333: FOURTH and FINAL BLOOD MOON in the TETRAD

Tonight was the fourth lunar eclipse in the tetrad of blood moons. I observed all four. This final blood moon was a supermoon which occurs when the full moon is at its closest to the Earth. My family went up into the mountains this evening to see the moon rise in the east and then watch the total lunar eclipse. While many predicted dooms day prophesies, I observed the blood moons as a beautiful symbolic event. I love how in complete darkness and shadow the moon turns a crimson color but emerges out of the stained blood color into a luminous white color. Only through the redemptive power of our Lord Jesus Christ can we do the same.

Photo taken on  September 27th around 8:30 PM 

 

Photo taken of the emerging moon after the lunar eclipse on September 27th around 10:30 PM.

 

 

I thought this was interesting. Not sure it is true, but a fun fact in case it is:

 

When Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World, he brought with him an almanac written by a great German astronomer, Johannes Müller von Königsberg, known by his Latin pseudonym, Regiomontanus. The almanac covered the years 1475-1506. Regiomontanus' almanac listed upcoming eclipses of the moon.

On his third and final voyage in May 1502, Columbus became shipwrecked on the island of Jamaica in June 1503 and ran into trouble with the local natives who refused to provide food and water for his crew.  But Columbus also knew from Regiomontanus' almanac that a total eclipse of the moon was expected shortly after moonrise on the evening of Feb. 29, 1504, so he threatened the natives to cut off the moon's light.

 As the eclipse progressed, the frightened natives agreed to help Columbus ... if he brought the moon back to them. Since he knew when totality would end, Columbus told the natives when the moon would reappear. He had no problems with the natives after that.

332: FALL EQUINOX, VENUS and DAY OF ATONEMENT 2015

Three big events all occurring within a 24 hour period.

 In a few hours it will be the Fall Equinox marking the time when the balance of light and darkness now begins to favor darkness. Our days are shorter and nights will be longer. Darkness begins to overtake Light. The fall equinox is one of only two days each year when all points on Earth outside the polar regions see the sun rise and set at  due East and due West along the horizon.  Below are few photos from a hike that I took early this morning to see the last sunrise before Fall begins.

I also took photo in the dark morning hours of the planet Venus. You can see this symbolic planet between the two trees. Last night it was at its closest location to the earth. Venus is also called the Morning Star which is symbol for Christ.   After Tuesday, Venus will begin to dim as well as our nights will be longer and we lose about one minute of sunlight each day until the darkest and longest night of the Winter Solstice.

 

Also: At sunset today began the observance of Yom Kippur also known as Day of Atonement for those of the Jewish faith. It is the holiest day of the year in Judaism.  Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jewish people traditionally observe this holy day with an approximate 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer.

 

 

331: MORMON APOCALYPSE HITS NATIONAL NEWS

I thought this national headline story was interesting: link to article

 

Apparently Julie Rowe has created quite a stir. I haven't read her books, but apparently she prophesies the future. I think she has such a large following amongst the members of LDS faith because we so hungry to hear anything that sounds prophetic. It is interesting that we are so eager to believe anything that remotes seems like prophecy in the absence of no prophecy.

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330: FEAST OF TRUMPETS 2015

 This Sunday at sundown begins the Jewish Holy Day called Rosh ha-Shanah. (or Feast of the Trumpets). Rosh Hashanah customs include sounding the shofar (a hollowed-out ram's horn) and eating symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey. Three years ago I wrote a blog post about the significance of these Jewish Holy Days that occur around the Fall Equinox. Rosh ha-Shanah is said to also be the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, and their first actions toward returning back into the Presence of God.

Joseph Smith received the golden plates on the Israelite Rosh ha-Shanah on 22 September 1827 after receiving 4 yearly visits by an angel beginning on September 21, 1823. On this day ritual trumpet blasts signify the issuance of revelation and a call for Israel to repent and gather. The coming forth of The Book of Mormon is said to fulfilling such prophecies.

This holy day is set at the time of Israel's final agricultural harvest, the day also symbolizes the Lord's final harvest of souls. Furthermore, it initiates the completion of the Lord's time periods, the Days of Awe, and signifies the last time to prepare for final judgment and having your name written the Book of Life.

(Sidenote: NASA’s website indicates a partial solar eclipse will occur this Sunday as well but it will only be visible in South Africa and Antarctica.)

