THE POWER OF BOOKS AROUND DEATH CAN SHAPE BEHAVIOR

The Book of Mormon, The Art of War, the Qur’an—and What People Will Do Before the Grave Because of What They Believe Comes After It

A Commentary About Faith, Death & Eternity

There may be no greater source of influence over a human being than convincing him you know what happens after he dies.

Not what happens next Tuesday.
Not who wins an election.
Not whether the stock market goes up.

What happens when they put your body in the grave.

• Heaven.
• Hell.
• Paradise.
• Judgment.
• Resurrection.
• Exaltation.
• Forgiveness.
• Eternal punishment.
• Eternal reward.

If a book tells you what happens after death, it can also tell you what you should do before death.

What to believe.
Whom to follow.
Whom to obey.
What God expects.

What happens if you refuse.

And what may be waiting for you if you obey.

That is an extraordinary amount of power.

And that eventually led me to one of the strangest comparisons I have ever made:

THE BOOK OF MORMON + THE ART OF WAR = THE QUR’AN?

I originally thought it was funny.

Then I started pulling the pieces apart.

It became a lot more fascinating.

THE EQUATION SHOULDN’T WORK AS WELL AS IT DOES

Obviously, these are not three versions of the same book.

The Art of War is not even a religious text.

That isn’t the comparison.

I am looking at the structure.

The Book of Mormon side supplies:

• A later prophet.
• An angelic messenger.
• A new sacred record.
• A claim of additional revelation.
• A revision or expansion of earlier biblical history.
• Prophetic authority.
• A religious system extending beyond death.
• Promises involving salvation, exaltation and eternity.

The Art of War side supplies:

• Leadership.
• Discipline.
• Obedience.
• Enemies.
• Strategy.
• Conflict.
• Reward.
• Punishment.
• Territory.
• Victory.

Then look at Muhammad.

One man becomes:

• Prophet.
• Religious authority.
• Lawgiver.
• Political leader.
• Diplomat.
• Military commander.

The religious authority and the earthly authority exist inside the same system.

And hovering above everything is one enormous question:

If I follow your teachings:

What happens after I die?

That is where this stops being merely a Weapons Freak discussion about the weaponization of belief.

That is where it becomes a Grave Freak look at the power of the grave over the living.

START WITH SOMETHING PEOPLE FORGET: CHRISTIANITY IS JEWISH

Christianity did not appear out of nowhere.

It did not begin in nineteenth-century America.
It did not begin in seventh-century Arabia.

Christianity comes out of the Jewish story.

• Jewish Scriptures.
• Jewish people.
• Jewish covenants.
• Jewish prophets.
• Jewish patriarchs.
• Jewish kings.
• Jewish priests.
• Jewish rabbis.
• Jewish culture.
• Jewish lands.
• A Jewish Messiah.

Jesus was Jewish.
His apostles were Jewish.
The crucifixion happened in Judea.

Jesus constantly referred back to Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, the Law, the Prophets and the Jewish Scriptures.

Christianity claims that Jesus fulfills that story.

That provenance matters.

Because centuries later two men appear outside that historical and religious world.

Neither Joseph Smith nor Muhammad emerged from the Jewish people, Jewish lands or Jewish religious tradition that produced the biblical story they later claimed authority to explain, expand or correct.

That does not automatically prove either man wrong.

But it creates an obvious question of authority.

Imagine walking onto Cherokee land centuries later and saying:

“The Cherokee misunderstood their own religious history. An angel appeared privately to me and explained what really happened.”

You would expect people to ask questions.

• Who are you?
• Where did you come from?
• Why should your later claim outrank the original people and tradition?
• Why should your private angelic experience rewrite their history?

That is the connection I find fascinating with Joseph Smith and Muhammad.

Both arrive centuries after Christ.
Both claim angelic revelation.
Both establish new prophetic authority.

And both make claims that alter or expand the Jewish-Christian story that existed long before either man was born.

THE BOOK OF MORMON HALF

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that Joseph Smith was directed by the angel Moroni to gold plates containing an ancient record that became the Book of Mormon.^[1]

Set aside for a moment whether you believe the story.

Look at the mechanics:

• Joseph Smith appears more than eighteen centuries after Christ.
• He claims supernatural access to additional sacred history.
• An angel is central to the story.
• A new sacred record appears.
• The record expands biblical history into the Americas.
• Smith claims prophetic authority.
• The prophet authenticates the revelation.
• The revelation authenticates the prophet.
• The resulting religion establishes its own teachings about salvation and eternity.

Now move backward more than a thousand years from Joseph Smith.

