Blog # 54 - Apostasy of the Mormon Church and Us? - by Joseph Musser

Link to Part 4 of 7"It is Written:

http://learnjustice.posthaven.com/blog-number-55-unlawful-changes-to-the-gospel-it-is-written-pp-144-149


Marvin M. Jessop’s words to the people.

Marvin M. Jessop sent the following to five of the brethren of the Council wishing his words to be presented to the people at conference.  For reasons unknown at this time his words were not read to the people, so they are here presented.

 

Marv Sept 2015

7 responses
The Sounds of Silence It is a rare man who entirely overcomes his circumstances or himself. Men tend to look for gods among men and give to men that which should belong only to God. They need to be reminded and steered to have a proper perspective. Relinquishing spiritual independence leads to blind-following; blind following leads to fear of men. Fear leads to estrangement from truth. Estrangement creates a barrier to hearing the word and will of God. The result is silence. Be warned: this happens by degrees. The rest you should know. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.”(Heb. 12:6) Silence in the aftermath of sin does not mean consent, or God would not be God. Persistent silence from the heavens for those holding prophetic and pastoral office in the priesthood (the Keys) means God is not communicating and is not endorsing the course or the sin or the man. Silence calls for examination of conscience as to issues. One of the pillars upon which our religion is founded is communication with God in behalf of His people through a prophet and through each priesthood holder and each member in their proper sphere. In the bible, the prophets of God gave repeated warnings to a fallen “church” and a sinful people. Do their indictments have parallels for us today? Ask does absence of the oracles of God also indicate an absence of the validity of the man holding the office that requires possessing the oracles? We need God’s counsel in these last-generation times. (May 19, the Russian Duma, under Putin’s urging, ratified a law expelling foreign Non Governmental Organizations. Can recalling the missionaries from that kingdom be not far off in preparation?) More than once, Brigham admonished the people to go to God directly and build their own discerning and decision-making power. He gave out veiled warnings, already speaking to the divide between men who desired a true faith and those preferring a lesser law, in the form of statements that could only be recognized by the discerning when confronted by events waiting to emerge in the future. Many of you are familiar with the quote by Joseph F. Smith about the need for people to be like a tub, standing on its own bottom. This is that time. A question I asked of a (colleague) long ago was, “Can bad men give good (i.e. valid) blessings?” (And can we be deceived by an ordinance not accepted as valid by God?) I think the answer depends on the degree of the offense. When discernment is lost or not even consulted the issue just slips by. The notion that agreement among men is equivalent to the oracles of God should shout to the discerning, proclaiming itself for what it is. Critics of the Communist Chinese say that their government is imposed from above by men who are accountable only to themselves, and maintained by deadly force, and therefore is not legitimate. Governments that bear rule without the substantial agreement of the governed are always fearful that they will be supplanted and seek to gather the means to maintain their position by impregnable coercion. Fear and the means to exercise control feed upon themselves so that all parties (rulers and ruled) become two-faced. Government by craven submission rather than informed (inspired) agreement is not Godly. Luan or “chaos” was the result in ancient China when the people thought the ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven (divinely sanctioned approval). They no longer felt the obligation to accept government and acted for themselves. Do the secret sinners among us, past and present, feel no connection between God’s interest and power to punish what they do in contravention of His commandments? Do they act as laws unto themselves, while posing as representatives of God’s authority? “Any government is better than none,” they say, but shouldn’t it be, “God’s government is best”? Once you’re on the back of the crocodile, you are not advised to get off. Men who would rule others of themselves desire to exercise control. God intends that men shall be self-governing, other serving, and in agreement (but always subject to Him and in tune with His precepts). When men put themselves above the law, they separate themselves from their fellows and create a wall dividing the privileged from those who must be kept in ignorance of their sin, as well as being made available for further exploitation. Is the creation of a caste system with exclusive, secret access to benefits the way Joseph revealed to us the Kingdom of Heaven was to function? “What have I to do with thee,” (Jn. 2:4) is also the way the Savior treats people who make a system out of perverting his teachings and commandments. The difference between what can be characterized as a divinely mandated order or a caste system is to be found in either the administration or maladministration of the law, both lesser and higher. Let those in charge judge for themselves. Malfeasance in the face of revealed truth bears with it its own consequences, irrespective of the opinions of men. The “keys” can be turned two ways, either to exaltation or to damnation. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom:” Ps. 111:10 (whereas the fear of men is its death.) Damnation was not made obsolete in the “Dispensation of the Fullness of Times,” or by the presence of those calling themselves by the Lord’s name. Brigham Young said that more men would be damned because of the Principle than saved. “And upon my house shall it begin . . . First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord.” (D & C 112:25, 26) (Is it not blasphemy to misrepresent God by our example to children, or put allegiance to men above the word of God?) This is the time in which the world turns into the prophetic age of the end of the kingdoms of the gentiles, an age of mass extinction of the human race. With our manifest and wholesale apostasy from law, justice, charity, and truth, God is about to give us over to our own way. The choice is before us, to either step back, clean house, rededicate ourselves to Him whose name we invoke in the weekly Sacrament of Remembrance, or to persist in calling uncleanliness, injustice, and exploitation anywhere in our midst sufficient for ourselves and for Him. (“Am I my brother’s keeper?”) Among the “gentiles” in the mid-18th century there was a religious revival and rededication and wholesale spirit of repentance called the “Great Awakening”. Foremost among its inspired leaders was Jonathan Edwards, who thundered from his pulpit in colonial Massachusetts, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” George Whitfield, from England, found fertile ground in the colonies for his message, recalling the people to God. Although many returned to their previous preoccupations, there was sufficient spirit remaining a generation later to inspire men of vision to see the moral imperative for the English colonies to declare independence and fight for it. We need a similar spirit to animate us. The Sounds of Silence 3 We were to be the seedbed, in this time, for the kingdom of God to declare independence from the world and emerge in power as the towers built of men fall. Who among us will be included in that company of Saints? Those who recognize sin, those who repent. We have the signs in the heavens to witness (e.g. blood moons). We have signs in current world events (e.g. militancy of Russia and China). We have the signs in our own national misgovernment; fill in the space: ( ). We have the signs in the sins of the people of the Western world consuming their own souls and their own civilization. We have prophetic and admonitory scripture. We have the Spirit of the Lord (if we will ask and then obey). “. . . and if ye are not one ye are not mine.” (D&C 38:27) must include the Savior as well. We are separated from the Father by His intent so that we might learn for ourselves to choose the good and reject the evil, but there are degrees of separation. Is blindly suspending judgment or even reluctantly with reservations following a bellwether (lead sheep) into the wilderness honoring the principle of unity just quoted? A shepherd ceases to be a good shepherd when he mis-leads the flock. One of the great apostasies of the Catholic Church is their concept (not stated in these disrespectful terms, of course) that Jesus “died and left us boss.” Just because a man sincerely says a thing is so, doesn’t mean it is so until God and His scriptures to match say it is so. That goes for testimonies and declarations given over our pulpits, as well. God speaks through the Holy Spirit to us in our sphere; He speaks to us through the voice of scripture. It is all one with God. How can any of our people presume to set aside law and justice from among us to protect sinners and moreover, to prosper them? God intends to separate sin out from us, but He will not do so if we will it otherwise. If we will it otherwise through condoning concealment of unatoned-for separating sin in our leaders, then we have placed ourselves apart from God and His justice, and His mercy, and His glory. See D&C 88:35 “. . . and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord.” (D&C 112:26) Putting men in God’s place, by sustaining them to have their will (even when out of alignment) in the place of God’s will with regard to hearing grievances, administering marriages, rendering equal justice, respecting the Lord’s purse, and performing ordinances in accordance with authority to administer constitutes misrepresenting the Lord’s intent after the same manner as the Roman Church claims authority to make law for man of their own devising in the place of God. The Roman Church goes so far as to proclaim their head (the Pope, or Holy Father) through which all their authority and law-making power derives as the “Vicar of Christ,” a Christ-substitute. Where the reference points (law of the priesthood and equal justice through open process) are set aside and justice is rendered with partiality, men exceed their authority and encroach upon God’s standard for His heavenly kingdom and violate the plan of salvation. In this end-of-times age, tell how such usurpation is not on this path: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” 2 Thes. 3,4 The Lord told Joseph there were only two churches, his and the other, God’s and man’s. Which are we by what we sustain? Which are we by our actions? Which are we? When God’s way is abrogated, the iniquity that results breeds all sorts of departures and spiritual darkness. To those who see it like a storm front on the horizon, it looks black, indeed, towering with menace, but when the front is overhead and covering the sky, it doesn’t look so bad. The prophets of the Bible were alarmed, Brigham was alarmed, the discerning among us are alarmed to see what comes from men becoming as gods to other men, but it doesn’t seem to be a thing of note to those who enjoy even a few rays of sunshine and a patch of blue somewhere. We are going to be a part of the history of our age, but what part? Where can we stand, if we do not stand with God, those who are called by His name? We are to be held to a higher standard than others by entering into our covenants; how do we therefore plead before God to reward us the same for keeping a lesser standard, or no standard at all? The sins alleged to be among us (e.g. domestic violence, theft, adultery, prostituting children) fall below even the standard of heathen societies, and thus we make ourselves one with the Canaanites of old. If we sustain others in unrighteousness, and we had the opportunity to have known better, we make ourselves one with them, not with God. * * * Why are the heavens silent? We have accepted a premise of our own unworthiness to obtain the gifts of the spirit not based on a true understanding of scripture. There are those among us who have convinced themselves that tyranny is an unmovable boulder and that it is in keeping with the voice we hear when He presents laws and commandments of a higher order. The way back begins with directed, listening prayer. It is this focus of attention to somehow performing the extra duties related to exaltation that has made us blind and ignorant of the bedrock foundation of fundamentalism that is expressed in the New Testament of the Savior’s ministry among men. Our religion is founded on the Savior’s regard for us and our obligation in return to regard him and his will that we have love for one another, expressed through insisting on friendship as the basis for our conduct. See 2 Nephi 26: 29-32 for Nephi’s teachings. Words will not move you if you are prisoners of fear and of sin. I see the crying need for the people of this Work to learn their religion all over again, discarding every emotionally-charged notion that does not come from scripture and proven prophets, until such time as we can repent sufficiently to have enough courage and confidence and love of our Savior to approach him ourselves and renew and enrich the trickle of prayer until it becomes a torrent of faith rewarded. “Except ye be as a little child, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Perhaps the admonition to be humble when approaching the Lord in prayer means no more than, “Shut yourself up and listen.” Turn off your translator and censor and let the Holy Spirit do the talking. Section 121 is like the preamble to the Constitution; it is the foundation upon which we are to conduct ourselves if we would have God’s spirit of knowledge, peace, strength, and