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Eyeless in Gaza Stepping back for a moment, it’s hard to believe this is really happening. Are we living in a bubble? Faithful Protestants would have no problem knowing what course to take. Good and evil is before us. How can we excuse such things and believe we are still favored of God? Do we indeed worship a different god than God? It’s like a fantasy world of Tolkien or C.S. Lewis in which you, the reader, have to learn a language, a history, an environment and a cast of characters and their powers. At least with those authors the hero is easily recognized. In this case, in our world, the hero has to be you. In the fantasy role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons, you pick an identity to assume and have to work with the powers attributed to that character. Additional powers have to be earned through finding things, overcoming obstacles and winning battles against opponents. God has always been calling man to break out of the world man has created and enter His world (in spirit) and impose it upon man’s thinking by forceful but gentle persuasion. We believe that as we overcome, we shall have powers given to us. The problem we seem to be encountering is, “Where is God in all this?” We see a fiery pit. How do we judge for the presence of priesthood and authority in another person and other persons? Should we dare to judge “our betters” at all? Is God allowing the powers that are supposed to accompany the office of President of the Priesthood to remain, despite evidences that the character that must go with exercising that office is lacking? Because what we are (potentially) about is so important, are we really so privileged that the standard Jesus Christ taught and lived during his earthly ministry can be ignored? Is the call to righteousness, upright living, and care-full treatment our brothers and sisters and neighbors given by Joseph, Brigham, John, Bro. Musser, and Bro. Rulon just a temporary option, appropriate only to an intermediate level of progression? What are we made of? Who are we? Who does God judge us to be? The Roman Catholics teach a two-tracked system. The laity is under the burden of church-imposed obligations, failing which they are subject to damnation in the oven, if they don’t get forgiven in time. (Their concept of how forgiveness is to be administered to hardship cases is fuzzy, at best. The doctrines bump into each other and contradict.) The Protestants, on the other hand, in their teaching are exempt from all the church-originated impositions, provided they sincerely didn’t know the Catholic Church is true. If the Catholic version of God is God, which would you rather be? The Catholic Church through the ages of its reign has assiduously concealed the sins of the clergy from the view of laity. Even now, they, the rulers, are struggling to deal with the visible sins of their own, while, if the Reverend Malachi Martin is to be believed, they are concealing sins performed among their own and upon others that are supported by Devil-influenced and Devil-commanded conspiracies. History shows the foot tracks of the Devil all over the course of their administration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but this is not about them, it’s about us. We have had the footprints of the Adversary in our highest councils. We have had it go unremedied for years, until Bro. Steve “Abinadi” Murphy championed the right. How can a work of God go forward when the Spirit that should be more abundant among us than anywhere on this mortal earth is present on the same level it is for any person or people exercising faith in Christ to call out to that God for help? The LDS Church publishes with assurance their success with the Lord’s intervention in the mission field; at least people so blessed are getting a portion of the gospel. I dare say the Lord even prospers them, the better to enable their genealogical research and teaching of that portion of the gospel they retain. God doesn’t waste lives, if He can help it. The Guideposts© publication is dedicated to showing the Lord intervening in people’s lives through miracles of healing, comfort, and insight. God is active, and I dare say he is active in our lives, as well. Jesus was wont to say to those he healed, “Thy faith has made thee whole.” (Mt. 9:22) People’s faith in their (acceptance of) baptism and in the benevolent concern of God have had Him “put his hand on the scales” in their behalf, time and time again. We are the beneficiaries of similar blessings. How are we different from them? Have we only a “pass-through” priesthood as far as maintaining the authorization to exercise greater powers at God’s instruction? It is right to wait upon the Lord and not be dissatisfied, but is that enough? If our concerns are prompted by the reasoning of men, alone, however well intentioned, that is a recipe for damaging our “Work.” If our concerns are prompted by and backed up by the Holy Spirit, that is something else, again. It’s important enough that the issue of worthiness be faced. Sometimes, for some of us, we have to work a thing out to a conclusion for ourselves (seeking the mind and word of God all the while) before receiving the confirmation that sets our conviction. God wants us to grow our judgment muscles and gain the courage of our convictions through effort and facing issues. It is the spirit we carry and our willingness to be led by Him that determines whether we sin or not in undertaking our duty to restore this work to purity, discernment, and directedness in what we do. God honors intent and we need not fear him if the intent of our hearts is to Him and we consult. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth liberally to all men, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (Jas. 1:5) (JS 2:11) It isn’t treason to God’s men to question; it is treason to God (apostasy) to let evil and separation from God continue. The way the Joseph Smith church worked was that the leaders would get the first word, and the rest, independently through opening to God in prayer, would obtain confirmation, even reinforcing knowledge. They weren’t supposed to coast, relying on the leaders to know it all. Due to the seriousness and magnitude of the problem, it cannot be dismissed. When parts of the system are broken, the D&C provided remedies employing the hierarchy of councils of men. Presumably somewhere there would be men of sufficient righteousness and experience to see the thing through aright. When the system, itself, is broken at the highest level the application of a remedy is murky. The potential for wrong here (a president and his council, together separating themselves from God) is unprecedented to our application of remedy, although it was not unknown to Presidents Young and Taylor. Their admonitions pointed to prevention by people being sensitive to right and wrong in the first place and knowing the difference between following men who follow God and following men who clothe themselves in God’s name, but serve themselves. They had to know only a few of us will repent. The destruction of righteous initiative among this people has been insidious and of long standing. We don’t have an operating system of self-examination (due process) anymore. If it does appear, and if it follows what men have done, it will not be an instrument for righteous judgment or impartial justice. The process of a self-exalted few separating themselves from God and from the people takes place simultaneously. Part of it is a sense of agreement in what constitutes right conduct before God and a shared sense of valuing and a shared sense of responsibility to keep the way of God goes by the board. We have to help each other to keep God’s spirit at our head. When that is set aside, the men at the top face inviting temptations alone, from which, it appears, they have little power to resist or escape. Apostasy, falling away, takes many forms, and has characteristics appropriate to different callings, and stations, in this work. Jesus gives us a clue: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of thy mouth.” (Rev. 3:15, 16) Wives know they have to be vigilant lest their husbands succumb to various temptations. Every member of this Work has to be vigilant, at least in prayer, for knowledge and instruction lest they or a brother fall into temptation. In the Joseph Smith church, Joseph himself was brought up on charges, and he bore it, because he is a man of God. Have we been zealous in upholding the things of God in the manner of free men, holders of a priesthood in which freedom is inherent, or have we submitted ourselves to others and enabled them to assume false notions about their role and the meaning of priesthood in its truest, fullest sense? They, being men and subject to the temptations that come upon all men at all stages of life and at all ranks, have they been left to themselves? Part of bearing one another’s burdens and exercising watchful concern is not to be undertaken with a spirit of destructive fault finding, but to protect each other from sins that damage their eternal potential, as well as our own. It is men who gravitate to the world’s model of men managing other men, not striving to apply God’s mind and spirit to the matter of governance. “We have met the enemy and he is us.” We are not guiltless in the disease that afflicts us. The Joseph Smith model of priesthood governance has behind it a theme and a spirit. It requires a good will towards God and man that should have grown as a man progresses, but that need not be so. The weeds of human nature must be continually shaded, starved, and chopped out. Once they get established, it may take more than human strength to uproot them – and most probably does. Cherish Bro. Steve “Abinadi” Murphy, whether you understand him or not, because if you don’t, the Work will consummate its transformation, even as this nation is doing, and we will find ourselves, even as Sampson, of old: eyeless in Gaza. (For the story see Judges 13-16, particularly 16:21.) For behold, this is my work and my glory – to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Moses 1:39
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