WEARETHEWEATHER


WHO IS THE RAIN MAKER?

We have looked at the intimate link between space and time and the deep connection between time and weather in, Introduction to the Thermodynamics and Eternodynamics of Desirepts.1 and 2 respectively. A review of those posts might be helpful to anyone wishing to gain insight from this post.

In the blockbuster sci-fi movie Looper, main character Joe and his future self combine their efforts on an action-packed adventure through time and space, trying to track down a mysterious killer called the Rainmaker who, if not stopped, is/will be responsible for the murder of the love of Joe’s life. It is an absorbing plot that mixes the element of weather control with the more cliché elements of time travel and crime underworlds for a surprisingly deep story of multi-generational cooperation and healing.

The movie takes place primarily in the vicinity of Kansas City, where Joe lives and works as a time traveling hit-man. When Joe finally does track down the Rainmaker on the outskirts of town, he finds that he is presently a child, but not just any ordinary child. This child is telekinetic to an extraordinary degree and can effect drastic changes in atmospheric pressure with his emotions. A part from being capable of affecting changes in the weather, the young boy can cause blood to rain out of the heart of a person who provokes him to anger. Joe recognizes however, that if the troubled youth were to be raised in a loving home with a tender mother and guiding father, he could avoid turning into a cruel killer.

Looper was rated R, and did not follow your typical feel-good formula for promoting family values. It will therefore not be likely to be seen by many mainstream LDS. And its message will unfortunately be missed by those Mormons who do view it. Nevertheless there are many messages contained in the film that directly concern not just modern-day man in general, but which could be specifically relevant to Latter-Day Gentiles. Satan has succeeded in diverting the gaze of many and those who do look to not look with eyes to see. But let us examine a few of the ideas which are more or less subtly presented in this movie, and put them into context for the real Latter-Day Saints of God out there, regardless of religious or non-religious affiliation.

HOME ON THE RANGE – WHERE THE SKIES ARE NOT CLOUDY ALL DAY?

First of all, the film’s setting of Kansas City, smack dab on the Kansas/Missouri border is something that should not escape anyone who has studied Mormon prophecy. The LDS movement in all of its numerous groups of course has extensive and ongoing history in the “Show Me State”. Jackson County, MO is the site of various holdings of the LDS Church and the RLDS Church and the area continues to attract many fundamentalist, as well as mainstream and even inactive members of the various Churches with some type of connection to the Restoration Movement. This, despite the fact that the western part of that state in particular is mentioned in famous prophecies via Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Orson Pratt which have been handed down among the Mormon people and which reference great destruction which will leave the land “swept clean” of its inhabitants (JD, 9:270, Prophetic Sayings of Heber C. Kimball to Amanda H. Wilcox. DEN, 8:265, October 2,1875).

Now I don’t know what all these many religious residents of Jackson County believe in regards to these prophesies. I know that I do not believe that things will play out quite the way that Brigham Young or Heber C. Kimball envisioned them happening. Still, it might be foolish to dismiss them entirely. And it might be especially dangerous to not take them into account along with various other forms of subconscious-to-conscious imaging by way of Hollywood prophets/profits. Apart from Looper’s subtle correlation between this general geographic location and extreme weather patterns, there is also the far less subtle targeting in The Day After – a graphic, disturbing TV movie originally aired in 1983, about the effects of a devastating nuclear holocaust on small-town residents of eastern Kansas/western Missouri. The Book of Eli, starred Denzel Washington as an obvious type for Moroni as a lone wanderer and bearer of a sacred record in the post-apocalyptic wake of a fallen civilization. The main character also draws some pretty clear parallels to Joseph Smith, since Eli purports to have been led by the voice of the Spirit to discover the book under a pile of rubble. And the stark – yet not as apparent to the less enlightened Ephraimite –  symbolism relating to Elijah Abel in the obvious links of name, skin tone, and Eli’s willingness to kill to protect the prophetic message of the book. The conflict and climax of this movie’s storyline take place midway along Eli’s journey from the east coast to the west coast – indicating the same Midwest area in question. And of course who could forget the Wizard of Oz, which firmly and forever highlighted the inter-dimensional aspects of the American drama – a historical vying for dominance by all manner of false zionists – in our subconscious with the line, “We’re not in Kansas anymore!”

Kansas City has also become the center of attention in a real-life debate surrounding plans for a NAFTA Superhighway which would link from Mexico to Canada, cutting straight through the U.S. and creating a special international inland container “port” in Kansas City, right on the eastern Kansas/western Missouri border. While modern-day Capt. Moronis like Alex Jones and fellow Texan taxpayers vehemently opposed construction of the portion known as the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC), Latter-Day Secret Combination (LDSC) members like Greg West were anxiously engaged in promoting the project. While admitting upfront that locating an international inland port in K.C. would provide terrorists with a conveniently located hub for smuggling and detonating a nuclear device, he went on to site words on the topic of Zion from early Church leaders and the silence of today’s Church authorities as support for his sly misleading. Of course the brotherhood of Zion felt across the continents will be the result of the Holy Spirit of God shedding itself abroad in the hearts of brave men and women, and not a building project undertaken by underhanded builders of Babylon. The only “superhighway” that will play a role in the establishing of Zion is that highway that will be miraculously “cast up in the midst of the great deep” as prophesied in Doctrine and Covenants 133:27.

Now don’t think that all this has nothing or little to do with weather. The casting up of this highway in the midst of the great deep is heralded in conjunction with immense changes in weather patterns upon the face of the land. The verses immediately preceding and proceeding verse 27’s reference to the highway speak of “barren deserts” and “parched ground” being suddenly quenched with “pools of living water”. They even mention flowing ice and trembling hills accompanying the arrival of the lost tribes from the “north countries”. For all of these things to occur together it is very apparent that a pole shift must take place. The pole shift being described here literally “turns on its head” the entire “body of evidence” collected in favor of the Eurocentric interpretations of these verses concerning the lost tribes typically applied by most Mormons. Even those few LDS who hold that Inner Earth beings resembling Nordic Gods will come to the rescue may want to do as Isaiah says and consider that which they have not heard (Isaiah 52:15). Isaiah says that many nations will be “startled” by this pole shift, but that is just one way of putting it. In the majority of Bible translations including the KJV it is not rendered as “startle many nations” but it is actually written that the Lord’s actions will “sprinkle many nations”. This is in perfect keeping with the thundering theme of this ancient weather forecast for the last days.

GETTING AT THE HEART OF THE MATTER

Long ago, thousands of years before Brigham & Co. spoke of a sweeping destruction along the western border of Missouri, Isaiah had already forecasted a “great forsaking in the midst of the land”. The word “midst” literally means “middle-est”, in otherwords, the most central point. If you take the U.S.A. to be the latter-day Egypt of which Isaiah is prophesying (with such undeniable correlations such as the same national bird flying over red, white, and blue symbolic colors of the civil union of one-time divided northern and southern kingdoms), and if you measure from the eastern most seashore to the other shining sea on the west coast, and from the northern border to the southern most regions; you really can not get any more dead center than Independence, Jackson County, Missouri. As far as precise prognostications go, the word of the Lord to Isaiah, the prophet’s prophet, is reiterated throughout the Bible, Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine & Covenants with the greatest confidence. The first section of the D&C invites us to: “Search these commandments, for they are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be fulfilled.”

To locate something in the midst of a specified space is not the same as identifying its presence as being merely among a collective group or mass. Using the word “among”, connotes a much more vague relation in comparison with the superlative word “amidst”.  So when Joseph, the latter-day scribe pens an echo to the resounding ideas of Isaiah 34, we can ascertain key truths if we will remember the specific function of the word – “midst”.

And the Lord, even the Savior, shall stand in the midst of his people, and shall reign over all flesh. (D&C 133:25)

And also the Lord shall have power over his saints, and shall reign in their midst, and shall come down in judgment upon Idumea, or the world. (D&C 1:36)

”Reign (rain) over all flesh”….“Have power over his saints” – why is it worded that way? The footnotes that follow the echo back to Isaiah are even more specific. Notice that the following verse uses the words “thee” and “thou” to refer to a singular “inhabitant” of Zion.

Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. (Isaiah 12:6)

The created universe is based on fractals. When the scriptures speak to our souls of momentous events in a place like the heartland of the United States of America, we would be wise to remember that first and foremost, they are speaking to us of the centrality of our own hearts within our spirit and physical bodies. The spinning sphere of the heart chakra, together with its physical component, literally play the central role in our bodies. As one unit they are responsible for harnessing the energies of our Telestial and Terrestrial Bodies. These two energetic bodies spiral out in vortices from the center-stake of our heart with the Terrestrial Vortex spiraling like an upright funnel cloud and the Telestial Vortex mirroring it below like an inverted cyclone. Inversion between the two can cause for some very stormy weather. But when energy flows more easily back and forth between the two layers they can merge together, forming what is known as the Merkabah Chariot, a kind of conical Star of David.

