Blog # 56 - The Careful Conferring of Priesthood Upon the Worthy or Catastrophic Consequences - by Joseph Musser

Link to Part 6 of 7:

http://learnjustice.posthaven.com/blog-number-57-our-apostasy-from-free-agency-and-conversion-to-satans-side-it-is-written-pp-161-164

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

1 response
The Face in the Mirror In the eyes of some, the LDS Church has undergone the ‘Gypsy Switch’. It has changed from a church of men serving God to a church of men who have separated themselves from God, who are serving God, using the name of God, but to suit themselves. Their reward: unhindered pursuit of wealth and power at the world’s banqueting hall in a climate of acceptance and peace. Do they know what they’re doing? For the most part, I don’t think so; they’re so used to relating to a passive Heavenly Father as his anointed servants that they are confident that God will accept their good will as justification for anything they do in his name. All too often, silence means consent with their God. The passage of generations seals their errors upon them. The work has undergone the same transformation. 1. The evidence for this is to be found in denying justice to the victims of sexual predation. Sexual predation, reputed to be widespread among us, is a crime against God. It defiles the spirit of its victim, as well as marks the predator to be unable to resist further progress in damnation. If we won’t work with God and be led by Him in mildness, then we’ll get the other side of Him. God is no respecter of persons who don’t respect Him. 2. The evidence for this transformation is to be found in the railroad switch-yard management of what should be permanent marriage. In this, it could be said, they have made God’s way into their way by disregarding the intent as well as the letter of His law. We don’t enter into this degree of marriage primarily and ultimately to suit ourselves. God is not hip to the “me” generation. This points to lack of spiritual orientation and lack of due prayerful consideration before and during marriage for what is best for the other person. In a lot of these marriages, is God really consulted, or made an over-watching partner? The modern laxity in consideration for the other and for the challenges of marriage and lack of investigation and deliberation characteristic of practice within the LDS church has spilled over to our too often casually undertaken and emotionally-driven unions. Although the law we labor with is the same, this is not the 19th century where women were often simply plugged in like modules in an electronic system. We marry to more closely unite ourselves with God, not to continue to live apart from him. Another widespread folly is the notion that it is necessary to enter into as many marriages as possible in order to get one’s “ticket punched to the Celestial kingdom.” This kind of thinking, driven by attention to the law side of marriage has overshadowed in too many minds the soul-exalting principles of valuing and respecting the other person as an indispensible ally (one-flesh concept). The marriage relationship between two people is two-way, as is the relationship between file-leader and subordinate leader. “The Son of man did not come to be ministered unto, but to minister.” (Mt. 20:28) It’s an intentional attitude, just as quid pro quo, favor for favor, is to those exchanging corrupt bargains. Divorce exists as a remedy for threats to physical safety and spiritual purity, lineage purity and protection so Jesus can have around him a millennial people who will preserve and expand his way throughout the earth from generation to generation, and not dwindle to an ever-lessening standard as some have done, heretofore. Additionally, women have been released who are suffering unrelieved emotional torment and overwhelming physical neglect. How this has been managed among us can be seen in the fruits of these disunions. Qui bono? Who has benefited from tipping the scales in favor of a release, rather than supporting the union? Those who harbor in their secret hearts the notion that “. . . the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, well, they took the last train for the Coast,” have a reckoning to make. Each union undertaken as a Celestial marriage is precious in God’s eyes. Just as there is a spiritual component to marriage, there is a spiritual component to whoredom. A ceremony will not nullify a sinful attitude or a sinful foundation. As long as it exists, uncorrected, it will corrupt the union and the influence it radiates, as well as its fruit. In many cases, marriages entered into with bad attitudes or from a wicked intent, although they may be under the seal of protection, will crumble and the unhealed sins break forth as new sins (i.e. adultery) so that it shows the a union made with unworthy intent never should have been formed in the first place. The influence we have on each other within the marriage bond is a two-edged sword, for good or ill, so it is best to accept the undertaking as male and female servants of God. (Eph. 5:23-33) When is a marriage acceptable to God and when is it in the category of adultery? Apparently, for some of our marriages only God knows. “Well, it’s the responsibility of the marriage partners, themselves.” Is it, totally? Those who should have a governing discernment should know and be able to forbid, to warn or at least advise in cases wherein the outcome of the relationship is doubtful. Are we our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers? For the love of God, people! From our poor, struggling point of view, we do the best we can to please folks and keep the peace. But is that what being the sole body of men who hold the holy priesthood and have the privilege to obtain the oracles of God should be about? Is this how we honor