WOW - THE PROGENY OF NOAH SPELLED OUT

I haven't got the time now to go thru this - but will study it in depth as time allows:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_Noah

Interesting stuff in here - and how the peoples spread out after leaving the ark in the MOUNTAINS OF ARARAT; not Mt. Ararat.....

When we understand we all came off the same boat, we lose our prejudices and preconceptions and just become children of the Most High God. Nothing more, nothing less. One of the adversary's greatest triumphs has been in re-writing history in order to confuse and blunt that basic message. Divide and conquering he and his minions go - but soon to be bound through our personal righteousness as a Zion people - and then finally cast out into outer darkness..... What a day that will be! Lets be part of the solution - not the problem by choosing this day that we will serve the Lord of Hosts.

Happy reading!

PRE-FLOOD LIFESPAN DEGRADATION ANALYSIS

CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A LARGER PIC

Well, being a loud-mouth and an Engineer, I get myself into some interesting situations. One of my favorites was when I spent an hour with the Teachers Quorum one Sunday figuring the theoretical diameter of Kolob based on its period of rotation around its "governing body". When I bump into one of my old teachers, they still mention that as one of their most memorable lessons - I get animated with a piece of chalk in my hand....

Anyway, one of the other times I got into a corner was when I was dealing with a fellow aerospace Engineer who believed all Mormons have horny protrusions jutting from the top of their skulls (and he was totally serious). This guy was an adherent to Ed Decker and the whole anti-Mormon crowd (a totally different blog topic of how I did a smackdown on good old Ed Decker..... one of the many wicked and adulterous people I have run into who hate the truth because they would be forced to zip up and put up - or get out). Anyway, my fellow engineer and I - besides having to deal with what he thought were serious structural problems with my skull, developed kind of a level of comfort - even with me being 'spawn of the devil' and all. Since we were not able to find much common ground in the NT, our lunch time topics stuck mostly to the OT. One of the topics I always thought was interesting was how the life spans of the ancients dropped off around the time of the flood and thought a graph would be in order. Everything in nature and in our universe follows mathematical principles (even if they might as yet be undiscovered). The curve fit that came out of the data was BEAUTIFUL! I dropped it into a file and forgot about it until I went looking for missionary spiritual experiences which I will be blogging in the month of March.

Hope you enjoy it. I had a great time making it. If you want to copy it - feel free to use it, expand on it, etc.

Also, I have a feeling that the data on this chart explains the erratic nature of/complete unreliability of carbon dating data before 2000B.C. Something is going to come out some time soon that will nail this little detail down - once science catches up with revealed religion. Can't wait until the world's history is shown 1000 years at a time!

VIOLENCE AND IMMORALITY IN THE MEDIA - THE NOAH CONNECTION

As a parent, I have often been pretty-much freaked out with the amount of violence, immorality and pure filth portrayed in the media. We no longer use the tv in our home for anything other than what we overtly allow into our home. Just flicking on the tube is pretty much out.

As I always tell the kids, they have their agency and full ability to choose as they move into adulthood (I came to the conclusion that my parental influence is inversely proportional to their age - so its in their best interest to make as many decisions for themselves as they can as time goes on). One of the things I always tell them, is that, IN THE BIG PICTURE, IT IS ULTIMATELY SURVIVAL OF THE SPIRITUAL FITTEST. God does not care how far ahead in life we got, what we did, unless we followed His Son's example in doing it. The same goes for what we view. If we participated in violence or anything offensive to God, we will be swept off the face of the land with the rest, just as they were in the days of Noah for the same reason.

11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

The earth was destroyed (baptized by immersion) the first time due to violence and not keeping the commandments/corruption.

It will be destroyed the second time (by fire) due to the same causes.

To avoid being caught up in that scenario, it will be most important to be spiritually fit. Those who are spiritually fit will survive to go on, Millenially speaking. Those that love agency and the Son get bodies to experience choice with all of its pitfalls. Those who love the law of chastity and obedience to God's commands will receive the privilege of having an eternal increase. Cause and effect - plain and simple.

All of these darwinists who rely on the arm of the flesh to make their way in life are sadly in for a big surprise. The sad realization will sink in that they should have put their ultimate trust in God and his ways to achieve the biggest, longest lasting effect for all that they do in this life and beyond.