What do stars and hearts have to do with weather patterns and the fulfillment of prophecy through time? The answer becomes surprisingly clear upon examining latter-day scripture, though not largely appreciated or accepted by Latter-Day Saints. Sadly, one of Joseph Smith’s revelations most overlooked and ridiculed by LDS and non-LDS alike is that of the partially interpreted Theban Hypocephalus better known as Facsimile No. 2 in the seriously misunderstood, disputed, and derided Book of Abraham. fac2Yet the concept of a governing star/planet called Kolob mentioned in the facsimile, has captivated the imagination of writers who have included it in hymns, television series, and novels. The word Kolob has very old roots similar to the Arabic triliteral root KLB which is pronounced like “Qalb” and means “heart” or alternately “star”. For the ancient Egyptians the concept of a centrally located, universal, heart-star was associated with the measurement of time as well as distance or depth and was represented by drawing a human heart as the bob on a cosmic plumb-line. But notwithstanding this extremely ancient precedence, from beer breweries to Broadway musicals, the idea of a shining star by the name of Kolob has been “made light of”. Those who make a serious study of Kolob as an astronomical reality have sometimes stumbled upon their own seriousness and faltered equally along with those who esteem Kolob lightly. Both camps are imbalanced and, for the most part, totally miss the literal and intellectually enlightening rays of this bright star. The light that Kolob liberally offers all men can only be fully received through an understanding of Kolob as a cosmic heart of the universe.

the-plumb-line
One of those serious (Sirius?) scholars, Hugh Nibley, has written on ancient Khemetic ideas about the “hypocephalus as a preserver and transmitter of light and heat between the worlds”. Indeed this strange and wondrous artifact which comes to us from the Egyptian Book of Breathings is a type of resurrection talisman that was commonly known as a “head warmer”. But alas, most people’s heads will not accept the reality that light and heat and by extension weather, are simultaneously physical and spiritual manifestations of the endless intercourse between chronological and spatial principles. And because, as the Yoruban proverb says: “Spirit cannot give what head won’t receive”, this Pearl of Great Price has been cast before smart but selfish swine. A head stuffed with worldly knowledge must be occasionally submitted to Kolob’s purging emanations, so as to refine that knowledge into wisdom. Even Nibley has much to learn from beyond the grave because his accumulation of knowledge was so wrapped up in apologetics on behalf of a pride-ridden institution, that his mind was veiled from learning the “greater things”. But mingling with gods Nibley can finally take a break from nibbling incessantly at the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of this and that. He is now free to focus on the Oneness.

Another of those so-called serious scholars was W. Cleon Skousen. Straddling, as he had his whole life, the line between God and Mammon, Church and State, science and fiction, his split loyalty left Cleon floating somewhere between Clingon and Peon. But his heart was good. The heart of man is technically the first physical structure to begin formation during his embryonic gestation – the brain following closely as a tiny bundle of nerve endings beyond the already forming heart. This falls in line with Joseph’s interpretation of the Kolob hieroglyph as “signifying the first creation, nearest to the celestial, or the residence of God” and being “First in government”, but “Last pertaining to the measurement of time”. In similar fashion, Smith was purported to have said, and Skousen supported the theory, that Kolob was in fact the birthplace of our planet Earth. The idea that the earth was formed elsewhere and then migrated to her current orbit is not so difficult to accept if one looks to the fractal nature of the created universe and realizes that the planet is equipped with its own inner-sun and in many ways may not be so developmentally separate from the Sun we see so relatively close to us in outer-space. The fractality continues when, reflecting on certain anomalies of the precession of the equinox, we consider that the Sun may very well be in a binary relationship with a second sun hurling through deep space.

The Kolobian concept validates this progressive heart to heart connection perfectly. In the Book of Abraham’s explanation of Facsimile 2 there are many stars/planets listed as receiving and passing on light originating from Kolob. The whole immense and intricate light-sharing process is performed via revolutions. Pulsars in space are rapidly spinning neutron stars. Our hearts do not merely pump blood; they put a spin on it. They say money makes the world go ‘round but emblematic sounds pulsing from the City of Brotherly Love during the 70s set the spinning record straight with the Stylistics classic – People Make The World Go ‘Round. While the daily revolutions and yearly course of our planet may be more set by the Kolob of this solar system acting as a portal for the power of other Grand Governing Creations leading back to the Kolob closest to the Throne of God, we should be very clear that the Times and Seasons of what happens in this world, as well as how, and when it happens is completely a matter of the personal revolutions of our mini kolobs/hearts. The Kolobian concept invites us to discover the loving bond between astronomy and anatomy, and to put it to good use. Meteorological phenomena reflect the cooperative or non-cooperative interaction between humans and their gods. If we are unhappy with the current conditions we need to focus on the revolving our hearts. Turning our hearts back to the Lord is crucial at this time if we are to reach out beyond the false gods that writhe and churn like deadly gases in the atmosphere, raining blood and terror down upon our heads.

EARTH MOTIONS = ENERGY MOTIONS = E-MOTIONS

Remember the young boy in the movie Looper who could in some tentative future become the vengeful killer known only as The Rainmaker? He was able to manipulate the weather using only his raw emotion. Weather control is essentially a question of emotion control. Whoever controls the emotions controls the weather. Don’t believe me? Then why do you believe that Jesus was able to so calmly command the wind and waves in the storm while his companions were so emotionally out of control? Did he really not care if his disciples perished? The calm that existed in the heart of Jesus and the calm that He was able to manifest on the Sea of Galilee in the middle of a raging storm have a direct correlation to one another.

Humanity has placed itself in great peril by allowing religion to disregard the true lessons of the Master Teacher. Devious doctrines appeal to our hardened hearts and put the sayings and doings of Jesus outside our vain, restricted realm of accepted ability or responsibility. We don’t have the nerve to brave the billowing waves. We don’t have the nerve to abandon Babylon in favor of acting on the deepest desires of our hearts. But somehow we have the nerve to fault God for not seeming to care enough to be moved by the suffering of innocents in the world we have created. And we have the nerve to quickly ascribe the destructive effects of our schizophrenic society upon the earth to some punitive god who apparently (judging from S.E. Asia Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, Haiti Mega-quake) does not like poor and humble people. Well, honestly, what do we expect, when all of our worship is entirely based around the concept of a poor humble man dying so that the world might live on? But this kind of utterly misguided worship/warship has run amok for so long now that the words “Jesus Christ” have come to be synonymous with the words “Status Quo”. We need to start remembering and reviving the Status Quo Ante Bellum – the state in which things were before the war. For, as it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end.

People like to talk about the signs of the times but no one wants to point to the fact that time moves through space and the friction between the two generates the very stirrings they see as signs being sequentially checked off of some mystery god’s grand agenda. The less you concentrate on trying to figure out that mystery god, the more the mysteries of the True and Living God unfold to you. As we divest our worship out and away from the god of this world we come to know and have faith in the God of not only Heaven, but Heaven and Earth together. If you ever find yourself wondering why god doesn’t move to bring about solutions to the suffering in the world, you should stop and wonder why you worship the wrong god – a god who is not in alignment with the righteous desires of your heart. If God is the one who situated our hearts in space, dangling as it were from divine plumb-lines, then we need only follow our hearts for direct encounter with God. The problems which plague us are completely atmospheric. Low lying cloud cover created from eons of distracted thinking makes for blockages which interfere with and scatter both incoming and outgoing signals to and from the beating pulsars and quasars of heart-star systems.

I do not want to give the false impression that meteorology is only a metaphor for emotion or visa-versa. When we mentally break up reality into so many unrelated arenas we have a REAL problem. I stand in solidarity with inspired restorationists of long suppressed truths, like Joseph Smith and Clarence Smith. Both of these men were inspired of Heaven to take valuable knowledge and revelation to those whom such things had typically been denied. Two experiences, from each of their lives respectively, show the importance of continuing these great men’s missions of delivering this message to the poor and working class, to the youth and to the disinherited.

Joseph Smith, opened this dispensation by disclosing many secrets from Free-Masonry, Kabbalah and Gnostic Christianity, and adding to them “new” wisdom extracted personally from the eternal mind of God. Neither the established religious cults nor the state governments liked his maverick spirit and he was eventually assassinated. During his life, he once led a group of men known as Zion’s Camp in an attempt to recover stolen lands in the aforementioned area of Jackson County, Missouri. When mobs of misinformed men came, intent on annihilating Zion’s Camp, a flash storm suddenly rolled in on a big black thunder cloud and blew rain and hail upon them till they had to retreat. The would-be attackers were unable to even cross the Missouri river as it rose approximately 40 feet in a matter of hours. When a black woman had first come and notified the camp that many white men in the area meant to do them harm, some members of the camp wanted to take up their guns and fight. But, Joseph told them, “Stand still and see the salvation of God”, and later he let them know “God is in this storm.”

Most people do not know the exact details of Clarence Smith’s official excommunication from the Nation of Islam where he had studied under Malcolm X, who in later years would also become disillusioned with the religion. In any case, Clarence Smith took the things he had learned from this American branch of Islam, Kabbalah and Free-Masonry and built upon them with additional revelation and insights. Before taking his lively message to the streets, he was a quickly advancing priest in the ranks of an inflexible organization. But like the young Jesus, Clarence agitated the religious heads of that institution while teaching at Temple #7 in Harlem, New York. He was teaching a class of young men from one of the Nation’s 120 lessons – the specific lesson which deals with a religio-scientific break-down of such forces of nature as rain, hail, snow, and earthquakes. Clarence was teaching outside of the manuals and approved lesson materials and he bore witness to those youth that all of these things were caused by man. A visiting authority by the ironic title of Capt. Joseph sat in on the class and did not like what he heard. Like Joseph Smith, Clarence Smith was eventually assassinated for his controversial message. But before FBI agents could kill him, he succeeded in teaching many youth, from New York to Chicago; that men could become gods. His message lives on today in underground Hip Hop music and culture. But, despite the noble efforts of Hip Hop’s poor righteous teachers who adhere to Clarence’s teachings, and in spite of government surveillance, this neglected reality of man’s involvement with the weather patterns on the planet stands in need of more attention and deeper comprehension.

