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New Testament LESSON #34
(1 COR 11-16) |
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KEEP THE ORDINANCES AS I DELIVERED THEM
by Ted L. Gibbons
Consider the following story:
At one time I worked for the railroad. I had responsibility for what is called deadend traffic – mail, baggage and express cars that are carried on passenger trains. I received one day in my office in Denver a telephone call from my counterpart in one of the eastern railroads. A train, he reported, had arrived in Newark, New Jersey, without its baggage car.
 We began to check and learned that the car had been properly loaded and properly trained in Oakland and had been delivered by the Western Pacific in Salt Lake City to the Rio Grande. The D. and R.G. had carried it to Denver and delivered it to the Missouri Pacific, which had carried it to St. Louis for delivery to the Baltimore and Ohio. But a thoughtless switchman in the St. Louis yard, careless of his instruction, had moved a small piece of steel, a switch point, about three inches, with the result that a car that should have been in Newark, New Jersey, was in New Orleans.
On such seemingly small hinges turn our lives. Our lives are, in reality, the sum total of our seemingly unimportant decisions and of our capacity to live by those decisions. (Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, BYU Speeches of the Year, Oct. 26, 1965, p. 3)
In 2 Nephi 26:22, it speaks of Satan leading us by the neck with a “flaxen cord” until he binds us with his strong cords forever. 2 Nephi 28:21 warns us that Satan will cheat our souls and lead us “carefully down to hell.” Alma 47:18 tells a story that warns us that we can be ”poisoned by degrees.” All of these examples, with the story of the switch point, warn us that we must be careful of even the smallest changes in our spiritual direction. The great changes are not changes in destination, but changes in direction. And they may not be radical changes. A few degrees of diversion from the right path can, over time, cause us to miss our destination by hundreds of miles. As Paul speaks of the relationship of husbands and wives and the Lord; as he speaks of the significance of the sacrament; as he gives instruction in the matter of spiritual gifts; and as he teaches of the resurrection, he is warning us to conduct our lives strictly by the doctrines of the gospel, and to receive the ordinances of the gospel as well.
> Read the Entire New Testament Lesson
 DESERT BLOSSOMS #103
by Ted L. Gibbons
I have a copy of a magazine article in my files that has intrigued me for a lot of years. It is an article by Paul Hugli from a periodical whose name is not on any of the pages (although the journal is certainly one with an agenda relating to extra-terrestrial visitors). I do not know the magazine or the date of publication, although it was before 1973, when I received my copy. Perhaps one of you can help me. I hope so. What I do know is that the information in the article is humorous, although not intentionally, and therefore, perhaps of some value, although not for any historical purpose. But much of the material is so convoluted that it is entertaining. I have thought for some time about a brief review in this column just for the smiles it might provide. Here it is:
The title of the article is ‘Mormon Leader Joseph Smith Was Visited By Spacemen!” On the front page of the story is a photo of a painting of Joseph Smith, and a copy of an 1856 engraving of the Carthage Jail. The caption under the picture of the prophet says,
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Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, had many visions and psychic impressions that led him to write the Book of Mormon. Where did his visions come from?
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The following paragraph appears under the picture of the jail. The words offer pretty compelling evidence about the quality of research that went into this article.
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Because of his controversial ideas, Joseph Smith was imprisoned in 1844. He was shot to death trying to escape from the second story window in the side of this Utah jail.
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“This Utah jail”? The writing suggests that Moroni appeared in a beam of light that was an anti-gravity ray and a protective shield. He never spoke, but he paralyzed Joseph Smith and gave him a vision of the location of the plates. We are even told of the Urim and Thummim , which might have been an amplifier that allowed the ‘UFOnauts’ to dictate the text of the gold plates in such a way that Joseph thought he was translating them. If you still have questions about the excellence of the investigation at produced this work, consider this material in the last two paragraph of the article. Notice the first two dates.
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As a side note, something to ponder over, the Mormons first settled the Great Salt Lake Area on June 24th, 1847 . . . exactly 100 years before Kenneth Arnold made the first modern UFO sighting on June 24, 1947! Incidently, on July 4, 1947, there was a flurry of UFO’s about the Salt Lake area. Was Moroni returning? Maybe Joseph Smith Jr., was contacted by the same ancient astronauts who talked to Ezekiel, Moses, Aaron, and the other Biblical characters to pick up where the Bible leaves off . . . which the Book of Mormon does.
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A final note: you all know that our detractors have at times twisted our history extravagantly in order to make their accusations believable. The man who wrote this does not seem to be an enemy, but his work demonstrates pretty clearly how mixed up things can get when people without faith or the Spirit try to tell our story for their own purposes.
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