The Holy Ghost Testifies of Truth -Mormon- (OPEN)

Ensign Magazine ^ | March, 2010

[greyfoxx39]

“The Holy Ghost Testifies of Truth,” Ensign, Mar 2010, 10–11

The Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead. He is a personage of spirit, without a body of flesh and bones (see D&C 130:22). He is often referred to as the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, or the Comforter. He works in perfect unity with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.1

As a personage of spirit, the Holy Ghost can be in only one place at a time, but His influence can be everywhere at the same time.2

President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972) taught, “Through the Holy Ghost the truth is woven into the very fibre and sinews of the body so that it cannot be forgotten.”3

It is also through receiving the Holy Ghost when we repent and are baptized that we may be sanctified. Sanctification is the process of becoming free from sin—pure, clean, and holy—through the Atonement of Jesus Christ (see Moses 6:59–60). We are sanctified as we yield our hearts to God (see Helaman 3:35).

• 1. The Holy Ghost “witnesses of the Father and the Son” (2 Nephi 31:18). It is only through the power of the Holy Ghost that we can receive a sure testimony of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.4

• 2. The Holy Ghost testifies of truth, and it is through His power that we “may know the truth of all things” (Moroni 10:5).

• 3. The Holy Ghost teaches us all things and brings to our remembrance all we have learned of the Lord and His gospel (see John 14:26).

• 4. The Holy Ghost will “show unto [us] all things what [we] should do” (2 Nephi 32:5). He can guide us in our decisions and protect us from physical and spiritual danger.

• 5. As we hunger to know the words of eternal life and allow these words to sink deep into our hearts, the Holy Ghost will open our minds and hearts to greater light and understanding.5

• 6. We are blessed with gifts of the Spirit through the Holy Ghost. These gifts bless our lives and the lives of those we love and serve. (See 1 Corinthians 12:1–12; Moroni 10:8–18; D&C 46:11–33.)

• 7. The Holy Ghost is known as the Comforter because He can fill us with “hope and perfect love” (Moroni 8:26).

• 8. Adam was the first on earth to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost (see Moses 6:64–66).

• 9. Through the power of the Holy Ghost, we become sanctified as we repent, are baptized and confirmed, and strive to obey God’s commandments (see Mosiah 4:1–3; 5:1–6).

To learn more about our basic beliefs, visit Mormon.org (available in many languages).

“The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever” (D&C 121:45–46).

After I, Nephi, having heard all the words of my father, … which he spake by the power of the Holy Ghost, which power he received by faith on the Son of God— … I, Nephi, was desirous also that I might see, and hear, and know of these things, by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God unto all those who diligently seek him” (1 Nephi 10:17).

Notes

1. See True to the Faith (2004), 81–82; Preach My Gospel (2004), 90–91.

2. See Gospel Principles (2009), 32.

3. Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, ed. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. (1954–56), 1:48.

4. See 1 Corinthians 12:3; True to the Faith, 82.

5. See Enos 1:3; Preach My Gospel, 18.

[greyfoxx39]

An interesting look at "Celestial Marriage" can be found in this article:

Joseph Smith Part Three-The Mysteries of Godliness-Celestial Marriage and Second Anointing

Note that this also describes the little-known-"second anointing".

Celestial marriage was applied to and equated with plural marriage until the late nineteenth century.68 Although in March 1836 and again in May 1842 Smith declared the endowment complete and the fullness of the priesthood restored, by late August 1842 he prayed that "the Lord Almighty...will continue to preserve me...until I have fully accomplished my mission in this life, and so firmly established the dispensation of the fullness of the priesthood in the last days, that all the powers of earth and hell can never prevail against it."

Fascinating article.

[Tennessee Nana]

by late August 1842 he prayed that “the Lord Almighty...will continue to preserve me...until I have fully accomplished my mission in this life, and so firmly established the dispensation of the fullness of the priesthood in the last days, that all the powers of earth and hell can never prevail against it.”
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So was Joey Sith claiming that although Hell could not prevail against the Church that Jesus had founded, it was “the powers of earth” that did ???

Blasphemy ...

[svcw]

Well, I would say that Hell has not nor will it ever prevail against the Body of Jesus Christ. JS and his minions have not nor will they ever prevailed against the Body of Jesus Christ.

