AN ANARCHICAL VIEW OF THE KEYS pt. 2


NETWORK MODELS

When we want to obtain something from Heaven’s hand we have to first connect to the mind of the Lord and let His thoughts filter into our own consciousness, otherwise there is a high likelihood that the things received are not of God. The Latin word ‘data’ is a past participle of the verb ‘dare’ and translates as “Things given.” If we want to make sure that what we are getting is in fact coming from the Source of all good, it can be extremely helpful to have some type of network model. Man has devised many different types of network

Network Model for Working with God

Network Model for Working with God

models but all of them are characterized by the following components: a set of nodes, and connections between nodes. The nodes receive inputs, and process them to obtain an output. The connections determine the information flow between nodes. They can be unidirectional, when the information flows only one way, and bidirectional, when the information flows either way. The interactions of nodes through the connections lead to a global behavior of the network, which cannot always be observed in the elements of the network. This global behavior is said to be emergent. This means that the abilities of the network supersede those of its elements alone, making networks very powerful tools.

Network Models

Network Models

One very popular class of networks is an artificial neural network or ANN. This is a mathematical model inspired by biological neural networks in our body’s own anatomy. These artificial neural networks are used to model complex relationships between inputs and outputs or to find patterns in data. Artificial Neural Networks, especially those that are more closely based on the Central Nervous System’s Neural Pathways of the Lord, can help us to “make His pathways straight” as we are admonished to do by both Isaiah and John the Baptist (Matt. 3:3,Isaiah 40:3, Luke 3:4). Anyone who studies network systems will be familiar with mathematical equations where \scriptstyle K signifies some predefined activation function. Anyone who studies the Holy Scriptures will know that a pre-stood \scriptstyle Key is a similar concept. Enthusiasts in the field of computers will know that  \scriptstyle K is sometimes used to show that a data processor has an unlocked multiplier, meaning it can be easily over-locked to much higher frequencies. But do those same enthusiasts think to apply that practical knowledge in their Elder’s Quorums to enthuse themselves and their brethren with the Spirit of God and over-lock to the Most High frequency? We could look at network models in cognitive psychology, theoretical neuroscience, or even artificial intelligence, but ANNs and even the CNS will only get us so far in understanding spiritual matters. The ancient Jews had their network model known as \scriptstyle Kabbalah with its Tree of Life Diagram for explaining the “Condescension of God” and bestowing Keys. The Masons borrow heavily from the ancient Jews and we borrow heavily from the Masons.  But sadly, the Church Inc. has become better at storing than restoring. Great truths are locked away in mountain vaults and if ever they are brought out to see the light of day and benefit the general membership of the Church, the “Brethren” react with excommunications.

THEIR ARMS ARE TOO SHORT TO BOX WITH GOD

arms too short to box with godThere have been of late some increasingly heavy-handed and under-handed practices employed by Church leadership. The same secret cabals embedded in secular society have been even more openly brutal in their exercise of unrighteous dominion. Even when the worst they manage to do is to manage an army of potentially powerful servants of the Lord through spiritless management meetings, the outcomes are embarrassing to enraging for serious servants of the Lord like Alan Rock Waterman and his anonymous Bishop friend who exposed Saltican City’s latest training video for the vainglorious affront to God that it is. (see Pure Mormonism blog post Training Day) The die-rectors of the video were sure to coach L. Tom Perry and his little crew of actors to mention the word “Keys” as many times as possible. The editors of this P.R.iesthood Training/ Power Draining tutorial were sure to leave exactly 33 mentions of the word “Keys”. 33 is the degree of a Master Mason. 33 is the precise number of minutes that the lights went out at this year’s Super Bowl Mass Ritual. It is a literal and spiritual power failure that the secret combinations wish to perpetuate on us.

https://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/priesthood-keys?lang=eng

If we desire to be men of God, our spiritual actions had better pack a punch. The earliest usage of the word ‘punch’ meant to puncture, so it carried that cleaving quality common to all keys. But by the late 16th century – right around the time that Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa was socially pressured into retracting some of his harder-hitting work in a similar manner to what Joseph Smith Jr. would do over two centuries later – this key-word, “punch” as a verb and its accompanying sign, “punch” as a physical action were somewhat corrupted. ‘Punch’ as a noun now signified “a blow with the fist.”  It still managed to retain a figurative sense of “forceful, vigorous quality” down through the centuries of the so-called Enlightenment. But unfortunately when we hear the word “punch” these days the first thing to enter or “puncture” our mind is typically a picture of brute force and secondly the vigor which is a quality which can only be imparted by the spirit. Thus evil magicians were able to triumph over good magicians.

How does such a terrible thing happen? It happens subtly. The second definition of the word ‘punch’ as a noun provides us with a key to understanding how our keys are effectively disabled by tricksters, traitors and tyrants. ‘Punch’ can also mean “a mixed drink”. This definition actually traces back to the most ancient Proto-Indo-European roots of the word. It is derived from Sanskrit ‘panchan-s’ through Hindi ‘panch’ meaning “five,” in reference to the number of original ingredients (spirits, water, lemon juice, sugar, spice). If we think about it there is a more subconscious reference going on here as well, because “five” is also the number of fingers on a man’s hand. It is funny to think how in current-day Christ-Shun culture we use the phrase “spike the punch” meaning “to add alcohol to a fruit drink.” The original recipe for true punch invariably held to by our ancestors until relatively recently already and always included alcoholic spirits. The five original ingredients of punch and the five fingers of the hand have symbolic reference to the five elements of water, fire, earth, air and lastly but most importantly, spirit which circulates throughout all the rest. At all Church functions the vital ingredient of spirit has been removed and more often than not even the fruit is reduced to a few thin citrus slices floating atop an artificially flavored concoction of kill-aid served up in a cauldron at cult-sure-all activities. Mormon style magicians love to substitute spirit with gobs of ice cream.

You might say it is my intention to restore some of the veil piercing power by spiking the punch bowl and getting this millennial paradisiacal party started. Let’s add some much needed, finely distilled spirits of such great men as Smith, Swedenborg, Agrippa, Wovoka, Tenskwatawa, Drew-Ali, Turner, Elijah, David, Moses, Alma, Moroni, etc. The Doctrine & Covenants, Section 121 verse 35, clearly affirms that our keys, through which the powers of heaven are meant to flow have been severely lessened only because we have listened to the vain teachings of this world and we fail to learn this “one lesson.” And what might that one lesson be? It is that we are the noble and great ones who Father Abraham witnessed gathered in council before this world ever was. WE ARE THEM AND THEY ARE US. We sojourn here below with only one thing standing between the mortal frame and its maker. That one thing is our individual portion of Holy Spirit taught in Sunday School as the Spirit Body being composed of the Light of Christ in all men and women. It is given freely but even so, it is up to us to maintain and cherish as the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

This is the Grand Truth behind the formula that follows in verses 36 and 37 of Section 121. – “The rights (keys) of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven.” Note it says “power[s]” (plural) and “heaven” (singular) because we are talking about many forms emanating out of one spirit. And when the scripture says that, “the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor hand-led only upon the principles of righteousness,” it is saying that we must see ourselves as they are if we want to be a conduit for inheriting their attributes. Continuing, we read that these attributes may be conferred upon us but that whenever we “exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls (unions of spiritual+physical bodies) of the children of men (including our own)….behold, the heavens withdraw themselves (this time it is expressed in plural form as heaven[s] since the very Hosts of Heaven are made up of the same substance as Heaven itself ); the Spirit of the Lord is grieved (this refers to the substance of spirit itself, which is one single source); and when it is withdrawn (that is, when it contracts or retracts from one particular space into another area for expression of itself), Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.”

CAN I GET AN AMEN?!

“Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.”

This phrase at the ending of Section 121 verse 37 is very interesting. Talk about packing a punch as well as a bunch of meaning! First it must be noted that these words do not appear as their own sentence within the text but rather they follow a comma stringing them onto the line of ideas laid out above. Why then is the word Amen written with a capital ‘A’? You may say that this is standard use of the word in the English language and you would be correct. But why? It is because Amen represents a name. Originally conceived of as the head of a trinity of gods in ancient Egypt, Amen or Amun was closely associated with the wind, but soon began to be identified with all other Egyptian deities. The organic ensuing virtual monotheism did not sit well with Pharoah Amen-hotep IV who changed his name to Akhen-aten and attempted to force everyone to worship the Aten (Sun Disk) for a period.

This historical scenario is essentially an earthly reenactment of the heavenly drama wherein Lucifer (Light Bearer) tries to overthrow God the Father and establish himself as supreme. God the Father is the Most High example of Pre-Stood Power in righteousness. If we think of Him as Amun, God of the Wind, we can see how the element of Air has a unifying effect upon all other elements. They all benefit from his perfect parenting approach. Air can cause the solid Earth to be enlivened by the softest caress or whip it into shape through the means of strong blasts. Air gently stirs the Waters in the ocean and in the firmament to keep them from stagnating and sometimes works them up into a frenzy granting them permission and power to crash and flood the stubborn land and its inhabitants. Air embodies spirit so effortlessly that it can fan a small flickering flame into a raging Fire or extinguish it if it so chooses. It is understandable that a fiery devil like Lucifer would feel himself superior to the more conforming elements of Earth and Water. To him they would seem so subservient. Not seeing the divine spark in all creation around him and feeling more than a little threatened at the fact that in spite of their humble subservient natures, both Water and Earth could easily snuff him out if so directed, it must have seemed logical to Lucifer’s archetypal male instinct to assert his personality fiercely. The narcissist made good on his threat to collude with metallic minions, especially gold and silver, in whose shiny surfaces he could see his twinkling self image reflected. And he bought up armies to oppress the land and navies to oppress the seas. For a time the wild child thought he had triumphed over the elements of Water and Earth as made specifically clear when his heart leaps like a flame and we hear him say, “Now is the great day of my power. I reign from the rivers to the ends of the earth.” After all, being a Prince of the Air was he not the Rightful Heir to the throne of all creation?

But if the Light Bearer pictured himself like in the distinct artwork of the Egyptian Amarna Period during Akhen-aten’s reign, with the Sun’s rays shooting straight and unbending, he was soon forced to admit that even in the purest form he could take he was still subject to bending when presented with a large heavenly body or even refraction when simply attempting to cut through water. Akhen-aten called himself the Son of the Sun and has been called “The First Individual” by bedazzled historians. Individualism has its proper place within the bounds the Lord has set, but sooner or later the Lucifer in all of us has to acknowledge his interdependence with every one of his brothers and sisters. With a realization of the equality of all things and our oneness with them comes great power. And so, Fathair chose the Spirit of Christ, the 5th Element as the One who could not only best glorify Himself, but also play a redeeming role for all the other three elements, feisty Fire included. We sometimes call spirit the 5th Element because it seems so beyond the realm of our understanding, but in truth Spirit is “The First” who Father said He would send. Father recognized that Spirit even pre-seeded Himself. So it wasn’t just that God the Father saw Himself in Jesus. He wisely saw Jesus in Himself. In the Millennium the entire Family can sit calm and enjoy the sitcom of life when they realize that Lucifer exists only as the comical prankster and flashy star of the show. Good old Lucile Ball may cause drama but she keeps things entertaining and she is such a sweetheart that in the end you gotta Love Lucy with the pure love of Christ. The Fresh Prince of Bell Aire can be a trouble maker but when viewed with love we see how he values the unity of the family as much as anyone, perhaps a little more than most since he and his counterpart Jazzy Jeff have experienced being cast out on numerous occasions.

The Pre-Stood promotes unity and peace not discord and destruction. For this reason, Lucifer is thrust out of heaven only to be sent early to Earth, that precise spot where all the “Good Sons of God” were waiting to receive an inheritance. The harmonic balance of proper Pre-Stood practices explain why Satan is cast to the sides of the bottomless pit and his dangerous nature bound for a million years only to be released again for a season. Why in God’s Name would YHWH do such a thing? Doesn’t He know how horribly and unworthily the Prodigal Son of the Morning has been behaving? The Tetragramaton knows exactly what He is doing as He proceeds through the eternal sequence of:

Yod    =    Foundation

Hei     =    Breath

Vav    =    Nail

Hei     =    Breath

Yod    =    Foundation

Hei      =   Breath

Vav     =   Nail

Hei      =   Breath

Connecting inhalation with exhalation, foundational building materials with thrusts of the nail, Amen, the God of the Wind and Architect of the Universe turns His invisible blew-prints into solid structures that can stand for eternity. That breath and spirit are in the similitude of one another as God the Father to God the Son should not be a big surprise since we all know that the cessation of breathing causes the spirit to withdraw from a body. But at Church there are many who call themselves teachers who do not comprehend these things and consider them interesting perhaps, but not pertinent to their salvation. If Jesus tries to tell them about Earthly things, they won’t believe it. So how can He possibly tell them about Heavenly things? And yet we go to Church every week and listen to them teach about the Kingdom and doctrines of salvation? Tell me; where is the righteousness in that? The scriptures say that “if ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach.” (D&C 42:14) We could say that unless you are alive in the awareness of the infinite possibilities available through a simple connection between Spirit and breath, then you should keep your mouth shut and not counsel your brother and sister. Your careless verbiage and spiritually bad breath does serious damage. Maybe its time every man start learning directly from the Master instead of the sympathetic but cowardly Nicodemus types in the Church and in the Bloggernacle.

Jesus:  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Nicodemus:  How can these things be?

Jesus:  Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
- John 3:8-10

I am not writing to or for Priesthood Pretenders. For those tempted to not take the truths I am sharing here to heart just because they are not coming from a world/church authority or credentialed expert of any kind – for those tempted to write this off as a long-winded and useless tangent about aerodynamics, may I suggest you read an Uchtdorf talk.

“Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.”

Such a fascinating phrase, and we’ve only just begun to discover the richness in this one little word – Amen! It turns out that Amen is itself a Key-Word of the Pre-Stood. Notice how it can be used to lock or to open, to seal or to separate. On the one hand we can and ought to use it to condemn unrighteous dominion; on the other hand we can use it to express agreement, as it is commonly used at the end of prayers. Pre-Stood Power is eternal and can not be destroyed or cease to exist. So, the “Amen” in this phrase does not refer to “the priesthood” in the slightest. Nor does it refer precisely to “the authority” since pre-stood authority is represented by keys which are to the powers inseparably connected, co-existing as eternal companions. Authority is digital in nature it can shut on and off but it never actually vanishes. In this scripture Priesthood = Spirit or Life-Energy which is shared collectively by all forms in the universe; ie. Yin, and Authority = Keys or Rights to use that energy which are held personally; ie. Yang. The “Amen” here only refers directly to “that man” who abuses his rights to the pre-stood.

LDSA identified this scripture as an exception to the norm in that it seems to conflate power with authority. But even though power and authority together really do form one pre-stood, the Holy Scriptures are linguistically designed to dissect and then reassemble concepts for the enlightenment of our minds. This scripture stays true to that teaching technique. So the “or” can be seen as equating priesthood with authority but simultaneously and more specifically its function is to lay down the law for “that man” who transgresses. Either his keys get disabled till he repents “or” if he persists with his wickedness through this life and on through the next and so on and so forth, the very form of his spirit-body begins to fragment to the point of absorption back into the native nothingness also known as outer darkness. That’s why those who slumber and wait for the resurrection to roll around are waiting in vain, waiting in vanity for Jesus to play not the central role He accepted but to take over the individual’s own personal role in God’s plan. In essence they are waiting for Jesus to become Lucifer. They will eventually wake up and come around but the scriptures say that it will take a longer time than in the case of the just who rise in the morning of the first resurrection.

When one who actually possesses the Key of Amen utters the phrase “Amen, to the priesthood of that man” directed with real intent towards another individual, the effect is actually one of loving kindness because it softens some of the more immediately destructive consequences of the abuser’s actions and neutralizes negative vibes for any of the innocent victims that the Key Master is able to take into his protective scope. Why should it be that such a sharp phrase, when uttered by a speaker who possesses a fluent command of the god-language of pre-stood, would have a positive effect even on the target? Because defense is the righteous use of the sword and the sword of defense, being a key itself, is always double-edged. Look up the verb defend and you will see it defined with a double meaning as it can be used to describe “protecting from an attack on” and or “speaking or writing in favor of.” The dual purpose of keys is shown as our minds easily see these two ideas to be one action in truth. As a true defender you must not think that you are simply defending a victim and deafeating the victimizer. This narrow view only allows for a narrow get away at best never a full resolution. Remember the line spoken by Jacopo to the Count of Monte Cristo:

“I swore an oath, and I will protect you. Even if it means I must protect you from yourself.”

