Blog # 57 - How High Do We Rate Today on the Free Agency Scale? by J.W. Musser - "It is Written" pp. 161-164

Link to Part 7 of 7 of "It is Written":

http://learnjustice.posthaven.com/blog-number-58-the-apostasy-of-our-leaders-it-is-written-pp-168-170



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
But God’s First 1. Origins. I look at this existential crisis in the religion (the Work) beyond an event or series of events and beyond a man or a few men. If there is going to be a healing or repentance or restoration it must be where healing is possible, and that may have to lie beyond the perpetrators, if they won’t submit themselves to correction. I am looking to a systemic failure that breeds a darkened social climate in which dysfunction and sin can take root not only in individuals, but shared among individuals. I am also looking at a parental failing in which each generation has been handicapped in its turn. 2. What is the nature of the gap between observance of laws and a spirit of good will and sense of joyful reward in righteous living? Can men truly and faithfully observe the law of God without being animated by a sense of love for the living God, for living His way, and blessing His children with whom we share life? 3. Where does departure from the way begin? How does a temptation such as an opportunity to commit a sexual or economic sin become attractive enough to block out the voice of conscience? Could it be that the ability to blind one’s self to conscience comes from a lack of a sense of love and confidence in the Lord’s promises? Does the alienation from valuing others come from not being valued one’s self as a child? (I’m not thinking about just one man.) Psychotherapy teaches that emotional trauma in childhood sets reactive coping (like an eye blink) and defective, dysfunctional response into the mind rather like programming a computer. Whatever gets input first (into the operating system) governs all subsequent entries and is forgotten by the conscious mind. The mind is like a computer operating system that handles programmed data without showing itself. Persons so programmed are not even aware of their motivations. Spiritual malware and viruses contaminate the operating system and then the conscience-function is corrupted or even disabled. 4. Sigmund Freud (Father of Psychotherapy) talked about the existence of drives that are an inherent in our survival as biological organisms. These drives are associated with powerful, unreasoning emotions. Sex, self-preservation, and desire for aggrandizement (gain or feeding the self) are all drives. Drives are imperfectly controlled. They often just slip out. When loss of control over drives is substantial and consistent, you have one aspect of mental illness. God wants our connection with Him to be one of love. God knows that the drive to love and be loved can be strong enough to guide, direct, and govern the other drives, but love must be given first place and diligent adherence. This love to be realized requires restraint and respect for the sovereignty and the value of the other. 5. God demonstrated the power of love through the ministry and sacrifice performed by His Son. To those more or less alienated from God, this demonstration of love is received only on an intellectual and theoretical plane. To those seeking to follow God through examining scripture and living accordingly, including respecting and valuing others, Christ’s love and God's love become more and more real. We begin to see Him, spirit-to-spirit as is His intent. Our knowledge of Him is a part of a more full degree of salvation. 6. We ally and align ourselves with God and grow in light as well as knowledge. But there is a way in which persons gain the formulas and forms, the lingo and the lore used to describe walking with the Lord, and yet do not enter into communion with God. 7. Knowing about God is not the same as knowing God. Some people remain separate and alienated although able to master the forms and appearances. We have to discern who and how to follow. 8. There are some aspects of character than some men declare off limits to alteration (i.e. repentance). Men may refuse to accommodate and adapt that they might become of a godly nature. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self.” (Mt. 22:39) This is another way of saying value and respect the other and don’t put your own desire to gratify yourself at the expense of another. Jesus put it, “He who would be greatest among you, let him be a servant to the rest.” Beware of such men. The authority that men so cherish is of effect while they live in mortality, and is subject to the vicissitudes of life (it can fail). The authority of men is not eternal unless it is one in spirit and in truth and in law with the Eternal. 