God? Does anybody besides those who are “twitterpated” even bother to dare to ask? Do the authorities not ask because they are afraid they won't get an answer, or are they afraid the “dearly beloved” won’t like the answer? In my orientation to these things, I was told that if the Man-Who-Holds-the-Keys (Rulon) says, “No,” that’s the end of it. You’re not even entitled to ask why. The breach of adultery and its effects on salvation of so many people should be of primary concern to those who preside over the eternal welfare of this people – as it most assuredly is to God. Responsibility without authority doesn’t work; neither does authority without responsibility. Adulterous unions in the eyes of God simply shouldn’t be made! This requires consultation with the Holy Spirit by those entitled to over-watch these things. Who’s in charge here, people who are all lit up with each other, or men using their best judgment, or God? (Maybe their best judgment is all they have, anymore.) If that’s so, we had better know it. 3. The evidence for this transformation is to be found in failure to discipline their peers or themselves for financial crimes in violation of the spirit and practice of responsible stewardship. In all these areas actions taken in behalf of God by His servants in the household of faith are acts of priesthood. God’s “Get-Out-of-Jail” card is not a “freebie”. It has to be bought with repentance and restitution. Cover-up is a silent witness that things are not right and cannot be made to appear to be right. 4. The evidence for this mutation can be found in utter disregard for the presumed presence of practicing disciples of Satan and knowingly harboring sexual criminals at their table, voicing in their deliberations and contributing to their decisions - and shaping their philosophy. This is an exhibition of double-minded consciences: all for the perpetrator, none for the victims. It seems we have two priesthoods: one of those who are striving to live God’s laws to the best of their knowledge and strength to overcome, and a priesthood of the governors who apply to themselves a sort of justification by ordinance doctrine. It is said, “In the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is king,” but who among us who walks about the decks wavering and quavering, will open even one eye beyond the deck lights to the black, featureless spiritual emptiness stretching out all around us to the horizon as we give up more and more of our living space to the relentless, rising pool of salty stench that represents estrangement from the Holy Spirit. We’re sinking into the soundless sea of the age: casuistry, situational ethics, tolerance, accommodation, unrighteous dominion, redefinition of eternal law, principle, and standards, denial of justice and unequal justice, raw and undiscovered sins. Priesthood without Jesus is a priesthood, sans tête. You can invoke his name, but unless you keep his commandments, spirit and letter, you’re more or less on your own. The breaches and departures considered here are not just mistakes, they signify something far worse. The lack of the gifts of the Spirit among us is a harbinger. The telestial world has neither the ministry of the Father or of the Son. “To whom much is given, of him shall be much required.” (Luke 12:48) 5. The evidence for this mutation of allegiance can be found in defending, even justifying a reign of God-distancing misrule, by insisting that any admission would destroy the Work (Blog 8). So they, aligned behind one, cloak a tacit admission with “if” as though trying to create a smoke-screen of indefinition will serve as a sufficient remedy. Behold priestcraft, people. This is nicolaitanism, the thing that the Lord Jesus Christ hates. This is how generations of like-minded authorities have managed the education of the people, by failing to diligently correct them, making them depend on leaders, rather than on God. This is what Macbeth had to say about his sinful state: “For mine own good, all causes shall give way: I am in blood stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er:” Act III, iv, 135-138 Shakespeare was a master-conceiver of human nature, and human nature is what we are left with if we do not adopt the Savior’s nature as our own. All the churches condemned by Jesus share one fundamental trait. They maintain separation of the members from God, cultivated and enforced by teaching and insured by doctrinal disobedience and in some cases, by church discipline. This pre-tribulation age is the age of betrayal of citizens, of believers, of spouses, of children, all by those they look to for leadership, protection, and wisdom. The first and essential step for the Devil to gain mastery of a soul is to get that soul separated from God. The stultifying, debilitating presence of this estrangement afflicts like a chronic tropical disease: a malaria of the soul. Where are we? Are we caught in a dilemma, hedged in by words, weighed down by personalities, too afraid, too out-of-practice to go to the Lord for answers? “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth liberally and ubpraideth not.” (Jas. 1:5) Do we believe that? “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” (Jn. 8:32) Do we believe that? Are we so far in separation from God that we cannot bring ourselves to take Him at His word? 6. The evidence for this mutilation of truth can be found in perversion of gospel teaching. Instead of giving proper weight to scripture and accepted word of past prophets as integral to our present policies, they have apparently taken them entirely out of the matrix and gathered them into their hands as the Lord’s anointed, as the Catholic and LDS have done before them. This sort of authoritative governance is a hallmark of the role men assume as kings and presidents, and prime ministers