A Biblical Dilemma

Its been 12/21/12 for an hour and a half already here in Nebraska! The Earth may or may not have lined up between the center of the universe and a black hole, and the Mayan calendar might be finished, and Hostess might have gone bankrupt and stopped making Twinkies.... but I guess none of these things have meant the literal end of the world. darn.

BUT we still must endure to the end! And by that I mead there will be a lot of "I told you so!" and "ohmygosh, I maxed out my credit card!" drama to deal with in the next 24 hours.  I'm sure this drama will include a lot of Matthew 24:36 quoting as well, which brings me to the point of this post- or rather, my dilemma!

Matthew 24:36 (KJV)

"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."

Matthew 24:36 (CEB)

"But nobody knows when that day or hour will come, not the heavenly angels and not the Son. Only the Father knows."

Notice any differences? Maybe that one of them is written as a direct quote from Christ? Maybe that one adds in the little phrase "not the Son"? Here is the same verse from just about every English translation of the Bible you could think of (and probably some you didn't know existed). Read through it if you want, but most of them perfectly match one of the two listed above.

My dilemma is that today's most commonly read translations say the Son has no idea when the end of the world/second coming of Christ is, but every translation that presents the passage as a direct quote from Jesus (like it would have originally been recorded) doesn't say that!  Maybe all of the translators got confused because Jesus calls himself The Son of Man?  Did they forget that doesn't mean that He is the son of a man?  Jesus is the resurrected Christ, and the Son of God. He has gained all that his Father has. And I'm pretty sure he knows when he'll be returning.

That is MY belief though.  I personally prefer reading the King James version of the Bible, because I see it as the most accurate English translation from the original texts.  But I'm really interested in knowing what translation of the Bible YOU read, and why (or whether or not you read a Bible)? And how do YOU know if "the Son" knows when the Second Coming is? How can we discover truth?

(Ready, Set, ANSWER! Seriously, share some thoughts people!)

I'm Still Alive!!

Hey remember that time that I got busy with real life and had some computer troubles and then forgot to post anything on my awesome-sauce blog? Well I do, because that was yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and pretty much all of October so far. But here is a little something to tide you over (warning, this post has about as much direction as my life currently does... which is none).

Firstly:

The General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was this month. President Monson announced the change in the missionary age: 18 for guys, 19 for girls. It was great, because every 18-20 year old girl at BYU had to completely re-evaluate her life. An now there won't be any freshman guys at BYU, and sophomore and junior girls. Things are going to be way out of wack next year. (And of course I need to decide if and when I'm going on a mission.  I really want to, so if anybody has an extra $10,000 laying around, I could put it to good use!)  :)

Secondly:

My friends got me hooked on Dr. Who again, just in time for the season finally. Stupid friends.... >.>

BUT my friends are also really awesome, because they had the awesome idea to RENT A PUPPY!!! From this super legit facebook page: Puppies For Rent! Ladies and Gentlemen, meet BENTLEY <3 the cutest darn puppy that you ever did see:

And in addition to renting a puppy, I also slid down giant slides of blue foam, went to a Divine Comedy tech show, carved pumpkins, trudged through the longest haunted house ever, watched approximately 10 hours of Pride and Prejudice in one week (not counting watching multiple episodes of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries), and made plenty of trips to Wyview or the grocery store in the evenings- windows down, blasting the girliest music you can think of. Does life get better than this? Maybe. I mean, if I could have all of this and NOT have midterms, that would be pretty great.

Thirdly:

I have nothing else to say.

Donny Osmond is a good looking fella

Tonight I went to the last night of institute for the school year here in Charon, even though I’ve been at BYU all year and haven’t gone to any of the other meetings.  We watched Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, had some lovely refreshments provided by Sister Walgren and various students, and then had a little testimony/discussion time at the end where everyone shared their thoughts on the past year of institute.  It was soooo touching, the Spirit was so strong!  People went around sharing how they had learned and grown and been helped this past year and it was all so inspiring, even coming from the mouths of strangers.  I just had to sit quietly and firmly tell myself “Gina, you are NOT going to cry at an institute meeting about a year you weren’t even here for, especially in front of a group of people you just met a week ago.”  The internal chastising only sort of worked though.  What got me the most was when Sister Walgren talked about how much she has learned from her students.  This was her first year as the institute instructor; the past three years she had been teaching seminary.

I don’t think there is a girl on this planet that misses early-morning seminary more than I do.  I remember those mornings, from 6 to 7am every school day, sitting at the cluttered seminary table across from Sister Walgren; Some days there were three students, sometimes two, and sometimes I was the only one, but I loved every minute of it.  Those meetings filled my pockets up with sunshine that kept me going throughout the day.

Tonight just reminded me of those days, and how personal the Gospel is.  The big lecture halls full of eager students, the devotionals broadcast to thousands of people, and the giant wards with 4 Sunday school classes are great, but they aren’t everything. We have to study and put in some effort ourselves.  We have to gain our own personal testimony of what the truth is, and counsel with the Lord for help in our individual situations.  We learn the most when we are learning for ourselves.

Or maybe that’s just me...