The tragedy at Virginia Tech has recently renewed the Gun Control debate.

Yet Virginia had already defeated a bill that would have allowed qualified gun owners the right to carry on campus. Maybe if they had put up a sign on campus saying “no guns” this young man may have said to himself “Yeah, I’m pissed off and want to kill as many people as I can, but I guess I’ll just stay home tonight and watch a movie because according to this plastic sign said I can’t carry on campus.”

If you think you can prevent a mass-murderer with an 80 cent plastic sign, then I’m sure that you can book the queen of the fairy people to ride her unicorn on campus and give a talk about her magical kingdom.

We already have a waiting period and background checks in place before it’s possible to purchase a handgun. These measures are only applicable to those who purchase their handguns through channels and from a reputable dealer. These measures do not apply to those who wish to purchase a stolen handgun with the serial number filed off. They do not apply to drug dealers, rapists, or anyone else who may not exactly wish to follow legal guidelines.

I wonder if anyone has bothered to point out that this young kid could have done the same damage by driving his car over people. Or a Muslim terrorist with a hybrid car packed with fertilizer and diesel. (the hybrid car is especially scary since it also introduces hazardous waste into the environment – where’s Al Gore when you need him?)

No, we don’t need more gun control laws, what we need are tighter movie control laws. Apparently the VT killer was influenced by the movie “Old Boy” .

Movies have the ability to get in your head and change the way you think. They have the ability to inspire, corrupt, pervert and all manner of adjectives. While I need to wait 5 days and have a background check before buying a handgun, I don’t think you even need to be 18 in order to purchase the latest bloodbath flick.

Movies like SAW glorify death and torture and blood. More and more we see movies coming out with a PG-13 rating that are celebrations in debauchery, that glorify death. While I never bothered to watch a movie like SAW, I’m pretty sure that the scenes of torture and death didn’t involve handguns because if you really want to entice this type of audience, you make a death slow, explicit, and as graphic as possible.

If we’re going to outlaw things, maybe we need to outlaw hammers (the favored weapon of choice in the movie that influenced Cho, or maybe knives, or baseball bats, or drills, or any manner of power tools, or basically anything that isn’t made by FisherPrice or NERF.

No, what we need to do is start glorifying those things which are pure, lovely, good, that have virtue, that are praiseworthy, those things which inspire us to be better than mere animals looking for blood.

Unless we wake up, what will happen is that Hollywood will continue to push out filth, minds will continue to be corrupted, and you won’t just have mass murders, you’ll also have tortures, you’ll have all manner of fictional scenes recreated in real life, with real people. And the best thing that decent people could do is to purchase a handgun to protect themselves from such corrupted minds and hearts.

You will never stop murders by tighter gun control laws, or even by outlawing guns because what we’re dealing with here is the heart. It’s the heart that has all manner of evils in it, it’s the heart that is desperately wicked – who can understand it?

In Romans chapter 1, Paul lays out the truth of a godless society – people have been turned over to their sinful desires, they desire all manner of wickedness, all manner of evils, greed, and depravity. Hollywood feeds off of this and in turn, Hollywood further inspires this behavior.

In our society, people are not ashamed to watch death and torture on tv, but they get upset at the name of Jesus. Jesus can change a heart, but some people just don’t want to hear that. Jesus can remove this heart of stone, the debased heart, and He can give peace.

Paul also wrote in Romans 1 that he was not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes. Ashamed does not simply mean “embarrassed,” it means that he was not shamed, his witness was not defiled or discredited because the gospel is the power of God. The very power of God brings salvation to everyone who would believe.

Just wanted to update my blog a little bit and give a shout out to the people who read it.

Recently was just wicked busy studying Historical Theology. It was da bomb. Took forever to read all the books and articles for the class, but it was awesome.

Hopefully, I’ll get the time and inclination to write some more articles. Got a ton of good stuff to write about in church history as well as posting a series of apologetic classes that I recently did on the cults.

