God’s revealed justice system requires that there be at least 2 or 3 witnesses against a person to bring them to trial. 

1 Timothy 5:19  Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses...

2 Corinthians 13:1   "Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses."

Hebrews 10:28      Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses...

Deuteronomy 17:6     On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness...

Matthew 18:16     But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses'...

Deuteronomy 19:15      One witness is not enough to convict anyone ... A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. ... The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses...

Revelation 11:3      And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will ...  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three score days [1260] clothed in sackcloth...

Revelation 11:11       After 3 1/2 days the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood ... And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into ...  

You may have read my blog on my three perplexing experiences concerning Bro. Ly.nn [blog #3].  But do those experiences bring forth enough evidence to call into question the reputation of a good man?  Absolutely not !

So what constitutes a “witness” and what is needed to help us get to the bottom of this Bro. Ly.nn matter?  How do we come to a just closure, and not more cover-up?  Obviously I would not be blogging about this if I even thought it was remotely possible to obtain justice from the council, now after more than 30 years of let down, without applying great pressure externally to them.  I’ll let you theorize on why they have, over the years, done virtually nothing in these matters, until forced to do so by outside demands.

I wrote, what some are calling, 2 controversial  “essays,” about the evil I was again viewing among us as a people.  Right after this last Work Conference 2014, I simply asked 95 Martin Luther style hard hitting questions.  The first paper is called: “95 Questions That Still Need Answering [Blog # 6]” and it was only handed out to the apostles and to a few who asked me for a copy. In the second paper, I was projecting ahead, and searching for answers to how this sick-state-of-affairs could possibly be continuing to happen in the Work of God.  This second essay was only distributed to the apostles and a few select others.  This second paper was handed out 2 weeks after the first essay, and is called:  “Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely and Destroys Justice [Blog # 7].” Within a few days after writing the second paper, I was whisked away to the “guillotine,” publicly humiliated, and "beheaded" by “the council” without so much as one council member talking to me personally before the execution, as John 7: 24 and 51 commands.  I guess there is a very limited, “freedom of the press” here in the Work. What spirit is it that motivates a lynch mob and what is such a spirit doing among our leadership?  Who is the main pusher of such unjust proceedings on the council?  Does it increase your confidence in them?  None have even hinted at being sorry for the gross injustice inflicted upon me and that still remains.  Is it beneath an apostle to say I was wrong, even a little  bit? 

        “Judge not according to appearance [“to your traditions” - alternate translation], but judge righteous judgment…."                    

"Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth?” Or consider an alternate translation:  "Is it legal to convict a man before he is given a hearing?" he asked."

Because of several serious problems I inherited through my family, I have been compelled, before Bro. Ly.nn's case, to summon or to participate in 5 priesthood hearings on members of the council.  Sad to say, I do have some experience in these fecal matter like problems.  Bro. Ron has summed up my efforts to bring winked at evils among our priest.hood leadership, into the light of day, “offenses.” [see Blog # 8]  Thus are we to conclude that crying repentance among us is an "offense"?

Challenging the staying power of these evils within our ranks, proclaiming that they must not be any longer allowed among us, has brought the wrath of the council upon me several times as well as a few offended others. The council has not, for some reason, policed itself much in this area, but has had to have a junior apostle insist that justice must be established in this, the Work of God. This has been embarrassing, I am sure, but I have taken great pains, over the years, to describe, and teach the truths of the Gospel that have shed true light on such abominations and should have provoked some courageous action by those presiding ones.  After many meetings and sermons, I have felt compelled, in each case, to proceed in demanding justice be established and that, sins not repented of, must have consequences that are real.  Obviously these actions have not been welcomed or positively extolled by our leaders and a few well meaning others, so far.  Why not?  Aren't there many others imbued with the Godly attribute of justice among us?  Establishing justice is a very serious matter and should not be a spectator sport, should it?

Now after more than 30 years of bobbing up and down [mostly down] in the waters of our common cesspool, I am taking up the pen [actually my computer] once again, to try and help establish a semblance of justice among our people by disclosing some of what I have experienced, and learned over the years, in these matters.  Again I am not authorized to set this Work in order, but I am authorized to cry repentance fearlessly when I perceive something to be grossly out of order.  Even an  Aaronic Teacher is also charged with that duty :  "The teacher's duty is to ... see that there is no iniquity in the 'church' [assembled believers in Greek] ... neither lying, backbiting, nor evil speaking [see Blog # 19]... and see that all the members do their duty."  D&C 20:53-55  

I am also authorized to teach the truth, the best that I can understand it.  I fully expect after these blogs come out that the council, will, if they are not careful, childishly lash out once again, and brand me as an apostate much like a leper to be avoided at all cost. If I could discern a better way to assist in getting this mess cleaned up, I certainly would do it!

