Two Californias by Victor Davis Hanson

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/255320/two-californias-victor-davis-hanson?page=1

— NRO contributor Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the editor of Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome, and the author of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.

Victor Davis Hanson

Two Californias Abandoned farms, Third World living conditions, pervasive public assistance -- welcome to the once-thriving Central Valley. The last three weeks I have traveled about, taking the pulse of the more forgotten areas of central California. I wanted to witness, even if superficially, what is happening to a state that has the highest sales and income taxes, the most lavish entitlements, the near-worst public schools (based on federal test scores), and the largest number of illegal aliens in the nation, along with an overregulated private sector, a stagnant and shrinking manufacturing base, and an elite environmental ethos that restricts commerce and productivity without curbing consumption. During this unscientific experiment, three times a week I rode a bike on a 20-mile trip over various rural roads in southwestern Fresno County. I also drove my car over to the coast to work, on various routes through towns like San Joaquin, Mendota, and Firebaugh. And near my home I have been driving, shopping, and touring by intent the rather segregated and impoverished areas of Caruthers, Fowler, Laton, Orange Cove, Parlier, and Selma. My own farmhouse is now in an area of abject poverty and almost no ethnic diversity; the closest elementary school (my alma mater, two miles away) is 94 percent Hispanic and 1 percent white, and well below federal testing norms in math and English. Here are some general observations about what I saw (other than that the rural roads of California are fast turning into rubble, poorly maintained and reverting to what I remember seeing long ago in the rural South). First, remember that these areas are the ground zero, so to speak, of 20 years of illegal immigration. There has been a general depression in farming — to such an extent that the 20- to-100-acre tree and vine farmer, the erstwhile backbone of the old rural California, for all practical purposes has ceased to exist. On the western side of the Central Valley, the effects of arbitrary cutoffs in federal irrigation water have idled tens of thousands of acres of prime agricultural land, leaving thousands unemployed. Manufacturing plants in the towns in these areas — which used to make harvesters, hydraulic lifts, trailers, food-processing equipment — have largely shut down; their production has been shipped off overseas or south of the border. Agriculture itself — from almonds to raisins — has increasingly become corporatized and mechanized, cutting by half the number of farm workers needed. So unemployment runs somewhere between 15 and 20 percent.  Many of the rural trailer-house compounds I saw appear to the naked eye no different from what I have seen in the Third World. There is a Caribbean look to the junked cars, electric wires crisscrossing between various outbuildings, plastic tarps substituting for replacement shingles, lean-tos cobbled together as auxiliary housing, pit bulls unleashed, and geese, goats, and chickens roaming around the yards. The public hears about all sorts of tough California regulations that stymie business — rigid zoning laws, strict building codes, constant inspections — but apparently none of that applies out here. It is almost as if the more California regulates, the more it does not regulate. Its public employees prefer to go after misdemeanors in the upscale areas to justify our expensive oversight industry, while ignoring the felonies in the downtrodden areas, which are becoming feral and beyond the ability of any inspector to do anything but feel irrelevant. But in the regulators’ defense, where would one get the money to redo an ad hoc trailer park with a spider web of illegal bare wires? Many of the rented-out rural shacks and stationary Winnebagos are on former small farms — the vineyards overgrown with weeds, or torn out with the ground lying fallow. I pass on the cultural consequences to communities from  the loss of thousands of small farming families. I don’t think I can remember another time when so many acres in the eastern part of the valley have gone out of production, even though farm prices have recently rebounded. Apparently it is simply not worth the gamble of investing $7,000 to $10,000 an acre in a new orchard or vineyard. What an anomaly — with suddenly soaring farm prices, still we have thousands of acres in the world’s richest agricultural belt, with available water on the east side of the valley and plentiful labor, gone idle or in disuse. Is credit frozen? Are there simply no more farmers? Are the schools so bad as to scare away potential agricultural entrepreneurs? Or are we all terrified by the national debt and uncertain future?

California coastal elites may worry about the oxygen content of water available to a three-inch smelt in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, but they seem to have no interest in the epidemic dumping of trash, furniture, and often toxic substances throughout California’s rural hinterland. Yesterday, for example, I rode my bike by a stopped van just as the occupants tossed seven plastic bags of raw refuse onto the side of the road. I rode up near their bumper and said in my broken Spanish not to throw garbage onto the public road. But there were three of them, and one of me. So I was lucky to be sworn at only. I note in passing that I would not drive into Mexico and, as a guest, dare to pull over and throw seven bags of trash into the environment of my host.

In fact, trash piles are commonplace out here — composed of everything from half-empty paint cans and children’s plastic toys to diapers and moldy food. I have never seen a rural sheriff cite a litterer, or witnessed state EPA workers cleaning up these unauthorized wastelands. So I would suggest to Bay Area scientists that the environment is taking a much harder beating down here in central California than it is in the Delta. Perhaps before we cut off more irrigation water to the west side of the valley, we might invest some green dollars into cleaning up the unsightly and sometimes dangerous garbage that now litters the outskirts of our rural communities.

