. The tropical year is  20 minutes and 24 seconds shorter than the sidereal year—the time it takes us to go around the sun.

The Evolution of Rabi’s Idea

Based on Rabi’s idea atomic clocks came into being. When atomic clocks came into being, we learned that their timekeeping ability was significantly better than any astronomical phenomena. So in 1967 the length of the “second” went from astronomical to the oscillations of the microwave photons of a particular resonance phenomena in the cesium-133 atom: “The second is the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.”

How to Best Use Atomic Clocks

Once atomic clocks came into existence how to use them and how to predict accurate and precise time with them became important questions. My master’s thesis published in 1966 gave birth to what the world knows as the Allan variance (AVAR). AVAR answers these questions. As a result, I was the second recipient of the Rabi Award in 1984. ADEV is the square-root of AVAR. One can show that the timekeeping ability of a clock is ADEV x TAU, where TAU is the prediction interval. ADEV was used to make sure the atomic clocks used to make GPS work well met specification. GPS works at the nanosecond level (a billionth of a second).

GPS satellite clocks have to predict time

The GPS satellite constellation orbits the earth at about 4.2 earth radii in 12 sidereal hour periods (with respect to the stars or inertial space). The times of the atomic clocks are updated every time they cross over a tracking station. So each satellite has to predict time forward until it crosses the next tracking station where both its position and time are updated. A GPS receiver listens to at least four satellites to calculate its longitude, latitude, altitude and GPS time. From those calculations it knows its position to within a few feet and its velocity.

Time as we use it is not Time

Time as we use it is not time but time interval—the time accumulated from some origin. We are now 2026 years from 0 A.D. Your wrist watch provides the time of day. My wrist watch is always right to within about 0.2 second as it has a radio receiver tying to official time for the USA generated in Boulder, CO.

This weekend we celebrate the Summer Solstice

This weekend we celebrate the summer solstice when the spin axis of the Earth is exactly at right angles to the vector going from the earth to the sun. We have equal day and equal night. That moment is at 2024 UTC June 20^th, or at 2:24 a.m. MST June 21^st. I hope you are having a good sleep at that moment.

God’s TIME is most Important

As I share in my books the time we should most care about is God’s TIME. We mortals are limited by time and space; He is not and His grand purposes are roiling forward in one eternal round. His perfect plan of happiness was perfected by our Savior’s Infinite Atonement, as I share in my last and 8^th book, The Infinite Atonement of Jesus the Christ, and its Significance in the Last Days. Let us use our “mortal time” to help build His kingdom that it may be here on earth as it is in Heaven (Matt. 6:10). And may we bring as many as we can to Christ. He who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE.

David W. Allan

PS If you want a good tutorial in layperson’s terms, Hewlett Packard asked me to write the same: THE SCINECE OF TIMEKEEPING. It has a diagram of how good various clocks are. It is available on my website: AllansTIME.COM and on the internet: http://leapsecond.com/hpan/an1289.pdf .

Phoenician ship to Salt Lake City

The Lord’s timing and works are truly remarkable. Through the revelations given to Joseph Smith and his translation of the Book of Mormon, scholars have spent decades studying possible evidence surrounding the Book of Mormon peoples and their journeys from Jerusalem to the “Land of Promise.” We know of three different groups who were led to, “…this.is a land, which is choice above all other lands. (Ether 2:10). The Jardites came just after the Tower of Babel. The Lehites about 600 B.C.

Mulek, identified as a son of King Zedekiah, survived the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem around 586 B.C. According to the Book of Mormon, the Lord preserved him and led him to the “Land of Promise.”. His descendants became known as the Mulekites, or the people of Zarahemla, who later united with the Nephites. Nephi was the son of Lehi and preserved the records. The Lord told Joseph Smith to name the city across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo, Illinois, Zarahemla in Iowa (D&C 125:3).