Governments around the world have always been interested in managing what we think and how we feel. Oppressive regimes have always known that there are incredible amounts of power in the energy that comes through the hearts and minds of the people, and throughout history they have been careful to provide safety valves and complex canal systems for conducting this energy into programs which produce the outcomes they want. In recent years we have reached a place in the cycle of time where we have given over such complete control to Church and State that they have found ways to reliably rile up specific weather conditions. We say that God controls the weather but today we have been taught to forsake the God of Nature, and we have neglected to comprehend that God can only work “his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men” (D&C 46:15). So, if the preponderance of our thoughts, feelings and actions from hour to hour, day to day, are conditioned by circumstances set up for us by Church and State, then who is this god who we say controls weather conditions? It ought to be painfully obvious at this point in time exactly who is behind these unnatural disasters in diverse places.

The U.S. Government-run military arm known as SOUTHCOM was running a planned exercise based on the scenario of a catastrophic event in the capital of Haiti the day before the 7.0 earthquake struck Port Au Prince on Jan. 12, 2010. This is suspiciously reminiscent of the FEMA and NORAD drills so conveniently scheduled for Sep. 10, 2001, the day before 9/11. But ironically the group known as Scholars for 9/11 Truth proved themselves unable to handle or at least uninterested in the truth of what is really happening in the world today. The group, which had formerly championed BYU professor, Steven E. Jones in his valiant exposition of scientific truth, calling for a questioning of the causes behind the collapse of the Twin Towers, now joined the “Lord’s University” in distancing their selves from him and turning their back on him in disdain. Brother Jones had gone too far in pursuit and publishing of truth by illustrating how technology developed back in 1898 by inventor and futurist Nikola Tesla could be used to trigger earthquakes. Prof. Jones also brought forth evidence which indicated that the U.S. Government might be testing and perfecting this technology at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lost lives and destroyed homes.

simulacro

The Mexican Government was “kind” enough to put out a flyer beforehand notifying residents of the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas of their plans for an “Earthquake Simulation” to take place on March 20, 2012 at precisely 12 o’clock noon. The fact that they avoided loss of life to their human live-stock does not make the Mexican Government any less damnable. The evidence provided by their public announcement is very damning in that it reveals not only their intentions but the accuracy with which they are able to achieve tremors within .5 units of the projected magnitude. U.S. President Obama happened to be in Mexico at the time attending the G-20 summit along with other heads of state that are implicit in this murderous secret combination that reigns with terror across the globe. The Walmart Corporation showed itself to be in league with the pantheon of false gods looking down on humanity and laughing devilishly at our suffering. Within minutes of the violent quaking, Walmart.com.mx sent out a message on twitter that read: “Now we got the other stores shaking in fear of our prices.” Bob Marley’s paraphrasing of Proverbs 10:15 speaks powerfully to the evil feats of these gods of Babylon.

”Destruction of the poor is poverty. Destruction of the soul is vanity.” – Wisdom by Bob Marley

In the same song Marley says that those who have eyes to see will see. Tesla told us:

“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena; it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.”

You can not study non-physical phenomena without possessing spiritually open eyes to see. But lamentably, it seems that the ones who serve spiritual wickedness in high places have taken Tesla’s advice more seriously than those who claim to be Christian Soldiers engaged in spiritual warfare against dark forces. Even without spiritual eyes or ears we now have information being proclaimed from the rooftops that is leaving everyone from evangelicals to agnostics without excuse. H.A.A.R.P. stands for High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, and has become the catch-all term for those technological advancements which are being blamed for inhuman deeds from earthquakes and hurricanes to mind-control. There is a certain type of angel that plays this H.A.A.R.P., and it is not the kind that works with Father to serve mankind. Although it is shrouded in speculation, what is clear is that it is a research project funded by both the U.S. Air force and Navy whose purpose is to analyze the ionosphere and investigate the physical processes that occur when a targeted region of the ionosphere has been excited.

LESS FEARS – MORE SPHERES

The ionosphere is a region of the upper atmosphere, from about 53 to 370 miles altitude, and includes the thermosphere (where UV radiation and auroras occur) as well as parts of the mesosphere (roughly 28 to 53 miles altitude) and exosphere (beginning somewhere around 310 miles above the earth’s surface and extending to interplanetary zones). It is distinguished because it is ionized specifically by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere (outermost regions of Earth’s magnetic field). Underneath all of these, we find what is called the troposphere (the lowest portion of Earth’s atmosphere where the majority of day-to-day weather occurs).
layers-of-the-atmosphere

A secular, scientific view offers us a schema of concentric spheres encircling the planet. What could our spiritual eyes show us when looking at all of these spheres? The Doctrine & Covenants speak on the topic of spheres of influence and tell us:

All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence. (D&C 93:30)

Yes, we’re independent to act for ourselves, but notice that these selves of ours, though expressed in plurality, also form, in their independence, what we would call individual bodies. There are selves and there are cellves. The latter is alluded to in D&C 93:30 with the word “truth” and the former correspond to the word “intelligence” as used there. Truth would be analogous with the flesh and intelligence could be used interchangeably with the word light. Justin explains these two as, “Earth [my life here as a physical collection of atoms bumping into other collections of atoms according to the laws of physics] with Heaven [my innate desire for meaning, purpose, value, and order that emerges from and endures beyond what I’m doing here as a collection of particles moving around in space and time]”. That explanation renders the mystery of the self very self-evident. We all know that we are composed of elements that are subject to decomposition. But, we are also aware of something much more. According to scripture, these two parts of our life may be independent; however, nowhere is it implicit that they are completely separate or unaffected by each other.

Paul tells us that there are celestial bodies as well as bodies terrestrial (1 Cor.15:40). He says that the glory of the celestial is one and the glory of the terrestrial is another. From there he proceeds to compare them to the Sun and stars respectively. It should be realized and remembered that the Sun is a star and the stars are the same as Suns, only appearing to vary so drastically from this, our limited vantage – or should we say disadvantage – point. But then, a third is suggested as an intermediary glory comparable to the Moon. Joseph Smith Jr. recognized the importance of this triune, and since a name for the intermediary glory was conspicuously missing from the New Testament, he shifted the title “terrestrial” over to that middle ground and invented the term “telestial” to designate that state which is most distant from the celestial. This additional commentary on the idea of degrees of glory on the part of Joseph, has been chided by a few and understood by even fewer, but it is at least consistent with the Old Testament in that it does not make the mistake of conflating this “lone and dreary world” with the true earth.

The true earth, wherein the Lord God is truly exalted is a physical place that is in harmony with true spiritual precepts. When these precise conditions occur there is a full fusion of truth with intelligence, flesh with spirit, the natural with the supernatural. In What, on Earth, are you doing, for Heaven’s sake? Justin starts off with another excellent break down by offering a non-traditional translation of Matt. 6:10. Here the Savior is teaching the people how to properly pray, and he says we should use the words:

may your will be done
in the earth
as it is in the sky

We are brought back again to a closer observation of earth and sky. And since we are commissioned with the combining of both earthly and heavenly regions, our focus must necessarily settle on that place where the two meet – the troposphere. The word troposphere derives from the Greek: tropos for “change”. It is a layer where friction with the Earth’s surface influences air flow. Atmospheric flow is good and a thing to be desired, cherished, and maintained. However, a fearful, fretful moving about, here and there, busily doing, is death. To be is to live and it is necessary from time to time to be still and “know that I am god” as per the instructions of the well known line in Psalms 46. But, in addition to that first half, there is a lot of meaning that is missed in that verse. Verse 10 continues and concludes the idea by proclaiming: “I will be exalted among the heathen; I will be exalted in the earth.” This is no conqueror’s song as some who feel so chosen based on worldly evidence might suppose. This is a mutual choosing between the God of all the Earth and the meek and lowly earthlings who have been judged as heathens but who know the God of Heaven much better than those who find a false sense of security in their riches and their religion

Now, Jesus’ main message to the weak things of this world was repeated over and over again: FEAR NOT! Meekness has the ability to transmute weakness into strength, but an abundance of inner-fears only inter-feres with this process. Dangers do not create fear. Fear creates dangers. The less fears one has, the greater access one has to more spheres. Jesus admonishes us to “fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul” (Matt. 10:28). And Paul tells us in his letters to the Ephesians that “we struggle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Those high places which should be most guarded are our own heads atop our fortresses of flesh and blood. But where are the high places from whence emanate these attacks against which we should guard or even struggle? Certainly it is not a political power struggle or even a protest against world leaders, since such would fall under the category of struggling against flesh and blood. But what’s up with those high places, like the mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere?  Can someone please explain why it is that in nearly every other translation of the Bible verse in question, minus the King James Version, it is not translated as “high places” but as “heavenly places”, “heavenly realms”, or simply “heaven(s)”? That puts a slightly different spin on the atmospheric flow, doesn’t it? If we will look, we can easily see a stark difference between the Kingdom advocated by the Lord’s Prayer (Thy Kingdom Come), and the power behind the throne of a man like King James.

WHO’S RAISING WHO HERE?

