thomas s. monson

Make Your Home a Temple

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President Thomas S. Monson

President Thomas S. Monson

President Monson spoke at a regional meeting in the Conference Center yesterday, as reported by the Deseret News.  The focus of his counsel was to put our homes in order.  This is wise counsel since the Dow dropped 500 points today, the biggest drop since 9/11.  We are living in troubled times, and I suspect that it will get worse sooner than it gets better.  The Lord’s prophets have been giving us this message for a couple decades now, to put our homes in order in a multitude of different ways.  Are we listening and doing?

Part of President Monson’s counsel was this, in words reminiscent of the temple (cf. D&C 88:119):

This, then, is your building project, brothers and sisters, to organize yourselves, prepare every needful thing, and to establish a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.

The Grossest Form of Church Criticism

President Ezra Taft Benson (1899-1994)

President Ezra Taft Benson (1899-1994)

In recent weeks I have encountered what I consider to be one of the most damaging forms of criticism of the Church.  You might think that it is from all the anti-Mormon literature or propaganda.  Or perhaps it is those who are so vocal as to picket the curbs at our General Conferences with signs, profanity, and filth.  You might think it is those who have become disaffected, have left the Church, and are now eager to tear it down or “expose” it for what they see as serious problems.  You might think it is the work of scholars who have been excommunicated, and now find intellectual haven in promoting arguments against the learned.  You might even think that it is those tribulations that come from the adversary himself.  But this is not the case.

There is a much more gross and pernicious form of criticism of the restored gospel and of the Lord’s restored Church.  It is that criticism which comes from within the Church.

I know that this runs in the same current as several of my latest posts, but I strongly believe that “it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor” (D&C 88:81).  And it also has a direct relationship to the covenants we make to God in the temple.  [Read more…]

Oh Say, What Is Truth?

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The living prophets and apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The living prophets and apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What is Truth? I hope this will help shed some light.  The living prophets of this dispensation have spoken the word of the Lord.

From the “Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson” (pgs. 115-121):

Truth is a glorious thing. We sing about it. “Oh say, what is truth?/’Tis the fairest gem/That the riches of worlds can produce.” (Hymns, 1985, no. 272.) The Church and kingdom of God has no fear of the truth. ((Seattle Washington LDS Institute Dedication, 29 October 1961.))

We are engaged in the greatest work in all the world-yes, the greatest in the whole universe: the saving and exaltation of our Father’s children, our brothers and sisters. We are the custodians of the truth, the saving principles which, where applied, will build, save, and exalt men. ((God, Family, Country, p. 129.))…

Our lives, to be successful, must constitute a constant pursuit of truth-all truth. The gospel encompasses all truth; it is consistent, without conflict, eternal. I have had the privilege of traveling to most parts of this world. I have known presidents and prime ministers-dictators and kings. Nothing I have seen or experienced has changed my resolve to stand with truth. ((MIA Vanguard Program, Salt Lake City, Utah, 13 June 1960.))…

Blessed are you if you have a testimony that God has spoken from the heavens; that His priesthood is again among men; that the gospel in its purity and fulness is here to bless mankind; and that we will be judged by its principles. These truths will, if you are wise, take precedence in your lives “over all contrary theories, dogmas, hypotheses or relative-truths from whatever source or by whomsoever” advocated. [Read more…]

The One True Church

It seems to me that there is an undercurrent among the more liberal “new order” Mormon bloggers in the Bloggernacle lately that try to refute or dilute the concept that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the “one true church.” While I do believe that there is much truth that is found in all religions of the world and that there are a great many people who do not belong to the Church who are doing many good things, I also am firm in the belief that this church is God’s only true church upon the Earth today, with a fulness of God’s blessings, revelation, truth, power, priesthood, direction, inspiration, doctrine, authority, and saving ordinances, to the extent which He has deemed us worthy to receive them.

My belief in this comes first because the Lord Jesus Christ has spoken it:

And also those to whom these commandments were given, might have power to lay the foundation of this church, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness, the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased, speaking unto the church collectively and not individually… (D&C 1:30)

But also consider the words of God’s prophets.  President Joseph Fielding Smith once said:  [Read more…]

Stand Ye in Holy Places

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Elder Russell M. Nelson said this in a devotional he gave on December 10, 2002 at BYU:

The time is coming when those who do not obey the Lord will be separated from those who do. Our safest insurance is to continue to be worthy of admission to His holy house. How blessed we are to have temples available. The greatest gift you could give to the Lord at this or any other time of year is to keep yourself unspotted from the world, worthy to attend His holy house. His gift to you will be the peace and security of knowing that you are worthy to meet Him, whenever that time shall come.

“Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen” (D&C 87:8).

See this video: