The seraphim and cherubim are plasmoids

Ezekiel 1: Ezekiel’s vision of the four living creatures

Ezekiel chapter one describes a vision that Ezekiel saw by the river of Chebar:

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him. (Ezekiel 1:1-3.)

And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings. Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. (Ezekiel 1:4-14.)

By saying that a “whirlwind came out of the north,” it means that Ezekiel was beholding a vision taking place in the north, as in the far north, meaning in the interior of the hollow earth. The “great cloud” of brightness and fire that Ezekiel saw was the same as the “great luminous cloud” of fire that Olaf Jansen saw suspended in the inner space of the earth’s interior:

The great luminous cloud or ball of dull-red fire — fiery-red in the mornings and evenings, and during the day giving off a beautiful white light, “The Smoky God,” — is seemingly suspended in the center of the great vacuum “within” the earth, and held to its place by the immutable law of gravitation, or a repellant atmospheric force, as the case may be. I refer to the known power that draws or repels with equal force in all directions. (Quoted from The Smoky God, Part III, page 26.)

The four living creatures that came out of the great cloud (the inner Sun) were not naked (unembodied or disembodied) spirits, nor embodied spirits connected to (mortal or immortal) bodies of flesh and bones—and thus they were neither ministering spirits, angels nor angelic beings—but were those plasmoids which are known in the scriptures as cherubims. From the Wikipedia entry on plasmoid:

A plasmoid is a coherent structure of plasma and magnetic fields. Plasmoids have been proposed to explain natural phenomena such as ball lightning, magnetic bubbles in the magnetosphere, and objects in cometary tails, in the solar wind, in the solar atmosphere, and in the heliospheric current sheet. Plasmoids produced in the laboratory include field-reversed configurations, spheromaks, and in dense plasma focuses.

The word plasmoid was coined in 1956 by Winston H. Bostick (1916-1991) to mean a “plasma-magnetic entity”:

The plasma is emitted not as an amorphous blob, but in the form of a torus. We shall take the liberty of calling this toroidal structure a plasmoid, a word which means plasma-magnetic entity. The word plasmoid will be employed as a generic term for all plasma-magnetic entities.

The four plasma-magnetic entities which Ezekiel saw were not “living creatures” in the sense that they were living, breathing creatures, i.e. they weren’t alive. They were “living creatures” only in the sense that they seemed to be alive and they looked like creatures. In other words, they were merely Etch A Sketches made out of plasma.

Just as a man can take up a pencil and draw a picture of a unicorn on a piece of paper, and we can look at the drawing on the paper and see it, for the paper is real and the lead of the pencil that has been scraped onto the paper is also real, both being real objects, yet we do not say that the drawing is a real unicorn, but merely a representation of a unicorn; and just as that same man can draw many pictures of a unicorn, in sequential motion, on many pieces of paper, and then take those pieces of paper and put them together in order, and then flip through them like a book, so that the individual drawings appear to move, showing an animated movie, and these are all real objects, even real pieces of paper and real pencil lead scrapings, yet the animated unicorn is not a real unicorn, but merely an animated representation of a unicorn; and just as that man can color all his drawings, in vibrant paint, so that each individual piece of paper looks as close to a unicorn as it is possible to be, and then photograph these painted drawings and put the photographs onto film, in sequential order, and then add sound effects and cause the unicorn to speak, and after all that show his film to an audience, although the film is a real object and the sound coming out of the speakers of the theater is really audible, yet the unicorn that now dances around across the screen in glorious colors and brays and speaks in a human’s voice is still not a real unicorn, but merely the representation of one; and just as the man can take up wire and latex and other materials and make a three dimensional sculpture of a unicorn, in full color and in full size, and add robotics and mechanics and hidden speakers that allow the creation to move and speak and make sounds and run and leap and so on, and even though this creation is made out of real objects, yet when a child sees it and says to his father, “Daddy, is that a real unicorn?” the father will reply, “No, son; it is not. It’s just a representation of one that looks very realistic”; so in like manner God has power to create three dimensional representations out of plasma, that when beheld by mortal men appear to be living creatures, yet they are still just Etch A Sketches.

Ezekiel’s description of these plasmoids showed that each of them stood upon two legs like a man does, but their feet were straight and hoofed, like calves’ feet, and their heads had four faces each, each one facing a different direction—the face of a man looked straight ahead; the face of a lion looked to the right; the face of an ox looked to the left; and the face of an eagle looked straight back—and they also had four wings each with the hands of a man (and no mention of any arms) under each wing on each side. As if all of this weren’t as unlike a man enough, their feet also sparkled like burnished brass. (Sparkling, in particular, is what plasmoids are good at, given their electrical nature.)

They also did not move like living creatures do, turning as they went, but instead moved in straight lines—straight forward, or straight backward, or straight left or straight right—just as the rook piece in a game of chess moves:

Ezekiel also stated:

As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. (Ezekiel 1:13-14.)

The cherubim that Ezekiel saw were electrically discharging and appeared to him to be like burning coals of fire or lamps. They were, in fact, arc lamps. From the Wikipedia entry on arc lamp:

An arc lamp or arc light is a lamp that produces light by an electric arc (also called a voltaic arc). The carbon arc light, which consists of an arc between carbon electrodes in air, invented by Humphry Davy in the first decade of the 1800s, was the first practical electric light. It was widely used starting in the 1870s for street and large building lighting until it was superseded by the incandescent light in the early 20th century. It continued in use in more specialized applications where a high intensity point light source was needed, such as searchlights and movie projectors until after World War II. The carbon arc lamp is now obsolete for most of these purposes, but it is still used as a source of high intensity ultraviolet light.

The term is now used for gas discharge lamps, which produce light by an arc between metal electrodes through an inert gas in a glass bulb. The common fluorescent lamp is a low-pressure mercury arc lamp. The xenon arc lamp, which produces a high intensity white light, is now used in many of the applications which formerly used the carbon arc, such as movie projectors and searchlights.

The electric plasma arc that Ezekiel saw went up and down between the four plasmoids, and it appeared to him to be bright fire. He also saw that lightning came out of the arc. In fact, Ezekiel saw that when the cherubims moved, they did so at the apparent speed of light, looking just like lightning bolts. People often mistake these and the other passages of scripture which speak of the cherubim and seraphim, as if they were speaking of angels, not understanding that these passages are describing very specific types of electrically discharging plasmoids.

In fact, if you take a look at the various religious beliefs about angels, you’ll see that different religions, sects and individuals often have these plasmoids listed as part of their official (or non-official) angelic hierarchy. For example, the Wikipedia entry on angels in Judaism lists seraphim, cherubim, chayot ha kodesh, ophanim and hashmallim as part of the angelic hierarchy, even though none of these things are angels, but merely plasmoids. Christianity isn’t any better, listing, according to the Wikipedia entry on Christian angelology, the seraphim as “the highest angelic class” with the cherubim as a close second. Even some latter-day saints fall into these same errors, misguidedly referring to there being a “seraphim level,” as if being a seraph (which is a non-living plasmoid) was something a person should aspire to.

Now, before I proceed, it needs to be understood that Ezekiel was seeing the very same four cherubim that God placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, which likewise had the electric plasma arc going up and down between the cherubim, looking like a sword of fire:

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24.)

Continuing on with Ezekiel chapter one:

Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above. And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies. And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings. And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings. (Ezekiel 1:15-25.)

The wheels that Ezekiel saw were pinched plasma columns going through and around each of the cherubim. Instead of seeing the whole column, the prophet (Ezekiel) only saw a ring-like cross-section part, which appeared to be a wheel within a wheel. Because the pinched plasma column envelopes each cherubim, wherever the cherubim goes, the “wheel” seen goes with it, whether it be up, down, forward, backward, left or right. As Ezekiel saw, “the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels,” meaning that the pinched plasma column was the source of the cherubim’s power, like every other plasmoid (for all plasmoids are formed of pinched plasma columns).

Ezekiel also here mentions that the rings were full of eyes encircling the cherubim. These weren’t, of course, real eyes, but only additional plasma displays that looked like eyes.

He also states that the cherubim were under a firmament, meaning that the cherubim were not in heaven, but on earth, which is just where God put them (at the east of the Garden of Eden).

Now, their wings were not the wings of a bird or a bat, which fly by flapping in air and are composed of solid matter, but were plasma wings that do not flap to fly or move. When the cherubim mount up, that is, when they rise up (levitate) in the air, the plasma wings extend upward; (and we can assume that when they move forward or backward or left or right, the plasma wings extend outward); and when they stand still on the earth their wings extend downward, one wing covering one side of each of their four sides. But again, when they move, the wings don’t flap, nor in fact do they need to flap, for plasmoids move electrically. As the wings are composed of plasma, which can be dense like solid matter, or less dense like liquid, or even less dense like a gas, the wings flow with electrical power, which means that when when the electrical current goes down, so do the wings, and when the wings extend out or upward, it means means that the electrical current has gone into high power mode, and thus a sound would be produced, electrically.

Ezekiel said that their wings made a noise of great waters that sounded like a voice, even like the voice of Jehovah, and also as if it were the noise or speech of a multitude. Again, this wasn’t from flapping wings, but from electrically produced voices, such as what our current technology has finally done using laser-induced plasma in the air:

Ezekiel also heard another voice which came from above the firmament, from the throne of Jehovah in the firmament of heaven:

And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake. (Ezekiel 1:26-28.)

The throne that Ezekiel saw is the same throne that Olaf Jansen saw:

The base of this electrical cloud or central luminary, the seat of the gods, is dark and non-transparent, save for innumerable small openings, seemingly in the bottom of the great support or altar of the Deity, upon which “The Smoky God” rests; and, the lights shining through these many openings twinkle at night in all their splendor, and seem to be stars, as natural as the stars we saw shining when in our home at Stockholm, excepting that they appear larger. “The Smoky God,” therefore, with each daily revolution of the earth, appears to come up in the east and go down in the west the same as does our sun on the external surface. In reality, the people “within” believe that “The Smoky God” is the throne of their Jehovah, and is stationary. The effect of night and day is, therefore, produced by the earth’s daily rotation. (Quoted from The Smoky God, Part III, page 27.)

An understanding of the hollow earth theory gives us the tools to correctly interpret the location of the vision. The vision isn’t speaking of the outer surface of earth and of a throne up in heaven in outer space, but of the inner surface of earth and of a throne set in the midst of the heavens of inner space.

Ezekiel 2 & 3: God speaks to Ezekiel; the Chebar river vision ends; the same vision ensues in the plain

While beholding the vision at the river Chebar, God spoke to Ezekiel, as recorded in chapters two and three. Later, at the end of the vision, Ezekiel said this:

Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place. I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing. So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me. (Ezekiel 3:12-14.)

Again, the noise of a great rushing that Ezekiel heard wasn’t of the flapping of the wings or of the wheels spinning around or grinding away, but of the electrical sound effects produced by so much electrical current coursing through these plasmoids and the pinched plasma column they were embedded in. Also, this wasn’t really the end of the vision because later he went to the plain and the same vision was opened up to him again:

And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee. Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face. Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thine house. (Ezekiel 3:22-24.)

So he obeyed and went to his house.

Ezekiel 4 to 7: Ezekiel while at his house

I am going to skip over these chapters because they do not have anything to do with the topic of this post.

Ezekiel 8 (verses 1 through 4): Ezekiel at his house sees the vision of the plain again

While Ezekiel was sitting in his house, God again opened up the same vision he had seen in the plain, which was the same vision he had seen at the river of Chebar:

And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me. Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber. And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain. (Ezekiel 8:1-4.)

Ezekiel 8 (verses 5 through 18): Ezekiel sees abominations among the people

In verses 5 through 18 of this chapter, God showed Ezekiel the evil things people were doing in secret. It is the wickedness and abominations among the people which kindles God’s wrath, unleashing the destroyer upon the world (in the next chapter).

~1st tangent remarks begin~

Ezekiel 9: Ezekiel sees six men led by a man clothed with linen

Ezekiel is next shown the destroyer during the end times and also his end-time helpers:

He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side; and the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. (Ezekiel 9:1-4.)

And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city. (Ezekiel 9:5-7.)

And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not. And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head. And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me. (Ezekiel 9:8-11.)

The man clothed with linen that Ezekiel saw marking the foreheads of the righteous with the writer’s inkhorn by his side is the restoring Elias, who is the same angel ascending from the east that John saw (which Joseph Smith identified as the restoring Elias), who would be writing the Father’s name upon the foreheads of the 144,000.

And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. (Revelation 7:1-4.)

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. (Revelation 14:1.)

Ezekiel saw that Elias would come with six men, who themselves were destroyers, as they had destroying or slaughtering weapons in their hands (and thus operated under the spirit and power of Elias, which is the spirit of destruction), and he saw that Elias was in charge of the six, given that they were commanded by the Lord to follow Elias, and their task was to destroy the people who were not marked in their foreheads. These six men are the same as the four angelic helpers (which Joseph Smith identified as having power to destroy) and two witnesses of the angel that John saw. And thus we find the four angelic helpers slaying the third part of men, just as four of the six men with the man clothed with linen that Ezekiel saw used their destroying weapons to slay men:

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. (Revelation 9:13-15.)

And we also find that the angel’s two witnesses likewise were engaged in killing men, just as two of the six men that Ezekiel saw were with the man clothed with linen went forth with slaughtering weapons and slew men:

…and the angel stood, saying,…I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. (Revelation 11:1,3-5.)

Ezekiel’s man “clothed with linen” compared to Daniel’s man “clothed in linen”

Ezekiel’s man clothed with linen is the same man clothed in linen that Daniel saw in his own vision, at first alone and then later on with his two witnesses:

And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel; then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. Yet heard I the voice of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground. (Daniel 10:4-9.)

Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river. And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? (Daniel 12:5-8.)

This shows that Daniel, Ezekiel and John were all shown a vision of the end times and all three of them saw the destroyer, his two witnesses and (in the case of Ezekiel and John) his four angelic helpers. (Zechariah also recorded that he saw the same group of seven men but I won’t get into that in this post.)

~1st tangent remarks end~

Ezekiel 10: Ezekiel identifies the four living creatures as cherubim

In the tenth chapter of Ezekiel, Ezekiel saw the man clothed with linen go in between the wheels and the cherubim and get coals of fire and scatter them over Jerusalem. By now, having seen the same vision three times, he finally knows what these creatures are and so he categorically identifies them as cherubim:

Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. And he spake unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims, and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my sight. Now the cherubims stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD’s glory. And the sound of the cherubims’ wings was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God when he speaketh. And it came to pass, that when he had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubims; then he went in, and stood beside the wheels. And one cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubims unto the fire that was between the cherubims, and took thereof, and put it into the hands of him that was clothed with linen: who took it, and went out. (Ezekiel 10:1-7.)

And there appeared in the cherubims the form of a man’s hand under their wings. And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the colour of a beryl stone. And as for their appearances, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides; they turned not as they went, but to the place whither the head looked they followed it; they turned not as they went. And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had. As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, O wheel. And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. And the cherubims were lifted up. This is the living creature that I saw by the river of Chebar. And when the cherubims went, the wheels went by them: and when the cherubims lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside them. When they stood, these stood; and when they were lifted up, these lifted up themselves also: for the spirit of the living creature was in them. Then the glory of the LORD departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims. And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and every one stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD’s house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims. Every one had four faces apiece, and every one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. And the likeness of their faces was the same faces which I saw by the river of Chebar, their appearances and themselves: they went every one straight forward. (Ezekiel 10:8-22.)

Of especial note is that Ezekiel here notices that every part of the cherubim and their wheels were full of eyes, and not just the rings.

The opening of the Garden of Eden

Ezekiel saw that the destroyer went in-between the cherubim and took fire from between them. He also explained where the cherubim were, writing, “Now the cherubims stood on the right side of the house” and “every one stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD’s house.” In other words, the destroyer will have to go to the east of the Garden of Eden, where the four cherubim are, and there he will open up the garden again by snuffing out the electrical arc lamp (the flaming sword) between them.

Normally anyone who goes to the garden would get electrocuted and incinerated by these plasmoids, burning up in electrical fire, but as it is impossible to kill the destroyer, and as he is the restorer of all things, the restoration of all things must, of necessity, include the re-opening of the Garden of Eden, therefore the destroyer will travel to the cherubim, walk right up and short circuit the pinched plasma column that powers them, allowing access, once again, to the tree of life.

~2nd tangent remarks begin~

John’s eighth angel is the same man clothed with linen that Ezekiel saw

When the seventh seal opened, John saw the seven angels getting the seven trumpets.

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. (Revelation 8:1-2.)

Then he saw an eighth angel standing at the altar, who filled the golden censor with fire from the altar and cast it to the earth, just as the man clothed with linen Ezekiel saw took coals of fire from between the cherubim and scattered them over the city:

And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. (Revelation 8:3-5.)

We see from this that John, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah and many others all described different aspects of the same vision of the end-time ministry of the destroyer, hence subtle differences, just as Lehi and Nephi caught different details of the same tree of life vision (Lehi missing the fact that the river of water was filthiness). Okay, now let’s turn our attention away from the destroyer and back to the topic of the seraphim and cherubim.

~2nd tangent remarks end~

John’s vision of four beasts

Revelation chapter four from the King James Version reads:

After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4:1-11.)

The same chapter from the Joseph Smith Translation reads (and notice the differences, shown in bold italics):

After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened into heaven; and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat there was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone; and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And in the midst of the throne were four and twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns like gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings, and thunderings, and voices; and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven servants of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal; and in the midst of the throne were the four and twenty elders; and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within; and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory, and honor, and thanks to him that sits on the throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sits on the throne, and worship him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (JST Revelation 4:1-11.)

Ezekiel’s four living creatures compared to John’s four beasts

First I want to point out that newer translations of the Bible use the same descriptive words for the creatures that both John and Ezekiel saw, whereas the KJV uses different words. For example, the New King James Version says this:

Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures. (NKJV Ezekiel 1:5.)

And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. (NKJV Revelation 4:6.)

The 2009 Reina-Valera Spanish language version of the Bible also uses the same terms, calling them “seres vivientes,” which means “living beings.”

y en medio de ella, la figura de cuatro seres vivientes. (Ezequiel 1:5.)

y en medio del trono, y alrededor del trono, cuatro seres vivientes llenos de ojos por delante y por detrás. (Apocalipsis 4:6.)

Only the King James Version calls these creatures something different in each passage:

Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. (KJV Ezekiel 1:5.)

and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. (KJV Revelation 4:6.)

The JST follows the KJV in using “beasts” to describe what John saw and “living creatures” to describe what Ezekiel saw, because to the prophetic mind of Joseph Smith it was all the same thing and either description works for the Greek source word; nevertheless, all modern translations use either “living creatures” or “living beings” for both Ezekiel and John.

Why do the modern translators deviate from the KJV? Because although the Greek word could be translated as both “beasts” or “living creatures/beings,” in this particular passage and context it is understood by all the modern interpreters that these are symbolical beasts, more in line with the cherubim of Ezekiel, and not actual beasts, and therefore using the word “beasts” conjures up the thought of a real animal, of which they are not, therefore the newer versions all agree that it is more correct to translate it as “living creatures” or as “living beings.” The modern translations, then, show that the beasts that John saw were of the same type of living creatures that Ezekiel saw. In other words, both Ezekiel’s living creatures and John’s beasts were cherubim. But if you use only the KJV, you might end up thinking they were different things.

At any rate, there are other clues in the text which indicate that John and Ezekiel were actually viewing the very same vision, but were just describing different aspects of it. For example, both Ezekiel and John saw a throne that had a rainbow encircling it, and they both saw that there was someone sitting on it:

John: “And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.” (Revelation 4:2-3.)

Ezekiel: “And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.” (Ezekiel 1:26-28.)

Combining the colored stones

Ezekiel said that the throne had the appearance of a sapphire stone. Sapphire stones look like this:

John said that the Man sitting on the throne had the appearance of a jasper stone and a sardine stone. Here’s what a jasper stone looks like:

And here’s what sardine stone (carnelian) looks like:

 

John said the rainbow looked like an emerald. Here’s what an emerald looks like:

Ezekiel said there was a fire within the throne, like the color of amber. Amber looks like this:

Now, combining what each prophet said, we get: the Man of sardine and jasper was sitting on the sapphire throne, and there was amber fire encircling within the throne, which fire proceeded up and down from His loins, and around this fiery throne was an emerald rainbow.

Notice again what Olaf Jansen said of the inner Sun:

The great luminous cloud or ball of dull-red fire — fiery-red in the mornings and evenings, and during the day giving off a beautiful white light, “The Smoky God,” — is seemingly suspended in the center of the great vacuum “within” the earth, and held to its place by the immutable law of gravitation, or a repellant atmospheric force, as the case may be. I refer to the known power that draws or repels with equal force in all directions.

The orb he saw in the sky changed colors throughout the day, but one color he did notice actually matches the sardine and jasper colors that Ezekiel saw. The sky itself that surrounded the orb was nitrogen-rich blue, like the atmosphere we see around us here on the outside surface, which again calls to mind Ezekiel’s mentioning of a sapphire.

We can surmise, then, that these scriptural texts are talking about the spherical inner Sun, located in the interior of the earth, suspended at the center of the planet by gravitation, in inner space. And the Man sitting on the throne wasn’t sitting atop it, meaning on the outside of it, but at its precise center, being above all. (Standing on the inner surface of the earth and looking up, the highest point would be the exact center of the inner Sun, which Olaf Jansen said the inhabitants of that inner world called: “the throne of Jehovah.”)

Now, to show that this is correct, I will go to the next part of what John said:

And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. (Revelation 4:4.)

Joseph Smith corrected that text to read as follows:

And in the midst of the throne were four and twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns like gold. (JST Revelation 4:4.)

This correction is important because it reveals the location of the throne. Joseph Smith said the following about the 24 elders:

Q. What are we to understand by the four and twenty elders, spoken of by John?

A. We are to understand that these elders whom John saw, were elders who had been faithful in the work of the ministry and were dead; who belonged to the seven churches, and were then in the paradise of God. (D&C 77:5.)

When Jesus died, He went to paradise, which, according to His own words, is in the heart of the earth:

Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:38-40.)

The heart of the earth would be at the earth’s center, which is where Olaf Jansen said the inner Sun is found. Therefore, the inner Sun is where paradise is located. And the righteous dead do not wait for their resurrection on the outside of that sphere, but within it. The current Bible text incorrectly has the 24 elders and their 24 seats “round about” the throne, meaning encircling it. Joseph Smith corrected this to read that the 24 seats and 24 elders were “in the midst of the throne,” meaning that they were inside the throne.

