Category Archives: Spirituality

Harmful Conspiracies Destroy Faith

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Deceptions or conspiracies are common schemes that can and are destroying faith. Satan uses anyone who will listen to him to distort the truth in order to destroy faith.  He has been successful as the masses are becoming more secular, and the number of atheists and agnostics is growing.  The Savior gave us a gauge, “By their fruits, ye shall know them.” (Matt. 7:15-20) And the Lord counsels, “Pray always,… that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.” (D&C 10:5) The globalist elite use philanthrope to cover their nefarious and satanic activities and deceptions–like the COVID pandemic. Fortunately, many people are waking up and being watchmen on the tower. It’s About Time!

Churches are Feeling the Effects of Secularism

Secularism is the indifference or rejection of religious considerations.  Christianity is declining as a result of secularism, driven in large measure by the liberalizing of our education system, the globalists taking control of the media and the internet, with their godless promotion of the theory of evolution, which often leads to atheism and the destruction of faith in God. All too often there are wolves among the sheep with people doing deceitful things within the rank and file.

Combating Misleading Information

Our good friend, Jonathan Neville, who is an excellent church historian, has uncovered several such historical deceptions made by past historians of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has several books documenting these. As Jonathan points out, the late Church Historian, Leonard J. Arrington, helped the Church prepare for the internet era, but as James and Hannah Stoddard have shared in their book, “Faith Crisis, Volume 2: Beyond Closed Doors,” they expose distortions made by Arrington that are misleading and destroy faith.

Exposing Conspiratorial Activities

My hope here is to help expose some other of these conspiratorial activities that destroy faith and bring about confusion and contention, and by so doing build faith and harmony. The Savior warned, “And there shall be no… disputations among you concerning the points of my doctrine… For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another (3 Nephi 11:28-29).”  If we know the truth then the deception gets exposed and we are freed from the harmful effects. The Savior said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth will make your free… If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (John 8:32, 36).”

Examples of Conspiratorial Activities that Destroy Faith

  •  The “Big Bang” theory for creation without God.
  • The theory of Organic Evolution and that the Genesis story is a myth.
  • Joseph Smith was not a prophet but a fraud.
  • The Hill Cumorah is in Central America
  • The only solution for the pandemic is vaccination.
  • The green movement needed to save the world.

There are several others, but here I just deal with these to know the truth about them, to build faith, to avoid contention, and to better prepare our hearts for the Lord’s coming.

How do we know the truth for sure?

Three Powerful Rules Regarding Truth Discernment

  1. We only know something is true if God tells us.
  2. We cannot prove a theory true; we don’t know enough. It is a common mistake when people see agreement with a particular theory or hypothesis, they assume it must be true. Data correlation does not provide validation. Only God knows enough to tell us something is true, which goes back to number 1.
  3. A very valuable tool we do have is that we can prove a theory false if we have valid falsification data.  So, we can know for sure something is false.

I apply these three powerful steps to the above-listed conspiratorial activities.

Disproving Conspiratorial Activities

I prepared an article disproving the first four of these conspiratorial activities with the help of Jonathan Neville’s wonderful work.  You can download this article by clicking here.

This article was well received and I was asked to give a presentation about the same at the Book Of Mormon conference.  You can see this presentation by clicking here.

I have several blog articles falsifying the theory that the only solution to the COVID pandemic is vaccination and providing solutions:

Covid Facts and Cures       – Covid-19 Vaccine       –        Misconduct Regarding Covid 19

Why I’m Not Getting the Covid Vaccine        –      There Is Hope Not Fear

Has the conspiratorial nature of the green movement been exposed?  Having been to Russia–before and after the wall came down–I see a very different picture than most over the thirty years I have been there.  I find the following two links interesting regarding the green movement (Russia and Ukraine) and the vaccination, respectively: the green movement and the vaccine.

What everyone should know and share and be practicing is that God made our bodies with an incredible self-healing and built-in immunity system.  This we should feature as the headline in dealing with any health challenge or pandemic.

We know who we can trust, and it is not the government.    Trust in the Lord    –     The King James Bible     

  Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

The conspiratorial activities are destroying faith, and these folks are like wolves in sheep’s clothing—often in our ranks. And the globalist elite are doing everything they can to take away our liberty, to make us slaves, and to depopulate the planet.  Fortunately, we see a lot of people doing a  lot of good things to combat Satan’s nefarious and faith-destroying activities.