power, to be with us. Long ago, men have decided the terms of Section 121 aren’t practical in handling and governing the willfulness of other men. Another gospel has been substituted that uses the words of scripture and prophets, but to harness the people in tyranny, for their own good, of course. I shall now give you the governing principle for the Adversary’s form of government: “Because the nature of man is evil, rather than good . . .” This is the reason men give for denying to encourage others to grow in the gospel by lighting their way. Bro. Steve’s blog is necessary food for our faith at this time, otherwise the truths we read are lost on us as a living gospel in vivid four dimensions. Mormons are known to have a great weakness in that without the presence of a minding force outside of themselves, typically the Bishop, they tend to drift – and worse. What does say to their preparation? Can your faith stand this test? Because it’s coming. We can't wait upon others to inspire us. We can’t wait upon others to instruct us; we have to be about exercising our faith and our gifts received at baptism, ourselves. Prepare to be islands of faith. “Stand ye in holy places” (D&C 87:8) and make the places wherein you stand holy. Prepare not to be members of a crew and let it go at that, but be captains of your own ship belonging to a navy. (A God is a captain.) There is a difference between knowing a bunch of facts and being able to communicate them. There is a difference between being able to communicate a bunch of facts and being able to incorporate them into one’s being as a way to conduct one’s life. There is a difference between having a religion consisting of forms and a religion animated by faith. There is a difference between living a religion of faith and living a religion of a mature faith in power to make one’s way having been tutored by the Holy Spirit. The substitute gospel of using God’s truths in such a way as to control, limit, and discourage, has created barriers of censorship in the mind that destroy confidence in people to grow in light and have the willingness in themselves to even seek to recognize wrong and overcome it. Too many people on both sides of the divide have accepted the “them and we” model of priesthood government. “. . . that, if possible they shall deceive the very elect, who are the elect according to the covenant. .” (JS 1:22) (The very elect are not necessarily the highest ranking within the covenant, but those who fulfill the Lord’s will most diligently and correctly.) So get undeceived. Be an elect people and connect with the Lord. The Lord wants an attitude, he calls a spirit of seeking to join with Him. All the doctrines are to be stair-steps on a pathway, not a series of boulders. “Strengthen that which remains” he said to the saints laboring in the belly of the Medieval Catholic Church. He still held out a way. We are responsible for our own salvation, to be sure, but we aren’t expected to do it alone. God doesn’t tell us how to outwit the stock market and all too often we get blind-sided by the circumstances of life, but I have found the Lord quick to censure a bad attitude or thought I may have. I’m not strong enough to know all questions regarding this faith, but I can be as a strength to those who strengthen me. It is more important to build well than to build expansively and shallowly. Too often we are told over the pulpit what is wrong with us; too little are we told from the point of view of an overcomer how do go about fixing things. Men say, “The Lord is true; we are of the Lord, therefore we are true. But are they? God knows, and it’s up to us to find out. It’s a part of our test of our worthiness to bear the priesthood, the ordinances, the covenants, and be permitted to perpetuate them in God’s eternal kingdom. Is such a test warranted? Based on what has been revealed and not denied in Bro. Steve’s blog, I should say so. The silence will continue until we break it by rediscovering the true gospel, unfettered by men, and then exercising our faith to join our Heavenly Father’s Son through prayer and then be doers of his word. We ought to lean upon the arm of flesh to be better angels to one another, but not exclusively or excessively. Testifiers to the truth will not always be with us, unless we take up their cause and make it ours. (When those who presently occupy the principal offices of this Work have purged their ranks of all those who will not bow the knee to them, then shall the end come.) “Fools,” said I, “you do not know” That silence like a cancer grows. Hear my words that I might teach you. Take my hand that I might reach you. But my words like silent raindrops fell, And echoed in the wells - Of silence. The Sounds of Silence – Paul Simon 29. He commandeth that there shall be no priestcafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion. 30. Behold, the Lord hath forbidden this thing; wherefore, the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which charity is love. And except they should have charity they were nothing. Wherefore, if they should have charity they would not suffer the laborer in Zion to perish. 32. And again, the Lord God hath commanded that men should not murder; that the should not lie; that the should not steal; that they should not take the name of the Lord their God in vain; that they should not envy; that they should not have malice; that they should not contend one with another; that they should not commit whoredoms; and that they should do none of these things; for whoso doeth them shall perish. (2Nephi 26:29,30,32)
— A posthaven user
The Keys to the Kingdom When I look over those Christians who are not Mormons, I look to a quality that many of them share and that is what I call core righteousness. Although this is being eroded and is falling away as the generations pass, for the most part they retain a sense of what is right and wrong. I believe God loves those who combine His teachings in the Old and New Testaments with their conscience. That is why He has provided a kingdom of reward for them in which they will enjoy the fellowship of the Son, for this is what many of them have sought all their lives. I wonder how Jesus judges those who combine Christian worship and conduct with vivifying in their minds images and icons, or putting a man in the place of God. Do these practices cause them to harm other people and blunt their consciences, and cause them to deny their responsibility to live saintly lives, or refuse to recognize Jesus as Lord? Should the LDS Mormons who have lived similarly, but have put their faith in men to interpret and define doctrine for them, be denied fellowship with the Son? When the scales have fallen from their eyes, would they not abide a terrestrial law? (Of those who turned their backs on revealed truth at the point of decision, the less said the better.) At to those men who perverted scripture, marred doctrine, and created a religion of their own devising calling it Christ’s, and have taught the same, I have no such confidence that they will find fellowship in his eternal kingdom. Alas, we know we have had such men in past counsels, who have set a precedent that others follow. Are there those in this Work today whom would still have them called brother? “And in that day many shall come to me saying Lord, Lord, have we not cast out Devils in thy name and have done many marvelous works, and I shall profess unto them, I know ye not. Depart from me, ye accursed into the reward prepared for the Devil and his angels.” (Mt. 7:23) What standard does God hold us to, we who possess what we think of as greater light and knowledge? If things were right with people in this world, what role would God have us play? We who aspire to godhood, what sort of people would He have us be? Can we be gods if we do not emulate Christ (who is the real thing) in how we treat our own, or the stranger? Can we be gods if we are not wholeheartedly committed to learning to judge with righteous judgment and master the mystery of balancing justice and mercy? If we do not hear the voice of our “heavenly file leader” in the quiet times when we first form the thoughts to weigh what will be our standard of right and wrong, how can we be called his people? When we partake of the sacrament of the heart’s blood sacrifice of Jesus, who risked all for our sakes, we symbolically and as an act of will take the spirit of his personality and his person into us to combine us with him. We also do this every time we exercise righteous judgment, every time we deny to vindicate our own self-hood and instead do as Jesus would do. The Roman Catholics partake of their sacrament essentially to make repairs. We should be taking the body and blood of Jesus as our spiritual nourishment to not only arouse our consciences, but to inspire us to magnify our callings and deepen our relationship with and understanding with our Savior and our Lord. “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” (Mt. 7:5) A wise man once observed that a body of men can hear the same scriptures, but based upon the interpretation they have in their hearts, they will understand them differently (or not at all). What this can mean is that for some of those listeners who have taken into them a false understanding of the personhood and intent of God and the operation of the plan of salvation, the truth will be hidden from them while in plain sight. This is why we need men of God committed to upholding and teaching truth. This, of course, is how we understand others with whom we share the core belief in the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. The burden of concern I carry is that we have become just like them, just as wrong and just as ignorant. (Those who live into the last seven years of prophetic times, whatever their religious understanding, who give their consciences to wicked men, whether pope or prophet, will face peril to their souls, if they persist in failing to discern good from evil.) “Come out of her my people, lest ye partake of her sins and receive of her plagues.” (See Rev. 18:4.) “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” (Mt. 5:14) Take this to the Lord. The authority of a prophet and those who stand next to him is not possessed by men who have been properly set apart and ordained, rather it exists among us because of men who stand so endowed because of their adherence to principles of righteousness in all its forms. We do not endow them, God does. (D&C 132:5) “For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world.” We believe that certain classes of sin can mar, but not destroy a man’s authority. We believe that an appropriate atonement can restore a man’s authority and standing with God. But there are exceptions, as well. Mercy can deliver from punishment but not restore to a man what he in his heart is not qualified to bear. Men must step back; men must step away from sin. Men must cleanse themselves internally and undertake a change of heart to become once again one with the Lord. The road back can involve proving one’s self with lesser responsibility so that one’s nature is properly changed. No man can hide his intent from God. No man can hide his true nature from God. No man can shy away from the way of God put before him and stand proven in all things. High office demands high virtue. Any Christian endowed with a godly conscience can tell you that. I am sure God is sick of this wallowing in excuses. Are we led by a good-old-boy’s club who accommodate themselves to a standard unworthy of his priesthood, yet would rule us with the baton of unquestion-able “authority”? They have not said as Brigham did, “I want you to have faith enough in myself and my counselors for the Lord to remove us out of the way, if we do not magnify our calling, and replace us with men that will do right.”(J.D. 9:142) In the case of others, we do not decide of ourselves whether this has been done or needs to be done. What must we do, when confronted with the question of whether or not grave sin has been committed and has been properly put away? We must examine what is known and what is alleged, and then, having two advocacies to compare, take the matter before the Lord in prayer. In so doing, we do not seek the answer to be defined as one or the other (“Say it isn’t so, Lord.”), but to know the Lord’s judgment in the matter. We seek to know the truth, whatever that may be. It should be a matter of common sense that the truth will be aligned with scripture, and pronouncements from past prophets. Who has been interpreting scripture for us these many years? Is there not one standard for all? Does that standard not insist on hearing grievances and applying equal justice, irrespective of rank or standing? Does that standard not define how our relations will be conducted? (See D&C Section 121.) Have we not been warned repeatedly about the evils of unrighteous dominion to the soul of a people? Do we not have the precedent in scripture and evidence in our own time of the consequences when a people fall away from God’s way, truth, and light? Have we not had set before us end-time prophecy that warns us of the temporal and eternal consequences of remaining in timid ignorance of the truth that God’s judgment is upon us? Are our souls so dead to God that we put our faith in things, ordinances, forms, and in the words of men and ignore the spirit by which God’s power is exercised? If we refuse to see for ourselves what sin sits comfortably among us, the denial of scripture and spirit, law and justice, and condone lewdness over love, we are indeed salt that has lost its savor, and its favor with the Lord, fit only to be thrown out with the rest of the dirt. (See Mt. 5:13.) Insisting on the government of men in spite of the testimony of scripture, past prophets and the Holy Spirit (if we will consult with it), is behaving like members of a cult. Jesus warns of false christs arising. Is it not standing in the role of a false christ to put one’s self between believers and Christ, while representing one’s self as his spokesman and yet not living by his standard or teaching the true gospel (or the true gospel in the spirit of truth)? “Many shall come in my name. . .” (Mt. 4:5), but do they come in his authority as evidenced by possessing his spirit in power, his prophecy in (truth) and his law in just dealing and his nature in administering through love and putting others before self? If we think that man’s authority once given by God stands alone, independent of continuing in his Spirit and statutes, we are one with the Catholic cardinals and the LDS Mormon First Presidency. (“Follow the prophet, even if he’s wrong, and God will bless you for it.”) If we think we have no responsibility as priesthood holders to know for ourselves (by the power of the Holy Ghost) right and wrong, but can depend on the arm of flesh to do that for us, we are not worthy of Him who gave his life and hazarded His Godhood that mankind should be redeemed and a very few exalted. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in his excellent word? What more can he say, than to you he hath said, To you unto Jesus, to you unto Jesus, To you unto Jesus for refuge have fled? The captains and the kings depart. Beneath the headland sinks the fire. And all our glory and our fame is one with Nineveh and Tyre. Lord of the nations, be with us yet,