9. God and Jesus glorify themselves by laboring for others, by sacrificing themselves for others by raising others and receiving grateful acknowledgement from their disciples who strive to do likewise as their extrinsic reward (reward derived from outside the self). But the Lord and those who follow him also feel reward by being good for goodness sake – that is intrinsic reward. We are covenanted to be like Them. 10. Jesus accused his foundational church, the church of the Apostles (Ephesus Rev. Ch. 2, vs. 4) as forsaking their first love. This shift from being in-God and acting as spiritually prompted, to defining themselves through doctrines also was marked by a loss in confidence in themselves and thus in God, as well. They sought to substitute the intermediation of other men: some were of Paul, and some of Cephas (i.e. Peter). Some two-hundred years later, practical, accommodating and enterprising men had stepped in to fill the offices and the Roman Church was born. 11. God intends that each one of us eventually should stand on our own mountain and join our mountain to other Christians and to God in a mountain system with individual peaks, like the Alps or the Himalayas. Each must have full access to the sky of heaven, not be buried under others. When men retreated from willingness to change themselves, they sought to become permanent disciples of other men and created for themselves a patronage system that overgrew individual spiritual growth. The persecutions of the Roman government accelerated the process by removing the best examples through judicial murder. It hardened some and petrified the rest. Men tend to lose confidence in themselves and in God at the same time. Sin does this. Adam hid from God after partaking of the forbidden fruit. Is it easier to be driven than to follow? A boss says “Go.” A leader says, “Follow Me!” 12. The way of the world in which we live is for social order to be established by the leaders asserting themselves over others by making themselves indispensible and unassailable. The third church in the book of revelation codified dominion over the laity (conquest) by men styling themselves as priests (Nikolaitanes), who were middlemen, “indispensable to salvation.” (Rev. 2:15) Protestantism partially restored individual responsibility before God to know and observe truth, but almost immediately the Protestant churches reasserted themselves as indispensible truth-givers. This was the furthest extent of freedom of conscience and will their societies could bear in the 16th Century. You only have to look up the street to see that spirit is still with us, today. It works. 13. Joseph Smith in the restored gospel asserted the right and obligation of each man to govern and grow himself within a framework, but with God as the referee accessed through informed prayer and observance of individual and communal responsibility, characteristic of a Godly life. 14. We have to recognize that men may exercise high office with skill and remain disconnected from God in terms of their motivation. A man can go far and not internalize the obligation to do righteously and be righteous, or to render just judgment, except when convenient under practical necessity. 15. In the sacrament we take upon us the name of Jesus Christ. It is not about making our will manifest in the name of Jesus, but in making his will manifest through us. Those who ignore the difference are in grave danger of entering into a path of increasing separation from God and alienation. Another way to say this is to use the word: apostasy. Those who are not spiritually animated in their performance of office, be it patriarch or pastor or presider do not know God. One can become god after one’s own selfish self, or become a God after the pattern of Christ's unselfish self. Both are possible in this religion. Following one or the other example can be exalting or damning. 16. Discernment is key to choosing good and rejecting evil, especially in cases where there are two ways representing truth, each appearing to be right. In life we should be building up our powers of discern-ment. When we live with integrity and have the right motivation, the scriptures we learn come back to us and crowd about us as appropriate. Right-thinking men find the right arguments. Paul taught that without charity, a self-giving sacrificial love, we are just noise without spiritual substance. This, I think describes our problem in finding justice and the origin of the failing of ourselves as parents and as spiritual examples and as friends to one another. Justice is a part of God’s love; the Devil has deceived man into thinking justice is essentially hateful and punitive. Justice would destroy sin out from sinners. 17. In His timeless dimension, God sees a chain of consequences immediately. We have to live through all the intermediate steps. One symptom of the sickness in “The Work” is a lack of love one for another person and for God. The very name religion translates as reconnecting. It is the business of this life to become reconnected with God, not just conforming or being in compliance, but becoming and being. 