So what does all that have to do with the trash in the media? Violence and filth in, violence and filth out and the trash WILL get taken to the curb before Christ returns again. If we choose wisely what we choose to run through our spiritual filters, we will have indeed chosen wisely.

Here's the article:

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RECLAIMING THE SILVER SCREEN
Explicit sex, violence and language? Not anymore!
Meet the man who's cleaning up Hollywood movies, protecting your family

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Posted: March 31, 2009
8:07 pm Eastern


By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily



Dr. Ted Baehr (photo: Movieguide)


CAMARILLO, Calif. – At the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood, a man who would revolutionize the entertainment industry and "clean up American movie screens" was born to two prominent actors.

Ted Baehr, the son of Robert "Tex" Allen, star in Broadway's "Showboat," and Evelyn Pierce, an MGM actress, was raised in New York City. He performed in commercials, movies, television and on stage.

Baehr would become a famous media critic, founder and publisher of Movieguide and a champion of uplifting Hollywood movies with Christian worldviews. He would take on the giants of the industry and inspire filmmakers to produce wholesome, family films.

Early life and education

"I grew up backstage in the theaters doing commercials, going to very elite schools," he told WND. "I was there, day after day, walking the streets of Broadway, going to the plays, sitting in the back on the steps with the stage manager and doing commercials."

Baehr endured a tragic phase in his life when his mother died in 1959. At the young age of 14, he left for boarding school at St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H.


Robert "Tex" Allen


"It was a bleak period, and I quickly got into sex, drugs and self-destructive behavior, although I did well academically," he said.

Baehr later attended the University of Munich, Germany; Cambridge University, England; and Bordeaux and Toulouse Universities in France. He graduated with honors from Dartmouth College, receiving a degree in comparative literature. He served as editor of the student newspaper at the New York University School of Law where he earned his juris doctor.

With an extensive background in entertainment, Baehr had been exposed to various "new Age" religions. He said his mother had "luke-warm" religious beliefs and was involved in Christian Science.

Baehr said he began to support left-wing and anti-Christian causes after studying at Dartmouth College and other "prestigious and politically correct colleges."

Get Ted Baehr's "MOVIEGUIDE" for a complete Christian guide to movies for you and your family.

Accepting Jesus as Savior

In 1974, when he was financing several independent movies for Canon Films, a woman named Audrey Clark, a former friend of his deceased mother, dared him to read the Bible and tell her "what was wrong with it."


Ted and Lili Baehr (photo: Movieguide)


Baehr reluctantly accepted her challenge.

"Finally after six months, I decided to read the short part," he said.

After reading the New Testament, Baehr's views on Christianity changed drastically and he accepted Jesus Christ into his life.

One week later, he married his Argentine-born sweetheart, Lili, an architect. Her family immigrated to the United States in 1955 after living under socialist Juan Domingo Perón.

Baehr attended seminary at the Institute of Theology at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He later accepted a position as the director of the Television Center at the City University of New York and started the Good News Communications ministry in 1978.

While at the City University of New York, he researched the impact of media in education and was elected president of the Episcopal Radio and Television Foundation, the organization that produced the Emmy Award-winning animated movie, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." Baehr also served on the communications board of the National Council of Churches.

Cleaning up the movie industry


Movieguide offices in Camarillo, Calif.


"Pink Panther" and "Christy" producer Ken Wales introduced Baehr to George Heimrich, former director of the Protestant Film Office – an organization that read every Hollywood script from 1933 to 1966 to ensure that movies adhered to high standards of decency.

Baehr said American movies were morally bankrupt prior to 1933, and the Protestant Film Commission, along with the Roman Catholic Legion of Decency, cleaned up the industry. However, the Protestant Film Commission shut down in 1966.

"The Baptists pulled their funding, and within three years, we went from 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' to the first sex and Satanism film and from 'The Sound of Music' to the first 'X'-rated movie," he said.

The U.S. suffered a severe decline in movie attendance when Hollywood was no longer producing wholesome movies – spiraling from 44 million tickets sold every week to only 20 million.

(Story continues below)





Sir John Templeton, 1912-2008


In 1985, Baehr formed the Christian Film & Television Commission ministry and Movieguide: A Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment. Heimrich donated his Protestant Film Office files to the commission, and Baehr began his monumental task of taking on Hollywood's film giants, using 22 biblically based objective standards to review films and clean up American screens.