Unless a person understands that the throne spoken of is a spherical one, with outer and inner surfaces, the idea of seats being in the midst of a throne makes no logical sense, whatsoever. People who read these passages envision a typical kingly throne that men make, like unto a chair, not a moon-sized, or planet-sized, or Sun-sized spherical throne. Getting the right image, though, causes the text to finally make sense.

Okay, continuing on with John’s text, he mentions something that Ezekiel doesn’t:

And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. (Revelation 4:5.)

Joseph Smith changed this to:

And out of the throne proceeded lightnings, and thunderings, and voices; and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven servants of God. (JST Revelation 4:5.)

Continuing with John’s text, we find that both John and Ezekiel mention a crystal:

John said: “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal:” (Revelation 4:6.)

Ezekiel said: “And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.” (Ezekiel 1:22.)

Joseph Smith identified John’s crystal sea of glass in this way:

Q. What is the sea of glass spoken of by John, 4th chapter, and 6th verse of the Revelation?

A. It is the earth, in its sanctified, immortal, and eternal state. (D&C 77:1.)

Joseph also said this:

In answer to the question—Is not the reckoning of God’s time, angel’s time, prophet’s time, and man’s time, according to the planet on which they reside?

I answer, Yes. But there are no angels who minister to this earth but those who do belong or have belonged to it.

The angels do not reside on a planet like this earth; but they reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord.

The place where God resides is a great Urim and Thummim.

This earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be manifest to those who dwell on it; and this earth will be Christ’s. (D&C 130:4-9.)

Continuing on with the text:

and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. (Revelation 4:6.)

Once again, Joseph Smith corrected this to read:

and in the midst of the throne were the four and twenty elders; and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. (JST Revelation 4:6.)

Joseph Smith needed to make this correction because it shows the proper placement of both the elders and the beasts. The elders were in the midst of the throne, meaning that they were within the throne, while the beasts were round about the throne, meaning that they encircled the throne, or to be plainer, they were below the firmament of crystal which surrounds the throne. In other words, the four beasts were on earth, even on the inner surface of the outer shell of earth, below the firmament of heaven.

To understand this placement, we need to understand that just as the outer surface of earth has a blue atmosphere, which is the “firmament of heaven,” which is below the vacuum of outer space, so the inner surface of earth has a blue atmosphere, the “firmament of heaven,” which is below the vacuum of inner space. The throne of Jehovah is set in the center of that vacuum of inner space directly above the blue firmament of heaven, which is the inner atmosphere. The four beasts, then, are below that firmament, on earth, where God had originally placed them at the beginning. Again:

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. (Gen. 3:22-24.)

The cherubims have been there, on earth, at the east of the garden of Eden, ever since. Because the outer shell of earth encircles the throne of Jehovah which is set in the middle of the inner earth sky, the JST corrected the Revelation text to say that the four beasts were “round about” (encircling) the throne.

Looking at the same corrected (JST) verse, we can also see that what John saw matched what Ezekiel saw:

and in the midst of the throne were the four and twenty elders; and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. (JST Revelation 4:6.)

Two verses later, John says:

And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. (Revelation 4:8.)

Compare that to what Ezekiel said about the cherubim:

As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. (Ezekiel 1:18)

And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had. (Ezekiel 10:12)

These “eyes” are vortices, that is, they are smaller rotating columns of plasma seen at a cross-section within the larger column (think: rotating spherical wheels within a larger spinning wheel) and they fill up all the observable volume of space, like toroidal pearls on a string. To the observing prophet, they look just like eyes, complete with sclera, iris and pupil. (Now, for those who want a primer on plasma physics, here is Anthony Peratt’s hour-long presentation on petroglyphs):

Continuing on, we find that the four beasts that John saw had the same or similar faces that Ezekiel’s cherubim had:

And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. (Revelation 4:7.)

As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. (Ezekiel 1:10)

One difference is that Ezekiel described one of the faces as that of an ox, whereas John described that same face as that of a calf. Both words are descriptions of bovine animals, thus it’s prophetically the same thing.

Another difference is that John’s beasts were four with one face each, while Ezekiel’s living creatures were four with four faces each. Another difference is that John’s beasts had six wings whereas Ezekiel’s cherubim had only four. Does this mean that these were different things? No, not at all. Plasmoids alter their appearance and structure according to the electrical environment. When the electrical environment changes, their forms change accordingly. But they are still the same things.

Now that we’ve mentioned the four beasts and their wings and eyes, let’s see what Joseph Smith had to say about all of this.

Joseph Smith’s explanation of John’s four beasts

Q. What are we to understand by the four beasts, spoken of in the same verse [Revelation 4:6]?
A. They are figurative expressions, used by the Revelator, John, in describing heaven, the paradise of God, the happiness of man, and of beasts, and of creeping things, and of the fowls of the air; that which is spiritual being in the likeness of that which is temporal; and that which is temporal in the likeness of that which is spiritual; the spirit of man in the likeness of his person, as also the spirit of the beast, and every other creature which God has created.

Q. Are the four beasts limited to individual beasts, or do they represent classes or orders?
A. They are limited to four individual beasts, which were shown to John, to represent the glory of the classes of beings in their destined order or sphere of creation, in the enjoyment of their eternal felicity.

Q. What are we to understand by the eyes and wings, which the beasts had?
A. Their eyes are a representation of light and knowledge, that is, they are full of knowledge; and their wings are a representation of power, to move, to act, etc. (D&C 77:2-4.)

Thus, cherubims are just three dimensional divine drawings that God made using plasma. They have no soul, nor free will. They are like animatronics or automatons or pre-programmed robots made out of plasma, that respond to their environment in predictable ways. These things are plasmoids of a very specific type, which cannot be reproduced in a laboratory, and which move, speak, glow, hold things, praise God, etc.

Notice that the Bible Dictionary entry on cherubim calls attention to their symbolic nature:

Cherubim
Figures representing heavenly creatures, the exact form being unknown. They are found in the Holy of Holies, on the Mercy Seat of the Ark (Ex. 25:18, 22; 1 Kgs. 6:23–28; Heb. 9:5), and in the visions of Ezekiel (Ezek. 10; 11:22). In the account of the Fall, cherubim are represented as keeping “the way of the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24).

The author or authors of that entry were obviously taking Joseph Smith’s words in D&C 77 as their guide.

John’s four beast’s compared to Isaiah’s seraphim

Okay, going back to verse eight, John says the following:

And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. (Revelation 4:8.)

Why is it that they rest not day or night? Because they are just electrical appliances. As long as your alarm clock doesn’t eventually disintegrate or otherwise break down from overuse, you can keep it plugged into the electrical outlet, or you can keep its batteries in, and you can keep it turned on, all of the time. The same principle applies to plasmoids, which never experience wear and tear. You can keep them powered for all eternity and they never break down.

Now, notice that John’s cherubim were saying something very similar to what Isaiah’s seraphim were saying:

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. (Isaiah 6:1-4.)

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. (Isaiah 6:5-7.)

What’s the difference between the cherubim and the seraphim? The seraphim are above the firmament of crystal, where God’s throne is, while the cherubim are below the firmament of crystal, which is below God’s throne. But the seraphim and cherubim are both likewise plasmoids.

So, when Joseph Smith prayed the following about seraphs, he wasn’t talking of angels, nor of angelic creatures, but of divinely made representations (drawings or animations or sculptures that move and make sound and speak) of heavenly things and truth:

And help us by the power of thy Spirit, that we may mingle our voices with those bright, shining seraphs around thy throne, with acclamations of praise, singing Hosanna to God and the Lamb! (Doctrine and Covenants 109:79.)

Unfortunately, the Bible Dictionary entry on seraphim gets it partly right and partly wrong:

Seraphim
Probably fiery beings. Angelic beings mentioned in the account of Isaiah’s vision (Isa. 6:2). They are represented as winged and partly human in form. They are attendants in Jehovah’s court, the ministers of the heavenly sanctuary, joining in adoration before the throne.

It is certainly true that seraphim are fiery (as are cherubim), but it is incorrect to say that they are angelic beings. They are most definitely not angelic beings, but are just more plasmoids.

If it looks like a plasmoid, moves like a plasmoid and sounds like a plasmoid, it’s an angel! (So they say.)

To recap: When a pinched plasma column changes its electrical current, going higher or lower in electrical power, the plasmoids within that column likewise begin to alter their form and appearance. The four cherubim that Ezekiel saw, the four beasts that John saw and the seraphim that Isaiah saw are all the result of the same process. A plasma column forms, becomes pinched and creates a plasmoid of a specific type, called a cherub, which at certain power levels stays put on the earth, while at other levels it moves along or mounts up, raising its wings up or down accordingly, all the while making electrically-produced noises which sound like voices. When the electrical current changes, so does its form. Beginning with four wings, it now sprouts six and whereas it started with four faces, now it has only one, each plasmoid with a different face. Also its electrically-made sounds appear to chant, “Holy, holy, holy,” etc. If you lift the cherubim up above the firmament, now its form changes again, into that of a six-winged seraphim, which also begins to chant, “Holy, holy, holy.” But it’s all the same manifestation, just in different locations and at different power levels.

Thus, the four beasts that John saw are the same four living creatures that Ezekiel saw—which Ezekiel identified as cherubim, and which Joseph Smith called figurative expressions and representations—and the seraphim that Isaiah saw are just more of the same type of manifestation.

In conclusion

The point of this post is merely to put forth the understanding that the seraphim and cherubim aren’t a type of angel or angelic creature, but are graphical and auditory and tactile representations made of plasma, created by God to teach divine principles and to give Himself glory.

Obviously, none of this matters one iota to anyone’s salvation. Anyone can continue to believe the seraphim and cherubim are merely strange, unknown types of angels, and they can hold onto that belief until the day they die, and if they have kept their covenants they’ll still be saved, but I thought I would clear up some of this mystery anyway.

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The Noachian Flood, Part Three: Oceans above, below and within

Continued from part two.

Part one and two of this series were published on 12 November 2007 and 8 July 2008, respectively, so nearly six years have passed since the last one.  I began this particular draft in 2008 but decided not to finish it, because there really isn’t much to it, but I recently got a little more scientific information to add, so off it goes for publication.  (Just think of this as me doing some spring cleaning in my draft posts queue.)

Stacked planetary effects

Tim Malone brought up a good point in his (1 March 2008) article, Just where exactly are the lost ten tribes?, concerning the effect on the oceans of a configuration of stacked planets.  Wrote he,

Can you imagine what will happen to the waters of the earth with the attraction of another planet over the North pole? I would hate to live North of any large body of water at that point. Think about it. There will be a worldwide catastrophic inundation as the water from the equatorial regions suddenly rushes to the Northern polar region. Imagine the water in the Gulf of Mexico. Where will it go? How about the water in the Mediterranean? Think of the great devastation that will cause as it travels Northward at a frightening speed.

Where’s Waldo, er, water?

If we believe the scriptures that state that “the earth will be rolled together as a scroll”—meaning that the scattered planets will once again return to their stacked locations, just as scattered Israel will be gathered together again—then with a planet above us and (possibly) a planet below us, the waters of the earth will return to the poles, as conjectured by Malone. If this was their original location—and if they were held there by both gravitational and electrical means, due to the stacked nature of the planetary configuration—then when these planets scattered, the oceans were free to move over the Earth, causing inundations everywhere.

Still, the scientists tell us that there isn’t enough water to cover the Earth entirely. The previous part of this series spoke of the possibility of water being created in the atmosphere due to highly reactive OH production in a high energy, electrical state. But even this may not be enough water to cover everything.

So, where else could the water come from?

Two reports show “oceans” of water inside the Earth

One possibility is from underground “oceans.”

For example, on February 27, 2007, Richard A. Lovett, writing for the National Geographic News, reported in the article Huge Underground “Ocean” Found Beneath Asia that a “blob” of water the size of the Arctic Ocean had been discovered hundreds of miles below. This particular find was of moisture “locked in” to rocks, so it is not a free flowing ocean, however, it at least points to the prospect of there being more water to this planet that we are not aware of.  If this and other underground sources of water were at one time held in polar geographies by the planets found above and below Earth, then when freed, these same waters might have helped to cover the earth in the Noachian Flood and subsequently over time receded, forming our water tables and underground “oceans.”

Revealed: The vast resevoir hidden in the Earth’s crust that holds as much water as ALL of the oceans is the second article, which was published on 12 March 2014.  Here are some quotes:

Scientists have discovered a vast reservoir of water under the Earth’s mantle they say could be larger than all the ocean’s combined.

…

Hans Keppler, a geologist at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, cautioned against extrapolating the size of the subterranean water find from a single sample of ringwoodite.

And he also said the water was likely to be locked up in specific rocks, in a molecular form called hydroxyl.

‘In some ways it is an ocean in Earth’s interior, as visualised by Jules Verne… although not in the form of liquid water,’ Keppler said in a commentary also published by Nature.

The implications of the discovery are profound, Pearson suggested.

Water under the Earth

Another possibility is that the oceans found on the inner surface of the planet—assuming we live on a hollow orb with polar openings—were likewise held at the poles and so when the plasma “fountains” (columns) were broken, they inundated the outside surface first, before receding to their present inner surface positions.

Concerning the oceans and rivers found on the inside surface of the planet, Olaf Jansen wrote:

About three-fourths of the “inner” surface of the earth is land and about one-fourth water. There are numerous rivers of tremendous size, some flowing in a northerly direction and others southerly. Some of these rivers are thirty miles in width, and it is out of these vast waterways, at the extreme northern and southern parts of the “inside” surface of the earth, in regions where low temperatures are experienced, that freshwater icebergs are formed. They are then pushed out to sea like huge tongues of ice, by the abnormal freshets of turbulent waters that, twice every year, sweep everything before them.

(Quoted from The Smoky God.)

Enough and to spare

As one fourth of the inner surface is covered in water (according to Jansen), if that oceanic water was added to the outer surface amount and to the water found between the two surfaces of the crust of the Earth, and all of that was coupled with the water generated through electrical OH production, it might very well be that there is enough water and to spare to cover the outside surface (and perhaps also the inside surface) of the planet completely, just as is recorded in our current Bibles.

Conclusion

When taking into consideration the evidence for an electrical universe and a stacked planetary configuration, as well as the evidence of all planets being hollow with possible polar openings, the scriptural account of the global Noachian Flood no longer remains outside of the realm of possibility. Mainstream scientists reject the idea of a global Flood because they reject the plasma and hollow planet models, despite the evidence supporting both models. The Noachian Flood “story” is unbelievable when viewed through the mainstream models, but it is believable when viewed through the plasma and hollow planet models, especially when taking into account this new data concerning all the water within the Earth.

I started this series because of the discussions LDS were having (back in 2007), in which they were trying to make the Noachian Flood “fit” into the mainstream scientific models. We no longer need to fit square pegs into rounds holes. There are other models available which allow us to accept our scriptures, and this global Flood story in particular, without hesitation or doubt.

Next Plasma Theology article: The plasma aspects of the First Vision and Moroni’s visit

Previous Plasma Theology article: The Noachian Flood, Part Two: Electrically manufacturing OH

Complete List of Articles authored by LDS Anarchist

Plasma Theology

I don’t know how many people who read this site study/understand/care much about the electric model of the universe, and how interplanetary movements and their resulting plasma interactions shaped human myths and conceptions of the gods — but one can come to appreciate why someone like myself, LDSA, or Anthony Larson view the plasma perspective as the only way to read prophetic narratives [see our posts on: D&C 88, D&C 101, Revelations, and any of Anthony’s posts] — if you’ll think about why ancient myths and symbols do not correlate with anything in our present night sky.

From where we stand, the planets appear as these tiny pin-pricks of light.  Without telescopes, we can’t even clearly discern what they look like.  But then why did the ancients view them with such reverence and fear?  Why did our ancestors remember the planets as these immense powers in the sky — wielding thunder, lightning, fire, and storms?

Nothing in our skies, among the regular and silent motions of Venus and Mars — Jupiter and Saturn will ever explain:

• a primeval stationary sun of a “Golden Age”
• a cosmic wheel turning in the heavens
• a glorious mountain or temple where the Gods dwelt above mankind
• winged bulls
• fire-breathing dragons or chaos serpents

or any of the other ideas ancient humans attached to these planetary bodies.

Prophetic narratives describe heavenly [in the sky] events:

There are certain events that can cause all mankind to start to worship gods:  planetary and interplanetary high-powered plasma displays.

When displays are on a solar-system-wide scale, everyone “converts” into a believer in one kind of god or another and starts worshipping something.  This is because the human brain responds to the electrical current of the solar system.  When it “powers-up”, it strikes us on a primitive level.

Historically, this is how it has always been — and it’s the reason the ancients always struggled with idolatry [see, The doctrine of destruction].  Atheism only creeps-in when the skies are asleep, and the drive to worship doesn’t “pull” on us as strongly.  This urge [once “turned-on”] is as basic as our sexual impulse and is a part of our natural state of existence [meaning that atheism, like monogamy, is a more recent human invention].

The prophetic narratives [in myth — or in scripture] take as their template events that unfold in the heavens:  i.e. the movements of planets and their interactions with each other as seen from earth, in the sky.  “Prophecy” is merely the description of planetary movements and plasma interactions.

The imagery in a prophetic story is imagery observed in the sky.  The mention of a “sword” or a “wheel” or a “dragon” — doesn’t mean there is a literal and physical metallic blade, chariot wheel, and fire-breathing reptile floating around in outer space – but that there are planetary movements and plasma formations that, when seen from the perspective of Earth, create an image or appearance that can be described as these things.

Prophecy is simply the movements of planetary bodies and the resulting plasma interactions, converted into a narrative that describe patterns — that likewise play out in earthly events.  Meaning that after the planets go through their described motions, fulfilling the elements of the prophecy every whit – the same story then plays out here, among people on Earth.

The research done in comparative mythology, plasma cosmology, and the electric universe suggest that the planets are not just big, physical balls of gas and rock, but they are also the idea of what those planets mean – the planets being used as a way to represent a pattern of things taking place among mankind [or within yourself] as though it were a physical event transpiring in the sky.

Their descriptions don’t make sense if you are basing your opinions on them on the current configuration of the planets.  Our current skies are asleep — and the electrical currents are not charged.

The following YouTube videos are full-length documentaries produced by the Thunderbolts research group.  And they present, visually, what I’ve been describing with text.

Remembering the End of the World:

Symbols of an Alien Sky:

Thunderbolts of the Gods:

Next Article by Justin: A person, being evil, cannot do that which is good

Previous Article by Justin:  Fourth Chapter of Luke

Various recent insights

by and by; or, How long does it take?

I got to talking to a friend yesterday and shared with him the following:

Alma 32:42 uses the term “by and by.”

and because of your diligence | and your faith | and your patience | with the word | in nourishing it | that it may take root in you |

behold | by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof | which is most precious | which is sweet | above all that is sweet | and which is white | above all that is white | yea | and pure | above all that is pure | and ye shall feast upon this fruit | even until ye are filled | that ye hunger not | neither shall ye thirst |

This term means “immediately; at once” such as in the following example: “When…persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended” (Matt. 13:21.) So, when Alma says, “Behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof,” he is really saying, “Behold, immediately ye shall pluck the fruit thereof.”

Diligence, faith and patience with the word is required to nourish it, and then it takes root in you. In the very instant that it takes root in you, the seed immediately springs up as a tree bearing fruit.

but if ye will nourish the word | yea | nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow | by your faith | with great diligence | and with patience | looking forward to the fruit thereof | it shall take root |

and behold | it shall be a tree | springing up unto everlasting life | (Alma 32:41)

and now | my brethren | i desire | that ye shall plant this word in your hearts | and as it beginneth to swell | even so | nourish it by your faith |

and behold | it will become a tree | springing up in you unto everlasting life | (Alma 33:23)

There is no lag time. In the very moment that the seed takes root, it instantly becomes “a tree springing up unto everlasting life.”

Normal, earthly trees take years to grow into maturity. But the heavenly seed, the word of God, is the seed of a plasma tree of life and light, which operates in an instantaneous manner, in very much the same way in which lightning creates an instantaneous “tree” of light when it strikes, branching out in many directions.

o then | is not this real |

i say unto you |

yea | because it is light | and whatsoever is light | is good | because it is discernible | therefore | ye must know | that it is good |

and now | behold | after ye have tasted this light | is your knowledge perfect | (Alma 32:34)

The seed, then, is made up of light, meaning that it shines in darkness. In other words, it is a plasma tree seed.

This plasma seed is planted into our heart soil by our faith, but first a place must be made in the soil by our belief.

even if ye can no more than desire to believe | let this desire work in you | even until ye believe in a manner | that ye can give place for a portion of my words |

now | we will compare the word unto a seed |

now | if ye give place | that a seed may be planted in your heart |

behold | if it be a true seed | or a good seed | if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief | that ye will resist the spirit of the lord |

behold | it will begin to swell within your breasts | (Alma 32:27-28)

“Giving place” is simply making a depression or digging a hole in our heart soil so that the seed may be planted. We “give place” by our belief in the seed. Nevertheless, it is not our belief that plants the seed, but our faith. Previously on this blog, I taught that our belief plants the word, (which I now believe to be erroneous.) I now believe that our belief only creates a place in the heart soil so that the seed may be planted. Planting the seed appears to require more than just belief.

The Zoramites understood Alma’s words better than we do today. Alma explained to them what happens when the seed is planted, but he didn’t fully explain how to plant the seed. For example, Alma explained how to “give place” for the seed (by belief) and then went on to explain what happens to the seed when they plant it by their faith (it swells) and what happens when they nourish it by their faith, diligence and patience (it takes root and becomes a tree bearing fruit.) He also explained to the Zoramites how to nourish the seed by their faith (by taking thought, looking forward with an eye of faith, etc.) But he never got around to explaining the part about how to plant the seed, nor the specifics of what to look forward to, etc. This is why we find the Zoramites asking him the following:

now | after alma had spoken these words | they sent forth unto him | desiring to know | whether they should believe in one god | that they might obtain this fruit | of which he had spoken | or how they should plant the seed | or the word | of which he had spoken | which | he said | must be planted in their hearts | or in what manner they should begin to exercise their faith | (Alma 33:1)

So, they wanted to know “how they should plant the seed,” which Alma had not fully explained to them (in Alma 32.) They understood that they needed to “begin to exercise their faith” in order to plant the seed, but they didn’t know how to do that, nor whether they should put their faith in one or multiple deities (for they were idolaters.)

