Memo #136

Memo #136
January 1, 2012 (written 4/1/08)   Share at: http://www.prattmemos.blogspot.com
To: My Beloved Family
From: Dad ~ Grandpa Pratt
Re: Prophetic warnings

My desire is to stimulate thru these memos a positive, exciting outlook toward the future, hoping to overcome the negative, anxious feelings that so many have. These feelings of uneasiness and even despair are prevalent all over the world, but it should not be among members of the church, FOR GLORIOUS IS THE FUTURE. The Lord is in control and he will bring the end of the world to a fantastic and happy conclusion for those who are trying to know the future which is all prophesied and following instructions called keeping the commandments. True, difficult days are ahead. But the Lord is going to bring them to a triumphant conclusion and even the wicked will rejoice when they finally open their eyes and listen with their ears. For even the Telestial Kingdom which will be their ultimate destination is greater than a human eye has ever seen. So the saints of God should have an eager desire to prepare for his coming and a joyous anticipation of that great event.
Everything of a major nature that will affect our mortal and eternal lives has been spelled out in detail by the Prophets of God. Only dates have been withheld. And how wise that is for it is the nature of man to put off preparing for some great event until its about to happen and if we knew the dates we would delay until it would be everlastingly to late. Prophecy is the hand of God extended in love to a groping, floundering world.
Emotions of fear, anxiety, dread, gloom, and discomfort are prevalent even among the most faithful. And this need not be so if we have even a tiny glow of faith in our God. And it comes mostly from a lack of knowledge. So I will endeavor to help abate that lack in the next few memos. This is a glorious time to live and we have nothing to fear if we understand how hard our God is working “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” Moses 1:39
Therefore, I will try to endeavor to expose us all to some of the predictions pertaining to the immediate future and to the second coming of our Lord and Savior; and the roll we may and should play therein. And as I have already discussed somewhat the future of the most persecuted people ever known ~ The Jews and their brilliant future so I will attempt to show how the future of all Israel and Gentiles who repent will be equally as glorious.
While it is clear that warning the inhabitants of the earth is one major purpose of prophecy, the conclusion that the Lord seeks to strike terror into the hearts of his children is unfounded. When a parent describes to his child the pain and suffering that may result from playing with electrical outlets, he may have to use rather ominous predictions and graphically plain terms. But it is plain that this parent is motivated out of love for the child, not out of some desire to see him cowering in fear. So it is with God. At times what he predicts is necessarily terrible to contemplate, but this is so because the choices his children make bring upon themselves terrible consequences.
More clearly evident is the comfort that comes to the soul from knowing that God has foreseen the end and has assured us that no matter how dark the intervening days, eventually his work shall emerge triumphant. The prophetic promises of the new Jerusalem, of the millennium reign, of the absence of war, disease, pain, sorrow, and of course, greatest of all, the promise of eternal life ~ all of these promises light the lamps of our hopes and brighten the gloom that is deepening all around. The prophets point out to us clearly that, even in crisis and disaster, the hand of the Lord may be moving to bring about his greater purposes for the children of men. Let us not forget that one of the great and significant purposes of the Lord in sharing his vision of the future with us is to give us comfort. From: the coming of the Lord by Lund 10-12
There are many places I could begin but the one that comes to mind is. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, .....where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding....when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Job 38:1-7 (reminder “sons of God” means His children)
Yes, where was Job? When Jesus began the creation of the earth. He was of course one of the sons of God who shouted for joy. Where were you? Where was I? Are not we also the sons and daughters of God? Would not we have been there? Would not we have shouted for joy? Of course, because all the spirits that were to come to this earth had been born as spirits, grown to maturity, taught the need of the next step toward immortality and eternal life, and how we rejoiced that the building site had been secured, the permits issued, and the building (earth) commenced.
“Thus I, Abraham, (contemporary of Job) talked with the Lord, face to face, as one man talketh with another; and he told me of the works which his hands had made;...Now the Lord had shown unto me Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones. And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, (YOU WERE THERE!) And he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.” Abraham 3:22-23
you, my dear reader, are a descendant of Abraham and you were there for you were chosen before you were born as is clearly taught in so many of the scriptures.
And now comes the greatest event of all, at this great gathering the Father asked, whom shall I send?
“And there stood one among us that was like unto God and he said unto them who were with him (us among them!) WE will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; and we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.
And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate (here on earth) shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever.” Abraham 3:22-26
We kept that first estate. We are now in the second estate or liken it to school here, the first estate as the primary grades prepared us for the higher classes of this mortal estate likened to high school, and eternity the third estate will be the university where we can learn all things. But there are many, many dropouts all along the way from Cain who flunked miserably, to those who graduate “magna cum Laude” and become Gods in their own right.
“And thus the Gospel began to be preached, from the beginning, being declared by holy angels sent forth from the presence of God, and by his own voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost.