Movieguide, a biweekly magazine, TV and radio show and successful website, offers in-depth analyses of movies and reviews nearly 100 percent of U.S. films released in at least nine theaters. The magazine also includes the latest news from the entertainment industry, articles on movies, TV, Internet and cultural trends in addition to warning discerning parents about the worst films coming out of Hollywood.

In 1988, Sir John Templeton, the late billionaire philanthropist and entrepreneur who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, called Baehr to share a new proposal.

"He said, 'I see what you're doing in Hollywood. You're having a good effect, and I've always felt that we should have an award for Hollywood because the Templeton Prize, which is the award for science and religion, has been so effective," Baehr said. "I didn't even know him. He just called out of the blue."


Chuck and Gena Norris present award at 2009 Annual Movieguide Faith & Values Awards Gala


Baehr welcomed the idea with enthusiasm, and the Christian Film & Television Commission initiated the Annual Movieguide Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry in 1992 in Los Angeles.

The gala honors "good and uplifting" productions in film and television and has become a wild success.

"We always focus on Jesus at the gala, and we get a lot of non-Christians there because we're in Hollywood," he said. "People talk about Jesus. We talk about Jesus. We're giving them church. The films testify to Jesus. Everything about it testifies to Him. That's our major point."

Many now refer to the event as the "Christian Oscars," and along with the Report to the Entertainment Industry, it has led to a dramatic increase in family movies and movies with positive moral content.

"When we started, there was only one movie with positive Christian content, and last year it was 44 percent of the movies," Baehr said. "Christian movies always do better because people want redemption. They have a tough life. They want to go to a movie and be delivered from all of that."

The Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry has shown that moviegoers prefer clean movies without explicit sex, nudity, foul language and drug abuse. According to Movieguide's analysis of the top movies released in 2008, box office earnings for movies with 0-25 obscenities/profanities made $32,145,527 at the box office while movies with no obscenities or profanities made $55,569,733. Likewise, movies with no sex, no nudity and no drug references regularly made tens of millions of dollars more at the box office than movies with immoral content.

Additionally, a seven-year Movieguide study of the top 275 movies reveals that Americans prefer conservative, patriotic, pro-American movies with traditional, Judeo-Christian values and free-market ideals rather than films pushing anti-capitalist, socialist, atheistic, communist or anti-Christian agendas.

"In fact," Baehr added, "movies with more conservative values averaged more than seven times as much money as those movies promoting liberal or leftist values, $81.2 million versus only $11.4 million."



He said viewers are looking for three things in a film.

"They want to be entertained, so they want great drama; they want a moral worldview; and then they want a savior," he said. "They always want someone to come in and rescue them, so movies about salvation do incredibly well."

Baehr said it is pertinent that parents pay attention to the movies and television shows their children watch.

"We're concerned about the vulnerability of kids at different stages of their development. They need to be protected," he said. "Parents can't be there all the time, so we want to ensure that children are self-motivated to do the right thing and make the right choices."

A 'rotten' ratings system

Parents must never rely on the traditional rating system to determine whether films are appropriate for their families.

"The ratings system is rotten," he said. "In the movie industry, you can use whatever words you want. They just color it blue and give you an 'R' or whatever it happens to be. But the system has no basis on any understanding of cognitive development. It has no basis for understanding values."

Each year two or three "G"-rated films have a completely occult and new-age worldview, he said. They contain propaganda and condition children to be anti-parent. At the same time, a movie such as "The Passion of the Christ" – with a healthy message – is inexplicably rated "R."

"In the old days, they would say that you could have violence, but you couldn't have it in such a way that a susceptible youth would want to copy the violence," he said. "The question is, how do you do it? Today we seem to be so simplistic that we can't figure that out. The violence in 'The Passion of the Christ' is such that nobody will be attracted to being a Roman centurion whipping Christ."


"Watchmen" (2009)


On the other hand, violence in movies such as Warner Brothers' "Watchmen" is meant to be exciting and entertaining.

"In one scene, they're out killing and chopping and maiming. They are superheroes, so they're beating the other guys up. There's lots of blood. Arms are sawed off. Things are splattered, and they look at each other and say, 'This is fun.' So they have sex together," he said. "When you combine sex and violence in a way that it's a pleasurable relief, that is a very bad motivation for kids."

