Collectivist Propaganda
The gospel and its preaching can prosper only in an atmosphere of freedom. And now in this critical period, when many pulpits are being turned into pipelines of collectivist propaganda – preaching the social gospel and denying basic principles of salvation – is the time for action Ezra Taft Benson Our Immediate Responsibility BYU Devotional, October 25, 1966. This was a warning over 55 years ago, when I was only 10 years old. That is hard to wrap my head around. Our dear Prophets of old have been warning and warning us about as Pres Benson says, “collectivist propaganda.’ What is the social gospel Pres Benson speaks of? Is it happening today?
How do you answer the voice of critics? Are you conservative, independent, or liberal? Are you a traditionalist or a progressive? Do you love the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or do you constantly seek to change it’s history? Is your testimony of the Lord growing or remaining neutral? Are you green and growing or ripe and rotten? Do you need to get a check up from the neck up to get rid of stinkin’ thinkin’? Remember, if you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got! I know if you read and pray to the Lord for help, He will answer you. don’t get caught up in all this negative revisionist history. Stick to the Lord’s word in scripture and prayer!
The USA, is the only Land where His Work could be Commenced
“In culmination of the grand scheme of schemes, this great nation, the Republic of the United States, might be established upon this land as an asylum for the oppressed; a resting place, it might be said, for the Ark of the covenant, where the temple of our God might be built; where the plan of salvation might be introduced and practiced in freedom, and not a dog would wag his tongue in opposition to the purposes of the Almighty. We believe that this was His object in creating the Republic of the United States; the only land where his work could be commenced or the feet of his people find rest. No other land had such liberal institutions, had adopted so broad a platform upon which all men might stand. We give glory to those patriots for the noble work they did; but we give the first glory to God, our Father and their Father, who inspired them. We take them by the hand as brothers. We believe they did nobly their work, even as we would fain do ours, faithfully and well, that we might not be recreant in the eyes of God, for failing to perform the mission to which He has appointed us.” Bishop Orson F. Whitney, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, April 19, 1885. Reported by John Irvine. Journal Discourses Volume 26 Page 201
False Doctrine is Permitted
“I do not know all of the providences of the Lord, but I do know that he permits false doctrine to be taught in and out of the Church and that such teaching is part of the sifting process of mortality.” Bruce R. McConkie, McConkie’s 1981 letter to BYU
“With a trained mind and a skillful manner of presentation, a teacher can become unusually popular and effective in teaching. But Satan will try to use that strength to corrupt the teacher by encouraging him or her to gather a following of disciples. A Church or Church education teacher or LDS university professor who gathers such a following and does this “for the sake of riches and honor” (Alma 1:16) is guilty of priestcraft.” Dallin H. Oaks
He is doing exactly what then-Elder Dallin H. Oaks warned the students at BYU about in 1992:
“A desire to follow a prophet is surely a great and appropriate strength, but even this has its potentially dangerous manifestations. I have heard of more than one group who are so intent on following the words of a dead prophet that they have rejected the teachings and counsel of the living ones. Satan has used that corruption from the beginning of the Restoration…
Following the prophet is a great strength, but it needs to be consistent and current lest it lead to the spiritual downfall that comes from rejecting continuous revelation. Under that principle, the most important difference between dead prophets and living ones is that those who are dead are not here to receive and declare the Lord’s latest words to his people. If they were, there would be no differences among the messages of the prophets.” Our Strengths Can Become Our Downfall DALLIN H. OAKS Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
“A person who engages in self-congratulation over a supposed strength has lost the protection of humility and is vulnerable to Satan’s using that strength to produce his or her downfall.” DALLIN H. OAKS
Brigham Young said: “Some may say, “I have faith the Lord will turn them away.” What ground have we to hope this? Have I any good reason to say to my Father in heaven, “fight my battles,” when he has given me the sword to wield, the arm and the brain that I can fight for myself? Can I ask Him to fight my battles and sit quietly down waiting for Him to do so? I cannot. I can pray the people to harken to wisdom, to listen to counsel; but to ask God to do for me that which I can do for myself is preposterous to my mind.” (Brigham Young Journal of Discourses 12:241.) “Don’t you have faith in America?” say others. But America is made up of people – and only righteous patriotic people work to preserve their freedom. The American people’s blessings are conditioned on righteousness and nothing else. We have faith in a faithful citizenry. https://www.latterdayconservative.com/ezra-taft-benson/our-immediate-responsibility/
Decipher Truth and Error
Can we listen to the teachings of the world and decipher on our own whether it is true or not? Should we never listen to a person who has an opposite view as our own, or should we wait for the Lord to step in and tell us truth? Why is Critical Race Theory taught at the “Lord’s” Universities? What about evolution and pre-Adamites? Can we safely study, read scriptures and go in prayer to determine truth through the Spirit? Yes!
