No Coincidences

Author: Brayden Quackenbush

Book Review: The Joseph Smith Translation. Precious Truths Restored

The Joseph Smith Translation. Precious Truths Restored

by W. Jeffrey Marsh

Copyright 2002

______________________

There are multiple ways I judge a book. It can be so entertaining I can’t put it down. I can feel enlightened by it, like I’m learning constantly through its pages. Ideally a book does both. I think this book more was on the enlightened, learning something from it category.

I realize most people aren’t going to enjoy the books I’m enjoying. Few people get excited about learning about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a book I wish every active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would read. It did so many things for me: taught gospel truths, built my testimony of Joseph Smith and his divine call, and probably the biggest thing I took away from it, better understanding of the Bible.

A statement from the summary on the back of the book states it:

“will guide you through the history, significance, and insights found in the Prophet Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible.”

The biggest takeaway I got from this book was the knowledge of how blessed I am to have the Joseph Smith Translation (JST) of the Bible and the fact that I’ve never once doubted its truthfulness and divine nature. The book goes a lot into the history of the JST. I didn’t know there were many years that the JST was regarded skeptically by members of the Church.

I am truly grateful to be living while I’m living, with so much truth and light surrounding me. This book helped me appreciate how lucky I am. There was a part of the book where the author talked about how there would one day be a generation that never doubted the divine nature of the Joseph Smith Translation. He talked about how that generation will know the scriptures better than any prior generation. That generation will know Jesus Christ better than any prior generation, due to the truths restored by Joseph Smith. He talked about this generation that will have more fullness of scriptures than any generation ever had. Truly the fullness of times.

This made me appreciate my place in time, my place in history, my place in the fullness of times more than ever. It’s never been a doubt to me that the Joseph Smith Translation is holy scripture and worth studying. It helps me trust Joseph Smith as a prophet and teaches me more about Jesus Christ.

I know these things aren’t to be taken for granted. Our generation isn’t gifted greater scriptural knowledge simply by living now. We must study and learn. If we devote ourselves to the Word of God, there is more out there for us to devour and grow from than any people on this earth has ever had the opportunity to know.

I’m so grateful to be alive today and I’m so grateful to Joseph Smith for the truths he restored.

____________________________

To learn more about the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible go here:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/revelations-in-context/joseph-smiths-bible-translation?lang=eng

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/joseph-smith-translation-of-the-bible?lang=eng

May 22, 2020
My Coincidences

Have you ever noticed how easily we forget? It’s a cliché statement on human nature – “humans have short memories,” but It’s so true. Have you ever walked into work on Monday and been asked what you did over the weekend… and not be able to think of anything? Sometimes it takes me 5-10 minutes to think of what I did 1 and 2 DAYS ago, never mind years.

Soon after I came back to church, I started keeping track of “coincidences” that I experienced. It was my way of taking note of God’s daily influence in my life. It’s a list of those answered prayers, small moments that seemed significant, things just working out. I keep this list so I never forget God’s hand in my daily life. I’ll fluctuate in how good I am at keeping the list. Sometimes I’ll go weeks or months without adding anything.

If I’m going to name my blog nocoincidences I gotta back it up with some data.

My entries go back to 2016. Four years of “coincidences.” 101 total entries.

I’ve found it extremely helpful to look back on and remember how blessed I’ve been. Even when things are hard, God is there. I would recommend this practice to anyone.

My experiences vary from something I study before church being mentioned that day in someone’s talk, that always makes me pay attention; to the postcard I received the day I was wondering where to go to church. There are tons of small moments that can become big moments.

Reading back through them I realize most of them I can’t explain. It was something I felt or something only I could appreciate. Kind of like faith. Even if you’re explaining faith to someone else with faith, your experience with faith will always be unique. My “coincidences” as I call them are mine, and extremely personal.

One thing I notice as I read through these notes is even today, I don’t know the significance. That night I felt a weird feeling as I was going to bed and decided to check the kitchen only to notice I left the oven on. Was the house going to burn down? I don’t know. What I do know is the feeling I had to go back to the kitchen was distinct, and obvious. God knows what would have happened, that’s enough for me.

There are many moments at work. Moments of frustration, anxiety, worry. Then I pray and it somehow works out. The answer I’ve been staring at jumps out at me, someone calls and helps, I’m given more time, a boss shows sympathy. These blessings come in many ways. If I’m not looking for them, I would miss them every time.