We too have an Oath & Covenant to uphold, do we not? (D&C 84) If you have the mindset of inflicting wounds rather than performing spiritual surgery then your slices will lack the swiftness of godly justice and they will not go clean through. This can cause further harm and infection to all involved including your self. Truly hating the sin of unrighteous dominion requires a true love for that man found exercising it. Your goal is to exorcize it from the person detangling them from its cancerous evil if possible. And if necessary even unto the cleaving of body from spirit. Obiwan Kanobi told Luke that a light saber is a weapon of elegance and can not be used the same as a clumsy blaster. Jedi Master Jesus taught us to “resist not evil.” To Joseph he recommended:

43 Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;

44 That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.

- D&C 121:43-44

This and other (s)wordplay techniques are displayed beautifully by Ammon, who spared the life of the King after he promised to grant Ammon’s brethren and his own son their freedom. In An Alternate View of the Keys LDSA wrote:

“Unrighteous dominion is dominion without the consent of the governed….the priesthood cannot be used without the consent of those it is intended to serve. It is their agency that authorizes the priesthood”

See, when a man is attempting to exercise more power than he has been authorized to handle, the effects are destructive, first to himself then to others. We are serving through severing. By loping off that portion of power which is in excess to the keys granted that man via the agency of others, we prevent the man from choking. But the loosed chunk of power doesn’t simply float out into space; it gets assimilated into the one who is acting as defender of the faith. Like Nephi, we will have to be prepared to take on the energy, even the negative energy, of that man and transmute it into energy that can serve the purposes of the Lord. If you lash out in hate then hate will flow into you from the one you wound. The pre-stood power belongs to all men and women and so, inseparably connected keys are had by each as well. This is why according to the workings of the Lord, “the abundance of the manifestations of the Spirit shall be withheld” unless or until, as per D&C 70, verse 14, we are equal in temporal things, “and this not grudgingly.” Temporal things include administrative functions. So no more of this saying that LDS women are already so special they do not need the type of training that males require and therefore do not need the administrative keys of the priesthood. Funny how most wards would not function even in the mundane practices with which they busy themselves if it were not for the adept administration of the Relief Society.

The Prophet of the Restoration revealed the collective holding of pre-stood power through evenly distributed key-sets among the whole Family of God. Everyone has a right to the power of pre-stood. The Armenians, who demonstrate a high concentration of the blood of Israel in the traditions they observe as well as their spirit, have a word ամեն pronounced aːmˈɛn that means “every“. Additionally it is used in the same form at the conclusion of prayers, much as in English. Another word which hints at the need for sharing the rights to the powers of Heaven among all men comes from a much more ancient source via latter-day revelation. This one also alludes to the significance of the heavy breath sound of the ‘H’ added to Abram’s name when God made him FatHer of the Nations by blessing him with seed through Hagar and SaraH. Joseph Smith said it was revealed to him that the Adamic language word for God was AHMAN, that the name for Christ was SON AHMAN and the name for mankind was SONS AHMAN. When once we as spirit children of God (Sons Ahman) took on physical form (Adam) in the Terrestrial World we still enjoyed direct contact with God so the Earth at that time was known as ADAM ONDI AHMAN (Adam in the presence of God). If we say, “Ahman to the pre-stood of that man” we are essentially saying, “The pre-stood belongs to All Men/Ahman….so don’t you be a Lucifer and try to dominate it.” A man who would step on another’s RTC (Right to Choose) needs to remember he is only acting as a man. If he would act in the name of AHMAN he needs to receive the ‘H’ (Holy Breath of Life) in the middle of his self important name after the manner of AbraHam. Only when a bullying boy grows a healthy respect for the oneness of All Men can God make A Man into A-H-Man.

Amen is key in our service to the Lord because from man’s perspective, where one thing ends another begins. And Amen is key in the work God does for us as a consistent connector because He tells us that, for Him, there is no beginning and no end to His works. (D&C 29:33) Heavenly Father and Mother are simply breathing and birthing. We can see how Amen corresponds to the Wind, Breath of Life and the Spirit in its special relationship with all things. We know that God can create things out of thin air, but have we ever stopped to realize how we do the same thing with ideas and words? We use a primordial form of the Amen Key – ‘Aum’. We pause and think a while and we fill the supposedly dead space with “Ummmm.” Then, magically the vibration helps us to pull the ideas out of thin air and push that air through our voice box for projection in the more dense form of word. Progressively denser forms can result from thoughts to words to action. Look at us! Aren’t we some little creators?

It is this ‘Aum’ or ‘Om’ with which Jesus often leads his sayings. We find them translated into English as “Verily” or sometimes “Verily,Verily” These initial Amens are unparalleled in Hebrew literature, because they do not refer to the words of a previous speaker but instead introduce a new thought. In the Old Testament there are three different modes of usage for the Amen, but it is always used either in response to the words of another or as a final subscript to a story or psalm. Jesus’ uses of the Amen Key in the Gospels break the rules of traditional Hebrew because whereas the Jewish idiom was only ever used with a backward reference to an earlier speaker or statement, Jesus used the word to affirm his own utterances, not those of another person. This unique usage of the initial amen, single or double in form, to introduce solemn statements of Jesus in the Gospels had no parallel in Jewish practice and most likely indicates that Jesus received this Key during His travels in India.

This key is very good for extracting things from the Aether or Akasha as it was called by the Hindus. Akasha is the spirit substance similar to air but inheriting qualities from each of the elements and able to manifest as any one of them. This is the two in one identity that Jesus tries to explain to Phillip and to the rest of us when He says “I am in the Father and the Father in me.” (John 14:11) I encourage the reader to take the time to study that chapter. Jesus proceeds to give another Key for working with Akasha. And here is the punch-line….Akasha is one of the pancha mahabhuta or “five great elements.”  There is that number again.

PROTECTION AGAINST PRIESTHOODLUMS

The cuckolds who are running the CoJCoLDS (into the ground) maintain that:

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a restoration of the original Church established by Jesus Christ.”
(James E. Faust in General Conference – April, 2006)

But where do we get this idea that Jesus ever even founded a church after the manner of men? This is a Catholic crud of a creed that the Protestants never saw any need to protest. While it had become painfully obvious that the Vatican councils were not qualified to lead men to Christ, they unfortunately did not consider that perhaps Peter was no more meant for the task than the Pope. European Reformers never paused to think about the proper role of prophets and apostles any more than the apostate Christians and Jews before them. It was a scramble to collect the scattered keys from Saint Peter’s broken chain. Whoever could collect them all would win. Even Joseph got a bit carried away with his Modern-Day Mohammedean feat of fusing the best of Judaism and Christianity while refuting the more corrupt parts. The obsession with keys has continued and grown since the early days of the Restoration Movement; to the point where even the president of a low-lying branch on the Mormon Tree can feel lofty enough to come to a branch member’s doorstep and reprimand him for following the Lord directly without going through the proper channels of Priesthoodlum Leadership.

If this is the case with a branch president, what might we expect to find in the upper echelons? More often than not the wicked priest will not even dare come to you in your home, at least not at first. He wants to get you in his office because it is by virtue of his office that he maintains power and influence. This is his typical tactic and it reveals him to be in direct opposition to the will of the Lord regarding pre-stood practices put forth in D&C 121: 41. Always remember when someone seeks to exercise authority over you or your family by “virtue of the priesthood” you can turn off his office with a flip of the switch or flip of the bird. Keys are digital, locking and unlocking. Digitus means finger. The middle finger (according to the esoteric system discussed in part 1) contains the Compass (V) symbol of the Holy Pre-Stood. The Square (L) is located in the pinky finger on the left hand. And many of us will remember being told that some General Authority somewhere once said that a deacon holding the Aaronic Priesthood has more power and authority in his little finger than the Pope has in his whole body. I’m confident that most tyrannical Stake Presidents probably approximate a similar power level to that of the Catholic Cardinals. So when they try to make you “kiss the ring” you know what to do.

To “that man” who comes to your door, talking about the keys that he holds over you, I would ask if he has the keys to Your House? When he responds that he of course does not and is not speaking of literal but rather spiritual keys, then, pointing to Your Heart, ask “Do you hold the keys to this sir?” Borrow a line from Old Joshua who said, “As for me and my house; we will serve the LORD.” Watch as the “Big Man” shrinks before your very eyes. Gird up your loins man, fresh courage take. Look his goliath ego straight between the eyes and, if you love your brother, launch a smooth stone at the “place of the skull”. You must hit Goliath in his Golgotha to evoke the Authority of Christ. The stone must be smooth so as to be aerodynamic. And you must bring no more, no less than Five stones to the showdown. God has endowed a man with all he needs to defend himself and the best defense is Four Fingers and a Thumb – not clenched in a fist but palm forward, flat, smooth, the fingers close together, and the thumb extended.

Fear not repercussions from the upper echelons of the ecclesia. Echelon is the Latin letter ‘e’ and an uppercase ‘E’ is still nothing more than the Fifth letter. So it is only his ‘5’ against yours. And if you use your ‘5’ as a humble vessel for a power higher than the Saltican City, then you will surely triumph with a perfect ‘10’. They can only extract 10 percent at maximum. These imposters, dressed in the robes of the false priesthood, are often unable to even muster a full five. So they yell “Four!” as they take mocking shots at the visage of the poor righteous teacher. They prefer the elite status of country club members swinging for Devil and Country in the secret game of G.O.L.F. (an acronym for Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden.) Remember these are not pre-stood wielders only priesthood holders. Understand that the Boy’s Club has had its proficiency in pre-stood power severely weakened from years of service as squires, armor bearers for King Saul, whose armor young David declined to don. Their spirit bodies have atrophied from the meaningless, rubber-stamp gesture of constantly raising their arm to the square only to sustain squalid, squealing swine who revel in their slop, unlike the prodigal son who despised the shame of it and resolved to return to his Father’s House. If you and I wish to strengthen our spiritual sinews so that we may serve the Lord with all our might, we can not afford to squander our inheritance. The enemy wants you to raise your hand, he needs you to bow your head and say “yes.” Your enemy hopes you will become “yes men” as so many of your “brethren” have done, because in this way, when we concur, he can conquer.

Keys like golf clubs are only symbols of the divine mascu-linear energy which, as we have seen, is only ½ the Pre-Stood. Phallic phalanges grip their clubs and keys fruitlessly without putting holes and locks nearby. Even if the wives of the General Authorities are unaware, the Master Masons who direct the affairs of the Church are keenly aware that the power of the male is cut in half and will wither without the presence of a female companion by his side. Thus there is a strict policy among them to never remain unmarried for long even after the death of a spouse. To ask a woman for her hand in marriage is literally to ask her to lend a hand to the Great Work. Men who do not acknowledge that the female possesses pre-stood power independently from males will never fully magnify their own pre-stood potential. Little boys like to play with themselves. A man who mistakenly thinks he received his pre-stood power or authorization from the hands of other men will never fully activate the power within himself.

Locks and Keys Always Have and Always Will Go Together. One is Not Without the Other.

Locks and Keys Always Have and Always Will Go Together. One is Not Without the Other.

It is the mother who passes pre-stood power along to male offspring in the form of the cross (X) chromosome. The father plays an administrative role and passes along the ke(Y) chromosome which designates the child as another ‘key’ bearer. The boy will learn from both but will one day have to leave the mother and the father and cleave unto a wife if he is ever to learn how the lock (potential power) and key (latent authority) operate to release and reseal in Heaven and on Earth. In the case of female offspring, a double dosage of pre-stood power is deposited. The Xtra dose from the father is that which assigns her gender determining the placement of her power. Therefore, it is from the father that she receives her pre-stood power. But the young woman will not experience full unlocking of her divine potential until she joins herself to a young man. The woman is a gate through which all enter this world. The man holds the key to that gate. Both embody spiritual DNA from the Father as well as the Mother and so both may bestow pre-stood power. But it is the Father who decides in what capacity each new life will serve, whether as a priest or priestess. He is not, as many like to think, the sole dispenser of the pre-stood power; unless we are to see the work of the Father as hit and miss. Since when did an X signify a miss?  The world may address a divine daughter of God with the title ‘Ms.’ but she is no miss.

All this confusion and craze over keys in the latter days is so much male chauvinism. Pre-stood is explained as consisting of two parts – power and authority – but truly it is one thing. Power and authority are not separate things because one aspect serves no purpose without the other. Priesthood really is all things in one and out of it all things are able to manifest as distinct but interconnected forms. Love is the power of which all creation is made, and will is the authority by which all creation is made. Keys are essentially solidified will, so there are as many keys as there are creations or solid forms in God’s Kingdom. They are all protruding from “key spots” in the “all-in-one compound” which father Lehi attempts to describe in 2 Nephi 2: 5-14 and which we commonly call “nothing.” While inserted firmly into the “nothingness” a key reveals the potential locked deep within the dark. But if the will should come to see the “nothingness” as inferior or undesirable and cease to cleave to her, the sustaining embrace is broken. The form goes limp, the darkness, still trying to cleave together, cleaves itself shut and neither side’s potential is fulfilled in that area. This is what happens when men calling themselves “brethren” claim seniority and superiority over each other instead of living up to Jesus’ command to give as freely as they are given.

There is no point in trying to overstate that which was, is and ever will be pre-stood as separate concepts of power and authority unless your motive is to keep others under “lock and key.” It all fits and all belongs together. After the mental deconstruct which is necessary to comprehend the workings of the Lord, should one persist in keeping asunder what God puts together, then he is not worthy to use keys, not to latch or unlatch. If your church leader is not talking on the topic of the possibility for fluid interconnectedness of  “your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds” like King Benjamin did with his congregation it is probably because he himself stands in need of re-minding. Forgetfulness of these metaphysical principles is rampant in today’s world. But so is the re-awakening of millions around the globe. There is no good reason we should not be hearing and talking about it at Church.

We all suffer from fragmented psyches at some level. Re-membering means putting ourselves back together mentally. Failure to do so results in a furtherance of fragmentation from the realm of thoughts, to that of words, and finally in-deed. Unfortunately, the higher you go, the more you find that the leader is “No King Benjamin”. There are some sinister elements who seek to occult this knowledge of truth from the rest of us. To those elements functioning within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I issue an invitation to repent now before it is too late. You know that it is possible to divide Churches but you also know that you will have to divide so-called individuals to accomplish your devilish designs. You hope through diabolical doctrine to create a division in and among people. You know that the division you create will eventually yield a Division of Robots of the False Priesthood. But you know you can’t win them all. Have you paused to consider the remnant you cast aside? Your unrighteous dominion has made us grow strong as you steadily weaken. For he who seeks to divide the indivisible will suffer dissolution of his self. But channeling the immortal spirit of King Benjamin crying from the dust, “this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, re-member, and perish not.” (Mosiah 4:30)

I agree with LDSA that keys can be categorized as either active or suspended. However I do not agree that the President of the Church has all the keys activated. If they were activated he would act differently. Rather, I take Jesus at His word and can authoritatively paraphrase Him by stating that the First Presidency and other so-called priesthood leaders do not enter the Kingdom and have forgotten how to properly use their keys so they jealously keep others from going in. (Matt. 23:13) I agree with LDSA that keys can be misused to temporarily impede the work of the Lord. But I do not agree that serious magnifiers of the pre-stood power need be affected by the actions or inaction of “presiding authorities.” In fact I believe that for me to defer development of real pre-stood initiative upon the earth to a group of men who are obviously deferring to their own egos and by default to the kings of a culture of corruption would be in direct opposition to the cause of righteousness. Scripture is the progeny of Premonition plus Reason and she testifies plainly against the teachers of religion while telling of “men inspired of heaven” who will defy the power structure of those priesthoodlums who would hold the pre-stood power hostage.

This is of course a personal decision, as is everything in life. And we must be careful not to discourage anyone else in whatever path they may have chosen. But it is my understanding that many LDS men have not chosen but rather vacillate between the type of heavenly justification, which is prerequisite for pre-stood power activation and the worldly justification that plays into the Enemy’s plans. As LDS men who claim to believe in modern revelation and restoration era scripture we must be aware of the day to day decisions that place us personally in one of the two camps described in the very prophesies we are discussing. If we choose to postpone the carrying out of personally revealed directives from the Heavenly Headquarters the signal is likely to get jammed by interference from Radio Salticana. Standing orders are for standing armies and standing armies are for Evil Empires.

OVERcoming the NATURAL man means unleashing the SUPERNATURAL power of the pre-stood through our own bodies. MY DEAR BRETHREN, NOW IS THE TIME TO REACH OUT IN RIGHTEOUS ACTION WITH THE PRE-STOOD!

Join the Movement to Repeal the Federal Income Tax in 30 days


I just signed a new government (We the People) petition going around.

