Repent - We're no better than the Lamanites in the Book of Mormon

My brother wrote a book called The Life and Times of John Steele: Mormon Kingdom Builder. It got published quite recently (he has written many articles and books in his life). His passion for genealogy (begun when he was about 10 years old) expanded into studying the history of his ancestors (when you trace your genealogy back to Kronos -which I think he did tongue in cheek- you've got to branch out). Now, my brother doesn't whitewash anything. He thinks the weaknesses make for a more interesting person. He's also agnostic, so he isn't going to be trying to get across the idea that the LDS Church is God's only and true kingdom. 

One thing I learned is that John Steele and Catherine (Campbell) left for America after Joseph Smith Jr. died. I had always thought they got there a few months before. So, John never heard Joseph preach against having more than one wife, neither did he experience Joseph excommunicating as many polygamists as he discovered (my brother didn't mention that about Joseph; I'm sure he believes Joseph had extra wives). I'm not going to go into more that the book talks about (but it does talk about the Mountain Meadows massacre, using info the LDS Church finally released, so it was more comprehensive than I've previously read) because I have a different point to make.

 I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book, and it struck me yesterday and last night that we are the Lamanites in the Book of Mormon. No, not by blood (most of us), but those of us descended from the Mormon pioneers who followed Brigham Young out west, laboring under an oppressive regime (though some refused to obey, and it was apparently common for people to leave when they'd had enough). This book was a second witness to me (the first being Passing the Heavenly Gift by Denver C Snuffer) about the wickedness of our ancestors. They were vile!

And I felt a strong desire to repent, repent from the false beliefs, from the follies of my ancestors, from their murders and hypocrisies. Whether directly or indirectly, they killed the prophets of their time (Hyrum and Joseph), and wasted no time going against nearly everything Joseph, Hyrum, and the Book of Mormon preached we should do and be. And I realized that I was in a situation akin to the wicked Lamanites when Ammon, his brothers, and their friends opened up the true history, refuting the whitewashed history the Lamanites had been taught. And, like the Lamanites, I wanted to cease the tradition. I wanted to discard my generational sins, I wanted to come to Christ and have all of that -from the beginning, whenever that was- washed away, washed clean.

We (all sects who believe the Book of Mormon is our book) are the wicked Lamanites, but we are also the wicked Nephites because we (having the Book of Mormon amongst us since its inception) really have no excuse for our vile behavior: violence, doing in our enemies (or those we judge as unrighteous, or just plain don't like) thievery, abuse, sexual predatory behavior, hatred, pride, arrogance, neglect of the poor and needy, and a host of other sins (the Book or Mormon lists several).

In the Book of Mormon, I've been reading Samuel the Lamanite's sermon and prophecies. His prophecies to the Nephites about how they will literally be destroyed (dead) if they don't repent really hit hard for our present society. And Samuel told them to repent maybe a dozen times (I didn't count how many times the word was mentioned in his sermon). Would to God that I could shout to the skies and be heard before we suffer the likes of which we have only read about - and some of us may not have ever read about it.

It's our common enemy who seeks for us to be full of pride and anger, full of fear and self=justification, full of lust and love of worldly things. This color against that color. Men against women. Women against men. This political party against that political party. This country against that country. Trans against everyone who figures God knew what he was doing. Those who believe in vaccines against those who don't. This against that. Some other thing against it's opposing paradigm. 

I fear we haven't much time left. Please, let us open our hearts to God and realize the precariousness of our situation. Let us love God above all else, including our sins that we think are no sins. Let us be open to drop all of our lies! All of our pride! All of our angers and fears! Our peace, safety, and happiness depend upon it - both temporal and spiritual. You and I will be most upset and regretful and living in horror if we don't repent. The scriptures promise it.

 

 

Who is Keeping You Out of Zion?

 I was reading the 1840 edition of the Book of Mormon this morning, near the end of 1 Nephi where he is explaining some Isaiah verses. (All scripture quotes are from the last chapter of 1 Nephi. No other references are given, because we don't all necessarily use the same version of this book.)

He wrote: "All that fight against Zion shall be destroyed."

That should give us pause.

If we are angry at each other - if we, in the stubbornness of our pride, are accusing others of being the reason we are not in Zion - if we are contentious and angry and will accuse, interrupt, and cut off those who are trying to explain their points of view  - if we are doing all this and more, WE are the ones fighting against Zion. WE are among those who will be destroyed.