Alma then proceeded to give them examples of prayer or worship, showing that Zenos prayed (worshiped) everywhere and was heard because of his sincerity, because he prayed to be heard by God and not by men, and also because of God’s Son. He also cited Zenock, showing that the word was in the Son of God. Finally, he gave Moses as an example, pointing their minds to the brazen serpent incident. All of this showed to them that they needed to look to Christ on the cross, pray to (or worship) God in all places and at all times (for when are we not to worship God?) and carry with them always a belief in the atonement, resurrection and judgment of Christ.

In other words, there is a continuous, three-fold action that is required in the exercise of faith: 1) We must cry to God the Father, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, always, without ceasing. 2) We must look to Christ on the cross continually, always remembering His body and His blood. 3) We must yield to the enticings of the Holy Ghost, which is what “hearkening to the voice of the Lord” consists of. This last step includes both listening to and believing the word of God, as well as obeying it.

So, we are to constantly look to Christ with our left prefrontal lobes, and we are to constantly hearken unto the voice of the Lord with our right prefrontal lobes, feeling His words, which hearkening causes us to repent of our sins and obtain a broken heart and contrite spirit, becoming meek and lowly in heart, etc.

and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice | but ye were past feeling | that ye could not feel his words | (1 Ne. 17:45)

And finally, we are to constantly cry to God the Father in the name of His Son, either using our audible voice or the voice in our minds, making sure that the words we speak audibly, or in our minds, match the feelings in our hearts, so that we do not become as the hypocrites.

This is what faith is and this is how you exercise it, as I currently understand it.

These three things, which invoke the entire Godhead, are to be done constantly, without ceasing or fainting (losing spirit or courage.)

ye must pray always | and not faint | (2 Ne. 32:9)

Doing these things causes the seed to be planted in the depression we have made in our heart soil by our belief. And once the seed is planted by this triple action of faith, the seed begins to swell, grow and sprout tender blades. In other words, it begins to shine or give off light, “enlightening the understanding,” so that we will know that it is a good, or a true, seed, for “truth shineth in darkness.”

jesus christ | his son | he that ascended up on high | as also he descended below all things | in that he comprehended all things | that he might be in all and through all things | the light of truth | which truth shineth | … |

the light shineth in darkness | (D&C 88:5-7,49)

Nevertheless, despite the tender blades which it has sprouted, it still has got no root, which it must have in order to obtain the fruit of the tree. Alma is emphatic about the need for the seed to take root:

and behold | as the tree beginneth to grow | ye will say |

let us nourish it with great care | that it may get root | that it may grow up | and bring forth fruit unto us |

and now | behold | if ye nourish it with much care | it will get root | and grow up | and bring forth fruit | but if ye neglect the tree | and take no thought for its nourishment |

behold | it will not get any root | and when the heat of the sun cometh | and scorcheth it | because it hath no root | it withers away | and ye pluck it up | and cast it out |

now | this is not | because the seed was not good | neither is it | because the fruit thereof would not be desirable | but it is | because your ground is barren | and ye will not nourish the tree | therefore | ye cannot have the fruit thereof |

and thus | if ye will not nourish the word | looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof | ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life | but if ye will nourish the word | yea | nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow | by your faith | with great diligence | and with patience | looking forward to the fruit thereof | it shall take root |

and behold | it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life | (Alma 32:37-41)

So, the process remains the same. The word is planted by diligent and patient faith (the triple action described above) and it is also nourished by the same.

Now, the seed only takes root when the tares are uprooted, for “the tares choke the wheat” (D&C 86:3), which tares are the chains of hell (another plasma plant), and which are only removed by exercising faith unto repentance. The Lamanite king asked Aaron:

what shall I do | that I may be born of god | having this wicked spirit rooted out of my breast | and receive his spirit | (Alma 22:15)

To which Aaron answered:

if thou desirest this thing | if thou wilt bow down before god | yea | if thou wilt repent of all thy sins | and will bow down before god | and call on his name | in faith | believing that ye shall receive | then shalt thou receive the hope | which thou desirest | (Alma 22:16)

Thus, it is the very instant in which a man finally exercises faith unto repentance and receives a remission of his sins, that the tares are removed from his heart and the wheat seed that is planted there finally puts forth its plasma roots, springing up into a tree of everlasting life, bearing fruit.

Which brings me to my next topic.

The manifestation of a remission of sins

There is a manifestation appointed to the people of God by which they will know that they have received a remission of sins. In D&C section 20, Joseph Smith is called to be the first elder of the church. The revelation then says:

after it was truly manifested unto this first elder | that he had received a remission of his sins | he was entangled again in the vanities of the world | but after repenting | and humbling himself sincerely | through faith | god ministered unto him by an holy angel | (D&C 20:5-6)

The manifestation that Joseph Smith received, that showed him that he had received a remission of his sins, was the First Vision. If you look at all of the accounts of the First Vision, you will notice that one of them speaks of it in terms of a quest for forgiveness:

Joseph Smith was not satisfied with the programs of redemption taught by the religious leaders in the community where he lived. After investigating the basic beliefs of various denominations, he stated that he “cried unto the Lord for mercy for there was none else to whom” he could go. While calling upon the Lord, the young man testified, “I was filld with the spirit of God and the Lord opened the heavens upon me and I saw the Lord and he spake unto me saying Joseph my son thy sins are forgiven thee. go thy way walk in my statutes and keep my commandments behold I am the Lord of glory I was crucifyed for the world that all those who believe on my name may have Eternal life.” (Joseph Smith’s Recitals of the First Vision, by Milton V. Backman, Jr., Ensign, Jan. 1995.)

The manifestation of the remission of sins, then, is the ministration of angels, just as the Angel of the Lord’s presence, even Jesus Christ, ministered to Joseph. Later, Joseph stated:

During the space of time which intervened between the time I had the vision and the year eighteen hundred and twenty-three—having been forbidden to join any of the religious sects of the day, and being of very tender years, and persecuted by those who ought to have been my friends and to have treated me kindly, and if they supposed me to be deluded to have endeavored in a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed me—I was left to all kinds of temptations; and, mingling with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into many foolish errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature; which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations, offensive in the sight of God. In making this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins. A disposition to commit such was never in my nature. But I was guilty of levity, and sometimes associated with jovial company, etc., not consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was called of God as I had been. But this will not seem very strange to any one who recollects my youth, and is acquainted with my native cheery temperament.

In consequence of these things, I often felt condemned for my weakness and imperfections; when, on the evening of the above-mentioned twenty-first of September, after I had retired to my bed for the night, I betook myself to prayer and supplication to Almighty God for forgiveness of all my sins and follies, and also for a manifestation to me, that I might know of my state and standing before him; for I had full confidence in obtaining a divine manifestation, as I previously had one.

So, after “he was entangled again in the vanities of the world,” Joseph again approached God in prayer, seeking a remission of sins, and once again received the ministration of angels, this time the ministering angel being Moroni. This, then, is our pattern and the key to know if we have exercised faith unto repentance.

The ministration of angels is the first fruit of the tree that the tree bears when the seed has taken root, which causes the seed to instantaneously spring up into a tree. The first fruit of such repentance is a plasma display, for this is a plasma tree, and thus the newly repented and forgiven man, who has finally begun to exercise faith, finds himself in the midst of fire (discharging plasma) and ministered to by an angel of light, whose countenance will be like lightning (discharging plasma.) And thus the remission of sins only comes by fire and by the Holy Ghost, even the ministration of angels, according to the pattern given in Helaman chapter 5, which is the pattern given to the Gentiles.

Which brings me to my next topic.

Angels gather all the elect

In the parable of the wheat and the tares, the Lord said

that in the time of harvest | i will say to the reapers |

gather ye together first the wheat into my barn | and the tares are bound in bundles to be burned | (Matt. 13:29, Inspired Version)

Later, Jesus explained the parable to the apostles, saying:

the reapers are the angels | or the messengers sent of heaven | (Matt. 13:40, Inspired Version)

When the wheat is ripe, meaning that when the seed has taken root, producing fruit and the remission of sins, that person becomes one of the elect (or chosen) of God. They are then gathered by the ministration of angels. Mormon, speaking of angels, said:

for behold | they are subject unto him | to minister | according to the word of his command | showing themselves unto them of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness | and the office of their ministry is to call men unto repentance | and to fulfil | and to do | the work of the covenants of the father | which he hath made unto the children of men | to prepare the way among the children of men | by declaring the word of christ unto the chosen vessels of the lord | that they may bear testimony of him | and by so doing | the lord god prepareth the way | that the residue of men may have faith in christ | that the holy ghost may have place in their hearts | according to the power thereof | and after this manner bringeth to pass | the father | the covenants | which he hath made unto the children of men | (Moro. 7:30-32)

The “chosen vessels of the Lord” are the elect of God. This is anyone who repents of his sins and comes to Christ, meaning anyone who exercised faith unto repentance. This saying does not refer to church leadership or to people with lofty titles. The elect are merely all those who hearken unto the voice of the Lord, for all those who hearken unto the voice of the Lord will repent of all their sins and cry continually unto the Lord for forgiveness and a remission of their sins, in faith, believing that they will receive, until they receive it by the appointed manifestation, which is the ministering of angels. And this principle applies to both men, women and children:

and now | he imparteth his word by angels unto men | yea | not only men | but women also |

now | this is not all | little children do have words given unto them many times | which confound the wise and the learned | (Alma 32:23)

And thus, they, the elect, become ripe to be reaped by the reapers, even the angels, and gathered. The ministering of angels, then, is the sign that one has become one of the elect of God, through the exercise of faith on the name of Christ.

behold | verily i say unto you |

the angels are crying unto the lord day and night | who are ready | and waiting | to be sent forth | to reap down the fields |

but the lord saith unto them

pluck not up the tares | while the blade is yet tender |

for verily | your faith is weak |

lest you destroy the wheat also | (D&C 86:5-6)

A blade that is yet tender is a faith that is still weak, even a seed which has sprouted, swelled and grown, but has not yet taken root. Unto such, no angels are sent, for angels are only sent to them of strong faith, even to those who have done more than just planted the seed, by their faith, but who have also continued to nourish the word, by their faith, with constant prayer, looking and hearkening, until it takes root.

And the reason why angels could destroy unripe wheat is because unless such wheat has exercised faith unto repentance, upon seeing an angel they would then have a perfect knowledge in that thing and would have no cause to believe and exercise faith (see Alma 32:18), thus frustrating the plan for their salvation, for all men are saved by faith. Nevertheless, angels are also sent to call men to repentance and sometimes that works (Alma and the sons of Mosiah) and sometimes it doesn’t work (Laman and Lemuel.) But as far as those who are striving to exercise faith and repent of their sins, angels are only sent to such people when their seeds have taken root.

How to convert charitable works of men into scriptural good works

One more little insight, which may or may not be true (you decide), and then I will end this post.

I was recently asked about the meaning of the latter part of the following scripture:

but behold | i say unto you |

that ye must pray always | and not faint |

that ye must not perform any thing unto the lord | save | in the first place | ye shall pray unto the father in the name of christ | that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee | that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul | (2 Ne. 32:9)

I explained that there were three types of works on this planet: the miraculous works of the Father, the non-miraculous works of men, and the works of the devil. Whenever a man does anything non-miraculous to benefit his fellow man, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, comforting the sick and afflicted, visiting the prisoners, taking in the homeless, it is accounted as a work of man, done in the name of a man, and he has his reward, even whatsoever reward he receives in mortality, whether that be a pleasant, warm feeling, or reciprocity, or a good reputation, or whatever.

All such works are not accounted as works of righteousness, for they are not done in the name of the Lord, but in the name of a man, nor are they done in faith. Thus, they are accounted as the works of men, who shall have joy in their works for a season, and then the axe which is laid at the root of their tree will cut it down and cast it into the fire.

What Nephi is explaining in this scripture, is how we can make all our non-miraculous, but charitable works of men be accounted unto us for righteousness, or as works of the Father, by invoking the name of the Supreme Being in faith. Before we perform any such work, we must pray to God the Father in the name of the Son, that the work will be set apart, or sanctified unto us, meaning that it is accounted unto us as a work of righteousness, done in the name of God, we being a proxy, and He Himself doing the work, through us, thus ascribing all glory and honor to God. For all things must done in His name and to give glory to Him. And in this way, by praying first in this manner, asking in faith that the performance will be consecrated, or set apart, as a work of God, the performance will be for the welfare of our souls, meaning that in the day of judgment, it will be accounted as righteousness, and will be listed in our favor, as a work of faith, through our prayers of faith.

This scripture plainly shows, then, that all those who think that they are doing good works as they go about doing non-miraculous, charitable works of men, without praying in faith and invoking the name of the Lord, nor ascribing the work to God’s glory, will be quite surprised in the day of judgment to learn that none such works are listed as works of righteousness.

This is also according to the principle found in D&C 132:13-14.

and everything that is in the world | whether it be ordained of men | by thrones | or principalities | or powers | or things of name | whatsoever they may be | that are not by me | or by my word |

saith the lord |

shall be thrown down | and shall not remain after men are dead | neither in | nor after | the resurrection |

saith the lord | your god |

for whatsoever things remain are by me | and whatsoever things are not by me shall be shaken and destroyed |

That’s all for now.

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“…and the labor which they had to perform was to look…”

And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. (Num. 21:4-9)

And he did straiten them in the wilderness with his rod; for they hardened their hearts, even as ye have; and the Lord straitened them because of their iniquity. He sent fiery flying serpents among them; and after they were bitten he prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished. (1 Ne. 17:41)

And the God of our fathers, who were led out of Egypt, out of bondage, and also were preserved in the wilderness by him, yea, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, yieldeth himself, according to the words of the angel, as a man, into the hands of wicked men, to be lifted up, according to the words of Zenock, and to be crucified, according to the words of Neum, and to be buried in a sepulchre, according to the words of Zenos, which he spake concerning the three days of darkness, which should be a sign given of his death unto those who should inhabit the isles of the sea, more especially given unto those who are of the house of Israel. (1 Ne. 19:10)

And now, my brethren, I have spoken plainly that ye cannot err. And as the Lord God liveth that brought Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and gave unto Moses power that he should heal the nations after they had been bitten by the poisonous serpents, if they would cast their eyes unto the serpent which he did raise up before them, and also gave him power that he should smite the rock and the water should come forth; yea, behold I say unto you, that as these things are true, and as the Lord God liveth, there is none other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ, of which I have spoken, whereby man can be saved. (2 Ne. 25:20)

And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?… I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances? (Alma 5:14,19)

And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life. (Alma 32:40)

But behold, this is not all; these are not the only ones who have spoken concerning the Son of God. Behold, he was spoken of by Moses; yea, and behold a type was raised up in the wilderness, that whosoever would look upon it might live. And many did look and live. But few understood the meaning of those things, and this because of the hardness of their hearts. But there were many who were so hardened that they would not look, therefore they perished. Now the reason they would not look is because they did not believe that it would heal them. O my brethren, if ye could be healed by merely casting about your eyes that ye might be healed, would ye not behold quickly, or would ye rather harden your hearts in unbelief, and be slothful, that ye would not cast about your eyes, that ye might perish? If so, wo shall come upon you; but if not so, then cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection, that all men shall stand before him, to be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works. (Alma 33:18-22)

Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever. (Alma 37:36)

O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever. And now, my son, see that ye take care of these sacred things, yea, see that ye look to God and live. Go unto this people and declare the word, and be sober. My son, farewell. (Alma 37:46-47)

And this shall ye do in remembrance of my body, which I have shown unto you. And it shall be a testimony unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you… And this shall ye always do to those who repent and are baptized in my name; and ye shall do it in remembrance of my blood, which I have shed for you, that ye may witness unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you. (3 Ne. 18:7,11)

And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—and for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works. (3 Ne. 27:14-15)

Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not. Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. Amen. (D&C 6:36-37)

What all of this means

Abinadi said to the priests of Noah:

I know if ye keep the commandments of God ye shall be saved; yea, if ye keep the commandments which the Lord delivered unto Moses in the mount of Sinai, saying:

I am the Lord thy God, who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other God before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing in heaven above, or things which are in the earth beneath.

Now Abinadi said unto them, Have ye done all this? I say unto you, Nay, ye have not. And have ye taught this people that they should do all these things? I say unto you, Nay, ye have not. (Mosiah 12:33-37)

If you take a bunch of planets (gods) and line them up, putting one of the largest (Jehovah) out in front and all the others behind it, none of the other planets will be seen, only the one right in front of you. If the first planet is exceedingly close to the point of observation, it will fill up a large portion of the sky, so that it will always be visible, no matter in which direction you are looking. Even when not directly looking at it, our peripheral vision will always have the planet in sight. Only by turning our eyes downward towards the ground (towards hell), will the planet’s image no longer be in sight.

Man is designed to operate with God in our sight. Obviously, we can no longer do that. God cannot be seen with our physical eyes and the planets have all moved so that the heavenly God is no longer in our view, filling up the sky, nor the other gods. But that is okay since we are here to walk by faith, meaning that we are now to imagine God in our heads and to keep the image of God always with us.

The ancients were commanded not to make physical images of God or gods. Instead, they were to use the imagination capacity of their right-brain-heart to create a spiritual image of God which they were to keep always before them in all that they saw. When one converted to Christ, that image now became the image of Christ, which one was to continually look at.

And when my father saw that the waters of the river emptied into the fountain of the Red Sea, he spake unto Laman, saying: O that thou mightest be like unto this river, continually running into the fountain of all righteousness! (1 Ne. 2:9)

Alma taught that there was a two-step process to planting the word, which was the atonement, in one’s heart. You had to create the image of the Son of God in your heart, keeping it there before your sight continually, and you also had to believe in the Son of God. (See Alma 33: 22 above.) All of Christianity understands the part about believing in the Son of God, but we all have misunderstood the part about seeing His image.

Christ on the cross is the image

Jesus Christ upon the cross is the image we are to imagine. This image appeals to both sides of our brains. It is concrete, appealing to the right-brain-heart and it is symbolic, appealing to the left-brain-mind. It represents the atonement, the broken heart and the contrite spirit. It also represents godly sorrow for sin. It contains the body of Christ, which is remembered during the bread portion of the sacrament, and the blood of Christ, which is remembered during the wine portion. It contains the wounds in His side and the prints of the nails in His hands and His feet, per D&C 6:37. It is a lifted up Christ, causing one to look up at Him, putting the one creating the image below Christ, in a position of humility. Also, being raised up, it is an ensign, calling attention, or drawing the attention of men to it.

Physical images are not good enough

Carrying crucifixes and hanging crosses around, as well as other physical images of Christ on the cross, does not have power to generate faith. Faith being a spiritual principle, it requires a spiritual image and effort (or labor) to generate it. The human brain was designed with the capacity to create imaginary images and super-impose them upon all that we see for this very reason, that mankind could have a way to walk by faith on earth, as we walked by sight in the heavens, even with the image of God always, or continually, or continuously before us.

Making God number one

Always remembering Christ on the cross puts God as the number one priority in a person’s life. That simple spiritual labor on our part, combined with belief on the Son of God, another spiritual labor, causes the Holy Spirit to come upon us and work upon our hearts, softening them and creating the broken heart and contrite spirit, giving us sorrow for sin and the accompanying weeping, and allowing us to pray in the Spirit (see D&C 46:28-32.)

Without the image of God continually before us, other images, even physical ones, become the priority. In other words, although physical idolatry may not be committed, spiritual idolatry occurs if other images come before the image of God, so that when we look we do not see God. This is how almost the entire world lives: without seeing God in the world.

The corrective is to begin to “awake and arouse your faculties” (Alma 32:27) and to look “forward with an eye of faith” (Alma 32:40), creating the image of God, even that of Jesus Christ the Son of God hanging upon the cross, through your imagination, and to keep that image always super-imposed on all that you see.

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The Baptism of Fire

The following is my current understanding of the baptism of fire.

One baptism in three parts

The gospel of Jesus Christ has one, tripartite baptism consisting of the baptism of water, the baptism of fire and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The purpose of baptism is to witness that there exists a covenant between God and the man being baptized. Unless all three witnesses have occurred, the covenant between him and God is not binding.

The doctrine of re-baptism applies equally to all three

Anyone who enters into an agreement with another is free to witness or affirm the fact of the agreement by attestation for as many times as desired. There is no law of man or God against this. In fact, under the law of God, we are to “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places” that we may be in, even until death. So, the principle of witnessing and re-witnessing is a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The manner in which man witnesses of his covenant to serve God is through water baptism. This means that in order to re-witness his covenant, he must be re-baptized. Therefore, he may receive the baptism of water whenever and as many times as he desires and must, per his covenant, be ever ready to be re-baptized at all times and in all places, to re-attest of the validity of his covenant. This is the doctrine or principle of re-baptism and it applies equally to both water, fire and Holy Ghost baptisms.

Order: fire and Spirit, then water, then fire and Spirit, etc.

Re-baptism being a principle of the gospel, the order in which these baptisms are received is not all that important. The only necessary thing is that each one is received, for these are really three parts of one baptism. Nevertheless, the scriptural, ideal order is first the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost (see D&C 20: 37), followed by the baptism of water, followed by another baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and thereafter, any part may be repeated multiple times throughout one’s life.

Another thing that the gospel states is that after a baptism of water, the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost is supposed to follow on its heels, either right after coming out of the water, or right after confirmation by the laying on of hands.

To demonstrate these principles, Joseph Smith received a baptism of fire during the First Vision, then a baptism of fire during each of Moroni’s visits and during the visit of John the Baptist, then a water baptism by the hand of Oliver Cowdery, followed by a baptism of the Holy Ghost after he came out of the water. Later he received other baptisms of fire with the visits of Peter, James, John, Moses, Elijah, etc. He also received another water baptism after the church was legally organized, etc.

Simultaneity

A baptism of fire is always accompanied with a baptism of the Holy Ghost, but a person may be baptized with the Holy Ghost without an accompanying baptism of fire. This is why the baptism of fire is always called the baptism (singular) of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and not the baptisms (plural) of fire and of the Holy Ghost. These two parts of the tripartite baptism occur simultaneously as a single baptismal event whenever there is a baptism of fire.

Jesus alone performs the baptism of fire

Unlike the baptism of water, which can be performed by the hand of a mortal man under priesthood power and authority, the baptism of fire is reserved for Deity alone to accomplish and is based upon the state of a man’s heart and his faith in Him. (See 3 Ne. 12: 1-2; 3 Ne. 9: 20; Matt. 3: 11; Luke 3: 16; JST Mark 1: 6; JST John 1: 28.)

Confirmation is not the baptism of fire

The scriptures say that elders are “to confirm those who are baptized into the church, by the laying of of hands for the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost.” This is the ordinance of confirmation. Laying hands on someone’s head for the baptism of fire does not baptize anyone with fire. Only the Lord can do that.

