by John P. Pratt
17 Apr 2020, 1 Eagle (SR), End Passover (20.I Toltec), High Priest (US)
©2020 by John P. Pratt. All rights Reserved.
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1. Baptisms 2. Branch Organization 3. Easter Service 4. Importance of Dates 4.1 Birth 4.2 Rebirth 4.3 Other Sacred Steps 4.3.1 Conception: First Vision 4.3.2 Quickening: Gold Plates 4.3.3 Adult: Brigham Elected 5. Conclusion Notes |
At the martyrdom of Joseph and Hiram Smith in 1844, the church they led splintered into several groups, each claiming to be the "true" group, yet none actually continuing on with the complete structure and fulness of the priesthood once held by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The largest group, led by the apostle Brigham Young, went to Utah and decided that the church no longer needed to be led by the president of the high priests (D&C 107:22), but instead claimed that the apostles, who only held the same priesthood as an elder (D&C 20:38), had all the authority necessary. The Rigdonites, led by Sidney Rigdon, who indeed was in the presidency of the high priesthood (D&C 124:125-126), lost the debate, which was used to pick a leader, rather than to follow church protocol. And the Strangites claimed that the Lord had chosen James Strang to lead His people.
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The LDS Church was born in 1830 and has not died since. Although the fulness of priesthood had been lost even before the death of Joseph the Seer (D&C 124:28), when the Church split up, each still had some level of priesthood. A continuation of the original church begun by the prophet Joseph Smith has been in operation for some time now in Brazil, led by Mauricio A. Berger.[1] His first principal accomplishment has been to translate the first few of the sealed portion of the gold Plates of Mormon into The Sealed Book of Mormon.[2] Hopefully you secured your copy during the last year, because the soft cover edition in English is now no longer available due to litigation by the Mormon Church for infringement on their copyrighted name "Mormon". It is, however, available in electronic PDF format.
This article serves as a public notice[3] that the church in Brazil has been organized in the state of Utah, USA. A man is born as a pure infant, but then often experiences rebellious years as a teenager. Fortunately, he can later repent, come unto Christ, and be "born again". In a sense, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was just "born again" on Sat 11 Apr 2020, with the opening of the first small branch of the Brazilian-based church in the state of Utah. This article describes the procedures followed in that occurrence and explains why the date of the event was very meaningful. It is part of the "Second Invitation" to accept the gospel as restored to the Prophet Joseph Smith.
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We also rejoiced that Jim arrived safely after driving six hours from the state of Wyoming. Just one day earlier the Governor of Utah had reportedly closed the borders of Utah to all unregistered traffic, so it took faith on Jim's part to drive most of the way here not knowing what would happen at the border with Utah. We had prayed that he could arrive safely and he reported that he had not been delayed in any way.
We then followed the procedure required in the Doctrine and Covenants:
All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church.
-- D&C 20:37 (emphasis added)
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We then drove to Baptism Cove where the weather was mostly sunny and mild (60°F or 15°C), although somewhat windy. We rejoiced at such good weather! A tent was set up which Russell brought, which was used to change into dry clothes after being baptized. After an opening prayer, all eight candidates were baptized by me, with Jim helping raise them after immersion, in this order: Ed, Russell, Bobbi and her daughter Willow and son Wyatt, Kevin, Ed's wife Jeanne, and Jim. The water was colder than we had hoped (40°F or 5°C), but young Willow simply marched into it without any problem.
Immediately after the baptisms and changing into dry clothes, we proceeded to organize a branch of the Church right there on the beach because Russell needed to return home that day and had a long drive ahead.
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I then proceeded to confirm Russell to be a member of the Church and to tell him to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. I then continued on to confer upon him the higher priesthood required for an elder and to ordain him to be an elder in the Church. He did not need to be approved by the congregation because he had already been approved last week in the general priesthood meeting, as had Jim. The other confirmations were planned for the following day on Easter Sunday morning, so we then closed with prayer and Russell departed.
That evening we again met at the home of Ed and Jeanne for a wonderful celebration feast.