We hear about the tough small-business regulations that have driven residents out of the state, at the rate of 2,000 to 3,000 a week. But from my unscientific observations these past weeks, it seems rather easy to open a small business in California without any oversight at all, or at least what I might call a “counter business.” I counted eleven mobile hot-kitchen trucks that simply park by the side of the road, spread about some plastic chairs, pull down a tarp canopy, and, presto, become mini-restaurants. There are no “facilities” such as toilets or washrooms. But I do frequently see lard trails on the isolated roads I bike on, where trucks apparently have simply opened their draining tanks and sped on, leaving a slick of cooking fats and oils. Crows and ground squirrels love them; they can be seen from a distance mysteriously occupied in the middle of the road.

At crossroads, peddlers in a counter-California economy sell almost anything. Here is what I noticed at an intersection on the west side last week: shovels, rakes, hoes, gas pumps, lawnmowers, edgers, blowers, jackets, gloves, and caps. The merchandise was all new. I doubt whether in high-tax California sales taxes or income taxes were paid on any of these stop-and-go transactions.

In two supermarkets 50 miles apart, I was the only one in line who did not pay with a social-service plastic card (gone are the days when “food stamps” were embarrassing bulky coupons). But I did not see any relationship between the use of the card and poverty as we once knew it: The electrical appurtenances owned by the user and the car into which the groceries were loaded were indistinguishable from those of the upper middle class.

By that I mean that most consumers drove late-model Camrys, Accords, or Tauruses, had iPhones, Bluetooths, or BlackBerries, and bought everything in the store with public-assistance credit. This seemed a world apart from the trailers I had just ridden by the day before. I don’t editorialize here on the logic or morality of any of this, but I note only that there are vast numbers of people who apparently are not working, are on public food assistance, and enjoy the technological veneer of the middle class. California has a consumer market surely, but often no apparent source of income. Does the $40 million a day supplement to unemployment benefits from Washington explain some of this?

Do diversity concerns, as in lack of diversity, work both ways? Over a hundred-mile stretch, when I stopped in San Joaquin for a bottled water, or drove through Orange Cove, or got gas in Parlier, or went to a corner market in southwestern Selma, my home town, I was the only non-Hispanic — there were no Asians, no blacks, no other whites. We may speak of the richness of “diversity,” but those who cherish that ideal simply have no idea that there are now countless inland communities that have become near-apartheid societies, where Spanish is the first language, the schools are not at all diverse, and the federal and state governments are either the main employers or at least the chief sources of income — whether through emergency rooms, rural health clinics, public schools, or social-service offices. An observer from Mars might conclude that our elites and masses have given up on the ideal of integration and assimilation, perhaps in the wake of the arrival of 11 to 15 million illegal aliens.

Again, I do not editorialize, but I note these vast transformations over the last 20 years that are the paradoxical wages of unchecked illegal immigration from Mexico, a vast expansion of California’s entitlements and taxes, the flight of the upper middle class out of state, the deliberate effort not to tap natural resources, the downsizing in manufacturing and agriculture, and the departure of whites, blacks, and Asians from many of these small towns to more racially diverse and upscale areas of California.

Fresno’s California State University campus is embroiled in controversy over the student body president’s announcing that he is an illegal alien, with all the requisite protests in favor of the DREAM Act. I won’t comment on the legislation per se, but again only note the anomaly. I taught at CSUF for 21 years. I think it fair to say that the predominant theme of the Chicano and Latin American Studies program’s sizable curriculum was a fuzzy American culpability. By that I mean that students in those classes heard of the sins of America more often than its attractions. In my home town, Mexican flag decals on car windows are far more common than their American counterparts.

I note this because hundreds of students here illegally are now terrified of being deported to Mexico. I can understand that, given the chaos in Mexico and their own long residency in the United States. But here is what still confuses me: If one were to consider the classes that deal with Mexico at the university, or the visible displays of national chauvinism, then one might conclude that Mexico is a far more attractive and moral place than the United States.

So there is a surreal nature to these protests: something like, “Please do not send me back to the culture I nostalgically praise; please let me stay in the culture that I ignore or deprecate.” I think the DREAM Act protestors might have been far more successful in winning public opinion had they stopped blaming the U.S. for suggesting that they might have to leave at some point, and instead explained why, in fact, they want to stay. What it is about America that makes a youth of 21 go on a hunger strike or demonstrate to be allowed to remain in this country rather than return to the place of his birth? 

