Network Engineers in Zion

9 Comments / Last Days / /

Can you imagine a world without electricity, laptop computers, the Internet (I’m using all three right now) and cell phones? What would you do with yourself all day? How would you survive? What if you couldn’t get your medications from the local pharmacy? What if the local grocery store no longer had food to sell? What if you could no longer get any gasoline for your cars? Is that where the myth of walking to Zion came into the church?

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Beautiful Southern Utah

Mormon culture / /

It is Zion returning. He comes with the City of Enoch, which was taken up. But before He comes, Zion must be established here and prepared to meet Him when He comes. The Lord is working to prepare a people who will be that Zion. They are few in number, cast out because of their beliefs that are not in line with the traditions of the church fathers.

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The Heavens Are Open

Last Days / /

“You, to be competent in teaching your children, must first have the Holy Ghost as your guide. Then, once you have that, you ought to have familiarity with the scriptures, just as Hyrum was told to first learn what was in them before trying to teach others. Then you are qualified to go and teach your children, and you have an obligation to do that. Children are the means to preserve Zion. Without the conversion of children, Zion has no chance of surviving.” (Denver Snuffer)

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The Most Correct Book

2 Comments / Doctrine / /

Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon was the “most correct book” of any book on Earth. This is because it was not translated by man. It was translated by God. He is the author of the book. He gave the words to Joseph through the Urim & Thummim, the seerstone and later by direct revelation as Joseph’s gifts were developed. The Book of Mormon did not get translated from reformed Egyptian into English. It was given by revelation from the Lord. At times, Joseph did not even look at the plates to translate.

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Insights from a Prophet’s Life

14 Comments / Mormon culture / /

Last week, for the first time that I can recall in the five years since I had resigned my membership in the LDS Church, a good brother of the ward stopped me on my way to the car after church and said, “I just wanted to tell you how much I admire you. Each Sunday you come to church, sit next to your wife and listen carefully to the speakers. I know you’re here supporting your wife even though you’re not a believer. You stand tall in my book.” I wanted to correct him that I AM a believer, but the time wasn’t right.

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You Do What You Want

10 Comments / Personal Revelation / /

In a recent email exchange with a reader, we discussed the idea of being led by the spirit, particularly in regard to what we choose to read and to study. It is a fascinating topic and worthy of consideration.

My reader had asked me for some additional clarification of my positions on a few doctrinal and historical questions. I provided links to some of Denver’s papers and a few of my own posts. He responded he had read my posts but felt constrained by the spirit to not read any of Denver’s materials, even though he said he tried.

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Suicide Among LDS Youth in Utah

3 Comments / Mormon culture / /

Through artificial means, mankind has devised ways around that core structure to bring children into the world. Two men or two women can now become parents without going through the same method set forth by God. However, this defeats the purpose of the divine plan, which is to unite a man and a woman in the procreative process. That unity is much more than physical, it binds the couple together at a much deeper spiritual level.

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Joseph Smith and Polygamy

10 Comments / Doctrine / /

If you love LDS history as I do, especially the Nauvoo era, you will love this book. Be prepared for a refreshing and unusual treatment of the subject. This is decidedly not a telling of the story of Mormon polygamy from the standard or traditional LDS point of view. The author takes advantage of RLDS sources that most LDS authors will dismiss. This book is a call to repentance, especially to those who still believe polygamy is ordained of God or was taught or practiced by Joseph Smith. If you are a descendant of a polygamous family, you must read this book. Your appreciation for Joseph will increase and your eyes will be opened about how polygamy really came about in Mormon history.

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Excommunicated Mormons

1 Comment / Mormon culture / /

I took a few weeks recently to closely examine what I believe. I made a short, concise list of about forty relevant doctrines, principles and practices. I wanted to offer the list to kind and well-meaning folks who have asked how they could help me come back into the LDS faith. For the most part, there is a a lot of commonality in what we believe.

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Temple and Family History Work

2 Comments / Last Days / /

God demands that our hearts turn to the fathers or we will be wasted at His return. This requirement is not to turn to them in just a figurative way, where we do genealogical work to connect ourselves with our recently deceased forebearers. That work is a wrongheaded effort to seal people to those kept in prison. The return of our hearts will require us to have the same religion, and the same beliefs in our hearts that the original fathers had beginning with Adam. Only in that way will our hearts turn to the fathers.

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Mutual Agreement and Disputations

4 Comments / Last Days / /

We have the opportunity to vote on a definition of “Mutual Agreement.” The Lord was petitioned to define the phrase for us a few years back, especially in connection with our many disputations over the Statement of Principles to be used as a Guide and Standard. He did so. It was short, clear and concise. His response honors our agency. He reminds us we must choose. Mutual Agreement means we choose to not dispute one with another.

