Isaiah 44:24 and the LDS View of God, More on the Book of Abraham, Open Phones

And greetings, welcome to The Dividing Line on a Thursday afternoon. Lots to get to today, of course. I'm going to hold off on some of the current events type stuff until we can get through what I feel is important to do.

We try to get some teachings, some information out, and then we'll look at a few interesting tweets. Rachel Held Evans has tweeted in the spirit of Margaret Sanger today. When they go down, they go down fast.

I mean, they really do. And then we'll discuss a little bit about the big Supreme Court day yesterday. Wow. And the repercussions to today and why there are some people who feel pain today because Anthony Kennedy is retiring from the Supreme Court.

I. I don't understand that. I mean, I understand why people, for example, who support gay marriage might be upset about that, because he wrote the Obergefell decision, which was the 21st century version of Dred Scott.

It was just it was the worst decision ever handed down by anybody. I mean, we talked about it after it was given and I read portions of it. It's just it's childish. It was absolutely childish. I mean, anybody who who who puts their name to something like that nails the coffin shut on their own judicial legacy.

I mean, but there are there are people who who are upset in the church has something to do with Trump. I guess I guess there are people who actually think it would be better if you had leftist ideologues packing the court.

Now, can you imagine what the it would be? It would be what with this one coming up, seven to with leftist ideologues? Woo hoo. That would be the end of that. Abortion, LGBTQ, transgenderism right through the door.

That's great. As long as it supports our politics. But anyways, we'll get to that a little bit later on, I guess, though, that leaves me completely befuddled as to how people actually think. But anyway.

I remember years and years ago, I've told the story that many moons ago, we there was a guy at the church we were going to that started a print screening business where you could do T-shirts and stuff.

And so we started going up to Salt Lake City regularly, and so we had these shirts made. Well, first we had these satin baseball jackets made. I remember the first year we all wore our Alpha and Omega Ministries satin baseball jackets.

Unfortunately, the Alpha and Omega didn't last forever. It didn't wash well. No. After a few years, it was it was not much of an Alpha or Omega left. It faded. But hey, that first year, you got to admit that probably the first two times we went up there, they were really cool.

We stood out. You could see us from a mile off. And I think the first time up, the guys had gold ones and the gals had like almost purplish ones. And then I think we got red ones. I think we were able to expand the colors a little bit second time around, if I recall correctly.

But anyway, boy, those were the days. Those were the days I'd be driving my 1974 Sunbug, my VW Beetle up there. Yeah. Anyway, sometime around that time period, we had a Witnessing with the Word T-shirt made.

I wonder if anyone still has one of those. I don't know. It's possible. There are some strange people that went with us up there that might have packed it away and sealed it in vacuum seal or something.

It's possible. I'd love to see one again. I could probably reproduce most of it. And it was this color fade thing and it had Greek and Hebrew. It was all Greek and Hebrew. And at the time, Alpha and Omega only dealt with two groups, Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses.

And so all the verses had to do with issues directly relevant to those particular subjects. And I know Isaiah 4310 was one of the verses in Hebrew, Deuteronomy 6 -4. And did we have Isaiah 4424? I thought we did.

Yeah, I think so. And so I remember I wore it one night when I went to pick up a guy named Tony from the airport like two o 'clock in the morning in Salt Lake City. And this Jewish guy sees the Hebrew and starts talking to me.

And as I go, I sees the Greek and realizes it's Christian and just was so really, really offended that I would have Hebrew on my shirt. Anyway, the reason that we had Isaiah 4424 on the text is what I want on the t-shirt is what I want to make sure everyone understands today.

And it will sort of help us to transition back into the topic. You can see the documentary History of the Church still sitting here. Back into the topic of Mormonism, I have a debate coming up with Alma Allred.

Debate slash discussion, I mean, it will have equal time stuff, so I guess it is a debate of some form. But coming up on July 6th at Christ Presbyterian Church in Magna, Utah, which is over to the west of Salt Lake City, one of the suburbs there out toward the mountain.

And so hopefully if you're in that area, you'll be able to come along with and visit with us. Anyway, Isaiah 4424, Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, I the Lord and the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by myself and spreading out the earth all alone.