I think I know the answer to this paradox. Missing entirely in the above description is the attitude of the host, which by any historical standard can only be termed “indifferent.” California does not care whether one broke the law to arrive here or continues to break it by staying. It asks nothing of the illegal immigrant — no proficiency in English, no acquaintance with American history and values, no proof of income, no record of education or skills. It does provide all the public assistance that it can afford (and more that it borrows for), and apparently waives enforcement of most of California’s burdensome regulations and civic statutes that increasingly have plagued productive citizens to the point of driving them out. How odd that we overregulate those who are citizens and have capital to the point of banishing them from the state, but do not regulate those who are aliens and without capital to the point of encouraging millions more to follow in their footsteps. How odd — to paraphrase what Critias once said of ancient Sparta — that California is at once both the nation’s most unfree and most free state, the most repressed and the wildest.

Hundreds of thousands sense all that and vote accordingly with their feet, both into and out of California — and the result is a sort of social, cultural, economic, and political time-bomb, whose ticks are getting louder. 

UTAH GIRLS

ADAM AT 18,500 + FEET

Kristin Andreassen - Crayola Doesn't Make A Color For Your Eyes

Some Early Lenhard Family Pictures Slideshow: Craig’s trip from Columbus, Georgia, United States to Flagstaff, Arizona was created by TripAdvisor. See another Flagstaff slideshow. Take your travel photos and make a slideshow for free.

New Little Ditty!

40 Years, 5 Children And 15 Grandchildren Slideshow: The’s trip to Columbus, Georgia, United States was created by TripAdvisor. See another Columbus slideshow. Create your own stunning free slideshow from your travel photos.

MULTICULTURALISM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnJcsQYZEGU&NR=1

SPEECH IN LA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CenRu4jfL3E&feature=related

OPENING STATEMENTS IN TRIAL TODAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZyXkiQ-vn0&feature=related

PART 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQOCcx5V9RI&hd=1

PART 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdX1qpCtlh8&hd=1

828 Glenn Beck's Little Picnic

Constitution Article 1 Section 10

 For Arizona Governor Brewer:

 No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

WITH ARM IN SLING, TUMBLE DOWN STEPS BREAKS FOOT.... TODAY'S CHUCKLE

6 WEEKS IN LEG CAST.....

10 MILE RD - GRANDMA MARY LENHARD'S HOME IN DETROIT, MI.

COPY FROM SR BUTLER HS NEWSPAPER

FOR LINDA....

WHERE IS HE TODAY?

I was reminded today in our fast and testimony meeting of some of the most touching moments in my life. Times when I realized how truly blessed I am living in these days and in this great country of ours. This is a cropped enlargement of a young man who was probably 10 years old or so sitting on the steps of a large building in Nanjing, China in the summer of 1997. I was blessed with the opportunity to experience a Fulbright Hays grant that summer that allowed me to travel some 3,500 miles throughout China. 

As our group of academics exited a large multi-story modern department store with trinkets and food in hand onto the tour bus, our attention focused upon this young man whom we saw going through a garbage can and placing wrappings from candy and foods in the paper bag seen here. You cannot imagine how I felt as I watched this youngster reaching into the sack, examining some recently acquired wrappings and then proceed to eat the paper. Some of us exited the bus and offered our recently acquired food to this young boy in a quiet, tender moment. Because our tour bus was ready to leave, I found myself hurriedly offering him a partially-eaten ice-cream sandwich. I recall the gesture of gratitude from the young man as he touched his hand to his forehead, lips and to his heart. I presume he was a Muslim beggar.

I wonder where he is today.

INTERESTING LINK

Hmmmmmmm....  check this out!

A piece of personal history

As I have been pondering how I would present items from my life story, I have returned to a basic question, most likely one of many, that has plagued me for some time.

While I was born and raised in Arizona, when I was a youngster my father and mom and I left to begin a new life in the deep South to Huntsville, Alabama.

What has been confusing me was my exact age and the dates when we actually moved. I recently recalled that while we were on our trip to the South, we stopped somewhere in the state of Arkansas and talked about a headline in a newspaper that concerned a midair collision of two airliners that had just taken place over the Grand Canyon .

With the incredible resource of today's Internet I just Googled "airline disasters" and "the Grand Canyon" and discovered that the crashes took  place on June 30, 1956. I am guessing that we must've left Flagstaff two or three days prior to that date.

Frankly, I am flabbergasted that I was only eight years old when we left Arizona! In reality I was about one month away from my ninth birthday! I really did think that I was closer to 11 years old and was in the fifth or sixth grade when I first moved into Huntsville but it does not appear that that was the case at all.

With that in mind, I found this link to a  National Public Radio story that was broadcast in 2006 on the 50th anniversary of the plane crash (or should I say plane crashes) in Grand Canyon. The events on June 30 of 1956 occurred as I rode in the back seat of a car heading to what might as well have been another planet in another part of the universe in a very frightening time in my life.

Here's the link to the actual radio broadcast.

Here is another link with pictures.

MIRACLE!!!

We have paid off our mortgage on our home...