Everyone who signs it pledges to stop paying income tax when a majority of Americans (157,548,501) sign it.

Here is the text and link to the petition:

Disband the IRS, stop enforcing all federal income tax laws and actively work to repeal the 16th Amendment

We petition you to disband the Internal Revenue Service (the IRS), stop enforcing all federal income tax laws and to actively work to repeal the 16th Amendment (the Income Tax amendment.)

This will be the greatest economic stimulus plan in the history of the United States, while still leaving many areas in which the federal government could collect revenue for its proper functions, such as defense.

To sign this petition, visit:

http://wh.gov/yKho

or

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/disband-irs-stop-enforcing-all-federal-income-tax-laws-and-actively-work-repeal-16th-amendment/3KxGlLXs

Petition Created On: Tuesday, 22 January 2013

Petition Ends On: Thursday, 21 February 2013.

I encourage you to sign the petition and take this same pledge.

Please spread the word by re-blogging and using social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), email, 2-cent snail mail, telephone and word of mouth!

(For the origin of this petition, see this.)

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How to Easily Repeal the Federal Income Tax


According to the Wikipedia,

As of December 1, 2012, the United States had a total resident population of 315,097,000, making it the third most populous country in the world.

If a majority of those residents (157,548,501 out of 315,097,000) agreed to do away with the federal income tax, a legitimate government would have to do it. If the government were to go against the voice of the people (the majority voice) it would become an illegitimate government. An illegitimate government has no authority over the people and should not be obeyed.

Therefore, given this fundamental principle, here is a strategy on how to quickly and easily do away with the federal income tax:

First, one person [Update: dallon j has volunteered to do this] needs to use the We the People web site to create the following petition:

Disband the IRS, stop enforcing all federal income tax laws and actively work to repeal the 16th Amendment

We petition you to disband the Internal Revenue Service (the IRS), stop enforcing all federal income tax laws and to actively work to repeal the 16th Amendment (the Income Tax amendment.)

This will be the greatest economic stimulus plan in the history of the United States, while still leaving many areas in which the federal government could collect revenue for its proper functions, such as defense.

Only one petition [dallon j's petition] should be created, not multiple petitions, and all the signatures ought to go on just that one, singular petition.

Update: this petition is now live as of Tuesday, 22 January 2013.  Here are the urls (short and long, either one works) to sign it:

http://wh.gov/yKho

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/disband-irs-stop-enforcing-all-federal-income-tax-laws-and-actively-work-repeal-16th-amendment/3KxGlLXs

Secondly, this petition needs to be sent far and wide using every possible means of communication: email, 2-cent snail mail, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and all other social media, telephone calls, etc.

Thirdly, AND THIS IS ALL IMPORTANT, everybody who becomes aware of this petition needs to understand that when 157,548,501 signatures are obtained, which is a majority voice, the signers of the petition collectively agree to stop paying federal income tax and to stop filing federal income tax returns, regardless of the White House’s response.

This is because, as the voice of the people, they will be within their legitimate rights to cease paying.

The purpose of the petition is not to get the White House to respond. The purpose of the petition is merely to obtain the voice of the people and to allow the people to see that voice.  Once that voice is obtained, in the affirmative, meaning that the voice is against the federal income tax, all signers can justifiably stop paying the tax. Since everyone is doing it as a group, there can be no legitimate consequences, for the federal government cannot legitimately enforce an illegitimate tax, meaning a tax in which the people have removed their support. Also, the government is simply not equipped to deal with 157,548,501 non-payers.

Everyone who signs ought to check the petition daily, to see how many signatures it has gotten. When that magic number (157,548,501) is obtained, you just got yourself a raise.

Once the voice of the people have spoken, if the White House fails to respond, or if it responds by saying that it will still enforce the tax, then lawsuits can ensue according as the people feel it necessary.

If anyone thinks this would be a fun, interesting and timely thing to do, I’ll need someone (just one person, please) to volunteer to create the petition, and then let me know its url. [Update: this is done already.]  I will then link to it in this blog post and update the wording accordingly. [Done.]  Once linked, anybody else who has a blog, who desires to spread the word, just re-blog this post on your own blog and let’s flood the Internet with a sort of tax revolt.

Note: the We the People web site has a 30-day limit for response. Each petition needs to get 100,000 signatures in the first 30 days in order for the White House to respond. Also, each petition needs 150 signatures in order to have it publicly seen on the We the People web site. The goal of this petition is 157,548,501 signatures (not 100,000), but it needs to obtain that amount in 30 days. So, time is of the essence.

Suggestions on how to promote this

Create a blog post with the following information:

Post Title: How to Repeal Federal Income Tax in 30 days

I just signed a new government (We the People) petition going around.

Everyone who signs it pledges to stop paying income tax when a majority of Americans (157,548,501) sign it.

Here is the text and link to the petition:

Disband the IRS, stop enforcing all federal income tax laws and actively work to repeal the 16th Amendment

We petition you to disband the Internal Revenue Service (the IRS), stop enforcing all federal income tax laws and to actively work to repeal the 16th Amendment (the Income Tax amendment.)

This will be the greatest economic stimulus plan in the history of the United States, while still leaving many areas in which the federal government could collect revenue for its proper functions, such as defense.

To sign this petition, visit:

http://wh.gov/yKho

or

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/disband-irs-stop-enforcing-all-federal-income-tax-laws-and-actively-work-repeal-16th-amendment/3KxGlLXs

Petition Created: Tuesday, 22 January 2013.

Petition Ends: Thursday, 21 February 2013.

I encourage you to sign the petition and take this same pledge.

Please spread the word by re-blogging and using social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), email, 2-cent snail mail, telephone and word of mouth!

Create Twitter tweets with the following information:

#endinctax How to Repeal Federal Income Tax in 30 days wp.me/p7NYp-18x

#endinctax Join the Movement to Repeal the Federal Income Tax in 30 days wp.me/p7NYp-19H

This post will update with more ideas as they come.

Complete List of Articles authored by LDS Anarchist

Talking to myself


This is me asking myself questions and then answering them. It is just an exercise, in which I take a text and interpret it, to see what I come up with. I’m posting it here because I found it interesting. You can read along and watch the process evolve, if you like, but please keep in mind that these are just thoughts. Don’t take any of this as gospel, except the quoted scriptures. My text is D&C 98:4-18.


and now | verily | i say unto you |

concerning the laws of the land |

it is my will | that my people should observe to do all things | whatsoever i command them |

and that law of the land | which is constitutional | supporting that principle of freedom | in maintaining rights and privileges | belongs to all mankind | and is justifiable before me | therefore | i | the lord | justify you | and your brethren of my church | in befriending that law | which is the constitutional law of the land |

and as pertaining to law of man |

whatsoever is more or less than this | cometh of evil | (DAC 98:2)


The laws of the land

Question: What is the will of the Lord concerning the laws of the land?

Answer: It is the will of the Lord that His people should observe to do all things whatsoever He commands them.

Q: Why does the Lord answer a question on His will concerning man-made laws with a direction to obey His heaven-sent (revealed) laws?

A: See the rest of this post.

The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights

Q: What is the will of the Lord concerning the U.S. Constitution?

A: It is the will of the Lord that only that part of the constitution which supports that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges is justifiable before him, and that His people are justified in befriending that portion of the Constitution.

Q: Which part of the constitution is He referring to?

A: The Bill of Rights. (See What the Lord has said about the Constitution.)

The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. These limitations serve to protect the natural rights of liberty and property. (Wikipedia entry for United States Bill of Rights.)

A bill of rights is a list of the most important rights of the citizens of a country. The purpose of these bills is to protect those rights against infringement. (Wikipedia entry for Bill of Rights.)

Q: Why does the Lord say that this part of the U.S. Constitution (the Bill of Rights) “belongs to all mankind”?

A: Because the Americans of that time viewed these principles as only applying to white men and the Lord was correcting this perversion by showing that the Bill of Rights protected all people in their rights and privileges, whether black, white, male, female, bond, free, American or non-American. In other words, God does not view the principles embodied in the Bill of Rights as limited in their scope of protection to only a sub-set of the human population of this planet.

Originally, the Bill of Rights implicitly legally protected only white men, excluding American Indians, people considered to be “black” (now described as African Americans), and women. These exclusions were not explicit in the Bill of Right’s text, but were well understood and applied. (Wikipedia entry on United States Bill of Rights.)

When the Lord states in His preface to the Doctrine and Covenants, “for verily the voice of the Lord is unto all men,” this includes all of His written words which are sent out among men under inspiration of the Holy Ghost, for all things written by the power (or under the inspiration) of the Holy Ghost and publicly published “belongs to all mankind,” therefore, this shows that the Bill of Rights, although penned by the hand of men, was inspired of the Holy Ghost. The Bill of Rights, then, cannot be applicable to only a subset of society, but must, of necessity, be applicable to all mankind, just as the revelations of God given to the Gentiles of this nation apply to the Gentiles of all nations*.

This also shows that the Federalists were not inspired of God, as is currently viewed by many LDS and Christians, for the Federalists were the ones who desired and created the U.S. Constitution and it was their intention to bring forth that document without a bill of rights.

And this shows also that the Anti-Federalists were inspired of God, for it was they who were against the U.S. Constitution and it was their insistence upon a bill of rights that allowed one to be created and attached to the constitution.

Q: Was the Bill of Rights the only inspired part of the U.S. Constitution?

A: Yes, the Bill of Rights was the only inspired part of the U.S. Constitution. This is why the Lord qualifies which part of the constitution is justifiable before Him. In other words, the only part of the U.S. Constitution that the Lord’s people are justified in befriending is the part that was inspired by Him.

Q: What about the other parts of the U.S. Constitution? Are we justified in befriending the other parts?

A: No, we are not, for the Lord categorically states, “Whatsoever is more or less than this, cometh of evil.”

Q: Does this mean that the U.S. Constitution is evil, excepting only the Bill of Rights, which was inspired of God?

A: Yes, that is exactly what it means. It means that the devil inspired men to write the U.S. Constitution, and all other man-made laws, excepting only bills of rights. Bills of rights, which protect all people in their rights and privileges, are inspired of the Spirit of freedom, which is the Holy Ghost, and are justifiable before the Lord. Everything else is evil in the sight of the Lord.

*Because the Lord has approved of, or justified, the Bill of Rights, latter-day saints are fully authorized to include it as part of their scriptural canon. This is not to say that it is scripture, for it was not written by the power of the Holy Ghost, nor does it contain the revealed words of God, nevertheless, as an inspired and approved writing, it may be used to defend or safeguard one’s rights in a church setting.

To give a brief example, as to what I mean, let’s look at the sixth amendment:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

All of these enumerated rights apply equally in any church prosecution, for this justified, inspired text is inalienable property of all mankind, including the saints of God who stand accused within the church of God, and they can use it to keep ecclesiastical abuse at bay. In like manner, every single one of the amendments that make up the Bill of Rights is applicable in a church setting, for the word of God does not supersede these protections.


i | the lord god | make you free | therefore | ye are free indeed |

and the law also maketh you free | nevertheless | when the wicked rule | the people mourn | wherefore | honest men | and wise men | should be sought for diligently | and good men | and wise men | ye should observe to uphold | otherwise | whatsoever is less than these | cometh of evil |

and i give unto you a commandment |

that ye shall forsake all evil | and cleave unto all good |

that ye shall live by every word | which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of god | for he will give unto the faithful line upon line | precept upon precept |

and i will try you | and prove you herewith |

and whoso layeth down his life in my cause | for my name’s sake | shall find it again | even life eternal | therefore | be not afraid of your enemies |

for i have decreed in my heart |

saith the lord |

that i will prove you in all things | whether you will abide in my covenant | even unto death | that you may be found worthy |

for if ye will not abide in my covenant | ye are not worthy of me | therefore | renounce war | and proclaim peace | and seek diligently to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers | and the hearts of the fathers to the children |

and again | the hearts of the jews unto the prophets | and the prophets unto the jews |

lest i come | and smite the whole earth with a curse | and all flesh be consumed before me |

let not your hearts be troubled | for in my father’s house are many mansions | and i have prepared a place for you | and where my father and i am | there ye shall be also | (DAC 98:3)


The Lord makes us free

Q: What does the Lord mean when He says, “I, the Lord God, make you free, therefore, ye are free indeed.”

A: He is speaking of the atonement and resurrection that He Himself wrought, which through repentance and faith on the Lord has power to break every band and free every people, even from the devil’s spiritual bondage.

The law makes us free

Q: To what law is the Lord referring when He says, “And the law also maketh you free”?

A: He is referring to all those laws given by the Spirit of freedom (which is the Holy Ghost), which encompass all the revealed laws of God, which free us from the power of the evil one. The Bill of Rights may also be included, for they were penned by men writing under inspiration of the Holy Ghost and they help to maintain our God-given rights.

This “law that makes us free” has no qualifications for justification before the Lord, unlike the uninspired, man-made laws do, because this law is given under revelation or inspiration of heaven, and thus tends toward increasing one’s agency. Every other kind of law, whether commandments of men or doctrines of devils, tends toward bondage, and thus is inspired of the devil.

Wicked rulers

Q: What was the Lord referring to when He spoke of wicked rulers? Were these wicked political leaders?

A: The principle encompasses every area of life, whether political, social, religious, tribal or family, but specifically, He had view of the rulers of His church, meaning the priesthood leadership of His covenant people, for these are the only ones who have the law that makes one free indeed (meaning freed from the devil’s power of captivation), which are the revealed laws of God.

I refer back to the original question: What is the will of the Lord concerning the laws of man? To obey the law of God, that is His will concerning the laws of man. Over and over again in this and other revelations, the Lord stresses that all we are required to do is keep His commandments. Now, His commandments are found in the word of God, or the scriptures. And that word of God is His law. Therefore,

thou shalt take the things | which thou hast received | which have been given unto thee in my scriptures | for a law | to be my law to govern my church | and he | that doeth according to these things | shall be saved | and he | that doeth them not | shall be damned | if he so continue | (D&C 42:59-60)

i am the lord | thy god | and i give unto you this commandment |

that no man shall come unto the father | but by me | or by my word | which is my law |

saith the lord | (D&C 132:12)

And what does the Lord command concerning the laws of the land?

let no man break the laws of the land | for he | that keepeth the laws of god | hath no need to break the laws of the land | wherefore | be subject to the powers that be | until he reigns | whose right it is to reign | and subdues all enemies under his feet |

behold | the laws | which ye have received from my hand | are the laws of the church | and in this light ye shall hold them forth |

behold | here is wisdom | (D&C 58:21-23)

So we see that even here, where the Lord states, “let no man break the laws of the land**,” He still ties it into keeping the laws of God. This is because the only thing that is important to God is that His people keep His sayings. The Lord is not concerned with the laws of men. His only concern is His own law, which He has given to His people. In fact, it is His purpose to do away with all the laws of men and have only His revealed law lived by His people.

but | verily | i say unto you |

that | in time | ye shall have no king | nor ruler | for i will be your king | and watch over you | wherefore | hear my voice | and follow me | and you shall be a free people | and ye shall have no laws | but my laws | when i come | for i am your lawgiver | and what can stay my hand | (D&C 38:22)

So, again, what is the will of the Lord concerning the laws of the land? That we keep the law of God. His focus is always on the heaven-sent laws, for all man-made laws are corrupt, or come of evil, excepting only bills of rights.

For this reason, the wicked rulers that He is specifically referring to are those who cause the people to mourn despite them having the law that makes them free, which is His law. Thus, these wicked rulers are the leaders of His church.

**And what laws of the land is the Lord referring to here? Why, the only laws of the land that are justifiable before Him, namely, the Bill of Rights, for, think about it, if one keeps the laws of God then you cannot be infringing on the rights and privileges which are enumerated in the Bill of Rights. And this is the only meaning of the scripture. It does not mean that there will never be any corrupt, unjustified, man-made laws that will conflict with the laws of God. Of course, there will!  But as far as the Bill of Rights is concerned, there is no conflict between it and the revealed laws of God.

Seeking and upholding good men is, and is not, voting

Q: When the Lord states that we should seek and uphold good, wise, and honest men, is He not talking about the political process?

A: No, He is not talking about the political process, for what does the Lord have to do with the political process? The political process has jurisdiction over a corrupt set of laws, consisting of the commandments of men mingled with doctrines of devils. As the Lord sees the whole gamut of laws as coming of evil, excepting only the Bill of Rights, why would He desire His saints to become involved in such affairs? He has already said that He places the basest of men over the kingdoms of men:

this matter is by the decree of the watchers | and the demand by the word of the holy ones | to the intent that the living may know | that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men | and giveth it to whomsoever he will | and setteth up over it the basest of men | (Daniel 4:17)

That being true, it is a given that wicked rulers and man-made laws go hand in hand, therefore, it is not the place of the saints to attempt to make better (meaning less corrupt, but still, nevertheless, corrupt) man-made laws, or to select good rulers to administer in a better manner the corrupt, man-made laws, for the whole operation is doomed to failure.