The Truth Will Make Us Free

Because of the great importance of this scripture, “The truth will make [us] Free” – John 8: 32 I prepared a talk on the same. We have great promise. “…by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know the truth of all things (Moroni 10:5). Always, God is the witness of the truth.

David W Allan

Photo: CC The Blue Diamond Gallery – Conspiracy

Boulder County CO – Fire – Memories – Insights

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One of the 991 homes destroyed in the recent Boulder-Marshall fire was the one we built in 1967-8 out in Boulder County on 7225 Empire Dr. Nearly 1,000 Boulder County Colorado residents were driven from their homes last week by this terrifying wildfire that destroyed their homes.  Boulder County was our home for 32 years while I was employed by the US National Bureau of Standards (now NIST).  I was so sad to learn that the home we built there was destroyed as a result of this recent horrific firestorm — we have so many fond memories there.

 Numerous Memories of the Boulder Area

We moved to Boulder in 1960 to do graduate work at the University of Colorado. Boulder is basically where we raised our family until I retired from NIST in 1992.  Just before we moved in 1992, our fourth daughter, Celeste’s and her husband Kevn Lambson celebrated their marriage and had their wedding reception at the home we had built there.  And in 1984, our oldest daughter Shelli married Bruce Owen, and we held their reception there as well. (There are too many other wonderful memories to make an accounting here.)  We moved to Fountain Green, Utah, in 1992, when I retired from the government.

Good Friends in Boulder

I became good friends with three wonderful men: Dr. Grant Athay, who was our first bishop when we moved to Boulder in 1960. Gail Loveless, who sold us two acres of prime land for which we extended the road, Empire Drive, and built there in 1967. And, Mike Crawford, who built his home next door to us to the north, and was one of my counselors in the bishopric. (Both Grant and Gail had already built their homes in the country on Paragon Drive, and were our wonderful neighbors.)
Continue reading Boulder County CO – Fire – Memories – Insights →

Christmas News, Ancient & Modern

Spirituality,

“Christmas with the Chosen” was a Global Live Event. I hope many of you were able to enjoy the “Chosen Christmas” which was streamed in a theater near you. We saw it in Ephraim on Saturday, December 11 Dec. ’21. The talented singers were impressive – especially the children’s choir. My daughter, Shelli commented to me, “They must have been from Utah!” I hope that many of you have had the opportunity to view this Christmas special.

Many scenes for “Christmas with the Chosen “were filmed here in Utah. It is fun to think of all those talented people showing up in the little town of Goshen, Utah for filming in the Church’s facility which simulates Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

The people making the CHOSEN series have a talent for what it might have been like, two thousand years ago, which most of you have probably seen in the first two seasons.  I thought the nativity portrayal was excellent.

Other Observations

See additional links:
Having Mary being visited by Mary Magdalene in 48 AD in the Jerusalem area, I believe is not historically accurate, as I share in the following blog articles.
The Drama of Lost Disciples – Importance Of Missing Scripture

False traditions can get in the way of the truth (D&C 93:39); we know Jesus was not born on the 25th of December.  What is the most important common holiday of the year for Arabs, Jews, and Gentiles?

Another Important Christmas Season Event

On the 23rd of December, we know of another very important birth 216 years ago, when Joseph Smith, Jr. was born.  He is the prophet for our day to best prepare us for the coming of the Lord.

“Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many otherwise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left fame and name that cannot be slain.”He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people, and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own life.”

Present Time Happenings

I just received my complimentary copy of the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), because of my work with the same.  I found it fascinating that they are planning to put up thousands of LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites to augment GPS (US), GALILEO (EU), GLONASS (RUSSIA), BEIDOU (CHINA) and provide improved navigation as well as improved communications across the globe.  The magazine’s fascinating front-page title is “ENTER LEO on the GNSS stage.”  The above-mentioned navigation satellites are MEOs orbiting the Earth at about 4.2 Earth radii.  The LEOs orbit at about 0.1 of the radius of the Earth.  Some 200 GEO communication satellites orbit once per day and appear stationary above the equator at about 6.7 earth radii.