“And thus all things were confirmed upon Adam, by an holy ordinance and the Gospel preached, and a decree sent forth, that it should be in the world until the end there of; and thus it was amen.” Moses 5:58-59
“And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: “Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God.
And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad saying: “were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient. And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters....but they believed it not.” Moses 5:10-12
One of the things that they taught was that the earth has to have the same ordinances as man ~ that it must be baptized by water, and it was. And that it must receive the Holy Ghost which will be a cleansing by fire ~ yet in the future. That both of these ordinances would temporarily remove all mankind from off the face of the earth. They would be removed by the power of God if they are in obedience to him. Or they would be removed by the water or the fire and great and dreadful it would be (for the disobedient).
But not one soul needed to drown in the baptism (flood) nor one soul burned in the fire (at the second coming of Christ). But the majority of the worlds population were drowned and the current majority will be burned if they don’t mend their ways. But in each case the real horrors of the world were the things the wicked do to each other prior to these great cleansing efforts. Allowing the Spirit of the devil to possess them the world then as it is now was filled with violence and war and every horrible thing that a devil inspired society can inflict on each other and this is the part that fills even the obedient with apprehension. But if we will exercise our faith and act in obedience to the prophetic warnings we will be safe. Yes, we may suffer inconveniences as our society crumbles and is destroyed. Think of the havoc when transportation, manufacturing and communications are destroyed. But we have been instructed ever since I can remember how to prepare that we may not suffer as the dammed souls will surely suffer. And we definitely will not suffer eternal damnation.
When Adam was 682 yeas old, he still had 250 years to live, a seventh great grandson was born. He became the great prophet to warn of the immanent coming of a world wide flood. He founded a city named Zion (means pure in heart) and gathered all who would believe there to. And what did he teach? Why the same thing we teach today. Faith in the living God, repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. And to prepare for the coming cleansing of the earth by water. Today the only difference is the cleansing of the earth by fire.
Five years before Noah was born which was 605 years prior to the flood Enoch and his people were removed from the earth by translation to a paradisaical glory where they remain to this day and will be returned to earth after the fire.
Noah and others continued to instruct and warn the people after Zion had fled and “angels also descending from Heaven, bearing witness of the father and the Son; and the Holy Ghost fell on many, AND THEY WERE CAUGHT UP by the powers of heaven into Zion and the last righteous man other than the eight who survived in the ark died the year of the flood, the oldest man recorded to live in mortality, Methuselah, 969 years old.
So the billions still left on the earth suffered death by drowning but worse was their agony as they were  about to be submerged, in those last few minutes as they climbed on the roof tops or clung to any floating thing and thinking, “I was warned! I could have escaped this.”
And Enoch recorded the words of God: “Wherefore, I can stretch forth mine hands and hold all the creations which I have made; and mine eye can pierce them also, and among all the workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren....wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer.” Moses 7:37
and so it is today and God weeps and warns and warns and weeps but the world is as wicked today as then and must suffer for it. Please be prepared. It’s simple really! Just learn and live the gospel of Jesus Christ. For those who choose to live the commandments there is a glorious future! Do not despair but be excited to live by the guidance of living prophets and the wonderful scriptures. Our Heavenly parents and Jesus Christ want us to succeed and we can if we align ourselves with them. They are after all the winning team. Like I said in the beginning of the memo, GLORIOUS IS THE FUTURE! The Lord is in control and he will bring the end of the world to a fantastic and happy conclusion for those who are trying.......

My love always,
Dad, Grandpa etc.
Richard Marden Pratt
a couple of quotes from Memo #100 January 2009
 I hope you enjoyed the Christmas letter. Without our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ there is no Christmas and neither is there anything else as so beautifully expressed by that great prophet Lehi; “And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness and if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. Neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.” 2 Nephi 2:13........
For fear that you won’t turn to your Book of Mormon to read it, I am going to quote verse 14. “And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God. And HE hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, But the Lord will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away the tears from off all faces who have waited for Him. What a glorious time to live. Jesus is the Christ the son of the Living God.  I know this to be true! Believe and enjoy the peace it brings to you. You all are so important to me and I love you dearly.
A side note. I have spent a few days in the hospital and came home just before Christmas. My home was all cleaned and cozy. I told the girls I thought I was in the wrong house. I have had many cards and letters and visits even flowers and candies etc. In all of this I have felt very loved. I’m still baking bread and reading and enjoying the love of family. I am much weaker now but sitting still in my chair I feel great. It is a day at a time that we conquer life and I choose to enjoy it and be happy in it. Life is what we make it. And with the teachings of Jesus Christ life is good.

I send my love to all of you and my hope that your new year will be filled with wonderful blessings.
All my love,
Dad, Grandpa Pratt etc.