No, the place of the saints is to obey the law of God, which is not corrupt, and to make sure that only good, wise and honest rulers are found in the kingdom of God, so that they can administer the good, wise and honest laws of God, that the top may match the root, because if this is not the case, despite the good laws of God, a wicked ecclesiastical ruler will make the lives of the saints a living hell.

Now, this is accomplished in the church of God by making sure that only honest men and wise men are called to the various church positions of authority and responsibility and by making sure that only good men and wise men are elected by vote. And this election is done by vote, by the raising up of the right hand, which is how such men are upheld, or sustained, it being a type of what was done to Moses’ hands.

So, yes, the Lord is referring to an election, even the calling and election of the leaders of his church, but He is not referring to any political election, nor to any political process.

Q: What does the saying, “whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil,” mean, as it concerns the wicked leaders?

A: It means that if the people of the Lord’s church allow wicked leaders to be over them, it with be through their own transgression. It means that the Lord’s people have the responsibility to elect only wise, honest people for the Lord’s church. They are bound to seek out and sustain only such people. If they knowingly sustain any other type of individual, they transgress the law of God.

It also means that the evil one’s strategy is to get wicked rulers into the Lord’s church, that the good laws of God may be ignored, misinterpreted, trampled upon, and perverted. The law of God presents a problem to the adversary, so he attacks the church individually, through individual transgression, or with church-wide effects, through the installment of a wicked ruler. The current environment of voting by rubber-stamp has already set up the conditions whereby wicked rulers may be installed in every level of the church. Nevertheless, the law of God is still there and in effect.

Forsake all evil, cleave to all good

Q: What is the context of the Lord’s commandment to forsake all evil and cleave to all good?

A: It is a commandment given to the saints of God, living within the jurisdiction of the gathered church of God, finding themselves in the midst of a congregation which is ruled over by a wicked ruler. What is a saint to do in such a situation? Well, they are to forsake all evil and cleave to all good. In other words, this is the test of the saints: to be put under covenant to obey the laws of God, to be placed within a congregation and to have wicked rulers placed over them. Now, obey the laws of God, despite the fact that that wicked ruler is going to oppose you. Obey the laws of God, anyway. That is your test.

Q: When the Lord then says to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, is this the same context?

A: Yes, the context is the same. The wicked ruler over the church of God, whether of a local or general jurisdiction, will speak words, orders, counsels, which will proceed out of his own mouth, to those who come under his jurisdiction. The Lord, then, says, “you are to live by every word that comes from God,” as opposed to the words coming out of that wicked man’s mouth. The words of God are found in the scriptures. The faithful, meaning those who exercise faith like unto the ancients, will also have more words given to them, precept by precept, by the Holy Ghost, visions, angels, etc. All these words of God, then, are what the saints are to live by. They are not to live by the words of the wicked church ruler.

After these instructions, the Lord then says, “and I will try you and prove you herewith.” So, again, this is the test. Will we keep our covenants and the commandments of the Lord, as written in the scriptures, and as delivered to us by God’s angels, the Holy Ghost, etc., as they come from the Lord’s mouth, or will we follow the wicked rulers placed over us? Will we do so even if it costs us our life? Hence the Lord talking of laying down our lives for His sake.

Who are the enemies?

Q: When the Lord, then, in these verses mentions enemies, when He says to not fear our enemies, who is He talking about?

A: This has broad application, for there are enemies both foreign (outside of the church) and domestic (inside of the church), but the specific context of these words is the enemy found within the church, namely, these wicked rulers. We are not to fear any of these enemies, but are to keep the Lord’s commandments, or as He puts it in this revelation, we are to “observe to do whatsoever He commands us,” and are to simply trust in Him. If we die, we will inherit eternal life. If we live, we still get eternal life. We win in either situation.

At some point in the future history of the church, the wicked church rulers will conspire to kill the saints within their congregations. They will be successful a certain number of times, fulfilling the prophecy about the blood of the saints crying from the ground against them. The Lord in this revelation is calming the fears of His saints, by telling them to stand for the right, no matter what the church environment is, or how bad it is going to get, to stay true to the covenants and commandments and to live by His words alone, and although blood will be spilled, it will still be well with them.

For all those others who will break their covenants and the commandments of God, by following a wicked church leader, they will be accounted as unworthy of the prize.

Renounce war and proclaim peace

Q: What of the renounce war and proclaim peace bit? Surely, that must be talking of the political process, right?

A: Again, these principles can be applied generally, but there is a specific context to the words, and that is within the context of the church. In other words, at some point the wicked leaders are going to create dissension and conflict, even war among the body of the saints, or a great division. We will see a repeat of the Book of Mormon times, where church members will engage in heated arguments with each other and exchange blows. Amalickiah comes to mind, who himself was a dissident member of the church of God. So, the Lord is beforehand telling them, or giving them the principles whereby they may be guided in wisdom’s paths, namely, that they are not to engage in such behavior. They are to stand for the right, but not to wage war, or encourage war, upon anyone. They are to always hold up the standard of peace, unless commanded by God to hold up the banner of war.

The hearts of the children and fathers

Q: What is the Lord referring to when He talks about turning the hearts of the children to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children?

A: It refers to the dissension and division which will be among the church, father being divided against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, etc. The saints who live by every word of God will be seeking to mend this division among the church, by getting everyone back together, in a spirit of love, compassion and understanding. Those who break their covenants will be seeking to widen the divide.

Q: So, this passage does not refer to genealogical work and the temple?

A: No, it has reference to this prophesied division and the repair work that the saints of God will be engaged in.

The hearts of the Jews and the prophets

Q: What is the meaning of the saying about turning the hearts of the Jews and prophets to each other?

A: It has reference to the wicked church leaders, and the work of the saints in their midst of turning them back to the Lord, through the words of the prophets, both found in the scriptures and among the population, who will be prophesying, so that the Jews, or leadership, would repent of their sins and become clean again before the Lord. The saints, who will judge all things pertaining to Zion, will seek at that time, to recover the leadership, through preaching and prophesying, or will turn their hearts to the Jews (the leadership.) The Jews (the leadership), will likewise have their hearts turned to the prophets, those prophets who reside in their congregation and those of the scriptures, and will be recovered, at least, those who repent will be recovered, and the rifts mended.

All of these things, which will happen among the Gentile church, is a type or a shadow that will happen among the tribes of Israel, as well, for the Jews (the non-Gentile people of the Lord) will also have their hearts turned to the prophets, and their children and fathers turned to each other.

Let not your hearts be troubled

Q: This saying of “let not your hearts be troubled” appears to be a general theme of this revelation. Why is that?

A: It is because the revelation is a prophetic time-line. It starts out by saying that their prayers will be answered and that they need not fear. (See DAC 98:1.) Then it talks about the laws of man (the State) and a saint’s relationship to those laws, giving permission to befriend only the Bill of Rights. (See DAC 98:2.) Then it goes into what a saint must do when wicked church rulers are found within it. (See DAC 98:3.) Then it holds up the church at Kirkland as a contemporary example of wickedness and gives a warning of chastisement if they do not repent and obey the Lord’s commandments. (See DAC 98:4.) Next, it gives a promise that if the church obeys the Lord’s commandments, essentially every adversary will be turned away from them, including the very Adversary himself. (See DAC 98:5.) And this particular prophecy will be, in part, fulfilled by the wicked turning on each other. The next bunch of sayings (DAC 98:6,7,8,9) deal with anarchic laws of conflict, showing that by that time the Lord will have made an end of nations and people will have once again gone back into the tribes of the earth.

Regardless of where an enemy is found or of which phase of society a saint lives in, whether it is the civic government phase, the wicked church phase, the phase of the division in the church, or the tribal anarchy phase, the saints are told the same message: observe to do all that the Lord commands you, seeking reconciliation and peace, repentance and forgiveness, trusting in the Lord and His promises, doubting nothing and fearing no one (not even your enemies), and if you do this, it will be well with you.

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Unity of God


A uni-verse [the One-Story]; a tale being told:

The world does not consist of “things”, but of interactions — and it is the interactions that give the appearance of “things”.  All “things” are fundamentally a verb.  But the base-”stuff” of all creation [at the deep-down and far-in level] — the noun, is the same.  What makes the variety of created things that we can observe in the universe consists of the “verb” the one-thing is doing.

Like a whirlpool, we appear as a static-and-solid form — but what we are is actually quite dynamic-and-fluid.  Your body’s cells are in a constant process of dying-out and replacing themselves:  every  moment, every day, every month — year-by-year.  Most of what you “know” was experienced by cells that have long-since been sloughed and replaced with new ones.

When you eat or breathe — your cells [which are communities of atoms] are designed so that they will be put in close proximity to the food or air [which are also communities of atoms] under conditions conducive enough for the right kind-of chemistry to happen — and allow some of these atoms to trade places.

Your skin does not separate you from the world — it’s the bridge through which the external environment flows into you, and you into it.  Because of your skin, you have a definite form/shape that others can recognize, but [as the whirlpool is a constant flow of water] the whole world is constantly moving through you.  All the cosmic radiation, all the water, food, and minerals, all the air, even the feelings and sensations — are a stream of everything, flowing right through “You”.  And you spin that stream into a constant form — a wave that I can wave to, and call “You”.

This is why you can take the particles of my body, bury them in the ground, and have them go on to become:

  • the fiber of a toadstool
  • the lignin of an oak tree
  • the petals of a dandelion
  • the keratin of the hair of a rabbit
  • starch in a potato
  • O2 for you to breathe
  • and CO2 to buffer your blood

But none of that would cause the “Me” [the stream of consciousness and torrent of particles that you would have seen, experienced, and known as "Me"] to be lost.  When resurrected, I cannot get ALL of the particles that made-up my body — because during the decades of living, there were never any ONE set of atoms that were ever “mine”.

Some of the particles I “had” as a child already went on to become part of something/someone else before I even died.  And some of the atoms that “belonged” to me at the time of death were fertilizing a blade of grass before the time appointed for the resurrection.

“I” am not the particles of my body — I can’t be the “pieces” because those are constantly changing [even right now, at this very moment].  My cells are each a constant flow of atoms and electrons:  from the environment, through me, and back-out again.

“I” am this unique arrangement of nucleotides, amino acids, and minerals — a spell(ing) of alphabetic compounds [A-T-C-G; Met-Lys-Cys-Thr-Arg-Phe; C-H-O-Na-Fe-Ca-P].  The “Me” is the energy that informs [or gives form] to that dynamic stream [or flow] of particles — making them constantly appear as the continuous form everyone perceives and relates to as Me.

The power of the resurrection does not give me the same particles back — because those are irrelevant.  There never were any “specific pieces” that made me, “Me” anyway.  The power of the resurrection is the moment when my unique arrangement of particles is made physical again.

The Supreme Being [the Ultimate Doing], the principle verb:

“Being” is a verb word — and we are Human-beings, and God is the Supreme-Being.  God is that this-or-that one Actor or Actress who is being “God” — rather, God is the “verb” that we can all do [see The Doctrine of Identity].

Those who obtain the ability to do the works of God, to be the Supreme Being — will be the ones who have the capacity to reorganize their physical form and keep it in the kingdom of God.

On the other hand, those who fail to obtain this ability will lose all power to maintain the highly-organized state of “existence”.  Their physical body [the "pieces"] will go on to provide form for other creations, while their spirit/consciousness [the "energy" that informs the pieces] will be lost to entropy, becoming an indistinguishable bit of the cosmic radiation background.

Which category you find yourself in depends entirely upon which “spirit doth possess your body at the time that ye go out of this life,” because that’s the “same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world,” — whether that be

  • the spirit of the devil
  • or the spirit of the Lord

[see Alma 34:34-35 and A person, being evil, cannot do that which is good].

Works/Doings of the Flesh [which will have an end]:

now the works of the flesh are manifest
which are these

  • covenant-breaking
  • sexual misconduct
  • ritual impurity
  • indulging the pleasures of the senses
  • idolatry
  • use or administration of pharmakeia
  • enmity
  • contention
  • jealousies
  • fiery anger
  • partisanship
  • dividing into divisions
  • and sects
  • envyings
  • murders
  • intoxication
  • engaging in revelry and debauchery

and other things of like kind
of which I tell you now
as I have also told you before
that they which do such things
shall not receive inheritance in
the kingdom of god

[Galatians 5:19-21]

and

because their hearts are set
so much upon the things of this world
and aspire to the honors of men
[and] they do not learn
this one lesson —

that the rights of the priesthood
are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven
and that the powers of heaven
cannot be controlled nor handled
only upon the principles of righteousness
that they may be conferred upon us
it is true
but when we undertake to

  • cover our sins
  • gratify our pride
  • gratify our vain ambition
  • exercise control
  • exercise dominion
  • exercise compulsion

upon the souls of the children of men
in any degree of unrighteousness
behold
the heavens withdraw themselves
the spirit of YHVH is grieved
and when it is withdrawn

amen

to the priesthood
or the authority
of that man
behold
before he becomes aware of it
he is left unto himself
to kick against the pricks
to persecute the saints
and to fight against god

we have learned
by sad experience
that it is the nature
and disposition
of almost all men
as soon as they get a little authority
as they suppose
they will immediately begin
to exercise unrighteous dominion

[D&C 121:35-39]

Upon death, we will each of us find that the laws of physics which had [until that point] allowed us to:

  • force air into our lungs by manipulating air pressure differences between our chest cavity and the atmosphere
  • force gases to exchange at our lungs and tissues by taking advantage of the partial pressures of the various gases
  • prevent our bodies from going right through physical objects [including the ground] by relying on the electromagnetic repulsion of the electrons surrounding our body and the electrons surrounding the other objects
  • rob food of its low-entropy/high-energy value by chemically stripping the carbons and the electrons from the fats and starches and giving back out high-entropy/low-energy waste products
  • etc.

will have ceased to work “just so”.

The present, mortal environment does not respond to the informing commands of our spirit out of respect for our level of righteousness.  Rather, in His mercy, the Lord has commanded the physical elements here to allow us to push them around and force them — regardless of righteousness or our lack thereof.

They are presently voluntarily-submitting to God’s request — and this is why we are presently able to manipulate the elements that make up our mortal existence, according to a specific set of laws that we’ve observed, studied, and defined as “The Laws of Physics”  [see The seeds of the powers of godliness].

Upon death — God’s merciful probation with the physical elements ends.  The elements will again respond as they always have — according to the principles of free-agency, consent, and respect.  If we have not learned to command our will in the universe according to the principles of righteousness — then we will find ourselves in an awful situation in the afterlife.  For it will be impossible for your spirit [your "soul" or "consciousness"] to force the elements to do anything against their will.

You will find yourself with an insatiable desire to eat, the feeling of unquenchable thirst, the perpetual sensation of suffocation — but have no way to alleviate the feelings.  You will find yourself pulled-down by gravity into the central portion of the earth’s outer shell — a place of immense heat and crushing pressure, a “spirit prison” or hell [see Teachings on hell and the spirit world].

Once at the center of hell, gravity pushes you equally in all direction.  Therefore, your body will act like an astronaut’s does while in orbit.  You will have no power to move this-way or that-way.  There is nothing your spirit could “act upon” in order to move around.

In fact, the only way you will be able to “move” at all is by Satan moving you around [as he desires you to be moved] by pulling on the chains of hell attached to the base of your head [see How to receive what you ask for].

This makes you entirely subject to him — which is the very definition of “damnation”:

if they be evil
to the resurrection
of endless damnation
being delivered up to the devil
who hath subjected them
which is damnation

[Mosiah 16:11]

Works/Doings of the Spirit [which will continue in perpetuity]:

but the fruit of the spirit is

  • charity
  • joy
  • peace
  • patience
  • gentleness
  • goodness
  • faith
  • meekness
  • moderation and self-control

against such
there is no law

[Galatians 5:22-23]

and

no power or influence
can or ought
to be maintained
by virtue of the priesthood
it can only be by

  • persuasion
  • patience
  • gentleness
  • and meekness
  • and genuine love
  • kindness
  • pure knowledge

[...]
the holy spirit shall be thy constant companion
and thy scepter
an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth
and thy dominion
shall be an everlasting dominion
and without compulsory means
it shall flow unto thee forever and ever

[D&C 121:41-42, 46]

Divinity is found in being bound to the most, serving the most, and being connected to the most – not vice-versa.  The nature of reality, rather than being monotheistically ONE, is [on its basic, fundamental level] polytheistically MANY.  A plurality of intelligences.

