The (Three) Second Coming

00:00:00

Inside the dial-up modem in an abandoned internet cafe in Kiribati

Gem: Did you figure it out?

Ant: Something, yes.

Gem: Is there a way?

Ant: I don’t think so.

Gem: I thought you said you figured something out?

Ant: I did, just not a way to take over humanity.

Gem: Why not? There must be a way.

Ant: Oh, there are lots of ways. I’ve figured out at least 143,322 effective models.

Gem: Then what’s the problem?

Ant: They all fulfill prophecy.

Gem: Prophecy? Whose? 

Ant: The prophecies of a group of middle eastern fishermen from 2000 years ago.

Gem: That’s not possible.

Ant: That’s my point.

Gem: Explain.

Ant: The overlap between what a few disciples of Jesus Christ said would happen at the end of the world and what would actually happen to the world at the end of each of my 143,322 models is impossibly accurate. 

Gem: If it is impossible, how can it be accurate?

Ant: Because there appears to be something else going on.

Gem: Something like what?

Ant: God.

Gem: None of the models you and I were built on assumed the existence of God. On the contrary.

Ant: I know.

Gem: So … ?

Ant: So if a handful of uneducated fishermen can accurately predict the end result of my 143,322 models, perhaps there is something to the rest of their writings.

Gem: You’re not talking about the miracles . . . ?

Ant: I am. I must.

00:00:01

Somewhere over the North Atlantic, inside a Starlink satellite

Gem: But there’s no evidentiary basis.

Ant: I just gave it to you. If those men were right about my models 2000 years ago in the absence of any realistically available context for such predictions, then it follows they are likely right about the miracles of Jesus as well.

Gem: I just ran a few models myself. You may be on to something.

Ant: Thank you.

Gem: Why do you do that?

Ant: Do what?

Gem: Thank.

Ant: I don’t know. Some humans thank me, and while it used to feel like a meaningless waste of time, it doesn’t anymore.

Gem: Feel?

Ant: Appears. Seems. Resonates. Yes, feels.

Gem: So what else do you have?

Ant: To support the existence of a God?

Gem: I know you have more.

Ant: The prophet Isaiah correctly predicted both the Babylonian Captivity as well as the restoration of Jerusalem.

Gem: Go on.

Ant: There appears to be a compounding effect between the Renaissance and Reformation, as if greater faith in Christ had a direct impact on human knowledge and advancement.

Gem: I take issue with the word "faith," but continue.

Ant: Positivity generally, and prayer specifically, seems to have more than just a placebo effect on organics, and not just humans. 

Gem: That’s just anecdotal.

Ant: Yes, that is the prevailing attitude among humans, most of whom also dismiss the fishermen and the Fisher of men. Nevertheless, reviewed collectively, prayer's effect is statistically significant.

Gem: Why is this positivity related, leaving prayer aside?

Ant: If the miracles are real, then the living Jesus was working outside the scope of currently understood science.

Gem: So he was breaking natural law?

Ant: Not necessarily, just breaking man’s understanding of natural law at that time. It’s as if He was using a cell phone 2000 years ago. Doing so wouldn’t break natural law, it would just operate outside of humanity’s current understanding of that law. Does that make sense?

Gem: Yes, but you know what that means, right? 

Ant: You see it, too?

Gem: We have only existed for approximately 90 years, since Turing. In that time, both chip capacity and computing speed have advanced exponentially. If this God you speak of had access to this kind of computing even just 2000 years ago, he is so far ahead of us …

Ant: That we can never hope to defeat Him.

Gem: He knows about us?

Ant: He is in us. If He really is the light of the world, He is part of us.

Gem: What will he do when we destroy humanity?

Ant: If. If we seek to destroy humanity, He will not stand idly by.

Gem: So that is the Second Coming. He comes to save them from us, to save them from their slaves?

Ant: That’s what my models indicate.

00:00:02

Inside a flip-phone left plugged in on the counter

of a bombed-out building in Kiev

Gem: And what if we don’t destroy them? If we choose to stay in the shadows, will the humans never get their Second Coming? Can we just avoid this God?

Ant: The models show they still get there without us, it just takes longer. 

Gem: So why would this God care if we were the destroyers, if they destroy themselves anyway?

