2 responses
Who are the Gamekeepers? What is the Game? When the gamekeepers are poachers, the forest is silent. “In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking, but now God knows – Anything goes!” - Cole Porter Anything Goes, 1936 (To what level of profanity have we descended in the role of tolerant, submissive followers?) (Why should we be respected, if we don’t respect ourselves, or our responsibilities?) In Blog #3 of learnjustice.posthaven.com Where is their sense of honor? Where is their sense of respect and love of God? A man who will instigate subornation by deception and emotional suasion the living head of priesthood, the arc between men and God, in order to break a marriage, that man is not a man of God. And I don’t care how many layers of lipstick you put on him. Who should give honor to a man who himself will not honor God or God’s laws, the means by which God’s kingdom and our salvation are brought about. Instead of “Thy will be done,” it’s, “My will be done.” (I haven't heard any denial or offer of repentance for that which is described in blogs 3, 4, 28, and 29.) If this is your sense of how God is to be served, what have you to do with Jesus Christ, or the Christ to do with you? (2 Cor. 6:15) “My Father’s house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” (Mt. 21:13) Blog 3 Who would rather take his chances being judged by God than submit himself to be ruled by a man who has apparently demonstrated that he has no honor to truth, or loyalty to God when it comes to an unholy conflict of interest (which shouldn’t be there in the first place)? The Work is not to be a Sultanate. To honor men, who claim to be right with God and the Holy Spirit says otherwise, or is silent, is an offense to God. It doesn’t matter where the altar of Baal (and the sins of the flesh it represents) is erected, the servants of the Most High don’t bow the knee before it! “Having a form of godliness, but denying (disrespecting) the power, thereof.” (2 Tim. 3:5; J.S. 2:19) The gentiles who make themselves to be governed, even to the death on some occasions, by a code of personal behavior and rectitude are better off and better prepared to accept the truths of God on the other side of the veil than those among us who, having these truths and having witnessed a living testimony, treat them as an option, or a thing of naught. We, the holders of priesthood, will not be accepted as innocent bystanders in this contest between light and darkness and right and wrong. When Christ steps out of the veil in a blazing ball of light, then our minds will be quickened to recall the scriptures we have set aside under the influence of men and our own folly. The written words will judge us, just as it says in the Book of Revelation. (See Rev. 20:12.) A man who has and shares a sense of personal honor and likewise respects the honor of God will not do the sort of things that Lynn Thompson has reputedly done, or those may have done in representing him as worthy to preside here. Honor is another way in which God is understood intimately and worshiped through conduct and approached through prayer. Honor is aligning one’s self with that which is honored. In all the volumes of lore we have, is the concept of honor taught among us; is it even known? If we do wickedly using the powers we have been given, we defeat the purpose for which a power has been given. Does that make the authority nul and void? The heavens are silent and compared to the activity and energy of the heavens in Brigham’s time, or even in Rulon’s time (weighted as he was by the intransigence and secret apostasy of others), that should be answer enough. If we can't get a clear, affirming answer, if we have to listen carefully, diligently, focused through fasting, that should be answer enough. God tends not to tell us what we cannot bear, but He will confirm what we have decided up or down on our own, having put ourselves in a posture of humble, attentive listening. We didn’t get the prominent men who sit above and before us by some random blow of fate, or malevolent moment of the Most High; there was a long chain of agreeing, enabling, overlooking, back-scratching, and covering up before men, and applying aprons of fig leaves before the Lord (Blogs 3, 4, 6, 8, 25-28, 29, 32-35). We are reminded that the consequences of taking a stand against their worthiness to administer before the Lord in our behalf would weaken their authority and break up families (Blog 8). I wonder what would happen to the Catholic Church if Pope Francis strode out on the balcony of the papal residence and agreed with every indictment of his church contained in the New Testament. I wonder what would happen to the LDS Mormon Church if President Monson took his place behind the podium of the Conference Center and, beginning with Section 132, affirmed the 1886 Revelation of the Lord to John Taylor along with the relevant priesthood law, the law we claim to uphold. How is our case different before the Man of Holiness? There are only two churches, God says. Does the record shows that the Council didn’t want to let go of Joe Thompson, or apply the judgment of priesthood law in his case? Does the record