Dews From Heaven

What really is an anti-Christ?  Are the Anti-Nephi-Lehies opposed to Nephi and Lehi?  And why is anti-Mormon material so destructive? The Greek root for "anti" can mean not only "opposite of" and "against," but also " in place of ."  A conglomeration of the two may suggest the definition, "opposed to, by being similar" .  The Greek doesn't necessarily prove this definition, so instead of inductive, I'll use deductive reasoning to try to prove it. Two quick examples:  First, anti-venom is created with actual venom from the poisonous animal.  That venom is injected into a big animal like a horse, which then creates antibodies for us to extract and use. Thus, the anti-venom is very similar to the actual venom, but has an opposite effect on the body.  Second, the star "Antares" is a red supergiant that got its name from the ancient Greeks.  The name means "anti-Ares" (Ares was the God of war, synonymous wi...

In Genesis 6:14, the Lord instructs Noah, "Make thee an ark of gopher wood."  What in the world is gopher wood?  I don't know...  But the Greek Septuagint translates the phrase into  xylon tetragonon  ("squared timber"), and the Latin Vulgate renders  lignis levigatis  ("smoothed, possibly planed, wood").  As to the type of wood, suggestions include - among others - fir, cedar, and acacia.  Interesting that all three of these wood types were included in the building of  temples  (Ex. 26:15 - shittim wood for the tabernacle [probably acacia], 1 Kings 9:11 - Hiram of Tyre furnished Solomon with cedar and fir trees).   Woods outside Jerusalem. This leads to the idea of the ark itself being a type of temple .  The ark joins a unique group of structures that are specifically designed by the Lord Himself.  The dimensions of the ark are very similar to the dimensions of Moses' tabernacle and Solomon's temple (Gen. ...

I think many of us fall victim to the fallacious idea that when we arrive at judgment day, we will stand before God as imperfect beings, full of sins that need to be cleansed, and then magically transformed into a perfected god-like individual.  From what I understand, in order to retain the presence of the Father (a wondrous and terrible  gift that all receive, despite levels of righteousness [Hel. 14:16-18]), we must come as already perfected beings who have overcome all things through the Atonement of Christ. Heavenly Father's laws are immutable, "But behold, I say unto you, the kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God" (Nephi's use of chiasmus is ubiquitous and shows emphasis on particular principles of import) (1 Ne. 15:34).  In order to enjoy eternal life, the kind of life that God enjoys, we must be obedient to that law of heaven.  In other words, God's plan demands perfection and nothing short of...