When the scriptures say that this ordinance is “for” the baptism of fire, it is using that word “for” to mean “indicating the end with reference to which anything is, acts, serves or is done.” Specifically, the word “for” in that sentence means “as a preparation for” or “with the object of.” So, elders lay hands as a preparation for the baptism of fire, or they lay hands with the object of the baptism of fire.

The ordinance of confirmation, then, is a preparatory ordinance, which precedes an actual baptism of fire. This ordinance is called confirmation because it is intended to confirm the believers’ faith, both that of the one being confirmed and that of those doing the confirming. This is because true priesthood is “inseparably connected with the powers of heaven,” so when true priesthood is exercised as an ordinance of the gospel, there will be a corresponding manifestation of heavenly power. So, after the ordinance of confirmation, there is supposed to be a baptism of fire that occurs, showing that the covenant of the newly baptized person is accepted of God, as well as the priesthood of the one who is doing the confirming.

Binding and accepted covenants

The baptism of fire serves to witness to the new member, to the priesthood holder(s) confirming, and to the church that is present, that the covenant that the man has entered into with his God, witnessed by his water baptism, is accepted by God and is now in force. In other words, that it is binding, both upon the man and his God.

To put another way, water baptism is man’s way of witnessing to God that he has entered into a covenant to serve Him, whereas fire baptism is God’s way of witnessing to man that He has accepted that covenantal relationship.

(Jesus said, “Whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also; and unto him will the Father bear record (witness) of me, for he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost.” See 3 Ne. 11: 35.)

Plasma is the medium

To serve as a witness to all these people, the baptism of fire must be a visual sign. The medium used is not the fire of a gas stove or match, but discharging plasma in appearance as fire. Depending upon where one is located in relation to the plasma display, it may look like the flame of fire, like a palpable or living light, like lightning, or just as immense glory or brightness.

Specifically, the baptism of fire consists of twin plasma filaments, rapidly rotating around a central axis, creating a plasma tube or sheath, or plasma column, in other words, a cylindrical shape around the person being baptized. When viewed from the outside, it appears to be “a pillar of fire.” When viewed from within the tube, the fire aspects may or may not be discerned, but its bright light or glory is apparent. Thus we have the various accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision, which was a baptism of fire, using the words “fire,” “flame,” “light,” “brightness” and “glory” to describe the discharging plasma he was witnessing.

Sometimes the twin filaments themselves can be discerned, and so we get a description of “cloven tongues of fire,” meaning twin tongues (or filaments) of plasma flame. Other descriptions are of fire “encircling” the persons being baptized, showing that the filaments rotate around the person.

All of these scriptural accounts are describing the same plasma manifestation observed from different spatial perspectives, and so accounts vary. But even with everything before a person, sometimes details can still be missed, as in 1 Ne. 15: 27.

Other aspects

Fire baptism is by complete, or cellular, immersion. Plasma both surrounds and enters the man, so that he becomes “filled with fire.” The fire can be seen and felt. To the one immersed in it, it initially feels like he is burning to death, in an incomprehensibly complete and rapid manner, as every part of the body seems to have caught on fire. Great fear instantly comes upon the man as he fully believes he is about to die. But in the next instant his mind realizes that death has not occurred, that there is no pain and that there is no apparent cellular damage or harm. The fear leaves just as suddenly as it comes, only to be replaced with a feeling of awe and gratitude as the mind realizes that this same destroying fire, which should have instantly atomized the body, is somehow keeping the body protected from its own destructive power.

The divine plasma has the effect of cleansing the heart of man, purifying it of all dross (sinful desires), so that he no longer desires to sin, but instead abhors it. In this swept clean condition, the Holy Ghost then unexpectedly and suddenly enters the man and causes the individual bits of his soul to shout for joy, because of the presence of Deity.

Fire baptism allows other heavenly manifestations to occur

The baptism of fire purifies a person’s heart and Jesus said that all the pure in heart shall see God. So, whenever a person receives a baptism of fire, chances are real good that they will also see either an angel, vision or God Himself. At the very least some revelation or prophecy will occur along with the baptism of fire, or some other manifestation of one of the gifts of the Spirit.

Fire remits sin

Whenever a person receives a baptism of fire, his sins are automatically remitted. In other words, he becomes justified, or guiltless, before the Lord. Nephi said, “For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.”

Fire brings forth a new tongue

Nephi also said that when a man receives the baptism of fire he then can speak with a new tongue, even the tongue of angels, and that “angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ.”

There are only two, definitive, scriptural examples

There are plenty of scriptural verses that mention the doctrine of baptism of fire, but there are only two accounts in our current standard works in which it is definitively stated that actual baptisms of fire occurred. Of those two accounts, only one applies to us in the latter days. They are:

Adam’s baptism of fire
After Adam was baptized by the Spirit of the Lord, as recorded in Moses 6: 64-68, he heard a voice saying, “Thou art baptized with fire, and with the Holy Ghost.” Nevertheless, there is no mention of any manifestation of fire in the account. Although quite interesting, this experience was, apparently, Adam specific and is not the template for the baptism of fire among the modern masses.

The Lamanites’ baptism of fire
When the Nephite missionaries Nephi and Lehi preached among the Lamanites and were imprisoned, about 300 souls received a baptism of fire, as recorded in Hel. 5: 20-49. This is the scriptural template of a baptism of fire for all mankind. We know this because the voice of Jesus Christ said so:

And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not. (3 Ne. 9: 20)

So, the Lord categorically states in the above scripture that the experience of the 300 souls was a baptism of fire. Additionally, He states that all baptisms of fire that He performs will be “even as the Lamanites… were baptized with fire.” The Lamanites’ baptism of fire, then, is the standard, the rule, and NOT the exception. It is the event that the Lord points to for us to determine whether a baptism of fire has occurred.

(The word “even” in the phrase “even as the Lamanites” means “in or to such (indicated) degree or kind.”)

What the baptism of fire consists of

Based upon the Lamanites’ experience, there are six characteristics of any baptism of fire. They are:

1. Fire encircling an individual, forming a cylindrical shape, such as a column or “pillar of fire” or plasma tube. This would be twin Birkeland currents (plasma cables or filaments) rotating rapidly around a central axis, in appearance like a fire tornado. This is the visual sign to all those witnessing the baptism.

2. The presence and ministration of angels.

3. Justification, meaning a remission of sins.

4. Purification, by fire entering the heart.

5. Sanctification, by becoming filled with (baptized in) the Holy Ghost.

6. Speaking with a new tongue (the tongue of angels, meaning speaking by the power of the Holy Ghost.)

Two more scriptural examples

Using the six characteristics above, we find two more scriptural examples of baptisms of fire which exactly match that of the Lamanites, although the text does not specifically say that they were fire baptisms. They are:

The Nephite little children’s baptism of fire
Jesus baptized little children with fire, as recorded in 3 Ne. 17: 21-25 and as witnessed by 2500 people. These children were encircled by fire, had angels minister to them and spoke in new tongues (see 3 Ne. 26: 14, 16.) Also, we know that they were justified, purified and sanctified, for they were little children and all little children are alive in Christ.

The 12 disciples’ baptism of fire
The fire baptism of these men is recorded in 3 Ne. 19: 11-15. They were encircled about by fire, filled with fire, had angels minister to them and prayed by the power of the Holy Ghost. From the text it is clear that they were justified, purified and sanctified.

Other intimated baptisms of fire

Joseph Smith’s baptisms of fire
As mentioned above, each of Joseph’s angelic ministrations was attended by a baptism of fire (plasma), including the First Vision.

For example, one First Vision account says, “A pillar of fire appeared above my head; which presently rested down upon me, and filled me with un-speakable joy. A personage appeared in the midst of this pillar of flame, which was spread all around and yet nothing consumed…I saw many angels in this vision.”

Another First Vision account says, “while in [the] attitude of calling upon the Lord [in the 16th* year of my age] a pillar of {fire} lightabove the brightness of the Sun at noon day come down fromabove and rested upon me and I was filld with the Spirit of God”. In this account Joseph couldn’t decide whether what he saw was fire or light. He finally decided on light and crossed out fire. The reason for his confusion was that he was witnessing discharging plasma.

I believe that it is reasonable to conclude that the plasma nature of the angel Moroni’s visit (see The plasma aspects of the First Vision and Moroni’s visit) was typical of all angelic ministrations to Joseph, and thus all such events in his life were likely baptisms of fire.

Moses’ vision of God
In Moses chapter 1 it says that “the glory of God was upon Moses.” That sounds to me like a plasma event and that he received a baptism of fire.

Lehi’s pillar of fire
1 Ne. 1: 6 mentions Lehi seeing a pillar of fire. It is obviously a super-duper abridgment of all that occurred, but it sounds like a baptism of fire.

Nephi’s visit from the Lord
Nephi mentions in 1 Ne. 2: 16 that he was visited by the Lord. He doesn’t elaborate but my guess is that this was Nephi’s first baptism of fire. Jesus states in 3 Ne. 11: 35 that when the Father visits people, He visits them with fire and with the Holy Ghost.

Cloven tongues on day of Pentecost
As recorded in Acts chapter 2, there appeared “cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.” They were filled with the Spirit, spoke other tongues and spoke by the power of the Holy Ghost. It’s not an exact match of the Lamanite experience (angels are missing), but pretty darn close.

Gentile cloven tongues
In Acts 11: 15 we read Peter’s words about how the Gentiles also received the Holy Ghost. He said, “And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.” That, to me, seems to be saying that the Holy Ghost fell on the Gentiles in the same way that the Holy Ghost fell on the Jews, namely, with accompanying manifestation of cloven tongues like as of fire. This could explain the astonishment of the Jews who witnessed the manifestation of tongues among the Gentiles. (See Acts 10: 44-47.)

Downgrading the baptism of fire

Now, when you compare the scriptural accounts of the baptism of fire to our modern, LDS definitions, it becomes obvious that we have downgraded the sudden, rapid changes effectuated by the marvelous, visual, power displays of the real deal to something gradual, drawn out, imperceptible and nondescript. For example:

While one definition of this expression (the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost) refers to a cleansing by the Holy Spirit as if by fire, still the scriptures and the writings of the prophets indicate there is something more.

The new convert who has accepted the gift of the Holy Ghost with the right spirit will experience not only a cleansing but a feeling that will give him a new heart and make of him a new person. Sometimes this is immediate, and sometimes it happens over a period of time.

…

The scriptures, and even our church history, record miraculous instances when visible flames encircled the humble followers of Christ—literal manifestations of fire and the Holy Ghost—but more often this fire works quietly and unseen in the hearts of those who have received the gift of the Holy Ghost.

…

The witness, the change, the cleansing that comes gradually is no less powerful to the person with the right heart, and he or she is impelled to action whether the experience was a sudden, miraculous manifestation or the quiet workings of the Spirit.

(Fire and the Holy Ghost, Loren C. Dunn, Ensign, June 1995)

We have taken away the majesty of the Father’s witness and replaced it with something that goes entirely against nature. Nature is cyclic, cycling between periods of rest and periods of activity. All things work on this principle, including spiritual things. Baptism (all three parts) are designed to be moments of spiritual intensity. You cannot perform a baptism of water over a period of time, or gradually, quietly and unseen. No, you are outside of the water (which can be visually discerned), then you are immersed, and then you come out of the water. There is nothing gradual about it. A single water baptism cannot be performed over days and years. In like manner, the baptism of fire is a punctuated, spiritually intense event.

No one’s spirituality is designed to grow gradually. Gradual spiritual growth is the same as no spiritual growth. There is no such animal as gradual spiritual growth. You either have intense spiritual experiences from time to time or you are spiritually dying. This is why we are commanded to come together often, to intensify the Spirit so as to be capable of growing spiritually.

Joseph Smith’s life was meant to be an example to us. He had multiple, very intense spiritual experiences. It began with a baptism of fire, it continued with more baptisms of fire and it ended in a volley of gun fire. John Taylor said that Joseph lived for glory, died for glory and glory is his eternal reward. Glory = plasma = the baptism of fire. Joseph did, indeed, live for those fire baptism experiences. He had a lot of them, he saw a lot of angels and who knows how many visions, and he wanted to have more of the same. And he tried ceaselessly to get the saints to experience what he was experiencing. So did Moses and all true prophets.

You are either immersed in plasma or you are not. You are either in an intensity phase or in a rest phase of the cycle. There is no such thing as non-cyclic gradualness. If you think you are growing spiritually for the past ten years without any intense spiritual experiences, you are kidding yourself. It means that you have been in a spiritual rest phase of the cycle during this time. No one can remain at spiritual rest for any extended period of time before spirituality begins to decay. It is an impossibility. So, the LDS concept of a gradual, life-long, imperceptible baptism of fire is patently false and leads to spiritual death.

Everyone will receive a baptism of fire

It is not a question of if, but when and how. If a man humbles himself before the Lord and enters into a covenant to serve Him, he’ll receive a baptism of fire in this life, one that will purify and justify him. But there are other baptisms of fire that can be received. For example, one is the baptism of fire that the earth and all those that do wickedly upon her will receive at the Second Coming. Another is the baptism of fire that occurs when the sons of perdition are immersed in the lake of fire and brimstone. One way or another, we are all eventually going to have to go through some type of baptismal fire.

And they knew it not

In closing, let me address one other thing. Jesus said that the Lamanites “were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not.” Some have taken that to mean that the Lamanites experienced a change upon their hearts which they did not perceive, because it happened gradually, over time. In other words, that the Lord meant that there was no great manifestation during the Lamanites’ fire and Holy Ghost baptism. And also that the Lord was not referring to the 300 Lamanites who were in prison with Nephi and Lehi, but was referring instead to other Lamanite converts.

This is an incorrect interpretation.

The real meaning of the Lord’s words is that the Lamanites (the 300 souls in that prison) had a magnificent, visual baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, but did not know what it was. That is all that the Lord meant by what He said.

Any time someone experiences a baptism of fire without first being taught about it, they go through the experience without knowing what it is. Joseph’s First Vision fire baptism was performed on him while he was still a boy totally ignorant of such a thing as a baptism of fire. In my own life, I remember that the first time that I had a baptism of fire (prior to my water baptism) I was blown away and didn’t know what it was. The missionaries that had taught me the gospel had not explained this doctrine, so it came as a complete surprise to me and it was only years later, as I studied and learned more of the gospel on my own, that I was able to determine what the hell it was. Prior to that time, it was always an anomaly to me and when talking to others about the various spiritual experiences I had had over the years, I would always set it apart by saying something like, “The second time the Holy Ghost manifested itself to me was quite different than the other times. It was, well, a really big manifestation with a lot of power and I thought I was going to die, or I did die and came back to life. I’m not really sure what happened. All I know is I was consumed in fire but somehow survived unharmed.” Such were my ignorant descriptions. But of course it was a different manifestation than the others. It was a baptism of fire, for crying out loud! But I knew it not.

And in the same manner, neither did the Lamanites.

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How to receive what you ask for

It is a gospel law that if you ask God for something that is good and right, in the name of Jesus, in faith, believing that you will receive, doubting nothing, you will receive what you ask for.

A new investigation

Lately I have been perplexed by the lack of spiritual best gifts among the church of God. In my interactions with church members, I had come to the conclusion that we do not have the gifts “because [we] ask not, neither do [we] knock” (2 Ne. 32: 4), after all, Jesus said that “every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened” (3 Ne. 14: 8.) Nevertheless, with over 13 million members of record, I found it awfully strange that not even one person sought these gifts. I mean, what are the odds of that?

That got me thinking that in all likelihood the truth was that while the vast majority of the membership no longer sought the gifts, a small minority did. Yet even among them the gifts are absent. I wondered, why haven’t these people received what they are asking for?

Moroni records Jesus as saying, “Whoso shall believe in my name, doubting nothing, unto him I will confirm all my words, even unto the ends of the earth” (Mormon 9: 25.) He also gives his own prophecy, “Whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth” (Mormon 9: 21.) God cannot speak a lie and still remain a God of truth. This means that for the entire gospel to be true, all its individual parts must also be true, including this promise, because the principle is that God “never doth vary from that which he hath said” (Mosiah 2: 22; also Alma 7: 20 and D&C 3: 2.)

I decided, then, that I would put Moroni’s promise to the test and follow the prescribed steps so that Jesus would have to confirm His words to me. I believed the word of God to be true and had full confidence that I would receive what I asked for. Specifically, I was going to ask for a spiritual best gift, for the gifts of the Spirit are things that are right and good, which is one of the qualifications necessary for the promise to be fulfilled. (See 3 Ne. 18: 20 and Moroni 7: 26.)

I began my trial sometime between the 19^th and 26^th of January, 2011, and have continued it to this very day. This post contains what I have so far learned from this ongoing experiment with the word of God.

Ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith

And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. (Ether 12: 6)

A trial is a proof. A proof is “any effort, process, or operation designed to establish or discover a fact or truth; an act of testing; test; trial; as to put in proof.” The trial of your faith, then, is the proof of your faith, or an effort, process or operation designed to establish or discover whether or not you have faith.

The “effort, process, or operation” that is used to establish that we have faith is a very specific type of prayer. By praying in a specific way, our faith will be instantly put in proof and we will immediately know whether we have faith.

How to pray, part one

For the purposes of this experiment, we shall attempt to obtain one of the gifts of God. In particular, we will seek a gift that is easily recognizable as having been received. Of the three lists of gifts in the scriptures, the list given to the Lamanites is the only one that contains the gift of the beholding of angels (see Moroni 10: 14 and The role of angels in Nephite preaching.) So, this is the gift we will seek, for once an angel of light appears and is discerned (see D&C 129: 4-9), there is no doubt that the gift has been received.

The instructions of how to ask God for one of His gifts, which were given by Jesus and Moroni (in Mormon 9: 21, 25; 3 Ne. 18: 19-20; and Moroni 7: 26), are summarized in the following manner:

Ask the Father

Ask in the name of Christ

Believe in Christ

Believe in the name of Christ

Ask for something good and right (the gift of the beholding of angels qualifies)

Ask in faith

Believe you shall receive

Doubt nothing

The promise is that if the above steps are followed by anyone, it shall be granted/done/given and Jesus’ words will be confirmed.

Let’s write up a sample prayer based upon the above instructions.

My heavenly Father, your name be blessed. Show mercy upon me and hear my words. Baptize me in the Spirit and cause that I speak the words of this prayer by the power of the Holy Ghost. I thank you for the gospel and your Beloved Son: His life, suffering, death and resurrection. Grant me belief in Him and in His holy name. Give me faith in your Son. Bestow upon me the belief that I will receive what I ask you for in this prayer. Take away my doubt so that I pray, doubting nothing. Confirm Jesus’ words to me. Send your angel to me. Let me behold his face. Allow me to converse with him. Have him declare the word of Christ to me. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

A deadline

On the surface, the above prayer seems to serve its purpose of putting our faith in proof. If you have faith, the angel will appear. If you do not have faith, the angel will not appear. What it lacks, though, is an element of time. When does the angel have to appear? The prayer does not specify. The time frame is left up to the Lord. If the Lord decides to send the angel at the end of your life, 60 years from now, how does this tell you now whether or not you have faith? It doesn’t. What if the Lord decides not to send an angel because you didn’t exercise faith, would you know? Nope.

Prayers that don’t have an element of time in them are insufficient to put your faith in proof. A deadline, such as a day and time, must be included so as to make a discovery of faith (or lack thereof.) If the deadline comes and goes, with no result, you didn’t pray in faith. If the deadline arrives with an angel, you now have passed the trial of your faith and have received your witness.

Here is the same prayer altered slightly so that it serves as a trial of faith:

My heavenly Father, your name be blessed. Show mercy upon me and hear my words. Baptize me in the Spirit and cause that I speak the words of this prayer by the power of the Holy Ghost. I thank you for the gospel and your Beloved Son: His life, suffering, death and resurrection. Grant me belief in Him and in His holy name. Give me faith in your Son. Bestow upon me the belief that I will receive what I ask you for in this prayer. Take away my doubt so that I pray, doubting nothing. Confirm Jesus’ words to me. Send your angel to me right now. Let me behold his face. Allow me to converse with him. Have him declare the word of Christ to me. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

All things can be asked for

Notice in the above prayers that I asked for everything. I didn’t say, “Give me this according to the faith that I have,” I said, “Give me faith in your Son.” I didn’t say, “I believe that I will receive what I ask you for in this prayer,” I said, “Bestow upon me the belief that I will receive what I ask you for in this prayer.” I didn’t say, “I have no doubts whatsoever,” I said, “Take away my doubts.” The Lord has everything I need to make a prayer work. If I lack anything, He can make up for it, if I ask Him for it.

O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. (Mormon 9: 27)

Different amounts of faith

To move mountains, you need faith the size of a mustard seed. Jesus told Peter that he had little faith. The scriptures speak of having the gift of exceedingly great faith. All of this shows that faith comes in different amounts. Depending on what you are asking for, you will need a greater or lesser amount of faith.

The mere act of asking God for something, believing that you are going to receive, is an act of faith. How much faith? No one but God knows. However, if you ask, believing that you will receive, and do not receive what you ask for—and you know for a fact that you have not received what you asked for because you asked in the manner detailed above, using an element of time so that the prayer creates a trial of faith—it causes you to confront your false beliefs. You must then admit to yourself that the belief that you had that you would receive what you asked for was false. Again, you may indeed have asked in faith, because the very act of asking is an act of faith, but it was of an insufficient quantity to receive what you asked for, therefore your belief that you would receive was false.

When a man is faced with a false belief—not determined by someone else, but determined by the man himself—the natural tendency is to discard the belief. You will no longer wish to follow Jesus’ instructions to believe that you will receive, because your mind, shown by direct evidence, will tell you that that belief is false. The evidence will be incontrovertible. In order for you to pray again, again believing that you will receive, you will have to completely ignore the evidence. You will have to call black white and white black. You will have to act totally irrationally. You will have to step into the unknown. You will have to close your eyes and walk blindly in darkness. You will have to face the fear and trembling spoken of in the scriptures and work out your own salvation under these conditions.

If you are able to get back on your knees and offer another prayer, asking again for something with a deadline, so that the prayer becomes another trial of your faith, and with the (irrational) belief that you will receive, the very act of attempting the experiment again requires more faith than your first attempt.

Each subsequent attempt will again naturally increase your faith. But each time you fail to receive, you will be faced again with a religious crisis that can only be overcome by faith.

The theory in all of this is that eventually, continuing on in this manner, you will finally arrive at the amount of faith required for what you are asking for, and you will then receive the gift you seek, obtaining the witness promised in the scriptures, which comes after the trial of your faith.

The veil of unbelief

The Lord prophesied that the people of our day would have a veil of unbelief, which, unless rent, would keep us in a state of wickedness, blindness of mind and hardness of heart, and He would withhold the greater things from us.