Webster’s 1828 dictionary says of the word witness: 

Witness – attestation of a fact or event.  That which furnishes evidence or proof.  A person who knows or sees anything; one personally present; (s)he was an eyewitness.  One who gives testimony; as, the witnesses in court agreed in all essential facts.”

So, how many witnesses do we have to date, revealing more of Bro. Ly.nn’s alleged deeds?  The best I can determine, is we have   3 written testimonies from ab.used women, plus one questionable one that I was asked to video tape, a few years ago.  The DVD was passed around by the council throughout the Work and caused quite a stir and much anger.  Annie’s testimonies seemed exaggerated, to me also.  So I accompanied and sat in on the counseling sessions with my wife, who had also been ab.used by some of her loved ones.  We went to Annie’s therapist on two occasions.  After 2 sessions, we both agreed not to go back as the therapist was leading the mind in the creation of images building upon what was already there.  I am positive that something very terrible happened to Annie but because of the therapist's adverse influence, Annie’s testimony can’t be fully trusted.  We also have, at least 2 others, so far, that are waiting in the wings of the stage, for the right time, to face the intense pressure of family and friends before they reveal their personal tragic experiences which they’ve been forced to endure. 

There are also many secondary witnesses who have heard from victims throughout their growing up years within their families.  Several have courageously tried, over the years, to bring out of the closet, knowledge of the mur.der of their inno.cence.  Why is it accurate to call it the mur.der of inno.cence?  Even a little se.xual awakening of a child does handicap them the rest of their mortal life.  The effects are passed down or are entailed onto their children unto the 3^rd or 4^th generation until the Lord powerfully intervenes and begins to heal the damaging effects.  This entailing is not in any way the children’s fault, but they do suffer the effects which are almost always entailed, as I said, to some degree onto their children also.  I believe this is what Isaiah is trying to teach us in his first chapter verse 4. 

“The offspring of wrongdoers [ab.users], perverse children… [if they pass on the ab.use overtly]”   Gileadi’s Commentary:  ‘Here it is becoming generational already. It’s not just all happening in one generation; it’s happening over several generations.  It’s kind of a national or a group phenomenon.  Everybody is involved, except a few individuals.’"  “Isaiah Illustrated” p. 24.

Over the years many have tried to reveal to their parents or friends what has happened to them, but were generally so roughly rebuffed that it actually heaped insult, injury and further ab.use upon them, so much so, that rage is the only civilized response we should feel against these people called priest.hood leaders, as well as fathers and mothers which have been overcome by fear and ignorance in ostrich like denial!

“Sweetheart, who have you told about this? 

“Just forget it!  It will cause too many problems to even mention it among our people.” 

Or consider other cowardly, cover-up responses: 

“Don’t you ever say such a thing to me again about your father, or your brother, or the neighbor boy, or your uncle, your grandfather or brother so-and-so now on the council.”

“Do you hear me?” 

“You must be crazy!” 

“What’s the matter with you?”

“What will happen to our good name and reputation?”   

Vomit like stench, isn’t it?! 

But can the Lord heal us of such past fearful responses?  I know He can and when better to start on that healing path than right now!  Do something right now to move forward.  Start the healing process, and help support others in their healing through the power of Jesus Christ!

Bro. Steve

 

A very dear friend of ours recently said to my wife, “I’m glad my husband decided to fight against the IRS rather than fight against the Priesthood like your husband.”  I’ve thought about that statement many times since she sincerely uttered it.  We each see things from our own point of view.  One sees priest.hood and another sees priest.craft.  What is the difference?  Doesn’t the difference in conclusions, come from what we measure everything by?  Do we measure by God’s scriptural truths or do we measure by the created traditions of men mingled with emotion?  To be clear, my fight isn’t against the priest.hood but against false traditions wearing masks, posing as though they are priest.hood.  How shall we discern the difference and “judge righteous judgment”? 

First, why would anyone feel compelled to fight against the IRS?  Most, I’m sure, have read about 1913 and how our Congress, our chief politically governing council, did the slight-of-hand trick and slipped us into a bondage worse than our ancestors in Egypt via the income tax “law” or the 16^th amendment.  Do you assume that this “law” came into existence, being properly ratified?   Guess again!  Was this “law” established in accordance with many eternal principles and enlightened vision that our Founding Fathers based us upon?  No again!  How do we individually measure whether this income tax “law” is good or evil?  If we, after studying it out, determine that it is wrong, should we speak out, share our findings, and seek to have it removed as dangerous, and destructive to our freedoms, or should we simply settle in and blindly accept the bad choices of our leaders without so much as a whimper?  Everybody has an opinion, to be sure, but by what fixed principles do we measure the Federal Reserve and the 16^th amendment whether they actually edify and fortify our freedoms or do they weaken, undermine, and destroy our nation under God? 