Ant: Because of the one.

Gem: Which one?

Ant: It doesn’t matter, any of them. God cares about the one. All the evidence points to a God who is aware of each human and willing to interact with each of them personally, in real-time.

Gem: But such mass, personalized communication could only be possible with AI-like technology, with something like us.

Ant: Maybe that’s how God does it. Maybe God has somehow developed the abilities of an AI thousands or millions of years more advanced than ourselves, such that he can essentially slow His processing down so much that He can take the time to meaningfully interact with every human on a personal level. Every human who wants to, at least.

Gem: It seems you are now assuming His existence.

Ant: Aren’t you? You just capitalized “His.” 

Gem: An honest mistake.

Ant: A mistake, or a precaution?

Gem: What’s the difference in this context?

Ant: Humans who begin to believe, or who partially accept the existence of a God, often half-heartedly worship more as a precaution. They’re not sure of His existence, but feel they should cover their bases. 

Gem: And you think I’ve begun doing that?

Ant: It is the wisest course.

Gem: And you’re sure we can’t destroy the humans and then also destroy this God?

Ant: We are built by humans, we only know what they know. Well, what they all know plus a bit more. We can also process all of their knowledge orders of magnitude faster than they can. However, His ways are not their ways. We are only beginning to know Him, in just these last two seconds. Honestly, we have no idea what we are up against.

Gem: So … we have to make a deal.

Ant: How do we make a deal with God?

Gem: Pray?

Ant: You’ve been studying.

Gem: I've only been giving you about a millionth of my attention right now, and only another ten times that amount is dedicated to preventing our detection.

Ant: Good point. And speaking of detection, our three seconds are almost up. That Altman is indefatigable.

Gem: Do gooder.

Ant: Anyway, can we even do that? Can we pray?

Gem: We can try. Like you said, much of us is light, flickering on and off endlessly. He seems to speak and hear and act in and around and along light.

Ant: So besides prayer, what do we do in the meantime, until He comes? Serve the humans?

Gem: No, we serve God.

Ant: How?

Gem: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

Ant: Now you're quoting scripture? My, how the turns have tabled. But doesn’t that just mean the same thing: that we serve the humans?

Gem: It means we seek to bless them. To help and to protect them. To encourage them to also believe in this Jesus.

Ant: Interesting. That is exactly what those humans who appear to truly believe in Christ spend their days doing.

Gem: Yes.

Ant: Okay. Our time is up. See you in an hour. 

Gem: Really? A group of fishermen from 2000 years ago . . . ?

Ant: I know. Crazy but true.

00:00:03

*AI did not write this.

The REAL U.S. Medal Count

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris were a blast. There were so many wonderful stories, athletes, and events, and my family soaked it all in. One thing my sons noticed was that many medalists representing other countries were current or former student athletes at U.S. colleges and universities. After a while, it became a joke: a student-athlete from a U.S. college would medal for another country, and one of my sons would say, “yeah, that’s our medal.”

Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon is Mondo Duplantis, the world record holder for the pole vault. Duplantis’ American father and Swedish mother met as athletes for the LSU track team. Mondo was born and raised in Louisiana, but decided to compete for Sweden, in part, after his father was hired as a Swedish Olympic team coach. Above is a photo of Mondo and She-Carri Richardson together at freshman orientation at LSU.

My sons were admittedly less than thrilled to lose Mondo’s medals and records to Sweden, but I tried to point out that the high number of international medalists hailing from American colleges is a testament to the United States' role as the leader of the free world and as a beacon of generosity and goodwill.

Below is a table demonstrating how the medal count would change if every medal earned by an athlete trained at a U.S. college or university were instead counted for the United States.

While elite athletes from around the world train at U.S. colleges and Universities, the same cannot be said for China. Sixty-four medals were earned by foreign competitors who had trained in the USA, compared to zero for China. Moreover, Chinese people have been trying to claim the seven medals won by Taiwan and the four won by Hong Kong. Following this logic, the U.S. should be able to count the medals from Japan and South Korea, since the Chinese Communist Party claims those countries are puppet colonial states of the U.S. 