MORE NOTES TO STUDY

 source

There are the Nag Hammadi manuscripts (Nag Hammadi is Arabic for the old monastery the Greeks called Khenoboskeion, about sixty miles north of Thebes where the Nile takes a big bend, about ten miles off the river in the eastern desert). In the same year and under very much the same circumstances in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, a peasant, while digging for fertilizer, found a special cache just like the Dead Sea Scrolls. It contained thirteen volumes, beautifully bound in leather. They weren't scrolls at all, but volumes, marvelously preserved, as if they had been written yesterday. They were regular books with pages, whose wrappings and bindings we still have. These leather bindings contained forty-nine different works, five of them repeated works. One of these thirteen volumes is in the Jung Museum in Zürich. (The museum may have to give it back to the Egyptian government. There's a big fuss going on about it now.) The other twelve are in the Old Cairo Coptic Museum in Cairo. These contain forty-nine works, written and preserved and put away in an early church, many of them going back to the First Century A.D., others to the Fourth Century A.D. Most of them are Coptic translations of Greek documents that are lost today. They have started to come out now. As with the Dead Sea Scrolls, there was a lot of political and other pressure to keep them from coming out.

This library is a marvelous thing. Van Unnik says that the books were written in a little local country church in Egypt before the apostasy ever took place—before there was any Gnosticism. They represent in certain ways the pure teachings of the Early Church. (We won't discuss this problem here.) These documents are very numerous and can be correlated with others—for example, the Mandaean texts.

Especially through the efforts of a woman called Ethel Drower (who's in her eighties now), who spent many years among the Mandaeans of southern Mesopotamia, we know something about the very secretive Mandaean religion, a last holdover of the people who came from the Dead Sea. Their traditions and their ancient writings describe them as possibly leaving the Qumran people (the Dead Sea Scroll group) at the fall of Jerusalem. They first went up to Haran, then down the river. Some two thousand or so Mandaean people remain today. They have their own language and preserve the marvelous records they've kept for all this time. The Mandaeans went down to Qumran in the time of Joseph ben Rekha (they call themselves Rekhabites). He arrived just before Lehi went out into the desert. People were doing this sort of thing in Book of Mormon days, going out into the desert to live the gospel in its purity, setting up their own churches and communities—"the church in the wilderness"—then practicing their baptisms. These doctrines were taught in those communities. The Mandaean writings relate very closely to the Nag Hammadi, and to the Dead Sea Scrolls people, too, because the Mandaeans came from there.
 --------------------------------------
I challenge you to make three meaningful statements about anything without some reference to the Physical Universe." When you start out with these basic principles of Christianity—the creation, the incarnation, the resurrection—which are all physical—how are you going to get around them?
--------------------------------------

EXCELLENT ARTICLE TO STUDY

Seven Promises to Those Who Overcome: Aspects of Genesis 2—3 in the Seven Letters

SOURCE

Richard D. Draper, and Donald W. Parry
Provo, Utah: Maxwell InstituteThe views expressed in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Maxwell Institute, Brigham Young University, or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Garden of Eden account (Genesis 2–3) is composed of several powerful symbols that look forward to or anticipate later temple systems. Biblical scholar Gordon Wenham categorizes this as "a type of archetypal sanctuary."1 For instance, the text of Genesis 2–3 explicitly identifies items directly connected to Israelite sanctuaries (including the Mosaic Tabernacle and Solomon's Temple), such as the tree of life, cherubim, sacred waters, sacred vestments, Eden's eastward orientation, and divine revelation. The Eden story also contains words and phrases used in later biblical texts that refer to the temple.2 John the Revelator used many of these same temple symbols and skillfully wove them into his letters to the seven churches (Revelation 2–3).

In this paper we compare and contrast the temple symbolism common to both Genesis 2–3 and Revelation 2–3. We point out the parallels between the two sections and then attempt to explain why John, in Revelation 2–3, used elements from the Eden story in his letters to the seven churches.

The Literary Structure of the Seven Letters
John structures the seven letters to the churches in a balanced and symmetrical configuration, comprising a seven-part pattern: (1) divine commission, (2) description of the speaker, (3) formal recognition, (4) criticism, (5) admonition, (6) call to hear, and (7) promise and blessing.3 Each of these seven parts is presented to each of the seven churches (see table 1, pp. 124–27).

Of particular concern in our paper is the seventh part: promise and blessing. Each of the seven promises and blessings begins with the anaphoric expression to him that overcometh, and each features one or more temple images directed to those who do overcome. These temple images do not simply recall Israelite temple systems as advanced in the Old and New Testaments, but they also anticipate the end time when the elect will gain access to the temple in heaven (compare Revelation 7:15; 14:15, 17; 16:17).