Baehr continued, "They tell you it's fun. They tell you it's exciting, but the more intelligent children are, the more likely they will respond to those scripts. They create our view of reality."

WND asked Baehr which film is his favorite and which one he believes is the worst ever produced.

"My overall favorite popular film of all time is 'Finding Nemo,'" he said. "It's the story of the Prodigal Son and the love of a father. It's also a well-plotted movie with wonderful dialogue and construction."

He continued, "One of the worst films of all time, the worst made and the worst topic, is 'Hounddog.'"


Dr. Ted Baehr holds 'Teddy Bear' Award for best family friendly films


"Houndog" is a story about a sexual assault of a young girl played by actress Dakota Fanning.

In terms of impact, he said one of the worst films of all time was "The Da Vinci Code," starring Tom Hanks. Baehr said the book suggests Jews had orgies in the temple.

"To me, that's extremely offensive, because the Jews protected the temple with their lives," he said. "They would never defile a temple. So this is just outlandishly anti-Semitic. It's just vile stuff."

Despite these films, Baehr has encouraging news for parents and moviegoers: The six major Hollywood studios have all begun focusing on making more family films in recent years.

"Now there are more than 100 ministries in Hollywood. There are conservative groups in Hollywood," he said. "We've told producers, if they put this into their work, their movies will do better at the box office. It has now become the buzz in Hollywood that you will do better at the box office when you do movies with faith and values in them. It has made a tremendous impact on Hollywood."

Academy Awards ≠ Hollywood

But don't look to the Academy Awards for proof of this family friendly trend, he said. Many awardees are from independent films and not Hollywood studios.



"Movies like 'Harvey Milk' are not Hollywood movies," Baehr said. "Most of those are made by kids who want to go to the Sundance Film Festival, which is one of the most debauched places on the face of the planet. There's a whole other side of Hollywood, which is the suits behind the scenes. You will find more conservatives and Christians than you expect."


Baehr with actor Michael Clarke Duncan

He said studios lost control of the Academy Awards in 1989. So if moviegoers want to know about family films, they must look to Movieguide.

Baehr now has many relationships with famous Hollywood figures and serves on the board or board of advisers of more than 20 groups, including the National Religious Broadcasters, the American Theater of Actors and the Theological Summit Conference.

He has appeared on major networks and shows such as "Hannity & Colmes," CNN, ABC, Fox News, MSNBC, "Oprah" and "Entertainment Tonight." His commentary pieces have been featured in USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Time magazine and WorldNetDaily.

'Everything relates to Christ'

On Feb. 11, Movieguide held its 17th Annual Faith & Values Awards ceremony in Beverly Hills. The movie "Fireproof" received a $100,000 Epiphany Prize for the Most Inspiring Movie of 2008, sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.

For television, "The Christmas Choir," a story of homeless men who form a choir, also won an Epiphany Prize. The prizes are awarded to encourage filmmakers and television producers to create movies and television shows that help increase man's understanding and love of God.

Movieguide and the John Templeton Foundation also presented Kairos Prizes at the gala. The top three winners were: "A Matter of Time," "Touched" and "Moody Field."

According to Movieguide, the purpose of the Kairos Award is to "inspire first-time and beginning screenwriters to produce compelling, entertaining, spiritually uplifting scripts that result in a greater increase in man's love or understanding of God."


Baehr family, from left to right: Daughter Evelyn, son Pierce,Ted, wife Lili, son Robby and son James



Because Movieguide is a Christian organization, Baehr said everything relates to Christ and glorifies Him. He said he has felt God's hand in his work since the very beginning.

On numerous occasions, God has protected and provided for the ministry. And after Baehr prayed for His help during tough economic times, anonymous donors delivered six and seven-figure checks to the commission.

"They were not from people I knew," he said. "To this day, I don't know who gave them."

Baehr said his goal is to see the Christian and Television Commission grow beyond movies into television, because many TV shows have morally deteriorated in recent years.

"There's so much work to do. One person said that God never takes you home until you finish your mission," he said. "Well, I figure this mission is so big that I'm going to be doing this for a long time."