When the GEOs were put up, they wanted to use them for worldwide telephone communication, but the 0.3 second or longer round-trip time delay turned out to be a nuisance to the human ear, so they went to under ocean cable to make that delay acceptable.  The LEOs will have only a few thousands of second-time delays, which will make them totally acceptable for worldwide communication.  Adding navigation augmentation to their capability will be an enormous technical enhancement.  With signals available anywhere you go, cell tower signal drops out will disappear – in mountains, in valleys urban canyons, in deserts, and in the wilderness.  Within buildings, distribution will still be a problem, but that is being worked on now.

Privacy issues will be a big concern.  As Chief Justice John Roberts noted that a legitimate, expectation of privacy exists, “Time-stamped data provides an intimate window into a person’s life, revealing not only his particular movements, but through them his familial, political, professional, religious, and sexual associations.” (p 17 GNSS November/December 2021)

The 5G telecommunications system being rolled out now has some significant health challenges associated with it, and most are ignoring them as if 5G was the best thing since sliced bread!  Now they are designing 6G, as they look to the future.
You can be sure the globalists are right in the middle of all that is going, and unfortunately, they don’t have your best interests at heart:

Who Owns the World? – The Mark of the Beast.

Have No Fear Because God is Near

Trust in the Lord – The Great Division – Americas Great Need To Repent – Harken to My Voice
There is Hope Not Fear  Regarding Covid – Trust In The Lord (King James Bible).

Merry Christmas

David W. Allan

P.S. Here is a YouTube link to “The Making of the Chosen Christmas Special” you may enjoy.

Photo:  CC Pixfuel – Christ is Born

 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (2021)

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You know the song, “What Can I Give Him…” as we think about the most precious birth in the history of mankind.  I believe it is LOVE!  The Father showed His love by giving us the gift of His Beloved Son, as part of His perfect plan of happiness.  I believe the best way we can show our love is by living and sharing His “Message of Gladness” brought to us by our Savior, who worked out a perfect and infinite atonement as part of Father’s perfect plan.

A Change of Plans

I published my book, www.ItsAboutTimeBook.com in 2014 as my gospel outreach to the world.  I am pleased that now over 93 thousand people visit the book’s website annually, and the number is increasing from over 100 nations.  Over the last year, I have been working on the fourth version of that book up until recently.  Because of wise counsel from my Sweetheart of 62 years and encouragement from our son, Nathan, and daughter, Karie, I changed my mind. “Dad, you need to write another book” was the driving force toward a different path.

After going up on the mountain and praying, I felt the title to be, “Time and Eternity; The End-times Revealed and Beyond.”  I was surprised that “Time and Eternity” had not been taken as a book title.  It is a fun book to write and I am about halfway through – lots of new stuff.  My goal, is, of course, to bring people to Christ, as we anticipate His coming.
Continue reading Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (2021) →

Following Australia is Hell!

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WAKE UP, Americans!

You may not know that the globalists have taken over Australia bringing about horrific tyranny and control of the populace.  Unless you already know, you will be appalled when you see what they are doing.  URGENTLY Americans need to know that the globalists are planning to do the same seditious-controlling activities in the US of A – taking away more of our freedoms and liberty, and killing us with the COVID planned pandemic and its vaccines.  There are videos linked at the bottom of the page you should watch, which will be very helpful as solutions — moving you out of fear and into faith, hope, peace of mind and love.

If you think the same tyranny that is taking place in Australia can’t happen here in the United States, you are mistaken.  It is already in process!

What Can We Do About It?

As my wife shares, “When you are RIGHT with the LORD, you are RIGHT.”  Then you need not fear the pandemic or anything Satan throws at you.  “Perfect love casteth out fear.” (1 John 4:18)

Most are worried, “Will the pandemic ever end?”  Using fear tactics, that is exactly what the globalists want you to think, as they move to take control of our lives.  The patriots think about getting the government back to US Constitutional principles.  Christians think about getting rid of the moral corruption in our government leadership and in the world.  As individuals, we tend to think about how we can save ourselves and our families. “Thinking” about the solution is different than “Doing Something About It.”

The answer begins with us individually FIRST.

Continue reading Following Australia is Hell! →

Another Missing Christian Teaching

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A Vital Missing Christian Teaching was Removed During the Dark Ages.