Philip Beale

Philip Beale from the UK had it in his heart to build a Phonecian ship based on 600 BC technology. The Phoenicians were the navigators of the world for centuries back then. He had Phonecian histories that they had sailed around Africa as well as to America. So he did those two voyages with his ship. In 2016 his ship went from Tonecia to Ft. Loterdale, Florida. Unbeknownst to him his two voyages basically mapped out the Lehites route to the “Land of Promise”–North America. Many believe that the “heartland” of North America is where the Jaredites, Lehites, and Mulikites came to this Land of Promise.  Philip Beales’ adventures greatly caught the attention of the HEARTLANDERS.

For many years, readers have wondered how Mulek and his group crossed the ocean, since the Book of Mormon provides only a brief reference in the Book of Helaman 6:10, which states that “the Lord did bring Mulek into the land north, and Lehi into the land south.”

Some researchers now believe that Mulek may have traveled with the help of Phoenician sailors from Carthage, who were renowned in the ancient world for their advanced maritime skills. In this fascinating presentation, Tunisian scholar Eyrj Ben Sassi explains the historical and archaeological evidence supporting this possibility. Another engaging presentation is the TEDxLAU Women talk by Sheimaa El Oubari, who describes her experience sailing aboard the Phonician ship that Philip Beale had built. It may well be similar to the kind Mulek may have used. Eyrj Ben Sassi references Sheimaa El Oubari as a leading scholar in Phoenician maritime history. Sheimaa is from Labanan where the Phoenicians used to reside.

Considerable research has explored how Lehi and his family may have traveled to the Americas. Far less attention, however, has been given to the Mulikites. Boyd Tuttle is now writing a book about Mulek.

Help Build a Museum in Salt Lake City

We now stand at an extraordinary moment in the preservation of Book of Mormon history and research. A growing body of evidence continues to inspire scholars, researchers, and believers alike as they explore possible connections between ancient maritime civilizations and the peoples described in the Book of Mormon.

One of the most exciting opportunities before us is the creation of a museum in Salt Lake City dedicated to showcasing artifacts, research, replicas, and educational exhibits relating to Book of Mormon civilizations and their possible connections to the ancient world.

A remarkable centerpiece for this museum already exists: the replica Phoenician ship “Phoenicia,” built by Philip Beale. This full-scale vessel represents the type of ship that may have carried Mulek and his people to the Americas. The ship has already been generously purchased through the efforts of John Lefgren and Michael Fontain and Betty Fontain. What is now needed is a permanent home where it can inspire and educate future generations.

This museum would provide a place where families, scholars, students, and visitors from around the world could explore compelling evidence, historical context, and educational displays that bring the Book of Mormon to life in meaningful and thought-provoking ways.

We invite individuals, families, organizations, and supporters of this vision to join in helping make this museum a reality. Financial contributions, professional expertise, exhibit support, and community connections are all needed to establish a worthy home for Phoenicia and the growing collection of research and artifacts associated with this effort.

Together, we can help preserve this unique educational and historical resource for future generations and create a lasting center for discovery, faith, and learning in Salt Lake City.

Email from Dr. Lefgren, Eryj coming to Salt Lake

I recently received an e-mail from Dr. John Lefgren that Eryj Ben Sassi is coming to Salt Lake City on the 21st of May, this month (2026).

Greetings from John Lefgren,

It is fascinating how the history of scripture fundamentally associates with the geography of the Mediterranean. Carthage is a major, well-known city in the ancient world that rivaled Rome.

Eryj Ben Sassi is the Founder and President of the Association Didon of Carthage in Tunisia. She has been a featured guest on podcasts like Gospel Tangents to discuss evidence of ancient Phoenicians traveling from North Africa to North America around 600 BC. Chick here to see.

We are happy to report that Eryj is coming from Carthage, Tunisia to Salt Lake City. Utah, on Thursday, May 21st.

She has followed the activities of Phoenicia for a decade from the Old to the New Worlds. She recognizes that the ship tells the story of how her ancestors sailed 30,000 nautical miles around Africa and across the Atlantic to America. She knows that the ship is now in Utah and is ready to go on display for millions to see and feel.