NOAH, LOT, AND THE 5 OF THE TEN VIRGINS

ANOTHER GEM FROM LDSAVOW.COM:

ANOTHER PRINCIPLE AT WORK....
ONE THAT IS MISUSED AND NOT UNDERSTOOD
THE GREAT FALSE ASSUMPTION #2

Most members of the Church also work under a second false assumption. This is because they are confused about two separate principles of the gospel and how to correctly apply them. These principles are the principles of justice and mercy.
They confuse the mandate/commandment of sharing and taking care of the poor and needy with sharing their food with the rebellious. This false assumption is held not only by the rebellious (who often use it to justify their rebellious ways and minimize the outlined consequences) but by many of the obedient as well.

There is a big difference between the two concepts of taking care of the
truly poor and needy and taking care of the rebellious.

The First Principle, the one concerning taking care of the poor and needy which everyone remembers, is exemplified by the following scripture:

“For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things,
and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves.
“Therefore, if any man shall take of the abundance which I have made, and impart
not his portion, according to the law of my gospel, unto the poor and the needy, he
shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment.” 14

The second principle, the one that everyone often forgets to apply, (especially when its application produces negative consequences) is outlined here:

“There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated--
“And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon
which it is predicated.” 15

The reverse of this law is the point that the wicked do not like. Those who are disobedient to the law receive the consequences of their disobedient or rebellious actions as well...because this is right and just. The Lord mentions some of the consequences for those who are disobedient and rebellious:

“Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and
obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.
“And the rebellious shall be cut off out of the land of Zion, and shall be sent away,
and shall not inherit the land.

“For, verily I say that the rebellious are not of the blood of Ephraim, wherefore
they shall be plucked out.” 16

A few other verses help us to recognize this principle even further:

“Hearken, O ye people who profess my name, saith the Lord your God; for behold, mine anger is kindled against the rebellious, and they shall know mine arm and mine indignation, in the day of visitation and of wrath upon the nations.
“And he that will not take up his cross and follow me, and keep my commandments,
the same shall not be saved.
“Behold, I, the Lord, command; and he that will not obey shall be cut off in mine
own due time, after I have commanded and the commandment is broken.” 17

It is important to recognize the difference between the wicked and the rebellious. The two groups are mentioned :

“Wherefore I, the Lord, command and revoke, as it seemeth me good; and all this to be answered upon the heads of the rebellious, saith the Lord.
“Wherefore, verily I say, let the wicked take heed, and let the rebellious fear and
tremble; and let the unbelieving hold their lips, for the day of wrath shall come upon them as a whirlwind, and all flesh shall know that I am God.” 18

President Joseph Fielding Smith hit the proverbial nail on the head when he wrote:

“One of the great failings of mankind is to ignore warnings of punishment for sin.”19

For good or for bad....It is actually all part of the law of consequences.
15
And now the heart of the question.... “Is it right and just for the obedient who have sacrificed their means to be obedient and laid up in store for their families...to give to those who had the same opportunity...but who refused to obey the commandment and laid up nothing?” Wouldn’t that be rewarding the rebellious for their rebelliousness? How are the disobedient going to suffer the consequences of their actions or inactions? How will the obedient gain from being obedient... if they
have given all their food away during a time of famine?
It is one thing to share with those who either did not know the commandment or were prevented from complying (the truly needy and poor)...and something completely different to share with those who willfully rebelled against the commandment and were disobedient.

How many times have you heard the phrase (or something like it)....oh, I don’t have any food storage...I will just share from my neighbor who has food storage. (Unfortunately, most of the neighborhood thinks the same...and so if it was allowed to come to pass, the family who had sacrificed and gathered the one year food storage would have nothing left after a few days.)

And yet... because of the nature of the true disciple...they would share with the disobedient, because they would share with any and all. What is the answer to this dilemma? Luckily, the Lord takes the problem and the decision away from us. Again, we go to the scriptures to see what the Lord has done in a similar type situation.

A Key Message For Us In The Parable of the Ten Virgins

First let us look at the parable of the Ten Virgins, a parable given by the Savior himself, that we have been told specifically refers to events in the last days. President Kimball indicated that the parable is specifically about and directed towards the members of the Lord’s Church. There are several important lessons presented in this short parable but the key one is concerning the preparedness
issue. In the parable, the preparedness issue is presented concerning physical preparedness. However, President Kimball indicated that it can be applied to spiritual preparedness as well.