Now, it's very important and I know the majority of the people in this audience are already fully aware of this reality. But when you see the word Lord in all capitals, not the same font size, but each of the letters is in a capitalized form, this is the English Bible Translator's way of communicating to you the fact that you are reading the Tetragrammaton.

Specifically, Ko Amar Yahweh, Yahweh, the four-letter name of God, which we slaughter in English as Jehovah. And so keeping that in mind, it says, Thus says, let's go ahead and use Jehovah because we're talking about Mormonism today, and Mormonism uses the slaughtered version.

Thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, I Jehovah and the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by myself and spreading out the earth all alone. Now, you know, I didn't look at my quad to double check to make sure.

If you look up Jehovah in the Bible dictionary in the quad, they'll tell you that L-O-R-D is Jehovah in case a Mormon questions you about that. Just keep that in mind. Why would we put this verse in Hebrew on a t-shirt with other verses?

Well, it's because of what modern Mormons, notice I said modern Mormons, believe about the words Jehovah and Elohim. Jehovah and Elohim. Now, the word Elohim is simply the Hebrew word for God or gods, depending on what verb it's used with.

L, singular form, Elohim, plural form, but it can be translated as singular when it's used as a singular verb. In the understanding of modern Mormons, I keep saying that because there's good evidence that Joseph Smith didn't hold this view, that it's a development later on, but it is the official position of the church.

At least at the beginning of last century, early 1900s, the first presidency put out a statement about the identity of Jehovah and Elohim and identified specifically Elohim as the father and Jehovah as the son.

And when you understand LDS theology, then you know that Elohim in a physical body begat the body of Jesus and that Elohim, his first begotten spirit child in the spiritual pre-existence, was Jesus. And hence, in LDS theology, minimally since the early 1900s, Jehovah and Elohim are separate and distinct gods.

Now, anyone who reads the Old Testament knows that Jehovah Elohim, Yahweh Elohim, Lord God, is used over 500 times in the Old Testament. The two terms are used interchangeably. No one reading the Old Testament would come to the conclusion that Jehovah and Elohim are separate, unless you chop the Old Testament up.

And that's what liberalism has done. And that's why you have an Elohist source and a Yahwist source and a priestly source and so on and so forth. Chop it up on the basis of usage. You can come up with whatever you want.

Joseph Smith didn't do that and did not have those categories, did not have the categories of liberal, unbelieving form criticism to be drawing from. Though his offspring today certainly do. BYU and places like that.

Problem being, if you think that creates a mess out of the Old Testament, yeah, see what it does to the Book of Mormon. Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl Gray Price. Those scriptures are utterly incapable of survival without being completely spiritualized upon analysis.

Anyway, so you can see why Isaiah 44, 24 is relevant. Thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb. I, Jehovah, the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by myself and spreading out the earth all alone.

Jehovah is the only creator. But that's not the case in LDS theology. And let me prove this to you. Now, I could just give you some quotes, but it's a little bit easier to listen to something. And most of you have never heard this before.

I'm going to listen in, too. I have to. We left this sitting here on since I'm sure it's better than the proverbial doornail. Probably about three o 'clock Wednesday morning, it was in here talking to itself.

I can no longer connect. Anyway, many years ago, when those little teeny microcassette recorders were designed, an individual went through the LDS endowment ceremony. Actually had to go through it a number of times because little cassettes only lasted so long.

And recorded all of it. And so I remember back sometime, was it in the 80s? May have been in the early 90s that I was able to listen to the entire endowment ceremony for the first time. Well, since then, they have developed micro cameras.

And so you can go on YouTube and watch the entire LDS endowment ceremony. Which Mormons will say is sacred, not secret. Well, I'll let you judge that for yourself. Anyway, the point is that this is from the recording of the current LDS endowment ceremony.

Which has changed many times. It's fascinating just to analyze that. Because there's good evidence that many Mormons have believed that the endowment ceremony is revelational. That it's a part of revelation itself.

Be that as it may, early on in the creation scene, you hear a dialogue going on involving three separate personages. Elohim, Jehovah, and Michael. Elohim, Jehovah, and Michael. So let's listen to a few moments so you can get the feeling of all of this.

I've got maximum volume here, so hopefully we'll be able to hear it.