One of the biggest complaints… well, the only complaint about the iPods is their battery life. Sure we all want the battery to last 100+ hours between recharges, but that’s not going to happen.

However, there are battery packs on the market. I was in Walmart the other day and they had the Belkin 4AA battery pack on clearance for like 20 bucks. It claims to give you 8-16 extra hours. I went with one from Staples, a 9v model which claims 4-8.

But you can also just make your own for under 10 bucks.

I found this website My Homemade iPod Battery Pack which tells you how to do it. He’s also got a ton of references to other diy projects. I really like his Band-Aid battery pack. Very nice.

But got to say my favorite is the Atari battery pack.

Depending on the design, you can get away with spending as little as say 10 bucks (price of a firewire connector, two 9v and two AA’s), or you could get really crazy with regulators and various other things.

The hidden cost is the price of an iPod… say if you end up doing a poor soldering job and have to purchase a new one. But it seems pretty straightforward.

So do-it-yourself battery packs, starting at bucks to a few hundred.

Ronny Simon was our tour guide when we went to visit Israel this last March. The dude knows a LOT of stuff. He occasionally sends out emails with insights, from an Israeli perspective, on current happenings in Israel.

Check this one out regarding the latest stuff with Lebanon.

From: roni simon
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 4:49 AM
Subject: Ronny Simon – up date about Lebanon
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 09:48:59 +0000

Shalom from Jerusalem.

Thank you all for your concern and e-mails of support.

These are hard times in Israel. It is not the first time and unfortunately might not be the last time. While the majority of the people carry on with their daily lives, a million people on the northern part of the country, Galilee, Haifa and the Golan heights are spending most of their time in bomb shelters.

Some short history to explain how we got to the present situation.

In May 24, 2000, the Israeli forces that were deployed in Southern Lebanon had pulled back to Israel. That was to comply with a Security Council resolution calling on all foreign forces to evacuate Lebanese territory. The Syrian army and its thousands of soldiers did not remove its forces from Lebanon and the country was held captive by the Syrian dictatorship. Lebanon was only independent by name. The decisions for Lebanon’s future were taken in Damascus.

When the Israeli withdrawal was completed, the U.N. with Israel’s approval had sent over a party to make sure that Israel had pulled back to the international border and that there are no territorial issues between the two countries.

Israel’s hope that the Lebanese army will deploy its forces along the border as the resolution dictated, were in vain. The Lebanese army never stood to the mission because Syria would not allow that. Instead, the Hezbollah, with Lebanese consent and over a $100 million annual support from Iran started to build a terror infrastructure on Israel’s northern border. More than 12 thousand rockets were hidden in bonkers all over south Lebanon. In the same time the Iranian government was building Hezbollah a fortified quarter in the southern part of Beirut, the Lebanese capital. That’s where the headquarters and the logistical center were. Israel was watching frustrated how the world was ignoring what was going on and doing nothing to stop Iran and its armed militia Hezbollah.

Only when the American French pressure on Syria increased, the Syrian army had left Lebanon leaving behind thousands of intelligence officers still holding Lebanon by its throat.

Resolution 1559 from 2004, had called specifically on the disarrangement of Hezbollah and the Lebanese army’s deployment in south Lebanon.

That resolution was totally ignored.

With Iran behind the scene and the massive support it was giving Hezbollah, the provocations from their side were growing. In October 2000, three Israeli soldiers were killed and their bodies kidnapped into Lebanon. The Israeli retaliation was minor and Hezbollah’s confidence as a result, sky high.

From time to time, the terrorists would open fire on Israeli army posts along the border. Several attempts that were made by them to take more hostages, soldiers and civilians, had failed.

As a result of the threat of abducting Israelis, farmers by the Lebanese border were ordered by the army not to farm their land too close to the border.

In a well anticipated routine, before the tourist season, before the Jewish high holydays when hundreds of thousands were suppose to stay in hotels and B&B all over the area, Hezbollah would fire a few rockets and the tourist season was ruined.