Two groups of Church members are waiting for the coming of the Savior. Both are dressed in white, meaning that in all outward appearances they are the Lord’s true disciples, but there is one difference between the two groups. What is it?
1) Both groups appear the same.
2) They both are standing or waiting in the proper place and are doing what they are supposed to be doing.
3) Both groups have received the same instructions.

The only difference between the two groups is that concerning the preparedness issue...and in the parable, it makes all the difference in the world. In fact
it is the one single difference between the one group being welcomed in by the Savior and the other group being rejected. One group has fully prepared and the other group has only partially prepared. In other words, one group has taken the Lord’s commandments and directions to heart and have followed them explicitly and completely...while the other group, though righteous in every appearance, has only followed those same instructions partially.

When the Savior does come and the importance of the issue of preparedness becomes critical, what do the ones who have prepared fully do? They don’t share with the unprepared!!! The unprepared are left to suffer the consequences of their own inactions, and the consequences are extremely severe.

Wow!! What a hard, difficult and brutal lesson/message is presented here. The
justice of the consequences are apparent...but where is the mercy? Justice, ie receiving the consequences of ones actions, is an eternal principle and it is often hard.

Mercy is an eternal principle as well. However, it must be remembered that in the eternal law of mercy...mercy is only
extended to those who accept and abide by the conditions attached to it...ie. by doing fully what the Lord has commanded them to do.

Is there any past experience where this hard lesson concerning preparation has been applied? The answer is yes....Noah and the Ark.


NOAH AND THE ARK, A TYPE AND A SHADOW OF OUR DILEMMA

Here we have the quintessential application of the principal of preparedness as taught by the Savior in the parable of the Ten Virgins. We do not need to belabor the story of Noah and the Ark. Those who listened to the counsel of the prophet, which had been given for several hundred years, to prepare by boarding the ark were saved. Those who didn’t listen to the counsel of the living prophet
and didn’t board the ark...died. The lesson is very brutal and hard.

There are, however a few interesting points to be presented.
Noah was a just and a perfect man in his generation and he, along with his three sons, walked with God. Noah’s daughters, who had married wicked husbands, did not heed their father’s counsel and died along with the other wicked. How hard it must have been for Noah and his wife and sons to not extend mercy to their family members, especially when it started to rain.

The question might be asked...why didn’t they open the doors of the ark and let them in, or perhaps others in? The answer
is because the Lord wouldn’t let them. The Lord had foreseen the problem and had taken care of it by taking it out of the hands of Noah.

We read that the Lord shut the door or shut Noah and his family into the ark.

“And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had
commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.”

I am sure that when the rain started and the floods started coming up that there were a lot of people who were suddenly very repentant and asked to be let into the ark. Could you imagine what it sounded like for those inside the ark to hear the screams, pleas and pounding of those, including children, outside of the ark?

And yet the Lord in his wisdom did not give Noah the difficult choice of whether to show mercy and open the door and save them also or not. The Lord took Noah out
of the decision making process on the issue. Instead we find that the Lord suffered them to receive the just consequences (death by drowning) of their non-action to heed the counsel of preparedness.

Of course the important lesson of Noah’s Ark is applied to us specifically by a prophet of God concerning following the prophets counsel regarding food storage.

“The Revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal
welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah.”

21

So how might the Lord take such difficult decision making away from those in the last days who have kept the commandment to have food storage...and not share with those who have not stored anything?

The answer is to remove the faithful people (the wise virgins) from among the foolish. This allows the faithful to reap the benefits of their obedience...while at the same time allowing the foolish to suffer the consequences of their disobedience.

In other words...gather/invite out the faithful/obedient to places of relative safety...which is usually to live in tents.

Examples of this abound in the scriptures and have been mentioned previously. Again, it would make sense that the Lord would so do again in the last days. In fact, Joseph Smith said it was the only way in the last days to be saved temporally:

“In addition to all temporal blessings, there is no other way for the Saints to be saved in these last days, than by gathering...”

An invitation to gather out from among the wicked, including away from those Church members who have not prepared (but who should have) to a separate place...will do so many things. Such a gathering would only include those with true faith in a living prophet. It automatically separates the wheat from the chaff...and gathers the wheat (who have prepared themselves for this time by collecting food storage) into places of relative safety. It takes away from them the problem of having to make the decision to sacrifice the fruits of their obedience with those who were disobedient and rebellious. It then allows the Lord to deal with those same disobedient and wicked people in a manner that will not harm the righteous...because they are not there.