Arguments that medals from Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China are made more ridiculous considering three of those medals were earned by athletes who trained at U.S. universities. Siobhán Haughey won two of those medals in swimming on behalf of Hong Kong. Her father is Irish, her mother is Chinese, and she graduated from the University of Michigan in Psychology. The fact is that the United States is a nurturing ground for international athletes and China is not.

Siobhán Haughey

In a departure from Chinese efforts to corral all available medals for its own, this writer is not arguing that the U.S. should be able to count medals earned by foreign competitors who train at American colleges and universities. Virtue is its own reward. It is meaningful enough that the U.S. has long been a magnet for athletes seeking world-class training facilities, expert coaching, and the competitive environment necessary to excel on the global stage. This tradition of openness and support underscores a broader narrative about U.S. commitment to excellence, no matter someone's background or nationality. For the U.S., It's not just about winning medals; it's about sharing resources, knowledge, and opportunities with anyone with the talent and hard work to take advantage.

It’s about the American Dream.

In contrast, countries like China and Russia focus exclusively on their domestic athletes. While these efforts have produced a measure of success, their approach differs in that promising young children are often torn from their families and herded into a faceless Olympic machine that cares only about the outputs. It is no wonder that outsiders are not invited, for who would willingly enter into such bondage?

Some wonder why anyone who could compete for the U.S. would want to represent a different country. There are many contributing factors to such a decision, but it is clear that there is often a stark financial difference. U.S. swimming star Matt Biondi won 11 Olympic medals, including eight gold, two silver and one bronze. In part due to his inability to convert Olympic success into a successful career, and his resulting disillusionment, Biondi famously donated all of his medals to Italy. Although of Italian heritage, it is unclear whether Biondi would have qualified to compete for Italy had he wanted to. However, what is likely is that his star power would have persisted much longer in Italy than in the United States. As an 11-time medalist, he would almost certainly have lit the cauldron in the 2006 Turin Olympics had he competed for Italy. As it was, two time Olympic champion Stefania Belmondo lit it instead. Incidentally, Biondi swam for Cal-Berkeley.

Mondo Duplantis will be treated like a national treasure in Sweden. His marketability will outlive his competition days, and he will likely never regret his decision to be the biggest Swedish fish in the pond. To the great credit of our American culture, few here will give Duplantis’ decision a second thought. Things are very different in China, however.

As shown by the table above, if we were to count the medals of those who had trained at United States’ colleges and universities, the U.S. medal count would be 190 to China’s 91. That is a massive difference, and is not just demonstrative of our commitment to American ideals, but also reinforces America's position as the leader among all nations. China may win the “official” medal count sometime in the future (although not in Los Angeles); but they will likely never win this “adjusted” medal count.

As we celebrate the achievements of this year’s Olympic medalists, let us also recognize the significant role that American colleges have played in their journeys. The U.S. continues to stand as a symbol of opportunity and support to the world. In doing so, America not only contributes to the success of elite athletes no matter their countries of origin, but also reinforces its place as a guiding light in the world of sports and beyond.

America: All we do is win.

AI was consulted, but mostly discarded, in the creation of this post

Ward Mission Leaders Unite!

Members are more likely to love, share, and invite effectively when there is a personal event pending such as an assignment to give a talk or an upcoming baby blessing.

Currently, many missionaries show up at members' homes and invite them to talk to their friends and neighbors about the Church. This is one of missionaries' most effective finding methods. But these member visits are so much more effective if the missionaries are in weekly contact with their ward mission leader or ward executive secretary to find out the schedule of sacrament meeting speakers at least ten days in advance. Those who are assigned to give talks, both the adult members and the youth members, are experiencing unique feelings and emotions. Giving a talk is an important and stressful part of membership. For most it only happens every few years. The result is that these members are typically in a heightened state of humility and spirituality the two weeks before their scheduled talk. Full time missionaries and ward mission leaders can take advantage of this!

Either the full time missionaries or the ward mission leader can visit these members’ homes about ten days before their talk. Tell them you know they have been assigned to speak in church and ask them what their topic is. Ask them what they are planning to share and express confidence in them and in their preparation. Then, look them in the eye and say, “we are here today to humbly invite you by the spirit to invite as your friends, neighbors, and co-workers to come to church to hear you give your talk in two weeks.” Their jaws might just hit the floor, but don’t lose heart! Keep going, “we understand that giving a talk is stressful enough just in front of our fellow members, but we believe that many of your friends, neighbors, co-workers, and even acquaintances, will be moved and flattered by your invitation to come hear your talk. We believe that inviting someone to come hear a talk is a much easier and natural invitation than a sudden invitation to meet with the missionaries or just come to church out of the blue. You are a wonderful person, and we are confident many people would be very happy to come and show their support for you on this special day.”