Ever since 2000, Israel had not initiated a single assault or attack on Hezbollah. That had two main reasons:

1- Israel was occupied with the Palestinians.
2- The world was asking to give diplomacy a chance.

Well, as always in the Middle East, diplomacy had failed.

Accustomed to the mailed Israeli retaliation, in July 12, Hezbollah tried again. This time two soldiers were abducted and 8 others killed in an attack in Israel’s territory while hundreds of rockets were launched at Israeli towns along the border.

That was the trigger or the excuse we needed to take severe measures to remove Hezbollah from our borders.

It is the same old story. In 1982 we occupied south Lebanon because of the P.L.O. and now, 24 years later because of Hezbollah. The only difference is in the name of the enemy.

When this is all over, who will guarantee it will not happen again?
Who will monitor the border crossings into Lebanon from Syria and Turkey?
Who will check the cargo brought in by air or by sea?

And the main thing and the most frustrating one is that as these words are written, weapons of many kinds are flowing un noticed into Gaza for the Hamas also supplied by Iran.

In a few years, there will be another Israeli attack this time into Gaza to remove the threat. However by then, Iran will probably have an Atomic bomb.

Until next time. Ronny

Now, this is pretty insane. I’m mentioned in a deseretnews article and I only had one article on Mormonism. Sheesh, I guess I’m going to have to get busy writing.

I was poking around on the two big Mormon apologist sites (Fair and Farms) and they both have articles on Joseph’s martyrdom.

Christian apologists usually make the argument that Joseph wasn’t a martyr because he went out with guns blazing. You can read about his death in the “Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints” volume 2 by BH Roberts.

The usual story you will hear is that Joseph went to Carthage, was held there and then the mob came up and killed him.

Last year we took a tour of the jail and it was very interesting but our tour guide said nothing about the pistol that Joseph Smith used to fire three shots at the mob.

Then instantly rising to his feet he drew the pistol Cyrus Wheelock had left him, and with a quick, firm step, and a determined expression in his face he advanced to the door and snapped the pistol six successive times; only three of the loads, however, were discharged. (B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1930], 2: 284 – 285.)

Now, there’s the argument by the Mormon apologists: the word “martyr” merely means witness, Joseph Smith was a witness even to the end.

This is true. We as Christians have a view of martyrdom colored by the early church. That those who hid in catacombs, those who were tortured and killed by Rome – those guys didn’t put up a fight. So it sets up a mental block when we hear about Joseph fighting back.

The Mormon apologists are correct, the word martyr means witness. I’m a martyr for the Jesus of the Bible, if you’re a Christian, you are too. Joseph was a martyr for his message.

HOWEVER, the issue I have with the death of Joseph isn’t the label “martyr”. The issue I have is with this false prophecy:

“I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; But I am calm as a summer’s morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me—he was murdered in cold blood.” (B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1930], 2: 248 – 249.)

Joseph Smith said he would be innocent, that he was going like a lamb to the slaughter.

My issue isn’t with the definition of the word “innocent”, but I think you can make a case there. My issue is with him placing his death on the same ground as Jesus’. Jesus went to His death like a lamb to the slaughter.

Did Jesus grab Peter’s smuggled sword and start hacking at the people who came to get Him? No. He did heal someone, but he told Peter that if you live by the sword you’ll die by the sword.

Contrast that with Joseph who grabbed a smuggled pistol and started shooting at the people who came to get him.

Jesus didn’t open up His mouth to make a defense. Joseph was very loud about his defense.

Jesus paid the price for my sins so that by believing I might have eternal life (Ephesians 2:8-10, John 3:16). Joseph died for his own beliefs.

I don’t have an issue with calling Joseph a martyr. But I cannot call him a true prophet and I certainly cannot place him on the same level as Jesus.

Here’s an interesting article about Jehovah Witnesses

Believing Armageddon is imminent, Jehovah’s Witnesses go on a mission
FAITHFUL OUT TO CALL ON EVERY HOME IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

In case you weren’t aware of it the Watchtower has a very consistent record of false prophecies. Here are a few:

Armageddon 1914

The Watchtower Reprints, January 15, 1892, p.1355
“The date of the close of that ‘battle’ is definitely marked in Scripture as October, 1914. It is already in progress, its beginning dating from October, 1874.”