The first public meeting of the new branch of the Church convened at 10:00 am MST at Ed and Jeanne's home in Duchesne, Utah, on Easter Sunday, 12 Apr 2020. There were seven who had been baptized yesterday in attendance, Russell having left for home on Saturday afternoon. The first order of business was for me to confirm by the laying on hands all who had been baptized to be members of the Church. For the two men who were to be ordained elders, Ed and Jim, that was done immediately after they were confirmed, in the same instance of laying on hands. In the case of Ed, it was not necessary to confer the higher priesthood on him, as he had previously been ordained by the Three Nephites,[6] but only to ordain him to be an elder in the Church.
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Bobbi reported seeing angels during one of these blessings. She texted me the following:
"Once it was Kevin's turn to be confirmed, at that very moment that he came forward to sit in the chair to receive the Holy Ghost, there was a group of angels who appeared. They understood the importance of Kevin's confirmation. They quickly surrounded Kevin to be a part of it and to give angelic blessings through the confirmation of Kevin. Then when the confirmation was over they just vanished."
Because that was such an unusual occurrence, I feel to include here a prophecy which was given through me during the blessing. I saw the image of a row boat being tossed in big waves of the sea and stated that until now he has been like a row boat being tossed to and fro by each wave of the various teachings which he has studied. Then I saw the row boat turn into a huge ocean cruise ship, so much bigger than the waves that it was unaffected by them. I then stated that henceforth he would become like an ocean liner which would be steady and carry many to find the truth.
Even though that is very personal, Kevin allowed me to include it for my scientific mind to watch to verify whether that prophecy is indeed fulfilled!
Now that all had become members of the Church, it was time to participate in the holy ordinance of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Because this was to be done rather differently from what they had been used to, in that it was to be done much more as it was done in the Church at the time of Joseph the Seer, I gave a brief explanation of the changes they should expect in the sacrament service:
- The sacrament is administered by only one priest or elder (D&C 20:76), who is in the place of Christ as at the Last Supper.
- The sacrament is to be taken only by confirmed members of the Church. It is not for guests nor young children who have not promised to take upon themselves the name of Jesus, to always remember Him, and to always keep His commandments.
- The entire congregation kneels with the administrator during the prayers (D&C 20:76).
- Unbroken bread would be picked up and presented to God during the prayer asking Him to bless it. This follows the example of the Savior (Mat. 26:26, Mark 14:22). Although that is not explicitly specified in the modern instructions, it was implied by the word "also" in the instructions for the wine: "The manner of administering the wine--he shall take the cup also" (D&C 20:78).
- Following the example of Jesus (Mat. 26:26, Mark 14:22), the bread would be blessed before it is broken, representing how the body of Jesus was anointed (blessed) before it was broken at the Crucifixion. Partaking of the bread reminds us that Jesus overcame physical death.
- The administrator is the first to partake because one should receive an ordinance before administering it to others. Others are served in any order, not esteeming any one member to be above another.
- Wine would be used as directed by the Lord (D&C 89:5-6). It represents the blood shed by the Savior and His overcoming spiritual death. Red wine will be used in today's service because it is bitter, representing both the color of blood as well as the bitter suffering of the Savior in Gethsemane. Our wine was not of our making, even though that is recommended (D&C 89:6). What about young members or others who did not want to drink wine? At the sacrament service I attended in Brazil, they were free not to drink, but grape juice or water was not offered as a substitute for wine.
- Only one cup is used for the wine.[7] This follows the example of Jesus (Mat. 26:27, Mark 14:23), and also the instructions to the modern Church (D&C 20:78), as well as the example shown at the sacrament service which I attended in Brazil. It was for some 60 people, and I wondered how they would solve the problem of not having a huge cup. The cup used would serve some 10-15 people. When it became empty, a second elder walking with him refilled it from a pitcher. It seemed likely that if the congregation were too large that the sacrament would not be served. The usual weekly Sunday fellowship meetings are held in homes, so that would not be a problem there.