Look for the blessings in your life. If you don’t look for them it’s easy to feel alone or like things never work out. Write down all the blessings in your life, everything you’re grateful for. Look at all the moments that just work out and realize you’re being watched. Look at all your “coincidences” and appreciate them. I have 101 coincidences I’ve written down in 4 years. 101. It will be so amazing to one day stand before my Father in Heaven. He will laugh jovially at my 101 remembrances and He will open my Book of Life and show me the countless, infinite times His hand was with me. That will be a good day.

May 16, 2020
Seer Stones

Imagine giving someone a spyglass in the year 600. A spyglass is the refracting telescope you picture pirates using on the open sea before finding their target. The sinister pirate stands on deck, extends the spyglass to its full length, looks through one small hole and sees what his own two eyes could barely make out on their own. A ship. Ripe for plunder. The spyglass wouldn’t be officially invented for 1000 years, in 1608 by most accounts.

Imagine giving that to someone in the year 600. They would be amazed; it would be such a phenomenon to them. Another example is the microscope, also invented around 1600, but perfected over the next 400 years to what we have now. That would blow someone’s socks off in the year 600.

The James Webb Space Telescope is replacing the Hubble Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope known to man. Imagine showing that to someone in 1830. There’s a good chance they wouldn’t believe their eyes. There’s a good chance the people from these times would consider what they’re being shown witchcraft or sorcery. If you showed someone a modern-day microscope found in every high school science class and told them you could see the cells of a plant they might put you to the stake for burning i.e. Salem Witch Trials.

The James Webb Space Telescope is described:

“will provide improved infrared resolution and sensitivity over Hubble, and will enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, including observing some of the most distant events and objects in the universe, such as the formation of the first galaxies.”

I don’t know what all that even means, and I’m here, in the year 2020. The word “events” seems to imply that this telescope will be powerful enough to literally look so far away that we’re seeing the past. I won’t get anymore into the science of telescopes and microscopes because I didn’t pay enough attention in my science class to give accurate information about that.

My point is this: if in history you showed someone a device that wouldn’t exist for 1000 years, they might not believe it, or they’d think it was some sort of magic. That is exactly how people reacted in 1830 when Joseph Smith talked about seer stones. Miraculously, it’s how people react today to the idea of Joseph Smith using seer stones.

The natural eyes of Joseph Smith were seeing revelation and things of the spiritual realm just like we look through a telescope and see things that we previously could not. God-fearing people everywhere believe in heaven and hell, God and angels, and yet can’t accept a prophet of God seeing things we don’t. The concept of a stone being the medium should not be a stumbling block. Who in the year 600 would have thought glass would be the medium with which we look into the cosmos?

Our nature today is to be so skeptical of anything of a spiritual nature. If you stop and look at it in a logical sense, the principle is sound, the logic is there. The same people today who hold a cell phone, press an icon on a screen, type in a statement, and suddenly have billions of results, scoff at the idea of a stone that helps translate ancient scripture. How crazy is that? 99% of people today don’t understand internet, email, or electricity yet use it every single day. To be clear, I don’t understand how most of those things work, I don’t understand the intricacies involved. I don’t have to understand, I see it in front of me, whether I understand it or not, the proof is there. It exists.

Seer stones are not cooky, bizarre, unprecedented technology. They are a different kind of telescope. When Joseph Smith looked into them, he saw, through revelation and the power of God, things he couldn’t see with his natural eyes. A person in 1830 couldn’t comprehend a mobile phone. Many today refuse to comprehend the thought of a seer stone. It doesn’t mean seer stones didn’t exist. There’s so much we don’t understand, and we are marveled by technology daily. Is it that difficult to think God had a device that would allow man to do extraordinary things long before the mobile phone?

I know that seer stones exist, just like cell phones. I know that Joseph Smith used them to translate an ancient record. The Book of Mormon wasn’t written by a natural man. It was translated through the medium of a seer stone, provided by God. All of us here in the year 2020 who don’t understand how the very phones we hold provide all the miracles they do, how can we be so skeptical?

______________

For anyone who would like to learn more about seer stones the link below is a great resource and watch this short video:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/seer-stones?lang=eng

May 12, 2020
You Sent a Dog to Save a Girl
*I wrote this to my wife when she lost her family dog and best friend of the previous 12 years.*

You sent a dog to save a girl. I have never gotten a full story. I’ve never heard a full account. I have seen the love in her eyes. I’ve seen her hug and care for and love a creature with so much love. It’s love I know she’ll one day pour out upon a child tenfold. It’s maybe what drew me to her in the first place. Her obvious ability to love and care for others. She will be an amazing mother partly due to a dog.

