The Hero's Journey

Lately, the thought has kept coming to me over and over that I'm on "the hero's journey" - that we all are. The hero's journey is the common theme of fairy tales where someone one would not expect to succeed (usually the youngest brother, or one who is considered a fool by others, or both) goes out to see if they can accomplish some dangerous task. They have to fight a dragon, an ogre, a giant, or some other type of monster. They get help along the way, but only if they were kind to someone who, it turns out, has some kind of power they can give or lend. (There are variations on this where the person is clever, like "Seven in One Blow" but usually that isn't the case.)

It seems to me that we, each one of us with no exceptions, came to this earth to do this. Only the monsters we are here to fight against are devils and their ilk. Far too many of us fail and are wounded or killed, either spiritually, emotionally, or physically (and perhaps in many other ways), but we weren't sent here to fail.

I think we can learn a lot from the common themes in these stories. 

There are the tricks: 

The people who are not what they seem. They may appear to be friendly, but they are deadly. They may appear to be gruff, but they are allies.

The doors we have to choose between, sight unseen. Perhaps there is some clever way to know (like 2 people guarding a door. One always lies and one always tells the truth - but not easy to figure out if you haven't already read the stories).

The meal or party or gift that seems to be benign, but is actually dangerous (can kill you or put you to sleep or disorient you or give you amnesia). 

Traps galore.

I was reading the Book of Mormon yesterday - 2 Nephi, chapter 12 RE (2 Nephi, chapter 28 LDS), and I reread it again today, because it occurred to me that it was telling people how to avoid the traps and pitfalls that will destroy us. The warnings in scriptures aren't to curtail our "fun" or to make us feel guilty or unworthy. Instead, they are a guide on how to successfully complete our own hero's journey. Chapter 11 RE is also full of jewels and valuable teachings.

 

2 Nephi 12:1-6 RE   -   2 Nephi 28:1-31 LDS 

Copied and pasted from https://scriptures.info/scriptures/bofm/2nephi/12 

I have bolded parts in the first three paragraph to give you an idea of the message I'm getting from this book. 

¶ 1 And now behold, my brethren, I have spoken unto you according as the spirit hath constrained me; wherefore, I know that they must surely come to pass. And the things which shall be written out of the book shall be of great worth unto the children of men, and especially unto our seed, which is a remnant of the house of Israel. For it shall come to pass in that day that the churches which are built up, and not unto the Lord, when the one shall say unto the other, Behold, I, I am the Lord’s — and the other shall say, I, I am the Lord’s — and thus shall everyone say that hath built up churches and not unto the Lord. And they shall contend one with another, and their priests shall contend one with another, and they shall teach with their learning, and deny the holy ghost which giveth utterance. And they deny the power of God, the Holy One of Israel. And they say unto the people, Hearken unto us and hear ye our precept, for behold, there is no God today, for the Lord and the Redeemer hath done his work, and he hath given his power unto men. Behold, hearken ye unto my precept. If they shall say there is a miracle wrought by the hand of the Lord, believe it not; for this day he is not a God of miracles; he hath done his work. Yea, and there shall be many which shall say, Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die and it shall be well with us. And there shall also be many which shall say, Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God, he will justify in committing a little sin. Yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor, there is no harm in this. And do all these things, for tomorrow we die. And if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner false, and vain, and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord. And their works shall be in the dark, and the blood of the saints shall cry from the ground against them.

¶ 2 Yea, they have all gone out of the way, they have become corrupted; because of pride, and because of false teachers, and false doctrine, their churches have become corrupted, and their churches are lifted up; because of pride, they are puffed up. They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing, and they persecute the meek and the poor in heart because in their pride they are puffed up. They wear stiff necks and high heads, yea, and because of pride, and wickedness, and abominations, and whoredoms, they have all gone astray, save it be a few who are the humble followers of Christ. Nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men.

¶ 3 O the wise, and the learned, and the rich, that are puffed up in the pride of their hearts, and all those who preach false doctrines, and all those who commit whoredoms and pervert the right way of the Lord, Woe, woe, woe be unto them, saith the Lord God Almighty, for they shall be thrust down to hell.