- The cup of wine would be picked up and presented to God during the prayer asking Him to bless it. This follows the example of the Savior (Mat. 26:27, Mark 14:23), and also the instructions to the modern Church (D&C 20:78).
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After the sacrament, I gave a talk about the Resurrection on Easter Sunday morning. It was explained that after the Resurrection the sabbath day was changed to be the first day of the week to memorialize that sublime event rather than the Lord having rested on the seventh day of Creation. The importance of this particular Easter weekend was then discussed, as explained in detail in the next section.
Finally, we signed the certificates of baptism, confirmation, and priesthood ordinations. Kevin, who is a glass blower, had made us each a glass pen to use just for this occasion! That concluded at noon what has been a weekend of amazing, spiritual feasting!
There were two key dates important on sacred calendars at the birth of the Church and two more at the recent rebirth of the Church. They were the dates of the actual organization and also the dates of the following Sunday, which was Easter Sunday in both cases. Let's look at each date in detail on the sacred calendars.
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The date of the event had been chosen by me because it was holy on several sacred calendars. Before explaining why, let us consider two dates at the organization of the Church of Christ by Joseph Smith.
Joseph organized the Church on the day specified by the Lord, being Tue 6 Apr 1830. Subsequent research showed that it was the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in 1 BC.[8] Thu 6 Apr 1 BC was, however, also Passover on the Hebrew Calendar. For years it bothered me that Tue 6 Apr 1830 was not also the Hebrew Passover. Then last year in 2019 it was discovered that Tue 6 Apr 1830 was indeed Passover on the newly discovered Toltec Calendar.[9] That made sense as symbolic, because it was indeed a church of the Western Hemisphere, using a scripture book delivered by the Moroni, who was apparently a founder of the Toltecs.[10]
On the Star Calendar, Tue 6 Apr 1830 was the day "Preside" (Alpheratz), referring to presiding over the Church. The star is located in the head of Andromeda, who is the Princess, daughter of Queen Cassiopeia. Andromeda, in this context, represents the Christian Church, the daughter church of the Judaism (Cassiopeia), and the star Preside is the head of the Church (Joseph Smith in this instance).
On the Sacred Round, Tue 6 Apr 1830 was the minor holy day 13 Deer, being the first day of a trecena of 13 days. This day was the seventh such day in a sequence which symbolized the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. It was the day when the "spirit" (message) of the Plates of Mormon would begin to go forth to the world.[11]
On the Sunday following the organization of the Church in 1830 was the first public meeting where the first discourse was given. That was Sun 11 Apr 1830, being Easter on our Gregorian, the Perpetual Hebrew, and on the Toltec calendars. That day is, of course, symbolic of having risen from the dead as the Church has just done. It was the "Fish Net" minor holy day on the Star Calendar, symbolizing beginning missionary work when the Ram (Christ) casts out the Fish Net for the fishers of men on the first day of the month of the Ram.[12] On the Uniform Hebrew Calendar it was the Feast of Firstfruits.
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Table 1 shows the 20 day signs of Native American Sacred Round, sometimes called the Eternal Round. They form a 20-day cycle which repeats continuously. The days represent 20 steps in the progression of mankind. The first six steps go from conception (Creation) to death (Skull). They can be applied to other things which have a "life". For example, as mentioned above, the first seven steps were apparently applied to the "life" of the gold plates, which were "born" when they came from the ground and "died" when they were reburied.
As shown in Table 1, there are only two steps in life between Birth (Step 3) and Death (Step 6). Step 4, called "Adult" represented by the Dragon (Satan), symbolizes arriving at the age of accountability, where one often becomes a rebellious teenager where the "natural man" manifests. That is then hopefully later replaced by being "born again" of the spirit in Step 5 (Rebirth) and coming back into the light of truth, choosing righteousness. The symbol of rebirth on the Sacred Round is the Serpent, because the serpent sheds its old skin which it has outgrown, to be "born again".
