1 response
Using and Losing The record of the blogs shows that upon the naked souls of our women and children, we have maintained our own roll of dishonor, as with Short Creek and their cousins. Is teaching truth sufficient for God, or do we have to live that truth? “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that procedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Mt. 4:4) It is up to each one of us to maintain a full-spectrum of righteousness among us. “. . . I am no devil, for there is none . . . [among you people of God].” (2Ne. 28:22) What do you call devilish conduct, then? Where does it come from, if not from the spirits of those who know not God? Blog 28. “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Mt. 18:6) Jesus uses colorful language to make his inescapable judgment impressed upon our minds. I have another quote; this, from Scott’s Lay of the Last Minstrel: “Breathes there a man with soul so dead . . .” The Devil hates humanity embraced by the plan of Christ’s salvation using every available means to destroy. The opposite of love is not only malevolent hate and violence; it is also indifference to another’s welfare in the form of using people without their informed consent and to their harm, often based on deception. Using those who are kept in ignorance of the true purpose of their actions is what multi-level conspiracies and secret combinations are all about. In this case, what is up for examination is whether we all are serving God in our spheres, or whether most of us are merely serving other men who use the name of God to advance their personal fortunes, commit outlawry, and conceal their sins from correction. Which is it and in what degree? We need to determine this, with God’s help, for ourselves. For a man to refuse to face truth (e.g. law of adultery) and then plead to God that he is not fully accountable because of ignorance is rather like the man who killed his parents and pleads for mercy because he is an orphan. The reason why the vending machine of the Work is out of order is because the kids tried to feed it slugs and tip it over. They used to hang horse thieves; among us, is a wife rustler maintained as an example? (Blog 3) Using is a hallmark of the counterfeit transaction called prostitution. Using misuses or prostitutes (pornea) an emotionally-based investment that implies a commitment, even a covenant. When trust is broken or someone’s personhood is violated, that person will become alienated. When sexual feelings that are allied with trust and commitment and covenant are stirred up followed by no reciprocal offering – self-loathing and aversion are in consequence. What does one say of one who kills souls? Is it better for the victims of sexual abuse not to be taught the sacredness of male-female intimate relations, than to experience the disconnection between the word and the deed from which many do not recover? What about the concept that women are sacred vessels of the Lord with the gift and responsibility to grow and nourish a righteous seed? Lakota Indian tradition teaches this. The highest aspiration of our Western Tradition taught this. Who dishonors womanhood dishonors God. (Blog 4) Jesus said at the last supper that he wished his disciples to be as close to him and the Father as they were with each other (Jn. 17:21-26). If a man were resolutely on that path and possessing the testimony of that communion would he permit himself to do harm to any one of the Father’s children entrusted to him? Should not a man’s instinctive love for women (experienced carnally as well as spiritually) be overlaid by the desire to share a virtuous life with them and keep together with them on that path? Using and Losing 2 There are laws to punish transgressors in deed; there is another law that defines transgressors in thought. Thoughts are fathers of deeds. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Prov. 23:7) Can we truly be close to the Father and the Son if we do not share their attitude and willingness to sacrifice for those in our stewardship? Who are we fooling? Who are we letting ourselves be fooled by? “You never knew me: depart from me ye that work iniquity.” (Jos. Smith’s translation of Mt. 7:23) is the Savior’s terrible pronouncement upon those who have willfully refused to close the gap between themselves and God in the matters of outrageous sins against His little ones and their eternal companions. “Love casts out fear.” (Mor. 8:16) Should not love drive out the desire to derive a selfish gratification from a defenseless subject? Godly living begets godliness in how we are motivated to care for those who should be our loved ones. Are the sins of neglect and exploitation that are brought out in Bro. Steve’s blogs confined to a single man, or are there others who share in being dead in spirit to the living gospel? I believe that in a climate where discerning love for others abounds, there is less likelihood of men entertaining or adopting thoughts and then deeds of selfish and destructive exploitation. However, in a climate of cold-heartedness, spiritual neglect, and unrighteous dominion of others, that false standard sets an example that some will flow into when they get the chance. “. . . but inwardly, they are ravening wolves.” (Mt. 7:15) God has provided safeguards in the form of laws and justice-furthering protocols (ways and norms) to govern the behavior of men, but if enough men are in agreement to violate and cover up, or are silent, these safeguards can be breached. As a popular song of recent memory (“Billy Jean”) has it: “Be careful what you do, ‘cause a lie becomes the truth.” Perhaps there are among us those who don’t have a developed understanding of the Savior in the first place. Their childhood experiences and examples taught them a different god. Perhaps there are those who have taken into their being, the notion of their god that is not God at all. The Devil has a developed understanding of the Savior, but he has not internalized it. It has no part in him. The way of the Savior is not achieved merely by having a developed understanding; it is about internalizing that understanding. Those who refuse to make a full, thorough repentance have walled out salvation from their souls. Can we wash our hands clean of them without even a word of admonition, or worse, submit to them as though they were what they are in fact not? We are told not to partake of a desecrated sacrament. What about ordinances performed in unworthiness? We must know the truth of these things, or our strivings are in jeopardy. This truth must not be borrowed, but sought directly from God. The right to judge another is not ours, save through a divinely-ordained process, but we have to steer our own course using discernment which is our sacred responsibility as priesthood holders and as the eternal companions of priesthood holders. If we were too complacent, or fearful to seek knowing, we would be like so many others of other faiths who give allegiance to the pronouncements of men and to divine doctrines colored by men. This is why Joseph was told none of the churches were of God. As a Work, we should be mindful to extract the forest blocking our vision, before we take comfort in looking too closely at the woodpiles to be found elsewhere. (For the mote and beam