Jehovah, Michael, go down again. Gather the waters together and cause the dry land to appear. The great waters call you seas, and the dry land call you earth. Form mountains and hills, great rivers and small streams, to beautify and give variety to the face of the earth.

Call your labors the second day, and bring me word.

It shall be done, Elohim. Come, Michael, let us go down. We will go down, Jehovah. Michael, we will gather the waters together.

Okay, so, already heard enough there. You have one voice saying, go do these things. Then you have another voice saying, we will go down. Come, Michael. And the other voice responds and calls the second voice, Jehovah.

So you have Elohim, and Elohim commands Jehovah and Michael to go down and organize, not create, organize the earth. Because in Mormon theology, God cannot create. He cannot simply say and something comes into existence.

The Mormon God organizes pre-existing matter. Because in Mormonism, intelligences and matter are the only two eternal things. And so, there you have, being presented in the temple, three personages. Elohim sends down Jehovah and Michael.

So Jehovah and Michael are subordinate to Elohim. In the LDS temple ceremony. And that continues to be the case today. This is the modern endowment ceremony. Now, with that in mind, I draw your attention back to Isaiah 44, 24, where Jehovah says, I, Jehovah, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens, what?

By myself and spreading out the earth all alone. Not Mormonism. Jehovah was sent down to do this by Elohim, and he was accompanied by Michael. So, when you know what the Bible is actually saying, you discover over and over and over again, that Joseph Smith was massively ignorant of the fundamental teachings of Scripture.

Massively ignorant. The Bible is not central to the definition of LDS theology at all. And neither is the Book of Mormon, to be perfectly honest with you. The central elements of LDS theology developed well after the period of time when the Book of Mormon was written.

And as Joseph took the role of prophet, seer, and revelator, I'd really start seeing some of the major changes around 1834. Then, 1835 with Michael Chandler, Book of Abraham, Papyrus. By 1838, things are starting to get really wild.

And by his, as I've said many, many times before, if he had not been murdered in a Carthage jail, there would not be any Mormonism today. There just wouldn't be. You would not be able to make heads or tails out of it.

It would have become so massively self-contradictory that there would be no Mormonism at all. So, one of many, many texts where the biblical text, in fact, I was asked, when I asked this question in the Visitor's Center of the Mesa Arizona Temple many years ago, talking to the elderly folks who were at the front desk, I was asked to leave the Visitor's Center.

Because, well, I was just considered to be causing trouble there, I guess. So, which takes us back to what we were talking about on the last program. And that is in reference to Joseph Smith's claims regarding LDS Scripture, current LDS Scripture.

I showed you my triple combination that I just picked up at the LDS bookstore. And if you're concerned about that, here's the Book of Abraham. There you can see one of the facsimiles in the Book of Abraham.

It's still right here in the LDS Scriptures that are being sold this very day at Deseret Book or wherever else they might be. And this is part of the canon of the LDS Church. And I told you the story of what had happened back on July 3rd in 1835.

I wonder why I have that marked there. Let me see here. Yeah, this is July 1835, July 3rd. Michael H. Chandler came to Kirtland to exhibit some Egyptian mummies. There were four human figures together with some two or more rolls of papyrus covered with hieroglyphic figures and devices.

As Mr. Chandler had been told, I could translate them, which is one of the powers of a seer, prophet, revelator, and seer. He brought me some of the characters and I gave him the interpretation. And like a gentleman, he gave me the following certificate.

And so we have the content there. And then, page 236 of Volume 2, Soon after this, some of the saints at Kirtland purchased the mummies and papyrus, a description of which will appear hereafter. It was for $2 ,400.

Someone sent me the modern equivalent. It was like $87 ,000 or something like that. A description of which will appear hereafter. And with W. W. Phelps and Oliver Cowdery as scribes, I commenced the translation of some of the characters or hieroglyphics.

And much to our joy, found that one of the rolls contained the writings of Abraham, another the writings of Joseph of Egypt, etc. A more full account of which will appear in its place as I proceed to examine or unfold them.

And truly we can say the Lord is beginning to reveal the abundance of peace and truth. And then at a later point, we had read this portion that discussed the continuing work of translation and the working on the Egyptian alphabet and grammar on the part of, this is from October 1st of 1835.