The L-dS Church can be thought of the as the old dead skin out of which the vibrant, living, reborn LDS Church has been reborn! It is now emerging out the darkness of the Adult stage, in which it has been enveloped, being highly focused on building a commercial empire, including building an entire city of 500,000 in Florida.[13]
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On the Star Calendar, both the times of the baptisms on Saturday afternoon and the Easter Sunday morning meeting occurred on the star day of the Fish Net because that star day began on Saturday at noon. As mentioned above, that was the same star day, representing beginning missionary work, as was the first Sunday meeting in 1830.
As this article was being written, Mauricio Berger wrote me an email on Wed 15 Apr 2020 pointing out that our little meeting on the Toltec Passover actually fulfilled an obscure prophecy in the preface of the Doctrine and Covenants (with Mauricio's comments in boldface in square brackets []):
And also those to whom these commandments were given, might have power to lay the foundation of this church [1830], and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness [the Second Invitation, day 14 of the first month, (the Toltec) Passover in the year 2020], the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased, speaking unto the church collectively and not individually -- D&C 1:30.
Thus, Mauricio pointed out that the day of our opening the branch of the Church in Duchesne, Utah, was the day on which the Church would emerge from the darkness into the light. That is precisely the symbolism of "Rebirth" on the Sacred Round!
Thus, the day of the rebirth of Church was Sat 11 Apr 2020. That day was Passover on the Toltec Calendar, just as was the day of the birth of the Church on Tue 6 Apr 1830! Amazingly, both of the date of the birth and of the rebirth of the Church fulfill a prophecy in The Sealed Book of Mormon:[14]
"... the covenants made by Jehovah with the nation of Israel, from before they left Egypt, when all shared the Passover, fourteen days after the first new moon appeared in the heavens,... would prefigure the 'Church of the Lamb of God' in all dispensations ... However, it is also the first day that God organized His Church from the beginning of time...
However, the day when God established His church in the days of Adam, He set a fixed and unchanging day for the children of men, regardless of the position of the moon in the heaven, to which He set out in all ages to properly organize and structure His church on earth,... God does not change the fixed day ... decreed by Him and His Only Begotten before the foundation of the world and for all eternity. -- Sealed Moses 16:2-3.
Thus, Moses tells us that even as the Exodus occurred on the 14th day of first month (Abib), as determined by the moon (Lev. 23:5), so also will the Lord's true Church always be organized and structured on the 14th day of the first month according to some fixed calendar which does not depend at all on the moon. It was just last year that the Toltec Calendar was discovered, where it was noted that the Church of Christ was organized on Tue 6 April 1830, it was the 14th day of the first month, which was the Toltec Passover day.[15] That seemed very significant, because Jesus was born on the Hebrew Passover, which fell on Thu 6 Apr 1 BC.
Thus, the Toltec Calendar becomes a strong candidate to be the "fixed calendar" on which the Lord's Church will always be founded, because it is a solar calendar (tracking seasons) and does not depend at all on the moon. Moreover, it is interesting that the Angel Moroni shepherds the restoration in some ways, and it was he who apparently founded the Toltec Empire.
The first public meeting of the Church after its rebirth occurred on Easter Sunday, 12 Apr 2020, which was also Easter on the Perpetual Hebrew as well as the Toltec Calendar, even as was the case on the first public meeting after the birth of Church in 1830. It was also the "Fish Net" star day, even as it was in 1830. In the illustration, the "Fish Net" star is at the intersection of the Ram's foreleg with the horizontal edge of the net.
Another excellent sacred calendar alignment is that both the baptism and Easter meetings in 2020 occurred on the day "1 Begin" on the Priest Calendar (that day also starts at noon). That seems perfect! The Easter Sunday meeting in 1830 was on "1 Gathered", which is also a great match.
If the above two correlations to the Sacred Round are meaningful, then there should be other steps on Sacred Round which correspond to steps in the "life" of the restored Church. Let us consider what dates might correspond to the steps of "Conception" when a project is announced, "Quickening" when the first signs of life are observable, and "Adult", when the teenage years arrive and the project gets off track, only to see the light and return to its true path at "Rebirth".