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General Conference April 2019 Sessions

Last Days / /

No, this post isn’t about the LDS / Mormon General Conference to be held 6-7 April 2019 in Salt Lake City UT. This is about the Restoration General Conference to be held 19-21 April 2019 in Grand Junction CO. I know it’s a bit confusing to call it General Conference, but that’s how it is labeled when it gets into the archives. Perhaps it should be called the Temple Conference since that is the theme. This is about the Saturday breakout sessions.

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A Time of Reflection, Part Eight

4 Comments / Doctrine / /

Perhaps the key takeaways from this post will be the following: 1) In spite of the fact that there are now 162 LDS Temples, we need a temple to which the Lord can come and in which the Lord’s servants can administer authorized ordinances of salvation anew. 2) The ordinances administered in the LDS Temples are no longer valid because they have changed the ordinances and therefore broken the covenant.

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A Time of Reflection, Part Seven

2 Comments / Last Days / /

Carol and I were first introduced to wine in the Sacrament in a fellowship meeting after one of the lectures in 2014. I think it was Las Vegas. We were invited by members of the Colorado fellowship to join with them to meet and talk about what we had received that day. To me, it was an amazing spiritual experience, and not because of the wine. I felt the sweet spirit of the Lord being poured out on this humble fellowship gathered that night.

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A Time of Reflection, Part Five

4 Comments / Last Days / /

I accepted a covenant the Lord offered in September of 2017. I rejoiced on that day and continue to marvel that we have been offered this covenant opportunity. Even the people of Joseph’s day were not offered and therefore did not receive this covenant. In fact, they were condemned and rejected by the Lord because they treated lightly the Book of Mormon, which God always intended to offer as a covenant to His people.

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A Testimony Revisited

16 Comments / Mormon culture / /

Carol and I had one of those conversations Sunday after church. I was talking with a friend about preparations for the upcoming April conference in Colorado. After our phone conversation concluded, Carol said, “We need to talk.” Uh-oh. “Okay,” I said. “What about?” “About the elephant in the room.” “Ah, yes.” I knew what she was

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Doctrine of Christ Conference Update

5 Comments / Doctrine / /

Doctrine of Christ Conference March 18th – 19th 2017 — St. George, Utah, USA The website at DoctrineofChristConference.com is being updated with the following information on February 27, 2017 About this Conference The idea for this spring conference came after the September 2016 Boise Doctrine of Christ Conference where an amazing thing happened – people

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Remember

3 Comments / Last Days, Uncategorized / /

First, Keith asked fellow bloggers to get the word out about the deadline to record 2015 baptismal ordinances. You can read more about it on his blog: Recorder’s Clearinghouse. And Keith, don’t be mad, but may I offer this: a new entry in an existing blog is called a post. So what Keith has written is

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The blog is not over . . .

2 Comments / Uncategorized / /

Tim Malone has retired the authorship of this blog for the time being. However, Tim and I have discussed the importance of keeping the blog active, with continued posts from those that share in the vision and spirit of Latterdaycommentary. The importance of this blog for the Latter-day Restorationist Mormon community is essential and should

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I See… Awake!

3 Comments / Doctrine / /

We mourn the passing of Doug Mendenhall on 18 Dec 2020. Doug was so kind to me over the years as I read and wrote about his books, attended his seminars and visited him as a friend to encourage him in his work. I am personally grateful to Doug for his masterful work on Conquering

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Developing Awesome Spiritual Curiosity – A Thinking Mormon’s Yearning for Zion

3 Comments / Doctrine / /

Awesome – causing or inducing awe; inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence, or admiration Curiosity – eager to learn or know; inquisitive. The Mormon Internet is abuzz these days with the effective marketing of the CES Letter, with this recent one from friends over at Zelph on the Shelf, a comprehensive guide to well-worn criticisms against the LDS Church and Mormonism

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Confession Time

12 Comments / Doctrine / /

Note: This is a guest post. It was not written by me (Tim Malone). I used to accept guest posts many years ago. It remains here since it is part of the historical record. My mother (bless her heart) has been posting these new “helpful” videos put out by the Church that promotes the Church’s

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Q & A with Tim Malone, Author of Latter-day Commentary

7 Comments / Mormon culture / /

Q: How has your perception of Latter-day Commentary changed since its inception? In many respects, the direction of this simple blog has turned completely around. When I started blogging almost eight years ago, my intent was to help combat what I perceived to be a plethora of misinformation out there about the doctrines I knew

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Pentecost and Patterns

6 Comments / Doctrine / /

Sunday, May 24 marked fifty days since the Feast of the Passover. The early Christian disciples, gathered together in Jerusalem, experienced an outpouring of the Spirit and attending gifts following prayer and supplication. Joseph adds that Peter officiated in ordinances: “God obtained a house where Peter washed and anointed on the Day of Pentecost.” (WJS, p.

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