[ejonesie22]

You had to do it...

[reaganaut]

momentary weakness...I will ground myself from FR for the rest of the night, dad.

*sigh*

[Tennessee Nana]

and dont poke sticks through the cage bars any more...

[Elsie]

The Holy Ghost Testifies of Truth -Mormon

Satan lies about the truthfullness of the BoM!

[annieokie]

probably sitting on a shelf in one of his old outhouses.

[Elsie]

You're getting to play again"

Cool!

[ejonesie22]

You are forgiven. After all you are a Christian now.

If you were still LDS I'd make you work it off...

[wendy1946]

Call me a simple redneck or whatever, but I’m willing to take Jesus’ word on something like this...

[mrreaganaut]

Don’t forget the fourth member of the Godhead - the Divine Mother. Without the Mother there is no Son.

No, no, the Divine Mother IS the Holy Ghost - she just seems like a ghost because we never see her, we just hear her voice calling from the Celestial Kitchen or Laundry Room where she's directing all of the Divine Sister Wives...

[reaganaut]

groan....

[Elsie]

So are you saying that a essentially illiterate man was able to look at Egyptian hieroglyphs and translate them to the King's English?

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"Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat and Darkned his Eyes than he would take a sentance and it would apper in Brite Roman Letters. Then he would tell the writer and he would write it. Then that would go away the next sentance would Come and so on. But if it was not Spelt rite it would not go away till it was rite, so we see it was marvelous. Thus was the hol [whole] translated."

---Joseph Knight's journal.

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"In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us."
(History of the RLDS Church, 8 vols.

(Independence, Missouri: Herald House,1951),

"Last Testimony of Sister Emma [Smith Bidamon]," 3:356.

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"I, as well as all of my father's family, Smith's wife, Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, were present during the translation. . . . He [Joseph Smith] did not use the plates in translation."
---(David Whitmer,

as published in the "Kansas City Journal," June 5, 1881,

and reprinted in the RLDS "Journal of History", vol. 8, (1910), pp. 299-300.

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In an 1885 interview, Zenas H. Gurley, then the editor of the RLDS Saints Herald, asked Whitmer if Joseph had used his "Peep stone" to do the translation. Whitmer replied:

"... he used a stone called a "Seers stone," the "Interpreters" having been taken away from him because of transgression. The "Interpreters" were taken from Joseph after he allowed Martin Harris to carry away the 116 pages of Ms [manuscript] of the Book of Mormon as a punishment, but he was allowed to go on and translate by use of a "Seers stone" which he had, and which he placed in a hat into which he buried his face, stating to me and others that the original character appeared upon parchment and under it the translation in English."

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"Martin Harris related an incident that occurred during the time that he wrote that portion of the translation of the Book of Mormon which he was favored to write direct from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said that the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone, Martin explained the translation as follows: By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin and when finished he would say 'Written,' and if correctly written that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used."
(Edward Stevenson, "One of the Three Witnesses,"

reprinted from Deseret News, 30 Nov. 1881

in Millennial Star, 44 (6 Feb. 1882): 86-87.)

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In 1879, Michael Morse, Emma Smith's brother-in-law, stated:

 

 "When Joseph was translating the Book of Mormon [I] had occasion more than once to go into his immediate presence, and saw him engaged at his work of translation. The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph's placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face, resting his elbows upon his knees, and then dictating word after word, while the scribes Emma, John Whitmer, O. Cowdery, or some other wrote it down."
(W.W. Blair interview with Michael Morse,

Saints Herald, vol. 26, no. 12

June 15, 1879,  pp. 190-91.)

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Joseph Smith's brother William also testified to the "face in the hat" version:

 

"The manner in which this was done was by looking into the Urim and Thummim, which was placed in a hat to exclude the light, (the plates lying near by covered up), and reading off the translation, which appeared in the stone by the power of God"

("A New Witness for Christ in America,"

Francis W. Kirkham, 2:417.)

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"The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret was the same manner as when he looked for the money-diggers, with the stone in his hat, while the book of plates were at the same time hid in the woods."

---Isaac Hale (Emma Smith's father's) affidavit, 1834.

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[Elsie]

 

Joseph Smith was a famous Preacher in the Eastern USA. His teaching empire grew to include acquisition of valuable printing assets and intimate dealings with the Missouri courts.

