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Is Kolob a star or a planet?

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  • Is Kolob a star or a planet?

    Writers in the Latter Day Saint movement have taken positions on both sides of the issue of whether Kolob is a star or a planet. Brigham Young, second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), spoke of Kolob as a planet.[21] Likewise, LDS Church apostles John Taylor,[22] Orson Pratt (a mathematician with an interest in astronomy),[23] Orson F. Whitney,[24] and Alvin R. Dyer[25] referred to Kolob as a planet. Other Mormon theologians have also viewed Kolob as a planet.[26] Several other Mormon writers have referred to Kolob as a star, including B. H. Roberts[27] and LDS Church president David O. McKay.[28]

    21. Young (1851) (describing Kolob as "the planet nearest unto the habitation of the Eternal Father"); Young (1853, p. 652) ("Why cannot we behold the inhabitants of Kolob or the inhabitants of any of those distant planets?").
    22.Jump up ^ Taylor (1857, pp. 1001–02) ("Thou longed, thou sighed and thou prayed to thy Father in heaven for the time to arrive when thou couldst come to this earth, which had fled and fallen from where it was first organized, near the planet Kolob.").
    23.Jump up ^ Pratt (1866, p. 561) (referring to "a certain world, called Kolob, whose diurnal rotation on its axis equals one thousand of our years"); Pratt (1873, p. 317) (referring to "a certain great world, called Kolob, placed near one of the celestial kingdoms, whose diurnal rotation takes place once in a thousand of our years").
    24.Jump up ^ Whitney (1907, p. 48) ("But there is a great planet called Kolob, nearest to the throne of God."); Whitney (1920, p. 83) ("Joseph Smith taught that there is a great planet named Kolob, nearest the Celestial Throne, and that it revolves once in a thousand years."); Whitney (1930, p. 392) (referring to Kolob as "a mighty governing planet nearest the Celestial Throne, a planet revolving once in a thousand years").
    25.Jump up ^ Alvin R. Dyer, "BYU Speeches", April 7, 1964, pp. 14–15 ("As yet we do not know where the planet Kolob is located, but it, as well as the throne of God, must be a tremendous distance from the earth. Any personage coming from the presence of God would need to travel a tremendous distance to reach earth.").
    26.^ Jump up to: a b Andrus (1968).
    27. Roberts (1923, p. 434) (referring to Kolob as "some very distant, far off central sun").
    28. Jump up ^ David O. McKay, "Conference Report", October 1969, Improvement Era (referring to Kolob as a great star "somewhere out in the great expanse of space").

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

  • #2
    It's always fun to read how FairMormon.org treats bizarre stuff like this:

    Source: fairmormon.org

    "Kolob" is the name given to the star closest to the throne of God in Abraham 3:3. It is introduced in an effort to teach Abraham that there is a hierarchy in all things. There are many stars, and one star is "closest" to God. In a similar way, there are many intelligences, or moral agents, some greater than others. The greatest of these is God.

    Thus, "Kolob" is introduced in a rather peripheral way in an effort to teach about the supremacy of God:

    Howbeit that he made the greater star; as, also, if there be two spirits, and one shall be more intelligent than the other...And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all. (Abraham 3:18-19, italics added)

    In an effort to make the Church look bizarre, many critics mock the idea of "God living on the planet Kolob." This is false as God does not live on Kolob. Kolob plays no real role in LDS doctrine or discourse. The only other mention comes from a 19th century hymn, which uses Kolob in its first line to describe the glorious life of those who return to God:[2]

    There is no end to glory;
    There is no end to love;
    There is no end to being;
    There is no death above.

    Because LDS theology believes in a God with a physical body, it is not surprising that one might speak of God's location in physical space. Creedal Christian critics who believe in a God without "body, parts, or passions" exploit this difference in perspective to make LDS beliefs seem blasphemous or bizarre. But, to speak of God as having location is no more strange than to speak of Jesus' physical location in Bethlehem or Jerusalem during His mortal life.

    © Copyright Original Source



    So, how does FairMormon treat the bizarre notion of planet / star kolob? By saying that creedal Christians try to make the Church sound bizarre by pointing to bizarre stuff like kolob.
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

    Comment


    • #3
      who lives on Kolob?

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Sparko View Post
        who lives on Kolob?
        Kolobites
        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

        Comment


        • #5
          Wasn't that a planet in star wars?
          "Kahahaha! Let's get lunatic!"-Add LP
          "And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin is pride that apes humility"-Samuel Taylor Coleridge
          Oh ye of little fiber. Do you not know what I've done for you? You will obey. ~Cerealman for Prez.

          Comment


          • #6
            "I will tell you who the real fanatics are: they are they who adopt false principles and ideas as facts, and try to establish a superstructure upon, a false foundation. They are the fanatics; and however ardent and zealous they may be, they may reason or argue on false premises till doomsday, and the result will be false. If our religion is of this character we want to know it; we would like to find a philosopher who can prove it to us. We are called ignorant; so we are: but what of it? Are not all ignorant? I rather think so. Who can tell us of the inhabitants of this little planet that shines of an evening, called the moon? When we view its face we may see what is termed "the man in the moon," and what some philosophers declare are the shadows of mountains. But these sayings are very vague, and amount to nothing; and when you inquire about the inhabitants of that sphere you find that the most learned are as ignorant in regard to them as the most ignorant of their fellows. So it is with regard to the inhabitants of the sun. Do you think it is inhabited? I rather think it is. Do you think there is any life there? No question of it; it was not made in vain. It was made to give light to those who dwell upon it, and to other planets; and so will this earth when it is celestialized. Every planet in its first rude, organic state receives not the glory of God upon it, but is opaque; but when celestialized, every planet that God brings into existence is a body of light, but not till then. Christ is the light of this planet." - Journal of Discourses Vol. 13, p.271.
            The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Cerealman View Post
              Wasn't that a planet in star wars?
              battlestar galactica, and it was changed to Kobol. BSG had a lot of mormon imagery and themes in it (the original series)

              Comment


              • #8
                A planet, a star.....a death star.....who knows.....
                I am Punkinhead.

                "I have missed you, Oh Grand High Priestess of the Order of the Stirring Pot"

                ~ Cow Poke aka CP aka Creacher aka ke7ejx's apprentice....

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by ke7ejx View Post
                  A planet, a star.....a death star.....who knows.....
                  General Kolob sounds like a perfect name for the commander of a Death Star.

                  I'm always still in trouble again

                  "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                  "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                  "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by rogue06 View Post
                    General Kolob sounds like a perfect name for the commander of a Death Star.
                    Yeah, could be fun.
                    I am Punkinhead.

                    "I have missed you, Oh Grand High Priestess of the Order of the Stirring Pot"

                    ~ Cow Poke aka CP aka Creacher aka ke7ejx's apprentice....

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Let's not forget the Osmond Family record label:



                      Hmmm... why is it not embedded?

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by RBerman View Post
                        Let's not forget the Osmond Family record label:

                        [ATTACH=CONFIG]508[/ATTACH]

                        Hmmm... why is it not embedded?
                        Mormons don't embed before marriages.
                        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Either way... human aliens??? What kind of critter do mormons think God is???
                          If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                            Mormons don't embed before marriages.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Wouldn't there be an infinite number of inhabited planets in Mormonism? How far back does the chain of man becomes god makes man becomes god makes man... go??? How couuld billions of kids be produced by one couple? How could physical entities have spirit children?
                              If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

                              Comment

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