Christian Soldier

Continuing from the last post, today, I wanted to discuss more about why we were born into this world:

• Why did we have to forget who we really are?
• Why doesn’t God stop “bad things” from happening?
• Why does God allow “bad things” to happen to “good people” and “good things” to happen to “bad people”?

Once, I heard someone on TV have the audacity to say “When this life is over, God has a h— of a lot of explaining to do.”

When I heard that, I thought: “Whoa! That’s a really bold statement to make.”

The reality is “God owes you nothing!“

He has already given you sufficient for your needs: He has given you your very life. The air you breath at this moment belongs to him.

God, our Father in Heaven, did not spare anything from you: He has always done everything in his power for you. He did not even spare his own Son, Jesus Christ, for you–to redeem you.

Come judgement day, we are going to be the ones with lot of explaining to do.

Before this life, we all lived with God, our Heavenly Father, our Heavenly Mother, and our all our siblings. We lived together a long time–and learned much. But, there were somethings what we could not learn in heaven….

Let’s do a thought experiment….

Imagine that God called you to become a concert violinist. You were to go the best school and learn from the best teachers with one condition: You were not allowed to touch a violin until your first concert performance.

As a result, you studied…and studied…and studied some more. You memorized all of the music and all of the chords. Finally, the night of the concern comes. The crowed is silent as you walk-out onto the stage with the spotlight fixed on you.

Finally, you get to hold a violin (which you have been studying about for eons), for the very first time. You rest it upon your shoulder as you’ve seen your teachers do countless numbers of times, you rest you bow on the strings, and try to play…. And…. And….

And…. It does not go well…. SCREECH….SCREECH….SCREEEEEEEECH.

The concert is a failure. You never learned to play the violin.

You sadly come to this stark realization:

The only way that you could have learned to play the violin is by playing the violin.

My friends, the same was true of our experience in heaven. In heaven, we studied about earth-life. We had “knowledge”–but no “experience”, no “wisdom”.

In heaven, there was no wickedness, no evil, no hatred, no jealousy, no want, no greed, no pride, no sickness, no racism, and no death. In heaven, we never experienced scarcity before. We never knew what hunger, thirst, fatigue, sickness, loneliness, or sadness really was because. Undoubtedly, we learned that these things existed, but we didn’t know exactly what they were–because we never experienced them.

We never fully-grasped why something so silly as printed paper (this thing we’d call “money”) would cause so many of God’s children to make so many poor decisions.

In order to “gain knowledge”, we all had to experience these things for our selves first-hand. We all had to leave heaven in order to do that.

So, now the question: “Why did we have to forget who we really are?” I’ll start to answer that in the next post…

My wife and I are always watching something on Netflix. Recently, we’ve been watching the Once Upon a Time series. We’re starting the 7th season now…. The series is really getting repetitive and is dragging-on by now….

If you’ve watched the series, you’ll know that the people in the mystical town of Storybrooke are “cursed” multiple times by several villains. When this happens, the people “forget” who they really are. They’re “asleep” in the sense that “they do not know who they really are.”

One-by-one, as they are “awoken” and remember who they really are. They then ask others, “Are you awake?”

My dear brothers and sisters, most of the world is sleeping…. Billions of people on this planet don’t know who they really are.

My fellow Christians, “We are awake.” We know why we are here. We know that Jesus Christ was chosen to be our Savior. We know what the purpose of life is. We have a sacred duty and responsibility to help the world know the Savior.

Furthermore, we know that Jesus Christ restored his church. Yes, that’s right, the same church, with the same authority that Jesus Christ left to his apostles when he ascended into heaven, is on the earth again.

You don’t have to believe me…. And, I don’t want you just to take my word for it. I strongly encourage you, though, to humbly ask God in prayer whether the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored.

If you are sincere, believing that God will answer your prayer, with faith in Jesus Christ, you will receive that answer from Him. You will then have a sure knowledge of this truth.

We’ll discuss the Old Testament another time…. If you’re new to this site, you probably didn’t come here looking to discuss scriptures. You probably came here looking for answers, inspiration, or help to life’s problems.