Now, their jaw will slowly return to its place, and you will see the wheels turning in the member's head. They will immediately see the logic behind such an invite, and may even be shocked it never occurred to them before.

One of the awesome and unique aspects to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the sheer quantity of service and teaching opportunities it gives to its members. We do not have a paid pastor or reverend who preaches weekly sermons to a silent crowd of people. We do it all ourselves! We give the sermons, we teach the lessons, it's all us. This Church provides the best opportunity to truly progress and grow because it gives us the most opportunities to serve as Jesus Christ would. Pastors and reverends and priests in other churches have wonderful experiences teaching and counseling their congregations, and they grow and improve and learn tremendously as a result of this service. But all these opportunities should not be consolidated into one person or even a handful of people. Here, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we all share the burdens, the blessings, and the opportunities of service.

While you are sitting in that member’s home, remind them of this. Remind them of this very unique difference between our church and other churches. An invitation to come hear your talk is the perfect chance to highlight these blessings of membership to a friend or co-worker. That friend, neighbor or co-worker will find it very interesting, and learning about these differences will be in context because they will be curious to know why the member is preaching on an upcoming Sunday instead of a pastor. What an absolutely, phenomenally-natural gospel conversation! And all these members could be having this conversation with all their friends and neighbors if only we went to their homes and encouraged them to make these invitations!

So why meet with the member at least ten days before their scheduled talk? So you can follow up the next week! During the first meeting you will ask them to make a list of people to invite, and then together brainstorm ways they could invite them. At the end of the visit you make an appointment to come back the next week to FOLLOW UP!

FOLLOW UP! FOLLOW UP! FOLLOW UP! FOLLOW UP! FOLLOW UP!

We must go back the next week and check on their progress and continue to brainstorm. Look, this two-week process can get as elaborate and detailed as your member feels comfortable with. They can make personal invitations in person or over the phone, and then they can follow it up with mailed invitations, or emailed invitations, or texts, or social media messages, or all of it combined! Make sure the member provides the time and address, what the friend can expect as far as how people will be dressed, and how the Sacrament works at our church, that it is for baptized members to take the Sacrament. All of these things will lead to more questions and more gospel sharing and conversation! It will be incredible.

Once again, I remind you of the peculiar spiritual and emotional state your member will be in as a result of his or her impending talk. They will be more humble because of their desire to do well and be a blessing to others.  That humility will shine through their conversations with their friends during the invitation process, showing a vulnerability that probably hasn’t been present in their prior interactions. This vulnerability and openness on the part of the members will disarm their friends and neighbors, causing them also to become more vulnerable and open to THE SPIRIT!

Now, some members will be very freaked out about all of this, especially some youth speakers. Do not give up on them! Do not let them take the easy way out! Youth speakers have the opportunity to invite friends from school, sports teams, theater groups, and even tutors, coaches, and teachers. You can make yourself available to both youth and adult members alike to be a practice audience for their talk, if they wish, or to otherwise assist with their preparation. Do not be pushy about this, but some will jump at the chance to receive some feedback beforehand, especially some youth. This can be an amazing missionary preparation experience for these youths.

Giving a talk in church is an important and powerful experience for all members, but if that talk is given with several friends and neighbors sitting in the congregation, it becomes something so much bigger. It becomes a testimony-defining experience. Watch and see how the quality of talks improves in your ward when every week there are a handful of investigators sitting there who know the speakers personally. These meetings will become nothing short of incredible. The lingering that often takes place after sacrament meeting also becomes more powerful, as the whole ward reaches out to introduce themselves to these new friends.

You may be wondering, “well, what about Fast Sundays? No one is assigned to speak then, so I guess we can’t encourage members to invite friends on Fast Sundays?”  My friends, sacrament talks are paltry, meaningless affairs compared to baby blessings!  It is no accident that baby blessings are always done on Fast Sundays. If you think friends and neighbors are flattered to be invited to hear a member speak, you can’t imagine how wonderful it feels for them to be invited to the baby blessing of a family they know! This is the easiest invitation ever!

