BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Authorities enter Eldorado-area temple (Fundamentalist LDS cult)

Local and state officials entered the temple of a secretive polygamist sect late Saturday, said lawmen blockading the road to the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado.

The action comes hours after local prosecutors said officials were preparing for the worst because a group of FLDS members were resisting efforts to search the structure.

The Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and Schleicher County sheriff’s deputy confirmed that officials have entered the temple but said they had no word on whether anything occurred in the effort.

The incursion into the temple caps the three-day saga of the state’s Child Protective Services agency removing at least 183 women and children from the YFZ Ranch since Friday afternoon. Eighteen girls have been placed in state custody since a 16-year-old told authorities she was married to a 50-year-old man and had given birth to his child.

Saturday evening, ambulances were brought in, said Allison Palmer, who as first assistant 51st District attorney, would prosecute any felony crimes uncovered as part of the investigation inside the compound.

“In preparing for entry to the temple, law enforcement is preparing for the worst,” Palmer said Saturday evening. They want to have “medical personnel on hand in case this were to go in a way that no one wants.”

Apparently as a result of action Saturday night at the ranch, about 10:15 p.m. Saturday, a Schleicher County school bus unloaded another group of at least a dozen more women and children from the compound.

Although members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, have provided varying degrees of cooperation to the sheriff’s deputies and Texas Rangers searching the compound, all cooperation stopped once authorities tried to search the gleaming white temple that towers over the West Texas scrub, Palmer said.

“There may be those who would oppose (entry) by placing themselves between law enforcement and the place of worship,” Palmer said Saturday afternoon. “If an agreement cannot be reached … law enforcement will have to — as gently and peaceably as possible — make entry into that place.”

Sect members consider the temple, dedicated by then-leader of the sect Warren Jeffs in January 2005 and finished many months later, off-limits to those who are not FLDS members, said Palmer, who prosecutes felony cases in Schleicher County.

Palmer said she didn’t know the size or makeup of the group inside the temple.

The earlier refusal to provide access was even more disconcerting because CPS investigators have yet to identify the 16-year-old girl or her roughly 8-month-old baby among the dozens removed from the compound, Palmer said.

“Anytime someone says, ‘Don’t look here,’” she said, “it makes you concerned that’s exactly where you need to look.”

The girl told authorities in two separate phone calls a day apart that she was married to a 50-year-old man, Dale Barlow, who had fathered her child, Palmer said.

The joint raid included the Texas Rangers, CPS, Schleicher County and Tom Green County sheriff’s deputies and game wardens from the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife.

Although CPS and Department of Public Safety officials have described the compound’s residents as cooperative, Palmer disagreed.

Authorities removed 52 children Friday afternoon and 131 women and children overnight Friday. About 40 of the children are boys, said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.

No further children have been taken into state custody since Friday, when 18 girls were judged to have been abused or be at imminent risk for abuse. CPS has found foster homes for the girls, Meisner said, and will place them after concluding its investigation.

Meisner declined to comment on the fate of the 119 other children and said authorities were still searching the ranch for others Saturday evening.

“They’re in the process of looking,” she said. “They’re literally about halfway through.”

Actually, as a computer nerd, that'd be Geek mythology.

Never the less, mormonism polytheism has more in common with the Greek/Roman pantheon than biblical monotheism.

Wow, Apparently little old me is really getting under your skin, first there's the deliberate belittling of Joseph Smith by constantly calling him Joey, which is an obvious attempt to tick me of and have me respond unreasonably, LOL!

You over inflate my estimation of you fluffy.

Second, you claim I am Deliberately misstating history and ask if that 's a lie. Third, You say I said Joseph was not a polygamist, I NEVER said that. As for the never slept with them, wasn't i just told that about Moses and his other wife? LOL! Is there any documented proof that Joseph ever fathered children with any of these polygamous wives? Is there any proof that Joseph was fertile? Is there any proof these other women were fertile?

You are reciting old mormon apologia that deflects polygamy from joey. In your quest to justify polygamy, you blatantly ignore the fact that any sex with those other women was adultery and any marriage outside of Emma was illegal by state and federal laws. He also violated the revelation of god by breaking those laws – Article 12 – which your former seer and prophet is on record as agreeing with mine (and others) observations.

Fourth, you claim Joseph was infertile? ROTFLOL! Joseph had nine children by Emma, nine, how many children do you have Godzilla?