This afternoon I labored on the Egyptian alphabet in company with brothers Oliver Cowdery and W. W. Phelps. And during the research, the principles of astronomy as understood by Father Abraham and the ancients unfolded to our understanding, the particulars of which will appear hereafter.

Now, it seems that this translation work went in two spurts. Here in 1835, then it was laid aside. And nothing much is said about it all until 1842, when all of a sudden it is finished up and the book of Abraham appears.

I mentioned some of the books. Oh great, I left Guy's book and Larson's book in the other room. But I mentioned some of the books last time that are available. I have another one here from fairly recently called the Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri by Robert K. Rittner from Signature Books, which I sort of expected to be LDS Signature Books.

But it really isn't. It's critical and recognizes the fact that basically Joseph Smith had no earthly idea of what he was talking about when he did this. In fact, just to give you a taste of it, on page 265, in the book of Abraham, Smith provided an explanation for 21 figures, a term he used haphazardly to include both images and text passages.

Although it could be argued that his explanations were not intended as translations, Smith did specifically label them as such in his concluding remarks in the explanation of facsimile 2, the above translation is given as far as we have any right to give at the present time, emphasis added.

One of the keystones of the modern defense of the book of Abraham is to try to attack the idea that it's translation, because it's not. We now have the papyri in our possession. And there is no translation going on here.

Not in any meaningful use of that word translation. And certainly not as Joseph Smith himself represented it at the very time of this. Since Smith provided a common explanation for numbers 12 to 21, etc., etc., then it says, as will be seen, Smith's numbering indicates that he could not recognize the usual order of the text, right to left.

So he didn't recognize which way Egyptian was read. Nor could he distinguish text written upside down and oriented to the inverted scene below them. So he goes the wrong direction, and when the text is inverted to actually refer to an image below it, he doesn't recognize that and has things upside down.

Upside down and backwards is what is found in the Egyptian alphabet and grammar and things like that. And in the facsimiles. Since facsimile 2 contains distortions clearly introduced by Smith, so in other words, as you can sort of see, let me see if I can do this, you can sort of see, yeah, that's a good look at the cover, you can sort of see here, the brown is what we have of the facsimiles, and then you can see what has been added in as it appears in the LDS scriptures.

And what has been added in is a distortion. There wouldn't be a human head on that. These are scenes from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Book of Breathings. These are common funerary documents that were buried with individuals to give them guidance and power in the afterlife.

And the scenes that they contain have zip to do with Abraham, the time of Abraham, have nothing to do with Abraham. They're not from that time period. They are clearly and plainly in reference to other items that come from long after the days of Abraham, standard Egyptian funerary documents from around the first century.

And so there's no issue there whatsoever in what these things actually represent, what they actually are. So, couldn't tell whether it was written upside, backwards, whatever. So, since Facsimile 2 contains distortions clearly induced by Smith, who further added revelatory translation explanation for the artificial insertions.

So, he messed up when he tried to restore what was missing, and then gave translation of what he messed up. Apologists are caught between reproducing the false but traditional image or defending its flawed content.

Given the obvious discrepancy revealed between the Smith and modern interpretations, Rhodes' conclusion is startling from any scholarly perspective. So, here's a, you know, Michael Dennis Rhodes, the Mormons have been struggling for many years now to come up with some way of explaining the fact that once these papyri became available, there had already been criticism.

As soon as people began to understand, you know, the Mormons left and went to Utah. And man, they were sort of out of sight, out of mind. They had their own little kingdom out there and they're out in the middle of nowhere.

And so, they can sort of develop on their own. And that's when polygamy flourishes and all sorts of things like that. But even with that, they still sent missionaries back into more populated areas. And once you get into the later half of the 19th century, and Egyptian starts becoming understood, there were a few people who, encountering the LDS scriptures and seeing those images, who knew what they were, are going, that's not what any of that means.

All these explanations are completely wrong. The facsimiles have been altered and changed and all the rest of this kind of stuff. What are y 'all talking about? And so, there had been criticism for a long time, but most of the Mormons were insulated from that being out in the inner mountain west.