While I may not have the solution for what you’re looking for, I can point you in the right direction–to where you can get the inspiration you need. While I may not be able to help you immediately solve your problem, I may be able to help you see your problem from the proper perspective.

You may have wondered all your life:

If God exists, why can’t I see him? Why is it that everyone born into this world had to pass through a veil that keeps us from remembering our pre-mortal life with God? If the Plan of Salvation is so important, why doesn’t God announce it from the heavens?

After Jesus’s resurrection, he walked with two of his apostles on the road to Emmaus without disclosing himself to them:

Luke 24:15-16

15 And it came to pass, that, while they ^acommuned together and reasoned, ^bJesus himself drew near, and went with them.

16 But their eyes were ^aholden that they should not know him.

Why didn’t these two apostles recognize Jesus? Perhaps, they were too focused on getting to their destination. Perhaps, they were to focused on the luggage they were carrying. Perhaps, they were too focused on the road ahead of them.

Are you too focused on your destination? Perhaps, you’re too focused on the burdens you’re carrying? Are you too focused on the vain things of this world?

We needn’t fault the apostles for not recognizing the Savior. Do you recognize the role that the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, has played in your life?

Do you know that God knows your name? He knows where and when you were born. He knows the circumstances that have lead up in your life to the point that you just read this very sentence. He is acutely aware of you and your needs.

Need help? Pray to him. Then, listen for answers. PAY ATTENTION!!! How do you feel? What thoughts come to mind. Are they positive and uplifting? That answer is a “YES!” Are they negative or confusing? That answer is a “NO!”

No answer? Keep trying. Prove to God that your serious about getting an answer. You may have to pray multiple times.

Have you tried again and again and still not received an answer? You should be happy then: God trusts you to make the right decision for yourself then. Do what you think is right.

We’ll continue this discussion in the next post….

This is the Part V on a post about the Old Testament. Today, I just wanted to give a quick, one minute overview of the Old Testament:

As discussed previously, the Old Testament starts off with God creating the earth. Lastly, God creates Adam and Eve and puts them in the the Garden of Eden. As a result of transgression, they are required to leave. They have children. Some are righteous, some are wicked.

Many years pass. Enoch leads a group of righteous people. They are taken up to heaven. After many years, the majority of God’s children are wicked. The prophet Noah saves his family from the flood.

Many years pass. God’s children are wicked again. They build a tower to get the heaven (The Tower of Babel). God thwarts their attempts to do so by changing the language of the people.

Many years pass. Abraham is a righteous man. God promises him many great and wonderful blessings–including the “promised land”. His name is changed to Israel. Abraham begat Isaac. Isaac had 12 sons. Their families were called tribes (the 12 tribes of Israel).

Isaac begat Jacob. Jacob (the one with the coat of many colors) gets sold into Egypt. Later, his family join him in Egypt. The descendants of Israel (Abraham) are called Israelites. After many years in Egypt, the Egyptians enslave the Israelites. After 400 years in Egypt, the prophet Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt.

Because of wickedness, the Israelites wonder for 40 years in the wilderness. Joshua eventually leads the Isrealites into the promised land.

After first, the Israelites had judges to lead them: God was their king. Because of wickedness, they eventually rejected God and decided to have their own king.

Many kings followed: Saul, David, and Solomon. By then, the Israelites had obtained the promised land. However, that prosperity was short-lived. The kingdom was eventually divided.

Many generations of wars ensued with the Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom constantly fighting. Eventually, the 10 tribes in the Northern Kingdom were taken captive by the king of Babylon.

After many years, the Israelites are allowed to return. Eventually, the promised land is captured again, this time, by the Romans. This is where the New Testament picks-up the story.

The following diagram can help you to get a rough idea of the chronology of the books of the Old Testament:

Additional Resources

If you are already well-versed in the Old Testament or would simply like to learn more, I highly recommend the following manuals:

• Old Testament Student Manual Genesis–2 Samuel
• Old Testament Student Manual 1 Kings–Malachi
• Chronology of the Old Testament
• Visual Chronology of the Old Testament

Children’s Scriptures: The Old Testament

As a final note, I would just like to say that I love the children’s scriptures because they teach the gospel so simply. Adults and children alike can learn the simple truths of the gospel by reading them.