¶ 4 Woe unto them that turn aside the just for a thing of naught, and revile against that which is good and say that it is of no worth, for the day shall come that the Lord God will speedily visit the inhabitants of the earth. And in that day that they are fully ripe in iniquity, they shall perish. But behold, if the inhabitants of the earth shall repent of their wickedness and abominations, they shall not be destroyed, saith the Lord of Hosts. But behold, that great and abominable church, the whore of all the earth, must tumble to the earth, and great must be the fall thereof. For the kingdom of the Devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the Devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains and they be stirred up to anger and perish. 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. 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 away carefully down to hell. And behold, others he flattereth away and telleth them there is no hell. And he saith unto them, I am no devil, for there is none. And thus he whispereth in their ears until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance. Yea, they are grasped with death and hell; and death, and hell, and the Devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God and be judged according to their works, from whence they must go into the place prepared for them, even a lake of fire and brimstone, which is Endless torment. Therefore, woe be unto him that is at ease in Zion.

¶ 5 Woe be unto him that crieth, All is well. Yea, woe be unto him that hearkeneth unto the precepts of men, and denieth the power of God and the gift of the holy ghost. Yea, woe be unto him that saith, We have received and we need no more. And in fine, woe unto all those who tremble and are angry because of the truth of God. For behold, he that is built upon the rock receiveth it with gladness, and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth, lest he shall fall.

¶ 6 Woe be unto him that shall say, We have received the word of God, and we need no more of the word of God, for we have enough. For behold, thus saith the Lord God, I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. And blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom. For unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough — shall be taken away even that which they have. Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, or maketh flesh his arm, or shall hearken unto the precepts of men, save their precepts shall be given by the power of the holy ghost.

Pride is deadly - to oneself and to those around the proud person.

People who think God doesn't know what they are doing are sorely mistaken.

Honoring God with your lips means nothing if your heart isn't humble and close to him. You may fool those around you with your much preaching of, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" but God is never fooled.

God is a God of miracles.

God works among people according to their faith.

We need to stop pulling our sins behind is as if pulling a cart with a rope attached. We have to let go of our sins. This means not only being willing to stop being mean, vain, prideful, and so forth but also trusting that the Lord really can remove all of our mistakes and sins even if we see the pain we have caused (inadvertently or on purpose). 

Let go of regret. Let go of guilt. Let go of pain. But let go of it because of your faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel, the Only Begotten Son of God - and not because you think you are God or that you can let go of this stuff while either ignoring Jesus or thinking he was only a teacher, because if you don't put Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Atoner, the one who everlastingly Saves, your efforts will mean very little in the long run. Without him in the equation, you have lost the quest you embarked on when you were born.

Finally, we are often blind to our real sins while feeling horrible about things that we've asked Jesus to remove (and that he has removed, on his side). Not always. Obviously, we have a conscience for a reason, but it is really important - Vitally important - for us to see ourselves aright. To see where we, ourselves, are full of pride, contending, putting others down, aching for a fight, picking up our figurative swords to defend something that we should have let go of, smearing an innocent person's reputation, causing pain that is actually unjustified, and more.

Only God can help us look into our own hearts and minds and see the truth of what we are guilty of and what we should have let go of long ago. I pray that every person who happens across this post has the courage to do that, and the courage to trust Jesus Christ, the Son of God with your whole heart, might, mind, and soul. Remember, God loves you. No matter how much you don't believe that. No matter the wounds you have received in life, even the horrendous unspeakable ones, God loves you. (No, I don't have answers as to why we can go through such hell as some of us have gone through, but I do know that God is there, willing to pull you from hell and from the grasp of devils, be they spirits or be they mortals in your own life.) 

 

Gethsemane - Forgiveness - Repentance

This morning, I read the Gethsemane chapter in Come, Let Us Adore Him in preparation for my personal celebration of Easter (the Resurrection) tomorrow. I don't know how anyone can read it and not be sobbing by the fourth page in.

For this post, I just wanted to share a few quotes from this chapter, which is an apostolic eyewitness of Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection as seen by Denver Snuffer. All emphases are mine.

