The LDS pioneers, often mischaracterized as westward expansionists, were actually refugees fleeing persecution. Facing extreme hardship in Winter Quarters, they endured starvation, disease, and squalid living conditions. Despite these trials, their faith and dedication grew stronger, ultimately establishing the Kingdom of God. Their story is one of resilience and unwavering belief that should inspire all of us to aspire to match their examples in dedication, sacrifice, and faith.
Tag: Prophet Brigham Young
The Constitution: No Friend of the Latter-day Saints
Recently, I was asked to give a talk in church about the ways that the Constitution aided in the Restoration. Though greatly expanded with additional quotes and pictures, this article is fundamentally the talk that I gave. By examining the breadth of early LDS history (form 1830 to roughly 1890), I provided evidence and argument that the Constitution of the United States did nothing to help the Restoration and that it was always on the side of those who brutalized, oppressed, and killed us. The reason the Restoration occurred, and has continued, was the power of Jesus Christ to protect the Saints from annihilation. No law of man gave us any aid. It was God alone who preserved and prospered us against all odds and it is He alone that continues to do so now.
What It Means To Be Like Jesus
We talk about being Christ-like all the time. Our hymns repeat the refrain and our children sing about how they are “trying to be like Jesus.” But what does that mean? What was Jesus like as a person? And how could we hope to emulate Him? The question may seem impossible to answer and we may feel despondent under the weight of it. We can know Jesus Christ and we can fulfill His commandment to become like Him. This lost LDS Classic explores what character is, what Christ’s character is, and how we can manifest His character in our thoughts, words, and deeds today. This is how we can possibly, happily, joyfully be like Christ!
That Time When Brigham Young Absolutely Demolished Young Earth Creationism
In writing my last two articles refuting some erroneous ideas and false doctrines about the creation and age of the Earth, I cam across a rather fantastic address by President Brigham Young from 1871. In it he teaches that there is no antagonism between science and religion. This is especially true for “Mormonism” as our faith embraces all truth from wherever it comes as part of it. Science and religion are both ways that God makes known the truths that He wants His children to know. His specific comments on the Creation and Age of the Earth do a great deal to dismiss the idea that the Earth is only 7,000 years old and that it was created in six literal days. This address will be enlightening to everyone who reads it.
The Mormon Pioneers Were Refugees and Illegal Immigrants
Pioneer Day is today. Celebrating the first time a company of Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley to permanently settle there, it is the closest thing we Latter-day Saints have to our own church holy day (holiday.) But there is a lot to this story that we don’t tell on Pioneer Day, a lot of our history and precious truth that we leave on the cutting room floor. For example: The pioneers weren’t really pioneers. They were really refugees illegally immigrating into Mexico in order to escape the decades of pogroms, ethnic cleansings, exterminations, and genocide they had suffered in the United States. This article is an attempt to tell this story of our spiritual and literal ancestors so that we can apply to real lessons of our history to the world we live in today and make it a better place, a more Christ-like place, a Zion-place.
Scriptural Proof The Earth Is More Than 7,000 Years Old
There are two different but connected errors that seriously plague modern Christianity. The first is the common error throughout segments of Christianity, including among Latter-day Saints, that the Earth was created in a single week. I addressed this error and corrected it last week. The second common error is that the world approximately 6,000 to 7,000 years old. That is what this article is about. The idea that the world is only 6,000 years old, an error that has damaged the faith of tens of thousands, even millions, of people, is based on a couple of fundamental misunderstandings of the scriptures. Both have also been refuted by modern revelation starting with the Prophet Joseph Smith. In order to correct this error and demonstrate what the scriptures truly teach on this subject I will combine a proper understanding of scriptural context with modern revelation to establish what it is about the Age of the Earth that the scriptures do teach so that we Latter-day Saints will not continue to fall into the error that other Christians have.
The World Was Not Created In Six Literal Days
There are two different but connected errors that seriously plague modern Christianity. The first is the common error throughout segments of Christianity, including among Latter-day Saints, that the Earth was created in seven days. The second common error is that the world approximately 7,000 years old. Both are based on fundamental misunderstandings of the scriptures and have damaged the faith of thousands of believers. Both have also been refuted by modern revelation starting with the Prophet Joseph Smith. In order to treat both of these issues with the seriousness they deserve I have decided to write an article dedicated to each. This article will address the erroneous belief that the Earth (or even the entire Universe) was created in six days by God. In doing so I will combine a proper understanding of scriptural context with modern revelation to establish what it is about the Creation of the Earth that the scriptures do teach so that we Latter-day Saints will not continue to fall into the error that other Christians have.
Did Joseph Smith and Brigham Young Teach That People Live on The Moon and The Sun?
In their never ending efforts to discredit the Latter-day Restoration of the Gospel anti-Mormons search for any information they can find to make the prophets sound crazy, because if you can discredit them then you can discredit the work they did. Among the accusations that are hurled at early Church leaders is that Joseph Smith taught that the Moon is inhabited by people and that Brigham Young believed that beings lived on the Sun. In this article I will present the sources for these accusations in full (as opposed to the incomplete and partial quoting that anti-Mormons usually use) and place these quotations in their historical context, showing what people from the most respected scientific minds to the most common laborer believed about possible life on the Moon and Sun. Once I have done so I will demonstrate that nothing that Joseph Smith or Brigham Young said or believed was incongruent with the scientific knowledge of their day and that their statements do not disprove or discredit the Restoration of the Gospel or the veracity of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints