Mormons Announce New Solar Powered Chapel
Filed under: Bible, Premortal Life, The Creation, The Prophet
On April 27, 2010, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are sometimes called Mormons, introduced its first solar-powered chapel, located in Farmington, Utah. “It’s about creating a place of worship that works in harmony with the environment. For decades we have looked for innovative ways to use natural resources in our meetinghouses that reflect our commitment as wise stewards of God’s creations.” Said H. David Burton Presiding Bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the press conference. The new building is one of five pilot buildings designed to meet LEED certification standards. Read more
Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy
When Jesus Christ created the earth under God’s direction, he took only six of the allotted days to do the work. The seventh day He rested, and He commanded Adam and Eve to set aside that seventh day each week to rest and to worship.
Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.
“Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
“But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
“For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” (Ex. 20:8-11.)
Today, that standard has become lost. Many people do consider the Sabbath to be a day of rest, but they interpret it as a day of play. Even those who attend church leave the building and head off to a restaurant, a park, or a football game. They leave God behind in the church building and don’t give him any further thought that day.
The commandment given to Moses was to keep the Sabbath Day holy, meaning the entire day. Six days belong to us, to do with them as we choose, but God asks for just one of those days to be focused entirely on Him.
Keeping the Sabbath Day holy is critical to our eternal well-being. Those who do it and choose wisely how to do it find they approach the challenges of the coming week feeling more peaceful and better able to make Christ-centered choices. They use the opportunity to get to know God better and to strengthen their relationship. It can be challenging, during a busy work week, to find uninterrupted time for this, and the Sabbath, when dedicated to this purpose, allows a person to find that time.
Church attendance, of course, is an important part of the process. This allows us to be with others who share our faith and it allows us to be taught by others, giving us new insights into the gospel. If we also have church work, it allows us to learn the gospel at a deeper level than we might otherwise take the time to do, and to serve God and others. Church attendance gives us an opportunity to partake of the sacrament (communion) and renew the covenants (promises) we’ve made to God.
The time after church is more challenging, because we have to choose for ourselves how to spend it. We often hear so many lists of things we’re not supposed to do that it becomes difficult to figure out what we can do. In general, appropriate Sabbath activities include:
Those things that bring us closer to God
Those things that serve others.
Those things that strengthen family relationships.
Now, there are things that fit into those catagories, but still don’t meet the standards of Sabbath activity. For instance, going to an amusement park might strengthen our family, but it’s meant to be done on a Saturday. Sabbath family time should be quiet and meaningful. Appropriate ways to spend time with the family on the Sabbath might include quiet conversation, reading scriptures together, having a family council meeting, or working together on a quiet service project.
Sabbath activities should be meaningful and peaceful, and should be done without spending money. A person who lives alone might choose to visit someone who is lonely or ill, write letters to family members, work on family history, or embark on a systematic study of the Bible.
On the Sabbath, we stay out of the world and spend our time in Godly places-our churches and our homes. The amusement parks and baseball stadiums will still be there next Saturday. Today, the television can bring those worldly places into our homes, forcing us to be even more cautious in how we spend our time.
We also dress differently on the Sabbath. We wear our nicest clothing to church, and remain nicely dressed throughout the day, in order to honor God on His day. While children won’t stay in fancy clothing, they can still wear special clothing that is appropriate to wear on a sacred occasion.
Only necessary work should be done-simple meals can be prepared, or meals can be prepared ahead. Children must be cared for and entertained, but those old enough to participate in the Sabbath can be given special toys that are quieter and that focus on God, such as flannel board stories from the Bible, scripture story books, and gospel games. If these toys are reserved for the Sabbath, they help the child learn at a very young age that there is something special about the Sabbath Day.
Marvin J. Ashton warned, “Sometimes the freedoms and blessings of the Sabbath can be lost by attitudes that allow selfishness and lack of personal involvement in tried-and-true patterns. Sabbath days can be lost an hour at a time. Sabbath days can be lost an outing at a time.” (Marvin J. Ashton, “‘Strengthen the Feeble Knees’,” Ensign, Nov 1991, 70)
To keep from losing our Sabbath for even an hour, it’s important to have a plan. Keep a list of appropriate Sabbath Day activities that can be viewed and chosen from. If an item on the list turns out not to promote spiritual feelings, remove it and put another activity in its place. Teach children to consult the list as well. If you take a few minutes each Saturday to plan your Sabbath Day, you’ll soon find the day is too short for everything you hoped to do.