The Watchtower Reprints, July 15, 1894, p.1672
“We see no reason for changing the figures – nor could we change them if we would. They are, we believe, God’s dates, not ours. But bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble.”

The Watchtower Reprints, September 15, 1901, p. 2876
“The culmination of the trouble in October, 1914, is clearly marked in the Scriptures; and we are bound therefore to expect a beginning of that severe trouble not later than 1910; — with severe spasms between now and then.”

The Watchtower Reprints, June 15, 1905, p.3576
Charts showing 1914 date.

The Time Is at Hand (SS-2), 1907 ed., p. 76-77
“In this chapter we will present the Bible evidence proving that the full end of the times of the Gentiles, i.e., the full end of their lease of dominion, will be reached in A.D. 1914; and that date will be the farthest limit of the rule of imperfect men.”

The Time Is at Hand (SS-2), 1907 ed., pp. 77-78
“Firstly, That at that date the Kingdom of God, for which our Lord taught us to pray, saying, “Thy Kingdom come,” will obtain full, universal control, and that it will then be “set up,” or firmly established, in the earth, on the ruins of present institutions. Secondly, It will prove that he whose right it is thus to take the domination will then be present as earth’s new Ruler … Thirdly, It will prove that some time before the end of A.D. 1914 the last member of the divinely recognized Church of Christ, the “royal priesthood,” “the body of Christ,” will be glorified with the Head … Fourthly, It will prove that from that time forward Jerusalem shall no longer be trodden down by the Gentiles…Fifthly, it will prove that by that date, or sooner, Israel’s blindness will begin to be turned away … Sixthly, It will prove that the great “time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation,” will reach its culmination in a world-wide reign of anarchy … Seventhly, It will prove that before that date God’s Kingdom, organized in power, will be in the earth and then smite and crush the Gentile image (Dan. 2:34) – and fully consume the power of these kings.”

The Time Is at Hand (SS-2), 1907 ed., p. 101
“The ‘battle of the great day of God Almighty’ (Rev. 16:14), which will end in A.D. 1914 with the complete overthrow of earth’s present rulership, is already commenced.”

Armageddon 1918

The Finished Mystery (SS-7), 1917 ed., p. 62
“The data presented in comments on Rev. 2:1 prove that the conquest of Judea was not completed until the day of the Passover, A.D. 73, and in the light of the foregoing Scriptures, prove that the Spring of 1918 will bring upon Christendom a spasm of anguish greater even than that experienced in the Fall of 1914. Reexamine the table of the Parallel Dispensations in STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES, Vol. 2, pages 246 and 247; change the 37 to 40, 70 to 73, and 1914 to 1918, and we believe it is correct and will be fulfilled ‘with great power and glory.’ (Mark 13:26)”

The Finished Mystery (SS-7), 1917 ed., p. 404
“The trouble is due to the dawning of the Day of Christ, the Millennium. It is the Day of Vengeance, which began in the world war of 1914 and which will break like a furious morning storm in 1918. – Lam. 4:18.”

The Finished Mystery (SS-7), 1917 ed., p. 485
“Also, in the year 1918, when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by millions, it shall be that any that escape shall come to the works of Pastor Russell to learn the meaning of the downfall of ‘Christianity.’”

The Watchtower Reprints, May 1, 1918, p. 6243
“That the harvest began in 1878, there is ample and convincing proof. The end of the harvest is due in the spring of 1918.”
 

Armageddon 1925

The Watchtower, September 1, 1922, p. 262
“The date 1925 is even more distinctly indicated the Scriptures because it is fixed by the law God gave to Israel. Viewing the present situation in Europe, one wonders how it will be possible to hold back the explosion much longer; and that even before 1925 the great crisis will be reached and probably passed.”