Seven key themes listed in the promise and blessing sections of Revelation 2–3 correspond to the Garden of Eden story in Genesis 2–3:

1. the tree of life (Genesis 2:17; Revelation 2:7)

2. physical death (Genesis 2:17; 3:3) and the second death (Revelation 2:11)

3. bread (Genesis 3:19) and hidden manna (Revelation 2:17)

4. dominion (Genesis 1:28; Revelation 2:26)

5. sacred vestments (Genesis 3:21; Revelation 3:5)

6. expulsion (Genesis 3:23–24) and return (Revelation 3:12)

7. receiving names (Genesis 2:23; 3:20; 5:2; Revelation 2:17; 3:12)4

These promises and blessings to the seven churches clearly apply to the church in John's day as well as to our church today. "The whole church seems to be meant. . . . The instruction to each church was universal for it tells 'what the Spirit is saying to the churches'—all the churches."5 We will now examine these seven key themes.

1. The Tree of Life (Genesis 2:17; Revelation 2:7)
God placed many trees in the Garden of Eden, including the trees of life and knowledge. According to the record, "out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:9). According to an ancient source, the tree of knowledge was also known as the tree of death,6 for it brought death to Adam and Eve when they partook of the fruit: "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:16–17).

Once Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of the tree of death, God did not allow them to partake of the fruit of the tree of life:

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever . . . the Lord God . . . placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22–24)

Although Adam and Eve transgressed and were denied access to the tree of life, we learn that those who overcome the world will be able to partake of the fruit. The Lord promised the Saints of Sardis, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God" (Revelation 2:7). By overcoming the world, church members could return to life, but they first had to reach the tree, which was in the midst of sacred space. For the modern Saint to get to the tree, he or she must first visit the temple and partake of its glorious ordinances. 

The tree of life icon in Israelite temple society is evident in the tabernacle menorah, or seven-branched lamp stand.7 The menorah was a stylized tree of life.

And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side: Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick. And in the candlestick shall be four bowls like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers. And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick. Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all it shall be one beaten work of pure gold. And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it. (Exodus 25:31–37)

The menorah must have looked like a tree, possessing seven branches (a number of symbolic significance to the Israelite community)8 and a number of flowers (almond blossoms?).

The tree of life was present in the garden, and a symbolic representation of the tree of life—in the form of a seven-branched lamp stand—was present in the Israelite temples. John's imagery suggests that the only way to reach this tree and thus eternal life is by going to the temple. In effect, the tree of life suggests that the fall of Adam has been surmounted; spiritual death can no longer claim the individual who obeys God.

2. Physical Death (Genesis 2:17; 3:3) and the Second Death (Revelation 2:11)
Physical death results in the "body without the spirit" (James 2:26). The "second death" (Jacob 3:11)—called "spiritual death" (Helaman 14:18) or "everlasting death" (Alma 12:32)—pertains to those who die in sin (see Alma 12:16), who "die as to things . . . of righteousness" (Alma 40:26), or who are "cut off from the presence of the Lord" (Alma 42:9). This second death is the penalty for doing evil (see Alma 12:32). As President Joseph F. Smith explained,

Thanks be to the eternal Father, through the merciful provisions of the gospel, all mankind will have the opportunity of escape, or deliverance, from this spiritual death, either in time or in eternity, for not until they are freed from the first can they become subject unto the second death, still if they repent not "they cannot be redeemed from their spiritual fall," and will continue subject to the will of Satan, the first spiritual death, so long as "they repent not, and thereby reject Christ and his gospel."9

After partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, Adam and Eve brought both physical and spiritual death into the world. Alma instructed his son that "it was appointed unto man to die—therefore, as they [Adam and Eve] were cut off from the tree of life they should be cut off from the face of the earth— . . . And now, ye see by this that our first parents were cut off both temporally and spiritually from the presence of the Lord" (Alma 42:6–7). This fall "brought upon all mankind a spiritual death as well as a temporal" (Alma 42:9; see D&C 29:40–43).

Death in the Garden of Eden corresponds to a statement in John's letter to the church of Smyrna: the Revelator promises that "he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death" (Revelation 2:11). Through Christ's atoning sacrifice and resurrection, all mankind will receive a resurrection, or a reuniting of body with spirit. This resurrected body will be immortal. Also through Christ's atonement, repentant individuals overcome spiritual death. Alma summarizes: "the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead; and the resurrection of the dead bringeth back men into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence" (Alma 42:23).

Note that in 1 Corinthians 15:22, Adam and Christ are connected but contrasted: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Similarly, a relationship between Adam and Christ is identified in Mormon 9:12–13:

Behold, he created Adam, and by Adam came the fall of man. And because of the fall of man came Jesus Christ, even the Father and the Son; and because of Jesus Christ came the redemption of man. And because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ, they are brought back into the presence of the Lord.
In 1 Corinthians 15:45, Adam is called the "first man Adam" and Christ is referred to as the "last Adam," again linking the two.