Muhammad says he receives revelation through the angel Gabriel. The Qur’an identifies Gabriel with the revelation delivered to Muhammad.^[2]

Again:

• A man appears centuries after the biblical events.
• He is outside the Jewish world that produced the biblical story.
• An angel delivers revelation.
• A new sacred text appears.
• Earlier Jewish and Christian beliefs are corrected.
• A new prophetic authority is established.
• A new explanation of God’s requirements appears.
• A new description of judgment and eternity follows.

Different centuries. Different countries. Different religions.

Remarkably similar machinery.

THEN BOTH SYSTEMS REACH BEYOND THE GRAVE

This is where the comparison becomes especially interesting on Grave Freak.
Religion is not merely telling you what supposedly happened thousands of years ago.

Religion is telling you what happens to YOU thousands of years from now.

Your body may be dust. According to the religion, you are not finished.

Mormonism reaches beyond death.

Historic Mormon theology developed an eternal framework involving:

• Resurrection.
• Exaltation.
• Celestial marriage.
• Eternal family relationships.
• Continuing posterity.
• Becoming like God.

Doctrine and Covenants 132 connects celestial marriage with exaltation and describes an eternal marital order for properly sealed relationships.^[3]

Islam reaches beyond death.

Islam likewise describes:

• Resurrection.
• Judgment.
• Paradise.
• Forgiveness.
• Punishment.
• Heavenly reward.

The Qur’an describes heavenly companions, while a well-known hadith describes rewards for the martyr including forgiveness, elevated status, intercession for relatives and wives in paradise.^[4]

The details are not identical. The structure is what interests me.

Both systems involve:

• A later man claiming angelic revelation.
• A new sacred authority.
• A revision or expansion of the earlier biblical story.
• A prophet whose authority validates the revelation.
• A revelation that validates the prophet.
• An eternal system in which behavior before death affects what is promised afterward.

AND THEN JESUS SAYS SOMETHING INTERESTING ABOUT MARRIAGE AFTER DEATH

Matthew 22 records Jesus being questioned about resurrection and marriage.

His answer is direct:

“Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” — Matthew 22:29–30

That makes the later systems even more interesting to compare.

More than eighteen centuries after Christ, Joseph Smith introduces an eternal marital structure involving celestial sealing and exaltation.
Centuries earlier, Islamic tradition develops descriptions of heavenly companions and marital reward in paradise.

Both come through men claiming later angelic revelation.
Both concern what happens beyond death.
Both develop ideas involving men, women and eternal reward that deserve comparison with what Jesus said about resurrection.

Again, I am not saying Mormon and Islamic theology are identical.

I am saying:

Look at the pattern.

An angel. A later prophet. A later revelation. A new authority. A new explanation of eternity.

The grave is not the end of the system.

It is where the promised payoff begins.

NOW ADD THE ART OF WAR

This is where Islam becomes structurally different from Mormonism in my equation.

Joseph Smith founded a religious movement.
Muhammad founded a religious movement that also became a political and military power during his lifetime.

After migrating to Medina in 622, Muhammad exercised religious, legal, diplomatic, political and military authority. The community surrounding him became the foundation of an expanding Islamic state.^[5]

Now start stacking the pieces.

Begin with the religious side:

• Prophet.
• Angel.
• Revelation.
• Sacred text.
• Revised biblical history.
• Divine authority.
• Judgment.
• Eternal reward.

Then add earthly power:

• Government.
• Military command.
• Enemies.
• Territory.
• Taxation.
• Captured property.
• Reward.
• Punishment.
• Victory.

Surah 8 is titled The Spoils of War. Qur’an 8:41 addresses the division of captured property.
Qur’an 9:29 addresses fighting certain People of the Book and the payment of jizya.^[6]

That is why The Art of War belongs in my equation.
Not because the Qur’an and The Art of War are the same book.

Because The Art of War supplies the earthly machinery missing from the Mormon side of the comparison:

• Strategy.
• Command.
• Enemies.
• Conflict.
• Discipline.
• Reward.
• Punishment.
• Victory.

Combine that machinery with:

• Claimed divine revelation.
• Prophetic authority.
• Government.
• Religious law.
• Military leadership.
• Promises extending beyond death.

And suddenly my original joke does not sound nearly as ridiculous.

THE BOOK OF MORMON + THE ART OF WAR = THE QUR’AN?

The more pieces I examine, the more fascinating the equation becomes.

WHOEVER DEFINES ETERNITY HAS AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF POWER

This may be the most important Grave Freak observation in the entire Parking Spot.

If I tell you to give me twenty dollars, you can tell me to get lost.
A government has more leverage.

It can threaten:

• A fine.
• Prison.
• Loss of property.
• Physical force.