John H. Groberg offered this promise to those who honor the Sabbath:
“Does the Lord love and bless those who keep the Sabbath day holy? I testify that he does in eternally meaningful ways. I further testify that when we eventually see things through the proper perspective of eternal truth, we will be amazed at how much we were blessed in important-though often unperceived-ways through keeping the Sabbath holy; and to our sorrow we may sense how many blessings we kept from ourselves by not consistently keeping the Sabbath day holy.
There is a direct correlation between the proper observance of the Sabbath and true reverence for God, which includes obedience to his other commandments.” (John H. Groberg, “The Power of Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy,” Ensign, Nov 1984, 79)
Creation
And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. For I, the Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth. And I, the Lord God, had created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air; — Pearl of Great Price, Moses 3:5
Is it so hard to believe that we did not come from nothing? For indeed, as the Lord God had created all things of the earth spiritually before creating them physically, so too was man.
There were seven periods in which the earth was created. I say periods, because that is the terminology used by the prophet, Abraham, in the Pearl of Great Price. This makes so much more sense then seven days, although, with God, nothing is impossible.
Elder Russell M. Nelson, one of fifteen living apostles of Jesus Christ, explained the seven periods:
Period One included the creation of atmospheric heavens and physical earth, culminating in the emergence of light from darkness. (Genesis 1:15 ?? Moses 2:1-5 ?? Abraham 4:1-5)
In Period Two, the waters were divided between the surface of the earth and its atmospheric heavens. Provision was made for clouds and rain to give life to all that would later dwell upon the earth. (Genesis 1:6–8 ?? Moses 2:6–8 ?? Abraham 4:6–8)
In Period Three, plant life began. The earth was organized to bring forth grass, herbs, trees, and vegetation—each growing from its own seed. (Genesis 1:9–13 ?? Moses 2:9–13 ?? Abraham 4:9–13)
Period Four was a time of further development. Lights in the expanse of the heaven were organized so there could be seasons and other means of measuring time. During this period, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the earth were placed in proper relationship to one another. (Genesis 1:14–19 ?? Moses 2:14–19 ?? Abraham 4:14–19) The sun, with its vast stores of hydrogen, was to serve as a giant furnace to provide light and heat for the earth and life upon it. (See Henry Eyring, “World of Evidence, World of Faith,” in Of Heaven and Earth: Reconciling Scientific Thought with LDS Theology, ed. and comp. David L. Clark (1998), 59
In Period Five, fish, fowl, and “every living creature” were added. (Abraham 4:20–21) They were made fruitful and able to multiply—in the sea and on the earth—each after its own kind. (Genesis 1:20–23 ?? Moses 2:20–23 ?? Abraham 4:22–23)
In the Sixth Period, creation of life continued. The beasts of the earth were made after their kind, cattle after their kind, and everything which “creepeth upon the earth”—again, after its own kind. (Genesis 1:24–31 ?? Moses 2:24–31 ?? Abraham 4:24–31) Then the Gods counseled together and said: “Let us go down and form man in our image, after our likeness. …
“So the Gods went down to organize man in their own image, in the image of the Gods to form they him, male and female to form they them.” (Abraham 4:26–27) Thus, Adam and Eve were formed. (Note that the Lord called the first man and woman “Adam” (Genesis 5:2 ?? Moses 6:9)) And they were blessed to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:28 ?? Moses 2:28 ?? Abraham 4:28)
The Seventh Period was designated as a time of rest. (Genesis 2:1–3 ?? Moses 3:1–3 ?? Abraham 5:1–3)
And so the world was created. Then man and woman, Adam and Eve, were created and the Lord God’s creation was finished. But what was the purpose of the Lord’s creation?
Elder Nelson goes on to tell us:
This earth is but one of many creations over which God presides. “Worlds without number have I created,” He said. “And I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.” (Moses 1:33 ?? D&C 76:23–24) Grand as it is, planet Earth is part of something even grander—that great plan of God. Simply summarized, the earth was created that families might be. Scripture explains that a husband and wife “shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation.” (D&C 49:16)
But the Plan of Salvation would be stalled if Adam and Eve remained in the Garden of Eden. For in the Garden they could not multiply and replenish the earth. And so the Fall was brought about and the full measure of the earth’s creation and heaven’s purpose could now be met.