In order to be effective against principalities, against the authorities, even general authorities, against the so-called “powers that be”, it is necessary to virtually ignore the meat puppets dangling before us and follow the spiritual strings upwards, so we may directly target the cosmic powers of darkness presently presiding over our world. This is a significant game-changer because we have been led to think of these “higher spheres” as completely and unquestionably benevolent, and the beings which inhabit them as perfect. Certainly the “goodie goodie” son who lingered above in his father’s celestial mansion way on high, believed himself superior in terms of worthiness to his prodigal brother who, having hit rock bottom, labored under no such illusions of grandeur. They may be “perfect” alright, but some beings in those royal realms are perfectly evil at this point. If it were otherwise, then there would be no evil down here in this sphere. The axiom, “as above, so below” is perfectly scalable to this imperfect power structure, right down to personal relationships between parents and children. Home can be a Heaven on Earth, but if there is a War in Heaven then what does this do for our home? Right here, at the sacred and sacral level of home, is where the real heart of the struggle is.

To struggle with someone or something is to provide the other party with energy. In truth it is a loving act. Just like when Jacob struggled with God and prevailed, the purpose of struggle is always to see ourselves more clearly in the light of love. To resist not evil means to not provide energy to it, but rather to focus on the good and nurture it with love. We do this until the evil outgrows that stage and, turning towards our love, eventually turns into love itself, like a child learning to do better. Evil is simply love that does not know itself. So we let our lights so shine before men, that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven (Matt. 5:16).

Do we think it was sheer coincidence that Jesus went directly to those souls that were in the darkness of spirit prison, plus made a detour to see Mary, all before going to His Father? Do we think that His resurrection was a gift from the Father (to whom He had not yet ascended) in order for the Son to bring light to those who were trapped in the dark abyss? Isn’t it obvious that His work there in the abyss was what resulted in His resurrection, which was a two-way gift exchange originating from the Son Himself, extending to the lost substance of fragmented souls sequestered in prison, and returning the favor from grateful captives, swirling out of the control of dark energies, now liberated into light? We hear the Son say, “Glory be to the Father,” only because, until He had been to the Father, His body could not complete that glory. But Jesus obviously knew where it was at – the troposphere – where the precipitation of mourning Mary made climate change possible. God in Heaven gets the glory, but as we strive to climb through the climes do we stop and consider where He gets it from?

Any well-meaning and wise man or woman will look to the younger generation which is in their care, and wonder, “Who is raising who here?” – even and especially in those poignant moments when the little ones are behaving, as grandma might say, like “little devils,” rebellious and spirited. Only fallen angels really get the gospel. Fallen angels are earth angels. In the 1950’s classic, Earth Angel, the lyrics tell a touching tale of love:

I fell for you, and I knew the vision of your love, loveliness. I hope and I pray that someday I’ll be the vision of your hap, happiness.”

“Happy” and “Happen” have the same root. Happiness comes from knowing how we can make good things happen. Down here on the ground is the most happening place there is.

As fallen angels, we are given the all-important task of waking up the gods and keeping them awake to reality. In D&C 132, verses 16 and 17, it speaks of the marriage of heaven and earth and describes this glory in terms of a “far more…eternal weight” Through us they are enlarged and exalted. In a detached state, floating singly around in the heavens as a mere idea, they can become just as lonely as one here in the lone and dreary world. The gods have two choices before them. They can tell Luciferian lies to their selves and remain there afraid of falling from great heights. Or they can take the leap of faith and allow themselves to dive deep into a much fuller love and joy. The first option is motivated by fear. It is a lie and they know it.

Anything that remains stubbornly in the mind of god without coming into action down here will eventually be cast down for its own good. But as the saying goes, the harder they come the harder they fall. The more difficulty one has in taking the fall of faith, the more difficulty one has in waking up from the concussion incurred from such a hard-headed and hard-hearted impact. Learning how to ascend and descend consciously as angels in the body of Christ is best accomplished with humility, and it is best not to be compelled to be humble. Alma the Younger is clear on this point when speaking to the poor and despised among the Zoramite people in Alma, chapter 32. But he is also quick to recognize that the down-to-earth people he is addressing were likely not all of them compelled to be humble but rather would choose humility regardless of their circumstances. As the gap between the rich and the poor grows wider in this modern-day Zoramite culture, the Great American Hero hiding timidly within each of us will have to learn the ironic life lesson that; flying is always easier than landing. The earth is spoken of in scripture as the Lord’s footstool, something that one must set foot upon if they desire to elevate themselves. This makes the earth the launching pad from which gods can be made real, but they have to get over their inverted vertigo if they are ever to master the art of a smooth landing.

and behold
the angels of god ascend and descend upon it

Genesis 28:12

 

you will see the sky open
and the angels of god ascending and descending

John 1:51

 

Notice the order always starts off with ascending, then descending. Jacob’s ladder is set upon the earth, and from here is how we get to heaven, not so much by jumping or reaching but by simply starting at the bottom. Kids “know” less and therefore have more faith than their adult counterparts. Lofty branches, with their high ideals, get cut off. They cut themselves off by separating themselves into caste systems with “gods” up top and workers down below. Celestial beings that remain in this state never learn. The ancient Aryan race set things up in this way on the Indian subcontinent during the Vedic Age (roughly between 1700 and 500 BC). And then, thousands of years later, the haughty “gods” of the Aryan people proved they had not learned humility at all, and were in fact irrationally inflated by the time the Nazis of WWII Era Germany sought to awaken those warring gods for purposes of world conquest via a supposed “master race”. All the while, the purer, truer aspects of the original Aryan race lived on in the down-trodden Hindus and Roma Gypsies of brown and olive complexion as they patiently worked towards the completion of a great work and a glory.

I feel to echo the sentiments of Austin Osman Spare, who said: “Myself, I have not yet seen a man who is not God already.” And I would add to them Justin’s words which provide some helpful specifics. In the aforementioned What, on Earth, are you doing, for Heaven’s sake?, Justin said: “God” is to be found in being under the most, serving the most, and being connected to the most [instead of the other way around].” By this standard the indigenous Zapatista freedom fighters who populate the very area targeted by the Mexican federal government’s 7.4 “Earthquake Simulation” are more godly than any blue-blood or contented Christ-Shun church-goer. The man whose name they are known by, Emiliano Zapata, was just as much of a Christ as Jesus. The two men are on the same team, and as team captain, Jesus has never been a ball-hogging, show-off player. Zapata Christ said that until every last person in Mexico was free, then there was no freedom in Mexico. By recognizing that this is a universal struggle, the way that true Christians like the Zapatistas do, one connects to all humanity. If these indigenous peoples along with their adoptive gentile brothers and sisters can carry that awareness of connections between beings over to the flora and fauna sectors of God’s Kingdom, they will find some major allies in the universal service they perform. And if this sense of alliance and selfless service can cross into the plant and animal Kingdoms, then why not into the elemental realm of mountain moving and the so-called non-contact forces of nature? One good thing to come from the Aryan race is a Vedic scripture that says: God sleeps in stone, breathes in plants, dreams in animals, and awakes in man.

The great gods of Babylon may seem “high and mighty” but they are only high-maintenance. Those destructive deities remained in constant contact with their earthly servant, Adolph Hitler and the highest ranking Nazi leadership. The so-called Illuminati have always served these lofty beings, so they become lofty branches themselves. They are infamous for rejecting the root in favor of worshipping impressive beings of light – beings of light that are imp-pressive only in that they are imps that press. But when you know what’s real, you aint so easily fooled. In the immortal words of Bob Marley on his smash hit, Get Up, Stand Up: ”Most people think great god will come from the sky…But if you know what life is worth you will look for yours on earth…So, now you see the light, you better stand up for your right!”

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW – BETWEEN JOY&PAIN, SUNSHINE&RAIN

Speaking of seeing the light, Carl Gustav Jung is quoted as saying:

“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

In the above quote Jung was using the word “imagining” in the way it has come to be used typically in the modern westernized world; to mean believing in something untrue or unreal. At best, this verb is usually used to describe the forming of a mere mental image for pleasurable or practical purposes which limit themselves to either the realm of fancy or figuring. But Jung, like Lennon, knew that true imagination is actually an underdeveloped and atrophied organ in the spirit-body of man. The imagination is a powerful faculty which the Nazis of Jung’s time and place and the Capitalists of Lennon’s lifetime were determined to control, monopolize, and maim in others. Men and women, free-thinkers of these modern times would find themselves more in line with the beliefs of the prophetic and persecuted Sufis before and during the dark times of the Middle Ages. Avicena, Suhrawardi and other men inspired of heaven wrote about the imagination as the culmination of all spiritual senses which pre-seed and are above the 5 senses of the natural man, and are therefore supernatural and able to perceive/conceive supernatural things.

Henri Corbin coined the phrase imaginal, as opposed to imaginary, to denote the original imaginative faculty of the Spirit. Corbin hypothesized that the proper and true meaning of the term imagination would, “of necessity be lost and leave room only for the imaginary if something like a secularization of the imaginal into the imaginary were not required for the fantastic, the horrible, the monstrous, the macabre, the miserable, and the absurd to triumph.” Well that would certainly explain a lot of what is happening in today’s world, wouldn’t it? Psychology generally fails to acknowledge the value of communication with Spirit and considers the manifestation of this phenomenon to be a projection of the “imagination”. In my experience pure imagination can be used as a bridge between selfishly generated images and real messages from Spirit. And it appears that this bridge is a rainbow bridge, which shouldn’t be surprising since the imagination as we typically speak of it, deals primarily with visual images and colors.