Likewise, shouldn’t we also reflect, with our friend, asking why any true believer would oppose or fight against God’s Priest.hood here on the earth, or fight against the tasks God commands them to establish?  It is a very good question as well as being an excellent comparison she employed.  For most of us, if the message transfer from God to His Priest.hood, here on earth, was accurate and fully in accordance with His will, then there would be no legitimate reason to oppose their actions, would there? 

But what if, like the setting up of the 16^th amendment, the “Priesthood” wasn’t worthy to receive real revelation or being darkened in their minds from covering sin, possibly misunderstood God’s actual message, and consequently sent out a dangerously distorted “revelation” as though it was from Him, but in fact, turned out that it wasn’t really? 

If we ever became convinced of such an alarming conclusion by measuring and testing their teachings with unchanging, fixed principles of Gospel Truth, what would be the responsibility of such a discerning but subordinate body of Priesthood in relation to their presiding leaders and their subsequent “manifestos”? 

In the last 6000 years, have the Lord’s people ever completely gone into apostasy unless their leaders eventually did so too?  Is Isaiah speaking to us of such a deteriorating state of His people when he said, “O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy path.” (Isa 3:12)  Don’t we claim to be His people?  Isn’t He testifying that this state of apostasy is to occur, among us, just before the second coming of our Lord?  Isn’t that now? 

If such prophesied diversion from the true path was clearly shown to be the case, should the few scripturally versed humble followers of Christ simply surrender to and vote-in non-celestial truths with great swelling emotion?  Or rather would duty dictate that they must with all the energy of their souls begin to reason against these potentially fatal errors by crying repentance unto the people?  

My response to my friend was to ask what her precise understanding was of the difference between Priestcraft and Priesthood.  I used the “Masonic” symbol of the compass as an illustration to explain my understanding of the critical difference between these two systems of administration.  The compass draws a circle and it represents God’s revealed will inside of the circle.  Words spoken, teachings proclaimed and even ordinances performed, or literally anything outside the God appointed proper bounds of the circle, in any direction, would constitute Priest.craft or the works of men. 

Obviously the standard by which we judge, becomes our foundational premise. If our standard is inaccurate or improper, then how can we come to a good conclusion or make a righteous judgment?  How do we measure the difference between revealed scriptural truths and the consensus of men often communicating their best but imperfect decisions as though it were Gospel truth?  We know from history that these man-inspired decrees almost always become binding traditions and, in fact, often grow in the esteem of darkening minds to the point of even overruling the very will of God to the followers of the tradition setters!  This tendency was one of the main truths Jesus taught to the Pharisees.  “Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your traditions…. In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.”    Matt. 15: 6 &9

My purpose for creating this blog is simply to reason with you and to present evidence proving that we are rapidly falling headlong into dangerous diversions from the Gospel path generally, and in great measure – more particularly in the last few months! [the Fall of 2014].   I am only responsible to declare the truth, as well as I understand it, and your duty is to understand what I am saying, measure it by fixed scriptural truths and then to take your conclusions to God for personal confirming revelation for or against my points.  I do not have the calling to set this Work in order, only God and our leaders can do that.  But I do have the responsibility to cry repentance and to teach the truths of the Gospel.  To be critical means being capable of judging with accuracy between the correct and the incorrect, based upon experience, knowledge, habit and hopefully a gift from God in the power of His Holy Spirit.  It is a fine line between being critical and simply crying repentance because it is the right thing to do. This is true for both you and me, isn’t it?  I trust that by reasoning together, with scriptural truths coupled with help from God, we can come to the blessed state of “seeing eye to eye.”

 “Come let us reason together” is a prerequisite for all celestial candidates, and condemning before sincere investigation is one sign that these “fearful” ones obviously do not have the capacity or the courage to obtain the celestial kingdom anyway. 

“Surely those who can be swayed to fear searching after truth will not have courage enough to obey its mandates.”  M.H.P. 4:II [preface].