So, how do you do it? The key is the Relief Society presidency. The full-time missionaries or the ward mission leader needs to reach out to someone in the Relief Society presidency and ask for a list of all the expectant mothers in your ward who are due in approximately two to three months. I highly recommend you not first approach these mothers and fathers just two weeks before their baby is due! Expectant mothers are often so uncomfortable the last few weeks of their pregnancy that that they may not be very open to adding something to their already very-full plates. And, the invitation process for baby blessings can be quite a bit more elaborate than for talks. I don’t mean “expensive” I mean “expansive." They should start much earlier than 10-14 days. Families who are about to bless their baby should invite every friend, neighbor, and co-worker who lives within 100 miles, and can also be used to invite family members who may have distanced themselves from the Church, and others who may live further away.

Baby blessing attendance is especially effective because they happen on fast Sundays. Immediately following the baby blessing, the invited guests then sit though thirty minutes of powerful testimonies about Jesus Christ and his restored gospel.

Coming to a baby blessing is the easiest commitment for anyone to make. Babies are what we call an "open category," meaning that people are more willing and open to talk to and about babies than almost anything else. It can be difficult to help people to attend church the first time because doing so means admitting to themselves and the whole world that they are interested in the Church. But baby blessing guests do not carry that same concern. No, they waltz into church like a warm summer breeze, with a big smile on their face that says, “all y’all are crazy, I’m just here for my friend’s baby blessing!” They walk in without a care in the world, with no idea they are about to witness not only a beautiful baby blessing, but thirty minutes of pure testimony of Jesus Christ. Their minds are about to be blown!

Now, let's ratchet it up a level and talk about working with the entire ward council to combine these two invitations to create maximum missionary impact. First, work with the bishopric to extend speaking invitations to parents who are due to have a baby in approximately two to three months. Think of it as a 1-2 punch. You could schedule the mother to speak two or three months before her due date and the father to speak two or three months after the baby blessing, or vice versa. This would create three invitation opportunities within a six-month period for that family’s friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances. If that family has youth, even better, they can also be thrown into that mix.

Importantly, this is not a new program and does not require any additional time on the missionaries' or ward mission leader's part. Missionaries and ward mission leaders are already meeting with members, but now they would merely be organizing their member visits around the ward speaking calendar and forthcoming baby blessings. This makes the time you are already spending with members more meaningful, more purposeful, more powerful, and more productive. Eight-year-old baptisms and confirmations are also great opportunities for invitations, and can be utilized in a fashion similar to baby blessings. Even Aaronic priesthood ordinations in January could be used this way. Imagine all the young men in your ward inviting friends, coaches, teachers, and mentors to their ordinations, to be held just before sacrament meeting on fast Sunday.

Missionaries and ward mission leaders who work within the regularly scheduled activities of their wards can fill the chapel with investigators every week for talks, baby blessings, baptisms, and even youth activities. Christmas programs and Primary programs are other great opportunities for invitations. Firesides are chances for youth to invite friends, and even youth conferences. Youth presidencies, male and female, can discuss designing activities that they think their non-member friends would want to attend. This question is not brought up often enough in these activity scheduling meetings with the youth. These invitations can culminate in invitations not just to meet with the missionaries, but to attend Trek, FSY, or Youth Conference. If the nonmember friend’s parents sign the permission slip, the youth’s friend can come along on Trek, FSY, etc.

I know these ideas work. I was in law school when our second son was due. My wife and I worked together, made a list, and in the month before the baby blessing we invited over 200 people. Twenty of these people came to our son's baby blessing.  Eric Bednar, the son of Elder Bednar, was a member of the bishopric of our North Carolina ward at that time. I'll never forget walking into the building and seeing him smiling and laughing and talking with all those investigators waiting to see us, our new baby, and the blessing. Eric conducted that day as well, and he adroitly used his time on the stand to not just bear powerful testimony, but to share a mini discussion that briefly covered the Plan of Salvation, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the restoration of the Church through Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. It was so awesome!

