A Travel Log Into Eternity

  And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne (Revelation 12:1-5, RSVCE) The Book of Revelation is a work of art. It contains numerous analogies and metaphors that are sometimes hard to understand. One way to get closer to the meaning of the text is to dive into Levantine culture and history to see the parallels that Saint John ha...

 Sola Fide, or the principle of "faith alone", is a core principle of the reformation among other the other sola-principles. It basically states that we are saved because of our faith in Jesus Christ, and our faith alone. No works of salvation needed, no small print, no nothing. There are different notions in the Protestant denominations that argue that faith once is enough and one cannot lose their salvation, while others state that faith has to remain active to have saving power. But how scriptural is Sola Fide? Well, if you take single verses out of context and ignore others, you could get to the conclusion it is a core doctrine.  We ourselves, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified. (Galatians 2:15-16, RSV...

  In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 5:7-10, RSVCE) Jesus is our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. I think most people know who Jesus is, but Melchizedek is still widely unknown among the general population. First, where and when can we see who Melchizedek is? The answer is the Old Testament. In Genesis, the author has the following to say: After his return from the defeat of Ched-or-lao′mer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most Hi...

  We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. (Article of Faith 1:12) To some, such a statement might be redundant, to others, it might be a surprise. For the former, this makes no sense to put an emphasis on such a principle because, in our modern world, it is one of the most natural things to be subject to a form of government. So why would someone explicitly have to state that? Well, statements like the Article of Faith number 12 come from a time where the Saints have been persecuted constantly. Some claimed they would be rebels, some said they would want to overthrow the U.S. government and replace them with their own system. Especially when Joseph Smith run for the office of President, conspiracy theorists had a blast.  For some, though, Article of Faith is a surprising statement. There might be different reasons for it. One of them is that the Old Testament almost throughout all books paints a ...