Category: God

Who Is the End-time Servant?

This paper builds on a previous discussion on the Zion Media podcast on You Tube (https://youtu.be/YUi47tPy6Jc), which showed that the end-time servant is not Jesus Christ, nor Joseph Smith. I won’t repeat that discussion, but I would like to present what I believe to be overwhelming evidence for why this servant is a particular individual. Even if you don’t agree with my choice, I bet you can’t find anybody who fits the role better.

I have been working and praying about this for years. I knew I had it, and the Lord confirmed it, but there were some contradictions that I couldn’t resolve. But thanks to LDC (“Latter-day Chad” on the above podcast), he pointed out some things that I should have noticed, but didn’t. The contradictions are now resolved.

We can never study the fundamentals of the Gospel too much: faith, repentance, baptisms of water, fire, and the Holy Ghost. You should study 2 Nephi 31 and 32 and 3 Nephi 11, constantly and put what you learn into practice. You should live and grow by faith and repentance every day – not repenting of the same things every day, but constantly growing and improving. Like the hymn says, your “knowledge and power of God [should be] expanding”. You should seek earnestly for the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost and your second comforter. I have received both, and I can testify that they are real; the Lord truly wants a two-way relationship with each of us. The First Epistle of the Apostle John teaches that the early Apostles each had fellowship with the Lord and encourages all to do likewise, and enjoy that same fellowship.

We are also encouraged by the scriptures to search them, and to seek to know the mysteries. A mystery is not something you can never know or are not supposed to know. Many mysteries are right there in plain sight in the scriptures. Jesus told us to keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. We can trust Him. He will never upbraid us, let us be deceived, refuse to answer, or give us a principle or commandment that we are not prepared to live. In this paper, I will explore one of those mysteries. To unveil it, I will rely on the words of the Lord, given through the prophets, both ancient and modern.

https://john144.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/who-is-the-servant.docx

The Nature of God

When you read the Book of Mormon and the Lectures on Faith and compare them with some of Joseph Smith’s later speeches like King Follett and Plurality of Gods, some people notice an apparent difference in the description of God, and claim he “evolved”. I never believed this, but I never knew enough to prove it. Now, I do. Thanks to prayer, revelation, scripture study, and a few good ideas from other sources. If this were just a theory, I would call it “The Unified Theory on God”, but it is more than a theory. It is truth, and it ties together so many separate conflicting ideas about God. I thought it was a mystery and I couldn’t reveal it, but something prompted me to tell it to somebody on Facebook. He said “You nailed it.” I told it to somebody else who said “But, isn’t that obvious?” Then, I started writing it up, and I discovered a Mormon philosopher who had thoughts along the same lines.

This is not the trinity.  This is not Adam-God. This is not what the church teaches. But this is what the scriptures teach.

I recommend you download both documents (about 35 pages each) and read them in order.

The Nature of God

The thing you must realize about anything you are taught about God is subject to bias: your own and that of the writer or speaker. Even if we receive something directly from God, we must take into account our own culture, understanding, and traditions and seek as much as possible to eliminate those from the pure truth we receive. We must realize also that God can also speak to us in terms of our culture and understanding in order to get a truth across to us. So much of what any church teaches us: traditional Christianity, or restored Mormonism, is based on somebody’s interpretation or translation of scripture. Given all of this, we have to be constantly discerning for truth.


Blake Thomas Ostler is an American philosopher, theologian, and lawyer. He has written numerous articles on the topics of Mormon theology, philosophy, and thought. This paper deserves to be better known and find a more prominent place in Mormon thought.


Blake Ostler offers a new way to perceive God and the Godhead, based on scriptural evidence, which I believe is much more truthful than the traditional Christian or Mormon interpretations of God. It resonates with the scriptures, with what Joseph Smith taught, and with my understanding of what the Lord is teaching me. Do not mistake any of what you have previously heard or read or what you will now read for the final word about what God is. Instead, take it as a giant step forward in our understanding of God and our quest to know Him, and thus, obtain Life Eternal. Then, having built on a better foundation, I heartily invite you to continue your search for God and obtain an even greater understanding. But, to know God is more than just to know about God. You actually have to understand the heart and mind of God. I hope this discussion of the mechanics of God helps you somewhat to both know and love God in a better more complete way.