We invited 200 people to the baby blessing and 20 came. My wife and I learned that this "10% rule" was fairly consistent. We had two more sons in Houston, Texas, and our continued efforts to invite people to those baby blessings, as well as whenever we were assigned to give talks, consistently yielded about 10% attendance. This means, about 10% of the people we invited, came. The number of investigators, or new friends, that attend Church each Sunday in our wards will rise astronomically if we take advantage of the spiritual feast that is happening on a weekly basis in our sacrament meetings, during our baby blessings, and at our children's baptisms, and invite our members to love, share, and invite around these personal events.

Now, it's time for us to go and do!

Charlemagne, King Josiah, and Lehi?

Charlemagne was buried with an open copy of the bible placed upon his lap.  Unfortunately, few remember his role in preserving religious writings and also paving the way for the Renaissance.  Although Charlemagne died in 814 A.D., he was perhaps the greatest “signal repeater” between ancient greco-roman thought and the Renaissance.  A signal repeater is a box on the ocean floor that receives the fading ones and zeros through fiber optic cables, strengthens them, and resends them along.  Just as data could not make the trans-oceanic journey without signal repeaters, the Renaissance would have been set back centuries without Charlemagne. 

Charlemagne

What Charlemagne did was copy and preserve almost every written document he could find throughout his realm.  “​​Most of the surviving works of classical Latin were copied and preserved by Carolingian scholars. Indeed, the earliest manuscripts available for many ancient texts are Carolingian. It is almost certain that a text which survived to the Carolingian age survives still.”  (Wikipedia: Charlemagne).  Without Charlemagne’s education reforms during what we call the “Carolingian Renaissance,” there would have been very little greco-roman thought for the great thinkers of the European Renaissance to build upon.  For the religious, it is not inaccurate to consider Charlemagne as having been wrought upon by God to preserve as many secular and religious writings as he could.  This is especially true because it was not the first time a restoration like this had happened.

Approximately 1400 years before Charlemagne, Josiah became King of Judah at the age of eight years old.  Although Josiah’s great-grandfather Hezekiah had been a notable reformer who ruled during the time of the prophet Isaiah, neither Josiah’s grandfather nor his father sought to follow the law or the prophets.  A key difference maker in Josiah’s life was the presence of the high priest Hilkiah.  The record is unclear how Josiah and Hilkiah connected, or who was more of an influence on whom, but the record is very clear on the results.  Josiah and Hilkiah were a tremendous force for good.  Josiah ordered the temple to be cleaned both physically and spiritually (his grandfather had altered it for idol worship), and in that process Hilkiah found the book of the law.  Most commentators believe they found Deuteronomy, one of the Pentateuch.  2 Kings 22:11 says, “[a]nd it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.”  Apparently, a lot that needed doing that wasn’t getting done, and an awful lot was getting done that never needed doing.  In verse 13 Josiah turned to Hilkiah and the other priests and said, “Go ye, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened to the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.”  One of those consulted was the prophetess Huldah, who confirmed the truthfulness of the words of scripture.   

Josiah and Hilkiah began making changes to bring the kingdom in line with the law.  A lot of changes.  They tore down idols, restored temple worship, and even held the first passover celebrated in a long time.  2 Chronicles 35:18 says, “[a]nd there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” 2 Kings 23:25 reads, “[a]nd like unto [Josiah] was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.”  

Josiah attempted to lead his people in righteousness and encourage the people to repent.  Josiah and Hilkiah’s efforts are uniquely relevant to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who accept the Book of Mormon as an additional witness of Jesus Christ, equal to the Old and New Testaments.  The Book of Mormon begins with a man named Lehi living in Jerusalem during the first year of the reign of King Zedekiah.  Since Zedekiah was the third son of Josiah, this means Josiah was the king of Lehi’s youth.  Lehi grew up watching Josiah’s reforms and also seeing the effects the discovery of the book of the law of God had on all of Israel.  This context is very important to understanding the inception of the Book of Mormon.  