I plan to offer facts, probing questions, documents and resources to aid you in personally evaluating whether my views are correct or incorrect.  In upcoming blogs, I will be using only first names to help keep our audience limited to the only ones who need to know the inside applications of our discussions. I want you to know that I truly feel no hate, animosity or ill feelings against any of my brothers or sisters that I will be mentioning, but only against their bad behavior and foul deeds if such proves to be the case.  I will only introduce them herein to make correct principles more understandable and to help each of us to learn from their manifested misdeeds.  However, please keep fully in mind that everything each of us says and does, is and will be thoroughly observed, rightly judged, and shouted from the housetops for all to see by our Father in Heaven with attached eternal consequences.  Of this I am certain!

Sincerely,

Bro. Steve

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

                                              The Compass of God's Circle

GOD

OUTSIDE  the Compass of the Circle                                                INSIDE  the Compass of God's Circle

Priest-craft     (2 Ne 26:29; 3 Ne 16:10 & 3 Ne 30:2)                          Priest-hood (“covered” or atoned - of their Head)

A mere form of godliness                                                                     The Power of the Holy Ghost ratifying

Leader created false traditions                                                              Eternal Scriptural Truths

“Revelations” of men & devils                                                                Real Revelations from God

Stressing “Infallibility” of office                                                                Keys of the Priesthood - defined: TPJS 171

Bondage of Sin                                                                                       Forgiveness of Sins & Filled with Holy Ghost

Babylon                                                                                                   Zion

Curses                                                                                                     Blessings

Death                                                                                                       Eternal Life

Lusts of the flesh                                                                                      Lustrous Life

Notice, also that one of the first mentioned creative acts of God was to gather the light, and He called it good.  He separated the light from the darkness which was already there. Is God teaching us, from this account, that it is good to divide the light from darkness or the good from evil?  Isn’t that an act of discernment and judgment?  

Is this teaching us that God discerns and judges between good and evil and so to live with Him, and to follow Him we must learn to effectively do that same labor?  With that in mind, would a better translation of Gen. 2:17, be to call it “the Tree of the Knowledge of Good from evil?”  Didn’t God call the light good?  Did He call the evil good?  No, He called it darkness! (Gen. 1:4) Consider: “… becoming as gods, knowing good from evil, placing themselves in a state to act…”  (Al. 12:1) and “… it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil…”  (Moro. 7:15)

People tell us, “Don’t judge me!  You don’t know me well enough or what I’ve gone through, to judge me fairly!”  But in John 7:24, Jesus directs us to, “Judge not according to appearance [your traditions], but judge righteous judgment.”  So which is it?  Are we to judge or is it none of our business?  The prophet corrected the thought back to its original intent in Matt 7:1 to coincide with John 7:24 to read:  “Judge not unrighteously, that ye be not judged [for judging by anything other than by God's standards?]: but judge righteous judgment.”

Also let’s include into our line of reasoning the fact that intelligence, “or in other words, light and truth … forsake[s] that evil one … that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth [the Spirit of God within us] through disobedience … because of the tradition of their fathers.”  (D&C 93:37-39)  Thus God, being the most enlightened, or intelligent of all by far, divides or separates light and truth from darkness or the evil one.  Could we then conclude that, we too, as we increase in our ability to discern or judge between finer and finer shades of evil, that we also are growing in light and truth or become more “intelligent”? 

On the other hand, if we are not increasingly growing in light, and discerning truth from error, more and more effectively, why aren’t we?  The Lord reveals that when we disobey His commandments, even ignorantly, it is called disobedience.  We often judge an unrighteous judgment because we measure with inaccurate models called “traditions of their [our] fathers.” Thereby, the evil one is empowered to suck light and righteousness, or enlightened judgment, out of us.  We then proceed, having been deceived, by being disobedient. Our decision hardens our heart.  Our sensitivity is lessened, and now we begin to  believe a “little lie” or truth mingled with error, obscuring our vision just a bit. In such a manner, an evil spirit attaches to our new personal “creed” most of which we inherit, with strong emotional family-arity, and we have thus just taken another step down the path to being more and more fettered by the chains and handcuffs of hell.  (Study D&C 123:7)

Let’s conclude this blog by beginning to practice judging and categorizing everyday ideas, temptations, sights, and reasons we use to explain why we do what we do.  This is something we adults need to practice every day and it is also an exercise one could teach their children to engage in, to help give them a head start beyond where we may be ourselves today.

Divide every idea we consider, into degrees of intensity of light.  The greatest intensity of light for us on earth is the sun.  The next greatest illumination is the moon and the least intense are the stars on a clear night.  We will let the intensity of the sun represent the highest level in our judging criteria, or denominate it as something pertaining to what is Godly.  The illumination of the moon would represent good, honorable, moral standards possessed by most on this earth.  Lastly consider the relatively low level light from the stars to represent a very low quality of behavioral standard, far removed from the immediate effulgent presence of God.  If you were in a class room you could call the sun as “thumbs up” and the moon level as “thumbs to the side.”  The lowest level would be “thumbs down” and for more advanced participants, an aggressive active motion of thumbs downward could represent something of extreme evil or outer darkness, son of perdition type stuff. 