The Watchtower, April 1, 1923, p. 106
“1925 is definitely settled by the Scriptures, marking the end of the typical jubilees….As to Noah, the Christian now has much more upon which to base his faith than Noah had (so far as the Scriptures reveal) upon which to base his faith in a coming deluge.”

The Watchtower, July 15, 1924, p. 211
“The year 1925 is a date definitely and clearly marked in the Scriptures, even more clearly than that of 1914.”

The Watchtower, August 1, 1926, p. 232
“Some anticipated that the work would end in 1925, but the Lord did not so state.”

Vindication I, 1931 ed., pp. 338-339
“There was a measure of disappointment on the part of Jehovah’s faithful ones on earth concerning the years 1914, 1918, and 1925, which disappointment lasted for a time. Later the faithful learned that those dates were definitely fixed in the Scriptures, and they also learned to quit fixing dates for the future and predicting what would come to pass on a certain date.”

Armageddon 1975

Life Everlasting-in Freedom of the Sons of God, 1966 ed., p. 29
“According to this trustworthy Bible chronology six thousand years from man’s creation will end in 1975, and the seventh period of a thousand years of human history will begin in the fall of 1975 C.E.”

Kingdom Ministry, March 1968, p. 4
“There are only about ninety months left before 6,000 years of man’s existence on earth is completed… The majority of people living today will probably be alive when Armageddon breaks out.”

The Watchtower, August 15, 1968, p. 494
“What about all this talk concerning the year 1975? Lively discussions, some based on speculation, have burst into flame during recent months among serious students of the Bible. Their interest has been kindled by the belief that 1975 will mark the end of 6,000 years of human history since Adam’s creation. The nearness of such an important date indeed fires the imagination and presents unlimited possibilities for discussion.”
 
Awake!, October 8, 1968, p. 14
“There is another way that helps confirm the fact that we are living in the final few years of this “time of the end.” (Dan. 12:9) The Bible shows that we are nearing the end of a full 6,000 years of human history. What significance does this have?…Revelation chapter 20, verse 6, shows that God’s heavenly kingdom will rule over the earth for one thousand years after the end of this system of things…The seventh one-thousand-year period could be likened to the seventh day, the sabbath, of that week…How fitting it would be for God, following this pattern, to end man’s misery after six thousand years of human rule and follow it with His glorious Kingdom rule for a thousand years…According to reliable Bible chronology, Adam and Eve were created in 4026 B.C.E…That seven-year period will evidently finish in the autumn of the year 1975.”

Aid to Bible Understanding, 1971 ed., p. 333
“Total time period form Adam’s creation to the present year, 1969, C.E.: 5,994 years.”

Armageddon 2000

The Watchtower, January 1, 1989, p. 12 (magazine only, it was changed in bound volume)
“The apostle Paul was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our 20th century.”

AWAKE! November 8, 1986 p. 78
For the year 2000, I visualize a world transformed into a beautiful paradise! But I don’t think that either the present world or its rulers will live to see that day.. We are living in the last days of the system of things.

The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah – How? , 1971
Shortly, within our twentieth century, the ‘battle in the day of Jehovah’ will begin against the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom.

These prophecies and many many more are available on The Dictionary of WT Documents CD

Third try is charm for new pi record

How about some pi? This kid can recite 10,980 digits of pi. Sheesh, what happened to the good old days when kids would memorize tv theme shows… what are things coming to today.

Of course the world record is 42k digits.

But it is pretty impressive, especially for engineers who usually say "oh, it's about 3.1415 something – close enough".

Look, I can barely remember my phone number. I'm an engineer, I've been trained in math that's mainly alphabet soup, I don't do real numbers. I can do imaginary numbers, I can do transforms, I can find surface integrals and work differential equations but when it comes to balancing my check book I take the best 2 out of 3 totals.

Now this lady here is a nut bar: Pa. Woman Sentenced for 'Stealing' House

She didn't have a dollar to her name, then goes to closing with some forged papers. That's just dumb, I mean, what were you thinking? It's not like you can fence it or exchange vin's or put a new coat of paint on it and the bank will say "Well, the city survey says that the house should be here, but we sold a green house and this one is white… I guess we'll just keep looking."