18. If the path of loving is too mysterious, we can begin by respecting the sovereignty and worth of one another. In this time at the verge of end-of-age judgments we shall need friendship in order to survive. 1) Friends value each other, 2) friends respect each other, 3) friends trust and are trustworthy, 4) friends seek agreement and mutual accord, 5) friends share, 6) friends sacrifice, and 7) friends forgive (the small stuff). If we don’t understand what it means to love, we cannot love. Respect starts the journey. The doctrines of religion should carry us to lives of joyful unity. When they are used to hide self- gratification and exploitation they hide a counterfeit. How we raise our children is how we raise ourselves. 19. How can men who profess to be so godly be so ungodly? How can men know so much about God and yet not know God? Is it because they did not know love or see love in their formative years? Is it because they were told that their father loved them, but did not experience it for themselves? Did the examples they saw and witnessed make the lie about love? 20. Did they hear a different gospel in daily conversations featuring condemnation of others? Did they hear others valued, or devalued? Was their religious life one of onerous obligations? Was their religious life a joyless burden? Are they burdened by dark secrets? Were they exposed to bad examples? 21. Was their intrinsic concept of God, formed from the very beginning, one of an alien being, austere, remote, judgmental and punitive? Were those around them on the horizon of their search for example cold-hearted, insular, elitist, hypocritical, and uncharitable? Were the judgments of others they over-heard balanced? Was God loved or merely served? Did they outgrow respect for and sensitivity to God along with childhood? 22. Were they seeking and finding reward in understanding and serving God or were they burdened? When did the earthly environment outweigh the heavenly one? Did they find their way through the cultural ocean by pleasing or conforming to others and learn to separate a personal life of indulgence from social obligations? What spirit did they clasp to their hearts when they took upon them the name of Christ? 23. What is the difference between an alcoholic who persecutes and terrorizes those of his family and an abstainer who persecutes and terrorizes those of his family? Jesus said that a man is not defiled by what he takes in him, but rather by what comes out of him. (Mt. 15:11) How many secret abusers yet remain among us? One of the Devil’s lies is to get people to think always of evil, “It’s over there; it’s over there.” It’s never here. See 2 Nephi 28:21.22. 24. The crisis we face is not merely from others. We each have a share. Why are we losing our youth? When does getting an office outweigh keeping the Holy Spirit? When does seeking prominence and privilege outweigh seeking the welfare of others? Since when is an ordinance or an office taken as a badge of distinction or key to opportunity, more than a call to serve and to bless? 25. People are limited by the scale of their perceptive framework. Therefore, it is necessary to keep them in mind of the eternal environment and the eventual consequences of how they conduct themselves now and the decisions they must make. Jesus and Joseph intended to open men’s mind to eternal things; it is the desire of men who desire to rule over other men to limit the minds of those who make themselves entirely subject to the rule of men. 26. Joseph Smith said that he did not govern men; rather he taught them how to govern themselves. One of those principles, the bedrock of a society, is equally-administered justice with two sides of a dispute given voice before judgment is rendered. A part of the standard of justice is a format of respect on behalf of each for all. Jurisprudence refers both to the form and the manner with which a case is presented, explored, and adjudicated. Perverting judgment was one of the sins of the fallen priesthood of Israel. Departing from the standard given through Moses, his descendants eventually were able to crucify their God. This scandalized and appalled even the Roman judge. Ostracizing Bro. Steve differs only in kind and in degree; the principle of rejecting truth through silencing its advocate is the same. 27. Dividé et Impera (divide and rule). I suppose the keeper of this blog will be accused of creating division. How else is the division that already exists among us (concerning a standard of truth and justice, as well as sin and cleanliness) to be recognized and discarded than by asking questions? Questions can either be answered officially according to righteous principles (a trial conducted with equal regard for both sides) and so put the matter to rest, or be resolved privately through a process of individual and collective repentance, that those of us who desire to be clean and have our garments clean of the sins of others can do so, without being dependent on those who will not be reconciled to God. 28. “He is a good man, but he is weak.” (Blog 34, p. 12) How can one be truly good if he undertakes no process to conquer and cast out the weakness through acknowledgement and atonement? How can one be truly good if he will not accept the help of God’s remedy, even in its severity? “The Lord chastens those whom he loveth.” Who else is weak? How can such a one claim to stand in the office of one who loves and serves God? We’re not just “out of order” around here; we’re more a pile of bits and pieces. 