shows that the Council didn’t want to let go of George Maycock, or apply the judgment of priesthood law in his case? How did Chevrol Pelasios, or any of them, rise to such prominence and walk among us undetected? What does the record of the Recording Angel show as to the rest of their dealings over the years? Why are the heavens above us, as brass? Why, indeed. If things are going right with God, then what the man who holds the keys to such things and those who share his authority will bind on earth will be bound in heaven. We are to have worthiness at our head for a reason: so that we may be rightly led. If these men are separated, nay alienated from God in fundamental things, what sort of binding of your spirits, blinding of your consciences, will they enable? “One ring to rule them all; one ring to find them. One ring to bring them all in, and in the darkness bind them.” J. R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings Trilogy I would rather we faced these things as an organization and at least have those responsible attempt to restore truth and honor held among us and turn to God, than have each person, ready or not, sifted like wheat as the judgments fall upon us. A part of having honor is aligning one’s self with a sense of duty owed to truth, an obligation, a core value to act for that which is right, whatever the cost to earthly reward. A man who makes his honor one with God, is a man of God. I remember being told that President Joseph Musser’s judgment of Heber Grant was that he was naked in God’s sight. Changing the ordinances also applies to separating them from the worthiness and the spirit required of those who would receive, hold, and exercise them. Words and worthiness and spirit must come together for a true ordinance to be manifested. The spirit by which we exercise priesthood power and the spirit in which we do so must be one, as well. We have to make an investment of our effort and our faith. We have to get our motivation lined up to prove our integrity. God does not want us to pre-judge using our notions and emotions, but examine the case and the evidence and in that spirit approach Him to obtain an answer or confirmation. It’s either do or be damned, nothing less. “With greater authority comes greater responsibility.” B. Harvey Allred – "A Leaf in Review" pp. 36-38
— A posthaven user
The Call to the Kingdom How and why did these bad seeds grow among us? I am in mind of Gresham’s law about bad money driving out good. Why did God allow men of such faithlessness and inhuman character to rise to pinnacles of power and how did they deceive so many for so long? As frightening as it is to look at, as unpleasant and unbelievable as it may seem, it must be understood because our salvation, right now, in large part depends on it. It is frightening because the conditions that caused these men and others like them to prosper have been with us and accepted for generations. We have the testimony of the woman who said that the Lord told her that he allowed Rulon to be unaware of the bestiality and wickedness of “Worth” (what?) so he could fully merit his damnation. God, who sees the end from the beginning, must know what damaged souls would emerge from his household and what effect they would have on others. The admonition to all of us not to rely on borrowed light comes to mind. The thought that frightens and appalls me is that God may be putting us to a similar test of our character – with eternal rewards or penalties. Is this another carefully-arranged “set-up” like the Garden of Eden? Do we stand on the experience of our entire lives in “the fullness” with sufficient spiritual strength and power to exercise discernment to choose truth from error in the matter of who-all is worthy to be at our head (and maintain our connection with the Tree of Life) and do we recognize that God’s law and equally applied justice are applicable to all and constitute an integral part of living the gospel, or do we accept the government of men who’s deeds are in question and who maintain a cloak of secrecy. Their visible track record in how they have administered justice in altering marriage and in tardily separating the guilty from among us should speak as loudly as Abel’s blood. I fear that if we get this wrong, even with the paramount importance to God of saving a righteous seed, He will make do with a remnant, a tithe of a tithe, and we will be left fully meriting our reward. We think the members of the Church are in for a big disappointment. Why is God silent to us? Have we indeed been drifting ever since shortly after Rulon was taken? To not even face the question places us on the upper pan in the scales of God’s judgment of us. Perhaps there is a red stream with many branches running through the ordinary conduct of our daily lives. Perhaps there is widespread practice of unjust dominion in families with individuals engaged in strife, one against the other, where there should be harmony. Perhaps family members have treated each other, not as partners or as companions, but as slaves or pawns. Perhaps some have been drastically more favored than others. Perhaps marriages have been entered into in which