In the primal temple (the Garden of Eden), Adam and Eve did not overcome the temptations of Satan and consequently subjected themselves and their posterity to physical death; in the last temple (heavenly), however, all who overcome through Christ will not remain subject to the second death.

3. Bread (Genesis 3:19) and Hidden Manna (Revelation 2:17)

Bread, sometimes called the staff of life, was a vital foodstuff for sustaining life in the biblical world, and for that matter in many parts of the world through all ages. It is a common and important symbol of both physical and spiritual sustenance, as many scriptures testify. Every Sabbath in the Israelite temple (see Leviticus 24:5–9), priests consumed twelve loaves of bread (called shewbread; see Exodus 25:30). This bread anticipated the Lord's sacrament, which is composed of broken bread, signifying Christ's body ("Take, eat; this is my body," Matthew 26:26), and water or wine, symbolizing Christ's blood. The shewbread, the cereal offering in the temple, "the manna which fed the Israelites in the desolate deserts of Sinai, the . . . bread [fed] to the multitudes on the shores of Galilee, and the bread of the sacrament are but figures of the 'true bread,' which is the body of the Savior."10 To his Old World disciples Jesus taught, "The bread that I will give is my flesh" (John 6:51), and to the Nephites, "He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul" (3 Nephi 20:8).

Jesus explained, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst" (John 6:35). Also, "if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever," he shall be raised "up at the last day," he shall have "eternal life" or "everlasting life," and "he that eateth me, even he shall live by me" (John 6:51, 44, 54, 47, 57). The parallels between physical bread made of yeast and flour and spiritual bread are clear: one sustains physical life and the other provides eternal life.

Manna, which was "like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey" (Exodus 16:31), was called "the corn of heaven," "angels' food" (Psalm 78:24–25), and "bread" (Exodus 16:15). Manna, like bread, typified the eternal life that Jesus Christ provides to repentant souls through his atonement. Jesus explained to his followers, "I am [the] bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever" (John 6:48–51). Note that the wilderness manna and Christ both "came down from heaven" and both provide life to partakers; one provides physical life and the other spiritual.

God commanded Moses to place a jar of manna in the temple's ark of the covenant (see Exodus 16:32–34; Hebrews 9:4) where, hidden from view, it became a memorial of God's sustaining Israel in the wilderness. Manna is mentioned in John's seven letters to the seven churches, where the Lord told the Saints of Pergamos: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna" (Revelation 2:17). Christ is the manna for those who overcome.

The parallels between the wilderness manna and the hidden manna of Revelation are apparent. The first was hidden from view in the tabernacle's holy of holies; the second is hidden from view in the celestial holy of holies. The wilderness manna provided physical life to those who partook; the hidden manna provides spiritual life to those who repent and accept the atonement.

After their transgression, Adam and Eve were removed from the Edenic temple setting and were required to work the ground in order to obtain bread for sustenance. The Lord told Adam that after his transgression the ground was cursed for his sake, that he would eat foods produced from the ground "all the days of [his] life" or "till [he] return[s] unto the ground," and that he "in sorrow" would "eat bread" in the "sweat of [his] face" (Genesis 3:17, 19). The atonement of Christ reverses this process for those who repent, and Jesus thus becomes eternal sustenance to the righteous, who will return to the temple of heaven to dwell eternally.

4. Dominion (Genesis 1:28; Revelation 2:26)

When God contemplated the creation of humankind, he determined that dominion would be theirs.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26–28)

Adam began to exercise that dominion while yet in the primal temple setting. "Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof" (Genesis 2:19). By naming the animals, Adam demonstrated his ascendancy. This dominion continued, to an extent, when this couple was driven from the garden into the telestial sphere.

What does dominion mean in these verses? Hugh Nibley, in his article "Man's Dominion," explains that "the ancients taught that Adam's dominion was nothing less than the priesthood, the power to act for God and in his place."11 This agrees with Brigham Young's teaching that "the Spirit of the Lord and the keys of the priesthood hold power over all animated beings."12 Nibley summarizes that "man's dominion is a call to service, not a license to exterminate."13

This earthly and temporal dominion is a type or shadow that points forward to the eternal dominion that exalted souls will possess. John wrote to the church of Thyatira: "to him who overcometh, and keepeth my commandments unto the end, will I give power over many kingdoms" (Revelation 2:26 JST). The dominion of the Saints is no longer limited to the animal kingdom. It spreads to the human kingdom as well. In the heavenly temple God expands the authority given in the primal temple.

5. Sacred Vestments (Genesis 3:21; Revelation 3:5)
The fifth parallel between the garden story and John's promise and blessing to the various congregations grows out of God's last act shortly before expelling Adam and Eve from the garden. "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats [garments] of skins, and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21). Note God's careful attention to the sacred clothing—he does not delegate the making of the garments and the dressing of the couple to an angel or another but carries out these divine acts himself.