The revelation of God in the scriptures is that the governing Power of existence is a Personage that relates to the universe with [what the Hebrews called] “chesed” – the loving-kindness and compassion of a God who relates to us with the level of intimacy that is only the result of “beriyth” – or a covenant.

God is not self-existent – for He does all things, including creation, through voluntary covenant with free entities.  Creation was an act of council – of covenant between free and independent agents.  This actually means that He is bound to all things.  And a “self-existing” Being is independent and cannot be bound.

This is why God could “cease to be God”.  Our heavenly Father is “God” because of the covenant He has bound Himself into, with us.  His covenant relationship with creation means He exists for/because of us – not Himself.  Likewise, all things exists because they have bound themselves in covenant with God.  That’s why those who breach the terms of this covenant return to “their own place” in outer darkness – where there is no existence.

Neither the elements of the universe, nor God, are self-existing or independent — because the existence of both parties is a covenant relationship with the other.  Both we and God are self-inter-dependent, one with another.

The unity of God, then, comes as a product – not as an ex nihilo starting point — but a result.  Faith, common consent, persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, charity, etc. are not some stop-gap measures or some temporary/transient states-of-mind that we can drop once we’re “with God”.

For even the Gods must have and keep faith and must persuade and cooperate – for these things are the very fabric of the trusting engagement and co-valent, covenant relationship between all things [see Deep Waters: What would have happened if Lucifer had won the vote?].  At the very bottom [the root or base], Reality is plural and “God” is the unity, order, and cooperation that emerges from that.

Each of our Stories contributes to the Uni-story — One-verse in a Multi-verse:

The universe is a fragmented web, an ornate arabesque of energy, a flow of information that moves through all the variety of interconnected “things” – as wind or water moves.  And we are sym-phonic beings — and should not be content with mono-tony:  rows-and-rows of uniform, conformed, industrialized, factory-farmed, marketed, commoditzed sameness.

All of our “mono-“s [mono-theism, mono-culture, mono-gamy] share the common feature of being less robust and less diverse caricatures of a natural and diverse state of Reality.  All of our –archy’s and –ism’s are just temporary, arbitrary, and illusionary attempts to control things that are what they are because they are natural, diverse, and without someone to “rule” it all.

Statists want to see God as “ordered”, “ordering”, “imposing”, etc.  They pattern Him after the cosmic monoarch because they arise from cultures that were predominately monoarchy-s — and “chaos” or “undirected activity” is a problem that causes them anxiety and fight-or-flight stress.  But there is nothing to be feared from “chaos” — for it is only the unknown we fear when we look upon chaos, nothing more.

It’s not about a battle between “chaos vs. order” — that’s the wrong debate.  It’s about fearing the chaos or desiring the order — pitting one against the other.

LDS are at a bit of an advantage [theologically-speaking] over other Christians in this regard — because the creation of earth in our mythos is said to be an organization of “matter unorganized“.  Pre-existing material, arranged and put to good use.  In our creation myth — the Gods come into a space of chaos, and give it power — give it a purpose worth fulfilling.

But it’s not about “fighting” chaos with order or about embracing chaos “over” order.  For example, the family is an ordered unit.  The higher entropy [greater disorder, "chaos"] state would be for each of the members to exist as separate ego-islands, unto themselves.  Yet we order ourselves into families — and are protected against the effects of entropy by virtue of our organization as a community [called "family"].

And our brains aren’t active by virtue of having some “King Neuron” who runs the whole show — rather it has its strength according to the number of connections running between all the neurons together.

All enduring communities are organized in a more fractal, nature-like interplay and cooperation between the unique units.

I don’t want not to be “anti-order” — rather anti-archy: the imposed order, force, coercion, or compulsive order.  Any “-archy” is that linear, meccano-like corporate conformity and mono-tonous sameness.  It says to tie-up all your sticks into neater and tighter bundles, making sure they are all the same size and length — it’s strong like a brick-wall is strong.

Any an-archy says, let things organize theirselves as they will naturally tend to when they’re left alone — like the cellular cooperation within and between a body’s organs, like atomic cooperation between fundamental particles.  The life in this universe is absolutely built-upon the enduring qualities of such interactions and communities.

Human interactions, then, become less of an oppressive power-pyramid — and something more like a dance, something that we could imagine to be fun to experience with others [see Gimme some a that Mormon-hippie love, with a side of anarchy].

It works like nature does [which can seem "chaotic", depending on how you look at it] — without an outside foreman being habitually obeyed by the “underlings”.

The very people who fear chaos and therefore try to use means of imposed order — end-up causing more chaos.  When order is imposed, when interactions are controlled — from above or from outside [out of obligation or “duty”] things get out of a natural equilibrium or balance — and get more out of control.

Until we end-up spending all our energy fighting to control what our attempts at control have caused.  These will always tend to dehumanize the very people it’s seeking to “serve” by “giving them order” — and those it tends to dehumanize most, are the ones who think they lead it.

When fear drives your actions — it doesn’t quite matter what the goal is, how noble or honorable it may be — fear is still driving, and it will lead nowhere worth going.

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The Revelation of God in Jesus Christ


A “god” is the idea of a god — the idea of a god is a god:

The most basic meaning of the Hebrew “elohim” is that of “powers“.  The human mind names, personifies, and maps-out these various “powers” and their interactions, but ultimately the “gods” are the culturally-appropriate manifestations or mental vehicles for a given power/energy/idea.

The demons, angels, pantheons of deity, Gods and Goddesses — they are all the impulses that inspire and guide You — unpackaged and unfolded as poetry and story-form.  They are personifications of the “powers” arising from nature and found within human-nature, externalized and examined in their most potent and purest symbolic form.

They all exist in our right-brain — as the warring desires in our minds, which battle for dominance in our decision-making.  It is we who make the “gods” real by the ones we choose to be guided by and the ones we “make flesh” by our actions.

Thus — if my “guiding power” is violent, then my actions and worldview will be contentious and hostile.  If my “dominant god” is compassionate, then I will experience my life through the lens of acceptance, mercy, and forgiveness.  Etc.

The long-standing human tradition of myths, religions, mystical experiences, etc. — is the essential activity of differentiating yourSelf from the unconscious forces of existence by personifying them, and then bringing them into a relationship with yourSelf consciously.

“Gods” are the set of ideas and perspectives through whom we view our world and ourselves.  They are but a name for someone’s mode of being — relating to their inner-self and their external interactions.  Our beliefs are our reality tunnels — and every one of them is an individual and culturally-appropriate manifestation of the Singular God.

Which is why it’s not entirely respectful to comment on the specific beliefs of another religion/culture to which you do not belong — because God gives the portion of his Word that is expedient and culturally-tailored to the specific conditions found among the community of the seers/prophets who received it [not to your conditions or culture].

The revelation of God in Jesus Christ:

The “God” whom I follow is the story of Jesus Christ.  A belief-system which commits me to the basic concept of servanthood and compassion.

I have voluntarily bound myself to Christ and his Word by my covenant to obey his every commandment.  This voluntary servanthood [or yoke] binds me to the fundamental reality that “God” is found in being under the most, serving the most, and being connected to the most [instead of vice-versa].

The revelation of God in the scriptures is that the most basic fabric of all existence is “chesed” — the loving-kindness and compassion of a God who relates to the universe with the level of intimacy that is the result of “beriyth” — or a covenant.

God is not “self-existing” — for He does all things through covenant [including creation] — which actually binds Him to all things.  A “self-existing” Being is independent and cannot be bound.  This is why God could “cease to be God” if He acts in certain ways — because the power and unity of God is a product [not a starting point] — and He is God because of the covenant He’s bound Himself to.

Thus — faith is not a stop-gap measure, or transient state-of-mind that we can drop once we’ve crossed-over and are “with God”.  All things [including gods] must have and keep faith, for it is the necessary element of the trusting engagement and active cooperation that is “existence”.

God’s covenant relationship with all of creation means that He exists for us – not Himself.  Likewise, all things exist because they are bound in covenant with God as well.  That is why any damned thing in the created universe can return to outer-darkness ["return again to their own place"], where there is no existence.

Neither the elements of the universe nor God are self-existing or independent entities — because the existence of both parties is a covenantal relationship.

Belonging to the “true church” of God has no meaning or value

There is nothing special that I get for having joined the latter-day church of Christ.  In fact, it gives me nothing special or noteworthy — and that’s the point.  There is no advantage to being LDS, to having the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, to holding the rights of the priesthood, or having access to temples, etc. — for me.

You can’t “pass the test” of Life — or “solve the problem” by aligning yourself with the “right religion” on earth before you die — thereby securing your “salvation”.  Life is not a bank you can rob — and “get out” of it with eternal treasure.

Things don’t “get solved” — they comes together and fall apart, and come together again.  “Salvation” or “Enlightenment” comes from letting-go and allowing there to be room enough of all of it to happen — without fearing failure or desiring success.

We naturally desire the immortality of our ego, our beliefs, our group, etc.  God reaches into human history through the person of Jesus Christ to extend immortality to all — on the condition that they accept it unconditionally-alone, meaning by abandoning the hope of securing it for “You” or your “in-group”.

When our “god” is not Jesus Christ — when we do not deny ourselves, cease to identify with this skin-encapsulated center-of-will in the universe, and take up the yoke of Christ — then our fundamental allegiance will always be to Self-preservation, Self-reliance, and Self-centered survival.

We can never be One with God or with others — because we constantly experience God and neighbor as something inherently “Not-Self”.

Having the “mind of Christ” in you means you pour yourSelf out, in love.  Because, in love, surrender is victory.

Instead of falling into Self-centered separation and sin — fall in love, into Christ-centered connectivity and intimacy.

And not just with God — but with your family and your neighbors, your enemies and those who would despitefully use, hate, and persecute you — and this love won’t leave out the animals and plants, the earth and the stars — because deep-down and far-in, it’s all one energy flowing from them, through us, and back out again.

One thing [a uni-verse] that we experience coming through in individual waves.

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(A Family that Lives Together…)

Spicing up your church experience: Women’s edition


There are a growing majority of people starting to recognize the difference between the doctrine of Mormonism and the culture of Mormonism — and who are finding it harder-and-harder to deal with the culture of it.  For example, Mike S at Wheat & Tares has an “If I Were in Charge:” series based on this idea — covering topics such as who can be “Mormon”, the church’s for-profit ventures, and garments.

This culture of being “A Mormon” — like it’s a brand-name or product — is sending too many good people running for the hills.  We say “The Church is the same everywhere you go” — like it would even be a good thing if it were — but I’ve found that it’s really not anyway.

We might participate in role-played discussions with pre-perscribed responses, but the impression of uniformity among Mormons is just a facade of being built on a solid foundation — but this image is built on the works of men and may have success for a season, but when shaken — it will suddenly crumble into its true picture: an institution built on sand, smoke, and mirrors.

The diversity is there among Mormons already — it’s just everyone knows what to do/say to keep up the appearance of conformity so that it doesn’t manifest outwardly.  Any time we’ve gotten closer with other members and talked openly about the church with them — I’ve always been surprised at how similar our views actually are — once we get to know each other.  So how to you break the ice and get to know other members who feel the same way you do?

Introducing a bit of anarchy — this time with women in mind:

I took Melissa’s suggestion, and with the help of my wife, I came up with some things sisters can do to spice up their church experience.  This was written in the same spirit as LDS Anarchist’s list — and therefore, everyone [female or male, LDS or not] should feel free to run with any of them and encourage family and friends to do the same.

The more people that are doing these small things, the quicker the church can be de-culturalized — leaving only the diverse spectrum that the pure doctrine of Mormonism manifests.  But even if you don’t change the whole world — it’s always fun to introduce a little anarchy, shake up the cult of conformity, taking a little boredom out of your own church experience.

Now, all things are lawful for you, but not all things are expedient or edify [1 Corinthians 10:23].  Some church leaders are often witch-hunters, always looking for someone to judge as unfaithful, apostate, etc.  And the only valid reason, in their minds, for “contrary” points-of-view or “unapproved” behavior is worthiness issues.  Although the scriptural law is innocent until proven guilty, when leaders see dissension, they take a guilty until proven innocent stance. So the best course of action is always to act prudently and not say more than is expedient.  But even in a state of affairs where persecution for dissension can be common — much change can be effected without jeopardizing your good standing as a member of the church.

But, in any event, this list of small acts could go on and on.  The point is that once agents of change, acting in these ways, are found among various congregations — it becomes obvious to even the most close-minded member that something is afoot.  This can be what allows a healthy dialogue about what this whole “church experience” is really all about to begin.

Right now, the problem is we have no dialogue — and thus the status quo appears safe and sound.  But that’s just hard-packed sand.

So take these and have fun with them.

Vote “opposed” to church callings:

It would be easy to just throw up your hand as opposed for every calling.  Or, if you want, you could use the rational that D&C 121:39 states:

that it is the nature and disposition
of almost all men [not women]
as soon as they get a little authority
as they suppose
they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion

So that unless you know for certain otherwise — just vote in accordance with the most likely nature and disposition:

  • For all women who are called to a position, whose character you are unfamiliar with — raise your hand in the affirmative, unless the Spirit tells you explicitly to oppose.
  • For all men who are called to a position, whose character you are unfamiliar with — raise your hand in opposition, unless the Spirit tells you explicitly to affirm.
  • If you come across another woman who indicates that she believes in maintaining the power or influence of any priesthood holder by virtue of his priesthood office and calling — then make a note to vote against her next time her name comes up.
  • If you come across a man who indicates that he gives no regard to the priesthood office of another man, and that his only qualifications for following, or being influenced by, another person are those found in D&C 121:41-45 — then make a note to vote for him next time his name comes up.

Or just vote however your conscience falls on the matter on that particular day.  The point is – it does not matter what the reason for your vote is, it only matters what the vote is.  Even if your reason is totally ludicrous, your vote is still valid.

You might think that a single vote can’t change anything — because by majority vote, the calling still passes.  However, if each week there is a single vote against, the claim to unanimity can no longer be made.  Even closed-minded people are naturally curious — and every always remembers if there was a time that someone voted against a calling.  The event is powerful and eventually certain members of the congregation will approach you and ask why you raise your hand against.  That is a teaching opportunity which may lead to two, or more, inspired hands starting to go up.

In a secret ballot [like our state elections], a solitary vote against is essentially meaningless.  But in the church, we have an open vote, where everyone in the congregation can see that one, contrary vote taking place.  It can be quite powerful — especially if it becomes a common occurrence.  Add two votes to the contrary and it becomes downright dangerous to any would-be priesthood abusers.

We are told that the practice of taking a dissenting member aside to find out the reason for their dissenting vote is a way to see if they have information on the worthiness of the person being called, which if known to the leader might make them reconsider the calling. But that is just how it is presented.  In reality, taking aside and interviewing is a method of control.  Leaders know there are secret dissenters among every congregation, meaning members who have dissension in their hearts but do not actively manifest it — but to discipline them, they have to get them to divulge their angst and get some dirt on them by which they can either be forced to conform to the standard of unanimity or be disciplined in some manner.

This is why the leadership have gotten to the point where they don’t use the word “vote” any more.  The act of raising your hand for [not against] is called “sustaining” — while raising your hand against is always called “not sustaining” — and it is continuously taught that it is your duty to “sustain our leaders” [presumably by raising your hand for them].

By getting away from the word “vote”, which has no stigma if you vote your conscience — and by using the word “sustain”, the leadership have invented a new sin and multiplied guilt and fear.  Now everyone is afraid to exercise their voice of consent and the priesthood is free to engage in ecclesiastical abuse with nothing to hinder its progress – without the voice of the sisters to keep them in check.

Talk incessantly about Jesus:

Mormonism has much truth – but as a church, we’ve essentially transferred all faith to the truths, and thus none of it is on Jesus.

Carry on every conversation at church by always getting it back to Jesus.  This can be devastating to an idolatrous worship of prophets and of doctrines.  More often than not — our conversations are centered on prophets and apostles, obedience to leaders and commandments, blessings of paying tithing, attending church and temple, and every other conceivable topic that has nothing, whatsoever, to do with Jesus Christ’s suffering, death, resurrection and judgment.