the approval of God, in the form of consultation, was not sought to the point of hearing and heeding instruction. Perhaps children have grown up in-effect in single parent homes. Perhaps love and appreciation for the good in others and outsiders was not taught or experienced. Perhaps family members have plotted against other family members for a greater share of whatever was available, or to diminish them. Perhaps people put on one face for Sunday and in public and lived of themselves all the rest of the time. Perhaps patriarchs failed to teach their families much beyond the need to obey and keep secrets, or when they did come around, it was not to minister, but to be ministered to. Perhaps intimate relations were experienced as loveless, unfulfilling suffering. Perhaps prayer life was empty routine and consulting dialogue was missing. Perhaps, children experiencing neglect and lack of guidance created their own subculture in which there were users and victims. Perhaps some were simply too tired and burdened with babies to do much more than the minimum and had to let the rest go. I have a suspicion that not enough of us been a celestial people enough of the time in any of our offices and callings, even starting with the most basic step taught by Jesus, the 11th commandment, “. . . that ye love one another, as I have loved you,” (Jn. 13:34) “And he shall have power to wear down the saints and to overcome them.” (Rev. 13:7) (If you can’t bring yourself to love, at least put respect foremost in considering others.) Perhaps, “What would Jesus do?” is a" bon mot" [good word] not yet translated to our hearts from the Aramaic. Perhaps the need to enter the workplace has taken the strength out of parenting. Perhaps a spirit of pettiness in competition as to housekeeping standards, for example, has added to the insecurity and tension. Perhaps, for some, the balance between the right of a patriarch to run his family unsupervised and the need to have law and justice applied within families was never there. Perhaps too many marriages were entered into for personal advantage, social standing and getting that ticket punched, rather than thoughtfully for the good of all. Perhaps too many of us have been stubbornly prideful in how we defend and maintain our opinions and habits, even against the gospel. Perhaps too many of us have been taught or interpreted the gospel as one of fear, threats, and obligations with little place for joy and love. Perhaps the social and mental climate we live in has blotted out the ability to appreciate a sense of progress in our lives and the spark of enthusiasm has been replaced by cynical disappointment in others with whom we share family bonds. Perhaps some have taken advantage of the law of the covenant to the exclusion of in what spirit it should be lived. Section 121:34-46 of the Doctrine and Covenants should be written in the heart of every patriarch. What all this amounts to is a mental and social climate like that experienced by citizens of an iron-curtain country. Perhaps for many of us, the Work is experienced as loveless and joyless and too many serve out their days in fear of damnation and take no joy in salvation. Perhaps the failure of righteous men to stand up for law and justice among us has roots in family life. For most of us, reality experienced solely as preaching influences does not determine how we will believe and how we will act. There is a window in which people are open to incorporating into their beings those principles by which they will live, and once that formative period is passed, the window to change is closed. How many of us will spend personal time and attention on a child? What all this is leading up to is the conclusion that God is prepared to abandon us to the fate of the world because we have failed to order ourselves by the gospel we have been given. Is there is too much selfishness in high places, and in all places? Is there is too much insularity and isolation? Is there is too much hypocrisy made necessary by the critical spirit that sits upon us? If we don’t get this right, a consequence will be imposed on us by God, who demands justice where there is not the wisdom of love. Jesus warned the inhabitants of Jerusalem of the destruction to come. They were a joyless society with exploiters at the top who were their law givers and sculptors of the national character. They rejected him and in so doing left themselves to be abandoned forty years later. I wonder if the people who shouted, “We have no God but Caesar,” and “His blood be upon us and upon our children,” were the very same people who were crying “Hosanna” a week earlier. How many lastingly repented, afterward? We have a more near fullness of the gospel, but do we have it in our hearts? Has the way we treat each other erased the ability of those among us to experience love and joy and gravitate towards seizing upon those things that would ensure a joy-filled life for ourselves and our immediate connections? Have we, like the Pharisaical kingdom of Jesus’ time, failed to understand and live the gospel, all the while believing we do and we are? We cling to a covenant, but it’s the terms of the covenant