— A posthaven user
The Sin of Separation Blog 1. Dividé et Impera is a Devil’s motto. He seeks to divide people from each other as well as from God, and by so doing rule over them. When people arrogate to themselves privileges such as an unjust share of communal wealth (obtained without informed consent) or immunity from accountability for sin, they separate themselves from God, as well. Such men re-create and promulgate a concept of God after their own imaging and become laws unto themselves. See Lk. 16:9-11. Can distorting the person of God, implying Him tacitly as sanctioning iniquity in access to wealth and immunity from questioning for a privileged few be considered as making an impotent and silent idol? In other words, is it a form of idolatry to misrepresent God? Is it a form of idolatry to deliberately ignore or distort God’s standards for conduct? Is it a form of idolatry to treat God as though He were a dumb idol with no power? Idolatry constitutes putting anything in the place of God by giving it precedence over God. By being consistent in external behavior and supported by an education-as-indoctrination program (from childhood) it is not difficult for a ruling elite to create a climate in which some interpretations of “great truths” are not questioned. We are social beings and social conditioning is an integral part of our thriving in families and communities. This drive is so powerful that it all too often overrides sober reflection, the exercise of critical thinking and even common sense. Under these circumstances, wrongdoing becomes an accepted norm and the truth of righteous judgment can be hid in plain sight. “When (Authority) speaks the thinking has been done.” This pronouncement came from a high-ranking member of the LDS Church. Is that what awaits this Work as the consequences from this scandal continue to unroll? In the middle ages the erroneous doctrine called the “foregone conclusion” was a hallmark of university pedagogy, much to the relief of the professors. Aristotle and his Classical contemporaries were heralded in this way until experimental testing of hypotheses emerged with Galileo. (The earlier Roger Bacon did not stir controversy.) For examples of a conclusion too big to examine: people believe that an institution is “too big to fail,” or “God will not allow his chosen ones to go astray.” Jesus said he will say, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” (Mt. 7:23) As a child, I did not understand how God could reject the many that would come to Him professing to have acted in His name, performing many marvelous works. I think I understand now. The reason lies deep within the heart of a man, and I think men may not even be aware of what is lost when they are still impressed by what remains after their allegiance to God has shrunk due to carelessness, indifference and willful sin. Possession of priesthood or the Holy Spirit is like a spider’s thread, both very strong and very fragile. We keep the thread intact by honoring and keeping the commandments, the principal being to love God by thinking and doing as He would do towards His children, since that is the business of this earth – raising each as far as he would go. We keep the thread intact by having a mind single to His glory. We keep the thread intact by maintaining a listening heart to His promptings and consulting with His voice on choices and issues we confront in daily life. When we do not seek and choose to be animated by love as well as respect for guidance from scripture, discernment fades and good judgment follows. “. . . and sin lieth at the door.” (Gen. 4:7; Moses 5:23) As Christians (followers of Christ) we stand on 7 pillars: 1) authentic scripture, 2) pure and thus living authority, 3) valid ordinances, 4) being doers of the word, 5) maintaining a Christ-like attitude and conduct, 6) the living presence of Christ as our head with the Holy Spirit as his voice approached through prayer and listening, and 7) a kingdom of God or Zion community, seven pillars in all. Remove any one and the others are affected. The keystone is communion with God. Because of what we represent in the Savior’s plan of salvation, we are high-priority targets for the Adversary to distract, weigh down, neutralize and destroy. As the blogs unfold, (learnjustice.posthaven.com) look at his success. The greatest despoliation the Adversary has achieved against God through us (as an institution) can be attributed to our refusal to honor God’s standard of law and justice in a climate of denial such that we face an existential threat (threat to our very existence) through our own willful blindness and cold-heartedness. Loss of a faith involves loss of an understanding of that faith, in intuition, discernment, judgment, and in doctrine. It is gradual, at first. I see the mental image of a deep sea diver slowly descending. Right below the surface, he is bathed in all the colors. A few feet down, red turns to gray, orange follows, as do all the colors becoming varying shades of the same theme in turn as he descends ever deeper. The diver’s world is dominated by blue and purple and finally only a gathering gloom of monochrome defines his view as he sinks out of sight altogether. The gashed and broken hulk of the Titanic lies at the bottom of an ocean desert two and a half miles deep in eternal darkness and lifeless cold. Even piercing floodlights cannot restore color to its shattered remains. “Thou hast a name that thou livest, but thou art dead.” (Rev. 3:1) If this analogy of ocean descent were stretched to apply to succeeding generations as well as the lifetime of a man, we could see that for those who never experienced a fullness of faith which includes growing in light and knowledge, pushing the ceiling back; they would not miss what they did not know. A man who has departed from his faith in time will forget what it was and be content with what remains. Many among the sectarians have long lived with a God whom they pray at, but do not listen to. Their God may help them solve life’s problems, give comfort and arrange events, but it is usually only on a personal level. God does not make use of them as His conscious partners to advance His Kingdom after His fashion. Who among us has seen the sun? What of the full gospel spectrum does our youth know? We are taught to judge the sectarians of the world for their errors and departures, but are we, because of authority and ordination and scripture, immune from the same process of devolution, or do we follow them? God says He is no respecter of persons – does this apply to us as well as them? Are we too “close to God” to fail? Knowing about God is not the same as knowing God, although the defect and the counterfeit it spawns may not be visible to those who do not apply discernment. We find that Church institutions have their followers walking in darkness at noonday with regard to world events and the identity, methods, and objectives of the enemy among us in high places (and in all places). A few among the sectarians, handicapped as they are due to lack of ordinances and relevant knowledge, are attempting to warn and gather all who would hear about the dangers of this end-time age and declare a mission for Christians as directed and purposeful participants. Who among us discerns the signs of the times with clarity and accurate focus? Who is committed to the bedrock principle, of charity, or even sees it as relevant to salvation? Separation from God includes separation from the comforting and protecting spirit of prophecy. In war, it is said, the first casualty is truth. In departure from communion with God, the first casualties are the love of Christ, one for another and discernment – seeing people and events as God sees them. Brigham Young, no less, reported that he felt a sense of joy attending cottage meetings of the Joseph Smith Church and its people. Could we say the same? Love of Christ and his commandments is a catalyst that brings life to knowledge and awakens discerning wisdom. It brings life to ordinances, also. An ordinance becomes alive when we act, animated by its power. It remains dormant when we do not act in accordance with its terms and intent, and when we sin against light and truth, the ordinance becomes dead within us, as we become dead to it. The first three commandments form the basis in our faith of how we relate to God and in fulfilling the mission for which we were placed into this existence. 1) “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Ex. 20:3) 2) “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image . . .” (Ex. 20:4) 3) “Thou shalt not take the name of thy God in vain;” (Ex. 20:7) a. Those who commit sin for their own gratification make themselves and their desires more important than God. b. Those who live without having respect to their God and His holiness would make God an impotent and silent, even a consenting idol. c. Distorting the portrait of God by covering sin in His supposed mantle of authority is putting the name and authority of God to a valueless and thus vain purpose (taking his name in vain). Include in this using his “official stamp” to destroy marriages contrary to His law for convenience and to cover theft of soul. Lying against truth is an integral part of all these commandment-breaking sins. The consequence is separation from God and ignorance of God and susceptibility to accumulating further sins like a snowball rolling down a steep slope on a warm winter afternoon. How can a man or men exemplify righteousness before this people and before the world and fail to uphold God’s law and God’s justice? Has our salt lost its savor? (Mt. 5:13) Gresham’s law states that bad money drives out good and good money drives out bad. This refers to the dynamics of a debased, devalued coinage currency versus a truly-valued currency. When the presence of a debased currency is sufficiently prolific, people will hoard the full-value currency, and when there is a preponderance of full-value currency, people will not accept an adulterated one. Have we as a people passed the tipping point in which it is harder to uphold justice, than to tolerate sin? An analogous situation exists when the currency of doctrine and conduct is diminished and affairs are interpreted and directed to preserve lesser laws, or to protect the secretly lawless. When a climate of fear of censure prevails and a full spread of doctrine (e.g. law and equally-measured justice) to govern conduct is not permitted to have voice, then people will keep their opinions to themselves and let things go. Brother Steve sits before you in silent witness to a judgment of censure placed upon him. On the other hand, when a people are exposed to each other’s good example and good intention, and when there is a climate of mutual respect, then discernment is applied and good will prevails. Dissonant, corrupting opinions are apparent to all and receive credence as is their due. The over-the-pulpit stream that is supposed to emanate from the Holy Spirit is altered to reflect the mind of any speaker who is not right before God particularly in the areas in which he is wanting. There is a saying that the Devil can quote scripture. Scripture can be misused, as well as used. Led by selective emphasis, and misuse and misunderstanding of scripture, men have created thousands of Christian sects and faith communities. The same can happen within our Work in the form of distorted family practices. A faith evolves as it is passed to succeeding hands. Those at the top bear great responsibility to teach and pass on a pure, comprehensive and empowering faith. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (Jn. 8:32) It is all too easy in chasing the minutiae of individual scripture to lose track of the principle of governing or headwater scripture. (e.g. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with thy entire mind.” Mt. 23:37 “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self.” Mt. 23:39) To understand scripture as alive in three dimensions, 3-D as it were, one needs to accept what is the cornerstone, what is the framework that the other scriptures fill out and apply to specific circumstances. Scripture lives in us when we live by Christian example to others. We are, in a sense, living scripture. We believe that a man’s personal conduct impacts his work and influence on others in this lifetime. The greatest peril to a man’s salvation comes not when he is subject to the scrutiny of superiors during his apprenticeship, but at peak-of-career when there is no scrutiny to apply correction at all. Heber Grant famously said on an occasion that the heavens were as brass to him. This should have been an unmistakable warning to him and his peers that soul-searching was required, troubleshooting in a state of affairs that was patently abnormal. This was not done and, I believe, it was not done out of ignorance, but out of commitment to a course of their own making in the stadium of public scrutiny. They apparently accepted it as fact, soon after their decision, to chart a “middle course” on their own, that an inscrutable God had removed their training wheels and they were left to themselves. Previously, they had been in agreement among themselves that they would take God’s Church on a detour, departing from a key principle to its existence and for which reason, in part, it had been founded. Dissenters, who possessed the voice of conscience, were obliged to step away. The Sin of Separation 5 This is an example, close to home, of what happens when men take upon themselves to agree to a wrong thing and are obliged to conceal the fact from those outside their brotherhood of error. Blog 29. Are there those among us who would rather rely on a godfather than God? Are there families among us who shield their members from the consequences of misdeeds, the better to maintain their standing, rather than accept correction? Is correction and standard-keeping dreaded? Are some more equal than others before the version of God held up before us? Is gaining the permission of men to have the benefits (benefices) of a feudal fiefdom in a community of suzerains, vassals and serfs more important than righteous, respectful living? Who knows who God is -as a result of our recent teaching? Who knows God as Rulon did? Who is God, anyway? Because God withdraws His oracles (direct vocal word with enveloping energy) and the Holy Spirit becomes muted or silent according to the gravity of the violation involved, the loss can be gradual and is not missed. Even a sudden loss may not be heeded for those who did not rely on it anyway or have no regular recourse to the still, small voice. A Few Good Men (A Cultural climate in descent of long-standing can make awareness of an actively concerned, intervening God irrelevant to its inhabitants.) Soon what seems good to men of “good will” must be good with God also. (Good will to such men, as with the LDS Church, isolated as these are, is experienced as good relationships with each other. As witness of this substitution of man-centered, vs. God-centered worthiness look to the careers of the “unholy trinity” as desired indispensibles. Does silence from the heavens really mean consent? When such “good men” as surrounded Wilford Woodruff do not ask the question, God does not impose an answer on them. In their case, the deliberate decision to abandon a principle and teach against it brought with it God’s silence and what could have been an open pathway to further light and knowledge was closed to them and to those who have followed them in their error. As time passed, they and their successors have gradually lost and discarded what they had, and they are left with words that have no living power with them, like writing seen by an illiterate as nothing more than artwork - scratchings or stampings on a piece of paper. Has political expedience for the sake of preserving temporal advantage gradually replaced a knowing allegiance with God as He is, here? After the Savior’s death certain miracles held among the Jews in their Temple rites had ceased, yet they were not reflective or deterred from their course of keeping up appearances. A fallen priesthood and a whole people exposed to the Savior and his message fell back into their usual way as though nothing had happened. Thirty-six years later the consequence of their choice was revealed in the form of a bloody rebellion against Rome, and a Roman army invaded bent on annihilation, and forty years later it was consummated in the destruction of the Holy City and the death, enslavement, and flight of its people. Blog 6 p. 4. The people did not unite in petitioning God, but took it upon themselves to fight. * * * The reason why we don’t see the effects of the sin of separation from God we are suffering from is because we aren’t looking for it. Brigham and John sounded dire warnings because they were living in a different environment, in which the gifts of the Spirit were present and available, although universal access to them was embattled by dwindling faith among the generation that succeeded the pioneers. Too many of us and too many of our parents have been coasting under the comforting presence of Rulon. If Rulon was not casting the bullwhip; that must have meant that we were substantially all right in our course. Rulon had to preach to the tenderest souls, before the hardest of hearts. (“Dear ones . . .”) The purpose of the preaching of a prophet is to get the people to go and do likewise, and go and become likewise. Commandments from the Lord that require a change of heart require that a hearer will move toward the light, not be driven. Words, however inspired and directed can only transform us if we have prepared ourselves to desire and accept transforming ourselves. The words of a prophet did not prevent the apostasy at Kirtland. The words of two prophets did not prevent the apostasy of 1890. Afterwards, men followed other men into the thickets of false doctrines and founded communities maintained in misery, purporting to represent the way, the truth and the life of God’s own gospel. The blogs of learnjustice.posthaven.com tell much the same story. When mold or rot invades an apple, at first it’s like a pinprick, then it grows and a frontier of demarcation is established. The mold sends out threads into the good flesh and from those threads the corruption spreads and joins up until the space between the threads is consumed. The solution is to cut out the rot spots before they can send out their shoots, even to divide the apple into sound and unsound portions. God applies the remedy of accountability through a justice system that features review and oversight, and a cleansing protocol called repentance. One antidote to sin that loves deception and secrecy in case there any active consciences about is to bring the sins out into the spotlight and require the sinner undergo in emotion-filled process of atonement. Strong emotions, combined with willingness are required to effect permanent change. Cleaning up sin is a part of restoring to wholeness and returning to the way of salvation. As a penultimate solution, he cuts off communication to prevent even giving the appearance that He endorses what’s going on. “The Spirit of the Lord is grieved and when it is withdrawn . . .” (D&C 121:37) The final solution, taken to preserve a righteous seed and prevent even worse damning sins to occur in a chosen people, comes in the form of judgments upon the people. “Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Rev. 18:4) We can trust those who have accumulated more experience and strength and discernment in doing good, but not to the extent of ignoring the reality of their capacity to do wrong. As a godly people, we should be sensitive to the savor of rot, even if we can’t see the source. Denying a functioning participatory, justice system is a sign, as are the many, many ruined lives suffering because of a violated principle of gospel living, eternal, celestial, plural, (and exclusive), marriage. Men clinging to preserve the wicked they call brothers reeks to high heaven that they have replaced God as the (focus) of their loyalty. “If” these sins have not been publicly confessed and the proper atonement made, and proper restitution made, these sins are not in the past. They continue to govern and rule these men who have drunk from the poisoned cup of unholy fellowship with those who exploit women, children and tithe-payers. Some sheep are cherished and kept for their wool. Some sheep are kept for slaughter. Which are we? Who are our shepherds? Where are the wolves? Do we have no righteous prophet among us who will tell truth as Nathan did to David, when he thundered, “Thou art the Man!”?
— A posthaven user
The Key Controversy The keys, the name with give to ongoing authorization to be able to exercise the powers of the priest-hood are like the keys to an automobile. They do not stand alone. They are part of several things or there is not a whole. In order to realize the whole of what a car is and does, you need to have a key to the ignition, but also have to have an automobile and a roadworthy one at that. The automobile has to have its parts working so when you turn the key it starts and when you put in gear, it goes. The mechanical features of a car are drive train and brakes, engine, and safety and navigation lights and horn. The motor mechanics of priesthood are faith of the operator that it will work and the principle of non-coercion contained in Section 121. Also, for a car to work you have to keep it on the road of God’s will and intent, do things the way God wants, and do what God wants done. When we match our will and God’s policy together, governed and guided by conscience, things begin to happen. When God wants something done outside our range of awareness, He has told us and us again to match our will to His through a listening heart –or humility, if you prefer. Now there is another part to this and it is called license renewal. In order to get a car on the road, we need to get a safety and emissions inspection. The licensor in this case is God and His standard is major sin must be repented of. Insurance is a track record of godly behavior appropriate to our priesthood office. Keys are only exercised on principles of righteousness, obeying the rules of the road. In the world, if an operator is caught drunk in the car with its keys, the police will haul him in because they say he has effective control of the car. They don’t want to play can't and mouse. Keys don’t stand alone - they require a working car, that means exercise with principles of righteous-ness and an operator who has satisfied God that he will obey the rules of the road, and that means the keys have to be given to the new owner when the car is passed on. The new owner has to be a properly licensed and insured driver and the car has to be roadworthy. Just as with cars and drivers, there is some room for imperfection, but the limit is exceeded, no operator license and no registration are permitted. Sooner or later God removes deficient operators and vehicles from His roadway. The sad thing about all this is God sets the rules for men to obey, but men can lose track of where they really stand with God. Men use pieces of paper and electronic icons on a screen to everybody knows where they stand, with the Department of Motor Vehicles, but God’s data base has to be accessed only on principles of worthiness, righteousness and holiness. Nobody’s going to know, on a scale of man-to-man where things stand. This is why “it takes one to know one.” You have to possess like virtues and faith and experience in these things to know whether there are keys remaining in the midst and whether they will fit the ignition and run the car and whether it is safe to be in the car, or share God’s road with that car. Men are influenced by what is around them and it is easy to absorb one’s environment, rather than single-mindedly pursue the things of God for one’s self. Being in a community of like-minded people is a great help because we lift each other, but when a people is defective in their understanding of God and how they live the gospel, and they walk in darkness, then their errors spread like a ocean, or like an atmosphere of fog. The influence of men upon men in the reality we take in daily is like a 1,000 watt clear channel radio station, whereas the voice of conscience can be far less and the voice of the Lord, the Holy Spirit is less than that, for most of us most of the time. We have to work at upgrading the sensitivity of our radio and the signal capturing power of our antenna. When we adopt the attitude of Abba, Father, we can afford to be open before God and be corrected by Him reasonably and gently. When we adopt the attitude of God as the other, we do not dare to approach Him to accept punishment, when only correction would have been called for had we listened earlier. When we remain separated from God and closed to respecting the voice of conscience, then when real sin happens, its much more difficult to either face God or to work through the ministration of others who may know the law, but not be administering with the mind or care of God. When we who are ourselves in a state of sin, administer to others, we can likewise be blind to what God would have them know or how to express ourselves to them for their best good. Brigham said, salvation is an individual matter and how right he was. We succeed in part because of the good will and example of others and in part, in spite of them, also. In God’s system of official ministry to others, we would have the ministers to have had similar experiences and have overcome successfully, or have repented and learned from the experience. God would not have men minister to other men who have failed the same or similar test or be in a state of incomplete or absent repentance. Men often place too much trust, confidence, and reliance upon their leaders and thereby fail to secure the closeness with the heavens that is necessary for their salvation. When they have to be guided, counseled, and directed in every movement, they become as children who are not mature enough to stand on their own feet. [See Brigham Young J.D. 1:312] Worse than that, they expose themselves to being deceived by deceivers who are themselves deceived. The errors that creep into a government of men departing from a government of God form a pattern. They are not like breaking through the frozen crust of a snow field, they become like breaking through thin ice, far from shore.