29. “A just man made perfect,” is one of the identities of one who overcomes in living this holy life that we aspire to. How can a man be known to God as just or worthy if he condones and hides behind unequal justice? How can a man be made perfect, if he avoids the path to perfection? Will the Lord leave us to our own devices? Will we only get the government we deserve? 30. We are social beings and social conditioning is an integral part of our thriving in families and communities. This can also be turned against us when family bonds are broken through unrighteous dominion and the secret sins of psychological and sexual abuse and neglect. Is silence in the face of serious issues useful or safe? Unrevealed sin creates a comprehensive disease process that this blog seeks to unmask and check. In the Watergate scandal it was the cover-up attempt that spread the damage like a stain that is broadcasted by trying to wipe it away. 31. In the hierarchy of motivations to avoid bad conduct, the lowest is the fear of getting caught. Other reasons include: “I do not do this because our group does not do this” (group identity), or “I do not do this because it is against my personal code (self-referencing).” The highest standard is, “I do not do this because it is wrong in itself (allying with a higher principle than the self).” By what measure do we measure ourselves? Do we measure justice by principle, or bend principle to expediency? The priesthood of one man is, in a sense, the priesthood of all. Every priesthood holder is obliged to know what he is sustaining. Every priesthood holder is obliged to uphold only that which is good. 32. Each member of this Work (from the most prominent to the least recognized) has a part in influencing others, either to raise them or to burden them, either to inspire them or to curse them, either to enlighten or darken their way. Standards must be held in common by a people, not just a few at the top upon whom the slothful, fearful, and complacent depend, or from a voice crying in the wilderness. Otherwise the temptation to deviate from the standard of a faithful steward will be too great for some, and all will suffer. 33. Brigham said he couldn’t bring greater blessing to the people because they weren’t willing. The foundation to living higher laws is not only a commitment to sacrifice, but to each other. Without living the “law of friendship and good will,” consistently -living any higher law is not an exalting blessing, but a demoralizing curse. “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Jn. 15:14 34. “Depart from me, I never knew you.” (Mt. 7:23) This will come to people who “benefit” themselves using God’s name and doctrines, rather than doing good works for the honor and glory of God. What does it profit us to build up our kingdom, if we are not united with God by precept and practice? Is this not a form of idolatry – glorifying ourselves? Is this not a form of taking the Lord’s name in vain – misusing it and misrepresenting it? Joseph Smith flips it. He records the quote as: “Depart from me, you never knew Me.” 35. In war, it is said, the first casualty is truth. In departure from communion with God, the first casualty is the love of Christ, one for another (Rev. 2:4) 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. The first three commandments define the relation with God as the power source for all other relationships. 36. 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. 37. ^- After the Savior’s death certain miracles held among the Jews in their Temple rites ceased, yet they were not reflective nor deterred from their course of keeping up appearances. Those on top will blame the people for failure to receive further light and knowledge, but is that only where the fault lies? Nineveh repented en masse, starting with the king, and God spared them. 38. “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Mt. 18:6) Why does not that saying from the mouth of the Savior resonate and find the same abhorrence? If there is a “higher law” that trumps preservation of an innocent child from violation or a woman from abuse, what is it? Let them who know this law, declare it to us. Could it be preserving their credibility? Blog 8 “Jesus wept.” (Jn. 11:35) 39. When men forsake love in the form of valuing another as they should value themselves, they have forsaken God. The admonition of the Savior in John to love one another is just words in a book or in an oration unless it is