and general secretaries - and fuehrers. I am concerned not so much with the kind and degree as with the principle that motivates what path men take. Restriction of the soul of man is a progressive phenomenon that does not turn back once the motivating cause is in place. Governing men this way is not in keeping with a work of God. Scripture says so, once you have assembled its parts in order to see the bigger picture. Men adjust, circumvent, and ignore laws to maintain one code for the rulers and another for the ruled. The mainstay of this effort among governments that maintain facades of representative democracy is lawyer-craft. This is a fundamental difference between the governments of men and what should be the government of God. Throughout Mormondom, the checks and balances of the Joseph Smith church have been discarded and a simplified form substituted for the ease, convenience, and protection of the few. That simplified form can be characterized by the title: authoritarian dictatorship. It reveals itself in the drunken departures from the Lord’s judicial process outlined in the “LearnJustice” blogs (referring to the Owen Allred trial). 7. The evidence for this betrayal of the Savior’s good name can be found in failure to provide guidance and protect our children from the sorts of sins that alter testimonies and provide gateways to indifference and apostasy from within. From my own experience as an observer, I can tell you that the casualness with which we treat sexual expression among ourselves, as well as what we condone in our children changes them at the foundation of their personalities and influences their ethical standards for a lifetime. Conduct of family members and neighbors and visitors has a greater influence on what a youth will tolerate or seek out than stimulating materials do. Parents are the standard bearers, the reference points that a child will return to, or can be called back to in later life by the ministers and teachers of life. You can talk all you want from the pulpit, but if women and girls in their (life-nurturing) calling are not treated with reverence in life as it is experienced outside of meeting, the preaching is in vain. Brigham said that more would be damned because of the principle than exalted. Amen. * * * The judgment of God will come upon this people like a tsunami. We are past individual reproof. The warning signs are not being universally recognized. First the water (of the oracles and the whisperings) goes out, away, as its energy is attracted to a higher peak out to sea, and the beach is bare exposing the rock-strewn shelf. The birds go silent. As the offenses continue unchecked, the band of the horizon raises up, ever so slightly as it grows in silence. The greater the disconnect of the ocean floor and shearing of the two lands at the break, the deeper the wave will reach to make contact with the sea bed as it moves toward land. The force contained in the water causes it to suddenly stand up, raising itself higher and higher held by the mass of the wave following. The hand of God cannot be stayed for those who have not moved to the higher ground of repentance and have continued to neglect to listen to Him. This is the towering cliff of water, the shadow curtain that covers the afternoon sun, the stuff of night-terrors that topples over, throwing itself down over the life of the land and all the works of man. It strikes with the speed and finality of a pile driver on the soft flesh, and the surge lays itself out in an unstoppable tide that advances, heedless of any feature or obstruction. In this form, the hand of God is like an eraser, sweeping the face of the landscape. “Behold, I make all things new.” (Rev. 21:5) “. . . and they shall know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 38:23) Who’s in the path of the judgments? You and I, and our children are! * * * * The Work is its own world, an island unto itself. There is something very basic about the wrongs that have been done among us. These are all the result of failings of character. Character is something that is begun to be taught at the mother’s knee. Does that mean our mothers don’t value character? No. It tells me that mothers are too preoccupied with other things, among them the infringements of our culture. No less than Hillary Clinton has come up with the theme: “It Takes a Village.” I don’t know what it takes. Fault-finding is a realistic part of a human response. It’s not finding fault that’s destructive and so offensive to smooth social relations and spiritual progress, it’s what we do with it when we find it. Finding fault must be accompanied by finding solutions, while uplifting weary, wounded souls. People just don’t respect God. Read those blogs in learnjustice.posthaven.com (1-9 and 25-30). The fear of God around here is selective, wedded to the fear of men. The orientation to God around here is selective. The belief in God and the willingness to take Him at His word is weak. Owen’s council got treated like special people because of their value to Owen and his sensibilities, his wishful thinking. The distancing and disconnect from God for our time began there. They didn’t take warning and step back – now they have a precedent. It’s justification by ordinance, rather than justification by faith. What about justification by attitude and Spirit in deference to the Lord, a new undocumented doctrine? How much are we willing to give up our nature and adopt God’s nature? In God’s eyes, attitude is the difference between sin and a mistake. L’Empereur est nu.” (If I had any more interest in all of this, every time I think on what men have done assuming mantle of God’s approving authority and what they may have done to what should have been the last, best hope of mankind in this world, I would be sick to my stomach.)
— A posthaven user