As Lot and his family were gathered out from Sodom and Gomorah so that they would not suffer with the Sodomites their just consequences of their choices...so likewise, those who follow the counsel of the Prophet and Church leaders to flee from Babylon... will avoid the prophesied catastrophes.

THERE IS NO MINCING OF WORDS HERE. I BELIEVE ALL OF THIS TO BE GOOD PRINCIPLE AND COMPLETELY IN HARMONY WITH THE LORD'S TEACHINGS OF PREPAREDNESS, JUSTICE, MERCY, AND THE SIFTING OF THE WHEAT AND THE TARES.

CATASTROPHISM - FLOOD DAMAGE IN IDAHO

A megaflood seems to have scoured a canyon on Earth which, interestingly, looks a lot like canyons on Mars. And that new conclusion, researchers say, could help figure out whether there was ever life on Mars.

To better understand how massive canyons possibly formed on Mars, scientists investigated Idaho's Box Canyon, which like many Martian gorges, was sculpted by water in volcanic rock. This deep valley ends with a round, steep wall, giving it an "amphitheater shape," and was long considered a classic example of how a canyon formed through gradual erosion, as groundwater seeped through the canyon walls and wore the hard rock away.

But now it seems a massive flash flood may actually have carved out Box Canyon roughly 45,000 years ago. By implication, many canyons on Mars that are cut in volcanic rock and amphitheater-shaped like Box Canyon might have formed the same way, the researchers said.

Plunge pools

The scientists analyzed geological features of Box Canyon, such as depressions or "plunge pools" that appear to have been the site of ancient waterfalls, and the age of large boulders found downstream.

"We fully expected to find Box Canyon was carved by groundwater, but then all the evidence we found pointed at a megaflood," said Michael Lamb, a geomorphologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Lamb and his colleagues found scour marks from flooding at the head of the canyon, and discovered that all the rock that was moved to form the gorge required a vast amount of water to propel it the distance it went.

They conclude Box Canyon was formed during a catastrophic flood or series of floods, presumably caused by melting ice sheets that lay at mountains to the north.

"The entire canyon seems to have been cut out of the earth by this flood," Lamb said. Although hardened lava, or basalt, is hard, "it's very fractured material. When lava cools, it contracts and cracks just like mud does. All this cracking makes the basalt like a pile of stacked blocks. So while small floods might cause little erosion, a large enough flood can pull these blocks out of place."

And the megaflood was likely very powerful indeed. "Imagine forcing a quarter of the flow in the Mississippi through a chute 32 times as narrow and 1,000 times as steep as the Mississippi River channel," Lamb told SPACE.com.

Huge boulders moved

Conservative estimates suggest the megaflood blasted 800 to 2,800 metric tons of water per second, reaching speeds of up to some 22 mph within the canyon. This explains how boulders the scientists examined could have dropped on the ground seemingly out of nowhere — the flood picked them up and hurled them along. All in all, the canyon could have been carved in as little as 35 to 160 days.

The canyons of Mars may have been carved the same way — from megafloods of water and not, say, liquid carbon dioxide, which also once flowed over the surface of the red planet. Carbon dioxide is the stuff that puts fizz in soda.

"Carbon dioxide tends to erupt, be really explosive, and shoot into the air, and not form bottom-hugging flows," Lamb said. "The valleys on Mars are hundreds of kilometers long, eroded into rock, and probably required a denser fluid like water."

If one can tell how water flowed on Mars, "that has implications on us living on Mars and on finding out whether there was other life on Mars," Lamb added.

But studying Martian canyons for signs of formation by flooding will be very hard.

"The clues of the flood event were relatively subtle at Box Canyon. It wasn't until our second field season that we saw the scour marks at the head of the canyon," Lamb said. "Even the highest resolution imagery from Mars, which is about three-quarters of a meter per pixel, would not reveal those marks. And Box Canyon formed only 45,000 years ago, while some of the canyons on Mars may have formed 3.5 billion years ago, about 100,000 times older, and they may have altered much since then. This makes studying Earth analogues all the more important for understanding Mars."

The findings are detailed in the May 23 issue of the journal Science.