The greatest of all the gifts of God is eternal life (D&C 14:7), and Jesus said in his last great High Priest’s prayer, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Hence, the most important Missing Christian Teaching is to help you and me come to know the Father and the Son. (John 17:3)  The Creeds have destroyed that knowing.  We need to know the true nature of God – His character and attributes and emulate them.  Did you know that Heavenly Father in His infinite love and ability to do so gave each of us a mission for our mortal journey during that pre-mortal epoch?  Then following the Spirit and exercising true faith will take us back home to receive all the glorious promises offered in Eternal Life — life with God, life like God, which promises are not known in most Christian religions.

In 1990, I participated in a comparative religion debate at the University of Colorado.  Each person was given seven minutes to share their religious beliefs.  We had a Jewish Rabbi, a Catholic Priest, two different Protestant ministers, a leader from the Baháʼí Faith – headquartered in Haifa, Israel, and we had an atheist.  I was then serving in the Denver Mission Presidency and was asked to represent our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I was able to share our beliefs including the Fatherhood of God.  It was a most interesting evening, and went on for three and a half hours!  I made friends and had good visits with the Rabbi and the Priest afterward — wonderful gentlemen.

The Priest said to me, “May I ask you a question?”  I, of course, said, “Please.”

“Do I understand you correctly, that you believe you can become a god?” He quarried.

I responded with a question, “Did Jesus say to be perfect like our Heavenly Father is perfect?”

He responded, with an enlightened emphasis, “I never thought of that scripture in that way!”

Most of us are our own worst enemies regarding our true potential.  We need to believe as the scriptures tell us that we are “children of God,” (Romans 8:16) and Their “offspring.” (Acts 17:26-29)

Knowing that the students would not be able to remember what I shared in a seven-minute summary of our religious beliefs, I prepared a handout for them. There are some fascinating information and statistics in the handout.  Since then, I have updated the information, and it is available in the link listed at the end of this article.
Continue reading Another Missing Christian Teaching →

A Missing Christian Teaching

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In millennial preparation language, the Lord declares this profound statement: “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new…” (Rev. 21:5)

Fiona and Terry Givens new book entitled, “ALL THINGS NEW”, comes from the above scripture. The book shares two truths that are missing from Christianity: 1. The understanding of “Premortality”, and 2. The “Parenthood of God.”

Fortunately, these truths have been restored with deep meanings and implications.  In this blog article, I deal with the great importance of premortality, as part of Heavenly Father’s perfect plan of happiness.

Premortality

Two of the world’s best experts, Sarah Heinze, and Roy Mills have written about pre mortality because of their personal experiences. I introduce and expand upon the validity of their experiences and information in my book, “It’s About Time”. Their premortal account supports the scriptures and amplifies upon them significantly.

Premortality – Midwest Earthworks

It is particularly fascinating to me that the Jaredites and the Nephites, in the Book of Mormon, paint the picture of the importance of the premortal state as part of a 4 and ½ square mile earthworks near Newark, Ohio.  Fortunately, these were documented by Squire and Davis back in 1848, before most of them were destroyed.  I share a link below describing these earthworks.

Why is it Important to Understand Premortality

The importance of the truth about premortality is to know we are literally spirit offspring of Heavenly Parents and hence gods in embryo with the potential to become like our infinitely loving Heavenly Father and Mother.  When we were with them there in that premortal epoch and witnessed their love and celestial greatness and goodness, we were motivated to do everything we could to be like them.

They created the earth for us to gain a physical body, to house our spirit, and through the perfect plan of happiness come back to them in celestial realms of glory.  In so doing we fulfill our grand purpose here in mortality as described in the following blog article: What Is Our Purpose in Life?  How blessed we are to have had these beautiful truths now made available in exciting detail for all to partake of if we will.

Remembering Heaven

We are also fortunate that recently an award-winning movie was made by Sarah and Brent Hinze, REMEMBERING HEAVEN, documenting the premortal.  It was shown at BYU Friday evening, October 8th, 2021.  It was wonderful to be there and see Sarah and Brent again.  We became very good friends with them in 2013 and 2014, when I was writing my book www.ItsAboutTimeBook.com down in Mesa, AZ, and we spent a lot of time in their home.  Brent is a very good racket-ball player, which became most apparent to me, as we played together; he is much better than I.

This film won all the major Utah and Latter-day Saint film awards this year, including the Best Feature Film Documentary at both the LDS Film Festival and the Utah Film Festival, Best of State Award for Utah, and Audience Choice Award at the LDS Film Festival (where it sold out in record time).