In case you’re interested in getting a copy, here’s a link to download the PDF version of the Old Testament that I read with my children. At a really high level, it gives a brief overview of the main stories of the Old Testament.

This is the 4th post of a series on the Old Testament.

Our Heavenly Father is real. Jesus Christ is real. The Holy Ghost is real.

Before Jesus Christ was born, he was known as Jehovah–The God of the Old Testament. Many people saw Him, and they wrote their witness of Him in the Old Testament.

Before we were born, we were all Spirit Children of our Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ was a Spirit too; He had not yet received a body of flesh and bones. When Jesus Christ was born, he literally became God in the flesh.

When people testified that they had seen God in the Old Testament, they testified that they saw His Spirit.

Our Spirits mirror our Physical Bodies. They look same. One is tangible; the other is not.

The Old Testament is full of verses in which the Lord speaks to his prophets. Beyond that though, there are several verses which state that people actually saw the Lord:

Verse	Scripture	Comment
Gen. 12:7	And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.	Abraham saw God.
Gen. 32:30	And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.	Jacob saw God.
Ex. 3:6	Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.	Moses saw God.
Ex. 19:11	And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.	The Lord tells Moses that he will reveal himself to EVERYONE on Mount Sinai.
Ex. 19:21	And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish.	The Lord speaks to Moses.
Ex. 24:11	And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.	The nobles of the children of Israel (multiple people) see God.
Ex. 33:11	And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.	The Lord speaks to Moses face-to-face.
Num. 12:8	With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?	The Lord speaks to Moses mouth-to-mouth.
Deut. 5:24	And ye said, Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth.	God talks to all the people on Mount Siani.
Deut. 34:10	And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,	The Lord knew Moses face-to-face.
Judg. 13:22	And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.	Manoah and his wife see God.
1 Kgs. 11:9	And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice,	The Lord appeared to Solomon twice.
Amos 9:1	I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.	Amos sees the Lord.
Isa. 6:1	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.	Isaiah saw the Lord.
Isa. 6:5	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.	Isaiah saw the Lord.

If anyone tells you that “No one has seen God”, they are not telling the truth. Jehovah revealed Himself to many people. Jesus Christ wants us to believe in Him. He can only save us if we believe in Him.

If you don’t yet have a testimony of Jesus Christ, I invite you to pray. Ask Heavenly Father if His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, the Savior was Jehovah the God of the Old Testament.

This is Part III of a series on the Old Testament.

The Restored Church’s website has a treasure trove of books and talks about the Old Testament. Today, I just wanted to go over the first chapter of Genesis.

Before diving into the scriptures though, I want to add this disclaimer.

"Not all scripture is created equal."

By that, I mean that some things included in scriptures are pure history. They will not have an impact on your life.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Let’s do an exercise…. Read 2 Kings 11. Then, read Matthew 5. Which of these chapters teaches you more truth? Which chapter has a greater affect on you? See what I mean?

When you read the scriptures, ask yourself: “What can I get out of this? How does this affect me?” Read the scriptures with scrutiny. Be an active participant in your learning from the scriptures. Write questions down.

That being said, today, I’m going to go over Genesis Chapter 1. I’m going over this chapter because there is a lot of important truths taught in this chapter about the Plan of Salvation.