parable see Lk. 6:41, 42.) Ordinances understood out of context, do not supplant right and wrong, nor do they support God’s strategic purpose of raising up his children to be like Him in knowledge and virtue and love when they are vainly used to cover sin. When men forsake love in the form of valuing another as they should value themselves, they have forsaken God. Ordinances are tools to enable godliness, not permits to indulge self at the expense of others. Ordinances misused in that way are turned upon the abuser who thinks he has license and immunity. The Devil has his ordinances and their design takes the same form as an ordinance of God, but to another purpose. On the pathway entrusted to us, we can use ordinances to assist us in becoming gods, subject to God, or to Devils, subject to the Devil. Ordinances do not create immunity from God’s eternal standard of right and wrong or God would not be God, but rather a more powerful Devil than the one that occupies that office presently. The order of heaven is an order of righteous conduct throughout. Once men incorporate into their beings the sin of abusing other people (and this includes exercising unrighteous dominion), the whole structure of their faith becomes distorted and governing truths (e.g. respecting human worth and dignity) are forgotten. This is so because to abuse others in any form is anti-God and it writes itself upon the human personality and worthiness to be eternally in the Savior’s presence. The bible expression, “. . . and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” (Rev 22:15) comes to mind. Soon, they believe in their own justifications. Where there are no examples of righteous integrity among men present in the administration of the affairs of a people, where are those people? Must they walk therefore in darkness? Compare Moses with Caiaphas. Alienation and separation from the presence, love, and law of God are the common results of all these sins. This is the opposite of what we claim to be and should be, and must be. I believe it was Lord Bertrand Russell who proposed as part of his construct of philosophy a concept that man is dependent upon language for the understanding of his world. If authority can command language, authority can channel thought and can dam it up, as well. Propagandists have been using language to steer human thought and direct human will from Classical times. This skill in presentation was called rhetoric. An allied skill in manipulating understanding was called sophism from sophia = Gk. wisdom (speech craft). A man separated from God and not seeking God will be limited in his understanding and what comes out of him as teaching will be characterized by that limitation, both in selection, and omission. Can a man teach that which he does not know? (Knowing comes from practicing.) The gospel is rich in breadth as well as height. People can be kept busy with the breadth and be oblivious to the height. A true man is required in order to teach and exemplify a pure gospel. Human beings understand God in terms of the example of others. Psychologists say that a child’s emotional and intrinsic concept of God is formed by his relationship with his parents. This tends to carry over in affiliation with the institutions of men that function to control others – stand-ins for parents. God called them the children of Israel. He told Peter to “. . . feed my sheep.” (Jn. 21:16,17) “Where there is no vision, the people perish: . . .” Prov. 29:18 Our example, our standing, our relationship with our Father in Heaven is registered in the hearts and minds of our children. If our goals are narrowed or perverted, theirs will tend to be also. Why is harming the innocence of a child so terrible? Because it is a sin that goes on sinning in that soul’s life and upon those he/she influences. See Blogs 28 & 29. If what preoccupies our reason-for-being is having big families as a way to answer the mandate of heaven and that outweighs self-sharing service, and in practice some are more equal than others, this will rob our families and our society of joy. “And sin lieth at the door.” (Gen. 4:7 & Moses 5:23) Children have a striving to realize fairness in how people treat each other. When this is violated by selfishness and bullying and worse, they may keep their place for a time, but their hearts will be elsewhere. Preaching without example makes the preachment a dead language, drained of its meaning. What ever happened to, “And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all”? (Mk. 10:44; Mt.20:27) The center of our “stand” should be reflected in social conduct after the teaching and example of Christ, with big families and ordinances and covenant-keeping as extensions in support. Christ has warned us about putting law ahead of spirit. Men’s hearts do not change, therefore the scriptures are not just history books, but speak to our human nature and problems in our time, as well. Look for parallels and examples of right and wrong conduct, and use the Savior’s measuring rod to compare and apply to our time. God is unchanging; the path of salvation is the same, and the pitfalls are the same. We are not immune from the consequences of departure from the way. Setting precise theology aside, we also are part of the Church. Characterizing child sexual abuse as somehow a necessary option for some who are “good men, but weak” and setting aside the righteous indignation that should be stirred when even the rumor of it is breathed reveals a spiritual inbreeding and moral incest. If we deny the Lord’s standard, we are denying that we desire to join with the mind and Spirit of the Lord. By so doing we deny our declared purpose to be his people. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Mt. 5:8) By so doing we deny the very nature of the priesthood we were entrusted with. And there are men who think that priesthood is theirs, just as long as they do no murder in which they shed innocent blood. Innocent blood, indeed. This is not the thinking of God’s servants and God’s sons; this is the twisted reasoning of cultists. What is the nature of the use of women among us? I can hear the savage snarls forming the words, “That’s none of your business,” all the more fierce because they can't use the forceful language that men normally resort to before taking matters further. There is a difference between the relationship between covenant partners, and masters and their things of use. In God’s eyes, prostitution of a woman’s person-hood is not only defined by what goes on in the 'demi-monde' with an exchange of money or material tokens, or a living. Those who value image above truth and rely on a gospel of their own devising will answer to God, not to a blog - and soon, as the economic skyscraper of the world trembles with every wind and the enemies of God gather for the feast. The connection with the Lord is cut, strand by strand, family by family, and person by person. One reason why more people do not come forward to bring healing to this Work and restore the Lord’s presence is there is no moral force of justice to receive them. It does not matter whether we have oracles, or offices, or ordinances, or even priesthood among us. What do these things matter if we have proven unworthy and unwilling to have them honestly?
— A posthaven user