Behold, when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind, then shall the great and marvelous things which have been hid up from the foundation of the world from you—yea, when ye shall call upon the Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he made unto your fathers, O house of Israel. (Ether 4: 15)

The purpose of the veil of unbelief is to hide “the great and marvelous things” of God from us. As long as it is upon us, we can pray until we are blue in the face to see angels or obtain the powers and gifts of the Spirit and we will forever remain in the dark about such things, never tasting of the goodness of God, nor feasting upon his fatness. Only those who pray to God “with a broken heart and a contrite spirit” are the ones who rend the veil of unbelief and partake of the greater things, such as the ministration of angels. To all others, the heavens are closed.

God has power to cast away the veil of unbelief from our minds

Now, this was what Ammon desired, for he knew that king Lamoni was under the power of God; he knew that the dark veil of unbelief was being cast away from his mind, and the light which did light up his mind, which was the light of the glory of God, which was a marvelous light of his goodness—yea, this light had infused such joy into his soul, the cloud of darkness having been dispelled, and that the light of everlasting life was lit up in his soul, yea, he knew that this had overcome his natural frame, and he was carried away in God— (Alma 19: 6)

Anyone can ask for the same blessing from the Lord.

It is extremely important that the veil of unbelief be removed, because it will prohibit us from exercising faith.

And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust. (Mormon 9: 20)

Using disappointment to rend one’s soul

…when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief… (Ether 4: 15)

The disappointment of not receiving what we ask for, as promised in the scriptures, is a heart-wrenching experience. If repeated over and over again, using back-to-back deadline prayers, it feels like your whole soul is being ripped apart. This might be the reason why the Lord chose the word “rend” when speaking of what to do with the veil of unbelief.

To rend means “to part, tear off, or take away, by force.” It also means “to separate into parts with force or sudden violence; to tear asunder; to split; burst; tear; to affect as if tearing asunder; as, ‘powder rends a rock in blasting; lightning rends an oak; a lion rends its prey; to rend one’s garments; the nation was rent by discord; a heart rent with grief.’” So, there is nothing gradual or subtle about rending the veil of unbelief. It is supposed to be done suddenly and violently, creating rapid change in the individual.

What the veil is

Man cannot perceive the veil of unbelief that covers him. The word veil is used to describe it because it feels very much like a thick piece of cloth that envelops the spirit. We can’t see out through it and, in fact, can’t even feel that it is there. However, once a part of the veil is rent, suddenly we can perceive that something real (an actual thing) is covering us, like a cocoon that gets cracked, letting the airy breeze in. The breeze feels good to us and the contrast between the exposed and covered parts (where the veil is still intact) enables us to finally perceive the veil.

The first perception of the veil is an alarming experience. The initial reaction is, “Get this off of me!” It feels like an uncomfortable, alien, spiritual cloth. And indeed it is. The veil of unbelief is Satan’s spiritual garment that he imperceptibly places upon all mankind when they arrive at the age of accountability and sin. Its purpose is to reduce agency, faith, knowledge, wisdom, etc. It allows him to more easily deceive us and lead us to destruction. It is the counterpart of the garment of the priesthood.

The veil of unbelief appears to be an extension of the spirit of the devil and not an individual thing placed upon each person. The result of being subject to it is damnation (see Damnation.) Once you can perceive that it is on you, you want it off of you immediately, because you can perceive that it is not a part of you and that it has been placed there without you even realizing it and that it is stopping you from spiritually progressing. In other words, you can perceive that an enemy put it there.

Even if one goes through all the ordinances of the gospel and wears the physical priesthood garment, etc., as long as Satan’s spiritual garment (the veil of unbelief) is still being worn, spiritual progress will be stunted and the gifts of the Spirit will remain off-limits. The gospel teaches that the proper order is to first rend the veil of unbelief and take it off, and then we are to put on gospel covenants and clothing. But even if things have been done out of their proper order, it is of utmost importance that Satan’s veil be removed.

The chains of hell

The chains of hell are twin filaments of spirit matter (plasma) that twist and revolve around each other in a pattern that looks like the links of a chain.

One end of the chain leads to, and is held by, Satan (see Moses 7: 26.) The other end of the chain leads to the veil of unbelief. It is attached to the veil at the back and base of the skull. One filament is attached to the half of the veil that goes over a man’s left brain hemisphere (the mind) and the other filament is attached to the half of the veil that goes over a man’s right brain hemisphere (the heart.)

There are three modes of plasma discharge: glow, arc and dark. The chains of hell are twin filaments of plasma discharging in dark mode.

The mind operates in arc mode, while the heart operates in dark mode. The mind is designed to believe what it sees, therefore it is designed to be lit up so that it can see everything and thus believe everything. The mind is also designed to be firm or fixed. When illuminated, it clearly can see where everything is and instantly can fixate upon what it sees without any wavering. When minds are darkened, it cannot clearly see things or where things are and must waver in order to try to find its way in the darkness, just as a blind man moves his cane left and right to figure out where things are.

When a chain of hell is attached to a veil of unbelief, the dark mode discharging filament that goes into the half of the veil of unbelief that encases the mind causes the mind to go into dark mode. The mind becomes darkened, and undergoes a state of blindness. It begins to waver. As it cannot see anything or much at all, it does not believe much either, or it begins to doubt or exhibit unbelief. Wickedness is simply a state which goes against the purpose God designed. It is a perversion. The mind was designed to operate in arc mode, in a digital manner. The veil of unbelief causes it to operate in dark mode, in an analog manner. The mind is now in a state of wickedness.

As stated above, the heart operates in dark mode. It is designed to operate in this mode and is designed by God to be soft and malleable, or easily entreated. When the other filament of the chain of hell goes into the half of the veil of unbelief that covers the heart, it cannot change the discharge mode of the heart, because the chain of hell is also in dark mode. However, it does have an effect upon the organ of the heart: it causes the heart to become hard or fixed. So now, instead of feeling its way around its environment like a blind man, as it was intended to do, the heart functions like a mind, fixating on individual emotions, instead of expanding to encompass the infinite gradations of feelings. In other words, the heart is designed to embrace the infinite, or feel an infinite variety of feelings and emotions. When the veil of unbelief, powered by the chains of hell, covers the heart, it becomes selective in what it feels, acting in a digital manner instead of the analog manner it was designed to operate in. It, too, is now in a state of wickedness.

Satan is able to deceive mankind through his chains of hell and the veils of unbelief that are attached to all sinners. Through sin, the veil of unbelief and its chain becomes attached to man around the age of eight. Through continual sin, it becomes increasingly more difficult to be removed.

The chains of hell not only look like chains, but also function as chains. If a man does not, while in mortality, repent and shake off the chains of hell and rend the veil of unbelief that is attached to his mind and heart, when he dies he becomes exposed to the full captivating power of Satan. Satan has power to pull on his chains, dragging the souls down to hell, but he has no power to pull the spirits into hell while they are still in their physical, mortal bodies. Only when the spirit leaves its body can the devil pull the helpless souls into hell. The body serves as a temporary protection from the devil in this manner. Once in hell, the devil can fully subject the spirits to him, through his spirit (the chains of hell and veils of darkness). (See Alma 34: 33-35.)

Having an understanding of these things is extremely important, in order that we can work out our salvation with fear and trembling before God. (See Alma 34: 37.)

A tare sown

The chains of hell and the veil of unbelief, if turned upside down, look like a plant stalk with roots going into the heart and mind of man. This is, in actuality, the tare that is sown by the enemy. The tare seed is planted in the heart of man first (see Moses 6: 55) and then takes root in both heart and mind. In other words, the first plasma filament of a chain of hell first begins its connection to man in the heart, then the second filament connects to the mind, creating the veil of unbelief which encompasses the mind and heart of man.

(Note: the veil of unbelief only covers the heart and mind of man, not any other part of his spirit body.)

Secret works of darkness

Man cannot discover the chains of hell, nor the veil of unbelief that is upon him. If it were not for the word of God, which reveals the secret works of darkness of the evil one, no man would ever know that actual chains of hell exist, nor that veils of unbelief are secretly placed upon all mankind. These invisible plasma filaments (chains of hell) and plasma coverings (veils of unbelief) can only be detected by a manifestation of the gift of the discerning of spirits, for these are extensions of the spirit of the devil.

Satan operates in secret. As long as we have no knowledge of what he is doing to us, or what he has done or plans to do, he can work his destruction upon us with impunity. The word of God ruins his plans, because it fully exposes the danger the devil poses to us. Once a man knows that he is in chains of hell and covered in a veil of unbelief, secretly put there by the devil upon reaching the age of accountability and sinning, man can use his agency to fight it and attempt to get it off of him by calling on the power of Christ to help him. This puts a clog in the works of the devil, so he has always attempted to destroy the scriptures, or corrupt them, or get people to disbelieve them or misinterpret them. For those of us that have uncorrupted scriptures (the Book of Mormon), the devil’s strategy to stop us from liberating ourselves with the power of Christ is to deceive men into believing that all is figurative in the scriptures, or at least the parts that pertain to him. So, the expression “chains of hell” is not considered a real thing that binds man. And the “veil of unbelief” is not considered a real thing that covers the heart and mind of man. They are thought to be just figurative expressions of states of mind, not actual things that must be actively sought to be removed from one’s spirit body.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord

O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him. (Mormon 9: 27)

Most LDS interpret this scriptural expression as referring to respect. In other words, when we fear God, we don’t actually exhibit fear of Him, meaning that we are frightened by Him, but accord Him the respect that He deserves. However, this expression does not refer to respect. Such an interpretation is a deception of the devil, a snare meant to blind the minds and harden the hearts of the church of God.

What fear in the expression actually means

The word fear in the expression “fear and trembling” signifies actual fear, as in fright or horror. It is the fear of being cast off forever.

And thus did the Spirit of the Lord work upon them, for they were the very vilest of sinners. And the Lord saw fit in his infinite mercy to spare them; nevertheless they suffered much anguish of soul because of their iniquities, suffering much and fearing that they should be cast off forever. (Mosiah 28: 4)

Such fear is instilled in a person when the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached in its fulness and purity (see Alma 16: 21), meaning that those parts of the gospel which reveal the power and captivity of the devil―the reality of death and hell, the chains of hell, the darkness and blindness of minds, the hardness of hearts, the state of wickedness, the fallen, evil nature and nothingness of man, the bands of death, the doctrine of damnation and endless torment, the spirit of the devil, the mists of darkness and temptations of the devil, the veil of unbelief, the wavering state of the mind, the lake of fire and brimstone, the flaming sword of justice, the rivers of filthy water, etc.―such parts of the gospel sink home into the heart and mind of a man, and this new awareness causes him to fear to die because of the knowledge that the instant he leaves his mortal body he will be “taken home to that God who gave him life” (Alma 40: 11) and, being found unclean and possessed by the spirit of the devil (for the chains of hell are still attached), will then be cast off into hell (Alma 40: 13), to be kept in captivity by the devil, because of his sins.

Again, this is according to the power and captivity of the devil, which the Lord respects:

And again, doth a man take an ass which belongeth to his neighbor, and keep him? I say unto you, Nay; he will not even suffer that he shall feed among his flocks, but will drive him away, and cast him out. I say unto you, that even so shall it be among you if ye know not the name by which ye are called. (Mosiah 5: 14)

Satan possesses all who have his chains of hell upon them. We are his property and the Lord respects that and will respect that so long as we have a chain upon us sealing us as the devil’s. This is why we are cast off when we return to that God who gave us life and cannot enter paradise or the gates of righteousness. The chains of hell are still attached to us, the veil of unbelief remains intact and our minds are still in a state of blindness or darkness, or “filthiness” and “uncleanness.” No unclean thing can enter the gates of righteousness, otherwise paradise would also be unclean. So, we are cast off and dragged down to hell.

What trembling in the expression actually means

The trembling is both physical and spiritual, or the trembling of the entire soul when a man is confronted with his deepest, darkest and most horrifying fear, that of being cast off forever. Trembling happens when a man is conscious of his own guilt before God, having transgressed His laws and commandments.

Now Alma, seeing that the words of Amulek had silenced Zeezrom, for he beheld that Amulek had caught him in his lying and deceiving to destroy him, and seeing that he began to tremble under a consciousness of his guilt, he opened his mouth and began to speak unto him, and to establish the words of Amulek, and to explain things beyond, or to unfold the scriptures beyond that which Amulek had done. (Alma 12: 1)

Shaking loose the chains and rending the veil

Fear and trembling before the Lord causes man to be confronted with the realization that he does not have faith unto salvation, unto repentance, unto redemption. It is faith that saves a man from the hell that is prepared for him. The realization that he does not have faith plunges his soul into its own personal hell, where darkness envelops him and hell fires scorch and burn him up, in a process that, if the man learns to trust the Lord, repent of all his sins and continue on through the darkness and fires, will sanctify him, for these are the refiner’s fires, which are meant to consume the impurities found within his heart and mind, his very soul.

The trembling and shaking is not a mental process alone, but also a physical one. When it is discovered that the devil has actual chains upon his spirit, with an actual veil of unbelief upon his mind and heart, the spirit of man reacts violently against the foreign spirit of the devil, of which the chains of hell and veil of unbelief are a part, and attempts to shake it off itself. As the spirit of man is connected to his physical body, when the spirit suffers in anguish because of the awareness of the presence and attachment of the spirit of the devil,―and such suffering is known as “the pains of hell”―and then attempts to shake the chains of hell loose, the physical body likewise begins to shake uncontrollably. (See 2 Ne. 1: 13, 23; 9: 45 and Alma 5: 9-10; 26: 14.)

Faith unto repentance brings relief and liberation

If a man is able to obtain faith unto repentance, by offering to the Lord a broken heart and contrite spirit, the fear of being cast off forever and his trembling under a consciousness of guilt is turned into the joy of the saints, knowing that the Lord has redeemed his soul from hell and forgiven his sins. This happens when the chains of hell have finally been shaken off and the veil of unbelief has been rent by all the fearing, trembling and crying to the Lord with a broken heart and contrite spirit. The man is now free from the power and captivity of the devil and can worship the Lord free from the guilt of his sins, with the understanding that Jesus has taken them away and that should he die this instant, he will go to paradise and not hell.

“O blessed Jesus, who has saved me from an awful hell!” (Alma 19: 29. These were the first words king Lamoni’s wife said, when she arose and stood upon her feet, after having been under the power of God.) The relief of liberation from the devil and deliverance from hell is the first thing on everyone’s mind.

In this state, the man is now justified (guiltless), purified (having no more desire to sin and, in fact, looking upon sin with abhorrence), and sanctified (having desires to do only good continually). He can now ask the Lord for a gift or power of the Spirit, with faith in Christ, believing he will receive, doubting nothing, and the Lord will grant his request.

Fear and trembling, part two

“O blessed God, have mercy on this people!” (Alma 19: 29; which were the second words that king Lamoni’s wife said after arising and standing upon her feet.)

Once free from sin, the liberated man turns his attention to those around him and his now acute knowledge of the power and captivity of the devil, and how narrowly he was able to escape his grasp and hell, causes him to fear and tremble for others. He begins to fear that those around him will be cast off forever and he begins to tremble and quake at the thought that if his fellowmen do not go through the same process that he just did, liberating themselves by faith on the word of Christ, that they will perish.

Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble. (Mosiah 28: 3)

The man of God, having been born as a new creature, even born of God, now desires that all should have the same privilege. Instead of fearing and trembling before the Lord because of his own sins, he now fears and trembles for the sins of others. If the man’s heart remains broken and his spirit contrite, he will continue in this purified, sanctified and justified state, working tirelessly to save as many souls from hell as he can, by exercising his faith to obtain and use the powers and gifts of God to benefit others and to help them also liberate themselves from Satan’s grasp.

This principle applies even to those who overcome the world and are translated, becoming sanctified in the flesh. Such persons still “suffer…sorrow…for the sins of the world.” (See 3 Ne. 28: 38.)

Fear and trembling, part three

The unrepentant man, whose soul is cast into hell, quickly finds himself in torment, with no apparent means of escape, bound to the devil by the chains of hell, which he can now plainly see are attached to his spirit, along with the veil of unbelief, in an environment of darkness, filthy rivers, magma, mists of darkness, surrounded by souls who are weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth, in continuous anguish and misery.

He sees his situation as hopeless. Although he walks in every imaginable direction, hell appears to be endless and its gates are all one way. Souls continually enter but none have power to leave. There is no relief to his torment. Not even death can get him out of this prison, for he cannot die. Finding himself literally in hell, which appears to him to be a never-ending prison, he begins to fear and tremble uncontrollably and without cease, which causes him to enter a state of misery and indescribable suffering. The fearing and trembling, however, that the damned soul in hell goes through, is insufficient to shake loose the chains of hell that bind him, because he still has no faith, hope or charity. Unless he is able to obtain the word of Christ and plant it in his heart, and go through the process of repentance, by which he exercises faith unto repentance, he must remain chained as a possession of the devil and be subjected to the devil’s power to make him miserable.

All must fear and tremble

All men who arrive at the age of accountability and have chains of hell placed upon them because of their transgressions must eventually fear and tremble. A man can either do it voluntarily before the Lord during mortality and allow the hellish process to work out his own salvation, purify his heart and shake off the devil’s chains, through faith on the Son of God, thereby causing the gates of hell to be shut before him, or he can be compelled by the devil to fear and tremble while he resides within the confines of hell.

Fearing and trembling before the Lord in mortality is the same process as that in hell, except that you have a physical body. The body makes it much easier and quicker to shake off the chains of hell and rend the veil of unbelief. The fearing and trembling occurs before the Lord, in prayer, as you wrestle with the understanding that there is a satanic veil covering your mind and heart, with a chain attached to it that leads directly to the devil himself. And this veil and chain is causing you to remain in a state of wickedness, blindness of mind and hardness of heart. It is deceiving you and not allowing you to exercise faith. And unless you exercise faith, you aren’t, can’t and won’t be saved. And if you were to die this instant, with this satanic spirit attached to you, this same spirit would possess you and drag you down to hell and cause you to be in subjection to it and all would be lost. (See Alma 34: 34-35.)

These are scary thoughts, the thought that you are unsaved and doomed to hell unless you can rend the veil of unbelief. This fear, when it works its way into a frenzy, causes your spirit and physical body to start shaking uncontrollably.

Again, it is the trembling of the spirit that leads to the veil of unbelief being rent and cast away and the chain of hell being loosened and shaken off. This is how all the ancients worked out their own salvation. It is a personal trip to hell done in the presence of the Lord, where the fires of hell sanctify the person by causing him to fear and tremble, which eventually frees the man from the bonds of hell that held him tight. Mind you, these aren’t the literal fires of hell (magma), but the spirit fires of hell (the twin plasma filaments discharging into our human spirits in dark mode, known as the chains of hell.) Hell, in a very literal way, is already attached to all of sinning mankind, by way of the spirit of the devil (the veil) that is rooted in us. The spiritual fires of hell is the spiritual torment a man feels knowing that he is not saved. It is a reaction by the spirit host (the man) to the alien, devilish symbiote (the veil and chain).

No one, except it be little children, will escape the fear and trembling of hell. When little children die, they go straight to paradise, avoiding hell altogether, and while little children are alive, they are sinless and have no chains of hell placed upon them, therefore they need not go through any fear and trembling. The repentant saints of God, though, must go through hell on earth, by which they work out their own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord. This allows them to enter paradise when they die, thus avoiding the gates of hell. The unrepentant wicked, on the other hand, do not go through this process on earth, therefore they must go to literal hell when they die, where they do not work out their own salvation, yet still fear and tremble under Satan’s power.

Suffering and sorrow is what it is all about

Suffering and sorrow are the sanctifying, purifying and justifying principles of the gospel. Fearing, trembling and having a broken heart and contrite spirit are the three principles that bring us to the Lord. The fear of being cast off forever, or, in the case of the righteous, the fear of other people being cast off forever, is a form of suffering. Trembling under a consciousness of one’s own guilt, or, in the case of the righteous, trembling under a consciousness of other people’s guilt (because of the knowledge that they will perish unless they repent), is also a form of suffering. And a broken heart and a contrite spirit is sorrow for one’s own sin (demonstrated by uncontrollable weeping), or, in the case of the righteous, sorrow for other people’s sins.

All of this suffering and sorrow is over, or about the consequences of, sin. It is sin-centric suffering and sorrow. If we go through suffering and sorrow about anything else that is not sin-centric, such as an illness, or failure at a relationship, or poverty, etc., none of such things does us any good whatsoever in the process of working out our own salvation. Only suffering and sorrow for sin sanctifies, purifies and justifies.

Deceptions of the devil

It is the intent of the devil to have all mankind fear and tremble in literal hell, under his satanic power, and not in mortality under the power of the Holy Ghost. The doctrine of working out one’s salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord destroys the devil’s captivating power, therefore, he inspires mortal men who are under his evil spirit to preach against this doctrine. One such individual was Nehor.

And he also testified unto the people that all mankind should be saved at the last day, and that they need not fear nor tremble, but that they might lift up their heads and rejoice; for the Lord had created all men, and had also redeemed all men; and, in the end, all men should have eternal life. (Alma 1: 4)

Nehor’s preaching had devastating effect among the church of God, leading many members into sin and many were excommunicated. Since the time of Nehor, however, the devil has changed strategies, but the result is the same. Now, instead of getting the church of God to believe that the doctrine of fearing and trembling before the Lord is false or unnecessary, the devil has caused the church to re-interpret it as something other than what it is. Now the church believes it is merely showing respect towards the Lord by striving to keep His commandments, with no spiritual and physical suffering needed. This new strategy of the devil is more effective, at least for our time, because the church actually believes that they are working out their own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord, without going through any of the steps of the real doctrine.

Again, although the strategy has changed, the end result is the same. No one goes through the process of fearing that they will be cast off forever. No one goes through the spiritual and physical shaking and trembling under a consciousness of his guilt. And no one manifests the uncontrollable weeping associated with profound sorrow for one’s sins, known as a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

The doctrine of working out one’s own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord requires that a knowledge of the chains of hell, of death, hell and the devil, of the captivity and power of the devil, and of all things associated with Satan and hell and sin and death be explained to a person. Unless a person understands that he is in the devil’s grasp and is going to hell if he does not repent, he can never fear and tremble before the Lord in mortality, and if he never fears and trembles before the Lord in mortality, he must fear and tremble before the devil in hell.

Owing to the necessity of teaching the doctrine of hell and the captivating powers of the devil as part of the plan of salvation, the devil has enacted a plan whereby he now gets the church of God to avoid all mention of hell, death, the devil, fear, sin, trembling and any other “negative” emotional state. We focus on heaven and salvation and avoid all mention of damnation and hell. Fear is never, ever mentioned, at all, and when it is mentioned, it is immediately struck down as a barbaric relic of old-time religion. (For example, see this comment.)

