I am usually a bit leery of such things. But I received an email about this Tool Bar for Firefox.

I tried it, and I like it. Give it a shot, I think you will like it too.

Check it out at LDSToolbar.net.

Here is the LINK to take a look.

The Great Secret

I will herein use a couple quotes by the Prophet Joseph Smith, in his great King Follett Sermon (KFS) (LINK), and discuss them a bit,

Joseph said about God that He is “…not trifling with you or me.” This is all very serious, we are not on vacation, nor should we be preoccupied with feeding our bellies. There is a real plan from the beginning, and this is our time on stage.

Joseph quotes the New Testament, "This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." But Joseph goes further and teaches that not only must we know God, we must understand our true relationship with God. If we miss this, we really know nothing.

“There are but a very few beings in the world who understand rightly the character of God. The great majority of mankind do not comprehend anything, either that which is past, or that which is to come, as it respects their relationship to God. They do not know, neither do they understand the nature of that relationship; and consequently they know but little above the brute beast, or more than to eat, drink and sleep. This is all man knows about God or His existence, unless it is given by the inspiration of the Almighty.”

So what was our relationship with God in the “past,” and what will our relationship be in that which is “to come?” What do we know?

We know that we always existed like God:

“The intelligence of spirits had no beginning, neither will it have an end. …That which has a beginning may have an end. There never was a time when there were not spirits; for they are co-equal with our Father in heaven.” (KFS)

What made Him our Father is that He reached back into eternity, to bring us forward.

“The first principles of man are self-existent with God. God himself, finding he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more intelligent, saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself. The relationship we have with God places us in a situation to advance in knowledge. He has power to institute laws to instruct the weaker intelligences, that they may be exalted with Himself, so that they might have one glory upon another, and all that knowledge, power, glory, and intelligence, which is requisite in order to save them in the world of spirits.”

This ability to be “exalted,” to receive “knowledge, power, glory, and intelligence” is the promise of God, from before creation, through the atonement, otherwise known as the Abrahamic Covenants, or our inheritance.


We know that before this world was created there was a grand council, made up of the Head (rosh) God, Eloheim, and the other Gods in the council. These are the noble and great ones that Abraham saw (LINK), the priesthood holders of this life. Some of these achieved the rank of god before the world was, as Christ did. The Hebrew word “El” means God. The Hebrew “im” is the plural suffix.

“In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods; and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and people it. When we begin to learn this way, we begin to learn the only true God, and what kind of a being we have got to worship. Having a knowledge of God, we begin to know how to approach Him, and how to ask so as to receive an answer.”

So we existed forever like God. He is our Father because He brought us forth from intelligences, to spirits. He is our Father because He created our physical bodies, as planned in the Council of the Gods. This is the present or the past. What is our relationship “to come?” If worthy:

“…[A]lthough the earthly tabernacle is laid down and dissolved, they shall rise again to dwell in everlasting burnings in immortal glory, not to sorrow, suffer, or die any more, but they shall be heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. … To inherit the same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a god, and ascend the throne of eternal power, the same as those who have gone before…”(KFS)

This is all a family affair. Parents passing on an inheritance to the children. Elijah said:

“And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.” (JSH 1:39)

And modern prophets said it this way:

“All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.”

“In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshiped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize his or her divine destiny as an heir of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.” (LINK)

The Prophet Joseph said “That [this] is the great secret.”

More on California Proposition 8

I wanted to clarify a couple last things regarding the California Proposition 8. I am urging a YES vote.

In the year 2000 the people of California passed Prop 22 by a 61% voice of the people, which made the following words the law, this is the entire law:

"Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California."

Recently the California Supreme Court overturned the law (prop. 22) and the voice of the people. Proposition 8 will restore the law that was already past by making the above words part of the state Constitution.

Here a link to the official web site: ProtectMarriage.com. You can donate there, or download fliers and other materials.

One of the reasons I home schooled my children was because of Project 10 in the Los Angeles City Schools. Where the schools were mandated to teach homosexuality to ALL grade levels. And they had mandatory meetings with junior high schools kids and informed them that ten percent of them were homosexual, that they should consider if they may be homosexual, and provided information how to integrate into the homosexual community.