Let that sink into your mind and heart.

 

1.  God . . . will not suffer that the wicked shall destroy the righteous.
2. He will preserve the righteous by his power, even if it so be that the fulness of his wrath must come.
3. The righteous be preserved, even unto the destruction of their enemies by fire.
4. All they who fight against Zion shall be cut off.
5. For the time speedily shall come that . . . all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil are they who need fear, and tremble, and quake; 

 Versus the following:

Because of the righteousness of his people, Satan has no power . . . he hath no power over [their] hearts for they dwell in righteousness and the Holy One of Israel reigneth.

We should not be accusing others of doing that which we, ourselves, are doing. (When I first heard that people were essentially saying, "You are the reason we don't have Zion," my mind was blown. NO ONE is preventing YOU from having a Zion in your own mind and heart. How do you know that God has not already begun to establish a physical Zion, but you don't know about it because he won't tell you on account of you serving the devil instead of him?) 

 Have we learned nothing from the experiences of the LDS pioneers who were driven from their homes and suffered all manner of attack on their persons and homes, including the deaths of too many of them and the violation of women? Do we not comprehend how serious this path is that we have embarked on? Are we so oblivious to the power demons have over the hearts of people today that we think we won't be punished in a similar horrendous fashion if we continue in the pride of and contention in our hearts?

 Are you aware that the reason God sent Denver was not just to try to establish a people worthy of Zion, but to also warn us of our destruction if we refused to repent? Folks, this is not a game. We need to take this task of creating Zion seriously - and I suggest we begin by looking into our own hearts and, with God's help, ousting pride, fear, sacred cows, the need to always be right.

Whose side are we really on? God's side - or the Devil's? 

 

 

 

Zion

 I don't believe Zion will be an intentional community. I don't believe a group of people (led by a "moses" or not) will buy or overtake a plot of land and build Zion. I believe it will happen naturally. I believe that people will become zionlike in their own minds and hearts, then in their families. I believe it will spread to friends. I believe God will physically move like-minded people together in small groups, and that none of them will be thinking, "We are creating Zion."

I believe Nephi when he said he saw many small groups of people all over the planet, "armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory." (1 Nephi, chapter III, page 24 in the 1840 reprint of the Book of Mormon I have). I believe they may not even realize they are armed with righteousness, nor that they are armed with the power of God. I believe they may just think they are ordinary people. I believe these groups are "zion" even though they are not the official Zion built in the western hemisphere (likely "in the tops of the mountains" as recorded by Isaiah), with the temple that the Covenant Christians are waiting for the command to build. (See Denver Snuffer's most recent conference talk if you haven't heard of Covenant Christians.)

I believe God is working among all peoples, among all nations, quietly and diligently. I believe there may already be such groups of people as Nephi saw. I believe there will be more. And I think it possible that most of these groups will be unknown to most of the world (except to local people).

I think it's wrong and prideful to attempt to buy a piece of land for the express purpose of creating a Zion. All attempts I know, from two or three hundred years ago until today, have failed.

May we be humble and teachable before God, willing to do God's will even if it is as simple as learning not to be critical of others, and allowing people the freedom to be who they genuinely are, with out complaining that they are "trammeling on my rights" while being blissfully unaware that the truth is that we are trammeling on their rights.

May God bless all of us on this planet to be humble enough and teachable enough that not one of us is a danger to another person on the planet. 

Trammel - to deprive of freedom of action

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.

Thoughts

 You cannot learn to forgive if you have never been wronged.

Original Testimony of Ian McCormack - Jesus is Real, Heaven and Hell are Real

A friend brought Ian McCormack to my attention around 9 years ago. I looked him up again today, to rehear his experience.

It's one of those "I died" experiences, but not one of those "I saw awesome end-of-the-world things, and now I'm a great prophet because of it," things. I don't know if that has changed. I don't know what he's doing now, but up until about 6 years ago, he was still a humble man, as far as I could tell.

I'm sharing his first (1988) testimony, but before you scroll down to it, I think it's important to read what Ian McCormack said in regards to this first video (the same words are in the description on YouTube under the video). What he said is below, and the video is below that. Enjoy.