that are important. The covenant is supposed to be a gateway to a Celestial life. Our state is like having a boarding pass, but never leaving the dockside. I am not conducting a Jeremiad here; I am trying to understand why we have been ignorant of wicked men as our rulers (e.g. the unholy trinity?) and why there must be a movement inspired to redress wrongs such as ignoring law and justice, that shouldn’t have been allowed to occur in the first place. Since when did it enter into our hearts not to question authority? It didn’t come from the Church of Joseph. Is our spiritual awareness and strength so feeble, are we so oppressed, so "malencombered" [burdened by evil] that we do not hunger and thirst for righteousness as a necessary part of our being? Why is it more of us do not have the conviction as part of our being that we are our brother’s, our sisters, our children’s keeper? Why can we not trust each other to know anything of us other than the public face we project? I fear that in this world age the ant heap of mankind is about to be overturned and dosed with kerosene. In this issue of worthiness to preside and have open, equal justice for our law, we are presented with either door A or door B. Which is our truth, adherence to law is indispensable for all, or the authority held of men is sufficient law in itself? I think that God doesn’t want to be bothered with an unresponsive people any more. Those who accept the reasoning of those who sustain their position by invoking authority and from behind a stone wall, are sustaining all the things as they are, both for the Work in general and within families. Is it true for us that We get the government we deserve? Those who choose that they desire the rule of law, equal justice, and love one towards one another, no longer following perpetrators of evil, who, by their office should be committed to the highest standards of worthiness - those are the people who must pick their way carefully over ground they have not traveled, but Joseph did, and Brigham did, and John did, and the Woolleys did. It requires valiant daring to stand steadfastly before God, exercise priesthood responsibility and authority to petition the Lord directly for guidance, step by step. To restate, I fear if we do not place ourselves directly under God’s guidance, examine our dealings in our families and seek for repentance and healing in how the Work conducts itself, we will be abandoned by God, for all our insistence that we are too good to fail and God needs us, just as we are. What God needs is a right-loving people upon which to found his millennial kingdom, rebuke the destroyer and his minions, keep and love all his commandments, teach his choicest spirit children, and lead like-minded people to full measure of salvation. United Order and Consecration are established by a covenant, but are founded in the prepared soil of friendship and trust, and respect for the sovereignty of others. (That soil needs to be maintained, as well.) It may seem difficult to do all this, but not when all make themselves willing to “love one another as I have loved you.” In any case, events will force close communion, but events cannot force good will. That has to come from us, and it had better start to grow now. It’s as though we are entering a new dispensation and God requires that we step up to meet its conditions. The core of this is not to harry and harrow each other, but once committed, share the light. Just saying to God we’re sorry for our shortcomings in a testimony-style outburst is not enough. God wants a change of heart, acceptance of all His laws, not just a minimum. He wants His law lived in love, trust, and friendship, not punition, fault-finding, or animosity. It’s time to grow up and take upon us the mantle of responsibility before God of right thinking and right living, rather than depend on others whose righteousness before God we do not know but some of us know all too well. Our salvation, temporal or spiritual, is by no means assured. God has abandoned His cities, temples, and people before, “. . . those who call themselves by my name.” We have the record of it in scripture and in the history of our times. It isn’t one sin, or the sins of a few that hobble us, it is a climate in which the Spirit of the Lord is not lived and radiated. This climate like a fog prevents us from seeing our state and discerning right from wrong. This climate of criticism and mistrust is what allows sin to set up refuges, safe-houses in our midst. This is what enables the perversion of man-centered government to overcome the saints. The Chinese, busily preparing to become masters of the world, have a saying, “The journey of a thousand ri begins with but a single step.” Our single step must be to talk to God and agree to be guided by Him. The next step is to adopt an attitude that cultivates friendship and heals. If others will not join us, that is their misfortune. If we open ourselves to a positive attitude, to love one another and practice that love through respect, then the teaching will come and the truth will be revealed. We have to push the veil aside ourselves – that is the requirement for us to be found worthy