Never made that claim, just a potential observation. Do you have proof that Emma did not have another husband.

This is funny, you claim to be this intellectual giant, yet your Attacks boil down to Derogatory names, calling your opponent a liar, misstating your opponents position, and the questioning of manhood of someone who is dead. Not very impressive, off night?

Cite for me where I have ever claimed to be an intellectual giant…..waiting……waiting….(crickets). If I remember correctly, you were the one who at one time claimed to be able to destroy any religious belief. Lessee, misrepresenting me to others AFTER you were corrected – YOUR criteria for lying. Misrepresenting the method of my earning a living (as well as others). Misrepresentation of other Christian doctrines. The fact that joey is dead is not an allie-allie oxen free to challenge him in anything relating to mormonism. Of course you need your peep stone retuned to understand proper greek translation methodology – even the very basic stuff like 1 Tim 3:2.

Now that I have dispatched with your prurient red herrings, back to the Question, do you have any proof that the Bible forbids the practice of polygamy?

One, you have yet to prove to me that God approved of the polygamy recorded in the OT rather than tolerated it, due to the hardness of men’s hearts. Secondly, Jesus corrected the record in His teachings on marriage and divorce as well as 1Tim 3:2 (and others). In fact Joey in the JST agrees fully – one wife – NOT first wife, but one, period. Isn’t that just a pain when the broken clock is right.

Thank you for your very detailed response.

...te mia ton sabbaton. This is literally translated the one of the Sabbaths...

It's a strange concidence, but I was recently discussing this very phrase with someone in a completely different context, regarding the day of the week that Jesus rose from the dead. When I was shown that I was taking the idiomatic English translation "first" too literally, I promtly admitted my mistake. There is no question that "mia" means "one", and I do not want to base my doctrinal beliefs on shaky proof texts. I appreciate your efforts to elucidate the meaning of "mia".

Not that it changes the substance of your argument, but as an aside I think the Greek word in this instance is 'sabbatwn', the plural of 'sabbaton". The following is an analysis of the syntax of the phrase in the context of an argument for its meaning (in conjuction with 'mia', or 'one') a special, unique calendar date in a lunar calendar. I have no idea how accurate the following analysis is, or whether the thesis is correct that there was a lunar calendar in effect at the time of the Second Temple. I will leave it to the Greek experts and historians. I post it merely to show that it's analyis of 'mia' is very similar to yours, especially with regard to its emphatic contradistinction of "one" to "first"

The Greek word: 'Sabbatwn' (a plural form) is used 12 times in New Testament passages as follows:

[From AV Text (with selected Greek word substitutions):]
[snip]

It is noteworthy that the syntax usage ('Mia') is identical in all seven of the cited passages--where the term 'ONE' of the 'Sabbatwn' is consistently used. This peculiar agreement (in all these passages) tends to point to the existence of a unique calendar date--where the repetition of the same two words: 'Mia' and 'Sabbatwn' imply a lunar-cycle term. (For additional information, refer to Appendix A).

The popular English translation of this text is: 'first day of the week', but the term 'first' in the original Greek is more properly 'proton' or 'protos'. Instead, all of the seven cited passages unilaterally use the same identical word 'Mia'. Again, this conformity of usage--in all seven instances--proves that the translation 'first' is not fully correct. Clearly and simply, the meaning of the unique date in the cited seven passages points away from the meaning of 'first day' and, instead, has a meaning akin to a singular or a 'ONE' (which would refer to either a one-stage, or a one-whole-day). Again, the consistency of this usage (in seven diverse instances) indicates that the 'ONE' of the 'Sabbatwn' refers to a formal lunar-calendar date.

The King James translators translated the original Greek word 'mia' in 79 instances--where they correctly translated this word to encompass the meaning of a singular or a 'one' in 71 of the 79 instances. It then seems to be extremely significant that in 8 other instances, the translators translated the Greek word 'mia' as first (not one), and 7 of these instances are shown in scriptural references from above. (There is no compelling reason why the 7 instances--as cited above--should be translated any differently from the other 71 instances).

In a lunar-based calendar, the rate of a special 'ONE' would have stood completely out from the standard weekly cycle of seven lunar stages, and would have been an altogether separate additional unit of time (as a renewal for the weeks).