Rainbows show up frequently in folk traditions from Yoruban to Celtic, from Taiwanese to Nordic, as the bridge we must pass to reach the perfect world of the ancestors, the pure land of Buddhism, or the earth in its paradisiacal glory imagined in Mormonism. Rainbows serve as a heavenly path leading to the greatest treasure of all. Two things are needed to make rainbows – sunlight and water. The troposphere is the lowest portion of Earth’s atmosphere. As a far more “exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (D&C 63:66, 132:16), the troposphere contains approximately 80% of the atmosphere’s mass and 99% of its water vapour. It is deeper in the tropics, up to 20 km (12 mi), and shallower near the polar regions at 7 km (4.3 mi). In the tropical areas of the Earth we find high concentrations of “poor” people with generally “warm” hearts. What would happen if the good people along Earth’s equator were to cast off the yoke of the non-egalitarian regimes which currently weigh them down, suddenly and unexpectedly switching places with their frigid but nonetheless feisty and freedom-loving brothers in the north countries? What type of weather patterns is that type of total inversion likely to whip up? What magnificent rainbows of promise would we see shining down on Inuit and Icelander? And what splendid aurora borealis would we behold breaking forth from the newly relocated continent of Afrika? Can you imagine it?!

When Paul was at Thessalonica, he and his comrades were joined by many god-fearing pagan Greeks and others who Latter-Day Stains would classify as non-members. They were however accused by the local True Blue Jew church membership of being instigators of treason against the state, and decried as “these that have turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). Indeed, if it were true that the one holy God entered humbly into the world in the person of Jesus, then Paul was boldly broadcasting the utter upending of the commonly held worldview and the whole hierarchical world order. If God became human so that he might confer divinity upon the creature, then it follows that the last must be first, that the poor are blessed. Now imagine, once the full import of these glad tidings sink into the hearts and minds of the oppressed masses, what is to stop the spiritual pole shift from transitioning into physical reality?

Drawing from the oldest spiritual traditions known to man born out of central Afrika, we can know that pure imagination is truly a “rainbow connection” capable of uniting man’s physical self with his spiritual self. The medium by which the gap is bridged between dense dark bodies of dirt (ara) and dazzling bodies of light (iponri) is water from the emotional body (egbe). Through mystical mists a person’s aura can be seen like a “coat of many colors” adorning them. This most plain and precious wisdom from sub-Saharan Afrika migrated to Egypt then met with further complication from the stubborn Hebrews; who were, for the most part, unable to penetrate the Kabod of the very God that led them  because they were unwilling to penetrate their own KaBodies or Spirit Bodies, as Latter-Day Saint Sunday School classes would call them. The Semitic triliteral root of KBD can be translated as glory, importance, honor, or even as interior, entrails, liver, but its most literal meaning is to “be heavy“. So when we see the word Kabod used, we should not relegate our thoughts to ethereal images of light, but also remember the “far more…eternal weight” mentioned in D&C 132, verses 16 and 17, where it speaks of the marriage of heaven and earth, spirit-body and flesh-body.  Justin points out that there is a “disconnect between the rule and order of our Heavenly Parents’ kingdom in the sky — and the rule and order of humankind on this planet.” Ancient Afrikan wisdom teaches that alignment with our Heavenly Parents is only possible if there is alignment between the physical, emotional, and spiritual self.

Just as water and sunlight come together to reveal rainbows, so the baptism of water and of fire reveal the way for us to realign Heaven and Earth. Emotions, like tidal waters, run high on both sides.

and the gods also said

let there be an expanse
in the midst of the waters
and it shall divide the waters
from the waters

and the gods ordered the expanse
so that it divided the waters which were under the expanse
from the waters which were above the expanse
and it was so
even as they ordered

Abraham 4:6-7

So we have waters below and waters above. If the troposphere contains 99% of the water in the air, then this means that the expanse spoken into existence by the gods must be very close at hand – nestled somewhere between the earth’s solid surface awash in seas, lakes and rivers, and the low lying layer of the troposphere. That mystery sphere is here. It’s us! Think about it. If all truth is independent as all intelligence also in that sphere in which God has placed it – If the celestial heaven is one sphere and the earth or telestial kingdom with all of its inequality and inconsistencies is another – then from where is God doing the placing? This can not be classified as merely a top-down operation. That type of explanation will only get us so far, and tends to let humanity and their gods off the hook for so much wickedness. Where is this place of balance and perfection if it is neither to be found in the highest nor the lowest of these two war-torn spheres. The answer is that it is NO-Where. It is not technically a place, but is a placing. It can not be situated on our maps but is situational.

Long before Joseph Smith ever spoke of infinite intelligence, spirit bodies, angelic visitations, or distinct degrees of glory, Persian visionaries were in the midst of restoring and revealing many great and wondrous things, like jism mithali – the “resurrection body,” and the “eighth climate,” also known as na-koja-abad – the “land of nowhere.” They spoke of things corroborated by the experiences of Isaiah, Paul and Mohammed before them. The ramp-up to the latter-day restoration of some of these truths had practically nothing to do with characters like Martin Luther or Wycliffe, and more to do with occultists like Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, and scientist/mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, who never started religious movements but definitely paved the way for that of the LDS. And it was no thanks to the stiff-necked British and Scandinavian Victorian era converts that rushed into Sydney’s (Oops! I mean Joseph’s) new church; only to cut the short-lived restoration movement off at its base and be led by Brigham into a spiritual and topographical wasteland some 166 years ago (Happy late July 24th, Pioneer Day to all you Utahns). The point is, we ought to do as Joseph and study out of the best of books. But we would do well to remember that no amount of book-smarts and theology can ever substitute for direct and personal experience with the spiritual phenomena discussed in those books.

If the scriptures do not inspire and activate your imaginative faculty, arousing it to experiment upon the word, then the words on the pages spell death to your soul. All “people of the book” before us have condemned themselves in large numbers, because, as our Book of Mormon warns, “the law hath become dead unto us” (2 Nephi 25:25) Pure imagination is crucial because, in the “eighth climate” – from whence the light of the law shines in powerful beams – in that realm consciousness and its object are ontologically inseparable. So if we are following the light beams of law out to their dead ends we are headed, deeper and deeper, straight for outer darkness. Instead of following the laws, we ought to look to their source. For, for this end was the law given (2 Nephi 25:25), to guide us to our heavenly home where they always leave the light on for us.

The active imagination is the organ by means of which that migration occurs – the return with honor from the exterior to the interior. It is not by the senses of the natural man nor is it by means of the pure intellect but it is that intermediate power which functions as the preeminent mediator. The spiritual imagination is the organ that permits the transmutation of internal spiritual states into external states, into vision-events symbolizing with those internal states. Henri Corbin poses the following question:

“If we are no longer capable of speaking about the imagination except as “fantasy,” if we cannot utilize it or tolerate it except as such, it is perhaps because we have forgotten the norms and the rules and the “axial ordination” that are responsible for the cognitive function of the imaginative power.” – Mundus Imaginalis

Moroni puts it to us in a similar but more sobering tone:

“Has the day of miracles ceased? Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time [weather] shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof [troposphere] to be saved? Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.”  – Moroni 7:35-37

THE DEVIL IN THE DUST


ARMIES & NAVIES

Should members of modern society follow the example of the Anti-Nehpi-Lehies, and if so, how?  Does it require gun owners to give up those guns or even increasingly tighter government control of guns and by extension their owners and the general populace? Are weapons used rarely and only for purposes of protection able to be correctly termed “weapons of war” or is this only a gross error and ploy being pushed in the media today? For any unfamiliar with the Book of Mormon story, let me clarify that the word ‘Anti’ in this context does not mean against. It refers to the Reformed Egyptian reflex of an ancient Khemetian (Egyptian) word ‘N-T-Y’ which is used grammatically to connect a relative clause to an undetermined antecedent. It would translate as “One With”, “One Of” or “One who” depending on the relative clause which followed. Note that they did not take on the name Anti-Laman-Ishmael-Jacob-Zoram-Nehphi-Lehies, aligning themselves as a friend to all the various groups and subgroups of the area. So after but not in consequence of their conversion, they essentially took sides in a war. The story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies or at least the people who later choose to be designated by that title is presented in a deeply moving way. What did they do first? Well, they were converted in their hearts and mightily at that. Okay so assuming one or even a group of individuals among us today have experienced a similarly mighty change of heart. What would the naturally ensuing fruits be which would identify them as truly repentant?

The converted Lamanites buried their weapons of war. How can you and I do that? Do you or I have access to the literal weapons of war? If the answer is no, does this mean we don’t have anything to do as an outward token of our repentance? Even the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, as they later came to be called, were protected by a standing army of large in stature Nephites a standing army sometimes supplemented by their own stripling sons. How convenient! Don’t you just love modern sin systems? I guess we were never personally guilty in the first place, eh? Wow, how wonderful. So basically I can shed a tear over the dead children in the so-called Middle East and other parts of Africa and Asia and I’m good? I like that. Surely God will understand when I continue, business as usual, with my way of “life” which is not a lifestyle at all but rather a deathstyle, but HEY, what can I do about that? I take the sacrament every Sunday. Along with my fellow ‘Drunkards of Ephraim’ First we eat (Wonderbread) then we drink (Tapwater) and next we are “merry” (mingling in the foyer), for tomorrow, we die (physically that is, since we have already died as to things of the spirit today, Sunday, our Holy Day of worship/warship). We engage in these ongoing “dead works” so that we may take up the weapons of war and oppression again and again -That we may always have “the poor” to be with us. Amen!