— A posthaven user
Behind the Rood Screen “Again, the Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them. ‘All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.’” (Mt. 5:9) The Devil governs his delegated domain through politics (statecraft) and the more political compromises and trade-offs are accommodated in order to balance forces of interest groups, the less the principles of God, liberty and freedom are advanced. Management of others against their better interests lies at the core of all the crafts: state-craft, priest-craft, law-craft, medi-craft, wealth-craft, and witchcraft. The Lord’s plan of salvation, ours only if we choose it and choose to live it, is designed to empower and free people. In this age of information, people are just as blind to truth as though they were illiterate. This is so because they are fed on false premises that channel their understanding and are overfed by sheer quantity of facts that exclude more than enlighten. They are distracted and their mental power disengaged by a surfeit of entertainments. No less than James Madison (principal author of the Constitution) warned against the evil of factions putting their own interests ahead of the overall good of the nation and its people. Today, we are possessed by interests organized to gain wealth and power by channeling and directing the thoughts and inclinations of men. Diverse interest groups exist out of a sense of separation among the groups. This is the opposite of God’s intent for his people. Divide’ et domina (divide and rule) is a principle tool of the Devil by which he seeks to destroy souls. Dividé et vincé (divide and conquer) is another way this axiom is expressed. A similar process can be advanced when the more prominent decide to separate themselves from the rest with separate privileges, separate laws, and separate norms, and separation through withholding information in behalf of a few initiates. “By their fruits shall ye know them,” Mt. 7:20 (bye and bye all shall and revealed). Iniquity (gross injustice equivalent to wickedness) abounds as separation grows. The attitude of assuming an elite (superior) identity becomes a bar to spiritual advancement as the ability to discern (judge justly and accurately) and acquire the oracles of God is lost. Individual Scriptures are like a pack of playing cards: they can be arranged in a great variety, omitting some, revaluing others. We are supposed by God to accumulate such a body of scripture knowledge so that we gain wisdom thereby, the wisdom to see more clearly the portrait of God and discern His intent, and align our intent and conduct with His. Also, revelation and inspiration and direction from God’s mortal servants ought to come from the same source as scripture knowledge, as revealed by comparison and agreement. Empowering was what Joseph was all about, not creating an immutable totem pole of privilege for a few. Higher offices imply stewardship of those below and accountability to those above, not mere status or access to a kingdom within the kingdom of privilege and reward. The process of fostering spiritual growth can be short-circuited when we take in to our being doctrines made of men, or true doctrines falsely interpreted by men. Starting with the Catholics in the fourth century, the sectarians have promulgated distortions and inventions to fill in the blanks where their understanding of scripture did not exist. (For example, they and their spiritual descendants have never gotten past the notion of a Trinity, one individual God in three simultaneous, independent manifestations.) The origin of this notion was to enable the newborn Catholic Church fathers to declare their faith to be monotheistic, as distinct from the pagans they were trying to differentiate themselves from and supplant. Historically, God never turned His back upon men until they turned their backs on Him. “In the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is king.” If the people will not exercise discernment and access the voice of conscience and inquire of the Lord for themselves and listen, then they are blind and deaf, as well. They can then be governed by those having deficits and contaminated credentials. The whole purpose of priesthood education and the concept of a school of the prophets is to get people to know for themselves and act correctly within their sphere. Joseph gave out his authority freely, but it was cloaked by his sovereign authority among men and to be exercised only in part by God’s consent spoken through Joseph. Following without inquiring and listening and thus knowing of one’s self becomes blind following. Those who relinquish their responsibility to gain the truth of things for themselves through the witness of their own study and answered prayer have diminished their priesthood power and stunted their spiritual growth – or worse. They are ripe to be deceived and to sustain what they know not. The consequence of sustaining (knowingly or unknowingly) that or those which depart from God is to depart from God one’s self. Men are good at compartmentalizing, living in one mode or in another to suit circumstances and requirements of the situation. Men can forget what they do in one place while they are acting in a different place. A man can block conscience and reprogram himself to rationalize the way of his choosing. I heard a Catholic priest say anonymously to a TV reporter that he reconciled his practice of homosexuality to his sacred vocation by hoping that God would understand that his sacrificial service to the church and to the flock should outweigh his sin. (This “man of God” didn’t know God, so he assumed from a distance of estrangement.) We are sovereigns of our selves. We can align ourselves with God or be separate in mind and mindfulness, and in deed. Robert Louis Stephenson dramatizes the concept of compartmentalizing in his story about the good Dr. Jekyll and the feral Mr. Hyde. Appearances can be deceiving. How many were fooled by the “unholy trinity” in our midst? However scripture or other pronouncements from the pulpit are used to attempt to justify, exculpate, or conceal leaders who transgress, look for signs and symptoms. It’s like Kremlin-watching, one of our government’s pastimes during the previous Cold War with Russia. You learn what’s beneath the surface from how things are presented, what’s presented and what is omitted, beyond the intent that is desired to be conveyed. (The content of Blog 8 is a great example upon which to practice.) “And these signs shall follow them that believe;” (Mk. 16:17) Likewise, signs follow those who believe amiss, as well as those who do less than believe. What is revealed by the pronouncements and conduct of the Church as they continue in their wayward way can apply to us, as well. They are masters of shaping their message. To escape from the trap of high-level sin is possible, but there are consequences that must be remediated and the process of atonement is not pleasant for the offender or for those who must bear witness. Mercy cannot rob justice. Both the individual and the community must be healed. God recognizes that a certain kinds and degrees of sin require forfeiture of office and even loss of priesthood. Sin is like a disease or a poisonous drug; when it reaches a certain level it overcomes the ability to think and act justly. Sin and priesthood are incompatible. Sinners in sin are obliged to cover the gulf with justifications, lies and concealment, followed by act against others. This further separates people from learning what is truth. When a man seeks to cover or ignore his sin, he loses the barrier to committing further sin and temptation to sin again is made stronger. All this creates a state of alienation from God; the direct opposite of what priesthood office is all about. This alienation opens the door to accepting notional distortions in doctrine and avoidance of certain areas of doctrine essential to a whole spiritual life. This process is called darkening of understanding. Emotions are used to color, channel and direct what should be the reasoning process. In this way, priesthood becomes priestcraft and with the passage of time, the way back is lost. It is lost for wayward leaders as well as for those who follow them. What will a man of high ordination say when called to account for failing to deal with his own sin against a child or wife, or against truth and justice, or furthering those sins in a peer, waiting as late as at the bar of judgment? What will, “I was afraid,” accomplish to deliver him? The fearful will not be admitted into the Celestial City according to the Book of Revelation. (Rev. 21:8) Can a man build an eternal kingdom, God’s or his own, on deliberately retained sin, or stand approved in failing, because of fear, to deliver God’s children from the (peril) that comes from predatory, stalking, sin-infected peers? In God’s eyes is living a lie the same as loving and making a lie”? See Rev. 22:15. God tells us we have robbed Him when we don’t pay tithes (See Mal. 3:8), but what of robbing Him of tithes once they are collected by failing to invest them lawfully and honestly? Even if sins (i.e. sexual sins) are done no longer, the alienation of one’s spirit weighs on those with whom one has dealings, darkens one’s vision and clouds judgment, and bars the ministry of angels and the oracles of God. Is this fulfilling a high calling in righteousness? Only the man in that position knows in his heart if it is so (save it be revealed to others by discernment). Discern and decide whether or not it is better to make amends now, in this time of probation, or face eternal condemnation. Is it better to be clothed ever before God’s all-seeing-eye in the unstained garments of righteousness, or the filthy rags of excuses? There is no refuge apart from God, (unless one prefers hell.) Is it love to deny your loved ones, those who love you, of your presence (at their head) when this school term of mortal life is finally recessed, because you have failed to offer atonement for grievous sin? Unanswered and thus unredeemed sin continues to wound them, as well. God is the enemy of sin, not the enemy of His children who sin. Sin is comprehensive; it takes many forms as the fruits of alienation and estrangement from God. At the balance point while you still can judge, judge righteously and repent. Teach by example others who are witness to do