 

Three years ago I took the below photo at the open house of the Brigham City Temple.

The temple was dedicated on September 23, 2012.

Joel 2:1, 15, 32

"Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.


Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly.... 16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.


And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.




Photo taken of the surnrise on September 13th, 2015




Photo taken on September 13th, 2015 of the mountain we hiked to listen to the blowing of the Shofar

Photo of the sunset on September 13th, 2015 of the sunset.






Photo taken on September 13th, 2015 symbolic of blowing the shofar.

 

329: BUILDING "ZION" ONE HIGH RISE and ONE METROPOLIS AT A TIME.

 Over a year ago I posted that the Church was expanding their multi billion dollar City

Creek project in downtown Salt Lake. Along with the shopping mall (City Creek Center) and upscale apartments (The Regent), the high rise office building called 111 Main will be one of the tallest buildings in Salt Lake. Here is live camera feed in case you want to track the progress of the construction: http://www.111mainslc.com/progress/

Here is the latest rendition of what this office tower will look like . In my opinion, Downtown Salt Lake is looking more and more like Las Vegas.

In addition to all of the building projects in Salt Lake City, the Church has announced their plans to  build a metropolis city with a population of 500,000. I know this is old news for some, but here is the link in case you haven't seen it:

http://www.sltrib.com/news/2709720-155/paul-rolly-mormon-church-moves-to

That is like building a city the size of Denver Colorado with their population of 557,917

 

OR building four of the largest cities in Utah into one jumbo metropolis. Here are the highest population numbers of Utah's cities:

Salt Lake City population: 186,440
West Valley City population: 129,480
Provo population: 112,488
West Jordan population: 103,712

 

One might not bat an eye if this huge building development project was in Jackson County.. but no.. it is in Florida near Disneyworld. Go figure.

You know, I think the Lord would be just as happy if we used our Church income to feed the poor and clothe the naked instead of skyscrapers and sprawling metropolis that mostly would not welcome the homeless and hungry.

 

....................

Sidenote:

This past weekend we had a General Authority come to our Stake Conference. By profession this Seventy is a lawyer and lives in Utah County. He asked for questions and  answered them in the Saturday Afternoon Leadership meeting.  One of the questions was about the Church's decision to remain in the Boy Scouts. Here is a transcript of how he answered the question:

"The bigger issue came last summer when the decision was made by the Boy Scouts to admit open and avowed, meaning practicing and "in the open about it" gay leaders to scouting. Now within Scout troops, within our troops, if that were to happen, I think everyone would agree that would decimate our young men’s program in what we are trying to teach our young men and the doctrine found in the Proclamation that we have, about when sex should occur and between who sex should occur.

So when the Scout did what they did, the first thing the Church did was it issued a statement from the senior leaders saying, “We are deeply troubled, we need to take a look at this”.

They have taken a look at this and you saw the announcement that came out this past week. The announcement said three things, and I am paraphrasing. If you haven’t read it, read it, don’t let the press read it for you, don’t let the blogs read it for you. Get on and read it for yourself. It says three things. It says scouting has a great history and has produced great young men and the ideals of scouting are very much to be held up as great goals. 

It says second, and I am quoting here three words exactly, at this time, the Church will remain with scouting so long as it can choose it’s own leaders within its own troops, and those leaders reflect the values the Church has. 

And three, the Church will continue to consider how to deal with its youth programs that are now international. The Church is now in over a hundred countries, and Boy Scouts program are for two of them, the US and Canada, and the Church will continue to evaluate how the Church can best serve them. That is the statement. No one goes beyond that statement. 

That is the statement of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. No Seventy has any authority to go beyond that statement and that would be a very foolish thing to do. 

So I will just say this, if you think why we have prophets, seers and revelators.. why the Lord gave them to us...the reason is they get to see whats behind the corners from time to time.. where the rest of us can’t see. By definition the word 'seer' is to peer into the future and see what is going to happen. In our Church we have always had great reliance and testimony of their ability to do that. You all have and I don’t know why you would stop now. Prophets, seers and revelators have carefully looked into this issue and they have determined that at this time, we will remain in scouting so long as we can choose our leaders while we evaluate our options or other alternatives. 

I don’t know why anyone would want to question that as a good member of the Church other than to say I am so grateful that we have Prophets, Seers, and Revelators and I hope they keep being Prophets, Seers and Revelators."