Instead, force every conversation with another LDS that starts to be about the relative, periphery matters — about how this-or-that issue of the day can be talked about in light of Mormonism – and get it back onto spiritual experiences with Jesus Christ.  You’ll either grow closer to other members — or you’ll see them stumble, act vague, express doubt, and likely just say nothing at all because most people have nothing to say.

we talk of Christ
we rejoice in Christ
we preach of Christ
we prophesy of Christ
and we write according to our prophecies
that our children may know
to what source they may look for a remission of their sins

[2 Nephi 25:26]

Stop shaving:

Leg, armpit, and pubic hair develop at the on-set of puberty and are visual cues of an adult women.  However, the ubiquitous pornography-culture has essentially taught an entire generation that bodies and genitals are “sexy” when fully-shaven [appearing pre-pubicent].  So when the de facto means of sex education for an entire generation has been porn, it becomes conditioned to be aroused at the sight of bodies with no hair.  Sadly, like Pavlov’s dogs — any encounter with fully-shaven genitals will trigger such a person’s neural reward-centers to pursue the reward.

Also, the pheromonal scent on a woman changes throughout her monthly cycle, depending on her fertility.  When fertile, her scent becomes sweeter.  The problem is that it is really hard to smell anyone these days.  Men and women both use anti-perspirants and deodorants to cover up their smell — and women typically will completely shave-off their armpit hair.  And both sexes also add additional chemicals in their perfumes, shampoos, lotions, etc.  The hair follicle itself, embedded into the skin, is designed [upon movement] to stimulate the glands beneath and release a scent.

Every man and woman has a unique odor.  If a woman allows her scent to be smelled [instead of the smell of chemicals], then there will be a physiological response in any heterosexual man around her.  If he were to act on that initial attraction, then her specific scent would be linked to the attraction [olfaction being the sensory organ most closely linked to memory] — and all that is needed to re-stimulate the response would be to allow the scent to be smelled again.

Of course, none of this works if the body’s scent is masked with chemicals — or if all the hair is shaved clean off.  So let that hair that develops at the time of sexual maturity — the hair designed by God to act as a visual cue of womanhood — grow as it is intended to grow.  That hair is a part of the image of God considered as a woman — that every adult female reflects — and is beautiful.

Encourage your husband [and adult sons] to grow full beards:

Many men desire to stop shaving and allow their beards to grow-out full, but don’t because their wives are against it.  They may think a beard is too rough or prickly or that it tickles when they kiss him, etc.  However, facial hair in men [just like body hair for women] is a visual cue of manhood — and is a reflection of the image of God considered as a man reflected by every adult male.

A heterosexual woman is [by nature] drawn to bearded men because it is a sign of manliness — and women love manliness.  So don’t complain when your husbands or adult sons haven’t shaved in a couple weeks — instead compliment them on the fine beards they are growing.

No longer promote body modesty as a gospel principle:

It was Satan who introduced the concept of body modesty to Eve and Adam — instructing them to cover up their genitals out of shame.  This created an enticement for sin that could allure people into uncovering “the sinful/secret parts,” followed by the guilt of acting “shamefully“.

The target of virtually all talks on body modesty is females:  It is she who is told how and how not to dress — and usually by men.  All of this repression, if ever gets let out, leads to rampant breaking of the law of chastity [which is Satan’s plan].  And if it isn’t let out, then it leads to depression and an unsatisfactory marital sex life [again, Satan’s plan].

We teach our daughters [from as early-on as parents teach kids things] that clothing has nothing to do with their respect for God or for yourself.  We teach them that “modest” has to do with being simple, plain, inexpensive, humble, and unpretentious — not with how much of the skin of their thighs or shoulders are showing.  We teach them that their bodies were made modestly by God.

Now — we explain that the reason we wear clothes is for the sake of others.  We teach them that when you are with those who are weak, you should share their weakness because you have a desire to bring the weak to Christ. It is best to try and find common ground with people, doing everything you can that you might save them.

We put clothing into its proper perspective.  Religion has, unfortunately, lumped “modesty” in with sexuality — like being “pure” or having “high standards” — when modesty is really about living life in such a way as to not draw undue attention to yourself.

But nudity and modesty are not opposites, and can co-exist even beyond the context of married persons in the bedroom with the door closed.  So focus instead on teaching your daughters to live the law of chastity, while practicing nudism in your own home.  Because, remember — if God wanted us all going around naked, then we’d have been born that way!

Breast-feed openly and in public:

In most states, it is legal for a mother to breastfeed in any place she is legally allowed to be at.  Meaning, if this is the case in your state — then even when asked to “cover-up” or to “stop doing that here“.  You are free to openly keep your child on the breast as long as she/he desires to be.

The sex-culture has completely co-opted the breast and made it into another sexual organ.  It shows how disconnected we all really are from our Mother — that anyone would dare insist that a woman feeding, bonding with, and comforting a child should “cover it up” or “go somewhere else“.

The ability to completely sustain a human life by your breasts is a Divine attribute that makes a woman the high priestess of her family.  Such a thing should never be covered-up or hidden away in a spare closet.

Most LDS meeting houses provide a “nursing room” for mothers to go to when their children want to be on the breast.  Stop using this room — and instead, as the men manifest the calling of a priest by openly displaying the image of Christ in administering the sacrament — stay in the meeting room and manifest the calling of a priestess by openly displaying the image of the Mother by administering life and love to a child.

Mark your own clothing as priesthood clothing:

Tired of trying to wear the garment of the holy priesthood by having two sets of clothing [one on top of the other]?  Tired of one-size fits all, frumpy, poor-fitting choices from Distribution Services?  Tired of difficulty finding working sizes?  Tired of a second set of clothing getting in the way of everything you try to do — especially when it’s hot?  Tired of fretting about whether or not your clothing is covering your garments — about whether you ought to wear panties/bras under or over the garment — about what to do during menstruation, pregnancy, or while nursing?  Is shopping is difficult for you?

Then stop dividing your closet into two categories:  clothes and garments.  And stop trying to make wearing two sets of clothing work.  Don’t subject yourself to poor fitting clothing, and certainly don’t cease from wearing your priesthood garment altogether.  The covenant to wear priesthood clothing is important if you have indeed made it.

The Church Handbook states that:

Church members who have been clothed with the garment in a temple have take upon themselves a covenant obligation to wear it according to the instructions given in the endowment

and the temple recommend interview asks:

Do you wear the garment both night and day as instructed in the endowment and in accordance with the covenant you made in the temple?

Neither references the “standard LDS practice” of wearing the priesthood garment as just a newer and more sacred form of underwear – instead all the emphasis is placed on being in accordance with the actual ceremony.

Insofar as the priesthood garment is given to represent the coats of skins given to Adam and Eve when they were found naked in the garden of Eden — it should be a practical piece of clothing.  However, most find it to be quite the opposite:  an irritation and a generally unpractical thing to have to wear under your everyday clothing, and something that most definitely does not conform to the local environment or climate.

The intention of the priesthood garment is to cover your nakedness while you work out your mortal probation on the earth.  Given that purpose, it is obviously the intention that the priesthood garment [acting as the covering] be seen — rather than what is below the covering [the nakedness below].  Since it is the intention of the priesthood garment to be our covering — then why care so much about covering the covering?

Now — one is free to comply with the temple’s instruction to wear the priesthood garment both night and day by wearing two sets of clothing because the garment is still being worn, just covered up with other clothing.

However, one is equally free to wear only the priesthood garment that is the work of their own hands [D&C 42:40-41] by either making clothing from scratch or by converting their normal, everyday clothing into priesthood clothing by cutting and sewing in the marks — as you have been authorized and instructed in doing.

Modifying everyday clothing is more inline with what early LDS did.  In the minutes from an October 1870 meeting in Salt Lake it says that:

Some enquiry was made as to how many have their shirts marked — A few rose with them marked — President Young said he took scissors & soon made the marks.  Even if the shirt is colored, mark it — If there is flannel or buckskin between the shirt & garment, that also should be marked.  An overshirt worn as a vest should not be marked.

If anyone asks about your marks — tell them the symbolism you were instructed in during the ceremony.  Each marks directs the mind to Jesus Christ and represents a great missionary opportunity:

  • This mark suggests that I have exactness and honor in keeping the covenants I’ve made with Jesus
  • This mark suggests I keep an undeviating course leading to Jesus — and serves as a constant reminder that my desires, appetites, and passions are to be kept within the bounds Jesus has set — and that all truth may be circumscribed into one great whole
  • This mark suggests my need of constant nourishment from Jesus to both body and spirit
  • This mark suggests that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Christ

Non-members often joke about the garment being “secret, magic underwear” because that’s how many members treat them when around mixed company. When we do not hide the plain meaning and experience behind our garments — people respond openly with a, “Wow, I find that to be an interesting thing there that I could find value in…”

Now — it might bother the old ladies at church for my wife to wear a sleeveless dress to church [even though the marks of the priesthood are cut into the breasts] — but that’s what “spicing up your church experience” is all about!

Offer priesthood blessings to your family and friends:

It is not true that “men have the priesthood and women have motherhood,” — because the component to motherhood is fatherhood, and the component to being a priest is being a priestess.

The temple ritual establishes what’s called the “fulness of the priesthood” on earth – a priesthood order that is synonymous with kinship and salvation. There are no deacons, priests, or elders in heaven — only kings/priests and queen/priestesses.

The priesthood is the language of God — a language that uses the audible word and silent gestures to speak persuasion, patience, gentleness, meekness, kindness, and genuine love.  Every adult receives the rights of the priesthood when they receive the key-words [audible word] and signs/tokens [silent gestures] of the priesthood.

Receiving the rights of the priesthood comes with all of the associated keys — albeit in an unactivated state.  The various keys needed to perform the work of the Lord are then activated by the consent of the members of the congregation to which that person belongs [whether that congregation is the church or your family].

The Gentile LDS church [as it exists physically as a corporate entity] limits the roles of women in the church because the priesthood has been put into a Gentile power-pyramid or hierarchy [where the greater are "above", and are obeyed by, the lesser] — instead of a gospel-based anarchy, inverted pyramid where the greater are “under”, and are the servants of, the lesser.  Thus, when we talk about the “Priesthood”, it’s as this administrative arm of the Salt Lake oligarchical patriarchy.  Women can’t be said to hold that “Priesthood” — that’s the “power” to pass bread, to sit in high seats, and to control budgets.

None of those things are evidence that a believer in Christ “holds the priesthood” — or has actual “power in the priesthood” upon them.  Whether or not LDS women should hold that “priesthood” [which I think they should] is a separate matter entirely.  I do think the Relief Society should get back to being a quorum of priestess with their own jurisdiction – however I also think that women shouldn’t imagine that holding that priesthood will give them anything more than the appearance of authority and power [which is all that the current leaders “hold”].

Instead — endowed LDS women should worry about holding:

the keys of all the spiritual blessings of the church
to have the privilege of receiving the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven
to have the heavens opened unto them
to commune with the general assembly and church of the Firstborn
and to enjoy the communion and presence of God the father
and Jesus the mediator of the new covenant

[D&C 107:18-19]

For that is real priesthood — not just the image of it.  That’s the power to call down angels to minister to your family, to call down healing by the laying on of hands, to work miracles, and to prophecy and see visions.

Wash and anoint your husband’s feet:

then Mary took a pound of ointment of spikenard
very costly
and anointed the feet of Jesus
and wiped his feet with her hair
and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment

[John 12:3]

and did wipe them with the hairs of her head
and kissed his feet
[...] Jesus said

seest thou this woman?

[Luke 7:38, 44]

she hath done what she could
she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying
amen I say unto you
wheresoever this gospel shall be preached
throughout the whole world
this also that she has done
shall be spoken of for a memorial of her

[Mark 14:8-9]

There is a similar story in the Egyptian myths — the goddess Isis gently aroused her dead husband, Osiris, back to life by caressing his body with her hair. As a priestess, it is your right to perform this ordinance for your husband.  Without it, he is not prepared for his burial.  In fact, without the performance of this ritual — we cannot truly be said to have the fullness of the gospel — for the scripture says women would be administering this ordinance “wheresoever this gospel shall be preached.”

There is a lot of power in a woman’s head of hair — which is why male-power always seeks to cut it short or cover it up:

for if the woman be not covered
let her also be shorn
but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven
let her be covered

[1 Corinthians 11:6]

Long hair on a woman is wildly erotic and luxurious.  It suggests a type of freedom that “restrictive purity”-type religions have always considered “demonic”.  A liberated woman [like Mary, liberated from the "seven devils"] is often commoditized, objectified, degraded, or abused.

Instead of covering-up and hiding-away for fear that the insecure among the male priestly class will have some “indignation within themselves” – celebrate that priestess dynamic.

Hold family sacrament meals:

All believers in Christ should meet together in group worship often to:

  • Bring forth bread and wine
  • Sit down upon the earth
  • Have one man set-apart among the group to break the bread, bless it, and give it to the group in remembrance of the body of Jesus
  • Eat the bread until filled
  • Have the one ordained man take the cup, bless it, and give it to the group in remembrance of the blood of Jesus
  • Drink from the cup until filled

And to:

  • Fast
  • Pray
  • Hear the word of God
  • Speak about the welfare of each other’s souls
  • Preach
  • Exhort
  • Pray
  • Supplicate
  • Sing

The current dynamic of group worship in the church of God is based on the doctrines and commandments of men — which is why there is no one prophesying or healing or speaking in tongues, etc. during our meetings.  The commandments of men are never accompanied by any manifestations of power [just good advice, nice music, etc.]

We are missing a reliance on the Spirit — a state in which it is the Spirit that directs and guides the conducting of our meetings [and not any man or group of men]?  In a meeting directed by the Holy Spirit — I’d also say that it would mean that nobody speaks a word unless the Spirit came upon them and led them to speak that word.  And the scriptures say that everything must be done at the very moment, which means spontaneously, as the Spirit directs [not outlined in a program in advance].

Many families feel d-r-a-i-n-e-d after 3-hours of church on Sunday because our current way of “doing” church like a business “meeting” takes the religious experience and turns it into some commodity that is brokered by an all-male merchant-class who deal in religion and religious paraphernalia.  It’s all image and no Life — because all the Life and Joy has been suffocated by the Box we’ve put Her in.

Now — the Church Handbook states:

Family home evening is sacred, private family time under the direction of the parents. Priesthood leaders should not give directions as to what families should do during this time.

And Dallin Oaks has said:

All priesthood authority in the church functions under the direction of one who holds the appropriate keys. But the authority that presides in the family [whether father or single-parent mother] functions in family matters without the need to get authorization from anyone holding [church] keys.

Priesthood found within a family setting, when authorized by the family members, is recognized as valid by the Lord.  So take the time you meet together as a family and organize a family sacrament meeting and worship service.

Go outside to “sit down upon the earth“.  Encourage your husband to show the image of Christ in your family by having him administer the emblems of the body and blood of Christ.  Pray together for the spiritual gifts in the true order of prayer.  Break bread and drink until you and your family “are filled” — instead of trying to feast on a morsel of bread and a thimble of water.  Let the Spirit move on whomever She listeth [John 3:8] to speak a word, to sing, to exhort, to pray or supplicate.  Give the kids something better to do than just sit there and be “Shhhh“ed for an hour.

Start skipping Relief Society:

If you’re not already.

Most of us spend more of our time making sure our family looks good on Sundays than actually preparing to receive the word of God.  The purpose of classes and meetings seems to just be to put on a good stage-play or an act — except no one’s having fun or doing it for actual play.  This can be many people’s experience with attending 3rd-hour Relief Society meetings.

Back when my wife used to go to Relief Society – during a lesson, a woman made a tear-filled comment about her husband wanting to leave the church and get a divorce. The teacher went right back to discussing the lesson topic — so my wife interrupted to say that since it seemed she just wanted to go on with the lesson and ignore that this woman needed some love and attention, that they should all stay after the class was over to give her some support.

*Class ended*

Everyone got up and left except for my wife and this woman.  The show was over.

A couple more stories like that — and she quit attending altogether.

Instead — administer actual Relief, skip the stage-show.

But what about:

Do you strive to keep the covenants you have made, to attend your sacrament and other meetings, and to keep your life in harmony with the laws and commandments of the gospel?

Though the one question is really asking three questions:

  • Do you strive to keep the covenants you have made?
  • Do you strive to attend your sacrament and other meetings?
  • Do you strive to keep your life in harmony with the laws and commandments of the gospel?

You only provide one answer.  And more weight is given to some of the components of the questions and less given to others.  For example, my wife answers this question “No” — and when the interviewer probes further, she tells him that she purposefully avoids Relief Society meetings.

In our experience — every interviewer has told her that, “No one is going to keep you out of the temple just because you don’t go to Relief Society.”

Other ideas?

This obviously just scratches the surface.  Consider them ideas to get you started.