the same. “Nor height nor depth, etc.” (Rom. 8:39) The greatest consequence of sin, of which all the others are a part, and to which all the others would lead, is separation from God’s love because of one’s own willful turning away. After a lifetime of unrepented sin, sin becomes who you are. When a man has chosen to sin and to conceal it, when a man has chosen to ignore and deny his clear duty to repent and make a proper and full atonement commensurate with the gravity of the sin, there is created a spirit of fear and hatred of all that would reveal it (as well as resentment of those who are clean). These fears and hatreds are not a part of the Spirit of God or characteristic of his people. They are a poison to priesthood and the exercise of righteous judgment. When present, the emotions generated by nurturing a fundamental hypocrisy take first place over any other consideration. The spirit of a balanced mind is overruled and wisdom is vacant. Who’s spirit would we be governed by, Moroni’s or MacBeth’s? (People won’t seek judgments that would heal them from their sins, from men whose spirit and lack of good will they fear, further denying justice and rule of righteous - healing judgment.) And what of the others, those who are the intimates and fellows to a sinner? Will any among them be released from their enchantment, like the guards who served the Wicked Witch of the West, or do they form their own phalanx? The handling of Bro. Steve speaks for itself. Bro. Steve is made to stand apart, in silence, waiting for the stones like his biblical namesake. (Acts 6:5-15; 7:1-60)This takes the place of a trial and resolution of the issues through law and justice. Alienation from God comes to include alienation from those who are not tainted, not part of the club. “Us against them” thinking supervenes and replaces complete perspective as well as the fruits of discernment. Faulty judgment comes from being blind to taking into account parts of the problem, blind due to raw emotions of fear and hate, born of the need to defend what is indefensible. Without discernment derived from accord with God, doctrines can be selected and arranged to support error and faulty reasoning. The process, the same for the stands of John Woolley vs. Woodruff & Co. in the 19th century, can occur again. If we don’t learn from history, we will be on the wrong side as it reoccurs. 20. For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good. (2Ne 28:20) The seedbed for accepting false interpretation of doctrine and for condoning other evils is a community not animated by empowerment from its leaders, but ruled by sanctions and a negative environment of censure. A climate of doubt current among individuals poisons the community and people doubt themselves as well as God and testimonies are affected thereby. We can be strong in our declared allegiance to God, but be weak in advancing our spiritual growth, even retrograde. Just last night, 16 February, I saw a piece on the PBS News hour that dealt with a scandal that has erupted in the Jehovah’s Witness Church. It seems they have a policy of covering up pedophiles. Their governing authority thinks it far worse to let the evil world exercise its malice in among them than to have justice or safety for their children. The crimes alleged by one child-victim, now a woman, involved repetitive incidents of breast-groping. (This is mild compared to what is alleged to occur among us.) She is on the way to winning her suit in court. Their lawyer seeks constitutional protection for their secrecy policy on freedom-of-religion grounds. Confessions are forwarded to their Brooklyn N.Y headquarters and are kept on file, but are not open to police. Pedophiles are concealed even from the membership as a matter of policy. Appearance is more important than fact. This policy of men unwilling to reform themselves or to accept reform reveals them for what they are to the discerning. I think one of the reasons why no one is forthcoming about our scandal is the admonition from Joseph Smith not to betray the brethren. There is no qualifier accompanying this dictum. In our hierarchical society, those of lesser rank feel these matters are above their competence. If this is a governing principle (taken as overriding other principles) then those who would take exception to misdeeds in high places would feel that it is only proper that persons of peer rank should be capable of receiving the inspiration to take any action. Those of lesser rank may feel they have no rights whatsoever. Brigham Young called upon the Saints to invoke God to exercise judgment and deliver them, if warranted. (J.D. 9:142) Those who fail to do this will be found to be without excuse. This sense of powerlessness is only true in a climate of inequity (or iniquity), not the fullness as revealed by Joseph. If individual peers are known to each other in their own guilty secrets, they dare not act for fear of exposure, stated or understood. “If one is exposed, no one’s sins will be overlooked.” I ask you, what is the purpose of an injunction to keep faith with one’s colleagues, brethren if you prefer? Is it to permit a back door so evil, once inside, can live and grow like a tumor and feed on the body of the saints unopposed? If there is no redress what must we do? Must we surrender and let criminality and devilishness, worthy of imprisonment even in this fallen nation, make the rule by which we shall live and worship our God? Bro. Steve takes on the concept of the letter of the law vs. the spirit in which it is given in (blog 12). How do you keep faith with those who do not keep faith with you, or with God? If we do not turn to God as supreme judge above men, then we are become not (intelligent, discerning, teachable holders) of priesthood of the most high, but components of a broken machine. If we will not turn to God, seeking his wisdom in this, then if God wants to bring about His righteousness upon the earth at the head of a community of men and women, He will have to change us out for original equipment (our children) or remanufactured (repentant, reeducated) parts, not “will-fit” products from a different maker. In His language, raise up a people from out of this people to carry on His work of redemption. It’s that serious. It’s that bad. Blind following of men, fearful following of men has enabled this. Courageous following of God is the only thing that can correct it, and if we don’t initiate correction ourselves, God will. This is an object lesson of one of God’s truths: “The spirit of the law killeth.” Our strength as priesthood holders is supposed to come from the strength of our relationship with God, through the ministration of the Holy Spirit. We are supposed to be endowed with an increased portion of the spirit of God so that we represent Him in His wisdom and the power of His righteous judgment. We should not only be preparing ourselves by being committed to spiritual growth, but preparing our children so they are starting from a better place than we did. Waiting upon others, receiving their words is not enough. Showing God that we respect men who have earned or have been given prominence among us, and thus we are showing our devotion to Him is not enough. When those men do wrong as a matter of course and refuse scrutiny or accountability to their brethren (us) then they refuse accountability to God. We are not one, if we are not one in spirit. And if the spirit that animates some of us is not the Lord’s spirit, we are not His. When the Church of the apostles was being transformed into the state church of Rome, a fundamental truth was impressed upon the architects. The new church was not to be composed of seekers after righteousness, or volunteers impressed by truth. Some of its members were there to better themselves socially and economically. Some maintained a secret prideful connection to the comforting lore and rituals of paganism. Because the new church had many nominal Christians and it was now an instrument of government, it had to govern and control men. One of the many features of this control was to separate a priestly class from the rest by ostentatious displays of wealth. Nothing succeeds in the minds of men like success. Another feature was to separate worship into two degrees and make sure the laity knew their place. In the construction of the basilica (the king’s place), a barrier was set up to divide sacred ground for the priests and the place where the common people would assemble. In England, this barrier became what is known as the rood screen, rood a variant of rod. The priests became the active worshippers, while the laity had the passive role of onlookers. The priests served God and the people served the priests. The priests were the appointed intermediaries who stood between a severe, wrathful God and a suppliant people. When the Catholic Church became the only undisputed authority, they took upon them for the title of their leader, “He who is another flesh of the Son of God.” Their version of keys was expressed as the delegated power to consign an individual to heaven, purgatory, or hell, represented by the three crowns circling the pope’s tiara. This theme has survived to this day in the minds of Protestants and Catholics alike. The Protestants may have a more comfortable attitude toward the role of their churches and ministers, but the sense of alienation from God remains. Those who have opted for a personal relationship with Jesus, feel assured, but aside from living lives of more personal holiness (including care for others and bringing others to Christ), they have no greater calling. (And in a sense as far as they can go with it, they are right.) The words we believe in say one thing, assuring us that we’re all right with God. But are we? Other things speak louder than any words, and those other things are the conduct of our foremen in denying justice to petitioners, wrecking marriage (the mainstay of our organization as a people of God endowed with power and authority), refusing to submit to God’s law in administration, condoning systematic violation and abuse, mishandling funds in their trust, and denying the whole thing behind a fig-leaf of “if.” So, how much of a Work of God are we and how much do we share with the LDS Mormons, Protestants and Catholics? What goes on behind the rood screen the Work has made for itself? God knows, and He is silent – for now.