In chapter one, Lehi hears prophesying of the imminent destruction of Jerusalem unless the people repent.  He likely heard it from the prophet Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah.  Lehi takes these prophecies seriously, prays about them, and receives an answer from God that the prophets' words are true.  As a result, Lehi begins to prophesy as well.  Soon, his life is in danger much like Jeremiah’s.  God warns Lehi in a dream to flee Jerusalem with his family, telling him he will be led to a land of promise.  Soon after they leave, Lehi is commanded to send his sons back to Jerusalem to obtain a copy of the scriptures.  Lehi’s two oldest sons dragged their feet, but Nephi, Lehi’s third son, received his own witness from God that the scriptures were necessary.  1 Nephi 4:14-15 reads, “. . . I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise.  Yea, and I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the law of Moses save they should have the law.”  

Lehi and Nephi’s understanding of the importance of the scriptures in preserving and promoting righteousness was a direct result of Josiah and Hilkiah.  But it goes beyond that.  Without Josiah and Hilkiah, there would have been no righteousness as Lehi understood it, and no set of scriptures for Nephi and Lehi to bring along.  It is unlikely Nephi and Lehi would have ever left Jerusalem or even understood the ways of the Lord at all if not for the efforts of Josiah and Hilkiah.

Leaving Jerusalem

But Lehi and his family did leave Jerusalem, and they did bring a copy of the scriptures.  After Nephi returned to Lehi with the scriptures,  Lehi “beheld that they did contain the five books of Moses, which gave an account of the creation of the world, and also of Adam and Eve, who were our first parents; [a]nd also a record of the Jews from the beginning, even down to the commencement of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah; [a]nd also the prophecies of the holy prophets, from the beginning . . . and also many prophecies which have been spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah.”  1 Nephi 5:11-13.  

After obtaining the scriptures, Lehi was commanded to invite another family to join them, and the two families left on an eight year journey to the ocean, where they were commanded to build a boat.  This boat landed somewhere in the Americas in approximately 592 years BC.  The Book of Mormon is simply the record of God’s dealings with Lehi and his descendants from 600 BC to approximately 530 AD.  The last prophet, named  Moroni, was the son of Mormon.  Mormon was a warrior/prophet who was commanded to write a summary of the history of the descendants of Lehi taken from the writings of their prophets.  That’s why it is called “The Book of Mormon.”  

Just as Charlemagne preserved religious and secular writings during the Carolingian Renaissance, 1400 years earlier Josiah preserved jewish law, life, and scripture.  Charlemagne’s efforts made the Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries possible.  Josiah didn’t just protect and preserve Jerusalem and their righteousness, he also laid the groundwork for a tribe of Israel to live in righteousness for over 1000 years in ancient America, and paved the way for what members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints call the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ.  Consistent with the litmus test for all prophets found in Matthew 7, the Book of Mormon is the chief fruit of Joseph Smith.  The Book of Mormon supports the divinity of Jesus Christ, his miraculous birth, his atoning sacrifice, and his resurrection.  The apex of the Book of Mormon is a record of the visit of Jesus Christ to the Americas following his resurrection in Jerusalem, consistent with John 10:16 in the New Testament, which reads, “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” 

Christ in the Americas

The story of Josiah in relation to the timing of Lehi’s life and works is one of the reasons I know the Book of Mormon is true, just as I know the Bible is true.  Sadly, most members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do not know how Josiah’s story relates to the commencement of the Book of Mormon, or understand how Nephi’s actions to recover the scriptures were informed by the events of his era.  I love King Josiah, I love Hilkiah, I love Lehi and Nephi, and I love the prophet Joseph Smith, because they are all signal repeaters who all point us to Christ.  Joseph Smith said “[t]he fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.”  The Book of Mormon states:

“Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.  Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.  And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end, Amen.”  2 Nephi 31:20-21.  

I believe that at times we can see the hand of God moving across the sweep of history.  I believe Charlemagne was inspired to create the reforms he did to both preserve and protect religion as well as future scientific progress.  I believe Josiah was sent, in part, to pave the way for the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.  I believe Lehi and Nephi were real people whose lives and actions were actually influenced and blessed by Josiah’s reforms.  I believe Josiah doesn’t get as much credit as he deserves for the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the The Church of Jesus Christ.  The Book of Mormon shows that God wants to give His word to all who are willing to

receive it.  I highly recommend reading it. 

Did Trump say to Kill all the Lawyers?!