The important nuance in the meaning of the cited date--of being a singular or a 'ONE' and not a first--is significant in recognizing that the early definition of the lunar week depended upon the rate of a unique 'ONE', a special stage which probably appeared amid 7 + 7 lunar-stages (of the Moon waxing and waning) (or the rate of one-whole-day would have been counted each 7 weeks).

In association with this very unique 'ONE' date, the 7 verses listed above consistently use the same term: 'Sabbatwn' (a plural form of 'Sabbaton').

Thus, the 7 New Testament passages--which use the expression: 'Mia Sabbatwn'--seem to reflect a unique lunar-stage interval when the 'Sabbatwn' may have included an additional 'ONE' stage (but the meaning could also be relative to a seventh-week festival).

This formal lunar-stage date is specifically used in all four accounts of the resurrection--where Jesus is indicated to have been crucified upon the day which preceded Passover (in the first lunar month). The resurrection (which occurred immediately after, or between, 'Sabbatwn') is unilaterally recorded to have occurred upon the special date 'Mia Sabbatwn'.

Matthew 28:1 On the eve of the 'Sabbatwn', toward the dawn of the ONE of the 'Sabbatwn' came Mary the Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre [paraphrased from YLT] .

Mark 16:2 And very early in the morning the ONE of the 'Sabbatwn', they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.

Luke 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the 'Sabbatwn' Day, and stood up for to read.

Luke 24:1 Now upon the ONE of the 'Sabbatwn', very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.

John 20:1 The ONE of the 'Sabbatwn' cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

John 20:19 Then the same day at evening, being the ONE of the 'Sabbatwn', when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

Acts 13:14 But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the 'Sabbatwn' Day, and sat down.

Acts 16:13 And on the 'Sabbatwn' Day we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.

Acts 20:7 And upon the ONE of the 'Sabbatwn', when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

1 Corinthians 16:2 Upon the ONE of the 'Sabbatwn' let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.

Colossians 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the 'Sabbatwn':

This interesting usage--where the unusual Greek word 'Mia' (or one) is paired-off and exclusively used in association with the unusual word 'Sabbatwn'--rather clearly indicates the usage of a formal calendar term. (This term seems to be equivalent to the cited definition of a renewal interval in the Shabbath-Shabbathown cycle found in the Hebrew Bible).
http://www.hope-of-israel.org/crnotes.htm#apenc

Again I post the above because it contains an interesting grammatical analysis of "mia" in a different context unrelated to polygamy, for what it's worth.
I think when people are presented with strong, clear lexical evidence and still persist in misusing and twist the Greek, it becomes apparent to me that the only reason they take the position they do is that the text conflicts with their preconceived doctrinal notions, not because of any lexical evidence. When that happens, I just figure they're not ready to learn anything, and not at all interested in the truth of the matter.
Cordially,

Thanks for the excellent input. I know that Sabbaton is plural (according to my Greek word study which says Sabbaton is: Noun; Neuter; Genitive Plural and includes a short definition:

σάββατον (sabbaton 4521)
1. sabbath
Sabbath; Hebrew, שבת, rest, a lying by from labour.
* denotes that the plural is translated by the singular.
† indicates the Dative plural σάββασι (sabbasi).
‡ denotes that the Genitive of the noun is used as an adjective).

I had not seen the use of 'sabbatwn' in conjunction with the already plural 'sabbaton' but its certainly an interesting analysis. It makes sense that 'mia' may have been used in conjunction with 'sabbaton' to refer to a specific unique calendar date since we know that the resurrection was a unique and specific event.

In any case its just one more nail in the coffin of polygamist groups such as the LDS mis-using and mis-translating the word 'mia'. I also concur that those such as DU and Sevenbak who twist the Greek (either word meaning or grammatical construction) where there is clear lexicon evidence to the contrary do so to support heresy. They do not do this to support truth.

And this is a BIG, HUGE issue, because the LDS maintain they are the sole correct interpreters of Biblical Greek. The twisting of the text of course proves they are not. God we know is not the author of this sort of behavior. God would never operate outside of correct grammatical construction of any language. But Satan does, its characteristic of him, i.e., 'hath God SAID' back in Genesis. From the beginning Satan HAS twisted God's Words which is why this mangling of the Greek text by the LDS is a major issue proving them to be a cult.

Thanks again for your interesting insights. Amazing how much we can learn when we go to the original language and not self-appointed 'prophets'.

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