Premortality Ties us Back to Our Heavenly Parents

The perfect plan of happiness was explained to us by our Loving Heavenly Father in our premortal epoch.  We rejoiced as God’s children with our anticipated opportunity to come to earth, to gain a body, and to experience mortality.  We knew it would be challenging, but that as we looked to the Christ, who walked the mortal path perfectly, and as we embraced His teachings and came to know and partake of  God’s love, we knew the grand plan was there for each of us to be like our Heavenly Parents.  THIS IS ENORMOUS!

David W. Allan

Newark Earthwork Explanation Link

 

 

 

 

What Is Our Purpose in Life?

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What is our purpose in life? Many great thinkers of the ages have struggled with the answers to this hard question. Scrutiny seems to simply cause more inquiry such as: How and why does the Lord create evil or allow it? Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?

If there is a loving God who loves us, why does He allow so many bad things to happen – causing people to want to exit the planet? Suicides are now epidemic with all the ugliness, pain, and suffering in the world. Victims of this horrible resolution have even infected our youth at an alarming rate.

One individual who suffered from doubt and lack of hope was C.S. Lewis, one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century. During his teenage and apostate years, he felt that the strongest force for atheism was expressed in a poem of Lucretius:

“Had God designed the world, it would not be A world so frail and faulty as we see.”  Lucretius

How can we help individuals who are void of hope? How can we best help ourselves and one another better understand the purpose of life? How can we best help people who are suicidal?  The soul is eternal, and suicide will only lead to regret on the other side of the veil.
Continue reading What Is Our Purpose in Life? →

Book of Mormon Conference – The Three Gospels

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The Firm Foundation sponsored the 28th International semi-annual Book of Mormon Evidence Conference on September 23 – 25th, 2021.  I have been privileged to address an audience for this semi-annual event and share my testimony for twelve of those fourteen years.

A Special Day

My presentation was given on September 25th,  which also happened to be my 85th birthday and the audience sang “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” to me.  In addition, several members of my family were in attendance, which made the day extra special, which is the best birthday present they could give me — to appreciate my exciting research.

My discourse was well attended and I received a wonderful response from the audience.  After the lecture, an individual from the audience asked if I would be willing to share my slides because of the abundance of material that was presented and I agreed.  (See Link at the Bottom of Post)

The Three Gospels

The title of my presentation was: “The Three Gospels and Preparation for the Lord’s Coming. “

1. The Gospel of the Good Earth –  Preparing our body, mind, and spirit.  Get out of the harmful modern foods and know what to eat to be the healthiest so that the “destroying angel will pass by.”

2) The Gospel of the Bible –  Preparing a people for the millennium. All who have faith in Jesus Christ and keep His commandments will make it into the millennium regardless of denomination.

3. The Gospel of the End-times – Preparing a Zion people. The fullness of the gospel will help bring about ZION to prepare us to meet the Bridegroom at His Coming.

  • These three “Gospels” are the most important blessings God has given and is giving in these last days in preparation for the return of His Beloved Son, and for His Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10).
  • Those who integrate and internalize these three gospels will be the best prepared for His Glorious millennial reign.

It is my prayer for you that you may internalize and share these three gospels and be prepared for His glorious coming.  To this end have I done the research and prepared this important information to help you in your preparation for His Coming!  IT IS EXCITING TO KNOW HE IS COMING SOON.

Enjoy – The Three Gospels Slide Presentation

David Allan

P.S.  After my slide presentation, my publisher, Boyd Tuttle of Digital Legend,  sold all the copies of my book “It’s About Time” that he had in his booth.  You can buy it on the book’s website: and it is available as Kindle or in audio formats.

 

 

 

Why are Mormons Leaving Their Church?

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This is close to my heart because someone near and dear was one of them.  She is a very devoted Christian and very bright.  She and her husband have raised a beautiful family.  She served a mission for our church and married in the temple, but has chosen to reject Mormonism.

What Are Some Of The Causes of Discontent?

She recently shared with me the details of why she left the Church.  I felt the sincerity of her heart as she shared how hard that decision came.  I am deeply grateful she was willing to openly share these feelings with me.