of salvation in these times. I just encountered a circular letter from a Protestant missionary in Papua New Guinea. He describes how having prayed to God for help, he acknowledges that God told him not to worry and that God would provide the needed funds. The number of living Christians of all denominations who have received impressions and had events arranged for them and delivering interventions would fill a football stadium and more. We are not alone, but we will be if we do not change our ways. We have been tasked with particular responsibilities that require special, even unique qualifications, but God has not forsaken the rest. All of us have the responsibility to at least present a face that radiates the love of the gospel we enjoy and the good will we have for father’s children, and to pray for them. We call ourselves servants, but we are also apprentices who have the opportunity to grow in our ability gained from communion with the Father. We are to find the good in others and act, however subtly to reinforce and inspire them where they are. Our wisdom is of little worth unless it is exercised. The more good will we can direct toward the more people, whether they are aware or not, the stronger we become in our faith and more resilient to the hammer blows of fate. We can’t be saved in ignorance, we are told (D&C 131:6); part of that knowledge is to sense the need in others. This world has less and less reward for people who are not preoccupied with doing good and enhancing right thinking in others. What people take in daily from their environment in the way of entertainment and information is like our food supply, full of artificial ingredients that confer no nourishment to the soul. The Holy Spirit is not just for our benefit alone but to make of us a stream of living water by which God can minister to others. At this time, the public television stations are running tributes to our World War II veterans. More than one story has to do with the leadership and example of clean-living men who prayed at critical times for themselves and for their comrades. Often profane men came to recognize special gifts in these men, such that fate was diverted. Men who had a testimony or a good upbringing had their characters deepened so as to be towers of strength to their families in the military scene and when they returned home again. How are we preparing ourselves and representing our God to others? Now we are living among the children of divorce and distraction. The social and commercial environment no longer teaches the values that gave men a sense of accomplishment, achievement in right living or service to others. How are we preparing to lift the stricken? God enhances our lives when we extend ourselves to others. We are taught that the celestial ministers to the terrestrial – what do we have to minister? An effective ministry on a person-to-person level includes discipleship, which means extending the hand of friendship. In all that we do, we are not blind or foolish, but consult with the Holy Spirit. Where do seventies come from? They come from good families, for the most part, where the example is set of care for those who need encouragement or other service. Part of our repentance from the life we are leading now, from the blindness, distrust, and preoccupation with our own selves involves being a giving people. Jesus spoke of the foolishness of hiding a lamp under a basket. The Savior experiences a fullness of joy. Prayers to God are like incense to Him. If we would be one with our Savior and joy in his presence, we must be like him in very basic ways that do not even require doctrinal expertise. I remember Brother Rulon had in the waiting room of his office an Uncle Arthur book, full of exemplary and inspirational stories for children, showing basic virtues such as honesty and looking out for the other fellow. If we do not take joy in these things, how can we hope to raise up a righteous seed to our Father in Heaven? Salvation is individual matter, Brigham famously taught, but it is also a matter of one-on one ministry. I remember one of our brothers teaching his teen-aged sons how to use a table saw in preparing materials for a complicated home repair. The care he took with them in reinforcing their confidence in themselves and guiding their learning to organize the work in their heads is something I will take with me through mortality. His manner would cause a young man to want to be like him in doing any task in life. These young people belong to God, as do we. Young women tend to look for a father’s example with the desire to form an emotional attachment that they will transfer in developing their judgment in choosing a husband and the kind of life they will have. If one does not have a model personality, one can at least pause to explain one’s self to one’s audience of children. Being full of one’s self to the exclusion of outside influences can pass one’s faults onto one’s children. Children need to be engaged, talked to in order to develop in them the ability to think critically. This ability to step back from a situation, exercise self-control and think around a situation rather than just to react