Notes on this 1988 video from Ian :

I have spoken my testimony thousands of times and sadly I make mistakes .... but that does not, I believe, take away from the story ... other than the fact that we all can do it ... either accidently or on purpose ... or if you don't want to share all the details you can cut some things out in an attempt to condense the story because of time restraints / energy levels ....

When I first publically shared my testimony in 1988 in New Zealand the people at the meeting wanted to record it ... but I didn't want any one to do it because I felt it was something you shared personally rather than through media { I have since changed my mind on that } ... But one of the people at the meeting had a family member who was dying in a hospital and so they wanted them to hear it as they couldn't come to the meeting in this farmers house.

I found it abit unnerving with a mike & video camera in front of me and because the experience took place in 1982 and so it was now 6 - 7 years later I was reliving it while I spoke. It was very emotional for me ... and realize later that I had made a couple of mistakes while sharing it .... and I knew that when I loaded it up on the web for free along with all the other videos I have put up over the years .

So on the 1988 video I did say that I woke up and they were about to wheel me off to the morgue ... I remember how nervous I was that day and was wondering if anyone would believe me, if I said I had been dead and woke up in the morgue ... so I do remember distinctly trying to tone it down ....

But in reality I had woken up & I was already in the morgue ... They had moved my dead body from the Accident & Emergency when I died to the mortuary section of the hospital ... and it was a completely different doctor that was working on me. He was pricking the base of my foot with a scalpel. And when the nurses saw me wake up & come back to life, they ran in fear .... not exactly something they would do if I had only been in a coma ....

Teach Your Children to Honor God

These are just some random thoughts I'm having. I don't claim to know what I'm talking about.

Teach your children to honor God. How do you do that if, like me, your kids are grown? What does "honor God" mean anyway?

I thought about that, and came up with nothing about a week ago. But, today, something did come to mind. We honor God by loving and forgiving each other. We teach our children to honor God by loving and forgiving them, as well as loving and forgiving all who cross our path.

For example, this latest fiasco in the restorationist movement. A blog post written in haste, accusing Denver, casting aspersions on the new scriptures, raising an alarm about a man no one knows - only to find out that the person writing the blog had her facts wrong. What was wrong with her heart? Nothing? Something? That is only for God to judge. My point in bringing her up is that I, also, have reacted in alarm and anger in my life, saying and doing foolish things that I later regretted, things that did not show charity toward my fellow humans.

Matt Crockett wrote a blog post some time ago, in which he essentially commanded Denver, using God's authority (in vain/erroneously, in my opinion) to be our king. This was because Matt did not know that many of us did not need Denver to be a king, and would resent having one, because we were working with God, even if we listened to and believed every word coming out of Denver's mouth (believing every word is probably not wise, as he is a man and prone to error; I simply used that as an example). I reacted to the post uncharitably. I even emailed Denver, complaining about the post. I was so focused on that part of the post that I did not notice the good things in it.

Here is some insight I have gotten recently (quoted from messages I wrote on Skype to a couple of friends):

I think we each saw different parts. Kind of like the blind men and the elephant. I saw that part and was "offended" that he would command Denver to be my king when I was relishing my freedom from kings, thank you very much! I think I feared that if he was listened to I would be brought back into bondage. I've been in bondage to [exhusband], to the LDS Church, to the school system, to the judicial system, and to the medical system (albeit only when I was young, as far as the medical system goes), and there's no way in hell, on earth, or in heaven I wanted someone to push bondage on me again.

You, having no such issues, saw more expansively. You saw several good things in there that I saw later (after you pointed them out, most likely), but my fear of Matt having the power to force me into bondage to Denver ticked me off, and made me protest.

One of my friends replied:

Yet the bondage would have been of your own choice.

I replied:

But I couldn't see that. In fact, the insight I'm sharing here in regards to my own feelings was something I couldn't clearly see then. But now, today, I can clearly see that it was all my own issues. The problem was me, and whether or not Matt was out of line really made no difference - because, as you say, I still had a choice though I feared that choice would be taken away from me.

My point in sharing all this: We honor God by owning our weaknesses, and ceasing to be offended by others. We honor God, and teach our children to do so, by our willingness to own our offenses and not project them onto others, who are only acting as humans will act. We honor God by our willingness to forgive and to love.