It certainly isn't going to be the case where the bank will go "Oh, it's just 328 g's, just let her have it."

Unless the house has wheels, you probably shouldn't try and steal it.

I haven’t posted here in a while since things have been crazy busy. Went down to Charlotte NC for some schoolin. I’m an external student at SES and they require four module classes to be taken on campus. A module is basically a week long class from 6-10pm Mon-Fri and from 8-4 on Saturday. You basically get an entire semester’s worth of teaching in one week. It’s a good way for me to kick start my degree path since being an external really bites.

I attended a class by Gary Habermas on C. S. Lewis. It was a very interesting class, especially from Habermas.

If you don’t know who Habermas is, he’s a guy who has pretty much specialized in the resurrection of Jesus. He got his doctorate in it, he’s written tons of books about it, and that’s just his thang.

He gave a little bit of his testimony and basically he became a Christian and then pretty much doubted everything about it for a little bit…. like 10 years. And one of the things that brought him back was the resurrection. For him the resurrection of Jesus is the center of Christianity and everything is relative to it.

And indeed, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 (the resurrection chapter) Paul makes this same statement because if Jesus isn’t raised from the dead, then we’re the most miserable people on earth.

But what also makes Habermas interesting is that when he debates atheists, he uses only material that they’ll accept. Paul & 1 Corinthians 15 is accepted as early and historical by skeptics and Mark is accepted by skeptics. From a handful of points that all the skeptics accept, he goes on to demonstrate that the resurrection of Jesus is a historical event.

I watched Habermas debate the famous atheist Anthony Flew (who has become a theist recently – but he’s not a Christian) on the John Ankerberg show. If you haven’t seen this debate it’s off the hook!

Habermas presents 12 lines of evidence and Flew couldn’t refute one of them. It’s really interesting especially since Flew is probably The Foremost Hume Scholar in the world.

You can watch the video on Habermas website.

He talked with an atheist while he was down in Charlotte (actually he talked with several) and this guy asked for one book that defined what he believed and Habermas said “The Risen Jesus and Future Hope” – I’m going to have to get that one.

I’ve got his “Historical Jesus” which is fascinating especially when all the skeptics are running around looking for the “historical Jesus”.

I hope to get me some time to post up in here in the next few weeks. I’d like to post more about Mormonism, especially the doctrine that they taught back in the good olde days that Adam was God, I want to post some C. S. Lewis articles, and some other stuff.

Hey, if you guys have any questions or criticisms about the Bible, Christianity, or Terry Pratchett, email me at bishopbooyah at gmail.com. And I’ll post on those whenever I get a chance.

I got to meet with a couple of very nice Mormon missionaries the other night and they kept bringing up how they have a living prophet today.

So I asked a very logical question: Has Gordon Hinckley given any prophecies that I need to hear about? (Hinckley is their current prophet – their prophets are voted in)

They responded "Oh, yes!" and gave me a pamphlet on how important marriage is written by Hinckley. That's not really a prophecy, that's just good common sense.

What else you got? "Well, Hinckley prophesied that the Nauvoo Temple would be rebuilt and it was!" Okay, but city planners make this sort of prophecy all the time – they've got the money, they've got the men, they've got the equipment, they've got plans and schedules, where's the prophecy in that?