Why would we expect the Lord to only allow righteous things be taught in Higher Education? I fully understand stricter allowance of information with our children and youth, but when our children become adults they must be more adequately tested on their own. Wouldn’t that take away our freedom to choose if we only taught Sunday School lessons in College? I complain a lot about things taught at BYU including Book of Mormon Geography and translation methods, but I know we need to be willing to hear all sides and pray for our own personal revelation.
Do the Things we can Before the Lord Helps
Editors Note: I think of the many stories about prophets of God. Joseph Smith was certainly capable of keeping the plates hidden, which he did without the Lord hiding them for him. Good men like Martin Harris found a way to earn the money to print the first Book of Mormon as he didn’t need the Lord to give him money with out personal effort. Joseph studied Hebrew, and read the Bible and listened to the angels that appeared to him, so the Lord didn’t need to step in and write the words for Joseph on a rock in a hat. The Lord certainly could have destroyed Laman as Nephi needed the brass plates, but because Nephi could draw his sword, he didn’t need the Lord to fight his battles. When Brigham Young says, “to ask God to do for me that which I can do for myself is preposterous to my mind”, Brigham Young Journal of Discourses 12:24, makes tremendous sense to me.
Joseph Hid the Sacred Translation Instruments
The Lord commanded Joseph Smith that “I should not show them to any person; neither the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them.” JSH 1:42 Joseph translated the Book of Mormon and said, “there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted “seers” in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.” JSH 1:35
The Lord entrusted Joseph to find a way to hide these articles while he translated. The Lord didn’t do it for him, as Joseph was very resourceful. How did Joseph hide these things during translation?
I have written an entire new book about what makes sense to me. After much study and prayer, I don’t believe Joseph used a seer stone in a hat to translate. Joseph was commanded in many scriptures to use the two stones in a silver bow, FASTENED to the breastplate. I have decided a great option is that Joseph hid the breastplate under his shirt and the Interpreters fastened to the breastplate waere likely hidden from view by Joseph’s large brim farmers hat, as you see below.
Emma Smith said, “I know Mormonism to be the truth; and believe the Church to have been established by divine direction. I have complete faith in it. In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.” Last Testimony of Sister Emma. (“Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saint’s Herald, Vol. 26, No 19. p. 289. (1 October 1879)
Remember Emma never saw the breastplate nor the Interpreters and she never had a curtain or, “nothing between us”, as Emma said. Emma and many others knew Joseph had a brown and probably a white single seer stone he had found at a younger age in life. Martin Harris, David Whitmer, Emma and many others in my opinion assumed Joseph used his seer stone, but they never claim to have seen Joseph’s translating instruments. They are at best second or third person witnesses. Only Joseph and Oliver were first hand witnesses and we know Oliver in scripture said, “Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon.’” JSH 1:75n
Proper View of the Translation
If you look at the picture below as I see it, Emma’s view would have been blocked somehow so Joseph could keep his promise of not showing the articles to anyone. This view shows why I believe Emma said she saw Joseph’s head buried in his hat, as that is what is looks like. But, with the breastplate under his shirt and the large brim farmer’s hat blocking Emma’s view, this is how it may have happened. I also believe many who talk about the stone in the hat saw this same view. Only 3 people ever saw all three items; the plates, glasses, and breastplate. They were Joseph, Oliver and Lucy Mack Smith saw and felt them under a linen.
