The Great War

We wage today a war. This war overshadows all previous wars, on its outcome hinges more than any other war ever fought. It is a war not for land, or money, or even power. It is waged for the souls of mankind.

It began thousands of years ago, in heaven. We were all assembled in a grand council, and our Eternal Father set forth a plan whereby we could gain a body, and then return to live with him. Upon hearing this "the morning starts sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for Joy"[1] Now God knew that we would make mistakes and that not all of his children would choose to follow him and return to live with him, so he built into his plan a Savior that would redeem mankind and take upon him the sins of the earth.So he asked "Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me."[2]This was Jesus Christ however Satan was also present at that Grand Council and said "Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor."[3]Now Satan's counterproposal was to force every person to do right and to make sure that everyone returned to live with Heavenly Father. This seems like a great plan doesn't it; however Satan's plan undermined the essential element of God's plan. Agency, in God's plan all mankind would be free to choose whether or not to choose the right, Satan would force good upon everyone giving them no choice.

"And the Lord said: I will send the first."[2]Thus a war erupted in heaven, it was a war over agency"And there was a war in heaven: Micheal and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels."[4]In this war one third of the hosts of heaven followed Satan and were banished and cast down to the earth. These are those who kept not their first estate and so they will not receive mortal bodies. Now the remaining two thirds are those that have lived on this earth, those that will live on the earth, and those that do live on this earth.

The war did not stop however with Satan being cast out, it continues to this day upon the earth. For Satan seeks to undo all the works of God, he operates on some misguided belief that if he can keep enough of God's children from returning to heaven he will manage to stop God's plan. He understands not that God is all powerful and does not understand that God knows all things, and foresaw even from the beginning of time what would happen.

Now Satan wages this war upon this earth still today. He is going to use every tool at his disposal to try and bring down the souls of mankind to captivity and bondage. In addition these are the last days and so he is now using every last weapon in his arsenal to ensnare and capture mankind and lead them speedily down to help. He will give no quarter in this war, he will fight with everything in his power to bring down everyone that he can. He will not play fair and he will not give one inch of ground to us, he will never let us rest and never give us a break. He will attack and attack and attack never ceasing, never easing, he is incredibly good at it to. He has been dragging down the souls of mankind to hell for over 6000 years now.

Now you may ask how can we resist and overcome him.

Well God put in his plan a redeemer, who would suffer and atone for the sins of the world. This was Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten of the Father. He was born 2010 years ago, he led a perfect and sinless life, he gave sight to the blind and healed the sick, he even raised the dead. He loved everyone without limit and bound, he harbored no anger or resentment to anyone he set an example of a perfect life. Then in a Garden called Gethsemane he kneeled down and said"O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."[5]He then began to have heaped upon him all the suffering ever endured by anyone who had ever passed through mortality. His pain was so great that it caused him to bleed from every pour. We cannot know how intense or great this suffering was, it was not for a few mortal hours that he endured this. For the atonement must have been eternal and infinite in order for us to return to live with God. After that great agony, wherein he endured such things that the mortal mind cannot even begin to fathom a thousandth of how horrid it was, he was then betrayed by his friends to those who sought to kill him. He summarily endured a mockery of a trial and was ordered to be crucified to satisfy the demands of an angry and evil mob. Then the Son of God, who had just suffered for the sins of all those that had just persecuted them, was crucified between two common thieves while his persecutors mocked him and gambled for his clothing. Then he died

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbJys-5RiGk

However this was not the end, for on the third day he rose again from the grave, and ascended to his father in heaven. Thereby breaking the bands of death, spiritual in Gethsemane, and temporal, in the tomb, for all man.

He now today offers his love and aid to all that will partake of it and follow him. That is how we can overcome Satan, we must cast ourselves fully upon Christ, and the rock of our redeemer. That is the only way in which we can overcome the forces of Hell. So therefore"Onward Christian Soldiers marching as to warWith the cross of Jesus going on before"[5][please see video two now]Christian soldiers we fight this protected byThe Breastplate of Righteousness[6]we must choose the right and continually strive to improve if we wanted to have the Lord protect our Heart.Your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace[6]We must continually remember the Gospel of Christ and it behooves us all to warn our neighbor.Our Lions girt about with Truth[6]The word Gospel is the Greek word for Truth we must continually seek out all gospel knowledge, must read our scriptures and ponder them.Taking the shield of Faith.[6]We must always remember our faith and never forget it or loosen our grasp on it. All sorts of opposition will arise, but if we hold true to the faith we cannot perish.Helmet of Salvation[6]We must never despair or lose hope, we must always remember and never have our thoughts far from our Salvation, Jesus Christ.And continually armed with the Sword of the Spirit.[6]We must always be armed with it at all times so that we can fight Satan and his legions, we keep the sword of the Spirit with us by praying diligently attending church regularly and doing all we can to strive for the kingdom of God.

If we do these things continually and rely on the rock of our redeemer who is Christ, we can stand firm against Satan and all his hellish legions. We can endure to the end and overcome. I testify of the truth of these things, and known of the truth of these things.Amen.