Re-vision-ing the Mormon Concept of Deity

Adam-God

This paper presents an analysis of Adam-God, sometimes called “doctrine”, sometimes called a “mystery”, sometimes called “a theory”, sometimes renounced or condemned as “false doctrine”. Strictly speaking, the Hebrew word Adam means “man”, and we know from the teachings of Joseph Smith, and if we could search deeply within ourselves, we would know that we (as “man” or humankind) have our roots in God, will eventually return to God, and we are manifestation of God in this world. The problem is if we try to do what Brigham did: whenever we find the word “God” anywhere in the Gospel, substitute “Adam”, the name for that specific personality, the husband of Eve, the first flesh upon the earth, in place of the God we worship, and the God which we are trying to become like, we run into a lot of difficulties reconciling the two. Brigham Young saw some of those difficulties and fabricated unsupported, unscriptural, and downright false doctrine on the fly in order to justify his conclusions. The result was a doctrinal disaster and an embarrassment to the church. The church gradually retreated from this doctrine, but the core implications of this doctrine remain and continue to haunt the church today. https://john144.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/adam-god-theory-or-doctrine.pdf

Love

Loving Jesus is the ONLY thing that you can do with ALL your heart, ALL your might, ALL your mind, and ALL your strength. Anything else we love, or anything else we do, we cannot do it with the same level of purity and dedication. We cannot even love sin with all our heart, might, mind, and strength.

The reason for this is because there will always be a part of us that is still tied to the Christ, no matter what else we do.

Our eye cannot be single to anything else, so why not adjust our focus, our aim and place our affection (heart), our faith (might), our loyalty (mind), and our effort (strength) on the one place where it is possible to be single-pointed? He is the only thing worthy of our attention, our time, and our service.

As one protestant man who received his Second Comforter said: I want to serve Him because He deserves to be served.

My response to the recent conference and darn near every conference.

I think it is only fair that I explain why I advise LGBTQ people who are unhappy with the Mormon church and the way it is treating them to leave. I am not saying it to demean the LDS church, or to be mean-spirited. I am saying it because there might be an alternative, which some might find attractive and doable. I have not spelled out this alternative in the past because I was hoping somebody would figure it out on their own, but so far no one has. This post is an attempt to spell it out in the hopes that somebody will take the suggestion. It’s a pretty outrageous suggestion, but I am asking you to at least consider it for a second.

If you would like be part of a group of true followers of Christ, who want to honor their covenants and serve God and form eternal family units, but are prevented from doing so by a church that considers you and your friends as outcasts and apostates, then read on.

If you are looking to remain in a church where the main purpose is not serving the Lord, not building Zion, not honoring and strengthening your relationships, or not helping one another, regardless of one’s identity, but instead supporting a corporate hierarchy, or putting forward some political agenda, then this post would be of no interest to you.

If you are looking to serve the Lord, exercise your Priesthood, serve others, build Zion, and fulfill your covenants, in the most effective way possible, may I suggest that you approach the Lord in prayer, state your plight, and ask for further light and knowledge as to how to proceed.

Many people say that they have received revelation from the Lord that it is OK to be LGBTQ. I can tell you that it is OK, provided you abide by all your other covenants, to the extent that your church permits you to do so. But, there is so much more available to you. If you are willing to pray and ask the Lord whether He is willing to invite you to do more.

This is exactly what a group of gay and Lesbian ex-Mormons did in 1985. Our prayers were answered. We wanted to serve the Lord. We wanted to meet and partake of the Sacrament and teach and bear testimony to one another, but the way was hedged up, and we were at an impasse. There was no human way out of our situation, so we turned to divine help.

We started receiving revelation — not just one person, but four or five different individuals. The revelations told us only to organize ourselves into Priesthood quorums and ad hoc family units, and join faithful, stable, and worthy couples in temple marriage.

Most of us were Priesthood holders who were formerly LDS, but we did not consider ourselves a “break-away” group. (1) We were driven out. and (2) We were given a completely new dispensation of keys and authority, by revelation, and in a manner described by Joseph Smith and revealed in the D&C.