She sent me the link to the book, CES Letter, by Jeremy T. Runnells which she suggested I read giving some of the reasons why she had left the Church.  CES stands for the Church Education System, and he had reached out to them for answers.  I downloaded the book and went through it in quite a bit of detail, as he explains why he left the Church because  they couldn’t, “answer my concerns and questions.”

As I went through the book, I found many miss leading quotes and misinformation.  Unfortunately, many of them were from BYU professors and Church intellectuals that I knew were wrong from my personal research.  A lot of people are leaving the Church because of these confusing and contradictory statements.  For example, Jeremy says there are 100,000 changes in the Book of Mormon since it was first published.  This is incredibly misleading.  I have a copy of the original and have read it, and was thrilled with the consistency with the current edition.

Are There Problems Within Mormonism?

Every church has it problems and Mormonism is not alone.  Several years ago, I was attending a General Conference of the Church in the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, when I heard President Benson, the President of our church at the time, say that the condemnation the Lord had placed on the Church had not been lifted, as he quoted from Doctrine & Covenants Section 84:

49 And the whole world lieth in sin, and groaneth under darkness and under the bondage of sin.
50 And by this you may know they are under the bondage of sin because they come not unto me.
51 For whoso cometh not unto me is under the bondage of sin.
52 And whoso receiveth not my voice is not acquainted with my voice, and is not of me.
53 And by this you may know the righteous from the wicked, and that the whole world groaneth under sin and darkness even now.
54 And your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received—
55 Which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation.
56 And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all.
57 And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say but to do according to that which I have written—
58 That they may bring forth fruit meet for their Father’s kingdom; otherwise there remaineth a scourge and judgment to be poured out upon the children of Zion.

(Bold is mine)

Today we are seeing the effects of that condemnation as people fall into the clutches of unbelief, vanity, and sin, and do not know the voice of the Savior.  Also, many leave the Church because of so much conflicting information, which dashes their trust in a consistent theology.  Let us look deeper.
 
The Book of Mormon is basic to our religion.  The fundamental purpose of the Book of Mormon is to bring people to Christ and help prepare for His glorious return so that we are not “under the bondage of sin…” and “know the  voice of the Savior.” 51 “For whoso cometh not unto me is under the bondage of sin.”   The Book of Mormon, as a second witness with the Bible, is designed to help us get out from under that bondage and receive His mercy and grace.  This is fundamental to Mormon theology.

Two Credible Defenders of the Faith and Book of Mormon

There are many credible researchers and defenders of the Book of Mormon, both members and non-members.  I share two examples that come from outside independent sources.

1. Rob Kay, is a good friend of our daughter, McKaylee, and her husband, Scott.  Rob is a Jewish convert, with a strong Hebrew background who at age fifteen, by chance, picked up a copy of the Book of Mormon and immediately recognized it as a Hebrew document.  “This book is written in the manner of the Jews.” Three years later he joined the Church.  He let me put his remarkable conversion story on our website; the link is below.  His profound understanding can be supported by his website posts, and the link is below as well.

He took the 1840 edition of the Book of Mormon, which was the last one Joseph Smith was able to edit before he was martyred, and created a three-volume set, called, Voices from the Dust —  showing the Hebrew structure, but in English.  I have read his adaptation three times, and have greatly rejoiced in his insights and the content from this new, but old Hebrew perspective.

One of the things I learned from Rob and from another Jewish convert friend, David Doane, is that the Book of Mormon is full of Hebrew Midrash occurrences. The concept of Jewish Midrash was totally unknown to Joseph at the time he translated the Book of Mormon, yet the Book of Mormon has several profound examples, as Rob Kay has explained.

In Hebrew, there is no punctuation, and Rob has no chapters and verses in his three-volume set, “Voices from the Dust“.  So, I was totally fascinated as I read his adaptation to observe that the sectioning he uses often begins with one of the 1,800 Adamic phrases that I have found in my research.  I was pleased that LDS Living Magazine picked up on this work from an article I wrote.  It is a unique perspective.

2. Jonathan Neville, who, in my opinion, is the best church historian because he is not attached to any church research system subject to correlation. He is “freelance” and a very brilliant researcher, and a retired lawyer, and has found many mistakes in the Church history books – mainly using the Joseph Smith Papers and many other dependable research resources.  I recently reached out to him as a friend.  He was familiar with the Runnells CES Letters book and has written a blog article addressing the question of the accusation that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized, which was one of the concerns of the person mentioned above.