lived. “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love to another.” (Jn. 13:34, 35) 40. Which is more important – to retain one’s sin through denial (minimizing and concealing) for the sake of temporal reward, or to cast aside one’s sin through thorough repentance for the sake of eternal reward? Should we attempt to conjure God like the pagans used to, with fulsome praise and pious recitations and rigorous rituals, keeping Him far from our hearts that embrace wickedness? Do we trust God as loving? Do we really know God? Do we really want to be called by His name? 41. The reckoning of justice will come sooner or later, anyway. Our business is to grow our character and rely on God to deal with us more than fairly, with good intent. As long as we deny the sin and delay the reckoning, we defeat our spiritual growth. We can even go backward. See 2Ne 28:30. 42. Caught in the sins of adultery and murder, David, the founding king of Israel, promptly acknowledged the faults and relies on God eventually for a just and bearable reward. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. David was beloved of God, and yet his promise of an eternal kingdom has been denied. God has standards; no one is God’s special pet when it comes to soul-maiming crimes. The path of repentance is the same for all. It is found in the law. 43. Child-defiling, woman-debasing, and thievery under cover of piety would defeat the Savior’s plan of salvation. Whose side are we on, anyway? Denying Justice, who would have her not only blind, but deaf and dumb as well? More to the point, but harsh to delicate Mormon sensibilities, those who would co-opt Justice to serve their own ends would make Justice their whore. Their Justice would sit in scarlet robes drunk with the blood of the martyred saints (women, children, and those who speak in their behalf). The intent is the same: to deny justice and silence the aggrieved, it’s only a question of degree. 44. We are seen and measured by God according to the intent of our hearts. (See D&C 132.) A habit of successfully hiding our motivations and our unworthy deeds from other people should not lull us into thinking God will be diverted from righteous judgment by smokescreen words we offer up, even with apparent-to-us sincerity. Compounding sin through denial and delay is like compound interest; it inevitably alters the path of our spiritual growth. 45. Understand it from God’s point-of-view. Would you want to place your beloved spirits that you endow with physical bodies, any one of whom you would risk your Godhood for, under the parental authority of someone who is unjust, who cannot abide a Celestial environment (or worse), as the Doctrine and Covenant states? There, we shall know as we shall be known. Shall we as a people live under this condemnation, this separation from truth and justice and holiness and do so without a murmur? 46. “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. 47. As the apostle (Paul) says, ". . . and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." (1 Cor. 13:3) (Charity is a freely-flowing love, after that of God. It takes many more forms than alms-giving.) 48. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”(Mt. 5:8) Is not the seat of God the Celestial kingdom? Where does that leave those who are not pure in heart? Are Mormons who have received higher ordinances exempted? What does it mean to be pure in heart? How does one go about being pure in heart? The purpose of these searching questions is to prompt those who would otherwise not listen, to consider their own ways. 49. Salvation, Brigham taught, is an individual matter. (Re: J.D. 1:312) Part of the Savior’s plan of salvation is salvation as a community of believers assisting each other. Truth understood and correctly interpreted stands on its own merits. Truth implemented benefits all. Standing approved by God with the reward of Salvation is more important to each of us than gaining advantage in this temporal existence. 50. Now this is everlasting life: that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3) How can one know God who has embraced grave sin and persisted in it without repentance, both inwardly and outwardly? (“If I did . . .”) What is the standing before God of those who have refused to hear the call to repentance and who are now deaf to it? We are tied to them because we so swear. 51. “For men shall be lovers of their own selves . . .” (2 Tim. 3:2) “Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: . . .” (2 Tim. 3:5) [See blog relating to the succession.] 