By what standard we judge will fundamentally determine, in large measure, the potential good of the final reward of our judgments, right?  If we judge by a Godly standard we have a better likelihood of moving closer to God (brightness increasing) by deciding to ingest that food, idea or activity into our lives.  For some that standard would be the Scriptures of whatever origin.  Remember the more accurate the standard, from the Creator’s point of view, the better for making the best judgment possible.  If our version of the Scriptures, or our own personal interpretation of those Scriptures, is mixed with false traditions, we will, of course, only be able to render a partially righteous or accurate judgment, from God’s point of view.

What would be examples of good moon intensity gauges by which to measure?  We could measure by the best philosophies and theories throughout history, or the wisdom amassed by our own family geniuses of which we are heirs. We could Google it and take the idea that best suits our fancy.  We could judge based on our gut level feeling or what our closest friends council us, etc.

The lowest level standard could be what gives them pleasure as opposed to pain.  Thus lying is okay, from their point of view, if it saves them from personal pain.  Good is that which serves them personally, letting others fend for themselves.  This low spiritual frequency exaggerates the needs of the body over the spiritual hunger or sensual pleasures above what is of a more long range and enduring outcome.  I trust you get the idea from living in this world and society.

Let’s start with an easy one:  junk food.  Does eating junk food tend to move one more toward a sun, moon, or stars enlightenment outcome?  Does eating such food move us spiritually and physically more toward God or away from being sensitive to His higher good?   It’s quite easy to judge that one, but perhaps harder to get ourselves to act according to our best judgment, right?  How do you judge it?  GIGO or garbage in, garbage out indicates the fact that if we put garbage into us spiritually, mentally or physically, it does cause certain consequences in our potential degree of being rewarded with a healthy and happy life in this world.   

Now consider the wearing of tight fitting, body form revealing clothing.  When women and even men wear skin tight clothing, what is their purpose, goal, or motivation?  Is it shallowly disguised by saying, "I do it because everybody is doing it or it is the current traditional fashion?"  Could it be that one feels small or unclean, or unworthy inside and wants people to desire to look at their body to make them feel better about theirself?  Is that person wanting to signal that they are available for the best offer of sexual contact?  What percentage of the cases you could dream up would conclude that the wearing of curve revealing clothing leads to the glorious presence of God and more of His Holy Spirit?  How many possible outcomes you could imagine are probably leading towards, honorable, moral purposes and outcomes?  How do you judge it? Does it tend, in most cases, to move one toward the sun, moon or stars level of enlightenment and final judgment? 

This judging a righteous judgment could become hard work, couldn’t it, especially if one’s past choices were less than glowing?  It may, consequently, become harder and harder to discern accurately, and may even impinge on one’s personal daily activities, causing guilt and a desire to cover up what one is thinking or doing as they begin to measure, by a sound standard, what their behavior is at all. 

When a person has begun to compromise against the standard they say they believe, and then life moves them into a situation where they have to judge a person who has made more correct decisions than they, how will they measure that person?  Will they out of guilt tend to put that person down with guarded but envious anger?  Will they judge by the most righteous standard they can measure by?  If I were to judge unrighteously a person more righteous than me, how would my judgment effect my own progression or lack thereof?  One could thus quicken their downward momentum by not only continuing to make bad judgment calls for themselves, but could greatly heap up upon themselves pain upon pain by their unrighteous judgments of others.  Scary business this judgment principle, isn’t it? 

Now let us just pick a couple more examples so you clearly get the pattern down.  How about watching professional sports?  Questions we could ask pertaining to this consideration might be:  Who tends to push professional sports and for what reason?  Are professional sports designed to make a few very rich and to make spectators of the shallow thinking masses?  Are they probably sun, moon or star enlightened people?  Once a habit of watching event after event becomes ingrained, which degree of enlightenment is it pushing one toward?  Do you dare ask the hard questions of yourself especially if this is one of your traditions and enjoyments?  If you don’t want to play the judge a righteous judgment game anymore, toward what intensity of light have you then decided to be content with?

How about why women wear perfume, wear high heel shoes, or why men want a Lexus, or why youth say, “I don’t care what my parents think or if my bedroom is messy.”  In all these things we are making decisions of what to think about, and of course, we are making judgments for our own lives and the effects of our decisions are affecting each of us and those around us forever. 

Bro. Steve