But are our hands truly clean? If so, great! If not….how does one truly rid his or her garments of the Latter-Day Stains from the blood of this generation? It turns out it is not that complicated. We determine what has been our role in the sins of our day, which is more often than not a simple carrying on of false traditions of our fathers, and we STOP DOING IT. Oh but the momentum created by our time-honored sin cycles is too great. Surely JESUS, the PEACE-maker would not expect us to do something so simple yet drastic as withdrawing financial support from monetized murder. He said “render unto Caesar” didn’t He? So that’s what I’m doing.

Take a look at the coin that Jesus referred to when they tried to corner him on this “tax issue”. If it was indeed the Denaruis of Tiberius, as many scholars have suggested, then there are a couple details that are very noteworthy. On one side there was a picture of Caesar with an inscription that claimed Caesar was divine. On the other was the image of a female depiction of Pax (Peace). So I guess we CAN promote peace by paying taxes. Sure we can, for as the great Roman lawyer and historian, Publius Tacitus quotes his father-in-law as having said: “They rob, kill, plunder and usurp under false titles. They call it empire. They make a desolation and they call it peace.” Yep, that’s Pax Romana for ya. That is American foreign and domestic policy. In the modern-day version of the Roman Empire, and the latter-day version of the Holy Roman Church, we have a son-and-father, attorneys-at-law duo (Josh and Ron Madsen) who speak out against the same evils as they see them taking place currently. But they are bold in speech only. They, like their ancient Roman counterparts, fail the age-old Chinese test for insanity. Though they see the picture clearly – that of a stream of water flowing into a pool – when asked how they would set about draining the pool, they do not include cutting off the current/currency streaming into it. Thus, according to ancient Chinese wisdom, they can be judged to be insane. I ask again: Can we promote peace while still paying taxes? Sure – Peace “as the world giveth”. But Jesus was not interested in the Nobel Peace Prize, nor any other type of Medal or Metal. Whether the Tribute Penny was the Denarius of Tiberius, the Antiochan Tetradrachm, the Denarius of Augustus or any other of the various possible coinage which was used as a visual aide by the Master Teacher in his example…The most important detail to consider, so obvious it might be overlooked, is the material of which this coin was made. SILVER or if we are to read the Gospel of Thomas then the coin in question is described as being of GOLD. Either way, those of us who have been offered the light of truth more clearly than any people since the post-resurrection Nephites ought to see a connection appearing in crisp clarity before our eyes.

But make no mistake about it, what we have been offered and what we have received are two very different things, and so the plain and precious things that Jesus said unto the Nephites in person remain mostly unwritten, and this for a reason -damage control. We have already condemned ourselves sufficiently. If and as the fullness of the Gospel as taught to the mixture of Nehpites and Lamanites commonly referred to as ‘The Nephites’ during Christ’s visit to what is now known as the Americas, is revealed as prophesied, by “men inspired of Heaven” it will only serve the purpose of condemning more fully the majority of gentiles who choose to reject the fullness, vainly pretending to already possess it. Kind of hard to prove possession based upon written records alone anyway, since it has to be written on our HEARTS for us to be “found possessed of it in the last day” (in which case we are numbered among the remnant and it will be well with us) but it’s even harder to prove when our own Book of Mormon is so undeniably, blatantly, purposefully, and stoically silent as to the juicy details of what Jesus spoke unto the multitude that instructed them on how to live PEACEFULLY. They were specifically commanded not to write them. And they happen to mention that GREATER THINGS STILL were spoken to them by the mouth of the babes. Will records containing specifics on how to build a Zion be “brought forth” to us? The real questions are:  Have they already? Are they out there or in here? And most importantly when we come across them what do we do, accept or reject? I guess that is why Jesus, in speaking to the ancient inhabitants of “this land” about us in “this time” called it the strange work or act of The Father.

DUST DEVILS

This is the strange act of the same Father who stood not in conflict but in conversation with Lucifer. Notice even in the super-sacred-secret, copyrighted, intellectual property of the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Corporation Sole) video production of the Temple Drama, how cool and collect Elohim is in his correspondence with Lucifer. Lucifer ap-PARENT-ly sees his own PARENT as an enemy. But, God The Father appears to not be distressed in the slightest. Lucifer says “If you do that then I’ll do this!”  God responds with a “Works for me” tone. Everything and everyone, including, yes, The Devil, works for Elohim. God is ALL knowing. God is ALL powerful. God is ALL there is. Beside (Elo)Him, there is no one. At least that is what a scribe once said to Jesus. “And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.” (Mark 12:34) It is discrete because the Truth that was known by Jesus and that scribe was communicated between them and for all the world to discover but between the lines. There is a photograph of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed founder of the Islamic Restoration Movement in Latter-Day America. The photo was taken in the early 60s and also features the famous boxer Ali Mohammed and activist Malcolm X. The photographer was obviously more concerned with capturing the image of these three iconic figures in one shot but to me the slightly blurry background holds more interest. There was a sign posted at this speaking engagement which read “There Is No God But Allah.” But in this image the sign, not being the focal point, was cut off by an audience member’s head. So it contained an interesting message for those with “eyes to see”. THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALL. God is THE Creator and as such is in everyone and everything.

no god but all
So if God is almighty then who is this guy Lucifer who considers himself an opponent of God. And who are we to side with him. It most certainly seems that Lucifer delivered on his threats. And if we are honest we will admit that we have all fallen into this plot in one way or another. But HOW is his scheme working on us? Remember it all ends up working for GOD working for GOOD. So who is this guy anyhow? I thought he rebelled and lost his first estate so what kind of state is he in to be talking to The Father like that? Abraham 3:28 says that Lucifer was “angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that day, many followed after him.” It is helpful to think of this word ‘estate’ in terms of states of matter (gas, liquid, solid). That ‘First Estate’ was a SPIRIT BODY. Joseph Smith explains that Spirit is Matter, only more refined. So it stands that the matter we call flesh is spirit, just less refined, fallen. The ancient gospel tradition which has managed to survive through the Lamanites, if nothing else can teach us that EVERYTHING has spirit. And this alone is a mighty important thing to know and live by. The Lord tells us this in the D&C as well, just in case we are wont to ignore His voice speaking through the Lamanites, like the Nephites dismissed Samuel – Just in case we are tempted to disregard the collective voice of the Book of Mormon prophets speaking to us “from the DUST.” The dust too has spirit and is in fact what composes our FLESH. Now we find Lucifer, cursed worse than all the beasts of the field, or we could say made lower than all the forms manifesting on the universal grid of existence. The serpent is representative of a low frequency wave form as it goes along, upon its belly, eating DUST.

Dust is about the worst form of existence for infinite intelligence to inhabit, at least when viewed from the mentality of being stuck. Certainly one who subscribes to scientific materialism or the idea that only visible matter really matters, does not feel that he may meet the measure of a man from within this very “particular” state of affairs. Dust particles do not rank high in terms of visibility. In order to get noticed they must make mortals sneeze. But the sneeze itself and the almost automatic “Blessing” which follows it in most cultures, ensures a strong defense and immunity to the wiles of any would-be trouble makers at this level of life. From this limited view-point, a soul is molested by monstrous mites as one mourns what might have been, like Dicken’s chain laden “Ghost of Jacob Marley”. But this would be especially true of any soul who retains memory of former glory. Even sand is a step up from the perspective of one who is fallen in the dust. Sand grains, although small and shifty, array themselves in splendid spreads reminiscent of the stars in the Milky Way. Both noble gases and gritty glasses nobly represent parts of the great, innumerable Seed of Abraham. But dust, dust is loose, lowly and lonely.

Despite this demotion the Devil still strives to be worshipped. If there is anything we can say to advocate the adversary, it is that he at least seems to understand the idea of “dusting” yourself off and trying again. His methods are desperate and futile. However there is a Redemptive Plan put into motion simultaneously with The Fall. So we find him saying “If you do this to me” and delivering his infamous threats which we have already seen him make “good” on. But take a close look at the logical order this back n’ forth between Elohim and Satan follows. The Devil says: “I will take the spirit(s) that follow(s) me and [they shall] possess the bodies thou createst for Adam and Eve.” Elsewhere in the dialogue Elohim Himself verifies that those bodies are made of the dust of the earth, to which realm the rebellious one was previously cast. So how does Satan eventually succeed in getting the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve to love him more than God as we read in Moses 5:13? It is the old natural man trick. It is important to understand that the “Natural Man” that Alma speaks of in Alma 42:10 is “carnal” so were speaking of the flesh which brings us back to dust (literally).

ENMITY – EYBAH & EYAH

Continuing with the dialogue between Elohim and Lucifer in the LDS Endowment Ceremony, we see that after Lucifer’s threat to possess the bodies created for Adam and Eve, Elohim counters by placing “enmity” between Lucifer and the woman; between his seed and her seed. The Hebrew word translated in the Bible as “enmity” is “eybah” (pronounced ay-bawh). An LDS seminary teacher in Montana made the honest mistake of confusing the word “eybah” with “eyah” – a Hebrew word which translates as “I am”. I am grateful for the seminary teacher’s error, because it gives us deep truth to ponder when considering God’s strategic placement of enmity between daughter and devil.

