5 Ways to Avoid Paying for Your Own Sins

In my theology, which is based on the revelation Joseph Smith received concerning the three degrees of glory, there are three places to wait after death until the final judgment. Almost all Mormons take Joseph's vision of the afterlife to mean there are 3 potential kingdoms for the vast majority of people and a place called "outer darkness" for the foolish few. 

I agree with Joseph's revelation that for GOD to be just the has to be more than just the two possible outcomes of heaven and hell. I also agree with Avraham Gileadi's ideas that Isaiah posits 7 possible layers to the afterlife. The point of this post is to get people to avoid the nightmare scenario I wrote about in my last piece, which is ending up in hell, regardless of whether there are 2, 3, 4, 7 or 99 possible places when we die.

Tucked away in Doctrine  and Covenants section 76 are phrases about "hell", "spirit prison", and "paradise". I believe these 3 places to be a temporary stop after we die where a partial judgement takes place. I also believe that anyone living an obviously above average life of service, can avoid Hell altogether, without necessarily qualifying for the top spot afterwards. Whether that top Heaven is called Celestial, "Celestial Plus", Kolob or Xanadu, that kind of reward is for the few that are chosen out of the many that are called.

Since I am a slightly above average person at best, and a below average person at worst  I have always been concerned with avoiding even a temporary stay in hell between death and resurrection. If I am truly average, I am risking having to pay for my own sins, because GOD will not be mocked. GOD's best child did not come here to give everyone a free pass to do whatever they want, whenever they want, for as long as they want. The bill will come due at some point, and GOD usually waits until we are dead to give us enough rope to hang ourselves, or enough time to repent.

1. Believe in JESUS and never deny that belief. This is not enough by itself, but it is a start. Satan believes there is a godly personage named JESUS. Satan was too proud to believe his superior brother was the right choice for Savior of planet Earth. Satan just does the opposite of what JESUS would do in any situation so he gets to be the proprietor of hell and outer darkness. I believe Outer Darkness to mean that you decide through you behavior that you will not accept JESUS as the true GOD of this sphere no matter what. 

2. Serve people inside of your "family and friends circle" more than they serve you. This is still, not enough but we are making progress. Be a better friend, be a better parent, be a better neighbor, and stop trying to keep up with the Jones on Facebook. 

3. Love your enemies. Love them enough that you would rather they killed you, instead of  you killing them. Proclaim peace to avoid contention. Try to make your enemies your friends. We all we sired by the same 2 Holy Beings in Heaven. We all share the same spiritual mother and father. It is awe inspiriting to me that the Most High God loves sinful me as much as He loves sinless JESUS. We are not going to get the same blessings, but we get the same support. GOD could easily have decreed that only people who never sin get to return to his Kingdom, but he selflessly allowed imperfect people to repent until they could act perfectly.

4. Do what your conscience tells you to do in every situation. Don't worry if you ignored this literal Holy Spirit inside of you before today, just start doing what it persuades you to do from now on. For more of this idea, go to upwardthought.com, Rob Smith's blog or better yet read all of his books.

5. Share whatever excess you have with those poorer than yourself. Above all do not share your abundance with a church. Helping the least of these, we help you in the long run avoid a fate worse than death.

I am sure there are numerous other ways to avoid hell. If we truly love GOD above all else, and other people as much as we love ourselves, everything else will fall into place.

5 Easy Ways to Damn Yourself

Here are what I consider to be the 5 best ways to limit your eternal progress.

1. Take life. Kill someone for any reason with the exceptions of self-defense and GOD asking you to (think Nephi and Laban). The Book of Mormon seems to make it possible to repent of lives taken during warfare, but I am glad I have not had to make that decision. 

I think Cain and Abel are placed near the beginning of the Bible, even though they were not Eve's first children, and probably not even in the first few generations of children, in order to point out the easiest and fastest way to lose your salvation. 

Take life and end your own spiritual life.

2. Refuse to give life (women) or refuse to take care of life (men). Women who can have children and do not may not got to Hell, but they are also not going anywhere near where JESUS is currently residing. I am a resigned Mormon but I still believe in the varieties of Heaven revealed to Joseph Smith. There are at least 4 major areas where we could end up, and within those 4 are almost certainly other divisions. Joseph Smith revealed there were 3 levels housed within the top kingdom.

I will leave the fate of women who have had abortions with the One True Judge JESUS. Only He and His Father, The GOD MOST HIGH knows what is in a women's heart and mind.

I would not, however, want to be a man who forced a women to have an abortion. 