It was not until the papyri were found that you now had the evidence from the papyri that went together with the evidence from the facsimiles. And you could have a full testing of Joseph Smith's claims to be able to translate only five chapters of the Book of Abraham over against 532 pages of the Book of Mormon.

If you can't get five chapters, you certainly didn't get the 530 pages right either. And since Smith didn't get a word right, I mean, other than, I guess you could say that, you know, there are certain hieroglyphs that would be taken as containing a definite article and he got the word the in.

But literally, he would literally take one symbol and end up with 60 -70 English words from a single symbol. He had no earthly idea what he was doing. And, you know, if it was the word the and you get the in there, that doesn't count as having gotten it right.

So what they've done is they've come up with, well, obviously Joseph Smith wasn't intending this to be seen as a translation. Yes, he was. It's just so silly. This was a mnemonic device to, you know, he just got all this by direct revelation from God, just like his other revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants.

And the papyri were just sort of a cool thing to show people, but really didn't have anything to do with the revelation. None of which would fit. Nobody in the early church believed that. Nobody at that time believed that.

That's not what was believed at the time. But since we now can test Joseph Smith, we've got to come up with a way to make it unverifiable one way or the other so you can maintain belief in Joseph Smith.

So with that, you've got Rhodes's, you have the quote here, Rhodes's conclusion is startling from any scholarly perspective. And what did Rhodes say? Quote,. It should come as no surprise to members of the church that as we gain more understanding of Egyptian matters, we find an increasing number of Joseph Smith's explanations of facsimile two are in accord with that increased understanding.

End quote. That is the voice of very gullible faith that flies in the face of the facts as they exist. But that's what they have to do. Because the book of Abraham is one of the, absent having golden plates to look at, the book of Abraham is as close as we're going to get to any kind of test of Joseph Smith's translating abilities, which were his claim to be able to translate those languages was central to his claim of authority.

Absolutely central to his claim of authority. And it's not like the book of Abraham is a central doctrinal teaching of the Mormon church. But if you did take the time to look at the tract that I mentioned on the last program, men is not God.

You may have seen the images that were included in that. I actually haven't looked at it for a while to see here. And I didn't bring this up. Let me see if I can grab it real quick. And it's loading and there it is.

And this is the facsimile. So you have that there? This is the facsimile. Facsimile number two. I guess I need to. I thought I had. Oh, it is. As it appears right here in the LDS scriptures, even today.

And you will notice the explanation that is provided. Kolob, signifying the first creation nearest to the celestial or the residence of God, first in government, the last pertaining to the measurement of time, the measurement according to celestial time, which celestial time signifies one day to a cubit.

Yeah, figure that one out. One day in Kolob is equal to a thousand years, according to the measurement of this earth, which is called by the Egyptians, sounds cling on to me, but we'll move on from there.

Stands then figure two stands. So what was figure one? Here's figure two right here. Here's figure three. There's four. There's figure one. So there's Kolob. Now is that Kolob in Egyptian lore, magic?

No, of course not. These are each identifiable gods and identifiable situations. Doing certain things that are specifically allowed, allowing a person to have passage through the realm of the dead. There's no or anything else in any of this material whatsoever.

Figure two stands next to Kolob called by the Egyptians, which is the next grand governing creation near to the celestial or the place where God resides. You got to understand that according to the book of Abraham, God lives on a planet that circles a star named Kolob.

And so this is why this is important. And so you go through this and, and eventually you get down to what we focused upon in our tract, which is figure seven. Figure seven represents God sitting upon his throne, revealing to the heavens, the grand keywords, the priesthood as also the sign of the Holy ghost under Abraham in the form of a dove.

Now, what is that? Well, figure seven, I get it centered up here, is right here. It's upside down from our perspective. This is supposed to be God sitting upon his throne, revealing to the heavens, the grand keywords, the priesthood.

This is the Holy spirit approaching in the form of a sign of a dove. Now, when you actually know something about Egyptology, you know that this is all incredibly idolatrous material. And that the God represented there is actually a sexually aroused male deity named Min.

And that's the widget. Widget eye? Wadjet eye? I forget what it was, but I'm sorry. Yeah, it was. Anyway, being presented, it has nothing to do with the Holy spirit, has nothing to do with priesthoods.