In California we have domestic partnership laws, that give homosexual couples the same rights as heterosexual couples regarding medical benefits, medical rights, property and inheritance rights, and so on. I don’t know anyone opposing these rights. Because hurting homosexuals is not the point of Prop. 8. What is at issue is third parties rights in relation to homosexual marriages. Please see my last post.

If Proposition 8 does not pass there will be a devastating effect on schools, adoption agencies, churches, and some businesses. No matter where you live, we need your help.

By the way - this is my 100th. post!

Proposition 8 - The Fight is On!

I don’t usually share my political opinions on this blog, I reserve it for spiritual concerns. However, I am going to make an exception in this case. Perhaps it is not really an exception at all, because this topic strikes at the heart of eternal pursuits, the topic of this blog.

Let me state here that these are solely my opinions; they do the represent the church’s views, or the views of any political group.

For those of you outside of California, let me inform you, the fight is on! The fight for what we politely call “Traditional Marriage.” For clarity, what it really is over is if the state will issue marriage licenses to same sex couples and force third parties to honor those marriages. Something is wrong about this whole paradigm, people can sense it, but not put their finger on it.

First, homosexuality is sin (Rom. 1:27). And while that sin may have some more exotic twists, it will get a person to hell about at the same speed as straight fornication, and a list of other bad behaviors. Gender is a part of us from the preexistence and is central to our eternal progression. Gender confusion, is one of the wounds of mortality that must be healed to receive our full spiritual inheritance ( Healing).

All people are children of God. We are all born with certain unalienable rights (Declaration of Independence, D&C 134). Rights are some of the rules we are given to play by. Without rights, there is no objective right and wrong; we are ultimately just spiders eating one another with no moral consequence. In LDS theology we believe the Light of Christ will tell us if something is right or wrong.

As individuals or nations, we have no right to stop anyone from having sex with anyone they want. We all have agency, and as long as we do not interfere with anyone else’s agency and rights, what we do is not rightfully subject to control by anyone else. God still says it is sin, and prophets and ministers can still call it sin, but the perpetrators of the sin can choose to hear or not hear the calls of repentance. [1]

Another right we have is to believe what we want is sin and choose to associate or not associate with whomever we want, or to limit our associations in whatever way we want. This is called freedom. A thing found less and less in our growing socialist state.

One of the rights we were born with is the right to marry. If it is a right, we don’t need to ask for permission (license) from government or anyone else. And when the government started licensing marriage this fight was lost. If something is rightfully licensed, it is not a right. Joseph Smith nor Brigham Young ever got a marriage license, they refused to do so.

In a fair and just society, people can marry by what means they desire. They could marry in the Holy Temple, or by jumping the broom. They could choose to record those marriages for public notice, like a deed. And people would be free to accept or reject those marriages as they choose (plural marriage included). If people wish not to rent a house to an LDS couple because they reject a temple marriage, so be it. The house is the landlord’s to do with as he pleases, and he should be free to refuse to rent to those he deems as living in sin. Agency is central to the plan of salvation.

Truly, my view is we should not interfere with homosexuals marrying, except to preach repentance to them. The problem is that the state is granting a license that should not be given to anyone. By giving these licenses to homosexuals, they force the rest of us to honor these marriages, which is an infringement of our rights. This infringement will grow in society in un-imagined ways.

In a socialist state you may as well take the free cheese, you paid for it to begin with. Meaning, we need to deal with the real situation we are in. We need to fight the fight where we are, not where we would like the fight to be. If I had my rathers we would be joining ranks with homosexuals to defeat marriage licenses altogether.

We have a sick society; government does grant licenses to heterosexual couples, which is bad enough. If proposition 8 does not pass, homosexual marriage will sweep the land. Further rights will be taken from the rest of us exponentially, and we will look back on this as a milestone of the destruction of the family and of America.

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YesOnProposition8.com

[1] “We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.” [ The Family: A Proclamation to the World