There are two chief connections between the garments of skins and Christ's atoning sacrifice. First, ancient tradition suggests that the skin garments were made of sheep's wool.14 Wool reminds us of Jesus Christ and his atonement, for the scriptures refer to sacrificial lambs that typify Jesus' death.15 Christ also is called "our passover" (1 Corinthians 5:7), the "Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), and the "lamb without blemish" (1 Peter 1:19). Other scriptural images also relate the lamb to Christ's sacrifice (see, for example, Isaiah 1:18). Second, the English word atonement (at-one-ment) originated from the Hebrew word kaphar, which means "to cover." When the Lord covered Adam and Eve with garments of skin, he was, as it were, covering or protecting them by the power of his atonement. Though leaving the presence of God, they were not leaving his protection.16

The apostle Paul perhaps had the idea of kaphar or "covering" in mind when he wrote the following statements: "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27); "let us put on the armour of light" (Romans 13:12); "this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:53); and "put on the new man" (Ephesians 4:24, emphasis added in each instance).

The garments of skin may be for this world only (compare JS—H 1:31), but the Lord promised the church at Sardis, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels" (Revelation 3:5). The color of the garment is important. The Greek leukos denotes brilliance, the state of heavenly splendor, the state of innocence and purity. The brilliant, white garment covers those who enter the sacred space of God. As God clothed Adam and Eve for their journey through mortality, he now clothes those who overcome the world for their journey through eternity.

6. Expulsion (Genesis 3:23–24) and Return (Revelation 3:12)
The sixth parallel centers on the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden, because "the man is become as one of us [the gods], to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden" (Genesis 3:22–23). Adam's punishment for his transgression was death, so he was forced to leave the Garden of Eden, where he "must have remained forever, and had no end" (2 Nephi 2:22). But not all was lost. To the Saints of Philadelphia, the Lord promised, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out" (Revelation 3:12). Again John emphasizes that the key to reentering God's sacred dwelling is overcoming the world. In this covenant, however, God promises the Saints more than a "place" in his heavenly kingdom, for they become a part of sacred space, never to leave its environs.

7. Receiving Names (Genesis 2:23; 3:20; 5:2; Revelation 2:17; 3:12)

The seventh and final parallel between Genesis 2–3 and Revelation 2–3 deals with the reception of sacred names for Adam and Eve (in Genesis) and for those who overcome the world (in Revelation). It was God who gave to Adam and Eve—that is, to the man and the woman—their names while yet in their paradisiacal setting. According to Genesis, "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created" (Genesis 5:1–2). This title not only designated the first pair, but also their descendants. Thus God named humankind at the beginning of the world, giving it the name Adam.

At the end of world, God will give a new name to those who overcome. Indeed, he who overcomes shall receive a threefold name: "I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name" (Revelation 3:12). No longer will the Saint be Adam, but he or she shall possess the very name of the Father and the Son, the name of God's city, the New Jerusalem (meaning they will be inhabitants of that city), and the new name. This new name, however, is that of the Lord, and thus it identifies the recipient with him. In this way they become heirs of God and Christ, receiving the full power and glory with the Son.

John referred to the new name (see Revelation 2:17; compare D&C 130:9–10) and promised that the name of the righteous would not be blotted out of the book of life (see Revelation 3:5).

Conclusion
Having listed the parallels (see table 2), we can now postulate why these correlations exist between the garden story and the letters to the seven churches. John drew his readers' attention to the temple esoterica found in Genesis 2–3. The letters were to sound a warning to the church as a whole. Apostasy was running full steam, fueled by false prophets and apostles. Entire branches were ignorantly or willfully being overrun by it. The message to the churches sounded a clear warning that God would abandon them unless they returned to him. Each congregation was responsible to stop the spread of heresy, hold on to the truth, and thereby gain salvation. The book Opening the Seven Seals explains:

From the context of the letters, the Church's spiritual life foundered in six areas. Two were external: a willingness to compromise with paganism and a denial of Christianity due to Jewish harassment. Four were internal: the acceptance of unauthorized leaders, approval of false doctrine promulgated by pseudo-prophets, halfheartedness and indifference, and a loss of love for the Church and her Master. Succumbing to any one of these would have sounded the death knell for the Church.17

John reached out to warn and hold them, choosing the most powerful imagery he could—temple imagery. The trial of the Saints in Asia Minor became a kind of microcosm for the problem the Saints faced everywhere: overcoming the world while facing forces that would take them away from God. John's readers lived in the fallen world and felt the effects of that fall. John encouraged them by promising a return to sacred space.

After having left the divine temple of Eden, humankind could, by overcoming the world, once more enter into sacred space and enjoy the blessings of the eternal paradise, the temple in heaven. Our contemporary temples, of course, serve to reverse the direction of our (Adam and Eve's) path toward the second death and destruction. Our temples assist us in partaking of the power of Christ (the hidden manna), gaining dominion in the eternal world, acquiring the sacred vestments, receiving the sacred name, and returning to the tree of life and to God's presence.