To enter into the kingdom of heaven, all [people] must lay down their sins. But this they cannot do when they claim the right to restitution for any offense from their brother [meaning all other humans]. All claims must be set aside, the greater and more difficult being the righteous claim against another for their deliberate offense. Yet in asking for justice for yourself, you always require justice be answered in turn for all of your offenses. A [person] will not be given mercy if he is not merciful. (pp 228-9)

Denver talks about paired waves of torment our Lord suffered, the first being the suffering for those who harmed others (the perpetrators) and the second being the suffering for those who have been harmed by others (the victims), then he writes the following:

The greater difficulty in these paired waves of torment was always overcoming the suffering of the victim. With these waves, the Lord learned to overcome the victims' resentments, to forgive, and to heal both body and spirit. This was more difficult than overcoming the struggles arising from the one who committed the evil . . . The victim . . . always feels it is their right to hold resentment, to judge their persecutor and to withhold peace and love for their fellowmen. (pp 220-1)

In the final wave, the most brutal, most evil, most heinous sins men inflict upon one another were felt by Him as a victim of the worst men can do. He knew how it felt to wrongly suffer death. He knew what it was like to be a mother holding a child in her arms as they are both killed by those who delight in their suffering. He knew how it was for ambitious men to rid themselves of a rival by conspiracy and murder. He knew what it was to have virtue robbed from the innocent [this would include the rape of toddlers and children]. He knew betrayal, treachery, and abuse in all its worst degrading horror. There was no cruelty, no offense, no evil that mankind has suffered or will suffer that was not put upon Him.

He knew what is it like for men to satisfy their ambition by clothing their hypocrisy in religious garb. He also felt what it was like to be the victim of religious oppression by those who pretend to practice virtue while oppressing others. He knew the hearts of those who would kill Him. Before confronting their condemnation of Him in the flesh, He suffered their torment of mind when they recognized He was the Lord, and then found peace for what they would do by rejecting Him. In this extremity there was madness itself as He mirrored the evil which would destroy Him, and learned how to come to peace with the Father after killing the Son of God, and to love all those involved without restraint and without pretense, even before they did these terrible deeds. . . .

As a result of what the Lord suffered, there is no condition - physical, spiritual or mental that he does not fully understand. He knows how to teach, comfort, succor and direct any who come to Him seeking forgiveness and peace. (pp 222-3)

I share the above in the hopes that it gives comfort to some, and that it helps someone who is struggling to forgive a person or people who have caused them harm, no matter how terrible that harm.

P.S. You can forgive without putting yourself in danger, and without ever having to contact or talk to a person who is dangerous to you.

Independent Fellowships

 Before the Lord’s appearance to the Nephites, society broke down into tribes consisting of family and friends. Immediately before the Lord’s return we should expect something similar. Therefore, part of the preparation by God’s house for coming social chaos is likely to include some preliminary preparations by families and friends to fellowship with one another in local gatherings, perhaps completely apart from control by the LDS hierarchy. Only by independently functioning can they hope to prepare for social chaos prophesied to accompany Zion and precede the Lord’s return.

page 314 40 Years in Mormonism PDF

If I were to “lead” and standardize things it would be a return to correlation. Why return to what has damaged Mormonism? It is the system that has done the damage. You cannot improve that flaw by choosing to make me your new correlator. I will not do it. It will darken your minds and would corrupt me. I am no better than you, and I believe some of you to be better than I. We need hundreds of independently functioning believers adapting the Gospel to their needs. Doctrine does not change, and the scriptures are constant. Your needs will vary. Therefore you apply what is changeless to your peculiar circumstances. You can do it better than any distant authority could possibly do it for you.

