www.kevinhinckley.com The Tree of Life

Garden of Eden St. Augustine Fecisti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te! God, you made us to be with you, and so our heart is restless until we can be with you… The Garden of Eden had a Tree of Death, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We spent our existence in search of the Tree of Life.

Egyptian Ished Tree Egyptians, in search of immortality, built temples filled with images of the sacred Ished tree.

Horath

The gods, signing pharoah’s name to the tree.

Orthic Gold Tablets 600 BC Orthic cult, believed in a sacred tree that would bring them life.

The Hesperides were nymphs who cared for and guarded the grove of trees that grow golden apples in the garden of Hesperides. The name means "Daughter of the Evening Star

Athena and the life giving olive tree.

The Mayan world tree and the Minorah, from Sololmon’s temple, a stylized almond tree.

This painting was done by the Prophet Joseph’s youngest son, David This painting was done by the Prophet Joseph’s youngest son, David. He served a couple of missions among the “Brighamites”, in Utah and Idaho. Brigham Young held hopes that David would come into the church, be called to the twelve and one day become president of the church his father founded. Instead, on his return from Idaho, he was put in an insane asylum where he lived out the rest of his life.

Wow. Real pictures from the Tree of Life!

Dreams… Hugh Nibley: "Only one who had actually seen those things could have dreamed them; only one who had been haunted by those fears and frightened by those situations would ever have been visited by them in a dream of the night." (Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, 6:263 Question: Before Lehi went to sleep that night, what would you guess he was worried about and what did the Lord want him to know?

1 Nephi 8 And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a white robe; and he came and stood before me. And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow him. And it came to pass that as I followed him I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste. And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies. And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field. And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy

"And I beheld a rod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood. And I also beheld a strait and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron, even to the tree by which I stood; Question: Why is the path to the Tree of Life so narrow?

Harold B. Lee If there is any one thing most needed in this time of tumult and frustration, when men and women and youth and young adults are desperately seeking for answers to the problems which afflict mankind, it is an "iron rod" as a safe guide along the straight path on the way to eternal life, amidst the strange and devious roadways that would eventually lead to destruction and to the ruin of all that is "virtuous, lovely, or of good report.“ (Stand Ye in Holy Places, 351)

President Benson Some of our members have become disturbed because of derogatory things said about the Church and its leaders, or because of misrepresentations about our doctrines or our practices.  But opposition is not new to the Church. We have had opposition in the past, and we shall continue to have opposition in the future. Do not become discouraged by what others say or do. Stay on the strait and narrow path.  You do this by holding fast to the iron rod—the words of God as contained in the scriptures and as given by His living servants on this earth (Ensign, Apr 1984, p8)

President Benson "There is a power in the book that will begin to flow into your life the moment you begin a serious study of the book.  You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path." (Ensign, Nov 1986, p7)