These scriptures are taken from the King James version of the Bible (as posed on the website of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Verse	Scripture	Comment
1	In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.	How important is that statement! It’s the first verse in the Bible. How many billions of people don’t recognize that simple truth. Contrary to what science (or the Devil for that matter) would have you believe, the universe was NOT created by a BIG BANG. Our collective existence was not chance–not a roll of the dice. The probability of everything being created the way that it was is too astronomically high to calculate. Please, don’t fall for the nonsense taught in some schools. Contrary to what is typically taught, the earth was created for a purpose: For the Children of God to inhabit it, so we could receive bodies of flesh and bone and be tested–to see whether we’d prove ourselves worthy to return and live with Him. Your life has a purpose. You will not cease to exist when you die. Death is not the end.
2	And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.	God, The Great Jehovah, Jesus Christ, the Son of God (our elder brother) had a Spirit. Before He became God in the flesh, Jesus Christ was only a Spirit (like us).
3	And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.	God has a body. God can speak. He has a mouth. He has a face, a nose, eyes, and ears. He looks like us. He has a body. How many people think of God as something without form? This is a misconception that is not true. He has a body. He is a person. God has power. He can command the elements.
4	And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.	God caused the earth to rotate.
5	And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6	And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7	And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.	God made the atmosphere.
8	And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9	And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
10	And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11	And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12	And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13	And the evening and the morning were the third day.
14	And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:	God created the planets He caused the earth to tilt ~23.5 degrees, so we’d have seasons. As a measure of time, he made the earth rotate around the sun, so we could measure time.
15	And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16	And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.	God made the sun and the moon. God made the stars too.
17	And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18	And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19	And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20	And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.	God caused evolution to occur.
21	And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.	God set limits on evolution. “God created”…”after their kind”….
22	And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23	And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24	And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25	And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26	And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.	“Let us”…. Who was the “us”? It was Heavenly Father and Jesus talking. Heavenly Father is a man. Jesus Christ is a man. “God” is a name. “God” is also a title. Heavenly Father is a God. Jesus Christ is a God. There are only a few references in the scriptures in which Heavenly Father speaks (which will be pointed-out later). When the scriptures speak of God or when God is talking, the person speaking in the Old Testament is Jesus Christ (or Jehovah) as he was called before he was born.
27	So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.	When God created the first man and woman, they were formed in his image. This is something we can all relate to: children look like their parents. Children are “in the image of” their parents. We are all children of our Heavenly Father. He is the Father of our Spirits. We are in his image. Contrary to what the Devil would have you believe, we did not evolve from apes.
28	And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.	This is the first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve: “[T]o Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth”…. This is part of the Plan of Salvation. God, our Heavenly Father, is giving us the opportunity to be like Him to have a family/children. Children are an inheritance from the Lord. They are precious. They are his Spirit children. We will be held accountable to Him for how we treat them (and eachother, because we are all a child a God. EVERYONE IS A CHILD OF GOD.
29	And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30	And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31	And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

In conclusion, it’s a shame that so many people don’t bother to read or understand the first chapter of the Bible. There are so many important truths taught:

• God created the earth, the sun, moon, planets, and stars.
• God gave us day-and-night and seasons.
• God created the atmosphere, plants, and animals.
• Heavenly Father is a person. Jesus Christ is a person. They have bodies. They are people. “God” is not a void “thing” without form. God created the first man and women. We were created in the image of God. We have His likeness. The notion that man evolved is false.
• God gave the first man and woman a commandment: To procreate. Procreation, having families, having children, is part of God’s Plan for us. Following His Plan will bring us the most happiness in this life.

This is the second post of a series about the Old Testament. The Book of Genesis, the first book in the Old Testament, begins with the Creation.

For some, the Creation poses some tough questions:

• Radiometric dating proves the earth is ~4.53 billion years old. How can that be explained?
• How could God create the earth in 6 days?

The first thing to understand is that “Scientists don’t know everything.” Scientists are always in a state of discovery. What they say is “the truth” today is often refuted weeks, months, years, or decades later.

Scientists can’t clearly answer even the simplest of questions today. For instance, “What came first, the chicken or the egg?”

If you were to lock the best and brightest scientists in the world into a room and were to ask them to answer that single question, they would debate this without ever reaching a definitive answer.

God has all wisdom, all knowledge, and all power. Scientists (or anyone else for that matter) only know what God has enlightened their minds to know.

In the larger sense of things, there is no such thing as “original thought”, “original invention”, or “original discovery”. Long before this world was created, God already knew everything that man would ever “discover” in this world.