Here is the planned program for Eryi’s upcoming visit.

(1) Meetings with Rod Meldrum at his studios in southern Utah.

(2) Meetings in Salt Lake City with Habib Ostra, who is flying in to meet Mike and Betty LaFontaine as well as Erjyj to discuss preparations for the 2026 Southern Federation of Syrian-Lebanese American Convention in Orlando, Florida. The Lebanese organization wants to learn more about PHOENICIA and how it might participate in the ship’s future plans.

(3) Meetings organized by Doug Petty and Boyd Tuttle with religious leaders in downtown Salt Lake.

(4) Planned talks with the members of the Salt Lake City, Utah, 2034 Organizing Committee, led by Executive Chair Fraser Bullock, CEO Brad Wilson, and Vice Chair Steve Starks.

(5) Meetings organized by Jim Wheeler and Roger Cook with wealthy people who live near Jackson Hole. For your information, Teton County, Wyoming, is the richest per capita county in America. To our knowledge, no other place in the world has such a high concentration of wealth. The purpose of these meetings is for Erjyj to begin discussions about future funding for the PHOENICIA.

(6) Meetings in Hollywood with people who represent the global epicenter of creative talent, showcasing excellence across film, television, music, radio, and live performance.

Erjyj is coming from the Old World and will support Phoenicia as she reaches out to people from around the World.

We welcome Eryi to Utah as we finalize the schedule for her visit.

Regards,

John Lefgren, PhD
Heartland Research Inc
Montrose, Iowa

by David W. Allan and daughter Celeste

PS The following blog article proves the HEARTLAND model to be true for Book of Mormon geography. Philip Beale came to a Book of Mormon Evidence Conference to receive an award. You see him on the left holding the flag with Boyd Tuttle that he flew on the Phoenicia.

The Prophet Joseph Smith made a remarkable prophecy to Anson Call, whose descendants now number in the tens of thousands regarding his great work in the Rocky Mountains. Dr. John Lofgren is doing some fascinating research regarding this prophecy and has given me permission to share.

From Anson Call’s diary (1843)

On the 14th of July we crossed the river to Montrose… Joseph, who was with us, told us of many things that should transpire in the mountains. After drinking a drought of ice water he said, “Brethren this water tastes much like the crystal streams that are running in the Rocky Mountains which some of you will participate of. There are some of those standing here that will perform a great work in that land pointing to Shadrach Roundy and a number of others… There is Anson, he shall go and shall assist in building cities from one end of the country to the other and you shall perform as greater work as has ever been done by man so that the nations of the earth shall be astonished and many of them will be gathered in that land assisting and building cities and temples and Israel shall be made to rejoice but before you see this day you will pass through scenes that are but little understood by you. This people will be made to mourn. Multitudes will die and many will apostatize but the priesthood shall prevail over all its enemies, triumph over the devil and be established upon the earth never more to be thrown down.” Then he charged us with all the zeal and language of prophet could muster to be faithful in those things had been [shared].

From: John Lefgren To David Allan  — Fri, Apr 24, 7:46 AM

Greetings,

How unique is a hand-dug, 200-year-old well in Iowa?

Approximately 230,000 to 290,000 Iowans rely on private wells for drinking water, with estimates suggesting there are over 96,000 active private wells in the state. These groundwater-fed private water supplies are often used for residential, agricultural, and livestock purposes.

Iowa has approximately 36 million acres of land. Of this total, roughly 30.5 to 30.6 million acres are dedicated to farmland, representing over 85% of the state’s total land area. The state is predominantly agricultural, with 26 million+ acres classified as cropland.

Wells are an important part of everyday life and farm production.

Two hundred years ago, wells could be dug only by hand. There were no drilling rigs. You wanted water, so you dug a hole, hoping to find it. No drilling of wells. Today, +99% of all wells in Iowa require hiring a DNR-certified well contractor to ensure compliance with state construction standards and to secure necessary permits. Permits are generally issued at the county level for private, residential, or agricultural wells, and proper well placement is crucial to avoid contamination.