When you submit to the rule of God, you then place yourself in a position where you must be dependent upon Him. Then every one of you will immediately realize your own weakness. You will be tempted to have others tell you how to please God. You must resist that temptation. You must arise and seek Him directly. Every one of you has to grapple with the uncertainty of, “is this right or is this wrong?” Every one of you has to grapple with the fact, that in answer to some questions, there is silence. You all must be forced to choose. If you choose right, you do not know you chose what was right, because He refused to answer you. Then you act in reliance on your own decision, going forward to do what is right, only later to be told, "If you had have made the mistake, I would have corrected you. But you needed that experience.” God answers prayers. Sometimes He forces you to make choices, and very often, I can't tell you how often, but very often I make the wrong choice. It is almost like I got a compass pointing south. I often choose wrong and then I get an answer correcting me. But I got an answer because I made a mistake.

page 339-40 40 Years in Mormonism PDF

 Those who are familiar with the ten lectures in this PDF will recognize that those are words Denver Snuffer said at the beginning of what we have now. (The bold in all quotes in this post are mine.)

More and more, this movement has been heading toward one religious entity that has rules all fellowships must obey. Conferences are called, votes are taken, and all fellowships are expected to abide by the majority vote, even though we were supposed to be separate so that if one was corrupted the whole would not be corrupted.

Most recently, one fellowship (or is it just a couple of women from different fellowships? I honestly don't know) are meddling with a decision made by another (with great drama posted online so the world can see how evil and contentious some of us are) - and a vote is being called (with a lot of contention from what I hear, a lot of shutting down of opposing voices during zoom calls by one particular woman, according to a ChatGPT synopsis (I have not been involved in the arguing going on, and I trust that ChatGPT reported accurately)) that all fellowships will be expected to abide by.

 I see us heading more and more into a big group with rules all must obey. It reminds me of this quote from Denver Snuffer's blog (yes, he's talking about power, but I think it applies anyway):

If you never consolidate power into a single place but every person must stand on their own—and every person has their own volume of Scriptures, and everyone has the ability to get access to the heavens through prayer—then it doesn’t matter who you corrupt, you cannot corrupt the whole.

 https://denversnuffer.com/2024/12/corruption/

When the Covenant of Christ book came out, we were told that we had permission to keep using the Book of Mormon if we wanted to. What nonsense is this? Are we children, hidden away in dark depths from God that we cannot choose what we consider scripture?

What is all this nonsense that we have created for ourselves? Truly, as it now stands, if "one" is corrupted, the whole will also be corrupted because "the one" creates great drama and does their best to force their views on the whole. And, of course, there is Denver's role in receiving revelation for the movement, when we were supposed to come to Christ ourselves and have a personal relationship with Him so that "none need say, Know ye the Lord, for they will all know him."

Do I blame Denver for any of this? Do I blame Denver for being the go-between between us and God? I do not. He does his best to stay out of the fray, but God answers people according to their idols. He answers them according to what they insist on having.

 Let's say that I'm in a fellowship that chose to use the 1840 Book of Mormon as their Nephite scripture, never took the 2017 Boise covenant because they had a previous covenant with God, peacefully never accepted the Guide and Standard (because it was a strong man model pushed through, quoting only Joseph Smith and Denver Snuffer, or maybe for other reasons), and generally mind their own business, ignoring the drama and trauma that gets shouted from the rooftops.

Let's say I'm in one like that (I'm not). I think that fellowship is doing what fellowships were originally intended to do (be independent from rules imposed by people in other fellowships, and never having Denver as a go-between between them and God. In fact, never elevating Denver nor Stephanie to any special importance other than that Denver gave us a call to repentance that we sorely needed in the 10-lecture circuit. Respecting him as a teacher, but believing he was being honest when he said, "To the extent that anyone is trying to displace your faith in God, and attract attention to themselves, myself included, that is a perversion and it will not save you. It is a distraction, it is evil, and it is wrong. It is damnable. Anyone who tries to attract your worship, myself included, ought to be sent to hell. It's why I continually remind you, talking about me is a waste of time. Talking about the things that I'm saying, talking about the content of the scriptures, talking about the doctrines that will save you, that is very important. But you can leave me out of that. You don't ever need to mention my name again in your life." (40 Years in Mormonism PDF, page 34)

 If I'm in a fellowship and we remove a man's certificate, he is perfectly free to move to a different fellowship and seek a brand new one. Now, if his wife is unwilling to endorse him, he can't do that according to the instructions given in Lecture 10. But the bottom line in all of this is that he is not going to be able to perform ordinances in our fellowship. What we do is not the business of another fellowship.

That's all.