What in the world are you doing in Vietnam? I’ll bet that’s a beautiful country. What a far cry it must be from the days of war that tore it apart for so many years. You write that you are helping children in that country. Are you in the Peace Corps? I have a niece in the Peace Corps in Bulgaria. It can be a tough job.

Tenacity. I like that. Yes, I do have tenacity for my religion. I continue to believe it and have done so for most all of my life. It continues to answers questions for me no matter how deep I dig or how hard the questions. It even helps me understand some of the mythology you referred to. My religion embraces all truth, no matter what the source.

Mythology is a wonderful thing. It contains so many elements of truth so long forgotten. The written record does not preserve nearly so well what some of the ancient myths conveyed in story and epic. It helps us experience the long forgotten past as our ancestors did – in myth and legend that seem so strange to our science-trained minds of today.

I’m so grateful to live in this day and age when we have the benefit of science to help us understand things that our ancestors did not. And yet, they had first hand experience of some things that we have never seen – burning hail being one of them. We are going to see a lot more things in the coming days that were evident in their day – the pillar of fire is one that I am looking forward to seeing. Won’t that be something to behold?

The Afterlife. Who knows what that is really like? I haven’t been there, have you? One of the neatest experiences I am passing through right now is visiting with my dad who is dying. He tells of visits from my mother, who died a few years ago. “But dad,” I say, “you know mother has passed on.” He responds quietly, “I know. But she was here with me last night. She is waiting for me and is sorry to see me suffering like this.”

What a sweet thing to contemplate – an afterlife where loving husbands and wives can be reunited and continue their journey together. I’ll bet there is so much to learn when we get to the other side. I am looking forward to it but know that the quality of my life there will depend on my actions here. It’s tough. You don’t need me to tell you that. Everybody knows it is. I’m just so glad to have my faith to keep me going as I prepare to see my dad leave us in the near future.

I have great respect for well-done scholarship but hope I made it clear in my essay that there is so much that scholars don’t know and will never find out unless it is revealed to them from a higher source. I look to that source to help me understand the world around me and am especially appreciative of prophets who seem to have the gift of seeing what is to come and how it will affect me and my family. I appreciate their warnings that forewarn me and prepare me for coming catastrophe.

Thanks for stopping by and adding your comments. I don’t know if I have answered your question but look forward to a continued dialog on the subject if you care to do so. I would love to discuss the idea of mythology and religion. I find them both so interesting. Cheers and God bless you for the good that you are doing there.

Thanks for stopping by and adding a few much appreciated thoughts. I have always been very interested in looking for and discovering logical explanations for miraculous events as described and foretold by old testament prophets.

I have dialoged and conversed with many people over the years who have rejected such prophesied events because they are so wrapped up in how it could possibly happen. The example of burning hail is one that they like to mock.

“Why everybody knows that hail is frozen water,” they say very dismissively. “There is no way that hail can burn. If you mix them together, the hail will melt and put out the fire.”

Rev 8:7 makes it clear that hail and fire will come upon the world in the last days before the coming of the Lord. “The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.”

That’s a fairly catastrophic event and one of the earliest to occur. If in my lifetime I saw burning hail falling from the heavens I think I would want to know what is going on. That’s not something that you see every day. A third part of the tress and ALL green grass were burned. Wow! That’s going to cause some trouble for life on earth. Will we see that happen? What will we do?

We are on the opposite ends of the science spectrum as far as the signs of the times go, I guess, since I really don’t care about the exact nature of “how” they will occur. I’m much more interested in “why” they will occur and trying to read the signs of the times regarding that question. Therefore, I appreciate reading the thoughts of those who focus on the “how”.

I agree. It can be an impossible and circuitous task to attempt scientific explanations for miraculous biblical events. Science is continually evolving, but then so is our knowledge and understanding of the way God does things.

I like looking for rational and logical explanations for my faith wherever I can find them. I do not lose my belief in miracles, I just gain evidence for my faith in what I previously did not understand.

The signs of the times and the events of the last days are my favorite subjects to study. I look to the past to understand what is going to happen in the future. These burning hail is mentioned as something we will definitely see in the coming days.

I want to be prepared with a rational explanation for when it comes and scares everybody half to death. Everybody will be looking to science to explain these things as they happen. I say we need to look to the cosmos and records of what was seen there in the past to understand what is about to be a big part of our lives very soon.

I know faithful scientists who very much want to understand the ways that the Lord causes what we consider miracles. The human body is one that comes to mind. So is the creation of the earth and the eventual end of the world. Like S.Faux noted, I am looking forward to the day when the dialog between scholarly scientists and visionary prophets give us the full picture that the Lord wants us to have.

Thanks for the great comment. You got me thinking more about how much I love science, even with the attendant speculation. That’s how we discover things – by proposing theories and then setting out to prove them. That process even helps me as I build my faith and testimony of doctrines that are just hard to understand at first.

When I think of prophets who were also scholars, I think of James E. Talmadge, John A. Widtsoe, Neal A. Maxwell, Henry B. Eyring, Dallin H. Oaks, Jeffry R. Holland and many others. All prophets and all well educated men.

I wonder which modern-day prophet can be considered our expert on the signs of the times, especially as they relate to the cosmos? We don’t read much from them by way of explanation on how these great events are going to occur, do we?