— A posthaven user
Building Temples to the Lord We are facing momentous events. Some of us have as part of our being a great urge to serve the Lord in the special capacity of builders of others. Generations of faithful men and women waited, serving the Law of Moses, waited for the Messiah to appear according to the promise given through the prophets. In the Book of Mormon, you know, likewise, generations of the New World saints kept the ways of the Lord, anticipating his return for them and their children. And that day came. 3 Nep. 7-28 In God’s great calendar of the ages we have reached a meridian of time. What lies before us is a journey, a passage through a birth canal, a tunnel whose walls represent protection from the great struggle as worldwide evil proclaims itself supreme. We are the last generation, a few of whom shall see all things be fulfilled. And many shall fall by the way, victims of ignorance, selfishness, fear and fate. Who will be worthy to join such a journey? Who will show themselves strong enough in the character, the attributes of a saint, so the Lord can trust them with the great responsibility to build his house? Who can live their lives with the love of righteousness and truth such that their example of courage and wisdom and goodwill, freely given, will endure in their children to see this thing through? Who will inhabit the millennial kingdom and the world reborn? Who and whose seed will inherit all things? What is a building? The children of men have built many great mountains on the land: the Ziggurat at Ur the pyramids of Giza, the Temple of the Sun at Tenochtitlan. Europe is dotted with many great cathedrals, built over the span of hundreds of years to teach the people the majesty of God and the rewards of heaven: Cologne, Amiens, Bouvet, Chartres, le Saint Denis et Notre Dame de Paris, y Santiago de Campostella. None of these, despite the sincerity of the builders, could contain the manifest meeting place for Gods, angels and men. The building up of none of these was presided over by men ordained by God, possessing the knowledge that would join men to God, or make them clean of the sins of separation from God of a fallen church. Building, we learn, was an act of purification for the saints who surrounded Joseph Smith. They had to sacrifice time and strength and comforts of life, as well as subordinate themselves to cooperation and direction. They did all this and were rewarded with the endowment and brief communion with the kings and priests and angels of past dispensations. It is not enough to build any building and single-mindedly seek its completion as an end in itself. Many of the early saints who gathered to Joseph were not converted in their hearts, and some of the most prominent promptly apostatized and set about overthrow Joseph, supposing in their spiritual blindness that their endowments and offices entitled them to exercise authority of their own, separate, selfish will and direction, and they presumed that their notions of right and wrong were God’s as well. Déjà vu? They were past listening, either to Joseph or to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit. They had graduated from servant hood to mastery of doctrine and command of other men. They had gained a little authority, as they supposed, and that was sufficient to them. The desire for power is a drive that hides in the hearts of many men, who will wait more or less patiently, appearing to play by the rules of whatever society or institution they inhabit until they receive a status or an office wherein they can break free; nobody dares to question them. This is how the societies of men work as men accept the harness of subordination and fueled by the oats of ambition; pull their share of the load. I do not believe that God is of a mind to content Him with a building. One of the sacred symbols, which serve as reminders, is the Mogen David, or Shield of David. Looking within its interlocking bars, one can discern two triangles: One triangle points down, while the second points upward. This represents God ministering to man and man seeking and becoming like unto God. This begins when a man adopts an attitude of charity and resolution to do right that is similar to that of God, and all the rest follows. The base of one of these triangles is such that you can't topple it over; it is very secure. The Mogen David represents the great strength of the plan of salvation and God’s intention to preserve and perfect his saints who will themselves to join with Him as He is (not settling to imagine God after the understanding of men who are separated from God). Jesus said to his disciples, just before he set out to make the atonement in his last sermon that it was his wish and will that they should be one with him even as he was one with his Father. (Jn. 17) He holds this wish and will for each one of us who has accepted the true baptism and started the journey through priesthood, endowment, covenant marriage, and so on. (Jn. 17:20) Each stage carries with it the opportunity for greater reward, but also the solemn obligation to live right within one’s self, to minister God’s truth and God’s love to all others, and seek the Lord through will and works. This journey should be accompanied by a sense of joy in finding good and doing good that grows stronger and accompanies us more of the time. As one does this, it becomes harder to do that which is not good, not pleasing to Father in Heaven. God has not just appointed his people to build a house for him, but to build a house within themselves for Him. A person’s character is another temple wherein God’s Spirit dwells and God can act upon others through the intermediation of his neighbors, a few of whom hold the priesthood, or authority to act in God’s name. We understand God better and are more confident in His plan for us and His abiding presence in us, and more and more seek and accept instruction and direction from the Holy Spirit when we are keeping His commandments , doing His will and revealing Him in how we treat other people. In other words, people who are seeking a better connection with God should be able to see by our example that we have that better connection. The business of being priests and kings, one of the great goals God has placed before his covenant peoples is a life of ministry, not mastery. There is no stopping point wherein a man can say he has fulfilled God’s requirements and can now do just what he pleases. The supreme example we have is the Savior who said time and time again that he was here on earth to perform a ministry in fulfillment of the Father’s will. Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.” (Jn. 10:30) This must be our goal, as well, or we are not being a people of God. This must be our goal as well or we are not being the people of God. (It is obtainable by degrees if we start on the right path and stay on it.) A building without a righteous, people seeking to do things God’s way, in themselves, and on earth as it is in heaven, is just a building. You are a part of God’s temple before the foundation is dug. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. What is the purpose of a temple, other than a place where worthy men and women can commune with resurrected beings, just men made perfect, angels and the Son of man, as our early prophets have done? But to do that, we must hold before ourselves that vision and curb our natural man natures. Approaching the Lord through amending our thoughts and actions is building our temple within, stone by stone, day by day, incident by incident, lesson by lesson, correction by correction. To build our temple we must start with a foundation. Jesus said to Peter, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Mt. 16:18) We understand through Joseph that Jesus was not referring to a man, Peter, as the foundation of his church but of himself. The New Testament contains the foundational principles of building a life, a family, friendships, community and a nation, and joining all these associations with the Savior. In this, we act as Saviors on Mt. Zion, within our own sphere. The bedrock principles come first and upon all these are the higher priesthood and the higher ordinances added. If we get this wrong (this wedding ourselves with the Savior by learning to live within his mind and his mind within us), we will have a degree of estrangement from Christ and that will lead to adopting errors in our understanding and leave us exposed to the rule of men who are likewise separated from God and we will have lost our way. These are the governing scriptures as I understand and can find them. “Love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, heart, and with all thy mind.” (Mt. 22:37) (We must emotionally desire to make ourselves one in agreement and action with God) “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (Jn. 13:34) (This is our call to duty to treat other people as Jesus would.) "If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all." (Mk. 9:35) “But it shall not be so among you, But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. (Mt. 20: 26, 27) (Exercise of authority) “The son of man did not come to be ministered unto, but to minister.” (Mt. 20:28) (Follow his example.) “My sheep hear my voice and I know them.” (Jn. 10:27) (Seek and accept the ministration of the Holy Spirit) “By this shall all men know you, that you have love one to another.” (Jn. 13:35) (Outreach) Love is not just a word to be memorized so we know the right thing to say. Love is not a book that sits on the shelf and never gets touched. This is the best definition of love that I know to extend to others, from Dr. M. Scott Peck’s The Road less Traveled: “I define love thus: the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” It wouldn't appear that this should matter, we’re used to hearing it. In the religion people take love as a sort of background noise, the music played in a store to get people to stop thinking critically and just see and buy. Love is not just entertaining a feeling, but acting motivated by that feeling so as to influence, comfort, edify, relieve, and teach another of God’s children. Love among God’s servants is an active force. This is how Jesus tells us to love him; “. . . If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” (Jn. 14:23) There are also bedrock scriptures that tell us plainly how God judges us: accepting a covenant to enter into it is not enough. God judges the intent at the time an ordinance is undertaken, a transgression occurs and the intent we bring before Him at the throne of judgment. We can know how we stand with God if we will examine our conscience and recognize what our intent was and is. God reads our thoughts as they are formed, as we are, He knows us. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” “Deeds” Another foundational scripture that we ignore at the peril of obtaining a full degree of salvation is found in Section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants. We cannot advance in living in holiness if we do not accept exercising the priesthood power to represent God as God says it shall be exercised. Again, God knows our intent. If we care that much about God, we will govern our intent until we don’t have to govern our intent anymore because our intent has become right before God. In that way, we only sin through ignorance, not in willful disobedience. God wants us to succeed, and even puts His thumb on the scales, as it were, that we may succeed, but we must want to succeed doing it His way, not man’s way or our way. Separation from God in any way, such as exercising unrighteous dominion, indulging ourselves in sin, failing to develop our relationship with God through consultative prayer, and failing to honor our conscience, all these will keep us from growing in light and knowledge. There is a misperception out there in interpretation of doctrine that you must be made aware of, and that is that receiving an office through a valid ordination, or a degree of authority to judge and raise or punish, seal or unseal, is sufficient in itself and does not require that the office be exercised properly according to the indispensible law of the priesthood contained in Section 121. Men who are entrusted with high office should be more developed in the attitudes and attributes of the Savior than those to whom they administer. God has to work with men who are works in progress, themselves. All too often, men are incompletely formed before they are entrusted with a governing office, and the experience of that office can serve to teach and prompt them to be better. There are men who may be strong in some areas of gospel performance, but weaker and struggling in others. There are some men, however, that have earned the confidence of their peers, who contain within them the seeds of their own destruction. Each priesthood holder is responsible within his own sphere to grow and develop after the model the Savior has set forth in scripture. Doing so gives that man confidence in what way is God’s way and guidance in how to conduct himself when faced with the unprecedented. A heightened sense of right and wrong alerts a man when there is error and evil about. The process of growing and amending one’s self to God’s standard and mind gives one unity and harmony with God so he sees things as God sees them. This is how Rulon and all his predecessors in righteousness were able to be strong in the truth and sure in judgment and minister in outgiving love and concern for those in their charge. God is patient and makes allowances for men to overcome their weaknesses, and expects us to do the same, serving under them so we and they may grow thereby. We are to give our leaders who have been set before us an allowance so they may have time and space to overcome, if they will. The life of each man is a story of triumph and defeat as he learns to make his way and build the temple of his character until the judgment. We help each other by forgiving, and by so doing we also further the plan of salvation and fulfill the law of forgiveness that has an aspect of all or nothing to it. Forgiving within the sacred responsibility to maintain a pure priesthood does not include condoning sin, for that would be drinking the sacrament from a poisoned chalice. The fifth great temptation men face is the temptation to surrender to the will of other men when their will has separated them from God, rather than having been dedicated to serve the will of God, or uphold the honor of God. All men are equal before God (whatever their rank) in how well or how weakly or how wickedly they live by the principles taught to us by Jesus. God is no respecter of persons when it comes to measuring their worthiness in how they are upholding His standards and keeping His commandments. He measures their intent as they form it in their minds. Our intent reflects who we are becoming and who we have become. Energetic prayer and acts of worship motivated by our intention will seal our good natures upon us. Indeed, how we make choices and how we nourish others become part of our worship and part of our natures, and an indivisible part of who we are. The governing commandments involve extending one’s concern and strength outside of one’s self for the sake of others, valuing them, and likewise extending one’s concern and one’s strength outside of one’s self in seeking, valuing, and honoring God. “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thy self.” (Luke 10:27) As to those men who nourish within themselves a desire not to follow God, but rather use the principles of God to profit themselves and exploit others, God is patient with them, too. He allows them to move