Hartman Rector Jr.

1. Hartman Rector Jr. “In my experience, I have found that it is very, very dangerous to fly just high enough to miss the treetops. I spent twenty-six years flying the navy’s airplanes. It was very exciting to see how close I could fly to the trees. This is called ‘flat hatting’ in the navy, and it is extremely dangerous. When you are flying just high enough to miss the trees and your engine coughs once, you are in the trees. Now let’s pretend that the navy had a commandment—‘Thou shalt not fly thy airplane in the trees.’ As a matter of fact, they did have such a commandment. In order to really be free of the commandment, it becomes necessary for me to add a commandment of my own to the navy’s commandment, such as, ‘Thou shalt not fly thy airplane closer than 5,000 feet to the trees.’ When you do this, you make the navy’s commandment of not flying in the trees easy to live, and the safety factor is tremendously increased. Admittedly, the latter commandment is your own addition, and care should be exercised that you do not get it mixed up with the law and expound it as the law. Rather, it is your own commandment, intended by you for your own self-preservation.” (Conference Report, Oct. 1972, p. 172)

2. Spencer W. Kimball “Kissing has been prostituted and has degenerated to develop and express lust instead of affection, honor, and admiration. To kiss in casual dating is asking for trouble. What do kisses mean when given out like pretzels and robbed of sacredness? What is miscalled the ‘soul kiss’ is an abomination and stirs passions to the eventual loss of virtue.Even if timely courtship justifies the kiss it should be a clean, decent, sexless one like the kiss between mother and son, or father and daughter. If the ‘soul kiss’ with its passion were eliminated from dating there would be an immediate upswing in chastity and honor, with fewer illegitimate babies, fewer unwed mothers, fewer forced marriages, fewer unhappy people. With the absence of the ‘soul kiss’ necking would be greatly reduced. The younger sister of petting, it should be totally eliminated. Both are abominations in their own right. Immorality does not begin in adultery or perversion. It begins with little indiscretions like sex thoughts, sex discussions, passionate kissing, petting, and such, growing with every exercise. The small indiscretion seems powerless compared to the sturdy body, the strong mind, the sweet spirit of youth who give way to the first temptation. But soon the strong has become weak, the master the slave, spiritual growth curtailed. But if the first unrighteous act is never given root, the tree will grow to beautiful maturity and the youthful life will grow toward God, our Father.” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 281)

3. Joseph Fielding Smith “These words of Alma as I understand them, do not intend to convey the thought that all spirits go back into the presence of God for an assignment to a place of peace or a place of punishment and before him receive their individual sentence. “Taken home to God,” simply means that their mortal existence has come to an end, and they have returned to the world of spirits.” (Answers to Gospel Question, 2:84-86)

4. Resurrection Begins with very best (Christ) Ends with very worst (Sons of Perdition) • First Resurrection (or Resurrection of Just) • Morning • Celestial people from Adam to Christ • Celestial people from Christ to 2nd Coming • Afternoon • Terrestrial people from Adam to 2nd Coming • Celestial people born during the Millenium • Last Resurrection (or Resurrection of Unjust) • Telestial people from Adam to end of Millenium • Sons of Perdition