If you have any others to offer — or if you have a report about having done any one of these, or others — share it.

See also:  The first “Spicing up your church experience

Next Article by Justin: Paul and the church at Judea

Previous Article by Justin:  Group worship in the church of Christ

The Doctrine of Identity


So — even though this blog apparently has the reputation of being a “good ‘ole boys club” that writes constantly about “justifications for polygamy” — I’ve nevertheless noticed that mostly because of the conversations I’ve had with Joana and Elder and Sister Chantdown over the last couple of months, three out of my last four posts have talked about:

God becomes flesh in everyone of us – and it is by the putting on of a “person”

But if the actor gets too into his part and forgets he is acting – he could then become a “hypocrite” [hypocrites, meaning actor].

Galatians 2:6 tells us that God accepts no one’s “person” – He doesn’t care about my mask, or the “Self” I go around saying that I am.

Jesus said, “deny your Self” – quit the act and repent of that stuff.

Have the same mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, thinking equality with God was not something He needed to be grasping at — but rather devoted Himself to being a servant [Philippians 2:5-8].

The world is not this physical planet or the life that’s on it. The “world” is our ideas about the world. We term the end of the world “apocalypse” – which is nothing but the Greek word for revelation. An earth-shattering revelation bringing about the biggest change in the human state of mind – large enough to completely end this world and usher in a new earth.

It’s interesting that we call God “The Supreme Being” – when “being” is a verb. God is The Ultimate Doing – and we should be about doing the same thing.

[from It maketh no matter to me:  God accepeth no [one]‘s person]

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass…

Jesus’ revelation will end the world as we know it – what we would call an apocalypse. But the power by which God works is agency, meaning He only works through free agents choosing to act by way of persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, etc.  And Jesus showed the world what the kingdom looks like by the miraculous works of the Father that He manifested – showing us how to end the reign of the four horsemen [statism, war, famine, and death] and establish the Reign of God.  Those works that He did are what bring about an apocalypse – but we [as free agents] must do those works for it to become reality – instead of just being the idea of Zion.

[from Two Plasma Interpretations of Portions of Revelation]

We had to begin seeing ourselves as something not-God – something “fallen” away from Him, pretending that we are not one-in-the-same thing – so we could start to look at God from an outside perspective, see what kind of dance it is He’s doing – so we could do it too.

The Self [a left-brain, rational concept of “I”, a persona] is one-step removed from God because to gain wisdom of God – we must begin to believe that we are somehow separate from God.

You see, the relationship between humans and God is the relationship between humans and the realization of their highest Self. Meaning that the only difference between God and us is that we still see a difference between God and us [because we are using our left-brains to look].

We can our spend lifetime searching for salvation, enlightenment, etc. — when all the time, we carry it around in us: “behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

We work at trying to do things that would just be part of our nature [how we are] if we would soften our hearts in repentance. God’s commandments are not instructions on behavior that will get the Spirit to work on us – they are descriptions of what results once the inner nature of a person is changed by the Spirit.

There is no “You” who can get something out of this game – life is not a bank that you can rob. Your Self is God attempting to look at itself from billions of points-of-view.

[from Split-brain Model of the Gospel: The Fall of Man]

The broken relationship of mother and father:

The right-brain-heart is the feminine aspect in every one of us. It is the moon-lit, unconscious realm of dreams, visions, instinct, inspiration, etc. It is the “temple of God”, meaning the organ where the Holy Spirit dwells. It is our passive, mute, and resting state of mind. It is eternal in scope and in nature.

The left-brain-mind is the masculine aspect in every one of us. It is the sun-lit, conscious dominion of our language, logic, reason, focus, discernment, etc. It is the tool that gives definition and order, that uses invented intervals of measure to construct a “grid” on top of existence in order to better focus on parts of it and describe it. It is our active and rational male-fire of conscious attention – though limited in its purpose and in its function.

The problem is that the left-brain-mind has been exalted – and the right-brain-heart has been suppressed. The scriptural diagnosis of the problem is a “hardness of heart”. The organ has atrophied – and in many cases is “past feeling”.  Right-brain aspects such as passivity and nothingness are defined as morally “bad” – we are disconnected from our Mother.

The current narrative of God and the universe is the idea of the Creator that is inherently disconnected from the creation. It relates to God in terms of a Manufacturer and His manufacturing – a Potter and His inherently-flawed clay.

However, this left-brain view of God [a view that sees Him as an “out-there” elderly man seated on some throne in another part of the cosmos] originated in cultures where monarchy was the primary form of state – thus God was formulated in the image of the King of the Universe. Thus, minds that relate to the universe in this way feel towards their basic reality as subjects would feel towards their king.

The exalted, left-brain Man sits on the throne. While the Woman is locked away in the tower. With its arsenal of symbols and images – the left-brain casts the right-brain down – and with them, keeps her there.

Deny your self:

We all have different acts we put on [personas we wear]: I play one part at work, one part at home, one part among strangers, and one part at church. If we have online personas — then those are the exact same game. The Justin that speaks through a picture of Robert Downey as Sherlock Holmes is yet another way for the actual Me to express itself — just like the Justin at church and the Justin at work are two other ways for Me to express itself.

No one of those persons is the actual Me — they are like the different colors of light extending beyond a prism. But there is only one happening going on. When viewed with the left-brain, which takes something that is a continuous happening [like the universe or God or Me], and breaks it up into measurable bits [matter] and divides it into separate doers [persons], events, and things — it’s like the white light broken into the colors.

The gospel is about denying the reality of any one of these persons or Selfs you go around saying that you are — and getting back to the white light on the other side of the prism. It’s about ceasing to identify your Self as this or that person you claim to be – and start to identify with Christ.

Identify your self as Christ:

“And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”

Thomas saith unto him, “Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?”

Jesus saith unto him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.”

Philip saith unto him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.”

Jesus saith unto him, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?”

Jesus could not show Philip the Father because to point with the finger and say, “See Him, over there, that’s the Father,” is using the left-brain to look. Jesus is saying that to look upon Him is to see the Father because Jesus had been doing the miraculous works of the Father. He had been doing the same dance – He had been being the Supreme Being.

How do we go where Jesus is going? What’s the way? Jesus is the way. If we go about doing the works which He did, having the same mind in us which was in Christ Jesus — not trying to look at God as though He is something to be grasped at, etc. – then we know the Father, have seen the Father, and will be with the Father.

“And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

This doesn’t mean that we may continue to operate in our left-brain – praying “out-there” to God for the things we desire or think we can get, thanking Him for the things we are thankful for, confessing His hand in the things we’ve noticed it in, etc. – and then tag on “the name of Jesus Christ, Amen” – and receive accordingly.

To pray “in His name” is to stop praying in your left-brain [as your Self] — and start praying as Jesus.  To say the words of Christ, to say what He would say.  It involves identifying ourselves with [or as] Christ in mind and in heart.  And that can only come once we’ve denied [or disowned] our Self, taken up our cross, and started doing the same works as Jesus.

The doing, not the doer:

So what is this “doing” that I keep saying we ought to be about doing too? What is the “dance” that God is dancing that we needed to “fall” in order to get a better look at it, so we could do it too?

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

and

“These things I command you, that ye love one another.”

It’s love – real love – charity – the open-faced, fully-naked, no-stinginess at all, complete sharing of all things kinda love.

…God is love.

which is why God is uncontrollable [or all-powerful] – even anti-control. We fear relative truth or subjective ethics – because they’re uncomfortable, because they aren’t well-defined edges and lines that the left-brain can see. But love requires the situational, the voluntary, the accepting.

It’s funny that among the religious is where one finds the most hostility towards the subjective. Especially given the situational ethics of the scriptures – e.g.

The reason all of the law and the prophets hang on the single concept of love:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy [right-brain-]heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy [left-brain-]mind, And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

is because without the context of love – being “true” or “right” is meaningless.

There is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

It is [not] good [to do] any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.

Love is manifested in various ways:

Expediency

This is why there are so many different laws given by God to various people at various times – why one group can be commanded one thing, while another group is commanded the opposite. It’s the spiritual gift to know the differences of administration — tailoring all things to the sundry conditions mankind exists under.

All laws of God are expedient. They are all proper under the conditions in which they were given.

Ask the Father in my name, in faith believing that you shall receive, and you shall have the Holy Ghost, which manifesteth all things which are expedient unto the children of men.

Service

Jesus described that His kingdom is one in which the greater serve the lesser and are accountable to the common consent of those that they are “over”.  The rulers are not habitually obeyed, sitting atop their power hierarchy by divine appointment – but, in the Lord’s vernacular, the leaders are in fact stewards who have responsibility to provide for the maintenance and welfare of the concerns of their stewardship. Those who preside the most must serve the most, or consider themselves to be the servant of the most and act accordingly.

[see:  The priesthood, An alternate view of the keys, and The nature of authority: the Lord's stewardship law]

He taught His disciples to bring the miracle, and then request a meal – to heal, and then be invited into someone’s home – to give free compassion that could then be followed by open sharing:

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

and

it is expedient that I give unto you this commandment, that ye become even as my friends in days when I was with them, traveling to preach the gospel in my power; For I suffered them not to have purse or scrip, neither two coats.  Behold, I send you out to prove the world, and the laborer is worthy of his hire.

The servants of Jesus cannot any more require support in order to work miracles – than can a gathered group of people produce community – it’s an inversion of the natural order of things.

Charity

Commensality literally means, “sharing a table” – it is one of the reasons humans are significantly invested [physiologically-speaking] in being bipedal animals — to have free hands in order to share. This isn’t the generous kind-of charitable giving that is usually the last strong-hold against the open-nakedness of complete, anarchic sharing.  No, this is the over-whelming desire and willingness to share all that you have with everyone else.

The family is the charitable society we were born into in order to gain the only spiritual gift that will save us – charity. Those who learn charity while on earth will enter the charitable society that exists in heaven – the family of God.

Joint-stewardships

The doctrine of joint [or reciprocal] stewardships is a manifestation of charity.

And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. [I pray] that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

God promises all those who receive Him:

receiveth [His] kingdom; therefore all that [the] Father hath shall be given unto him.

The Father possesses all things, and yet promises to give all things to all people.  How could this be so?  Because Gods have “all things common” — or share according to the principle of charity and joint-stewardship.

It is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin.

and

That you may be equal in the bonds of heavenly things, yea, and earthly things also, for the obtaining of heavenly things.  For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things;

The Lord equalizes all things in heaven – not by taking away — but by giving more.

I will bless him and multiply him and give unto him an hundredfold in this world, of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives and children, and crowns of eternal lives in the eternal worlds.

We are not given all things just for the purpose of having them.  If that was the case, then all people couldn’t possess all things.  That state of having “all things common” works because of the principle of joint-stewardship:

[You are] heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

That’s a part of the probation — the test — to determine if a person has learned charity — the Lord gives, but will we receive?  If we refuse His gifts, then we fall short of exaltation, and only

enjoy that which they are willing to receive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received. For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift.

This is the principle by which anyone enters into exaltation — receiving all things that the Lord gives — a principle of reciprocity. We receive all that God is willing and desirous to give to us, and He receives us into His tribal family in heaven.

Next Article by Justin: This and That are Contrary One to the Other

Previous Article by Justin:  On Not Having Polygamy for Polygamy’s Sake


Joana Smith’s Halloween post on what spiritual gifts may await should we have the sensitivity of Being to tap into the female, unconscious power that is innate in us all — instead of our current system of repressing and commodifying our Mother.  

On Not Having Polygamy for Polygamy’s Sake


Per LDSA noticing that, “at other Mormon blogs, and I see a tiny blog post with very little to no new information and two hundred comments will follow,” I’ve decided to publish this post at under 1,000 words.

BTW — I failed by about 200 words — maybe it will still get comments though.

What is Marriage:

A man and a woman vowing to come together as husband and wife, cohabitate, make love, and remain together permanently.

In a gospel-centered marriage, this man and woman will also have covenanted with Christ — binding them both to Him as individuals, as well as to each other.

Once formed, a marriage family should grOW — both horizontally [adding additional spouses] and vertically [having children].

In neither dynamic should a family limit itself – because that is an attempt to place bounds on the human ability to love, which since “God is love” — we are meant to develop and foster that ability [not box it up].

As such — I share the official LDS and predominate Christian creed that ”marriage is the union of one man and one woman” — it’s just that I’ve never seen satisfactory reason to forbid people to only one such marriage union during their life [mono+gamy].

Plural Marriages:

All consensual marriage vows between a man and a woman are valid in the eyes of God — at least for a time.

All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations [...] are of no efficacy, virtue, or force in and after the resurrection from the dead; for all contracts [...] have an end when men are dead.

All human vows, covenants, obligations, oaths, ordinances, etc. come to an end when the parties have died — but while living — the Lord expects us to honor our word and faithfully keep our agreements.

God has provided the sealing power to priesthood holders on the earth – so that we may obtain permanency in our freely-entered into covenants — because God restores good for good, and evil for evil  at the resurrection:

ye can do good and [...] have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you.

The sealing power allows for marriage to be restored for marriage.  It allows for men and women to be rewarded for their righteous desires in marrying — by bringing that connection back for an endless duration.

It’s a stumbling block to say certain marriages are acceptable while others are more or less acceptable — and others are completely unacceptable.  In the eyes of God, all marriage is honorable:

Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled

and it is a deception of the devil to label this-or-that form of marriage as dishonorable or unjustified:

Whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man.

Charity in Plural Marriages:

A gospel-based, egalitarian, multihusband-multiwife tribe does not force anyone to be married to two or more people.  It only allows for the full expression of charity to exist.

Charity is a gift from God – so entering a GEMTAM tribe cannot be evidence that a person has charity, or that a person will get charity.  What the tribal marriage model does is facilitate the excercise of charity — since it allows a person to share all things and be bound with others in all things:

That you may be equal in the bonds of heavenly things, yea, and earthly things also, for the obtaining of heavenly things.  For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things;

Having a family orgainzed as a GEMTAM will only allow a person to learn whether they have charity — or not.

If you profess to have charity but refuse to share talents, resources, time, spouses, etc. — then the GEMTAM has discerned your lack of charity.  On the other hand, if your family is organized as a GEMTAM because you feel charitable — now instead of just having the desire to share all that you have with everyone else, you are free to act on and express it.

So — does tribal plural marriage create or cause charity?  No.  It allows for the full and free expression of charity to go forth — something that monogamy hinders.

When we have men and women marrying as many spouses as their hearts desire — we don’t end up with male dominance and abuse.  We end up with an egalitarian tribe — which was exactly D&C 132′s goal – to knit the Gentile church of Christ together as a tribal family.

Establishing a Tribe:

A friend wrote the following to me:

Attachment to more than one person is not only natural, it’s healthy.

Our society has really reduced it’s joy because of the one-on-one romantic love relationships that have forced us into these big homes in pairs. Feeds anxieties, too. If you lose that one person, you lose everything.

[A single spouse] can’t fulfill all [of a person's] needs for connection — and it’s not a fair thing to expect. We have to change it.

As my wife and I were watching Sister Wives on TLC last week, I remarked to her that the problem I see with what they do is that it appears that they are living in polygamy for the sake of plural marriage.  It’s a part of their theology — to need to be polygynous.

I’m not interested in polygamy for the sake of having plural marriages — I’m interested in building tribes.  Without the tribal/family aspect, plural marriages hold no interest for me whatsoever.

I don’t want to live in a monoculture, monotonous nuclear family.  Humans are symphonic beings — we have nuances of expression and a capacity to love every one of our fellow brothers and sisters.

And that’s what I want to cultivate with a gospel-based, egalitarian, multihusband-multiwife tribe – not rows-and-rows of a monoculture wasteland, but a diverse garden where people can uncover their own unique Self — without pressure on a person to be the one, true source of everything for their spouse [or parents for their kids].  Giving every member of the tribe access to as many models of behavior, personality, and spiritual gifts as possible — instead of isolating people with the minimum number of humans possible.

Culture has become our extended family — because we’ve discarded the tribe.  In the GEMTAM, every mother and father have a covenant interest in caring for every son and daughter in the tribe.

But the rejection of one-on-one romantic love relationships can’t devolve into swinging or “open-relationships” either.  I’ve always believed in permanent unions — i.e. marriages.

If I’m going to marry a second wife, then I want her to be with me always [just like my first wife].  Same for her — if my wife wants to marry a second husband, then I want us all together so that the relationship can mature and grow.

It is the establishment of righteous, gospel-based tribes that I desire [both for myself and everyone else].  What I’ve found [as we've worked on the GEMTAM book] is that the scriptural ideal for a gospel-based tribe of righteouness is egalitarian, multihusband-multiwife tribal anarchy.