Now, the original prophecy about Nauvoo, that would count as a prophecy. In Doctrines and Covenants 124 (that's like a book of Joseph Smith sermons) we read:

29 For a baptismal font there is not upon the earth, that they, my saints, may be baptized for those who are dead—
30 For this ordinance belongeth to my house, and cannot be acceptable to me, only in the days of your poverty, wherein ye are not able to build a house unto me.
31 But I command you, all ye my saints, to build a house unto me; and I grant unto you a sufficient time to build a house unto me; and during this time your baptisms shall be acceptable unto me.
32 But behold, at the end of this appointment your baptisms for your dead shall not be acceptable unto me; and if you do not these things at the end of the appointment ye shall be rejected as a church, with your dead, saith the Lord your God.
33 For verily I say unto you, that after you have had sufficient time to build a house to me, wherein the ordinance of baptizing for the dead belongeth, and for which the same was instituted from before the foundation of the world, your baptisms for your dead cannot be acceptable unto me;
34 For therein are the keys of the holy priesthood ordained, that you may receive honor and glory.
35 And after this time, your baptisms for the dead, by those who are scattered abroad, are not acceptable unto me, saith the Lord.
36 For it is ordained that in Zion, and in her stakes, and in Jerusalem, those places which I have appointed for refuge, shall be the places for your baptisms for your dead.
37 And again, verily I say unto you, how shall your washings be acceptable unto me, except ye perform them in a house which you have built to my name?
38 For, for this cause I commanded Moses that he should build a tabernacle, that they should bear it with them in the wilderness, and to build a house in the land of promise, that those ordinances might be revealed which had been hid from before the world was.
39 Therefore, verily I say unto you, that your anointings, and your washings, and your baptisms for the dead, and your solemn assemblies, and your memorials for your sacrifices by the sons of Levi, and for your oracles in your most holy places wherein you receive conversations, and your statutes and judgments, for the beginning of the revelations and foundation of Zion, and for the glory, honor, and endowment of all her municipals, are ordained by the ordinance of my holy house, which my people are always commanded to build unto my holy name.

So in other words, Joseph prophesied that "if we don't get this thing built, and God has given us plenty of time to do it, then God is going to reject all our religious things like baptisms for the dead".

Well, did they get it built? Nope.

We as Latter-day Saints have been laboring for over forty years, and the revelations given us in the first were to establish the kingdom by gathering the Saints, building Temples, and organizing the people as the family of heaven here on the earth. We reared up a Temple in Kirtland, but we had no basement in it, nor a font, nor preparations to give endowments for the living or the dead. It was left by the Saints before it was completed, they going to Missouri. Joseph located the site for the Temple Block in Jackson County, Missouri, and pointed out the south-east corner of the Temple in the year 1831,—also laid the corner stone for a Temple in Far West, Caldwell County, Mo. These Temples were not built. We built one in Nauvoo. I could pick out several before me now that were there when it was built, and know just how much was finished and what was done. It is true we left brethren there with instructions to finish it, and they got it nearly completed before it was burned, but the Saints did not enjoy it.
(Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London: Latter-day Saints' Book Depot, 1854-1886], 18: 305.)

The building of the Temple of the Lord in the city of Nauvoo, is occupying the first place in the exertions and prayers of many of the Saints at the present time, knowing, as they do, that if this building is not completed speedily, "we shall be rejected as a Church with our dead;" for the Lord our God hath spoken it.(Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 vols., introduction and notes by B. H. Roberts [Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1932-1951], 4: 472.)

Now that right there is what you call a prophecy, a false prophecy.

The fact is that these modern Mormon prophets, have not and will not give real prophecies because someone might actually test them.

But the Mormon missionaries got it wrong, yes they claim they have a living "prophet", but they're not the only church claim to have a living prophet: true Bible believing, Christ affirming Christians do too and His name is Jesus. Jesus is the true and living prophet.

In Deuteronomy 18:18 God promises to raise up a prophet like Moses. In John 6:14 and John 7:40 people start asking "Is this The Prophet" in relation to Jesus. Jesus is The Prophet!

Do we need other prophets like the Old Testament did? Nope.

In Hebrews 1:1 we read "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son"

So God in the past spoke through the prophets, but today, in these last days, He's spoken to us through Jesus.

The writer of Hebrews goes on to write that Jesus lives forever, He can't die – so why would I want a human prophet that is going to die? Hinckley is getting old and pretty soon the LDS church is going to have to vote in a new prophet, but my Prophet, is my God lives forever and God in the Old Testament never accepted votes on who would be His prophet.