That being said, because God has all wisdom, all knowledge, and all power. You should know that “God is the greatest scientist, mathematician, physicist, engineer, teacher, etc.”

To understand the creation of the earth, you need to realize that…

• God used His power to create the earth. He used his knowledge of scientific principles to create it.
• God did not create the earth from nothing. God gathered unorganized matter and formed the earth from existing elements that are billions of years old.
• God does not measure time the same way we do.
  • We measure our time based upon the earth’s rotation in relation to the sun. A day for us is 24 hours. Have you ever considered that God does not live on this earth–that he lives near a sun with a much longer day then ours? Have you ever considered that a “Day of creation” may have been a much, much longer time period then a 24-hour day of ours?

God created the earth as described by Moses in the Bible. When he did it, he did it in a way that was consistent with the principles of science.

This will be the first post of a series on the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is a sacred volume of books that contain the words of many prophets.

The Bible begins with the book of Genesis. The word “Genesis” means “The beginning”.

The Plan of Salvation begins with the formation of the earth. God created the earth so his Spirit Children could obtain physical bodies and be tested.

Our Heavenly Father knew that we would live imperfect lives. He knew that we would also die. Our Heavenly Father’s Plan required a Savior: Someone who could come to earth and atone for our sins and conquer death (be resurrected) so that we could to return and live with our Heavenly Father if we follow His plan.

The key to understanding the Old Testament (and all scripture for that matter) is to realize that the Jesus Christ is the Savior. He is the main focal point. Our salvation rests with following Him.

The Old Testament foretells the coming of the Messiah–the Savior. All symbolism, all prophecies, all ordinances point toward Jesus Christ as that Savior.

Jesus Christ was Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament. It was Jesus Christ who formed the earth. It was Jesus Christ who visited Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It was Jesus Christ who made a covenant with Abraham and gave him the promised land. It was Jesus Christ who spoke to Moses from the burning bush, gave Moses the 10 Commandments, led the Israelites out of Egypt, and was later seen by Moses (and others) face to face (Exodus 33:11). Etc, etc, etc….

The Mosaic Law of Sacrifice, in which an animal was killed and its blood was spilled upon an alter, was instituted by Jesus Christ. It was symbolic of the blood of Jesus Christ that would be shed to atone for the sins of mankind. So, you must remember that as you read the Old Testament. Here is a wonderful article that explains this in better detail.

Today, we celebrate the life, Atonement, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

He stands alone as the author and finisher of our faith and salvation. Honor to God the Father, for the gift of His devine Son!!!

Here are some videos created by the restored church of Jesus Christ: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I encourage you to watch them and consider what the Savior means to you:

https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos?lang=eng

There would be no need for commandments or repentance, if there were no judgement.

Someday, everyone will have a day of reckoning. We will be held responsible (accountable) for the works we have done in this life.

This life is a test. One day, this test will come to a close. We will all die. We will then be judged based upon how well we have handled our test.
We will all have to answer to God for the things we have done.

We will be judged based up our works (our actions, what we have done) and based upon our intentions (the desires of our hearts).

“We will also be judged for the things we chose not to do.”

If we chose not to follow the example of Jesus, keeping the commandments, helping those in need of help, etc., we will be judge for that too. If we chose to spend our lives in selfish pursuits, we will be judged for that.

We will be judged based upon our degree of knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how well we sought to follow it.

Since Adam and Eve, billions of people have walked this earth never knowing about the Plan of Salvation. If they never had the opportunity to during their lifetime to learn about the Plan of Salvation (and Jesus Christ’s central role), they will have that opportunity before judgement.

Children that have died without knowing the gospel will be redeemed. Those with mental disabilities, who do not know the difference between “right” and “wrong”, will also be redeemed.

Everyone who did not have the opportunity to hear the gospel in this life will have an equal opportunity to hear the gospel before judgement.

If we have done all within our means to keep the commandments of God. His grace will be sufficient for us. His grace will make-up the difference.

If we repent and keep the commandments, the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ will qualify us to return and live with him, and our Heavenly Father, in eternal glory.