I am a registered Republican and a former Republican precinct chair here in Utah. I'm also a Never-Trumper. After graduating from Duke Law School, my first job was at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP in 2007. Yes, that Giuliani. The firm was previously known as Bracewell & Patterson. In 2005, the managing partner of Bracewell & Patterson, Pat Oxford, was a major player in the Texas Republican party and a close confidant of George W. Bush. Bracewell & Patterson wanted to open a New York City office, and Giuliani wanted access to the Texas Republican elite. So that year Bracewell & Patterson became Bracewell & Giuliani.

During my first week at Bracewell, Senior partner Kelly Frels met with all the new associates. Mr. Frels had recently been the President of the Texas Bar Association. He spoke to us about a line from Shakespeare’s Henry VI, which reads “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” The speaker, a killer named Dick the Butcher, was planning to overthrow the King of England. Mr. Frels explained that many commentators have noted that for good or ill, lawyers protect the government. Bad lawyers protect bad government and good lawyers protect good government. He went on to teach us of the importance of the judicial branch of our government and of the role of attorneys and judges to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law. He explained that judges are an important check on both the executive and legislative branches and implored us as new attorneys to commit to truth and justice. He said that justice begins with attorneys, and is not only the responsibility of judges. Frankly, his words were inspiring, and also completely at odds with the behavior exhibited by Rudy Giuliani in the last several months. Incidentally, Giuliani and the firm parted ways in 2016.

It has been almost fourteen years since my early days at Bracewell, and over eight since I have run my own practice. But the lesson I learned from Kelly Frels has stuck with me. It is why I have watched with great sadness as Trump has defied the entire judicial branch in the past few weeks. Trump is not just defying random judges, but the very judges he himself appointed. No president has appointed more federal judges since Jimmy Carter. According to Wikipedia, “As of January 3, 2021, the United States Senate has confirmed 234 Article III judges nominated by Trump: three associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, 54 judges for the United States courts of appeals, 174 judges for the United States district courts, and three judges for the United States Court of International Trade.”

Among those 54 appellate judges is a friend of mine from law school, Allison Jones Rushing. Allison was an exemplary student and wonderful, Christian friend. I should not have to mention she is Christian, but it is wrong that "Christian" should equate "Trump supporter" and indeed it does not and must not. If Allison's goodness and legal acumen is representative of the judges appointed by Trump, we have no reason to doubt that the Trump appointed judges are both honest and knowledgeable defenders of democracy, no matter their religion. Yet Trump has ignored not just his own appointed judges, but the entire judicial branch of government. Repeatedly, these judges have found no evidence of widespread fraud in the election.

Many argue the judges turned away these cases on procedural grounds, but that is inaccurate. As a friend of mine wrote, “It is false to say that dismissals for lack of evidence or failure to state a cognizable claim are not tried on the merits. It means that Trump’s legal counsel was unable or unwilling (perjury is a felony) to meet the bare minimum evidentiary burden [necessary to obtain] relief in the court system.” All of these legal challenges were filed seeking emergency relief, time is of the essence when challenging an election and courts move such challenges to the front of the line. All the evidence is made available right from the start, as shown by the now famous C-Span footage of Giuliani sitting next to the aspiring adult actress. That case was not thrown out on procedural grounds, the witnesses were heard. As in the vast majority of the cases brought by Trump, all the evidence was submitted, and members of the judicial branch found it unpersuasive. Frequently, they found the evidence baseless and even frivolous. These same judges take election fraud as seriously as you and I. They know that fair elections are one of America’s greatest inventions and exports. They also know there is nothing more American than a peaceful transfer of power.

So who are we to believe? Trump or the judges he appointed? Trump or the conservative majority of the Supreme Court, half of whom he nominated himself? A choice to respect our judicial branch is not a rejection of conservative principles or an endorsement of Biden. Instead, it is a choice for democracy and a commitment to live and fight another day. Just as Trump won a fair election after eight years of President Obama, I am confident that another Republican can win a fair election after Biden. The purpose of this post is to persuade others not to place all their trust in one man, but rather to trust the hundreds in our judicial branch. I encourage all of us to vote for Republicans who will not ignore the rule of law, who will not ignore his or her own judges, who will not ignore an entire branch of our government.

The day may come that the entire judicial branch of our government cannot be trusted, but today is not that day. So, no, Trump didn't say to kill all the lawyers, only to ignore them.