08/26

MONDAY



Today I learned more about the Hittite and Egyptian Empires, especially the Hittites. They had hundreds of local and national gods. Their chief god seemed to be the storm god. This was the worship of demon spirits. The Hittites were a vast Near East Empire that was cotemporary with the Assyrians, the Babylonians and Egyptians.



"Islam takes wherever it goes. It gives nothing back --it takes.’’ –John Rosenstern, today on TV program Insights.

09/26 AND OTHER DATES



My dad thinks that I am weak minded because many times he has observed me changing what I believe. I admit that if I see that I was wrong about something, I will change my belief to match reality. I have always been on a search for truth. I believe that I have found it in the Restoration/RLDS/Remnant/JCRB, whatever you call it, it is all the same church. I don’t just believe it. I know it. How do I know it? By the Spirit of God these things carry, and by the Spirit of God I can know the truth of all things.

10/13-
SUNDAY



I had so much fun and fellowship with many of the Michigan Saints at the

Sanilac Restoration Branch today. Seventy Ron and his family picked me up shortly after 8 am this morning. There was a good sermon, musical ministry by the Seventy Ron's family, we sang Restoration hymns and ate pizza, ice cream and had a long and incredibly fun hayride on a Saints' farm and the surrounding area and cider and cookies afterward. The sermon was wonderful, talking of how God used himself to create the things in the universe and how God's Spirit is in and through all things. I had such a wonderful time all day today. Praise God!

 

10/24-

THURSDAY



A woman at the library told me I can do anything I put my mind to. I am using my cell phone to access Twitter thru texting without having to go on the internet. It really is quite convenient. I had an interview for a grocery store on Tuesday. It went well. I believe I am getting closer to Jesus now than I ever was. I still want to read The True Vine, Absolute Surrender, finish the Endowment (I have read all three in the past) and read the several Protestant books I have on knowing and trusting God more, becoming mature in Christ and practicing the Spiritual disciplines. My uncle (not Mark, but the one who baptized me the first time, uncle Kenny Soper) gave me a lot to think about. I cleaned my house quite a bit the other day. I know I’m running all my sentences together without paragraphs, but I guess that’s just the way I’m choosing to write today.



Love is sacrifice.



(07/27/2021 3:45 pm CDT I did not end up finishing any of these books at this time.-BLSKV)

APPROXIMATELY 10/28-



MONDAY



Revised 10/28/2013, 11/4/13, 11/5/13, 5/20/2014, 07/27/2021



Tonight (for it is three forty six a.m.) I studied and studied and studied, mainly focusing on Church History and Faith.



Wm. H. Kelley was of the opinion (as are many) that James the Lord’s half-brother was the first president. But as was recorded by Eusebius, James the Lord’s half-brother was the first Bishop of Jerusalem, and Simeon, son of Cleopas, our Savior’s cousin, was his successor. Which is true, but Peter was only the de-facto leader of the Church until 44 AD when James the Lesser became its First President of that Dispensation. I did not believe this in 2013 or '14, but now know it to be true in 2021 AD. [My understanding on this subject was severely insufficient and flawed at this time. James the Just was the first President of the High Priesthood in the Church of the 5th Dispensation, taking office in AD 44, after a period of de-facto leadership by the Apostle Peter.-B.L.S. 06.25.2019 AD @ 6:24 PM] Although Catholic historians will say Linus was Bishop of Rome (and maybe he was) and that he was a pope (which he definitely was not), what was he then? Eusebius records that he was the second to succeed in the episcopate. I take this (and this is mere opinion) to mean that he was the second President of the church and that he had two counselors and there were twelve more Apostles (possibly and likely some of the same ones under Peter’s tenure), a High Council, Dioceses (Districts), Parishes (Branches), Stakes (Sees) and quorums of seventy, High Priests (although I have found no record of the office of



High Priest in the 5th dispensation church, there were, I believe, strongly, that there were high priests in America during this time), Bishops, quorums of priests (presbyters), elders, deacons (with a president of the quorum of deacons possibly called an Archdeacon and the quorum of deacons called a diaconate) teachers, and a presiding Patriarch. (There are still Patriarchs in Eastern, Russian, Greek Orthodox traditions today



I’m pretty sure, but haven’t checked those facts so don’t quote me, I just know the



ancient office still continues somewhere, though not with the authority of the Restoration). Also the presiding Bishop may have been called an Archbishop. A Stake may have been an Archdiocese. Also governments and helps such as Stake and District Presidents (have no idea what it was called back then) and Presiding parish elders (pastors). In short, all the same organization as our church in Joseph III’s time.