Nephi saw our day (as well as the days to come) and saw the strategies that would be employed by the devil to emasculate the doctrine of fearing and trembling before God:

For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish; for behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.

And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.

And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance.

Yea, they are grasped with death, and hell; and death, and hell, and the devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God, and be judged according to their works, from whence they must go into the place prepared for them, even a lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment. (2 Nephi 28: 19-23)

Nephi said that “the kingdom of the devil must shake.” He understood completely the doctrine of fearing and trembling before the Lord. Also, he foresaw that hell would no longer be considered an actual place (see Teachings on hell and the spirit world), but a state of mind, as if people could release themselves from the misery of hell merely by thinking a different thought. Such deceptions are already upon us, and even greater deceptions are to come.

The gospel has already been compromised

The Book of Mormon preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ in purity. If you look at every preacher found within that book’s pages, you will notice that when they preached Christ, they also preached the devil and hell. When they preached salvation through Christ, they also preached damnation through the devil. When they preached liberation through the Son of God, they also preached captivity through the devil. When they preached of the Holy Ghost, they also preached of the evil spirit of the devil. They preached the gospel in its fulness and purity.

Now compare that to how the Gentile church of God preaches. We leave out fully one-half of the gospel when we preach it. We never talk of damnation, or captivity or hell, etc. When we talk of the atonement, we briefly mention sin and death and how the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ liberates us from that and then move on. There is no mention of fear, trembling, or any other thing that people might consider “too negative.” We focus on the positive and largely discard anything negative from our minds and conversations. As a result, we have stopped preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, for, like a scale, balanced coverage must be given to both sides in order for a man or woman to repent of their sins.

Truth be told, even the half that we do preach isn’t preached all that much. The vast majority of our conversation is centered on prophets and apostles, obedience to leaders and commandments, blessings of paying tithing, attending church and temple, and every other conceivable topic that has nothing, whatsoever, to do with Jesus Christ’s suffering, death, resurrection and judgment upon all mankind.

Now, I normally put the blame of all things wrong with the church of God on the member’s backs, but this time I point the finger at the church leadership. They are not teaching the gospel and instead of getting the people to repent, they are causing the hearts of the people to become more and more hardened.

The plan of salvation has also been compromised

The Gentile church has likewise modified the scriptural plan of salvation. The plan is, in a word, Christ. It is not a flip-chart with circles representing kingdoms of glory, earth and the Spirit World. Christ is the plan. He was sent to deliver us from death, hell and the devil. Through faith on the power of His deliverance He can blot out our transgressions, all our afflictions, all our pain, take away our temptations and even blot out death, in other words, everything that causes a tear of sadness to fall from the eyes of man. He took all this upon Himself so that He could blot it all out.

Without Christ we are subject to the devil. We are not subject to sin, but to the devil. This is an important distinction to make. Sin and death are but tools of the devil. The real danger is the devil. The plan of salvation is a plan to save us from the devil. For example, death is a problem because

“…if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself…” (2 Ne. 9: 8-9.)

And sin likewise causes us to become subject to him, so that, were there no plan of salvation, “our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils,” even angels to a devil. So, Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection is designed to save us from the devil for he is the one holding all the chains of hell.

When we focus on sin and death and leave out the devil, we destroy the plan of salvation and faith. If sin were just a nebulous concept, without an actual being of power behind it, we could all be Buddhists or of any other religion and not need Christ. But this is not the case. No one can break Satan’s chains of hell. No Buddhist, no Muslim, no religion or philosophy of men. Only faith in Christ can. He, and He alone is the plan of salvation and we need saving from Satan and Satan alone. Christ and Satan must go hand in hand when presenting the plan of salvation, otherwise, it is no longer the plan of salvation and is of none effect to save men.

The Gentile church of God has pretty much divorced sin from the power and captivity of Satan. For example, if you look at the Mormon.org page on “Jesus Christ,” sin is mentioned 24 times with no mention of the devil. (A little better is that site’s page, “God’s Plan of Happiness,” which mentions sin 7 times, with Satan mentioned twice.) As a result, no one can properly exercise faith as a principle of power. Instead, we get hit and miss manifestations and no gifts.

Also, the focus of the plan of salvation is no longer Christ. Now when we think of the plan of salvation, instead of viewing the sufferings, death and resurrection of Christ, we think of three degrees of glory and of exaltation in the celestial kingdom. And we most certainly do not think of the devil and hell. In fact, we don’t even use the word hell anymore, having replaced it with the more politically correct term, “spirit prison.” Yet, even with that term, we do not see it as an actual prison, with real shackles upon a person. All has become figurative states of mind.

“All fear is negative and bad and inspired by me,” says the devil

All of this is according to the deceptions, plans and power of the evil one, for it is his intent to remove both Christ and himself from our conversations. As long as he remains out of sight and out of mind, he is free to go about destroying souls.

In this way, the people are deceived and never realize the danger they are in, nor do they learn the process by which to go about removing themselves from that danger. They are deceived into thinking that fear, meaning actual fear, as in fright, is contrary to the gospel, and that fear can only be inspired by the devil. So, they never enter the process by which all the ancient saints went through to shake off the chains of hell and rend the veil of unbelief and save themselves, which is the process of fearing and trembling and crying before the Lord.

Again, what is it that we are to fear in this process? We are to fear being cast off forever. (See Mosiah 28: 4.) It is this fear that causes the body and spirit to tremble. And, why should we fear this? Because as long as the chains and veil are attached to us, we cannot exercise faith, cannot be saved and will be dragged down to hell once we leave our physical bodies, to become subject to, and possessed by, the devil’s spirit. Once people learn of these things, they begin to fear death, while the righteous, who have been liberated from this captivity, have no fear of death.

To be clearer in writing, no one can be saved without faith in Christ and no one can exercise faith in Christ unless they go through the process of fearing, trembling and crying before the Lord. So, to ascribe all fear as inspired of the devil is to commit spiritual suicide, for you will then never be able to exercise faith unto salvation.

The scriptures explain these things in plainness, so that people can understand that they ought to go through this process right now, this very moment, while they are still alive. Such plainness necessitates Satan’s strategy to get us to misinterpret these real things as mere symbols.

The one mighty and strong is a deception

There are many who are waiting for “one mighty and strong” to show up and save the day, performing miracles and wonders and signs. Such a doctrine is inspired of the devil. I’m not saying that there will not be one or more persons arriving who will be mighty and strong and manifest miracles and perform great works. Of course there will be. However, the waiting for such a man or men to arrive is inspired by the evil one, that he might keep all those who believe such a doctrine in the status quo and ever relying upon the arm of flesh and looking for someone to lead them.

The true doctrine of Christ is that every man and woman is to repent of their sins and harden not their hearts, receiving a remission of their sins, and then asking God in faith to obtain the gifts and powers of the Spirit, so as to work miracles themselves, and not to wait for miracle workers to show up. Those who wait for miracle workers to show up, without learning how to work miracles themselves, will end up being deceived, for Satan will send miracle workers with the intent to deceive such people.

We are to obtain the gifts ourselves so that we are not deceived (see D&C 46: 8.) If you do not obtain the gifts, but merely wait for a savior to arrive, you will get a savior, but he will be sent from the evil one.

Pray against the power of the devil

The scriptures indicate that we must pray always and not faint, that we be not led into temptation. In other words, we are to pray against the power of the devil, against his power to tempt and deceive us and others.

Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness. (Alma 34: 21.)

The Lord will grant us what we ask for in faith, but if we do not ask for something, He will not grant it. The ancients always prayed against the devil’s power and taught all men to do so. The Gentile church typically neglects this duty.

The ordinance of prayer

Prayer is an ordinance (see New thoughts on prayer) by which we offer a sacrifice to the Lord. He only accepts one type of sacrifice: that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. A broken heart and contrite spirit is a heart that is inundated with sorrow for sin. Initially, it is sorrow for one’s own sins. Later, when forgiveness through faith on Christ has come, it is sorrow for the sins of the world.

Prayer only works if this sacrifice is offered up. If any man or woman prays to God without presenting before Him the required sacrifice, which is the only sacrifice He will accept, the prayer is counted as evil and profits the man nothing. (See Moroni 7: 6-9.) Just as Cain brought the wrong sacrifice to the Lord and was rejected by Him, while Abel brought the right sacrifice and was accepted, so if we pray to God without a broken heart and contrite spirit, our prayers will not be answered, or will be of no profit to us.

The Son of God is “quick to hear the cries of his people and to answer their prayers” (Alma 9: 26), but only if they offer the required sacrifice. If they go to the prayer altar and offer up nothing, or some substitute sacrifice, they have no such promise.

If you are not weeping, you are not broken-hearted

The Lord has given us a key whereby we might know if we have a broken heart and contrite spirit: the crying of tears of sorrow. When we are crying tears of sorrow for our own sins, or for others’ sins, then we are broken-hearted. If we have not, as yet, reached that point, our hearts are still hard.

Yea, his weeping for Zion I have seen (D&C 21: 8 – The Lord, speaking of Joseph Smith, Jun.)

For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry. (2 Ne. 33: 3 – Nephi)

There is a reason why the scriptures tell us to “cry unto the Lord.” The word cry can mean “to make a loud call or cry, as in an effort to be heard, in prayer or supplication, in pain or anger, etc.; to call out or exclaim vehemently or earnestly; to shout; to vociferate.” But it can also mean “to utter lamentations; to lament audibly; to express pain, grief, or distress, by weeping and sobbing; to wail; to shed tears with or without making a sound; to weep.” It is the latter type of crying that demonstrates a broken heart and contrite spirit.

When we cry to the Lord, with uncontrollable weeping for our sins, the Lord is “quick to hear the cries.” Only those who have a broken heart and contrite spirit―who are they that are truly penitent and sorry for their sins―have access to the atonement of Jesus Christ, “and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered” (2 Ne. 2: 7.) This means that unless you are brought to tears for your own sins, or for the sins of the world, you are currently in a state of damnation, because your heart is still hard, the veil of unbelief is still intact, the chains of hell are still attached to you and you are still in subjection to the devil, being an enemy to God.

The condition of the heart

It all comes down to our hearts. Our hearts are hard, like a stone. This is the reason, the only reason, why those of us who ask God for a gift of the Spirit, do so in vain. This is the reason why we do not receive.

No one can exercise faith while in a state of damnation. No one can be saved in his sins. He must be saved from his sins. A hard heart is a wicked heart. As long as his heart is hard, a man is still in his sins. The heart must be broken before salvation goes forth. Before Christ can forgive anyone of any sins, there must be the all-important sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Simply saying you are sorry for your sins does not cut it. You must feel sorrow for your sins. And this must be the sorrow unto repentance spoken of in the scriptures. This is sorrow that is accompanied by tears, by uncontrollable weeping. It is this sorrow that causes you to turn from (repent of) your sins.

And for those of us who have turned from our sins without the accompanying sorrow for sin (the weeping of a broken heart), such “repentance” is but a change of lifestyle and profits us nothing in the afterlife. The Lord looks upon the heart. Regardless of how one has stopped using drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and breaking the law of chastity and other laws of God, if the heart is still hard, that man is still in a state of wickedness, with veil of unbelief firmly attached, and has no faith unto salvation, which is why he cannot perform any miracle and will find himself in hell upon his death if he continues in the iniquity of his heart. So, it is sorrow for sin (the broken heart and contrite spirit) that is the first and chief gift of God that one needs to be saved.

But before you can attain to that state of sorrow, you must understand the consequences of sin. You must have a proper understanding of death, hell, and the devil and the captivity of the devil. And this understanding must work in you until you fear being cast off and tremble under a consciousness of your guilt before God. Only then can you come close to obtaining a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

All of this brings us to the role of the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon is the solution

The word of God, found in the Book of Mormon, contains everything necessary to bring people to repentance, to the broken heart and contrite spirit required before miracles can go forth. This volume of scripture is designed to “pull down all the pride” (see Alma 4: 19) of the church of God. The opposite of pride is humility, meekness, lowliness of heart. These words refer to the broken heart and contrite spirit, not to mere “teachableness” as many LDS would interpret them to mean.

The church of God is currently in a rising pride cycle, which means that it does not desire to repent, nor feels the need to. It enjoys the status quo just fine. It resembles the Nehor perversion in certain aspects.

(The order of Nehors created exceedingly hard-hearted people. It was the Nehors of Ammonihah who murdered the women and children believers by fire. See Alma 14. It was also mostly the Nehors who slew the Anti-Nephi-Lehies who were prostrate and praying to God. See Alma 24.)

So, many members no longer care about obtaining the gifts. But even the members that are concerned about the lack of gifts, and that attempt to receive them, are incapable of doing so because they “are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men.” In short, the devil has the entire world under darkness, both within and without the church.

The Book of Mormon is the Lord’s solution to this problem. It is intended to give us the word of God in purity so that we can learn everything we need to know about Christ’s atonement and His power of deliverance, as well as the devil’s power of captivity. It continually calls us to repentance and shows us exactly what to do to escape the grasp of the devil and avoid entering hell, how to obtain a glorious resurrection, how to repent and receive forgiveness of sin, and how to obtain any gift or power that God has ever given to any saint of any age. In short, it gives us exactly what we need to gain the victory over the devil and overcome the world by faith.

Enos and Amulek as our models

Enos knelt before his Maker and “cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication” for his own soul, “all the day long.” And when the night came, he did still raise his voice in prayer. And then the Lord spoke to him and told him his sins were forgiven.

It took Enos less than 24 hours of “crying to the Lord,” or less than the waking hours of a day, before the Lord finally spoke to him and he obtained a remission of his sins. It was accomplished in a single day.

Amulek said:

Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you. (Alma 34: 31)

Again, the implication is that it takes but one day to obtain forgiveness.

How to pray, part two

Remember the list of steps? Pray to the Father, in the name of Christ, with faith in Christ, believing that we will receive, doubting nothing, for something good and right? Well, if you pray that way without a broken heart and a contrite spirit, you won’t receive a damn thing.

Before approaching the Lord in prayer to obtain the gifts of the Spirit, you must first obtain a remission of your sins, and before that you must first obtain a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And to do that you need to be harrowed up with guilt, you need to tremble and fear before the Lord, and nothing does that like the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, even the word of God as written in the Book of Mormon. The broken heart is the first thing to ask for. With prayer and the word of God, as found in the Book of Mormon, pride will eventually be pulled down and your heart will be softened and the tears will flow for your sins.

At that point, you must pray to God for forgiveness, while in your state of tears, or broken-heartedness, for as long as it takes. As demonstrated by Enos, it won’t take longer than a day, for the Lord is quick to hear the cries of His people. When you finally receive forgiveness of sin and have had your sorrow wiped away and replaced by joy, being full of the Holy Spirit and being baptized with fire, with the ability to speak the tongue of angels, etc., then, and only then, will you be able to ask and receive whatever you want.

Right after Enos received a forgiveness of sins, he got back onto his knees and poured out his whole soul to God for his brethren the Nephites. His broken-heartedness was in their behalf. Again, the Lord spoke to him. Later, he again prayed in this same manner, this time asking for something specific regarding the preservation of their records. He received what He asked for, because once again, he prayed with a broken heart and contrite spirit.

This is the grand key to the doctrine of ask and receive. If you have a hard heart, you receive the lesser portion until you know nothing and are taken captive by the devil. If you do not harden your heart, but keep it broken, you receive the greater portion of the word until you know the mysteries in full. (See Alma 12: 10-11.) Again, the key to know if you have a hard or soft heart is whether you weep over sin.

The Atonement has power to melt hearts

And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me. (Alma 7: 11-13)

The suffering that Jesus went through is designed to move the Universe to tears, compassion and forgiveness. All mankind would unavoidably perish were it not for the redemption of Christ, and He came down to save us, not to save Himself, because He loves us and does not want the workmanship of His hands to perish. So, this was a completely selfless sacrifice. Both the reasons for the sacrifice and the intensity of it work on all who plant this word in their hearts.

This means that when we plant this word in our hearts and believe it, viewing the cross of Christ and all the suffering that He underwent, we, too, can be moved to tears, compassion and forgiveness. In other words, the atonement has power to take away our stony hearts and give us a heart of flesh. For this reason, studying the word of God tends to pull down pride and humble us to the dust, making it easier for us to obtain a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

For those of us who find that we cannot cry to the Lord, meaning that we cannot feel the sorrow for sin necessary to obtain blessings from the Lord, because the tears do not come, the Lord, in His infinite foreknowledge and mercy, knowing that the preaching of the word in purity has power to break hearts and that the Gentile church would not preach the word in purity, began the foundation of the church with the Book of Mormon, for the Book of Mormon prophets preached it in purity. In this way, anyone who desired to obtain a broken heart and a contrite spirit, could do so by reading the Book of Mormon with a believing heart. This would be as effective as hearing the pure word preached in power.

A doctrine of two atonements

The process of working out your own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord, and of calling upon the name of the Lord with a broken heart and a contrite spirit is an atonement. To be saved, two atonements are required. The infinite atonement of Christ in which He feared that we would all be cast off, trembled with a perfect consciousness of all our guilt, and sorrowed under the enormous weight of our sins, was the first one, without which no one would be saved. But a second one, a finite one, in which each person must also go through this process of fearing, trembling and sorrowing, is necessary to activate the first one.

A sense of our own nothingness

Ammon said, “Yea, I know that I am nothing” (Alma 26: 12.) Mormon said, “O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth” (Helaman 12: 7.) And king Benjamin said, “The knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness, and your worthless and fallen state” (Mosiah 4: 5.)

The broken heart and contrite spirit is attendant with a sense of our own nothingness. Lehi preached the nothingness of man to his children (see Deep Waters: Lehi’s model of the universe) who then kept up the teaching throughout their generations to the end of their civilization. We are, quite literally, nothing, having come from the nothingness. All that we are and possess has been given to us, or leased to us, by the generosity and charity of God. If we do not turn the lease into a permanent ownership, by filling our hearts with charity, which is the love of God, our lease will end and we will return to the nothingness from whence we came. Just as from dust we are taken and to dust we shall return, so from nothing we come and to nothing we shall return, unless we take advantage of the atonement of Christ.

Even before obtaining a broken heart and a contrite spirit, getting a sense of one’s own nothingness assists in softening the heart, for the contrast between God’s absolute greatness, being a possessor of all things, and our nothingness, causes us to quake and tremble. Shaking, quaking and trembling are helpful in softening the heart. And after the broken heart is received, always remembering one’s nothingness and the greatness of God keeps everything in a proper perspective, so that it becomes that much easier to retain a remission of sin.

Retaining a remission of sins

And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel. And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true. (Mosiah 4: 11-12)

The key to retaining a remission of sins, given by king Benjamin, is to continually perform the ordinance of prayer, offering a sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, which is the required sacrifice or atonement that is acceptable to the Lord. Doing so will fill us with the love of God (charity) so that it will be well with us at the last day, for whoever does not possess charity is counted as nothing and must return to the nothingness from whence they came, while those who do possess charity remain in the kingdom and receive an inheritance.

It is imperative, then, that we pray always and do not faint, after the prescribed manner.

There is no going back

To those who wish to use the information in this post, know going into it that once you start the fearing and the trembling, there is no going back. The pure gospel awakens you from the sleep of hell into a state of torment, even the pains of hell. The realization that you do not have faith will torment you as if your soul has been set on fire, for without faith no man can be saved.

One option (temporary at best) is to reject the gospel altogether and to believe that the promises of the Lord are false and thus the plan of salvation is a sham. But that will only work until you die and then you will find yourself in hell, in your unsaved condition. So death does not bring relief from this misery.

If you make an agency choice to continue to believe that what the Lord has promised in the scriptures is true, and that all who ask in faith, believing they will receive, nothing doubting, will indeed receive, then you must remain in your miserable, faithless state until you obtain the promised witness.

The very misery you find yourself in, then, knowing that you have no faith sufficient to save yourself, will either impel you forward to ask again and strive to obtain the witness, or drive you backward to reject the entire gospel. In this way, all who arrive at the trial of faith must make a choice. There is no middle ground. It is all or nothing.

Closing summary: A gospel prescription

Just as one goes to a doctor who then prescribes a medication or procedure to cure the ailment, so we can write a prescription based upon the above information to “cure” the world of a deficiency of gifts and miracles.

There are three steps to receiving what you ask God for. The first is the fear of being cast off forever. The second is a trembling under a consciousness of your own guilt before God. The third is a broken heart and a contrite spirit, which is extreme sorrow for your sins, manifested by uncontrollable weeping.

Once a man has the fear we are speaking of, this automatically leads him to trembling. The fear and trembling, if they are continued through prayer and studying the word of God, will eventually lead to a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

It is the broken heart and contrite spirit that rends the veil of unbelief, shakes off the chains of hell and casts away every doubt. Once a person has a broken heart and a contrite spirit, he can pray to God for forgiveness of his sins and within a single day of prayer become justified, sanctified and purified. This is because God is quick to hear the cries of those that have a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

After his sins are remitted, the man must continue in prayer and fasting, praying against the power of the devil, acknowledging the greatness, goodness and long-suffering of God and His hand in all things, and always remembering his own nothingness, and by so doing, he will always retain a remission of his sins.

Such a man, whose sins are now remitted due to his broken heart and contrite spirit, can ask the Lord for any gift or power of the Spirit and it will be granted him. So long as he remains broken-hearted and with a contrite spirit, he will grow in the knowledge of the glory of God, and partake of as many gifts, marvels, signs, wonders and powers as he asks for.

Now, backing up a bit: the first step is fear. To obtain this fear, a man must have the gospel preached to him in its purity, so that he has a good understanding of the power and captivity of the devil, of hell and of death, and also of the power and deliverance of the Son of God, of heaven and of the resurrection and judgment. The volume of scripture that God has given to us to preach the gospel in purity is the Book of Mormon. Therefore, to all who are serious about obtaining and exercising faith and receiving the gifts and miracles of God into their lives, may I make a suggestion?

Put every other book you are currently reading and studying aside and just read the Book of Mormon, preferably out loud, so that you actually hear it preached. Every available moment that you have, read from its pages, with the above understanding in mind, and allow it to soften and affect your heart, afflict your soul, harrow you up with your sins, instill fear in you and cause you to tremble under a consciousness of your own guilt. This can only be accomplished if you believe everything that you read and apply all the sermons of repentance to you, as if they were spoken directly to you and with you in mind. Do this until your pride has been pulled down by the word of God and you have obtained the broken heart and contrite spirit that you seek.