A military commander has the authority of the military behind him.

But what happens when someone says:

God gave me the order.

And then:

Your eternal destiny is attached to your obedience.

Now the equation changes.

The government can threaten your body.

The prophet can claim authority over your soul.

Combine the two and you have something extraordinarily powerful.

Because even death does not necessarily defeat the system.

• If the believer survives, victory may be interpreted as God’s favor.
• If the believer dies, death may become entrance into promised reward.

Once death itself can be presented as victory, the normal human cost-benefit equation changes.

THE CRUCIFIXION MAKES THE LATER REVELATION EVEN MORE IMPORTANT

Christianity itself revolves around a death.

Not just any death.

A crucifixion—and a grave Christians believe did not stay occupied.

The execution of Jesus occurred in first-century Judea under Roman authority.

Pontius Pilate represented Rome.
Roman soldiers carried out the execution.

The Roman historian Tacitus later wrote that Christus suffered the “extreme penalty” during the reign of Tiberius under Pontius Pilate.^[7]

The Gospel of John places the beloved disciple at the cross and presents its account as testimony.

Then nearly six centuries later, Muhammad appears in Arabia.

Qur’an 4:157 says Jesus was not killed or crucified and that it was made to appear so.^[8]

Think about what that means.

Muhammad’s revelation does not merely add an interesting theological detail.

It changes the death at the center of Christianity.

Christianity says:

• Jesus was crucified.
• Jesus died.
• Jesus was buried.
• Jesus rose again.

The Qur’an says:

• Jesus was not killed.
• Jesus was not crucified.
• It was made to appear that way.

Those claims cannot both describe the same historical event in the same way.

And Christianity does not treat the crucifixion as a side issue.

It is central to salvation.

Paul says that if Christ was not raised, Christian faith is vain.

In other words: Without the death and resurrection of Christ, Christianity falls apart.

So a man in seventh-century Arabia is not merely adding another prophet to the biblical story.

His revelation changes Christianity’s central event.

Which leaves an obvious question:

Why should a seventh-century revelation from Arabia automatically outrank testimony and history rooted in the century, people and government where the execution occurred?

The answer ultimately requires accepting Muhammad as a prophet.

But then the logic becomes:

• Muhammad is a prophet because the revelation came from God.
• We know the revelation came from God because Muhammad says it did.

The revelation validates the prophet.

The prophet validates the revelation.

And that is exactly the structural feature that originally reminded me of Joseph Smith.

JOSEPH SMITH AND MUHAMMAD ARRIVE LATE TO THE SAME STORY

This part deserves to be stated plainly.

Jesus lived in the first century.

Muhammad was born roughly six centuries later.
Joseph Smith was born more than seventeen centuries after Muhammad and more than eighteen centuries after Christ.

Neither man stood beside Jesus.
Neither man lived in first-century Judea.
Neither man belonged to the Jewish society in which Christianity originated.

Yet both claim later angelic revelation giving them authority over that earlier story.

Especially when both systems then tell followers:

• What God requires.
• Whom God has authorized.
• What earlier believers misunderstood.
• How salvation works.
• What happens after death.

Those are claims over eternity.

THE GRAVE CHANGES HUMAN BEHAVIOR

People sometimes talk about religion as though it were simply a collection of opinions about God.

It is much bigger than that.

A religion can tell you:

• Why you exist.
• Why you suffer.
• What is good.
• What is evil.
• Whom you should obey.
• What you must believe.
• Who you should believe.
• Whether your sins can be forgiven.
• Whether God accepts you.
• What the terms of that acceptance are.
• Whether death is the end.
• Whether your family continues afterward.
• Whether you face judgment.
• Whether paradise is waiting.
• Whether hell is waiting.

And perhaps most important:

What must you do before the grave because of what you believe happens after it?

That is enormous influence. Which is why combining religious authority with political power deserves attention.

A king can command your life. A prophet who is also a king can claim authority over your life and your eternity.

THAT IS WHY THE ORIGINAL EQUATION STILL FASCINATES ME

THE BOOK OF MORMON + THE ART OF WAR = THE QUR’AN?

The Book of Mormon side:

• Later prophet.
• Angel.
• Additional revelation.
• Expanded or revised biblical history.
• Prophetic authority.
• Salvation.
• Exaltation.
• Eternal order beyond the grave.

The Art of War side:

• Leadership.
• Obedience.
• Strategy.
• Enemies.
• Conflict.
• Discipline.
• Reward.
• Punishment.
• Territory.
• Victory.

Then Muhammad:

• Prophet.
• Revelator.
• Religious leader.
• Lawgiver.
• Political ruler.
• Military commander.

And the system promises consequences that do not end when the believer dies.