Men who could marry and prefer being selfish bachelors, or who father children and then abandon them will end up in the same post-mortal metro areas as other selfish beings.  I believe JESUS covers the sins of people of at least Terrestrial level righteousness, meaning people making ansincere effort to do their best regardless of their circumstances. Imagine if just the decision to not get married when you could have, mandates that you first suffer for your own sins, and then end up with the self-centered people of the telestial kingdom. I guess you could spend your time describing how awful it was to pay for your sins and compare notes with your nonsensical neighbors.

3. Deny the CHRIST. Not believing in JESUS is bad enough. Going out of your way to make sure others know how foolish you are and then trying to convince them to join you in that rejection is spiritual suicide.

4.  Trust in the flesh,. Do not follow a man or woman in place of JESUS. There are a couple of possibly legitimate prophets these days. No real servants GOD would require anyone to worship them, or accept they say as truth. Ask GOD what is true. Never trust a fellow human, especially me.

5. Be the One Served, rather than the one serving. JESUS came down here to this miserable place to save anyone audacious enough to emulate him.. 99 percent of all other people who attained power in world history used their position to control others and be served. If you spend your days acting like Satan, you are certainly going to end up in his dominion when you die. 

There are hundreds of ways to end up with a less than ideal afterlife, but these 5 seem to be this planet's particular preferences for damning one's self. 

Your Mormon Temple Name is Not Unique

 I am certain some of you already knew the information in the title of this piece. I did not know until my spiritual journey during my 40s (I am now 57) led me to wonder why the religion of modern Mormonism did not match the religion of early Mormonism. It also did not match up with the theology of the Book of Mormon. Just to be clear I believe the Book of Mormon to be not just another witness of JESUS, but the best witness of Him. I do not believe the veracity of the book is a reason to join any version of the Mormon Church. 

After figuring out the big ideas did not match up, I resigned my membership. I then accidentally discovered that the new names given before a Mormon goes through the temple for the first time are not random. So there must be roughly 365 names for men and the same number for women? Wrong again. Since 1974 the LDS church uses a simple card that has 31 numbers on it to match the days of the month, and this card has 31 female names and 31 males names. Talk about a bunch of lazy asses. There was ten year period of time from 1965 to 1974 that the church used roughly 350 names for each day of the year, minus the days they knew the temples would be closed. Less lazy, but still silly.

I am wondering if some temple worker who got the name card for the first time has ever put two and two together and walked right out of his or her local great and spacious building. If it has happened, the church would cover it up. If would make for an excellent clip on YouTube. 

My wife's temple name of Huldah was been mothballed for obvious reasons, but it used to be given to women going through their first endowment on the 6th of any month. The church has added the names of Heber and Hyrum to their latest group of the "not so special, special 31." I would be honored to have Hyrum as a name, and ashamed to have Heber. There was a biblical Heber, but his claim to fame in the Book of Judges was that his wife was awesome, so maybe Heber would actually fit me. I am fairly certain that LDS Inc. picked Heber because of Heber C Kimball. Anything to semi-secretly perpetuate their misguided goals of eternal adultery.

When you met GOD again, He will give you whatever name you merit, and it will not be shared by anyone else he talked to that day. GOD is certainly a GOD of order, but He has not boiled down all the important names in world history to just 31. My wife is very grateful that no one is going to call her Huldah ever again.

Trespassers William

The title is not a typo. Some of you will recognize it comes from A.A. Milne's series of books about Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh. Specifically it refers to a sign that is posted near the beech tree that Piglet lives in. The sign is broken and reads, "Trespassers Will". Obviously it means that the property owner at the time was warning people that the could be shot or prosecuted. We can make a fairly good guess that it is one of the two. Piglet in his innocence makes up a story that it is the name of his grandfather, Trespassers William. 

All of us here on Earth are not in possession of all of the facts. At best, we only know a small part of the truth. We like to think we know a lot, and Mormons are notorious for thinking they know all or at least their leaders do. The higher up you go in Mormonism the more know-it-alls you find. There are humble Mormons at the bottom of the pecking order.

As a former Mormon I keep learning over and over that I know almost nothing in comparison to GOD. I am really only guessing at what the truth is. I may have some of it right, but it is most likely I have most of it wrong. 

All the religions of the world are like Piglet. Piglet creates a story to make himself look important. The problem is no one in his circle of friends realizes the story cannot be right. Religions have come up with a narrative that supports their world view. They use that story to control their members. The goal is to get money and power. The problem is not enough people figure out that their faith leaders are as clueless as Piglet. 

You then get 2 reactions to the story, acceptance or rejection. We now have a world made up of zealots and atheists. Few consider there could be a middle ground. Religion could have some truth, but there is no one true church. There is only a true GOD and that is JESUS, the literal son of the GOD MOST HIGH.