Also, pray to God in the above prescribed manner, using a deadline so that each prayer becomes a trial of your faith. In this way, you will be able to plainly see that you do not have faith, which will cause you to fear and tremble exceedingly.

Continue on with these prayers and scripture readings, and petition the Lord for the broken heart and contrite spirit and to rend the veil of unbelief and shake loose the chains of hell. Use every available moment to do these things and submit yourself fully to the fearful and trembling pains of hell. Eventually, the Lord will take away your stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh and you will finally feel the relief that comes from uncontrollably sobbing because of your sins. You will finally be able to feel sorrow for your sins, instead of just saying you are sorry and not really feeling it.

When those tears come, continue crying (with tears) to God, in your broken heart and contrite spirit, asking for forgiveness of your sins until you obtain forgiveness.

Once you obtain forgiveness, you can now ask God to see an angel or a vision or whatever, and it will be given to you. Then go and bear testimony to others of what you have seen so that they can exercise faith to see the same things. This is how it works.

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Teachings on hell and the spirit world

The following is some of what I recently taught my wife and daughter about hell.  For the most part it is a re-hash of things I had learned previously, but it does contain a couple of new concepts (new to me, at least), so I’m putting it on this blog.

The spirit world is the Earth’s spirit

When we speak of the spirit world, we are not speaking of a different planet made of spirit matter, but of the spirit body of our planet Earth. Latter-day saints are taught that “the spirit world is here” because the Earth’s spirit is still attached to its physical body, just as mortal, human spirits are connected to their physical bodies. The Earth’s spirit body, like all spirit bodies, conforms to the configuration of the physical elements that make up its physical body.

How the physical world is configured

The Earth’s physical body (the physical world) is a hollow, spherical shell that has north and south polar openings. The shell has inner and outer surfaces which meet at these two openings. At the exact center of the hollow is another spherical object, which is also a hollow shell that has its own polar openings, but much smaller in diameter than the larger shell that surrounds it. The smaller shell discharges plasma in glow mode, like an inner sun.

In appearance, the Earth is constructed as “a tree yielding fruit, whose seed is in itself”. When the Earth is stacked with other planets, a plasma column connects the planets through their poles, creating a visual display that looks like a tree. The “seed” of this “tree” is the small hollow shell found at the exact center of the larger hollow sphere.

Men live and walk upon the outer surface of the larger shell. They also walk upon the inner surface. Gravity (the Earth’s spirit) pushes all matter towards a point between the two surfaces of the shell. (Everything in the Universe is a push; there is no such thing as a pull.) So, a man walking on the outside of the shell will be pushed inward towards the inner surface; and a man walking on the inner surface of the shell will be pushed outward towards the outer surface. To each of these men, gravity is pushing them “down” even though “down” is in opposite directions for them. Almost all of the physical matter of the Earth is found within the larger shell and this is where most of the gravity is concentrated.

Above each surface side (inner and outer) there is an atmosphere, in which man and other creatures can live and breath. The atmosphere extends upward only to a certain distance. Above that, we find the apparent vacuum of space. In the case of the outer surface, this vacuum is called by us “outer space,” but in the case of the inner surface, the vacuum of space above their heads, it being above the atmosphere, might be termed “inner space.”

The inner sun is held in the very center of the inner space vacuum by gravitation. It is pushed equally in all directions towards the outer shell and thus is held stationary (or fixed) in the center of the hollow of the larger shell. However, just as the outer shell rotates or spins, so does the inner shell, though at a different rate.

To men living on the inner surface of the outer shell, the inner sun appears to be roughly similar in size to how the outer Sun appears to the men living on the outer surface. The outer Sun is exceedingly large, hot and radiant, yet very distant, and so appears kind of small to people on the outside of Earth, whereas the inner sun is miniscule by comparison, but fairly close to the inner surface; and so the inner and outer Suns appear to approximate each other in size.

The inner sun is not as brilliant or as hot as the outer Sun, so that the inner surface of the Earth’s larger shell is not scorched with heat and radiation, but is bathed in amounts conducive to human life.

Limit of gravity field is apparent limit of spirit world

The spirit world proceeds outward beyond the confines of the physical world, just like every other spirit body. The extent of the Earth’s gravitational field is the apparent extent of its spirit body. In other words, once something leaves the confines of Earth’s gravitational field, it has apparently left the confines of the spirit world.

The same principle of spirit encompassing element applies to all spirit bodies connected to physical bodies. The spirit body of a man, for example, contains the physical body of the man within its confines, and extends some distance beyond the physical element. It is incorrect, then, to say that one’s spirit body is entirely within one’s physical body. The reverse is the true nature and pattern of the Universe. Every spirit body surrounds the physical body it is connected to, the spirit matter of the spirit body surrounding each particle of the elements that compose the physical body and moving it around with a push. This is one of the reasons why sometimes people can “sense” the presence of another person without their physical senses apparently being involved (because an outer edge of a person’s spirit has come into contact with an outer edge of some other person’s spirit), or why those who see people’s auras say that they extend beyond the physical body, or how two celestial objects can interact with each other at a distance, etc.

The spirit world is divided into two parts

Just as the physical world is divided into two parts, a large outer shell and a small inner shell, so the spirit world has two parts, spirit prison (otherwise known as hell) and paradise.

Where everything is located

Paradise is located where the inner sun is found. Spirit prison (or hell) is found in the depths of the larger, outer shell. To men walking on the outer surface of the larger shell, as well as on the inner surface, hell is found below them, or below their feet. Hell is also called the underworld because it is underneath the surface of the Earth (deep within the larger, outer shell).

Spirit world hell is patterned after universal outer darkness

Outer darkness is that area outside of the inner sphere of light known as the created Universe. The boundary between outer darkness and the inner sphere of light is a lake of fire and brimstone “which ascended up forever and ever.”

The hell of the spirit world is also called outer darkness because it lies in the larger, outer shell of the Earth. When men die, their spirits go to “that God who gave them life,” meaning that they go to the inner sun (a god-star), which is the location of spirit world paradise. The righteous among them are received into paradise (see the gates of righteousness below), while the unjust spirits are cast out into outer darkness (hell).

Spirit world hell is a place of darkness and powerlessness. Gravity in hell is different than that at the surface, it being either largely reduced or altogether canceled out. Hell is the abode of Satan and his angels and is their base of operations. From there they travel to the two opposing surfaces of the planet where mortal men are found and tempt them to break God’s commandments. The departed spirits of men found in hell are subject to the spirit of the devil, who keeps them miserable like himself.

Hell fire

Spirit world hell is also surrounded by fire and brimstone (magma) or what the scriptures call hell fire or God’s “fiery indignation.” All these terms are descriptions of real things, as well as states of mind and heart.

The gates of hell

The scriptures speak repeatedly of “the gates of hell.” These gates are openings found upon the Earth that lead down to the physical location of hell. They include certain volcanoes, as well as cave systems that seemingly go on and on, and also holes and cracks in the earth that appear to be bottomless pits. They are found in various locations around the planet and are often called by the local population by some name indicating hell, such as Mouth of Hell, etc. No one typically tries to go down these apertures and cavities due to dangerous conditions, such as noxious gases, magma flow, utter darkness, fearful noises (which sound like the screams of the damned souls in hell), etc.

The gates of righteousness

The scriptures also speak of “the gates of righteousness.” These gates are the polar openings found upon the two shells that compose the physical world, or four gates total. Paradise, which is located within the inner sun, cannot be seen by those living on the outside surface of the planet. One would need to enter either the north or south polar opening (gate of righteousness) to view the physical location of spirit world paradise (the inner sun). In the same way, in order to actually enter into spirit world paradise, one would need to go through either the north or south polar opening (gate of righteousness) of the inner sun so as to be on its inner surface, where paradise is found.

The gates of righteousness are, essentially, “narrow gates,” hidden from the view of most people, or unknown or disbelieved to exist by almost all men. Few men find them. The gates of hell, on the other hand, are well-known, documented and often wide gates.

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus

In Luke 16: 19-31 the Savior mentions “a great gulf fixed” between hell and “Abraham’s bosom” (the paradise of the inner sun). No one could pass from hell to paradise, nor from paradise to hell because of this gulf. The gulf is the space that exists between the inner sun and outer shell of Earth.

After Jesus’ death, He went to paradise and “organized his forces and appointed messengers, clothed with power and authority, and commissioned them to go forth and carry the light of the gospel to them that were in darkness, even to all the spirits of men; and thus was the gospel preached to the dead.” (See D&C 138.)  These messengers required power to cross the “great gulf fixed.”

Scriptures are both spiritual and temporal

As the above shows, many of the scriptural terms that we take to have strictly figurative or symbolic meaning also have a literal or physical counterpart. Or, as Nephi told his brothers Laman and Lemuel, the prophets spoke of things both temporal and spiritual.

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Wives, follow your husbands! – Patriarchy, androcracy and the egalitarian tribe

My text for this post are the following scriptural passages, written by the apostles Peter and Paul:

Peter: Wives, be in subjection to obedient and disobedient husbands

Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conduct of the wives; while they behold your chaste conduct coupled with fear.  Let your adorning be not that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and wearing of gold, or putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.  For after this manner in old times the holy women, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands; even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord; whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do will, and are not afraid with any amazement. (1 Peter 3: 1-6 Inspired Version)

Paul: Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. (Colossians 3: 18 Inspired Version)

Paul: Wives, your husband is your head, submit and subject yourselves to him

But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. (1 Corinthians 11: 3 Inspired Version)

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church; and he is the Savior of the body.  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5: 22-24 Inspired Version)

Androcracy

Androcracy is “rulership by the men.”  (From Webster’s 3rd Unabridged International Dictionary.)

Although there is little doubt that biblical patriarchy existed, what Peter and Paul taught under the gospel framework in the above scriptural passages was theological androcracy, not biblical patriarchy.  Patriarchy is androcracy with the added dimension of father-right.  Here are the definitions of patriarchy and patriarch, as well as matriarchy, from the same dictionary.

Patriarch

A patriarch is “the father and ruler of a family or tribe; one ruling his family or descendants by paternal right; –usually applied to heads of families in ancient history, esp. in Biblical and Jewish history to those who lived before Moses.”  The word comes from patri-, meaning father + arch, meaning a leader, chief.

Patriarchy

A state or stage of social development characterized by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family in both domestic and religious functions, the legal dependence of wife, or wives, and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line.  Patriarchy is distinguished from androcracy, or the physical and social supremacy of men in primitive society, patriarchy being held to involve, besides such supremacy, father right (adaptation of the Ger. Vaterrecht), or descent and inheritance in the male line.

Matriarchy

A state or stage of social evolution in which descent is reckoned only in the female line, all children belonging to the mother’s clan.  Such a system increases the mother’s social and political importance, making her the head of the family and the guardian of religious rites and traditions.  Hence, with many writers matriarchy means not only descent reckoned through the female line (called uterine descent, or cognation), but also rulership by woman.  Others, however, discriminate the rights and customs characteristic of uterine descent, as mother-right (adaptation of G. Mutterrecht), from the political or domestic supremacy of woman, known as gynecocracy, or gynocracy, “rulership by women,” or metrocracy, “rulership by mothers.”  Matriarchy in the narrow sense (that is, as “mother-right”) is found among many primitive peoples; whether it ever existed in the broader sense is disputed.

The priesthood is patterned after the egalitarian tribe

We modern LDS tend to view the the gospel in terms of only patriarchy and androcracy, but this view is only held because we are not numbered in functioning tribes.  The gospel, when lived tribally, encompasses patriarchy, matriarchy, androcracy, gynocracy, father-right and mother-right.  When taken out of the tribal context, some aspects of it manifest or dominate more, while others are suppressed, depending on the non-tribal culture we find ourselves in.  The gospel can be adapted to the cultures and societies of the world, but it is designed to be lived in egalitarian tribes.

Because of the gospel’s tribal nature, the organization of the priesthood mimics that of the egalitarian tribe.  Bishops, bishoprics, counselors, common judges, higher judges, lower judges, high councils, presidencies, apostles, seventies, quorums, etc., all have their counterpart in egalitarian tribal organization.

Tribal bishops

A man married to a woman acts in the office of a bishop.  The office of a bishop “is in administering all temporal things” (D&C 107: 68) and in being a common judge.  This is the duty of a husband, to provide the temporal (material) necessities of life for his wife and children, and to sit as a judge in his family.

His wife, as his helpmeet, may act as his counselor in matters of temporal administration or in judgment of family affairs, or may simply defer all judgment to him, allowing him to sit as a literal descendant of Aaron, without counselors.

The tribal bishop (with the single counselor) is superior to the church bishop because there is a covenantal bond between bishop and counselor.

Tribal bishoprics

When a man is married to two wives, the arrangement corresponds to a bishopric with two counselors.  The two wives are not equal to the man, just as a bishopric’s counselors are not equal to the bishop: he is the wives’ bishop (with responsibility to provide temporal salvation) and they are the husband’s counselors.  Because of the covenantal bonds between the man and his wives, this marriage bishopric is superior to a church bishopric.

Common judge

A husband in a tribe sits as a common judge of the wife with whom he lives and their children.

Higher judges the lower; lower judges the higher

The gospel principle set forth in the Book of Mormon of a system of higher and lower judges, the lower one judging the higher and the higher judging the lower, is based upon ancient tribunals (tribe-unals), or tribal judgment systems.

Higher and lower judges

When a man has more than one wife, his wives form a quorum or council of lower judges. Because common consent must reign supreme, the combined decision of his wives upon his head is the end of controversy concerning him. If a husband, a common judge, acts up the lower judges (the wives) can convene to decide the issue.

When a woman has more than one husband, her husbands form a quorum or council of higher judges. If she acts up, the matter can be taken before a council of her husbands, for judgment.

These are the true “courts of love,” for all these people are married to each other and are under covenant to love one another. They are superior to church higher, lower and common judges, as well as church higher and lower courts of love. The church courts are mere imitations of the tribal courts.

A jury of peers

In an egalitarian tribal system, the jury of peers consists of the husbands of your wife, or the wives of your husband. The modern jury of peers is inferior to the tribal peers, because there is no mechanism to link the peers together. In the tribal system, they all have a vested interest that justice and mercy be done, for they are all linked together through a web of marriage covenants.

Priesthood councils, presidencies and quorums

Every conceivable priesthood council, presidency and quorum is found within the tribal quorums and councils of husbands. Three husbands of one wife form a presidency. Twelve husbands of one wife who are free to travel, form a quorum of apostles (sent ones). Seven husbands of one wife who are free to travel, form a presidency of seventy. Seventy husbands who are free to travel form a quorum of seventy. 12, 24, 48, or 96 husbands form quorums of deacons, teachers, priests and elders.

The United Order

A woman who has multiple husbands essentially is married to multiple bishops, meaning she is married to men who are responsible for her temporal welfare. Her husbands form a bishopric quorum, or quorum of bishops, in which they share what they have with each other and with their wives and children, so that all have everything common. They are bound to the all the wives by covenant to care for them and thus are bound (or linked through her) to each other, also. In other words, this is the what the United Order is patterned after. The United Order binds men together by covenant to care for the poor and the needy and to dispose of their material possessions in their behalf.

Androcracy and patriarchy are found in egalitarian tribes

The egalitarian tribe is what Zion is based upon, nevertheless, an egalitarian tribe may or may not use the gospel as its tribal law. Just as a husband is free to “obey not the word” of God, so an entire egalitarian tribe is free to adopt or reject the gospel. But regardless of whether a husband obeys the word of God or rejects it, the gospel, being patterned after the egalitarian tribe, requires that wives submit or subject themselves to their husbands. This is a manifestation of androcracy. The husband is the common judge, the bishop. When there are multiple husbands, they constitute the high council, or higher judges.

When one husband lives with the wife and the other husbands live with other wives, the children of the one wife that lives with the one husband may be counted as posterity of the one husband, even though any of the husbands may have fathered the children and despite all husbands treating them as their own flesh and blood. But on the tribal records, all children may be written down as being fathered by the one husband living with the wife. This is a manifestation of patriarchy.

Gynocracy and matriarchy are also found in egalitarian tribes

When acting as a quorum or council, as a court, as a jury of peers, or when giving or withholding consent, the wives manifest gynocracy. All the children born to a woman are posterity of that woman and her lineage is recorded on tribal records. This is a manifestation of matriarchy or mother-right (uterine descent). If the woman lives with multiple husbands and not just one of her husbands, then uterine descent is the preferred method of recording lineage.

When a woman marries a man from another clan or tribe, she remains with her clan and her husband leaves his own clan to join with her clan, not vice versa. The gospel imitates this tribal function by instructing the man to leave his father and mother and become one flesh with his wife.

Gospel checks and balances

The gospel provides checks and balances to abuses that may result in relationships between men and women.  Although women are instructed to obey their husbands, even if the husbands are not themselves obeying the gospel, the law of common consent still applies.  Also, men are instructed to love their wives and to use only persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, unfeigned love, kindness and pure knowledge to influence their wives.  If any husband attempts to maintain his power or influence over his wives by virtue of his title of husband, or if he attempts to exercise control or unrighteous dominion over his wives, his authority as a husband is null and void and his wife is justified in withdrawing her consent from him.  But as long as that husband follows the gospel-prescribed way of influencing people, even if the man himself is an unbeliever, or was a believer in the gospel but has since departed from it, or even if the man believes in the gospel but his views of the gospel have become markedly different than the wife’s, she is still bound by the gospel to obey him.

Proper protocol: go through covenant lines of authority

Sometimes a woman is tempted to by-pass her husband and his divinely appointed leadership and go to an ecclesiastical (church) authority for direction.  She may feel justified to talk to her bishop, or perhaps even to her stake president, about her husband, because she feels that his beliefs about, and actions concerning, the gospel are incorrect.  She may feel that he is breaking his gospel covenants in some way, shape or form (even though he himself may not see them as broken).  Or, perhaps he no longer believes in the gospel.  Because of this, she may see him as a sinner and as a man no longer worthy of following, submitting and subjecting herself to.

If she goes to see the bishop or stake president for guidance and direction, by-passing her husband and tattle-telling on him, she will be guilty of committing sin.  Men and women are free to believe what they will and act however they want.  They are free to accept the gospel, modify the gospel or reject it outright.  As long as a husband is following the proper manner of influencing a wife, in other words, as long as there is no unrighteous dominion, the wife is to obey the husband.  That is the gospel law.  He can start drinking and smoking and swearing, he can start growing a beard and stop wearing ties, he can do all sorts of things that his wife may think are incompatible with the gospel, but as long as he is not exercising unrighteous dominion, she is bound by the gospel law to submit to his authority.

The reason why there is no gospel justification in holding a bishop or stake president’s authority above a husband’s is because the Lord considers the authority of a husband as carrying more weight than the authority of a bishop or stake president.  The bishop or stake president is under no covenant relationship with the man’s wife.  They have no vested interest in her.  They have not become one with her.  The husband, though, has become one with her and has a vested interest in her, and she in him.  Even without the priesthood, the husband still acts in the tribal office of bishop and common judge.  The Lord looks upon him as if he were an un-ordained priest, as if he possessed priesthood.  And the Lord fully recognizes the tribal authority of that man.

When a wife goes to a priesthood holder who has no covenantal relationship to her, for leadership and guidance, she shows by her actions that she has no respect for her husband’s tribal office, nor for the gospel law or their marriage covenant.  She disrespects both her husband and the Lord.

Proper priesthood protocol is to go through the lines of authority.  The first line of authority that a wife has access to is her husband with whom she is living.  This line is created by her covenantal relationship to him.  Her next lines of authority are all her other husbands, who do not live with her, but who also have covenantal relationships with her.  The next line of authority would be the wives of her husband, what some call the “sister wives.”  These wives are linked to her through covenants they have with her husband.  An ecclesiastical leader, who has no covenantal ties to her, is the very last line of authority she should resort to, and only after all tribal lines have been exhausted.

Not submitting is iniquity

Again, if a woman in such a situation, whose husband is not engaging in unrighteous dominion, does not submit to her husband, she commits the sin of rebellion and treason by ratting out his beliefs and actions which she believes are incompatible with the gospel to an ecclesiastical authority who has no covenantal relationship to her.  It is disloyalty and betrayal on her part, akin to cheating, by revealing family matters essentially to strangers and is unbecoming of a saint.  It also will create even greater problems in her family as now the ecclesiastical leader will often go on a witch-hunt and interfere in their covenantal connection.

If there are beliefs or actions that the wife doesn’t like, she and the husband need to work it out among themselves, and not drag persons who are not in a covenantal relationship with either one of them into the matter.  If there is genuine iniquity, it needs to be confessed to the offending party (the wife or the husband) and then forgiveness and reconciliation between the two needs to occur.  Ecclesiastical authorities are only to be called in for cases of unrepentant sins in which the offending party refuses to confess to a sin witnessed by two or more persons.  But in most cases a spouse should never testify against another spouse.  That would be an act of betrayal.

Speaking in terms of plasma theology, this would be like two planets linked to each other through a plasma column (the marital covenant) and one of them moves toward, or attracts, a third planet that has no plasma column linking it to the first two planets.  The resulting plasma interactions will cause disruption of the plasma column found between the first two planets.

Paul’s words

In a gospel-centered marriage, the man and woman have covenanted with each other, making them equals.  They have also covenanted with Christ, which binds both of them individually to Him.  This makes a triangle, with the husband, wife and Christ each taking a corner.

Paul’s words, though, about God being the head of Christ, Christ being the head of man, and man being the head of woman, creates a straight line of authority (a plasma column) : creating a patriarchy or androcracy.  What needs to be kept in mind when reading Paul is that this is only one frame of the picture.  If the full, tribal picture is not seen, if only the one frame is observed, it is understandable that the gospel may be understood as containing only patriarchy.  With only the single frame to see, patriarchy or androcracy dominates the view.

Paul’s words, then, must be viewed in light of the complete, tribal picture, that also contains matriarchy and gynocracy.  This makes it plain that the gospel is egalitarian in nature.  We cannot clearly see it now because we are not currently living in egalitarian tribes.

The head is the chief, which is the servant

In the gospel, the chief ones are to be the servants, by entrance into the priesthood.  So, when Paul says that the man is the head of the woman, it is because he is meant to be the servant of the woman.

But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.  But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.  For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Mark 10: 42-45, emphasis mine.)

Here is the same scripture, re-worded a little different:

But Jesus called them, and said to them,

You [Twelve] know that they who are appointed to be -archs(a) over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.  But among you [Twelve] there shall be anarchy(b); whoever desires to become great among you [Twelve], shall be minister of you [Twelve].  And whoever of you [Twelve] desires to become the chiefest, shall be servant of all.  For even the Son of Man came, not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.  (Mark 10: 42-45, emphasis mine.)