‘Eyah’ is in fact the word that GOD speaks to Moses when He utters the famous “Eyah aser Eyah” – “I AM that I AM.” But when we use the phrase “I am” we typically mean something very different. Man’s individualistic use of these words speaks as well to the feeling one has for another who he considers his or her enemy. Enmity is the “firewall” which we put up against everything and everyone who we consider to be “other” as we fall further from our Heavenly Home and child-like natures, typically within the first few months of mortal life when self-cognizance kicks in and we begin disassociating ourselves from so much. When the effects of this fall first start to set in, a baby will often cry intensely when the mother or father leaves the room whereas before this time they barely noticed any difference, feeling his or her ‘self’ in every way a part of the parents. Once we go from feeling a part of to feeling apart from our Heavenly Parents then all Hell can break lose in our minds during even the shortest temporary absence of one or both of The Parents. This is evident from the drama that develops when Father exits with a promise to return momentarily and Up Jumps the Devil.

We all learn that “I AM” myself and “YOU ARE” yourself. “This” is “MY body” and “That” is “my environment” We view this as a normal healthy development, however, Jesus tells us: “This is my body which is given for you”. We hear Jesus saying we have to become as little children if we want to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. So just how close to Heaven do we want to get? In Ephesians 2:14-15, Jesus is spoken of as the one “who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace.” Eventually the baby grows accustomed to the ‘difference‘ and as he advances into adulthood he is actually digressing towards ‘indifference‘; thus the need for rebirth and being made new in Christ. We seem to be caught in a silly tug-o-war that reduces warriors to worriers. Either we are worrying excessively over what to eat, what to wear, what others think of us or we are justifying a selfish expansion of what we see as our personal empire; rolling over people and consuming things in our lust for power. This all equates to nothing more than a faulty view of our surroundings. Any power we think we gain while in acting on these hallucinations is nothing more than a hopeless attempt to compensate for a lack of spiritual power. It is the Spirit that suffers the most from a near total diversion of our attention to all things physical. Speaking on Scientific Materialism, Quantum Activist Amit Goswami has said:

“This is a very exclusive world view because it excludes all the other things that we experience like mind, vital energies, feelings, intuition, and only holds on to that one thing, sensory experience, matter. So this, of course, creates a denigration, denigration of values, denigration of meaning. Because it is mind that gives meaning and the supramental that gives us values. If you ignore those compartments of experience, obviously it will become oriented towards separateness. In this view we are separate beings. We are just the physical body. The more we come to believe in scientific materialism, the more we give up values like love, beauty, justice, truth and goodness.”

The Prophet’s journal for November 6, 1835, records:

“I was this morning introduced to a man from the east. After hearing my name, he remarked that I was nothing but a man, indicating by this expression, that he had supposed that a person to whom the Lord should see fit to reveal His will, must be something more than a man. He seemed to have forgotten the saying that fell from the lips of St. James, that [Elijah] was a man subject to like passions as we are, yet he had such power with God, that He, in answer to his prayers, shut the heavens that they gave no rain for the space of three years and six months; and again, in answer to his prayer, the heavens gave forth rain, and the earth gave forth fruit [see James 5:17–18]. Indeed, such is the darkness and ignorance of this generation, that they look upon it as incredible that a man should have any [dealings] with his Maker.”

What is the subtle but essential difference between “Eyah” and “Eybah” that prevent us from having any dealings with our Maker? What is it that makes it so easy for us to slip from an all inclusive spiritual view to a physical focus that turns our back on God and pits us against our own flesh and blood, literally; starting with our own bodies and spreading like an infection to our brothers and sisters?

Hebrew is a language layered with meaning starting with each of the 22 letters of the alphabet. Breaking down the two words and analyze the meaning letter by letter we get:

EYAH =  ע – to arc י – to manifest א – to begin ח – to define
EYBAH =  ע – to arc י – to manifest ב – *amid* א – to begin ח  – to define

Obviously they are practically identical in phonetics and this equates to very similar embedded meanings. But there is one difference inserted smack dab in the middle, halving the Great‘I AM’ as it were; dividing Man and Maker in a duel of duality. The marker between the two halves is fittingly represented by the Hebrew letter ב (pronounced beyt) an ancient pictogram representing the concept of inside/outside. If we end where our skin begins then why is so little of our daily attention focused inwardly. Are we really that disinterested in our inner selves? And if the truth of the matter which Jesus tried to share with us, shows us that we do not end where our skin begins but extend well beyond connected with other life forms around us through the Holy Spirit; why the animosity towards our outer selves? Are we afraid of a little dirt? Do we feel threatened by the elements? We’re all just earth, air, water and fire after all.

“I have intended my remarks for all, both rich and poor, bond and free, great and small. I have no enmity against any man. I love you all” – Joseph Smith Jr.

GOLD & SILVER – PRECIOUS METALS vs. PREC[AR]IOUS METALS

What is Old Lucifer going to do now? He announces menacingly: “with that enmity I will take the treasures of the earth, and with gold and silver I will buy up armies and navies, false priests who oppress and tyrants who destroy, and reign with blood and horror on the earth!” But can we trace the current state of violence in the world to trace metals? Metals are no more responsible for the violence in this world than are the weapons forged with them. Things are things, they are neutral. It is the intentions of man which direct power to or through these things. This is why God’s teaching should clarify “things” for us. Seek – ye – first – the kingdom of God – and all these things – shall be – added unto you. It is not then the metals but the concept behind medals of honor which is capable of pulling men’s honor away from the kingdom of God, which resides inside them and attaching it to external things.This is why soldiers are given medals made of shiny metals for their commendable (command-able) performance, their bloody human sacrifice. Demons are all so easily commanded. What is more limited to following commands generated from outside influence than a computer? As we enjoy our man made machines. Daemons are downloaded and they too enjoy seeing man made machine. To overcome artificial intelligence, we need only act from our eternal intelligence. The time is coming when we will need to call upon our eternal intelligence and rescue those who have watched too many terminator movies from perishing in fear while real-life robo-cops patrol the street apprehending people; persecuting and prosecuting the saints for thought crimes. For, the Devil’s end-game is not in this threat to “take the treasures of the earth and with gold and silver buy up armies and navies”. It’s not in his “false priests who oppress”, nor his “tyrants who destroy, and reign with blood and horror”. The precious metals, the blood, they’re all just cogs in his trance-humanist scheme to do what he threatened at the outset-To thoroughly possess the bodies created for Adam and Eve.

Here we have the whole plan of the Evil One laid bare before us. There is no justification for being bought off. Even with all the riches in the world, we could not afford to ignore our divine calling. Gold and silver were Lucifer’s elements of choice due to their special Solar and Lunar qualities. They are elemental representations of the Universal Pre-Stood Power’s Masculine and Feminine aspects, respectively. If he did not first trick mankind into externalizing the innate powers inherited through the spiritual genes from a Heavenly Father and Mother, the Trickster would not have got very far. Blood was another necessary element to Lucifer’s design. Islamic lore maintains that trace levels of demonic blood flow through the veins of all the races of the human family. Mormon theology asserts that blood is not a component of resurrected and perfected bodies. This “lone and dreary world” where man sojourns and Lucifer is Lord is aptly titled. The descriptive word “dreary” comes from the Old English dreorig meaning “bloody, blood-stained” from dreor “gore, blood”. The blood of the saints cries out to the Lord from the dust. Blood and dust seem to share a mysterious relationship throughout scripture.

“What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?” – Psalms 30:9

Well we certainly see the profit for the leaders of this misled world when they spill the blood of innocents in their endless wars. But is it possible that there is another side to the story that we do not see. Does the blood of Christ cleanse, condemn or both? Is the Dust of the Earth redeemable? We had better hope it is.

“And they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state, even less than the dust of the earth. And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men.” – Mosiah 4:2

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 unconditionallyalone, 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.

Next Article by Justin:  Fourth Chapter of Luke

Previous Article by Justin: The Written Records

(A Family that Lives Together…)

Deep Waters: Having their Hearts Knit Together in Unity and in Love


DISCLAIMER:  This post has been tagged Deep Waters because is discusses human sexuality.  

I personally do not believe avoiding the topic of sex or that teaching sex-negative messages is advisable.  I think the hope is that doing so can keep people from having sex — but all that it appears to have done is keep people from having good sex:  From asking questions about it, from communicating with their partners about it — and from being fulfilled by it.  

I also think avoiding it or teaching a negative/shame-based view of it blurs the line between sex and rape by making all human sexuality this one, undifferentiated mass of “bad”.  If we’re taught to repress ourselves sexually, it doesn’t just go away.  The “uncontrollable” horny boy and the “good girl” syndrome are all caused by our current approach of teaching young men and women about sex.  It leads to either rampant breaking of the law of chastity — or depression and unhappy sexuality within marriage [which is why an LDS couple wrote And They Were Not Ashamed], both of which are exactly what Satan wants us doing.

In any event — there’s the disclaimer, so now I’ll start.

The unity of marriage:

Adam and Eve were married before they were ever aware of their nakedness or their sexuality [see, Intimacy as the Opposite of Sin].  The marriage union was in response to loneliness – not lust.

The sexual union is the chief means of physically expressing an existing connection of Love between two people.  Sex for both procreation and pleasure is not unique to being human — it is common to all other animals.  Our unique experience in sexuality is the bonding or social adhesion between two people.

When acting as animals, we may experience the two dynamics common to all life [procreation and pleasure], we conceive children and it can feel good – but only when acting as humans may be partake of the third [or ideally all three at once].

Reproduction and sexual union are distinct events:

The genitals have three distinct purposes:

  • Urination
  • Reproduction
  • Unification

Thus, they may be considered as conduits of three things:

  • Nitrogenous waste
  • Reproductive gametes
  • Social adhesion

These three are all physiologically distinct from each other.  Sexual union and reproduction are considered just as separate from each other as reproduction is from urination.