 

 He devoted several years of his early life to exploratory service, finally taking leave to assume his dealings with various Spiritual Beings.

 

As an adjunct to his exploratory work, Mummies and papyrus are purchased from Michael Chandler.  On July 19, 1835 at age 29; Joseph began translating the papyrus. It will be known as the Book of Abraham, generating quite a lot of interest by leading archeological experts.

 

 In 1844, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the authorities in Carthage, Hancock County, Illinois. That same month, Smith passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the excitable group who had come to visit him pressed too many into the room he was in and his death resulted.

 

 

 

[Elsie]

 

AUTHORITY TO TRANSLATE.

 

The Prophet Joseph Smith claimed a divine appointment to make an inspired rendition or, as he termed it, a "new translation" of the Bible. This appointment can be illustrated by excerpts from his writings. After laboring off and on for ten months on the early chapters of Genesis, Joseph Smith received a revelation from the Lord on March 7, 1831, directing him to begin work on the New Testament: "It shall not be given unto you to know any further concerning this chapter, until the New Testament be translated, and in it all these things shall be made known; wherefore I give unto you that ye may now translate it" (D&C 45:60-61).

 

The manuscript of the JST shows that Joseph Smith began the translation of Matthew the next day. On December 1, 1831, the Prophet entered the following in his journal: "I resumed the translation of the Scriptures, and continued to labor in this branch of my calling with Elder Sidney Rigdon as my scribe" (HC 1:238-39). On February 16, 1832, he reported a revelation concerning the resurrection of the dead that includes the following reference to his divine commission to translate: "For while we [Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon] were doing the work of translation, which the Lord had appointed unto us, we came to the twenty-ninth verse of the fifth chapter of John" (D&C 76:15). On March 8, 1833, he reported the word of the Lord to him as follows: "And when you have finished the translation of the [Old Testament] prophets, you shall from thenceforth preside over the affairs of the church" (D&C 90:13). On May 6, 1833, Joseph Smith reported the following revelation: "It is my will that you should hasten to translate my scriptures" (D&C 93:53). Although not a complete list, the foregoing items illustrate Joseph Smith's claim to a divine appointment to translate the Old and New Testaments.

[Elsie]

Whoops, I mean Joseph Smith translated his golden tablets from masonic pseudo Egyptian glyphs into King James English!!!

 

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The "Caractors" are the only tangible evidence in existence related to Smith's story.

 

 No gold plates, no brass plates, no peep stones, no Urim and Thummim... only these "Caractors," not a single one of which is in the purported languages.

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Smith's translation of the Caractors. According to Martin Harris (Joseph Smith - History, 1:64), "I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated,* and he said they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic; and he said they were true characters."

Speak right up now in all truthfulness. Isn't it revealing how Smith started out making a stab at creating believable "caractors" but quckly gave up and produced nothing but squiggles, ending up wih a series of nothing more than crude little scribbles? Yet Professor Anthon supposedly translated them!

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*Harris must have had two or three pieces of paper with him—one with characters and a translation of them (on the same paper or a separate one) and one with untranslated characters—quite likely the "Caractors." Some Mormon "scholars" have gone out on a limb, sawed it off, and knocked themselves out trying to translate from these true Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic characters a segment that would correspond with a verse from 1 Nephi.

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Modern-day experts in Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic. In 1829, any knowledge of these languages possessed by U.S. scholars would have been rudimentary at best. Expertise in them has vastly improved since then. So go ahead, do it. Get any modern expert in these languages to identify which of these "Caractors" are Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac and Arabic. Better still, accept the claim of Mormon apologists that Anthon did indeed so testify and that his appraisal of the Caractors was correct. (Op. cit, pp. 73-75)

Save your money! Samples of Assyriac/Aramaic and Arabic writing:

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     .
 

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What say you? Which of Smith's "Caractors" resemble the Assyriac and Arabic ones? No need to pay experts for their analysis. A child could accurately check this out. These writing systems have remained constant for well over 3000 years.

[Elsie]

JS just MUST have been a True Prophet!!

How ELSE to explaion my MOUSE showing up 3 times in the list of caraters?

[Elsie]

[Elsie]