In the context of groundwater in the early 19th century, it is remarkable that we have found a 200-year-old well fed by living water, located exactly where Joseph Smith drank water on Saturday, August 6, 1843, and gave a prophecy to Anso Call about how he would cross the plains and participate in building cities where the Saints would become a mighty people in the tops of the Rocky Mountains.

Come to Montrose. Drink the water coming from one of the country’s oldest wells. Marvel at how God moves in our time..

Regards,

John

From John Lefgren  to David Allan — Sun, Apr 26 7:25 AM

Greetings,

We are making very specific connections to the fulfillment of the Rocky Mountain Prophecy given by Joseph Smith to Anson Call on Saturday, August 6th, 1843, at the Zarahemla Water Well in [Montrose], Iowa.

In the last two days, more than eight researchers have been in Northern Utah exploring how the Bear River Watershed, the largest tributary system of the Great Salt Lake, covering roughly 7,000–7,500 square miles across parts of Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho, flows from the mountains in a 350-mile horseshoe shape, providing over half of the freshwater into the critical closed-basin system.

The Bear River is the largest river in North America that does not empty into an ocean. The river feeds the 80,000-acre Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, providing vital wetlands for millions of birds, including white-faced ibis, American pelicans, and tundra swans.

The geological features of the Bear River are directly associated with the Rocky Mountain Prophecy, where snow-capped mountain waters sustain the lives and communities of more than one million people.

The settlement of early Saints in the Rocky Mountains began in 1847, driven by the Pioneers’ efforts to colonize many regions. Key early forts include Call’s Fort (1855) in the north and Fort Utah (1849) in Provo. These immigrants from Nauvoo and Montrose faced harsh terrain and cold winters. They were called to settle in areas where fresh water from mountain snows gave life to man and beast. Yesterday, more than a dozen researchers followed the Zarahemla water-based story into the mountain streams that flow into the Great Basin.

In his Rocky Mountain Prophecy, given at the fresh water of Zarahemla, Joseph Smith could not have been more specific when he identified that the 32-year-old Anson Call would spend the rest of his life by going to the empty lands of Mexican Territory in the Intermountain Area, where the Saints would build cities and where he would see, over a period of more than forty years, the rise of a mighty nation.

We are so happy to see the fulfillment of an important prophecy the Prophet gave while drinking from the well in Zarahemla in 1843. In the past few months, we uncovered the hand-dug well associated with the prophecy in Montrose, directly across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo. We will soon bottle this water so that millions can taste and see for themselves how God moves in our time. May we all be blessed as we seek to understand the earliest days of the Restoration as seen from the western banks of America’s largest river.

Amazing Historian

Dr. John Lefgren is an amazing historian. He has researched how the North American Natives knew of the lunar sign denoting the birth of our Savior. This he shows with the earthworks near Newark, Ohio, that map out the plan of salvation.

https://itsabouttimebook.com/newark-ohio-earthworks/ . I share his research in my new book: THE INFINITE ATONEMENT OF JESUS THE CHRIST, AND LAST DAYS SIGNIFICANCE, A SCIENTIST’S VIEW.

John and Dr. John Pratt also independently determine the date of the FIRST VISION of the Prophet Joseph Smith as being 26 March 1820. Dr. Pratt, a friend, has past, and he was probably the best expert on Hebrew and Enoch’s calendars. He found the date in the Enoch calendar. Dr. Lefgren used weather data, and shows that it was a Sabbath. 

Joseph shares, “It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty” (JS-H 14). https://itsabouttimebook.com/the-date-of-the-first-vision/ .

I find it interesting that Utah is a Ute Indian word meaning, “In the tops of the mountains” Isaiah prophecies, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isa. 2:2).

Anson Call had a big part in helping fulfill Isaiah’s and Joseph Smith’s prophecies.

David W. Allan