# 7 “Big Ben” Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback 6 ft. 5 in. 240 lbs., is taking his team to the SuperBowl in only his second year in the NFL. The Steelers are the first team in NFL history to get there after being placed as the 6th seed in the playoff. They defeated the first, second, and third seeds away from home, in front of viciously hostile crowds.

It wasn’t always great for Ben.

Last year, Alan Faneca, Pittsburgh 's All-Pro guard, was cruelly honest when asked if he was excited about playing with Ben after Tommy Maddox went down with an injury. Faneca said, "Exciting? No, it's not exciting. Do you want to go work with some little young kid who's just out of college?" YeeeeeeeeOUCH!

With Big Ben, the Steelers have the look of world champions. And it’s just in time for Jerome Bettis, perhaps the greatest piece of class in the NFL. Ben will be the second-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl behind only Dan Marino. And what has made it so remarkable has been three teams he has beaten in the playoffs took away Pittsburgh’s rushing offense by stacking the defensive line, telling the Steelers that the only way they were going to win would be with Ben’s skillful play.

There are many remarkably skilled players on this Steeler ball club that contribute, but on the field it’s the “ little young kid who's just out of college” who I salute.

There is on the West Coast a statue by Ernesto Gazzeri, a marble depiction of the cycle of life. There we stand and sit as toddlers and children, teenagers, young lovers, the mature and the aged, all of us tenderly gazing at a newborn baby. Two figures to the back, however, face away from the group. These are, of course, an aged couple, supporting one another, they haltingly move away from the family circle.

Each of us enter life through mortal birth and, in due time, disappear through the veil of death. Most of us never sense why we are here.

Nothing is more obvious than what the statue represents, but the sculptor entitled it The Mystery of Life.

Because many Bible passages support the idea of a premortal life, why is it that only The LDS believe in this doctrine?

THE LATTER DAY SAINT DOCTRINE OF PREMORTAL LIFE , once familiar to the faith of Christians and Jews alike, is now the select domain of Latter-day Saints. We alone attest that the God of heaven is, in fact, the Father of our spirits. As a consequence, we are his sons and daughters, created in his image. We alone enjoy the conviction that as children of divine origin we have the capability to become as God. In this, we declare to the world, the text declaring Adam and Eve to be in his image and likeness is literally true. We declare this in the midst of a world of Christians who doubt the legitimacy of the entire creation story and in turn the Bible. We acknowledge the pure meaning: "Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High" (Ps. 82:6). We are children with a destiny who in theory and purpose have claim upon the words spoken by the Lord to Jeremiah: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations" (Jer. 1:5). The Prophet Joseph Smith said, "Every man who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the Grand Council of heaven" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 365). Thus, the declaration from God to the Prophet Jeremiah extends this standard to all who are of the household of faith.

"In our premortal estate we were taught the gospel, making covenants to accept it and live it upon our arrival to Earth. President Spencer W. Kimball said: "We made vows, solemn vows, in the heavens before we came to this mortal life [Abr. 3:22, 24-26].

"We have made covenants. We made them before accepting our position here on earth. Wordsworth alluded to it when he poetically reflected on how we come into this world "not in entire forgetfulness,/And not in utter nakedness,/But trailing clouds of glory do we come/From God." Our "trailing clouds of glory" are those hopeful anticipations and prepared capabilities which we bring with us from afar and which provide us resource and bring purpose to our lives here on earth.