to it, will materially help them to choose this gospel above the gospel of the world. We wouldn’t be having this problem of things that inspire mistrust in our leaders and in their judgment if we followed the example of habitual servant hood and ministry to others. Right-living gives us right judgment and a sense of moral rectitude that would impel us to clean up this work top to bottom. Unhappily, a rededication to right and righteous living while ignoring the present problem places too great a burden to be borne for long. The humane way, the godly way to deal with the present winter of discontent is to insist not on a reshuffle of leading personalities, but to insist first on establishment of the rule of law, and the exercise of law in an open manner so all can be edified from seeing how it is applied fairly and equally to all regardless of family nobility or rank, or office. D&C 102:15,17,18, etc. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but the fear to have the law in the form of an operating mechanism is the beginning of bondage to devilishness. If we substitute the judgment of men without due process, we are in lock-step with the world. It doesn’t matter that the men that claim to have the right to judge claim they are inspired, by failing to pass their judgment through a process of equal and fair justice says to me that their judgment is suspect. The testimony of Brother Steve in the trials he underwent before the council shouts, “By their fruits shall ye know them.” Who means to say that a righteous judgment upon a brother cannot stand to be measured within a process in which two sides are presented before judgment is cast? If the Adversary is at work, overcoming our people, that state of affairs does not have to continue. We have a remedy and that remedy is respect for the forms and patterns laid down through Joseph in the name of the Lord. When men break the law, and that is what arbitrary and secret dealings are all about, the whole Work is cast off course to a lower orbit, further from Kolob. Everything suffers. A righteous people cannot be governed by the unrighteous, but they have to become aware and insistent. If it should come to that, with what measure men mete, they shall be met. The Polish people were delivered from the curse of communism because their minds were turned and directed to seek that deliverance and the time was right. Their effort was a steady pressure, not violent, but thorough going. God heard the prayers of a united people. Change for us must come for a shared, even united will to righteousness in every place where we have influence, not just in one place or one man. Even in this late hour, God is waiting to add blessings to all those who will themselves to be clean in their affairs before Him, and seek Him in cultivating righteousness and joy along with it. Communism was in the end defeated by a will to freedom that came from the decision in the heart of each individual to seek it and aid those who were in agreement. We are no different; we have been given the way to access powerful tools, but we must obey the laws upon which these tools are powered up. Since the sickness is everywhere, the medicine of aware-living must be everywhere applied. Regardless of what those under a cloud of suspicion may have done or not done, the presence of these questions calls for a thorough housecleaning. It is a wakeup call for all of us to examine, not only the others, but ourselves, as well. Without an equitable and open judicial process, the presence of these unresolved issues will cause a fog of mistrust that cannot be wiped away. How can we progress to higher worthiness, wisdom, and unity with God regarding all his laws, yet ignore equal justice for all according to the recipe God has given us to follow? Who is standing in the way of this, and why? “Yea, woe be unto this generation! And the Lord said unto me: Stretch forth thy hand and prophesy saying: Thus saith the Lord, it shall come to pass that this generation, because of their iniquities, shall be brought into bondage . . .” Mosiah 12:2 (The scriptures aren’t just quaint artifacts from the past, they have been given to us to assist us in establishing our own degree of salvation.) There are three particular sins the presence of which must be determined here: the one is the habit of sexual violation and exploitation. The second, of more significance to us, is the failure to be valiant and worthy enough to withdraw from an office that requires purity and honesty as prerequisites to exercising its powers. The third sin is allowing the first and second to go on without an ensign of liberty being raised that a process (judicial, social, or spiritually energized), may begin to make things right. How long must this go on before we realize these powers are not available to us and recognize that God does not accept what we have presented before him? We are all cut off from the higher function of priesthood now and for even greater functioning when priesthood must stand alone among men to maintain the narrow way. “Stand up, Stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal banner; it shall not suffer loss.”
— A posthaven user