I’ve only known that dog to be old. I’ve only known the whines and the cries. The confusion. From my eyes he has been ready for a long while. But he wouldn’t let her go. He knew she still needed him. I saw a puppy in pictures. I saw a puppy in her eyes every time she laid with him and pet his curly black fur. I saw love for a dog that never left her. I saw my wife, with so much capacity to love, unable to stop loving a dog that couldn’t stop loving her.

I never heard of every night. I know they existed. The nights that she cried. The nights she felt so alone. The nights that she thought, “why did I upend my life, to what end?” I know there were many tear-filled nights. I had to go through the same. I had a roommate and a best friend some of those nights, so I know. I know what comfort is in those moments. I know that on every tear-filled night there was a furry, black, kind creature that wouldn’t leave her side. I know this because I’ve seen the love she holds for an animal that saved her life.

I will never understand the full extent of the bond between my wife and this dog. I’ve only seen an animal that can hardly see or move, let alone play. I see the love in her eyes, and I know he used to play. He always comforted. He was always there for her.

Now his time has come. I know this will be one of the hardest things my wife ever goes through. Maybe the hardest thing since she changed her whole life to come back home. He was there for her then. He can’t be there for her anymore. I know he’s been waiting. He’s been waiting for me. I now must replace the perfect, never ending, never ceasing, never decreasing love and devotion of your creature. He wouldn’t leave her. Now he must. I’ll love her and care for her to the best of my ability. I hope to come close to the love of a dog for his girl.

I don’t know where my wife would be without a fluffy, black dog. I don’t know if I ever would have met her. In a million ways we would have never crossed paths. If not for a dog, she wouldn’t be in my life. If not for the many nights of comfort when she didn’t know if she could do it. If not for every time he nuzzled her tears and begged for a pat on the head. If not for his love, who knows where my wife would be?

You knew my wife needed a dog. You sent the perfect one.

Now it’s his time to move on. I’m sure it means there’s a child or an individual who needs him more. You sent an angel in a fluffy, black, four-legged body to bring light to a home and to a young girl. Now he’s needed elsewhere. I pray only that I can love her as he loved her. Support her as he supported her. Comfort her as he comforted her.

You are a Father who loves us so much. You send creatures to save our lives. You love us in many ways, including through the loving eyes of a puppy.

You sent Parley to save my wife.
Thank you.
May 7, 2020
Book Review: The Problem of Pain

The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis

Copyright 1940

________________________________

From the front cover: “The point about reading C.S. Lewis is that he makes you sure, whatever you believe, that religion accepted or rejected means something extremely serious, demanding the entire energy of mind.”

Before starting this book, I was in the precarious position of thinking C.S. Lewis was one of my favorite authors without having ever read one of his books. I have many of his books on my list of to-one-day-read. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is obviously on that list. In the Church of Jesus Christ we often hear that C.S. Lewis is one of the most quoted, nonmember of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ever. For good reason. I came to the conclusion C.S. Lewis was one of my favorite authors because all his quote ARE SO GOOD. He is brilliant.

The Problem of Pain was the first C.S. Lewis book I ever read.

I consider myself a semi-literate and intelligent individual. That all went out the window while reading this book.

This is how I felt reading this book:

My monkey brain couldn’t wrap itself around these eloquent and long sentences. Here’s another thing, I don’t like huge paragraphs, if you can’t tell. When a paragraph goes 3 pages long (in the paper-back I was reading) I’m likely to get lost before even starting it.

All that being said, my simplistic mind could still grasp that it was being stretched. I could still sense this learning taking place in my mind, even if much of it was going over my head. There were many quotes that made me stop and think. That was part of the problem. To truly appreciate this book, I would have had to stop and ponder what I was reading at least 3 times per page. That makes for a long reading of a 162-page book.

I will read this book again, mark my words. I may read it 10 more agains. It is good and I do desperately want to understand it. So, I won’t be giving up on it. I’ll just have to mix in some simple, relaxed reading alongside it. My mind can only take so much.

If you’re much smarter than me, please read it. If you have read it and understood greater than 20% of it, let’s sit down and talk, but only if you’re prepared to be extremely patient with me.

I will leave you with one of my favorite parts of this book so you can get a feel for the book, learn something, and see how brilliant C.S. Lewis’s writing is. It will not be the whole paragraph because I don’t want every reader to get lost midway through like I often did.

In speaking of hell, C.S. Lewis writes:

“I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside. I do not mean that the ghosts may not wish to come out of hell, in the vague fashion wherein an envious man ‘wishes’ to be happy: but they certainly do not will even the first preliminary stages of that self-abandonment through which alone the soul can reach any good. They enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved: just as the blessed, forever submitting to obedience, become through all eternity more and more free.”

May 5, 2020