Well, I suppose Egyptian priesthoods, pagan priesthoods, but nothing to do with what was connected to the text of the book of Abraham. And just quoting Mormons, trying to explain this, stands as its own self-refutation.

I mean, to anyone who wants to critically examine things. And here's the point I want to make. There is nothing, nothing that corresponds to this kind of thing in biblical Christianity. Nothing. In other words, what I'm saying is, I know I've pretty much encountered the toughest questions and arguments about, you know, from source criticism and form criticism and alleged contradictions and world religions theories and borrowing from this and borrowing from that, all the rest of that kind of stuff.

There is nothing in the Christian faith where we have to deal with something like this. Where you, you have, where, when you take the claims of Joseph Smith in their normal language and as how they were understood by everyone around them.

And when you analyze that, you discover very, very clearly that Joseph Smith had no idea what he was doing or what he was saying when it came to being a translator. That was obvious, even his comments on other things, biblical translation, illustrated that as well.

But the fact is that this was central to his claim as prophet, revelator and seer. And yet to see entire books written today, trying to gloss these things over and say, well, you know, this is, you know, revelation is a tricky thing.

You know, it's very subjective. Here's the problem. If Mormonism keeps going this direction, once you spiritualize the book of Abraham, you've got no way of avoiding spiritualizing the book of Mormon.

That's already happening because we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Olmecs and Mayans and Aztecs and all the rest of them had nothing to do with the book of Mormon story. The book of Mormon story of horses and chariots and bows and arrows and steel swords and all the rest of that stuff didn't exist on this continent.

That's a fact. And so they've already had to shrink the book of Mormon area down to a teeny tiny little spot so that no one would ever be able to find it. So there wouldn't be any material remains of this entire civilization.

Even though, you know, I'm reading Bushman's biography of Joseph Smith right now. He tells the story of Zulf, the white Lamanite. He didn't duck it. I mean, he's spinning it. But he tells the story of Zulf, the white Lamanite, where Joseph Smith, after the publication of the book of Mormon, traveling with some of the brethren, they come across a burial mound, which were quite common given the presence of the native populations at the time.

And they dug down, found a corpse. There was allegedly an arrow through its ribs. And by revelation, Joseph explained that this was Zulf, the white Lamanite. Now this is way out in the east. What that means clearly is that Joseph Smith believed the book of Mormon story took place over a vast area.

A vast area. Extending all the way into upstate New York. I mean, Moroni is the one that hides the plates there. And so to try to say, well, you know, it probably happened in a couple square miles, somewhere down Mesoamerica.

And given the conditions there, you know, we wouldn't expect to be able to find any material remains, blah, blah, blah. That's Mormonism's utter retreat. And once you spiritualize the book of Abraham away, and these were just things that Joseph Smith experienced, and seeing these pagan papyri made him think of Abraham.

Next step is to do it with all of the book of Mormon. And all you got to do is look what's happened to what used to be called the RLDS church, which became the Community of Christ. Deeply influenced by Protestant liberalism.

And like every denomination that becomes deeply influenced by Protestant liberalism. Dying away. Dying away. They all do. Liberalism is the kiss of death. And is that what's going to happen with Mormonism?

I don't know. I've said more than once, if you had a real charismatic leader rise up right now. Because the system that Mormonism has adopted for leadership makes sure you can never have charismatic leadership anymore.

Plainly not what Joseph Smith intended. Plainly not what Joseph Smith intended. But that's what they've got. And so every time you got a new president of the church, he's older than dirt. And not able to be any kind of mover or shaker.

And so, could that happen? Yeah, I can see a lot of those conservative, old-time Mormons down there in southern Utah have a good enough leader come along, but it would shatter the entire thing. And there's a lot of money.

A lot of money involved in that church. Powerful forces. So, who knows what's going to happen there. But anyway, so we'll be having a discussion on Friday night, July 6th. Magna Utah, Alma Alred and I, one of the three Nephites.

And if you don't know who the three Nephites are, then you probably don't get why that's sort of funny. We met the three Nephites at General Conference. And they claimed to be the three Nephites, remember?

Were you there? You saw them? Yeah, they had the robes and the beards, walking around Temple Square. There were three of them, the three Nephites. And if you're not familiar with that, Mormonism used to believe, I'm not going to say that all Mormons believe this anymore, but it's certainly part of Mormon lore.