Notes
1. Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1–15, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 1 (Waco, Tex.: Word Books, 1987), 86. On the temple symbols in the Garden of Eden, see Donald W. Parry, "Garden of Eden: Prototype Sanctuary," in Temples of the Ancient World: Ritual and Symbolism, ed. Donald W. Parry (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1994), 126–51.
2. Examples of three phrases used in connection with the temple are found in Parry, "Garden of Eden," 143–45.
3. We have simplified certain elements in this seven-part pattern.
4. We could, of course, present other parallels between these two texts, but in the context of this paper we will examine only these seven.
5. Richard D. Draper, Opening the Seven Seals: The Visions of John the Revelator (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1991), 37.
6. See Ingvild S. Gilhus, "The Tree of Life and the Tree of Death: A Study of Gnostic Symbols," Journal of Religion and Religions 17 (1987): 337–53. Gilhus writes that the "Tree of Knowledge is here made equivalent to a Tree of Death," and this Tree of Death "created death for those who ate of it" (p. 341).
7. See Carol L. Meyers, The Tabernacle Menorah: A Synthetic Study of a Symbol from the Biblical Cult (Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1976), 165–79. Note that in Revelation 1:12–13, John "saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man." These seven golden candlesticks, John is informed, represent the "seven churches" (Revelation 1:20).
8. See John W. Welch, "The Temple in the Book of Mormon," in Temples of the Ancient World, 353, 384 n. 85.
9. Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1986), 15.
10. Joseph Fielding McConkie and Donald W. Parry, A Guide to Scriptural Symbols (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1990), 25.
11. Hugh W. Nibley, "Man's Dominion, or Subduing the Earth," in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1994), 7.
12. Elden J. Watson, Manuscript History of Brigham Young 1846–1847 (Salt Lake City: Watson, 1971), 142 (26 April 1846).
13. Nibley, "Man's Dominion," 18.
14. See Stephen D. Ricks, "The Garment of Adam," in Temples of the Ancient World, 706. Latter-day Saint scholars have pointed out that these sacred vestments may be garments of "light" rather than "skin," based on ancient writings, and because the two Hebrew words are homonyms, differing only in the initial character ‘ôr (skin) and ’ôr (light). See ibid., and John A. Tvedtnes, "Priestly Clothing in Bible Times," in Temples of the Ancient World, 651–54. Ricks, "The Garment of Adam," 706, explains, "Probably the oldest rabbinic traditions include the view that God gave garments to Adam and Eve before the Fall but that these were not garments of skin . . . but instead garments of light."
15. See McConkie and Parry, A Guide to Scriptural Symbols, 141–42: "In six ways the sacrificial lamb was a type of Jesus Christ. 1) No bones of the lamb were to be broken (Ps. 34:20; Ex. 12:46; John 19:36). 2) The lamb must be perfect (Mal. 1:7–14; 3 Ne. 12:48). 3) The lamb must be without blemish (Ex. 12:5; Heb. 7:26–27; 1 Pet. 2:22). 4) The flesh of the lamb was to be eaten (Ex. 12:8; John 6:53–55). 5) The lamb must be the firstborn (Ex. 13:2; D&C 93:21). 6) The lamb must be a male (Ex. 12:5; Matt. 1:21)."
16. For the physical and spiritual protection offered to the wearer by the garments, see Tvedtnes, "Priestly Clothing in Bible Times," 659–61.
17. Draper, Opening the Seven Seals, 37.

THESE TINY FISH HAVE ELECTRIC TAILS!

AQUARIUM'S ELECTRIC CEILING

Jellyfish Race

Also taken in Atlanta yesterday. (no Photoshopping)

Image from Yesterday

This was taken 2/11/10 at Georgia Atlanta Aquarium.
(no Photoshopping.)

THE NEWLYWEDS-- Brad & Mallory Ivey!!!!

CARPET IN MEXICAN AFTERNOON

IAN FAIRBANKS

CHRISTUS--- MEXICAN CHURCH

MEXICO MADDI SMILES

RYLIE STRUTS HER STUFF IN MEXICO

MEXICAN STREET MIMES

THIS LADY'S WORK IS TERRIFIC!

CHECK THIS OUT

ALLIGATOR TURTLE

Took this picture of an Alligator Turtle, about 40 pounds, 20 inch wide shell, heading toward the Chattahoochee River, Phenix City side, October 3, 2009. While stalking this monster, I realized that many animal shots involving action or motion are much more difficult if they see you: they may freeze, trying to remain motionless! (Duh)

AT THE RIVERWALK 10/09

SPORTS ACTION

September 11, 2009 Midland vs. Blackmon Road
copyright lenhard 9/2009