Paul writes "in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1:2) . This doctrine is woven throughout Paul's writings (Rom. 16:25-6): "Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:"

And again in Ephesians 1: 3-4
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,"

We committed ourselves steadfastly to our Heavenly Father, promising that if He would send us to the earth and provide us mortal bodies and provide us with the priceless prospects that earth life afforded, we would remain clean, we would marry in His holy temple and would nurture a family, promising to teach them in righteousness. It was a solemn oath, a serious contract. He promised us an exciting mortal life with innumerable privileges. To the extent we qualified in righteousness, we would surely gain eternal life, happiness, and progress. There is certainly no other way to obtain these rewards. Thus as Latter-day Saints we believe in having been foreordained (not predestined) to be given all spiritual blessings, in fact, all the ordinances of salvation, long before being born into mortality

An angel declared to Nephi, as detailed in the Book of Mormon, that the deletions from the Bible were skillfully deliberate, made with intent to deceive and to lead people away from "the right ways of the Lord." That does not refer to the much less frequent honest errors that translators and copyists made because of human frailty and the difficulties of transcription and translation. Soon after the New Testament was written there were persons among the Gentiles who systematically, with impious motives and evil intent, removed portions of the sacred word and took from the Bible much very important doctrinal information. Moroni says they "transfigured the holy word of God" (Morm. 8:33).

To do that effectively, two circumstances were necessary:

1. It had to be done early, before there were multiple copies of the various books; and


2. It had to be accomplished by someone near the source who had access to the originals or earliest copies.

The angel said to Nephi that the alterations were made before the Bible was distributed among the nations of the Gentiles (see 1 Ne. 13:28-29). In other words, the process began early, by the end of the first century, and continued into the second and third centuries after Christ.

Who among the Gentiles would deliberately expunge these things from the Bible? Most likely early Greek Christians who valued secular philosophy above the sacred word of scripture may have altered the New Testament. The speculation that men would deliberately take away portions from the Old Testament because they esteemed God's words as "naught" is also referred to in Moses 1:40-41. The Book of Moses is a companion book to the Book of Mormon.

Because of the early dating when these things happened, the "great and abominable church" spoken of in these particular instances cannot be the formal Roman Catholic Church, for there was no such officially organized church at this point. Nonetheless, apostates and conniving persons were corrupting the true Church among the Gentiles. The Book of Mormon says the devil is the founder of this corrupt church.

Unfortunately, existing records tell us little about the Christian church in the second century after Christ, excepting that evidence of significant destruction of scripture has been verified independently through recent archaeological finds. Much more is known about the first century and then from the third century onward. During the 2nd century the leadership of the church changed from the Apostles to the Greek Fathers. But the actual transmission is shrouded in mystery.

It is as if a busload of people had headed cross country with a definite destination planned with a well-defined map, and an inspired strategy. They encountered a heavy fog. During the fog the bus made an unscheduled stop. New passengers boarded and a struggle ensued. When the bus emerged from the fog, new driver were at the wheel and some new passengers where old ones once had been. Surprisingly we have a different map and a different destination in mind. The new drivers were heavily influenced by Greek philosophy. This was not a gentle drifting away. This was something of a "bus-jacking"—a forcible takeover.

Scholars from all walks of life and faith have come away with this point of view.

I’m a Republican at heart; Nick Rahall (D-WV) has got it together.

House Resources Committee Ranking Member Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) issued the following statement ( 12/15/05 ) in response to the announced withdrawal of the mining language inserted in the budget reconciliation bill:.

“Today, multinational corporations are mining publicly owned valuable minerals like gold and silver without paying a royalty to the owners of these lands, the American taxpayer. At the same time we have an effort underway to jettison a decade of public policy, and resume the sale of mining claims for a pittance. Meanwhile, Congress is considering cutting food stamps and other social programs for the needy.”

Well, the best thing that could have happened to wake up the Republicans has happened, and the worst thing, a mining tragedy in Sago, West Virginia 3 days ago. In fact, we are not talking about just your old run of the mill tragedy here. This was a crime. Although the company says it was caused by an act of God (lightning), it cannot be trusted given the company also has a record of very serious violations, including a "high degree of negligence," twice the average number of injuries, etc. The mine was forced to shut down 15 times in the last year alone.

At the mine in Sago, families wait for the certain confirmation that their husbands, that their children’s fathers, died in the darkness breathing toxic smoke. Suspicion is that a conveyor belt caught on fire again and again the sprinkler system did not work. Nick Rahall is a good man and able public servant. His people will get the protections they need and as he said it comes as a result of another tragedy.