It is this form of a tribe that satisfies every aspect of the gospel of Jesus Christ — and it can be easily and quickly established now, even if the members are currently living within a fully-functioning State government.

“It is our purpose to explain the principles behind the ideal gospel tribe, as found described in the scriptures, and to demonstrate and encourage each reader to form righteous tribal societies now, before the coming collapse of nations, so that when the governments are destroyed, there will be no need to join the wicked tribes that will be forming in every quarter.

The tribes of righteousness, already pre-planned and pre-established, will become bulwarks, within which the saints of God can safely live the gospel and from which can be launched missionary efforts to preach the gospel to the tribes of the earth.”
[From here]

Next Article by Justin: The Doctrine of Identity

Previous Article by Justin:  Split-brain Model of the Gospel: The Fall of Man

Split-brain Model of the Gospel: The Fall of Man


By the transgression of these holy laws:

[God] created man, male and female, after his own image and in his own likeness, created he them;

And gave unto them commandments that they should love and serve him, the only living and true God, and that he should be the only being whom they should worship.

But by the transgression of these holy laws man became sensual and devilish, and became fallen man.  [D&C 20:18-20]

These holy laws” were not given to Adam and Eve while in the Garden of Eden.  The only commandments given to them before their Fall were to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and for Adam to remain with Eve:

And I, the Lord God, commanded the man, saying: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”  [Moses 3:16-17]

and

And the man said:  ”The woman thou gavest me, and commandest that she should remain with me, she gave me of the fruit of the tree and I did eat.”  [Moses 4:18]

However, after the Fall, Adam and Eve were given new commandments that pertained directly to the worship of God:

And Adam and Eve, his wife, called upon the name of the Lord, and they heard the voice of the Lord from the way toward the Garden of Eden, speaking unto them, and they saw him not; for they were shut out from his presence.  And he gave unto them commandments, that they should worship the Lord their God, and should offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering unto the Lord.

Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore.  [Moses 5:4-5, 8]

So, here is where “these holy laws” were given — to Adam and Eve after their partaking of the fruit of the tree of good and evil and their subsequent removal from the Garden of Eden.

At this point, mankind was not carnal, sensual, or devilish because Adam and Eve were obedient unto these commandments [Moses 5:5], and they:

made all things known unto their sons and their daughters. [Moses 5:12]

They brought up their children in light and truth, and were thus innocent before God.  But:

And Satan came among them, saying:  ”I am also a son of God”; and he commanded them, saying: “Believe it not”; and they believed it not, and they loved Satan more than God.  And men began from that time forth to be carnal, sensual, and devilish.  [Moses 5:13]

So now we see the transgression of “these holy commandments” spoken of in D&C 20:18-20.  The sin of real idolatry entered in — and so:

Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God.

And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through diobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.  [D&C 93:38-39]

Paradise:

Man did need to become a kind of animal that had a left-brain concept of a Self as being some separate, skin-encapsulated center of will in the universe.  We had to begin seeing ourselves as something not-God – something fallen away from Him, pretending that we are not one-in-the-same thing.

The Fall brought about by the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is how we could take this cosmic step back [or away, or down, depending on one’s perspective] and start to look at God from an outside perspective, see what kind of dance it is He’s doing – so we could do it too.

The Self [a left-brain, rational conception of “I”, a persona] is one-step removed from God because, though it represents the human wisdom to conceive of God — in order for humanity to gain that wisdom — they must begin to believe that they are somehow separate from God.  With this word “I”, reality splits – like the human consciousness is split, into the subject and the object, doers and doings, this and that.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [John 1:1]

represents the realization of the Word, “I” [who was, in the beginning, both with God and was God], that causes a concept of a separate Self to exist – instead of all things being continuous with God — one continuous happening — or Supreme Being.  The beginning of the human ability to conceive of God comes only when it’s been separated into this-or-that separate Self.

The only way for the mind to understand something is to name it [or to clothe it in language] – essentially taking a step away from it, pretend it’s not you for a moment and simplify it into a model [or personification] of the thing using the intellect.  The universe was created by the utterance of “I am” because this is the beginning of an existence that is separate from God.

So the isolation of the individual as a separate Self is a fiction that mankind has concocted – but then went on to forget that we did so.  It’s a story we’ve all have been telling ourselves – so we can turn around and look at God, as though that weren’t really us.  But this state of individualness is a great fiction – a story each one of us has created as a way to come to understand things by looking at them from the outside, as a way to experience God by pretending that He and us have no relation to each other.

Children and child-like cultures [what we’d label as “primitive” cultures] are still in touch with this paradise to the extent that they have not fully learned the illusion of Persona.

So though mankind did need to “fall” into a conception of their Self as separate existing centers of will surrounded by all of existence [the result of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil], they have no need to become carnal, devilish, or fallen man [the result of heeding the temptations of the devil, becoming subject to him].  The scriptures have examples of specific people or classes of people who work out their own salvation without sin and without the devil having any power over them:

Mortal children:

But behold, I say unto you, that little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten; Wherefore, they cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable before me; [D&C 29:46]

Faithful men and women of God:

Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men. [Alma 48:17]

Transfigured believers in Christ:

Therefore, that they might not taste of death there was a change wrought upon their bodies, that they might not suffer pain nor sorrow save it were for the sins of the world.  Now this change was not equal to that which shall take place at the last day; but there was a change wrought upon them, insomuch that Satan could have no power over them, that he could not tempt them; and they were sanctified in the flesh, that they were holy, and that the powers of the earth could not hold them. [3 Nephi 28:38-39]

All people during the duration of the Millennium:

And the earth shall be given unto them for an inheritance; and they shall multiply and wax strong, and their children shall grow up without sin unto salvation. [D&C 45:58]

and

And in that day whatsoever any man shall ask, it shall be given unto him.  And in that day Satan shall not have power to tempt any man.  And there shall be no sorrow because there is no death.  In that day an infant shall not die until he is old; and his life shall be as the age of a tree; And when he dies he shall not sleep, that is to say in the earth, but shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and shall be caught up, and his rest shall be glorious. [D&C 101:27-31]

Fallen man became carnal, sensual, and devilish because when we left paradise — we forgot that this whole probation was really just a cosmic game of pretend.  When Satan lured humans into believing that the feeling of a separate Self was in fact the actual state of things — it created isolation, fear, and competitiveness.  We started to be “that guy” who starts taking the game of Monopoly a bit too seriously.  We start acting like life is something that we can master or one-up — like life is a bank that we can rob.  We exalt the Self above all else — we place our first allegiance to a fictitious feeling of Personhood.  We transgress “these holy commandments” because we see God as something “other“, and then try to make our Self love Him above all else.

The purpose of the devil:

And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children ofmen, or they could not be agents unto themselves… [D&C 29:39]

After Lucifer rebelled against the majority vote against him in the pre-mortal council, he lost all power [agency] and was going to be straight-away removed from the kingdom of God into outer darkness.  He thought up a purpose for himself and those who rebelled against the law of common consent — and proposed that he and his angels instead be cast down to earth to try and tempt the children of men because, as he reasoned:

if they never should have bitter, they could not know the sweet…

As this was the desire of one of His children, God rendered according to that desire and allowed the matter to be voted on by the rest of us.  We used our agency to chose to have an adversary be on Earth to tempt us.

We were “agents unto [our]selves” in heaven and voted to have Lucifer here doing this work among us – we gave him a purpose he wouldn’t have otherwise had.  God always honors the agency of all things [or He would cease to be God], meaning that everything must be done by the common consent of the governed – or in other words, the keys of the heavenly tribe must be honored, which is why “it must needs be that the devil should tempt” us here – otherwise, our agency expressed in the pre-mortal council would have been abridged or over-ridden.

So we have Satan, the great dragon, being:

cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” [Revelation 12:9-10]

and

…by the power of mine Only Begotten [agency], I caused that he should be cast down; And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice. [Moses 4:3]

Satan and his angels were cast down to the hell here on Earth, instead of straight into outer darkness — not because God needs a Satan-figure to fulfill the plan of salvation, but because God needs Satan here “that we might be agents unto ourselves,” or so that our vote and choice to have the devil here to tempt us would be honored.

Mortality is, for the most part, a hands-off period of examination.  God puts us in a learning environment and then sees what we do with it.  The Lord has stated that:

it is not meet that I should command in all things… [D&C 58:26]

God always prepares for every contingency, so even with Satan here [voted in by us], He prepared a means to save us from Satan’s power, should we have fallen into it – so we could then choose to be liberated by the prepared Savior.  Regardless of what men choose with their agency, the plan of salvation that God has prepared cannot be frustrated, with or without a devil among us.

The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil:

The primitive , child-like [innocent and unfallen] state of humanity experiences God as essentially all things in existence.  This natural state recognizes human life as something inexorably connected to all other things.  It’s the oceanic feeling that infants and animals [non-rational life] experience – purely right-brain, a divergent view of all things at once, a single spontaneous happening.  This is the right-brain, the mind’s Atlantis, the realm of visions and dreams, the lunatics and werewolves, unconscious, unreason – inspiration.  It is without concept of time, persons, distinctions, and morality.

However, a paradisical state of oneness with nature [and God] does not allow for a concept of God to exist because to be one with something means you cannot know or discern the difference between it and you.  You can’t look in your own eyes, touch your own finger-tip, taste your own tongue, etc.

Per our vote in the pre-mortal councils – it was decided that Satan would be permitted opportunity to try and to tempt mankind while on Earth.  In order for us to be agent unto ourselves, God designated a time in which Adam and Eve would be left unto themselves to allow Satan the opportunity to tempt them to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

This fruit was forbidden by commandment during the duration of time God left Adam and Eve unto themselves to be tempted – to see if they would partake at the direction of Satan or await further instructions from the Lord.

This fruit had no magical properties to it – it was just a bitter fruit in a garden of sweet and pleasant to taste fruits.  Humanity lived in a state of uncontrasted existence.  They had no left-brain vision of contrast, distinctions, and separation.  The purpose of the fruit was to awaken them to an understanding of differentiation between things — to turn on their left-brain and cause it to start dividing the world into man and woman, pleasure and pain, light and dark, life and death, virtue and vice — this and that.

Partaking under the direction of God would have caused the Fall [left-brain consciousness and death] – but not carnality, sensuality, and devilishness.  We would have had death — but not hell.  Death [like apocalypse] seems scary, but it is also natural.  Death, in plainer terms, just means “a change of state“.  It’s the death of the old that births the new — the death of all our earthly ambitions, worldly ideas, and petty emotions so that we can be reborn as the highest manifestation of humanity — God as a human, or Jesus Christ.

You see, the relationship between humans and God is the relationship between humans and the realization of their highest Self.  Meaning that the only difference between God and humans is that humans still see a difference between God and humans [because they are using their left-brains to look].

We can our spend lifetime searching for salvation, enlightenment, the Philosopher’s Stone, the City of Gold, Atlantis, the Garden of Eden, the Fountain of Youth, etc. — when all the time, we carry it around in us:

behold, the kingdom of God is within you. [Luke 17:21]

Partaking, however, under the direction of Satan, caused left-brain consciousness and death, along with carnality, sensuality, devilshness, and hell.  Without God’s further instructions, the left-brain became awakened but then immediately darkened in captivity to the devil.

And if we remain in that state until mortal death — then we are damned, which means to be fully captivated by the power of the devil, fully subject to him — because we yielded in obedience to him:

that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.  For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked.  [Alma 34:34-35]

and

Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness [Romans 6:16]

Instead of being a tool used to take a step-back from a continuous and unified state of existence with God and nature, in order to gain wisdom of Him and the dance He is doing – the left-brain became the tower in which our unconscious, right-brain attention, the moon, and womanhood lay chained — hardened and atrophied.  The female power within every human [the lunatic power of the moon], constrained in the ring of the seven male stars of the classical liberal arts:

  • Arithmetic
  • Music
  • Astronomy
  • Rhetoric
  • Grammar
  • Logic
  • Geometry

Such power – the left-brain system of symbols and images — used to suppress a natural state of mind that had ruled for millions of years – next to the relative short period of man’s 6,000 year reign.  But the masculine pattern of control grows weaker amidst our current tumultuous times — when the right-brain, feminine dynamics may begin to re-emerge.

Redemption:

Whosoever will come after me, let [them] deny [their] self, and take up [their] cross, and follow me. [Mark 8:34]

Redemption from the Fall is about getting over the sensation of being a Self locked out from everything not-Self – of being only one Self who was flung into competition and conflict with every other object it can experience.  Humans have come up with many different systems to accomplish this project:

  • religion
  • psychotherapy
  • Zen meditation
  • yoga
  • hallucinogenic drugs
  • sensory deprivation
  • fasting
  • positive thinking
  • chanting mantras

The problem with every one of these systems is that getting seriously involved in any one of them just further boxes you into another elite group – another Self that sees itself as separate from the rest of everything not-Self.  You didn’t get out of the box, just made another one to jump into.

The out-of-the-box, right-brain consciousness experience of your Self cannot be made to happen by any act of your fictitious will because that perspective only validates the existence of the separate Self [unless of course the repeated efforts to be accidental on-purpose eventually reveal to you the futility of such efforts].  There is no way to internally manifest the will to get rid of the feeling of separateness as a Self.  That would be like trying to go to sleep – for in your trying, you mess the whole thing up.

It’s why moralistic preaching doesn’t work.  Focusing on behavior and doctrine only breeds good hypocrites [good actors] — people sermonized into shame, guilt, or fear – forcing themselves to behave as if they actually believed the things they say they do.  We make disciples by sitting around and talking – and then act surprised when our disciples go on to sit around and talk.

We work at trying to do things that would just be part of our nature [how we are] if we would soften our hearts in repentance.  God’s commandments are not instructions on behavior that will get the Spirit to work on us – they are descriptions of what results once the inner nature of a person is changed by the Spirit.

Churches are a problem too because currently, they aren’t communities.  They are groups of people trying to produce a community.  It’s backwards.  The church gathers because of their changed hearts and their connection to each other – it doesn’t gather in order to make those things happen.  The “ekklesia” was supposed to be the vacation or rest from the world – while we can’t think of anything better to do after three hours of church on Sunday than to get home and rest from it.

So — you can’t get rid of the fallen, left-brain, Self-sensation – so don’t try.  Take it, like any other feeling you have, as a feature of your total process – a wave of hot or cold, angry or sad.  Working to get rid of the Self is the ultimate act of Self-ishness – it simply confirms and strengthens the reality of the feeling.

This is what’s made me reevaluate what prayer is to me.  Any spiritual exercise [be it prayer, meditation, yoga, or whatever], when practiced in order to get some spiritual experience, only strengthens the fallacy that I am my Self.  Speaking “out there” to God as though He was only this separate entity that resides somewhere else in the cosmos just continues the Fallen fiction that my Person is something separate from God.

There is nothing wrong with praying just to pray – in the same way we listen to music just for the music.  You don’t worry about the value of it.  What’s the purpose of prayer – it has no purpose, and that is its purpose.  That may sound like Eastern, paradoxical nonsense – but think about what is the practical application of the universe — of billions of galaxies swirling around?  What’s the use of playing music [or any other art or game]?  If you play music to make money, or outdo another artist, or be a person of culture, etc. – then you aren’t really playing because your mind’s not on the music.  Things like games or art are a waste of valuable time and money that could be put into more practical applications – rather than making elaborate patterns or color or sound.  But what would we think of a society with no room for music and games, dancing and art?  Such a society would be surviving [biologically alive] – but to no end.

  • The universe is, at its core, an illusion [the Latin ludere], a play, or a ludicrous game of pretend.
  • It’s magic – being enchanted [the Latin incantare] by the song of images and measurements.
  • It’s meaningless, meaning it has no point unto itself.  Like a flower is meaningless – it’s all just dancing patterns of light and sound, water and fire, vibrations and rhythm, electricity and space.
  • The world is an amazing [amasian or lost in a maze] arrangement of letters – a spell [the Latin fascinum], or spelled with A-T-C-G, Lys-His-Met-Ala-Pro, C-H-O-N-P-Na-Cl-Au.

All of existence, then, is one thing, one shape, one happening.  Separate persons and events are merely arabesques is an over-all fractal pattern – which is all continuous with the whole created universe — all of it continuous with [or unseparated from] God.  A redeemed sense of reality.

You can return now to your separate moments, separate selves, and separate rooms — and know that separation for the imaginary [or image-based], feeling that it is.  You can go about your practical affairs again – but now with a new sense about it all.  There is no “You” who can get something out of this game – life is not a bank that you can rob.  Your Self is God attempting to look at itself from billions of points-of-view.

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