I will keep searching until I get more truth. I am like Piglet in comparison to GOD. The difference is that I know that I don't know, Piglet was blissfully ignorant. Become like a child and start asking questions assuming you know nothing. I know closer to nothing than a do to everything.

I really only know 3 things for sure:

1. I do not need a religion to find truth.

2. There is a GOD.

3. GOD is trying to save all His children, religious or not.

 

Obey GOD and Grow, Ignore Him and Wither

After JESUS gives the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 his disciples ask him why He is teaching in parables. He responds according to the King James Version with,

    11. He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know 

    the mysteries of the kingdom of the heaven, but to  them it is not given.

    12. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given,

    and he shall have more abundance;

    but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

(Matthew 13: 11-12)

I do not know about you, but that seems a little capricious to me. I also know that JESUS is not capricious so what does verse 12 mean?

Thanks to Joseph Smith's inspired work on the Bible we now know.

The JST takes verse 12 and splits it into two parts and changes the main verb.

    For whosoever receiveth, to him shall be given,

    and he shall have more abundance;

    But whosoever continueth not to receive, 

    from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

That sounds more like GOD to me. If you receive instruction from Him, and you follow it, you get more instruction. You grow. If you continue to trust GOD and follow his counsel, then eventually you can have your calling and election made sure. That is the best possible outcome for the test we are currently taking.

If you get information from GOD and ignore it or fail to heed it, then you wither. The risk is that is you do that enough without repenting you can die spiritually. Dying spiritually is infinitely worse than physically dying. 

GOD knows more than all of us put together, so we don't we just start listening to Him? He only has our best interests at heart. He loves us unconditionally, but HE cannot bless us equally, unless we all start doing what he advises us to do.

No one is going to get to the other side and say, 

"Boy, I sure regret following JESUS!"

    

 

Genesis Chapter Zero, Verse One

The words of God which he spake unto Moses,

at a time when Moses was caught up into an exceeding high mountain,

and he saw God face to face,

and he talked with him,

and the glory of God was upon Moses;

therefore Moses could endure his presence.

You will not find the verse above or the information in it in any Bible other than the one Joseph Smith produced. I like to call the first chapter of Joseph's Bible, "Genesis Chapter 0."

Think of the knowledge restored in just that verse! People can talk to God face to face? By the way, the GOD here referred to is the Most High God, because later in the chapter this GOD refers to his Only Begotten (Jesus). I can see why the adversary  would not want that information getting out. Someone might read that and think, "if hot-headed arrogant Moses could talk to God, why not me?"

Critics of Joseph like to just say he merely plagiarized the King James Version of the Bible.There is no other Bible in the world that restores an entire chapter of material as an introduction to Genesis that is missing except the JST. According to BYU Professor Kent Jackson Joseph made roughly 3,600 changes and added 10,000 words that have counterpart in any other version!

You cannot plagiarize something that is original to your work. Actually original to Moses' work, but since it has not been seen for thousands of years we can dismiss any ridiculous notions of mere copying. 

If I were trying to create my own version of the Bible I certainly would not add thousands of new words, only a fool would do that.  The other possibility is someone with direct access to the Holy Spirit and permission from GOD could restore what has been lost. You decide, like the Book of Mormon, ask God if it is true. If you get a YES that does not mean you have to join the Mormon Church. It only means you should take the time to read it and learn what you cannot learn in any other translation.

I never get bored searching the JST. It starts with a thunder bolt.

Bountiful Children's Foundation

 I write this after finding out that a couple of years ago, the Salt Lake version of the Mormon church made the Liahona Children's Foundation change its name. For those who do not know, what the now "Bountful Children's Foundation" does is give 99.9 percent of the money they receive to help starving and nutritionally challenged children in the Third World. Places like Bolivia, Cambodia, and Ghana. You can go to bountifulchildren.org to see the other countries they serve and how they serve them.  

Mormon Inc. with its hundreds of billions of dollars refuses to help the least of Christ's brethren. They have the satanic audacity to make an organization that relies totally on donations to change their name. That is probably not going to go well for the selfish leaders when they leave this life. They might end up even lower than me. 

My latest prayer was asking GOD to destroy the LDS church sooner rather than later. It is going to happen, but if will be on CHRIST''s timetable and not mine. JESUS most likely is waiting to see if He can influence a few more people to get out before the sword of justice drops.

Stop giving your money to a corporation posing as a church. If you have extra money please consider giving some to the Bountiful Children's Foundation. 

bountifulchildren.org