(a) “-arch” and “arch” defined: -arch Function: noun combining form. Etymology: Middle English -arche, from Anglo-French & Late Latin & Latin; Anglo-French -arche, from Late Latin -archa, from Latin -arches, -archus, from Greek -arches, -archos, from archein, to begin, rule. : ruler : leader  (Taken from Merriam-Webster’s Online Collegiate Dictionary.)  -arch [Gr. archos chief, commander, archein to rule. See ARCH, a.]  A suffix meaning a ruler, as in monarch (a sole ruler). arch, a. 1. Chief; eminent; greatest; principal.  (Taken from Webster’s 3rd Unabridged International Dictionary.)

(b) anarchy Etymology: Medieval Latin anarchia, from Greek, from anarchos having no ruler, from an- + archos ruler.  (Taken from Merriam-Webster’s Online Collegiate Dictionary.)

So, whoever wanted to be great, was not be be great (they were to be the least) and whoever wanted to be first (chief, principal), was to be last (servant of all).  The priesthood, then, is not an archy, but an anarchy.  The order is reversed: whoever wants to be first must be last.  There are to be no rulers, only servants.

Follow the Brethren

Although many LDS find this annoying saying (“follow the brethren”) to be counter-productive to a gospel-enlightened life, it actually does have some basis in truth.  In a tribal setting, in which a wife is married to multiple husbands, her husbands form a tribal quorum of “brethren.”  If these men hold the Holy Priesthood, they also form a priesthood quorum.  It is this quorum of husbands, or council of husbands, that the wife must follow.  When meeting together to decide issues pertaining to this woman and her children, they form a council of husbands.

In the church, the saying “follow the brethren” applies to quorums, or men who hold priesthood together as a quorum, and specifically to the highest two quorums in the church: the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

In a tribe, the highest quorum that has anything to do with a wife, being bound to her by covenant, is the quorum of her husbands.  If she is in a monogamous relationship, then she is to follow her “brother” (singular husband) until such time as she gets another husband.  So, the only “brother” or “brethren” that the gospel requires to be followed (by women) is the council of husbands.  For the men, we are to “follow the sisters”, meaning that quorum or council of our wives that decides issues in tribal settings.

Conclusion

A tribal view of the gospel helps us to see it for what it really is.  There is no aspect of the gospel that we need be ashamed of.  It is completely egalitarian in nature and divine.

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The Parable of the Redemption of Zion (D&C 101: 43-62), Take Two: a Purely Planetary/Plasma Interpretation

Prophecy = Planetary Movements

It is my understanding that the heavenly precedes the earthly and that prophecy takes as its template what happens in the heavens: the movements of planets. Prophecy is merely the description of these movements and the plasma interactions that result from them.

The 1^st Key

All true prophecy follows the same pattern: every element is some celestial body or plasma display—a star, a planet, a comet, etc.–and the imagery in the prophetic story is imagery seen in the heavens. So, for example, if the prophecy mentions a sword, it doesn’t mean that there is a real sword in the heavens (the sky or outer space) but that there are planetary movements and plasma formations that, when seen from Earth, create the image of, or look like, a sword. Again, it is merely the image of a sword, not a real, earthly sword. This is a key to understanding prophecy.

So, any prophecy is merely the movements of the planets and the resulting plasma interactions, converted into a story. To understand the prophecy, one must convert the story back into the planetary movements and plasma interactions.

Prophets Prophesy of the Heavenly

In any true prophecy of the future, the prophet is explaining what is going to occur in the heavens: the movements and plasma interactions of the planets.

Prophets Prophesy of the Earthly

After the planets go through their motions, fulfilling the elements of the prophecy, the same story then plays out here on Earth.

The 2^nd Key

A second key, then, to understanding prophecy is that first comes the heavenly fulfillment followed by an earthly fulfillment.

Elements and Their Order: The 3^rd Key

For a prophecy to be fulfilled, every element of it must be present, in the correct sequential order. If any element is missing or if any two elements are out of order, the prophecy is not fulfilled. This is a third key to understanding prophecy.

Why D&C 101: 43-62 is still future

When applying these three keys to the parable of the redemption of Zion, it becomes clear that this parable, which is a prophetic story, has not been fulfilled in any way.

Most people who comment on the parable assign a strictly earth-based meaning to it. Not possessing the first two keys, they fail to examine the past and present astronomical history to see if the heavenly aspect of it has been fulfilled. Had they used these keys, they would have quickly noticed that nothing even remotely similar to the parable has occurred in the heavens. This would halt their search for any earthly fulfillment, because the earthly must follow the heavenly.

By forcing an earth-only fulfillment, commentators must use the third key alone, but even here they often don’t turn it. If a prophecy contains exactly 10 elements, they will often accept 9 as its “fulfillment.” If the order is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, they will often accept 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6 and call it “fulfilled.” Coming close is their standard, not exactness.

For example, many people still believe that the first part of this parable (D&C 101: 43-51) was fulfilled in Independence, Missouri or in Nauvoo, Illinois, because the parable speaks of a failed attempt to build a tower, which everyone interprets as a temple, and the Missouri saints failed to build a temple. In the case of Nauvoo, some people also believe that the Nauvoo temple was not completed (either entirely or in the time designated by the Lord to be completed).

A simple look at the parable will show that neither interpretation is correct. Notice the sequential order and the number of elements:

• 1^st, the servants of the Nobleman plant 12 olive-trees, which Joseph Smith interpreted as being 12 stakes. (A tree is a stick of wood sticking straight out of the ground. A stake is a stick of wood sticking straight out of the ground.  To the prophetic mind, they are the same.) This never occurred during Joseph’s lifetime. (A number of stakes were established, but not 12.)
• 2^nd, the servants build a hedge around the 12 trees (stakes). This also never occurred.
• 3^rd, the servants set watchmen upon the hedge. This also never occurred.

The first three elements are completely missing from the Missouri and Nauvoo histories. There is no way around this, so interpreters merely ignore these elements and start with the 4^th.

• 4^th, the servants begin to construct a tower but get no farther than laying its foundation. Joseph interpreted the tower as an observatory, distinct from a temple, but everyone else combines them together. His design for the Nauvoo temple called for a tower to be built on top of (in addition to) the temple. The parable only mentions a tower, not a temple. So, tower does not equate to temple, yet people routinely mix these elements up.

These first four elements of the parable are sufficient to show that neither Missouri nor Nauvoo fulfills the parable/prophecy. There are similarities to past and current events for some elements, but coming close is not the same as fulfillment. For example, some will see the City Creek Development as fulfillment of D&C 101: 49 (“Might not this money be given to the exchangers?”) Prophecy is based upon true patterns, so sure we’ll see aspects of prophecy repeated among men, but we shouldn’t be so quick to declare that “this is prophecy being fulfilled before our very eyes.” When we take one element of a 10-element prophecy out of context, it sets us up to miss the real event.

About this post

In my previous post, I attempted to interpret the parable of the redemption of Zion using key #3 alone, as an earth-only fulfillment. Halfway through my examination, I realized that the entire thing was evidently speaking of the planets and I thought to scratch out what I was writing and start all over again, this time applying the three keys, but I didn’t because I found the exercise fun and also because the information I had drawn out of the text interested me. Despite my attempt at using only the third key, I still couldn’t come up with a strictly earth-bound interpretation because my mind kept seeing the heavens move about and I ended up with a mixed bag: half earth-bound, half planetary. I found the post strange and wonderful at the same time, if not wholly accurate, and felt compelled to hit the publish button.

The very next day, I re-interpreted it according to the three prophetic keys and wrote out this post. Unfortunately, I had computer/Internet connection problems and I wasn’t able to publish this until today. What follows is what I believe to be the actual meaning of the parable, the real celestial events that the parable’s story was placed over. Unlike the previous post, these aren’t musings, but consist of my scriptural exposition of this parable.

Parable of the Redemption of Zion

And now, I will show unto you a parable, that you may know my will concerning the redemption of Zion.

The Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE

A certain nobleman

Nobleman is the massive Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE owns Our Solar System

had a spot of land, very choice;

The very choice land is the empty space that makes up Our Solar System, such as the field that a man had, “and he sent forth his servants [planets] into the field [Our Solar System] to dig in the field [Our Solar System]” (D&C 88: 51.)

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE speaks to Servant Planets; i.e., Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to the Servant Planets

and he said unto his servants:

Servants are planets located in the empty spaces between the various Solar Systems.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE commands Servant Planets to go to a Solar System

Go ye unto my vineyard,

Vineyard is any of the Solar Systems, where the bulk of the fruit (planets) are located. Servant Planets are to travel to one of these Solar Systems.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE commands Servant Planets to go to Our Solar System

even upon this very choice piece of land,

Servant Planets are to travel to Our Solar System.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE commands Servant Planets to plant Twelve Planet/Plasma Trees

and plant twelve olive-trees;

Servant Planets are to discharge plasma and/or rearrange the objects of Our Solar System, creating the visual image of olive-trees in twelve locations around Our Solar System. To do this, the trees must be “planted” on the Planets of Our Solar System. When the Planets of Our Solar System are properly arranged, they discharge plasma, creating the visual image of a tree coming from their poles. This can be accomplished with a minimum of six planets (two trees per planet, one out of each pole.)

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE commands Servant Planets to set Moons around Twelve Planet/Plasma Trees

and set watchmen round about them,

Servant Planets are to discharge plasma and/or rearrange the objects of Our Solar System, creating the visual images of watchmen around the olive-tree plasma formations. The visual images of watchmen are moons that circle a planet.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE commands Servant Planets to build an Interplanetary Plasma Tube

and build a tower,

Servant Planets are to discharge plasma and/or rearrange the objects of Our Solar System, creating the visual image of a tower (plasma tube). The visual image of a tower can be formed by a stack of planets with a plasma tube connecting them.

so that a Planet Sun, set upon the Interplanetary Plasma Tube, can illuminate the space surrounding Our Solar System

that one may overlook the land round about, to be a watchman upon the tower,

Servant Planets are to discharge plasma and/or rearrange the objects of Our Solar System, creating the visual image of a watchman upon the tower. The visual image of a watchman upon a tower can be formed by a planet sitting atop a plasma tube.

so that when the Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System come, they don’t destroy the plasma and planetary formations

that mine olive-trees may not be broken down when the enemy shall come to spoil

The enemy are Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System.

and capture the Planets of Our Solar System

and take upon themselves the fruit of my vineyard.

The fruit of the vineyard are the Planets of Our Solar System. If the Servant Planets have not accomplished their work by the time the Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System enter Our Solar System, these Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System will break up the plasma and planetary formations of the olive-trees, hedge, watchmen, tower, and watchman upon the tower and will capture the Planets of Our Solar System.

Servant Planets enter Our Solar System

Now, the servants of the nobleman went and did as their lord commanded them,

The Servant Planets enter Our Solar System.

Servant Planets form Twelve Planet/Plasma Trees

and planted the olive-trees,

The Servant Planets discharge plasma and/or rearrange the objects of Our Solar System, creating the visual images of twelve olive-trees around Our Solar System.

Servant Planets form Planetary Rings around Twelve Planet/Plasma Trees

and built a hedge round about,

The Servant Planets discharge plasma and/or rearrange the objects of Our Solar System, creating the visual image of a hedge around the twelve olive-tree plasma formations. The visual image of a hedge is a planetary ring, such as the rings of the planet Saturn. It could also be an asteroid belt.

Servant Planets set Moons upon the Planetary Rings

and set watchmen,

The Servant Planets discharge plasma and/or rearrange the objects of Our Solar System, creating the visual image of a hedge around the plasma formations of the twelve olive-trees and also creating the visual image of watchmen upon the hedge. The visual image of watchmen upon the hedge is of moons orbiting the planet, on the outskirts of the planetary rings, as if the moons were set upon the rings. It can also be of planets skirting the edge of the asteroid belt.

Servant Planets form a Partial Interplanetary Plasma Tube

and began to build a tower.

The Servant Planets discharge plasma and/or rearrange the objects of Our Solar System, creating the visual image of the foundation of a tower. The visual image of a tower is of a plasma tube connecting two (or more) planets. A plasma tube between two planets that only goes part of the way up from only one of the planets (it doesn’t actually connect the planets) will look like the foundation of a tower and not a completed tower.

Servant Planets discharge Interplanetary Thunderbolts after forming Partial Interplanetary Plasma Tube

And while they were yet laying the foundation thereof, they began to say among themselves:

After the foundation of a tower image is formed, the Servant Planets discharge plasma between themselves, creating interplanetary thunderbolts (celestial sound/thunder).

Servant Planets discharge Interplanetary Thunderbolts

And what need hath my lord of this tower?

The Servant Planets discharge plasma between themselves, creating interplanetary thunderbolts (celestial sound/thunder).

Servant Planets discharge Interplanetary Thunderbolts for a long time

And consulted for a long time,

The Servant Planets continue discharging plasma between themselves, creating interplanetary thunderbolts (celestial sound/thunder) for a long time.

Servant Planets discharge Interplanetary Thunderbolts

saying among themselves:

The Servant Planets discharge plasma between themselves, creating interplanetary thunderbolts (celestial sound/thunder).

Servant Planets discharge Interplanetary Thunderbolts

What need hath my lord of this tower, seeing this is a time of peace?

The Servant Planets discharge plasma between themselves, creating interplanetary thunderbolts (celestial sound/thunder).

Servant Planets discharge Interplanetary Thunderbolts

Might not this money be given to the exchangers?

The Servant Planets discharge plasma between themselves, creating interplanetary thunderbolts (celestial sound/thunder).

Servant Planets discharge Interplanetary Thunderbolts

For there is no need of these things.

The Servant Planets discharge plasma between themselves, creating interplanetary thunderbolts (celestial sound/thunder).

Servant Planets discharge Interplanetary Thunderbolts

And while they were at variance one with another

The Servant Planets discharge plasma between themselves, creating interplanetary thunderbolts (celestial sound/thunder).

Servant Planets slow down their rotation and celestial movements

they became very slothful,

The Servant Planets begin to rotate and move in their orbits much more slowly, slowing down to a near standstill.

Servant Planets stop forming the Interplanetary Plasma Tube

and they hearkened not unto the commandments of their lord.

The Servant Planets no longer go through the spatial movements necessary to finish the creation of the visual image of a tower (a plasma formation).

Servant Planets stop discharging; afterward Disruptive Planets enter Our Solar System

And the enemy came by night,

The Servant Planets stop discharging interplanetary thunderbolts between themselves, so that there is no more celestial sound/thunder. The watchmen (moons) upon the hedge move off and away. The only visual images that remain when one looks upon into the sky are the twelve olive-trees, the hedge and the foundation of a tower. But even these displays of plasma are reduced in power, so that everything seems like it is nighttime and the heavens are asleep. In this setting, the Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System enter Our Solar System.

Disruptive Planets break down Planetary Rings (that have no Moons skirting their edges)

and broke down the hedge;

The Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System break down the hedge (planetary rings/asteroid belt).

Servant Planets begin discharging and leave Our Solar System

and the servants of the nobleman arose and were affrighted, and fled;

The Servant Planets begin to discharge wildly and begin moving again, leaving Our Solar System.

Disruptive Planets destroy planetary/plasma formations of Servant Planets

and the enemy destroyed their works,

The Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System destroy all the plasma/planetary formations created by the Servant Planets.

Disruptive Planets break down formation of Twelve Planetary/Plasma Trees

and broke down the olive-trees.

The Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System remove the plasma formation of the olive-trees.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to the Servant Planets

Now, behold, the nobleman, the lord of the vineyard, called upon his servants, and said unto them,

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and the Servant Planets.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to the Servant Planets

Why! what is the cause of this great evil?

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and the Servant Planets.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to the Servant Planets

Ought ye not to have done even as I commanded you, and—after ye had planted the vineyard, and built the hedge round about, and set watchmen upon the walls thereof—built the tower also,

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and the Servant Planets. In this “conversation,” the Servant Planets are chastised for not completing the plasma tube (tower).

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to the Servant Planets

and set a watchman upon the tower,

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and the Servant Planets. In this “conversation,” the Servant Planets are chastised for not setting a planet atop the completed plasma tube (tower).

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to the Servant Planets

and watched for my vineyard,

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and the Servant Planets. In this “conversation,” the Servant Planets are chastised for not keeping the watchmen (moons/planets) upon the hedge (rings/asteroid belt).

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to the Servant Planets

and not have fallen asleep, lest the enemy should come upon you?

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and the Servant Planets. In this “conversation,” the Servant Planets are chastised for going into a low power mode, slowing down their orbits and rotations, reducing the energy field of Our Solar System.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to the Servant Planets

And behold, the watchman upon the tower would have seen the enemy while he was yet afar off;

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and the Servant Planets. In this “conversation,” the Servant Planets are told that had a planet been set atop the plasma tube (tower), it would have discharged, illuminating the space surrounding Our Solar System so that the approaching Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System would have been seen.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to the Servant Planets

and then ye could have made ready

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and the Servant Planets. In this “conversation,” the Servant Planets are told that then Our Solar System would have gone into high energy mode, creating a strong plasma double layer.

Hannes Alfvén described a double layer as, “…a plasma formation by which a plasma, in the physical meaning of this word, protects itself from the environment. It is analogous to a cell wall by which a plasma, in the biological meaning of this word, protects itself from the environment.” (Source.)

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to the Servant Planets

and kept the enemy from breaking down the hedge thereof,

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and the Servant Planets. In this “conversation,” the Servant Planets are told that then Our Solar System would have gone into high energy mode, creating a strong plasma double layer, which would have repelled the Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to the Servant Planets

and saved my vineyard from the hands of the destroyer.

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and the Servant Planets. In this “conversation,” the Servant Planets are told that then Our Solar System would have gone into high energy mode, creating a strong plasma double layer, which would have repelled the Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Servant Planet Joseph

And the lord of the vineyard said unto one of his servants:

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and one of the Servant Planets called Joseph.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

Go and gather together the residue of my servants,

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. In this “conversation,” the Planet Joseph is told that it is to capture other Servant Planets in the area.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

and take all the strength of mine house, which are my warriors, my young men, and they that are of middle age also among all my servants, who are the strength of mine house,

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. In this “conversation,” Planet Joseph is told that it is to capture small and medium sized Servant Planets in the area.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

save those only whom I have appointed to tarry;

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. In this “conversation,” Planet Joseph is told that it is to not capture some of the small and medium sized Servant Planets in the area.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

and go ye straightway unto the land of my vineyard,

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. In this “conversation,” Planet Joseph is told to take the captured small and medium sized Servant Planets in the area to Our Solar System.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

and redeem my vineyard;

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. In this “conversation,” Planet Joseph is told that it is to liberate Our Solar System from the Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

for it is mine; I have bought it with money.

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. In this “conversation,” Planet Joseph is told that the Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE owns Our Solar System.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

Therefore, get ye straightway unto my land;

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. In this “conversation,” Planet Joseph is told to leave at once for Our Solar System with the captured Servant Planets.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

break down the walls of mine enemies;

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. In this “conversation,” Planet Joseph and captured Servant Planets are to break down the walls of the Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System. This could be synonymous with planetary rings and/or the asteroid belt, or it could be referring to strong plasma double layers (which are like cellular walls) that have been formed by the Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System. Whatever the planetary configuration or plasma formation they consist of, when viewed from Earth they will appear to man as walls in the heavens above.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

throw down their tower,

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. In this “conversation,” Planet Joseph and captured Servant Planets are to break up the interplanetary plasma tube that the Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System have formed.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

and scatter their watchmen.

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. In this “conversation,” Planet Joseph and captured Servant Planets are to scatter the moons (remove them from their orbits) of the Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

And inasmuch as they gather together against you,

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. In this “conversation,” it is learned that the Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System may gather together, presenting themselves as a barrier to Planet Joseph and the captured Servant Planets.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

avenge me of mine enemies,

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. In this “conversation,” Planet Joseph is told that it and the captured Servant Planets are to scatter any of the gathered Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System, removing them from Our Solar System.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

that by and by I may come with the residue of mine house and possess the land.

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. In this “conversation,” Planet Joseph learns that immediately after the Disruptive Planets Not From Our Solar System are removed from Our Solar System, the massive Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and all its captive planetary entourage (planets, moon, comets, etc.) will enter Our Solar System and take control of it.

Planet Joseph discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE

And the servant said unto his lord: When shall these things be?

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet Joseph and Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

And he said unto his servant: When I will;

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

go ye straightway, and do all things whatsoever I have commanded you;

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph.

Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE discharges Interplanetary Thunderbolts to Planet Joseph

and this shall be my seal and blessing upon you—a faithful and wise steward in the midst of mine house, a ruler in my kingdom.

Outside of Our Solar System, plasma discharges occur between Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and Planet Joseph. Planet Joseph will be located in the center of the group of planets that will make up Our Solar System, and will become a ruling planet (a sun).

Planet Joseph captures the Servant Planets, enters Our Solar System and scatters the Disruptive Planets and their plasma/planetary configurations

And his servant went straightway, and did all things whatsoever his lord commanded him;

After many days all these planetary movements/plasma formations come to pass

and after many days all things were fulfilled.

What all this means

There are four groups of planets that are to enter our Solar System in the future.

Group One: The Servant Planets

These planets will cause great changes to our Solar System. After this group arrives we will see trees, a hedge and watchmen in the heavens, as well as the foundation of a tower, but no watchman upon the tower. In other words, they will not complete the Interplanetary Plasma Tube and ignite a Sun at the top of that tube.

Group Two: The Disruptive Planets

These planets will break up whatever has been formed by the first group and will cause the first group to leave our Solar System. This group will create an Interplanetary Plasma Tube but there will be no plasma trees and possibly no hedge, though there will be plasma walls erected. They will also cause watchmen to appear, though there will likely be no watchman upon the tower, as none is mentioned in the parable. So, like the first group, there will be no ignited Sun at the top of the tube.

Group Three: Planet Joseph and the Servant Planet Army

When this group enters, they will scatter the second group’s watchmen, break up the walls and throw down the Interplanetary Plasma Tube. They will cause the second group to leave our Solar System. The parable does not mention that this group builds anything, only that it will sweep away what encumbered the spot (the Disruptive Planets and their works.)

Group Four: Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE and entourage

The fourth and final group will enter Our Solar System and take possession of it, meaning that the massive Planet ^EEAA_OOAA^EE will capture everything found within the confines of our Solar System, including Planet Joseph and the Servant Planet Army which will be there awaiting the arrival of the fourth group.

Conclusion: this parable is a future prophecy

Group one needs to arrive and start doing its thing before the earthly part of the prophecy can even begin to be fulfilled. This group has not, yet, arrived. This parable, then, in its entirety, pertains to the future.

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