The Book of Mormon certainly says that three of the twelve apostles that Jesus chose, when he came here, because he didn't ascend back to heaven after his resurrection. He came over here and established his church in the Americas.

And managed to somehow preach the Sermon on the Mount from the King James Version of the Bible. And then sort of did the I Dream of Jeannie thing with the twelve apostles, and said, ask anything you wish.

And three of the twelve asked to remain until he returned. And so good old faithful Mormons believe there are three guys running around somewhere in America who are currently over 2 ,000 years of age.

And so they're called the three Nephites. And like I said, they showed up in Salt Lake. I'm not sure why there's any question about it. And I just think that Alma Allred looks very much like he's one of the three Nephites.

Because he didn't have all that white hair when we first met him in Salt Lake. Why would they have white hair? Because they're over 2 ,000 years old. So it doesn't say how they'd be kept or preserved.

It doesn't say like their clothes wouldn't wear out or something. I don't know. But he just looks like one of the three Nephites to me. So that'll be on the sixth. So I dragged this over here. Yeah, okay.

Here, let's do it this way. Hold on a second. Let me try to find stack real quick. And let's get ready to open what? You don't want to do phone calls? Folks, I'm not sure Rich wants to do phone calls.

I mean, I want to. I tell people routinely, they ask me, is James going to take calls today? And I tell them every time. I don't have my ear thing in. I find this out about 30 seconds before you do. And this is proof of it.

This is proof, folks. If you don't believe me when I tell you this, this is proof. Suddenly it's like, oh, we're going to take calls. Oh, okay. I better get moving.

You know, Rich used to say, he used to, you know, back when in the day, he used to say, hey, I'm good. I can do this. You know, as he's been getting older, it seems like the confidence level is slipping just a little bit.

Going down just a little bit. 877 -753 -3341. 877 -753 -3341 is the phone number if you'd like to get involved with the program today after we talk about some of this odd stuff. Now, the real tough thing now is I'm going to be trying to show you something at the same time he's screening calls.

So this will be a little bit tricky for him, but we'll see what we can do. So I mentioned the Rachel Held Evans tweet, which I read somewhere else that she eventually deleted. But, hey, you know, once you hit send, as I well know, it is there.

And so there are like 21 comments, 82 retweets, 615 likes. I'm sorry? Yeah. Rachel Held Evans. So when I see conservatives celebrating the millions of lives that will be saved if Roe is overturned, I wonder if they realize a significant percentage of these lives would be in poor communities of color, communities this administration has actively oppressed.

Once you go off the rails and fly headfirst into apostasy, there aren't too many things to grab onto on the way down. You know, it's a pretty much straight cliff issue. And I mean, aside from the communities this administration has actively oppressed, I'm not sure what that means.

As far as I can tell, professional sports is still predominated by black athletes. And I think there is still a whole lot of, well, there's folks in Congress, and I think there's still an African-American on the Supreme Court.

I haven't seen the camps being set up and stuff like that, but, you know, it's a narrative you're supposed to use. But I'm just wondering if good old Rachel recognizes that she's sort of channeling the spirit of Margaret Sanger, because that's what Planned Parenthood was all about, was bringing about the Holocaust of, as Sanger put it, human weeds, the lesser peoples.

And of course, at the bottom of that list were black people. That's what Sanger just wanted, genocide. And there's been a genocide, continues to be a genocide. And what's amazing, it does sort of fit in here, is, you know, now there's all this discussion about the overthrow of Roe v. Wade.

Call me a non-post-millennialist, I guess, but I don't see it happening. My prediction is there is going to be thermonuclear political warfare. You need to remember that Anthony Kennedy's seat, the first person that was nominated to fill that seat, was a man by the name of Robert Bork.

And if you want to see how the left can be utterly destructive of liberty, truth, personal behavior, morals, ethics, and everything else, just look what they did to Bork. The second person was nominated, had to drop out for other reasons.

And then the third was Anthony Kennedy. Kennedy has been a disaster. And I can't believe that people on Twitter tried to defend him. One word, I even had a guy just recently, there's only one word that ends any, let's see, what was this?