Book of Mormon: Title Page
Image belongs to Rick Grunder
Dark Side of the Moon
In my last post I talked about the fact that there are answers to the major questions that we all ask ourselves. The major way Christians get answers to questions of faith is by searching the scriptures. The Holy Bible is universally accepted as the source of Christian History and is used in one translation or another by every Christian sect. The geographical history the Bible covers is that of the Northern Hemisphere and begins in the aforementioned mesopotamian area and later in the New Testament carries in to Europe. For all the people on the planet, the bible focuses on one family and its spiritual path, this path culminates in the humble birth of Jesus of Nazareth, this birth is the apex of all the prophecy and drama and faith of this family. Jesus' teachings are amazing and are the source of so much faith and hope and comfort for Christians. Its a wonder that with all the activity and spirit and fanfare that is generated by the bible that we don't have a large Popular Christian movement that is interested in finding more of Jesus' teachings. The Book of Mormon is just as its subtitle says it is: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It starts out around the time of the Bible Prophet Jeremiah and carries through to about the year 400 of the common era.
The book of mormon too is primarily the story of one family and their journeyings in the wilderness and their experiences with faith and with God. It culminates in the Birth of Jesus and in a visit that Jesus makes to the Western Hemisphere after his resurrection. I know that the western hemisphere store isn't as widely accepted by the Christian community but that doesn't mean its not true.
Have you ever seen the dark side of the moon? Do you see a different face on the moon in June than in December? Can you recall the face? No. You can't you haven't seen it, unless you are an arduous student of lunar facts you haven't seen pictures of it. No doubt its there, no doubt that once in a while the sun shines on this side of the moon, we just don't see it. Very few actually ever even think about it. Knowing about the moon and being able to describe it is possible by almost every one on the planet. What about the astronomers who have orbited the moon? Is their opinion of it different.
The way I view the gospel of jesus christ and the bibles account of it is like the moon, The bible is widely distributed and accepted by the people of the Earth. It tells a story, a non fiction story about one family and its journeyings. But there is another side to the gospel and just because the Christian community at large hasn't accepted it or read it or ever considered it doesn't make it any less real. Moon is beautiful in all its glory, just as is the Gospel as told by the Bible, the gospel contained in is pages has offered countless millions of people hope and joy that is unspeakable. The Book of Mormon simply is like the other side of the moon, its the same moon, the same gospel, it just shines a light on the gospel that hasn't really been seen before. The other side of the moon is also glorious, it is also real and it is no less true.
The book of mormon is true. the stories and individuals outlined in its pages offer and stand to offer the world its comfort and peace unspeakable that its predecessor has done. The Christian community would be better able to focus itself on Christ and his teachings if they used both volumes to direct is path, as two points on a map offers a clear path and direction to a fixed destination rather than offer the thousands of sects and differences of opinion and contentions by so called experts resulting in the present state of affairs in the Christian faith.
Free Capitalist Primer
I recommend you look at the Free Capitalist Primer.
Look here for the download.
Image belongs to freecapitalist.com
Lets Start This Off
This was originally posted July 2008
The next few blogs will sort of be an introduction to The Church and its history, purpose and teachings. I really want to spend time in the scriptures with you but before we get to the scriptures we need to spend some time laying down the framework or foundation so you can better get the paradigm from where I speak.
I spent 2 years studying history at Boise State University. Western Civilization is a staple course for all history students and in the class they go all the way back to mesopotamian people and earlier. The postulate that in its essence religion was created by man in an effort to satisfy the classic larger questions of "Who Am I?" "Where did I Come From?" "What is the Purpose of Life?" "Where am I going after Death?" "Is there more to life?" While it is satisfactory for a progressive secular person to think this way, people of faith need more. People of faith know as I do that Man did not create religion, but, rather God did.
I am here to tell you, whether you are a secular person or a person of faith, you need to know that indeed God lives! He is our Heavenly Father. We are his children! As the Father of our Souls he wants us to find Peace and Joy, and true happiness. In order for us to achieve this happiness he created a plan for us. Its important to know that we are not happen-chance blobs of evolved amoebas. We are children of Heavenly Parents! This knowledge has helped me make decisions from a different place, a different paradigm. Its like the direction from where I make decisions has a trajectory that already had a course.
This course began before we were born. We all lived together in the presence of God before we came here. When I tell people that this is a belief of The Church I get a common response: Yea, I've always thought/believed that! A lot happened in the pre-existence. While we were there Jesus Christ volunteered to lead us in this course. He taught us about the plan. It is called the Plan of Happiness! or the Plan of Salvation!
We will talk more about the plan later. You need to know that I know this, I know God lives! I know that there is a plan for us! I know that Jesus Christ is the Master, the Savior and that he loves us and wants us to be happy, truly happy.
We will talk more soon!
A Brief Message…
Having a website has been a desire of mine for many years. Ever since the 1980’s when I put my first post on a BBS. I have been hooked on the internet. In the 1990’s I created my first commercial website and finally, last year, I saw that bradyork.com had become available again after several years of checking.
On this website I intend to feature some pictures of my family and a blog about my study of the LDS scriptures.
In a recent address to BYU students in Hawaii, M. Russell Ballard spoke about using the internet for the purposes of the work of God. I was stuck by the realization that I do not have much to do with religion on the internet. I have found that the voices that I read here are very argumentative and contentious. I don’t do well with debating or contention but I intend to use this site to prop up my family and my Savior, Jesus Christ!
I hope you enjoy it! It takes work to create such a site and maintain it so please visit and use the site.
1 Nephi Chapter 1
I recently purchased a video because an old friend of mine was the film editor on the project. The video is a scholarly look at the travels of Nephi and his family. They spend 90 minutes looking at the route that was likely taken as Lehi led his family out of Jerusalem.
I am a big fan of Truman G Madsen. He offers some of the opinion on the video.
Verse 1: Born of good parents, learned of his father, suffered but blessed, so I write a record.
LDS people read this verse a lot. And in so doing they can tell you a lot about it. Many of us have several comments on what it means to have goodly parents or to be taught in the learning of our father. The picture above is a motorcycle. Its not a Harley Davidson, like what my father does but it is interesting. In the tradition of Nephi I have joined with my father in the family business. By now I have largely taken over, I manage the day to day operations, purchasing, inventory, customer service and bookkeeping. I have the good fortune of letting my brother handling the order picking and shipping. Dad still does 99% of all the eBay listings.
It turns out, and I didn’t know this that Nephi was probably a Metallurgist? Who'da thought that?
The remainder of this chapter basically summarized very quickly the Jerusalem ministry of his father LEHI. He mentions that he cried repentance during the time of Zedekiah.
To me its clear that Lehi was asked to preach during a time that was very difficult in Jerusalem. His cries landed on initially deaf ears, but he must have been effective because the Lord asked him to leave partially because of the threat as is indicated by verse 20.
Finally, I really like that Moses isn’t the only one whom had a “burning bush” experience. What it must have been like to have a vision like that.