[1]Job 38:7

[2]Abraham 3:27

[3]Moses 4:2

[4]Revelation 12:7

[5]Matthew 26:39

[5]Onward Christian Soldiers, Hymn 246

[6]Ephesians 6:13-18

Joseph Smith Prophet of God:A logical examination of Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith Junior was born in Vermont on December 23, 1805. He made many great claims during his life, he claimed to have seen and spoken with God, to be God's chosenprophet, and to have restored God's one true church on this earth. In short he mademany great and high affirmation in his life that continue to effect the world today.Now in order to have made claims as great as these he must have been one of three things

1.A lunatic

2.A liar

3.Possesed of or deluded by the Devil

4.Telling the truth

We will now examine these options in order.

A Lunatic

Now one charge that could be leveled against someone claiming to see God and visions is that of luanancy. There are two reasons that this can be discounted, first any reseraching of the writings of Joseph Smith, and looking at what those around him said of him allindicate that he was not insane, but of sound mind. Secondly charges of lunancy could bemade because of the visions in particular. The problem with this is that many varied and separate people over the space of many years in addition saw many of the same visions that he did. Thus we can see that he was not a lunatic but rather of sound mind. This leads us to the next most probable charge. That of

A Liar

This is the most common accusation leveled now against Joseph Smith that he was a liar a con artist and a scammer. Well if we analyze this claim the next most question would be,why did Joseph lie. The reason for mankind to lie in the manner that Joseph has is always for one reason. That of personal gain. Well so let us evaluate if his declerations did bring him gain. His first claim is that he saw God at the tender age of 14 the following is a direct excerptof his words.

"I soon found . . . that my telling the story had excited a great deal of prejudice against me among professors of religion, and was the cause of great persecution, which continued to increase; and though I was an obscure boy, only between fourteen and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in life such as to make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of high standing would take notice sufficient to excite the public mind against me, and create a bitter persecution; and this was common among all the sects--all united to persecute me."[1]

This persecution did follow him throughout his entire life, and only increased. On many multiple occasions Joseph was thrown into prison on false charges and had mockery of public trials. In addition he was, more than once, was dragged out of his house and was tarred and feathered by angry mobs during the middle of the night. Because he would not deny or recant the words which he has spoken, many of Joseph's children perished because of the action of mobs. Finallyon June 27 in the one thousandth eight hundred and forty fourth year of our Lord, Joseph Smithwas murdered by over 200 cowardly mob members because he would not take back that which he hadtestified, thus sealing what he had said with his blood.Therefore we can clearly and plainly see that Joseph Smith Jr. was not a liar and got no gain by continuing his assertion of what he knew. Thus we can see that Joseph Smith Jr. was not a liar. That leads us to one of two final possibilities.

Joseph Smith Junior must have been decieved by the devil or telling the truth.

Now these same assertions were made against Jesus the Christ by pharisees and lawyers. Christ responded with this verse,

"Matthew 7:15-20 (King James Version) 15Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."[2]

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. The furits of Joseph Smith's labors have beenthe founding and establishment of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. What does this Church do then?

The Church Humainitarian Program.[3]

The LDS Church Humanitarian Program was established in 1991. It sends relief suppliesto areas that have been hurt by disasters in addition to other places and people in need."In a typical year, the Latter-day Saint Humanitarian Center will ship about 12 million pounds of shoes and clothing, 1 million hygiene kits, and 1 million pounds of medical supplies to relieve suffering in more than 100 countries"[3]In addition the Church provides exstensive job training to refugees and immigrants that allows them to acquire skills theyneed to help themselves their families and their communiteis.

The Prepetual Education Fund.[4]

The Prepetual education Fund is a Chruch initative set up in 2001. THe PEF is where individualscontribute money which is then loaned to people, who would not otherwise have the oppurtunity,for education. The beneficiaries of these program, once they have established themselves in a careerdonate to the PEF allowing more and more to gain an education. To date this program has helped many thousands ofpeople rise above poverty and ignorance and continues strongly to help many multiple people.

Fast Offerings.

Once a month members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints refrain from eating for two meals, and then contribute the money they would've spent on food, to their wards fast offering fund.This fund is then used to help those in the area that need help or assitance financially. It helps millions of members annually and does much great good in the world.This is only a small part of what the church does for those around the world and neighborhoods to help people.

If you would like to gain a more full understanding of what the Church does for the world an excellent way to find out, is to go to Temple Square in Salt Lake City and visit the north visotors center in the basement.So it seems that the fruit that Joseph Smith's works have yeilded have been good.

Therefore

Praise to the Man who communed with Jehovah

Jesus anointed that prophet and seer

Blessed to open the last dispensation

Kings Shall extol him and nations revere

Hail to the prophet ascended to heaven

Traitors and tyrants now fight him in vain

Mingling with gods he can plan for his brethern

Death cannot conquer the hero again.[5][6]

Therefore I make this solemn testimony of Joseph Smith. HE DID commune with God at theage of fourteen. HE WAS called as God's prophet to restore the fullness of the Gospel in the latter days.HE DID restore the true church on this earth. Finally He sealed his testimony with his blood and was a martyr for God. AND I KNOW FOR MYSELF that he will raise up at the ressurection of the just and he willstand forth in glory and power and millions shall know brother Joseph again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j-ir5rHmQg

[1]http://lds.org/library/display/0,4945,104-1-3-2,00.html[2]http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A15-20&version=KJV[3]http://new.lds.org./service/humanitarian/center?lang=eng[4]http://pef.lds.org/pef/aboutus?locale=eng[5]http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/the_mormon_tabernacle_choir/praise_to_the_man-lyrics-1205825.html[6]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j-ir5rHmQg