That is why my weird little equation has stuck with me.

The more pieces I examine, the less ridiculous it looks.

THIS IS BIGGER THAN ISLAM

The underlying mechanism is not limited to one religion.

Human beings have killed and died for:

• Gods.
• Kings.
• Nations.
• Races.
• Revolutions.
• Political systems.
• Ideologies.

Christian institutions have been weaponized. Nationalism has been weaponized.
Communism has been weaponized. Race has been weaponized.
Political movements have been weaponized.

Humans are very good at turning belief into permission.

But religion adds something ordinary political ideology has difficulty duplicating:

Death does not necessarily end the reward.

The politician can promise something next year.
The religious authority can promise something forever.

That changes everything.

THE BIBLE SAYS THE FINAL SYSTEM WILL UNDERSTAND THIS PERFECTLY

This connects directly to the larger argument I make in Wicked Darkness: Johnny’s Survival Guide to the End Times.

Revelation describes a final system combining:

• Political authority.
• Religious authority.
• Military power.
• Economic control.
• Supernatural signs.
• Deception.
• Worship.
• Death.

The Beast possesses political authority.
The False Prophet supplies religious legitimacy, signs, deception and worship.

Economic participation is controlled.
Enemies are identified.

Those who refuse worship face death.

Revelation 13:4 puts two ideas beside one another that fit this entire discussion:

“And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”

Worship.
War.

Religion and political power.
Belief and coercion.
Obedience and death.

According to Revelation, the final system does not merely demand obedience to government.

It demands worship.

That is the ultimate merger of earthly authority and claimed spiritual authority.

THE MOST POWERFUL QUESTION MAY COME AFTER YOUR LAST BREATH

Grave Freak starts with death.

But death opens enormous doors:

• Faith.
• History.
• Religion.
• Burial.
• Resurrection.
• Martyrdom.
• Judgment.
• Memory.
• Violence.
• Heaven.
• Hell.
• Eternity.

And perhaps one of the most consequential questions human beings have ever asked:

What must I do while I am alive because of what I believe will happen after I am dead?

That question has built:

• Churches.
• Temples.
• Cathedrals.
• Religious movements.
• Civilizations.

It has:

• Sent missionaries across oceans.
• Sent missionaries to their deaths.
• Comforted people at bedsides.
• Inspired enormous charity.
• Caused people to sacrifice everything they own.
• Sent people onto battlefields.

A sword can kill you.

A belief about what happens after the sword kills you can determine whether you are willing to walk toward it.

That may be one of the most powerful forces surrounding the grave.

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THE CIRCUS ENDS WHEN THE BEAST ARRIVES

I explore the larger prophetic argument in:

Wicked Darkness: Johnny’s Survival Guide to the End Times

The final system I see described in Revelation is not merely political. And it is not merely religious.

It combines:

• Power.
• Worship.
• Economics.
• Deception.
• Supernatural signs.
• Death.

The world will believe it is following something extraordinary.
Revelation says it will ultimately be following the Beast.

The circus ends when the Beast arrives.

Read more at WickedDarkness.com or find the book on Amazon.

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SOURCES & NOTES

[1] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — “Gold Plates.”

[2] Qur’an 2:97.

[3] Joseph Smith and plural marriage; Doctrine and Covenants 132; “Becoming Like God.”

[4] Qur’an 44:54; Jamiʿ at-Tirmidhi 1663.

[5] The Metropolitan Museum of Art — “The Birth of Islam.”

[6] Qur’an 8:41; Qur’an 9:29.

[7] Tacitus, Annals 15.44.

[8] Qur’an 4:157.

[9] Matthew 22:29–30, KJV.

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THE GRAVE IS ONLY THE STARTING POINT

I built Grave Freak because the grave is rarely the whole story.

Sometimes the interesting part is:

• The person buried there.
• What killed them.
• What they believed.
• What they believed would happen next.
• What those beliefs caused them to do while they were alive.

This Parking Spot is doing exactly what I built Grave Freak to do:

Use death as the starting point for a much bigger story.

You can use Grave Freak to promote:

• Your brand.
• Your book.
• Your product.
• Your opinion.
• Your social media.
• Your ministry.
• Your video.
• Your project.
• Or something else that belongs somewhere around the enormous world surrounding death.

If you have a story, argument, project, ministry, business, video or piece of commentary that genuinely belongs somewhere around death, faith, burial, memory, eternity or the giant world of the grave, you can use the same system.

A Grave Freak Parking Spot is $7 one time.

• No subscription.
• No scheduled renewal.
• No scheduled expiration.

Create a $7 Parking Spot on Grave Freak or see how to sign up.