In the early days of our organization, we received many revelations about how to proceed in our unique situation. We extended the blessings of the Priesthood and the Temple to our members. We build a small temple/tabernacle structure and dedicated it. Despite our poverty and the meager surroundings, the feeling inside the temple space was the same feeling you get in a regular LDS temple. During the dedicatory service, several members reporting seeing angels. Angels were also seen in some of our temple services and sacrament meetings.

As long as we were seeking direction from the Lord, things were going great. I want to caution and emphasize that as some of the leadership desired to seek positions of personal power, and return to the LDS corporate, hierarchical model, the Lord warned us that we were “following the arm of flesh”. We persisted anyway, and the heyday of the church lasted only about a year and a half. The church continued to dwindle and linger for another 25 years, sometimes having as few as 2 remaining members. Eventually, the president of the church died, and the remaining leadership scattered.

The organization failed because we collectively, and not individually, failed to listen to the Lord’s counsel. Every day I read stories about LGBTQ Mormons, DADT, DOMA, HIV/AIDS, suicides, same-sex marriage, and I regret not having made the difference we could have made in peoples’ lives, had we continued.

It may be that the Lord has given us our one and only chance. Or, it may be that He is willing to take another chance on us. But, whether He is willing to invest in another organization and suffering through their learning curve, is not for me to say. There are plenty of affirming churches out there, if you want to join Community of Christ, or Reform Mormons, or any number of organizations. The Lord may direct you to stay in the LDS church, or join any of these other groups, or remain on your own. Or, take a look at the possibility I am offering. The Lord has much more available for you, if you will take it. The choice is yours.

In the Church of Jesus Christ of ALL Latter-day Saints (aka Restoration Church of Jesus Christ), the Lord communicated his love for us over-abundantly, and in return, we sought occasion against one another, and thought it more important to be the greatest in the Kingdom instead of being humble servants.

I once prayed and asked the Lord for forgiveness, as we had allowed His name to be dragged through the mud. He asked me, “Did you learn anything?” I said, “I certainly did.” Then, He said, “Then, it was all worth it.”

Would I personally try and start another group today? No. That experience still has me gun-shy, and, most importantly, I have received no confirmation from the Lord to do so. In fact, quite the contrary.

Instead, I am offering you a chance to go to the Lord and inquire about small, intimate fellowships, while adamantly warning you of the dangers of forming a church. But, if the Lord does direct you to do something, I would strongly advice you to humbly seek revelation and direction every step of the way, even if people criticize you for doing so.

I would also advise you to learn the Gospel and teach it. Learn the Doctrine of Christ, as taught in the Book of Mormon, and teach that. Teach people to make and keep covenants with God and with each other.

There are now other people out here “in the wild” seeking to live the Doctrine of Christ, and forming small intimate fellowships, which act as ad hoc families, the same as we started out doing in the Restoration Church. But, these people are focused on coming to know and become like Christ, following the teachings of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, the Bible, and the Lectures on Faith. They are preparing themselves as a covenant people, looking forward to the day when the Lord will bring again Zion, preparatory to the Second Coming of Christ.

The Gospel isn’t complex at all. It’s deceptively simple. But, it is strict and exacting. It isn’t to make you comfortable or affirm you, though these might be by-products. Focus on the Goal. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all the rest will be added to you. It’s a matter of where your focus lies.

The purpose of the Gospel is to change you and make you more Christ-like, and to build up His kingdom on earth in preparation for Zion and His Second Coming. You have a chance to engage in a work where your gender or sexuality is simply not an issue. You should expect to be neither shunned nor fawned over. It is simply not an issue. Of course, we comfort one another and bear one anothers’ burdens. But, we should support others’ burdens, not create them.

Mother

I know through revelation that Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother hear ans answer prayers as one. But, last night, I asked Mother to step out from behind the curtain and say what She had to say to me.

The first thing I felt was a very strong and powerful presence. I have felt this when I’ve felt Mother once before. She is something to be dealt with. Father is the soft touch. Together, they magnify and moderate each other.

Then, She said something to me that I will not repeat. But, what She said was something every mother should say, and every son wants to hear. It was a voice that knew and recognized me, and one that I knew and recognized.

I will never forget what she said, and for the rest of my, whenever I think about it, I will weep.

Now, go and find out what She has to say to you.