from degree to degree of disobedience and separation, so that they build up in themselves a change of heart and a momentum to increasingly disregard God and gradually adopt as a substitute the philosophy of Satan. In the end, they are found without excuse. God wants to be rid of such people as his associates and as governors of his children, so he lets them exercise their will until evil doing and thinking close over them and the cup of wrath and the Lord’s indignation is full. God lets them do it to themselves. Possession of priesthood carries with it great danger, especially so when a man accepts silence from the Holy Spirit and the voice of conscience as license and reinterprets his understanding of the power and nature of God to suit doing just what he wants to do. The admonition from God to try the spirits has been given to us for a reason. It is not just about entities from other dimensions, it is also about discerning what spirit a man carries with him, because a man’s intent, made strong by repeated acts, becomes a signature by which his heart can be detected by the discerning. We need also to try the spirits with regard to what we are taught as coming from the Lord through the speaker to us. We are in the midst of spiritual warfare. One of the main themes of Satan for the saints in the apostle’s time, and for the saints in all the seven church ages: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea is to create separation from God. We have seen this in the history of the LDS Church, wherein a higher ordinance that would make open the way for a saint to have a full salvation was discarded. We are in battle too. Our temptation is to rely on the covenants and ordinances by which we define ourselves to each other and to the world as sufficient sacrifice to God, and that the fundamentals of living with regard to others and praying such that we have confidence in recognizing the Lord’s voice and his direction and thereby confidence in our own selves, independent of any other source. We stand on seven pillars: authority, scripture, ordinances, Holy Spirit, deeds, active prayer, and community. A weakening or absence of any one of these weakens the whole. To some degree, we are left to decide for ourselves if atonement is required outside of acknowledgement, asking for forgiveness and amending one’s life. If we fail to correct the fault, it remains to weaken our connection with God. There is however, a red line that requires confession and the atonement required is severe and shattering, and that is adultery. The Savior’s teaching that what you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and what you loose on earth shall be loosed on heaven, we properly understand as being in force when we have acted according to God’s will obtained by consulting with the Holy Spirit or a great manifestation upon our spirit by the Spirit of God in power. Abuse of children by sexually violating their personhood is another from of crossing the line. Unrighteous dominion appears to be a gray area. I interpret Section 121 as meaning that while one is in an attitude of exercising unrighteous dominion and estranged from God, [one’s acts that would employ priesthood are subject to review by the Lord.] Otherwise, priesthood remains. This is a probationary state we live and learn in. Unrighteous dominion is of a nature that like any strong habit, if it is not corrected it becomes more and more frequent and egregious. It is incompatible with priesthood and colors the perpetrators connection with God, such that he is separated increasingly. Unchecked, unrighteous dominion defines a man and will remain with him at the judgment, and then, it is amen to his priesthood. God judges intent because intent defines who a man is beneath all outward show of rectitude. Making a show of priesthood is not the same as making priesthood (along with its governing principle) a part of one’s character. We exercise priesthood power to overcome events in proportion to how much we have made the Spirit and mind of God a part of our lives. Thus, it is well to inquire of the Lord before we perform an ordinance what his will is in the matter so that we can unite our will with his. “Teach us to pray, Lord.” (Luke 11:1) I suspect because of the divergence from God’s standard and ours, much of what we do with regard to ordinances will have to be redone at a future time when men are more in tune with the mind and will of God. God may forgive a man his priesthood-annulling sins, but the ordinance must be made right. This is another reason why a temple must be built to the Lord by a people pure in heart, humble is spirit, and determined to keep his statutes of law and justice and obey his commandments to exercise charity. The test will come to each one of you, the test being whether to follow God or men who claim to be men of God. Part of the test will lie in your ability to access the Holy Spirit to know wherein the truth lies and then dare to honor that truth brought directly to you from God. It will not be easy, because there will be opposition present that also claims to speak for God. You will have to discern which way is right and who is right. Both ways seem right and can claim scripture to support them. This test can be delayed for a little while, but it cannot be avoided. To judge aright and overcome, you will have to be grounded in scripture, conduct, and experience. “My sheep hear my voice and I know them.” (Jn. 10:27) Those who give to men what rightfully belongs to God cannot inherit a reward much better than those they follow. The terrestrial glory is for those who are deceived by the craftiness of men. We cannot look with binoculars at the deception suffered by others and ignore what is right under our noses. What goes on in this Work is our responsibility, particularly since God at this time is separating out those who will follow him with increase of devotion in all areas, and those who insist on a lesser standard and call it good. You are not supposed to decide this way or that way based on argument and persuasion. The argument is for you to take to the Lord yourself. Brigham warned the saints of his day not to be followers of men, but know for themselves. This knowing (by preparing one’s spirit and asking in prayer with a listening heart) is an integral part of the authentic exercise of priesthood and is a responsibility that goes with priesthood, no matter what office. This is a gateway test because one way would have you marking time with no peeking to associate the calling you feel with actual events requiring preparation in the here and now. The other way endorses your mission that God gave to you, not through the intermediation of strangers, but to men of God and seekers of truth among you. It is time to practice your religion, not to mark time and maintain, but to step out wherever the Lord leads. We have the example of the saints who left Missouri to Illinois, and escaped Illinois to cross the plains. You must provide the knowing of what the Lord would have you do. Once that is done, your leaders who are closest to the Spirit of the Lord will be empowered to provide direction. If you want to experience the Spirit of the Lord among you in power and gain the assurance that it is he who leads your leaders and yourselves, you must undertake your own setting in order. Be Christians first, after the teachings and commandments of Christ, himself. Apply this intent towards God and neighbor to magnify your offices, covenants and callings. Make your prayers directed towards mutual support (caring for others) and inquire of the Lord what he would have you do, over and over again. Look out for each other. This is how all the keys are exercised. And failing to do these things is how the exercise of the keys is lost. You have to open yourselves to be convinced and converted so questioning is replaced by assurance and assurance by conviction. By this means you are no longer on the outside, led by others whom you suppose to be more worthy than you, but you are one with the Lord and your leaders are men who have just a little more experience, seasoning and testing in the things of God, as well as success in overcoming more things. We all should be equally righteous, but vary in degree of experience and capacity, which is called being worthy. The Lord does not call upon us simply to repent, and get back to where we once were, but to repent and be converted so we will grow in our capacity to be as he is. (See Acts 3:19) His message over and over again is not just to conform, but to come up and be as he is. (See Rev. 3:21) What path are you on? This religion belongs to each one of us equally. We just have to claim it for ourselves by living according to its precepts confirmed by gaining a testimony for ourselves each step of the way by seeking the Lord in prayer, who upbraideth not. See James 1:5. 30. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; this is the first commandment. 31. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. (Mk. 12:30, 31) There is a silent movie called Wind designed and performed by Buster Keaton. In one of the scenes he stands still while the front panel of a two-story building falls on him in a great cloud of dust. When the dust clears, we see him standing as though nothing had happened and this is because where he is standing is within the borders of an empty window frame. So, to, it must be with us. We must be so within our religion, both in faith and in practice confirmed by the Holy Ghost that whatever happens around us, even the collapse of a building, we will not be moved out of our place. Truth is the same. Our Savior gave it to each one of us, through others to be sure, but it is only ours if we will take it in “. . . and I will sup with him . . .” Rev 3:20 Truth remains independent of any title, or office, or ordinance. All who enter must be true to its foundational principles. No man who is a true disciple of Jesus Christ claims to own the spirit or the conscience of another man – or woman. No man who is a true disciple of Christ would even think to put himself between the Spirit of Jesus Christ and another man – or woman. If a thousand should fall (away) at thy right hand and ten thousand should fall (away) at thy left, be ye not moved. Unrighteous dominion is a serious offense to God because its exercise negates the whole spirit and purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ and blinds people who engage in it or who submit to it to progressing in holiness and in truth through the generations, as well. The true religion of connection with the Eternal and the counterfeit of separation and subjugation sought by men who are of men and men who are of the Evil One exist side by side, wheat and tares. Part of the responsibility of each saint is to stay sensitive and aware. In the opening of a gun duel, you watch the hands of the other person, irrespective of his words or looks. Among the people in the house of God, you attend to the words (and the Spirit of the Lord as it impresses itself upon you as to his faithfulness), irrespective of the title of the speaker. 21“And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well - and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them carefully away down to hell.” 2 Ne 28:21 26. Yea, wo be unto him that hearkeneth unto the precepts of men, and denieth the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost ! 2 Ne 28:26 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and I will sup with him, and he with me.” Rev. 3:20
— A posthaven user
Closing the Gap There are two ways to understand and approach God. One way is “Abba, Father,” and the other way is, “My God, My God,” or “Lord, Lord.” People tend to be and become what they are exposed to and the more they are exposed to a way of thinking, the more it becomes a part of who they are. Our character radiates from us whether we know it or not. It produces subtle cues that influence others. Our view of God, our relationship with God likewise radiates and reveals itself. Openness, otherwise revealed in humility, a listening heart, or charity, draws like-minded people, especially little children. The opposite is also true. The predominance of secret sins, or of a state of devaluing or devouring others, of being ungenuine, also radiates, although others may not recognize it for what it is. A person’s character at the moment is likewise a fever chart. It can be read and it changes with our thoughts. Spiritually speaking, it’s like a facial expression behind our facial expression. “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly” (D&C 121:45) is a part of shaping ourselves. Our conscience is always there to assist us, if we will open ourselves to listen to it. Where we want to go and the more time we are in a state of wanting to go there, the more surely we shall go there. We have to do the steering, or we will drift. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” (Prov. 9:10) but if that fear is not replaced by an intention to amend our self to do things God’s way, the fear of the Lord amounts to a state of estrangement and paralysis, or avoidance. We first have to recognize our separation from God and then take the steps to shorten that distance, in degree and the amount of time we spend away from having God a part of our decisions and our being. It is God’s intention that we should grow closer to Him and also to grow up to spiritual adulthood and be after His own self, like Him. He says so in the Book of Revelation in his address to all overcomers in chapters 2 and 3, and in what he says to the disciples before stepping forward into his ordeal, as recorded in the Book of John, chapter 17. • We are supposed to know the way of the Lord and the will of the Lord every step of the way through dialogue prayer and scripture study to search out questions. Beware of those who don’t speak with that assurance and whose actions do not show forth familiarity with his gospel or allegiance to it. • We close the gap by a return to the fundamentals of our faith as laid down by Jesus in his earthly ministries and through Joseph in his. • We live our lives as saints in thought, word, and deed, mindful of what Jesus would do in our place, and make dialog, consulting prayer a part of our daily spiritual diet. • We develop our prayer gift and power to have confidence in it and Him from whom it comes, the better to discern truth from error anywhere we encounter it. • We make God, not man the center of our faith and the iron rod by which we measure all presentments of men. • We strengthen our alignment with God and confidence in the Lord by prayer, thought and acts that treat others with respect and regard. • We teach ourselves to better take unto us joy from raising others and easing their burdens, as Jesus would have his own do. • We shall be mindful of the promptings of the Holy Spirit and Conscience and take time to assess the need to make course corrections (repent) and amends (atone). • Salvation is an individual operation, Brigham said. We don’t wait upon others to do the thinking and changing of ourselves into a people who serve God, represent God, and radiate God’s person of unfailing, fierce, kindly love manifested to and in those who will receive it. • We exercise courage in living as examples to others and answering the call to uphold righteousness among saints and men. • We dare not, we do not give to man what belongs to God, especially if they are in conflict. As members of a priesthood organization we may still have a duty to honor the offices appointed over the people of God (for as long as His will would have it), and to that end we must be their good servants, but God’s first.
— A posthaven user