52. See if this resonates - from the Catholic manual of faith by Bishop Morrow “Through mortal sin, the sinner becomes a stranger to divine love, and to the love of neighbor; his heart turns cold because he has put out the flame of love through grave sin. His reason, a gift of God, is obscured, and he fails to perceive the things of God. Thus, a sinner the more he sins, becomes insensitive to evil; his will [to do good] is so far weakened that all conscience is lost, and he falls into greater and greater sins more and more easily.” My Catholic Faith Morrow, Louis Lavoire My Mission House 1966 p. 432 “Mortal Sin” Upon this one [doctrine] the Catholic Church will not compromise: All men [i.e. Protestants] must accept the authority of the Pope, and not the authority of scripture. Cardinal D’Allen Ibid. flyleaf 52a. This constitutes the essential identity of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church also claims for its foundation the interpretation of the following scripture as doctrine: “Thou art Peter (petros – little rock) and upon this rock (petra - rock)I will found my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Mt. 16:18) The interpretation should be obvious to us who know the difference between founding a church on a man and a succession of men, and establishing it on principles of holiness. 52b. Truly faithful men will humbly and reverently seek God’s will and way above their own and not hide their ignorance and willful waywardness behind a curtain of infallibility and authority of their own proclamation. The Catholic Church reached its nadir with such statements as, “The Papacy is ours, let us enjoy it.” - Sixtus IV Secular history further records that Alexander VI had a fondness for little boys. Quo Sumus? Where do we stand as a people? Although others are deceived, we ought to know better. 53. I believe it is necessary to teach children not only correct principle, but give them a living example and teaching appropriate to their situation in life. To act in such a way as to betray a child’s faith is in direct contravention of the covenant under which we have children in the first place. 54. The purpose of this blog is to follow the aphorism that it is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness – (or live in it). 55. It’s a real twisted notion that by knowing passwords one can pass through barriers. Is that enough? Is the true nature of it to put knowledge above purity of heart and intent and practice? Is having a Christ-like attitude in all things irrelevant once you have secret keys? Are there are those among us who are privy to such things who believe that is so? Do they accept that notion as their understanding of who God is and what God wants? The sort of God that has a secret back door to license sin for the initiated is a monster; this is straight from the religion called Luciferianism. 56. When it’s time to meet these tests with an empowered conscience, will such men even be able to approach the angels? I believe that, as with the Cretan labyrinth, this concept of an ordinance outweighing the self-denying spirit of true godhood is a dead-end, and a trap for those whose actual commitment is not to the Savior, but to themselves. The way to overcome is to have spent a lifetime cultivating love of God and His children, and then approach the place of testing with gratitude and hope. One does not override the other. At the place of testing, the impregnable barrier won’t be an angel with a flaming sword; it will be one’s own resurrected and empowered conscience. 57. I hold that to believe such things as being above the revealed law of God, and practice wickedness accordingly is to have made “a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.” (See Is. 28:15) Jesus’ response is equally plain: “Depart from me . . . you never knew me.” (From Mt. 7:23) 58. Are we to be Mormons after the understanding of men, fallen men, at that, or are we to be Mormons after the example of Christ? How far have we fallen over the years of our stewardship? 59. This spiritual war within the Work is presenting each person with a manifest and defined choice that they have never had before. In what system will they invest their faith, man-centered or God-centered? The work they have done to build a testimony will either give them a foundation of doctrine and personal integrity and trust in God to stand on, or their preparation will fall short. 60a. True to form, God will work behind the scenes with each person, arranging events as they are prepared to recognize them. God has positioned the signs in the heavens for all people; can He not do so individually by the still small voice for the elect to enable them to make wise decisions? 61. Is it worse to make the wrong choice after due diligence, or is it worse to make one’s choice having refused to examine the issues here addressed with prayer and fasting? We are told the path to salvation requires us to be each other’s servants, but God’s first. Here is a summary of our peril, if we do nothing to establish worthiness in our offices, God’s justice for the aggrieved among us, and the energy and courage to reorder the spiritual priorities by which we live and demand it of those who sit at our head: 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 ! (2Ne 28:26) Who are the gentiles? We are the gentiles, if we think and act as they do.
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