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This year is being celebrated as the 200th anniversary of the date of that First Vision, as the foundational event of this dispensation. It turns out that this date is the first day of the first month (1.I) on the Toltec Calendar, that is, the major holy day New Year's Day! That has perfect symbolism to be the official day of announcing the coming restoration of the Lord's true church! That was noticed in an earlier article,[16] but not thought to be very important. It was not recognized until now that the date was part of a pattern, which proves that it was not a chance alignment.
The way the date of the First Vision was discovered was from it being New Year's Day on the Enoch Calendar.[17] That date turned out to be the opening day of the entire 728-year "week" of the "Ten Week Prophecy" of all history contained in the Book of Enoch.[18] Now it turns out that the date was also one in a pattern of five dates which mark milestones in the life of the Church!
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Was it not when Joseph actually brought home the gold Plates of Mormon to begin to translate them into the Book of Mormon?
It turns out that day when Joseph Smith received custody of the gold plates was the major holy of the Feast of Trumpets, the first day of the seventh month (1.VII) on the Toltec Calendar. Again, that was published last year, but was not thought to be of great importance,[19] but now it is seen to be part of the pattern of the life of the Church.
Moreover, now consider this. Remember how the Angel required Joseph to come to the Hill Cumorah to see the gold plates every year on the same day, 22 September, for four years? The Toltec Calendar also has 365 days per year, much like the modern Gregorian Calendar used by Joseph, so it turns out that both the first day on which he had seen the plates and also the last day when he took possession of them were both the Feast of Trumpets (Toltec)!
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When did the LDS Church go off track by making a bad decision? If that day coincided with a day on the Toltec Calendar symbolizing the result of making a bad decision, that would put this alignment of five key events in the life of the Church beyond chance.
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No doubt nearly all Mormons will be stumped by this question because they feel that the Church has always been on track. The first date which came to my mind was the very day of the decision to choose Brigham Young and the apostles to lead the Church, rather than Sidney Rigdon, the ordained high priest who had already been given all the keys needed to continue on with the First Presidency (D&C 107:9).[20] Moreover, Sidney was the ordained spokesman for Joseph (D&C 100:9), who had been prophesied by Joseph of Egypt (2 Nephi 3:18). The people, however, chose Brigham!
The date of the vote to choose between Sidney's and Brigham's election speech was held on Thu 8 Aug 1844. On the Toltec Calendar, that date was 9.V, the ninth day of the fifth month, a holy fast day corresponding to 9 Ab, the ninth day of the fifth Hebrew month, a day of mourning for the loss of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. In my work, it is the day when the (usually negative) result is manifest of the Lord's people making a poor decision. Thus, it an ideal date to signify the entry of the Church into a wayward path which would lead them to becoming outcasts into the wilderness of Utah.
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These results on the Toltec Calendar are summarized in Table 2. Red indicates major holy days and blue indicates minor holy days, which levels of holiness happen to match on all five dates. The word "Wilderness" as representing the choice of Brigham Young as a leader attempts to summarize the Church's wandering in darkness in the wilderness until now. These alignments are far beyond random chance, indicating that the proposed interpretation that the last event indeed represents the rebirth of the LDS Church!
This article began as a simple description of the organization of a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, based in Brazil, in the city of Duchesne, Utah, on Sat 11 Apr 2020. As it developed it became clear that there was a connection with the Toltec Calendar because both that day and the day of the birth of the LDS Church in 1830 occurred on Passover thereon. Thus, it appeared to be a "rebirth" of the Church in some sense. It is part of the "Second Invitation" to accept the gospel as restored to the Prophet Joseph Smith.
"Birth" and "Rebirth" are life steps, Step 3 and Step 5 respectively, on the Sacred Round, which forms a basis for the Toltec Calendar. To verify whether or not it was mere chance that both events happened on the same major holy day, it was decided to investigate to see whether Steps 1, 2, and 4 also fell on meaningful holy days. That was found to be the case, resulting in the conclusion that the forming of the new branch indeed symbolized the rebirth of the LDS Church, after its long wandering in the darkness of the wilderness. The precision to the very day of all of these events is a compelling witness of the hand of God!