Constantly Upon His Person
I believe Lucy Mack Smith’s history which was written shortly after the martyrdom. She said, “That of which I spoke, which Joseph termed a key, [Interpreters] was indeed nothing more nor less than a Urim and Thummim by which the angel manifested those things to him that were shown him in, vision; by which also he could at any time ascertain the approach of danger, either to himself or the record, and for this cause he kept these things constantly about his person.” (History of Joseph Smith, Revised and Enhanced, p. 139, 145)
“Joseph kept the urim and thumim constantly about his person an[d] he could by this means ascertain at any moment whether <if> the plates were in danger or having just looked into them before Emma got there he perceived her coming and came up out of the well and met her. When she informed him of the situ what had occurred he told her that the record was perfectly safe for the pre[s]ent. [Spelling not corrected] See Joseph Smith Papers here to see how quickly Joseph utilized the breastplate and glasses while digging a ditch, to see if the plates were safe at a moments notice. The word constantly upon his person is very accurate.
Always Consider the Prophets Council
Did you follow the prophet’s council many years ago when he asked the wife or the husband if desired, to remain at home and raise the children? The importance was to have at least one person home for our children to be brought up properly. What about when we were told that Coca-Cola was not good to drink, or we shouldn’t go to “R” rated movies, did we follow the prophet’s council then? Do we have to be commanded in all things? The Lord said, “For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. D&C 58:26. Do you allow your kids to play on Sunday or visit the store or enjoy recreation on the Sabbath? That’s up to you not the Prophet or myself.
Moderation in All Things?
It makes sense to be moderate when all the choices are relatively good ones, but when some of the choices cause death and disease, it does not make sense to include these choices, even in moderate amounts. What if we smoked or drank or did drugs in moderate amounts? How well would that work? “Moderation in all things” is not found anywhere in the scriptures, for good reason.
Complacency
“Mormonism, as it is called, must stand or fall on the story of Joseph Smith. He was either a Prophet of God, divinely called, properly appointed and commissioned or he was one of the biggest frauds this world has ever seen. There is no middle ground. If Joseph was a deceiver, who willfully attempted to mislead people, then he should be exposed, his claims should be refuted, and his doctrines shown to be false…” – PRESIDENT JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH, DOCTRINES OF SALVATION, P. 188
“Watchman, what of the night?” (Isaiah 21:11) is the cry of the faithful. I have tried to warn you of the darkness that is moving over us and what we can do about it if we will only follow the Prophet. “Watchman, what of the night?” (Isaiah 21:11) is the cry of the faithful. I have tried to warn you of the darkness that is moving over us and what we can do about it if we will only follow the Prophet. Have you counted the cost if our countrymen and especially the body of the Priesthood continue to remain complacent, misled through some of our news media, deceived by some of our officials, and perverted by some of our educators? Are you prepared to see some of your loved ones murdered, your remaining liberties abridged, the Church persecuted, and your eternal reward jeopardized? Ezra Taft Benson Our Immediate Responsibility
When we don’t stay focused and moving forward, it is easy to become complacent. If our church meetings and Sunday School become too ordinary, maybe we are taking the wrong approach. Do you attend meetings to see what you can get out of them, or do we come prepared to share our testimony with others? What have we learned by recent changes by President Nelson? Reduced to 2-hour meetings. He replaced Home Teaching reports with true Christian Ministering. Missionaries are doing a much greater amount of service projects, rather than knocking on doors. How many referrals have we given the Missionaries lately? I can personally do much better here. Are we on fire with the Book of Mormon?
President Nelson said, “Whenever I hear anyone, including myself, say, “I know the Book of Mormon is true,” I want to exclaim, “That’s nice, but it is not enough!” We need to feel, deep in “the inmost part” of our hearts, that the Book of Mormon is unequivocally the word of God. We must feel it so deeply that we would never want to live even one day without it. I might paraphrase President Brigham Young in saying, “I wish I had the voice of seven thunders to wake up the people” to the truth and power of the Book of Mormon “ President Russell M. Nelson The Book of Mormon: What Would Your Life Be Like without It?
Yes, the Lord allows false doctrine, tragedy, pedophilia, murder, earthquakes, racism, and every other good and evil in the world. It is because we have been given our freedom to chose liberty or to chose death as the scriptures say. What is the worst thing in life? Death? No! I feel it is Spiritual Death. If we have faith, we will never fear physical death, unless we are not living righteously to believe in a life with God after death.
Don’t blame the Lord, but turn to Him and say, “What can I learn from this event. How can I be more humble?”