If only the church fathers and Paul would have written more on church organization and the importance of the ordinances (for example, if Paul would have written an epistle stating that without the ordinances is not the power of God made manifest), the Protestant world wouldn’t be in such a tizzy decrying such things as the importance of sacraments and organization. I do not really understand why God allowed his prophets to so lightly pass over these subjects. Or maybe they didn’t. Maybe the Protestants are so afraid of writings from the fifth dispensation which explain these things because they automatically assume that it’s all tainted with Roman Catholicism and they should stay ten miles away from it. In other words, ordinances and church organization = Roman Catholic System = stay away. After all, they say, Jesus didn’t say anything about church organization, he was all about love. Nay, but he said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Building implies structure. Paul was not silent on the matter either, for he said that the members of the body of Christ were to be fitly joined together. Again, this implies structure. Every office of the priesthood is mentioned in the King James Bible, and most in the New Testament.



Incidentally, my studies tonight have been mostly relegated to modern church history, and I only read a few brief pages about Presidency in the fifth dispensation, and all other previous dispensations, as well as the current one, the sixth.



I mostly studied and marked up my printed copy of chapter 10 of RLDS church history, volume 3.



It is now five ‘o the clock a.m. and 14 minutes, and I am still up, keeping a watch [7/27/2021 AD A watch is NOT staying up all night but it is staying up one watch of the night and then retiring for sleep-BLSKV] and planning to go to the local church later on this morning. I want to get there for Sunday School. Lord willing, Shane will be there too.



[Exactly the 28'th]



Today I was at a bookstore, and I went beyond the Christian section to the Religion for some reason. I looked at a Jewish Torah, then looked a few shelves down and found a book called Visions of Glory, As told to John Pontius. I opened it to the Table of Contents and liked what I saw. Then I looked briefly at the ‘Library’ section, but got curious about the ‘my room’ section which immediately preceded it. I read most of the narrative until I saw a reference to Lehi’s liahona and the Urim and Thummim as examples of tools akin to the one in this man who had the visions’ tool chest. I got excited and said “I must buy this book” rather loudly. I excitedly asked a bookstore staff if I could put a book on layaway and pay for it in installments. She said “no”. Then I asked her if there was any guarantee the book would be here next time I came to the store. She said, ‘no.’ I told her I was going to write down the title of the book and the author, and find it at the library. Then I read the book most of the rest of the time I was at the bookstore.



There was a reference to ‘telestial’, and on the back cover was a reference to the future ‘celestialization of the earth.’ I learned a lot from the book as I read it today, beyond my wildest imaginations. I think the man who had the vision was a Utah Mormon. I also like many of the Utah Sections of the Doctrine and Covenants but most of those were through Joseph Smith, that are not in the RLDS DC. I only believe in one revelation from a Utah Mormon Prophet, Joseph Fielding Smith, LDC 138 [and now I believe in Official Declaration No. 2, which I will designate as LDS DC 139 when I get around to typing it up.-BLSKV 07/27/2021 AD 4:08 PM CDT] Although the Utah Mormons are not a part of our church, God can still reveal things to them.



This is exactly what I need, to check this book out of the library, for a confirmation of my faith because of the mild to warm or hot persecution that is coming, where everyone that formerly admired me will tell me I’m deceived and might even shun me or cast me out from among them. I would like to save up for this book so that I can own it as the Word of the Lord in Testimony. Lord, Heavenly Father, please let the book still be there, or a copy of it, when I have the money for it and return to the bookstore. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Or let it be at the Goodwill or Salvation Army for a much, much-reduced price. I pray these things in Your name, even Jesus Christ, Amen.



[This book has a lot of false testimony and false revelation in it, and I still haven't sorted it all out. I got rid of the book for it is mostly false, but it had some true things in it, so I'm glad that I read it.-BLSKV 07/27/2021 AD 4:11 PM CDT]



Montanism was Satan’s way of getting the members and priesthood of the church to mistrust spiritual gifts and manifestations in the fifth dispensation. He tried something similar to try to stop the Reorganization from starting, although it was not this time calculated to make people mistrust spiritual gifts, or at least I don’t think it was, but it was a device to spread



confusion and dismay. False spiritual manifestations sometimes can only be discerned by the ones who can discern that the manifestation(s) is/are false.

Last Edit: less than a minute ago by Anakin77

Love is sacrifice.