Jonathan shared with me:
“I started a blog responding a while back”  This is a blog written in response to Jeremy Runnells’s letter to the CES director.

Jonathan said: “Recently I responded to FairLDS’ attempt at a response to the CES letter.”

In his usual fair and insightful way, he deals with plagiarization, misinformation, and relevant questions that have caused members to question their membership in the Church and the Book of Mormon.

Science Vs. Faith

For me, the bigger world problem is all who are turning away from God and assuming science will save them.  In a recent survey, 93% of the leading American scientists believe the Bible is a myth.  In the Book of Mormon, both Nephi (1 Nephi 13:38-41) and Joseph in Egypt (2 Nephi 3:11) prophesied this would happen, and that the Book of Mormon would come forth and validate the Bible.  It is doing that in a major way in  fulfillment of those prophecies, which also validates the Book of Mormon because these prophecies are coming about as we speak, and Jesus said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matt. 7:15-20)

We know religion is a matter of faith, but I believe the following article gives undeniably validation of the scriptures including the Bible, and showing the fingerprint of God and evidence of the Adamic language.  I used the scientific method to validate these findings.

I pray for all our Christian Missionaries who are using the Bible to bring people to Christ and His great gospel plan of happiness and peace in the midst of the storms.  All who believe that gospel will make it into the millennium.  I also pray for our missionaries who are bringing the fullness of the gospel as contained in the Book of Mormon to as many as will.  We know the gospel will go to all before He comes.  Let us join arm-in-arm to get the good news out there – live it and share it. (John 15:8)

My Own Research, Findings, and Testimony

As to Joseph Smith, it is as Jeremy Runnells says, he is either a modern-day prophet or he is the greatest fraud ever.  This reminds me of C. S. Lewis’s comment about the Savior: he said, “There can be only one of two conclusions: 1) He is the greatest deceiver of all time, or 2) He is exactly what and who He said He is: the Son of God and the Redeemer of mankind.” 

Again, Jesus gives us how to know, “By their fruits, ye shall know them.” (Matt. 7:20)  The information in the following link is adapted from a book about 100 people who knew Joseph intimately.  I would much rather rely on their testimonies than on the many others who did not know him and chose to denigrate him not knowing the facts.  Both the translation of the Book of Mormon as well as the printing were major miracles for anyone who is willing to look at the history with a desire to know the truth.

Another fascinating fingerprint from the Lord  came to me.  At 4:28 (MST) on 20 March 2017) was the moment of the Vernal Equinox. Spring sprung upon us!  The early morning hours are my best time for meditating.  I had the impression that morning that the ratio of the height to width of the first printing of the Book of Mormon was in the divine ratio or the Golden mean.  The divine ratio is ever-present in nature.  Dr. Hugh Nibley, Brigham Young University said, “Measurement is the very essence of creation.”  The Lord has said, “Behold, all things are created and made to bear record of me.” (Moses 6:63) When I got up – having a replica of one of the 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon first printed – I measured it, and found it to be exactly as the Spirit had taught me.  (190 mm high x 117 mm wide; 190/117 = 1.62.  The golden mean is 1.618033989…, an irrational number)  We have more than two thousand books in our library, and I have not found another with the divine ratio.  I thank the Lord for this insight.

I believe we should let each person follow their hearts in terms of their religious beliefs and be happy therein.  As I see it, the confusing teachings that are causing many to leave the Mormon religion are based on misinformation that Satan has put out there. Unfortunately, many have “thrown the baby out with the bathwater” and no longer believe in Christ.  Interestingly, the Lord gave Joseph Smith the name of His Church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Indeed, we who follow the teachings of the restoration of the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ coming through the Prophet Joseph Smith count ourselves among true Christians, as we come unto Him with full purpose of heart, and hearken to His voice.

My life has grown in light and truth spiritually and temporally mainly because of internalizing the beautiful truths of the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is not only the “good news;” it is for me the BEST NEWS!  I believe the success the Lord has given me scientifically is because He knew how I love to share this most important message, and I am so pleased that we have over 70 thousand visits a year to my book’s website www.ItsAboutTimeBook.com from across the globe and increasing.

David W. Allan

links:

Rob Kay’s website:  The Mormon Yeshiva

Rob Kay’s conversion story: “Voices from the Dust.”

Photo:  CC Pixabay