  • The testes and the ovaries/uterus [reproductive organs] are not the ones involved in the sexual union
  • Just as the urethra is not the organ involved in producing new life

The pleasure of sex arises entirely within one’s own body.  This is why the pleasure of it can be generated in solitude.  Thus, this aspect is better considered as the sequel to a sexual union, or the end-result of one.

Disconnected the pleasure from the union:

Often, a person who is going out for a “hook-up” is said to be “lookin’ for a woman” or “out to get a man”.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

A woman is exactly what a man like that does not want.  What he wants is the pleasure for which a woman happens to be a desirable apparatus for obtaining.  If a bona-fide union with the other person is not the end you are seeking – then he/she is just the means to the end you’re really seeking, your own pleasure [just as if you were producing the pleasure in solitude].

This is not Love.  Actual union did not take place.  The other person will be regarded about the same as a drug addict would regard the used syringe after he is done injecting.

and Amnon said unto Tamar

bring the food into the chamber
that I may eat from thine hand

and Tamar took the cakes which she had made
and brought them into the chamber
to Amnon her brother
and when she had brought them unto him to eat
he took hold of her
and said unto her

come lie with me my sister

and she answered

nay
my brother do not force me
for no such thing ought to be done in israel
do not commit this folly
and what of me?
whither shall I cause my shame to go?
and as for thee
thou shalt be as one of the fools in israel
now therefore
I pray thee
speak unto the king
for he will not withhold me from thee

howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice
but being stronger than she
forced her
and had sex with her

then Amnon hated her exceedingly
so that the hatred wherewith he hated her 
was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her
and Amnon said unto her

arise
be gone

[2 Samuel 13:10-15]

Union is a “sacred-act” — or “sacrament”:

The “sacrament” of sex arises from the fact that, in Love, we are not merely our Self anymore.  We become representatives or proxy of the universal Male and Female.  In the temple, we are considered as if we were Adam and Eve.  In the pagan mysteries, the man acts in the role of the Father Sky-god and the woman the Mother Earth-goddess.  All that is masculine and feminine in the whole universe – all that exerts and all that yields – all form and matter, all spirit and element – is momentarily focused and present in that singular event [see, Masculinity, Femininity, and Gender].

The word “naked” originates as the past tense of the verb for peeling or stripping – meaning it referred to something that had undergone a “naking”.

In this sense, each of us are more our Self when we are dressed.  The naked person is not one who has abstained from wearing clothing – but is one who [for a specific reason] has undergone the specific process of removing clothes.  Nudity emphasizes the common human image we all bear [or would that be bare, pun intended].

Like the story of Inanna descending to the realm of the dead, passing the seven gates, removing an article of clothing at each [or Mary, being freed from seven spirits] – we strip off all that it means to be our Self, and put on nakedness as a ceremonial robe to re-enter the garden as the universal He and She [Adam and Eve] to re-enact the drama of creation.

Sacred symbolism in LDS temple liturgy:

In BiV’s post at Wheat & Tares, The Sacred Embrace as Five Points of Fellowship, she describes how [before this aspect of the ceremony was removed] the initiates were not allowed to enter the presence of the Lord until they had conversed with Him embraced in the Five Points of Fellowship.  The closeness symbolized in that act was to represent our oneness with God — a complete embrace of our Self into Him — and was presented as the way through which we all passed from death into celestial Life.

The Five Points of Fellowship were described as:

  • inside of right foot by the side of right foot
  • knee to knee
  • breast to breast
  • hand to back
  • mouth to ear

In Wicca, there is a ritual of the “Fivefold Kiss”, which is another form of the Five Points of Fellowship.  The ritual involves kissing five parts of the body — each kiss accompanied by a blessing.

  • Blessed be thy feet, that have brought thee in these ways
  • Blessed be thy knees, that shall kneel at the sacred altar
  • Blessed be thy womb / phallus, without which we would not be
  • Blessed be thy breasts, formed in beauty / breast, formed in strength
  • Blessed be thy lips, that shall utter the Sacred Names.

Greeting or saluting [aspazomai, “to draw into one’s self“] with a “holy kiss” was an early Christian practice referenced in the epistles of Paul [Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20, 2 Cor. 13:12, 1 Thes. 5:26].

And not only did the Five Points of Fellowship get cut from the LDS temple ceremony — but so did the complete ritual blessing of the naked body done part-by-part:

  • The head, ears, eyes, nose, lips, neck, shoulders, back, breast, solar plexus, arms and hands, genitals, and legs and feet.

The ritual established by Joseph Smith was performed in a bathtub — washing with water and spiced whiskey [strong drink for the purpose of ritual washing, D&C 89:7] and anointing with olive oil:

Oliver Cowdery gave even more detail about one of these temple preparation meetings, noting how the Latter-day Saints followed Old Testament patterns in washing and anointing priests for temple service.

Oliver wrote that he met with Joseph and others at the Prophet’s house:

“And after pure water was prepared, called upon the Lord and proceeded to wash each other’s bodies, and bathe the same with whiskey, perfumed with cinnamon. This we did that we might be clean before the Lord for the Sabbath, confessing our sins and covenanting to be faithful to God. While performing this washing with solemnity, our minds were filled with many reflections upon the propriety of the same, and how the priests anciently used to wash always before ministering before the Lord.”

Admittedly, these acts were obviously cut from our temple rituals because participants felt uncomfortable with the intimacy they suggest.  This was especially the case for women — who were not allowed to have priestesses ministering at the veil ritual for them, but had to be received by a male priest to whom they were not married.

Much like the intimacy suggested in the ritual washing and anointing of Jesus’ feet by Mary [without which He was not prepared for His death and burial] …

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]

… many felt some “indignation within themselves” when presented with such ritual acts that were quite sexual in nature.

The reason these sacred acts were removed:

These rituals are inherently intimate in nature because they express the unity between men-and-women, humanity-and-God — that the gospel is designed to achieve.  Zion requires great intimacy and connection among the body of believers who comprise it.  The church currently lacks this intimacy and connection — so these rituals felt strange for most of the people who participated in them.

However, the leadership addressed the genuine feelings of discomfort in the wrong way.  Instead of getting at the reason why we all still feel like strangers at church and are not comfortable with the level of intimacy required to be comfortable in the temple rituals — they just axed the intimate parts out of the ceremony.

The only way to achieve Zion, or even a Zion-like atmosphere at church, is for the men and women to all be connected to each other through covenants.  As it stands, we are connected to Christ through covenants, but not to each other.  As long as we remain unfettered by covenant relationships with each other, we will never achieve Zion and our conversations [and actions] will never approach the level of intimacy and sharing required of that ideal.

Knitting the estranged back together:

The experience of ecstasy [ekstasis, “to stand outside yourself”], the complete unification of two people expressed through the sexual union — is what exists beyond the concepts of separateness, beyond the concepts of God-and-humans, Self-and-neighbor, man-and-woman, or any of the other this-and-that’s we might split existence into.

This is the transcendent “mystical experience” present in nearly every religion or spiritual path.  One might immediately think of the New-Agey, Eastern religions [Zen, Yoga, Hinduism, etc.], but even the big three Abrahamic faiths have their own ecstatic, mystical sects [Kabbalah, Sufism, Gnosticism].

The fervor for which some Christian writers have described being given over to the ecstatic worship of God border on the sexual:

Only in God is everything pure, beautiful, and holy; fortunately we can dwell in Him even in our exile!  But my Master’s happiness is mine, and I surrender myself to Him so He can do whatever He wants in me.

[Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity]

I saw an angel beside me toward the left side, in bodily form. I saw in his hands a long dart of gold, and at the end of the iron there seemed to me to be a little fire. This I thought he thrust through my heart several times, and that it reached my very entrails. As he withdrew it, I thought it brought them with it, and left me all burning with a great love of God. So great was the pain, that it made me give those moans; and so utter the sweetness that this sharpest of pains gave me, that there was no wanting it to stop, nor is there any contenting of the soul with less than God.

[Saint Teresa of Avila]

A common monoplot in all human myth is this sacred act of the interplay between the aspects of God considered as a man and as a woman.  Their interplay manifested in:  Birth, Puberty, Marriage, Sexual Union, Death — cycling back to New Birth [or Resurrection].  It has been considered in various ways across human culture:

  • YHVH and His covenant people Israel
  • Christ, the bridegroom and His Beloved, the church
  • Jesus and Mary Magdalene
  • Sky-God and Earth-Goddess
  • Inanna and Dumuzi
  • Isis and Osiris
  • Yin and Yang
  • Shiva and Shakti
  • Krishna and Radha
  • Pan and Selene

But right now – The Father and Mother are estranged. The exalted Man sits up in the sky upon the throne. While the Woman is locked away in the tower.  As such, they can never be friends.

The Mother is nature and all of the physical elements – but that’s become everything we are supposed to deny in order to be “holy”.  Most religions go about separating the very things that is the purpose of religion to bring together – body and spirit, man and woman, sexuality and holiness, humanity and divinity.

I think people are scared of natural because it doesn’t seem as “self-sacrificing” — like the Catholic priest who feels his life of sexual restriction is “more holy” than a family-life.  Or a Buddhist who would run away to “find himself” on a mountain top, leaving anything “worldly” behind.  Or the monogamist who would insist that a polygamist ought to “deny their natural man” and get with one-on-one monogamy instead of a natural state of polygamous families.

But “natural” and “supernatural” need not be considered as separate things.  Let us bring back together the things that shouldn’t ever have been separated in the first-place – or perhaps it would be to realize that they were never separate in the first-place.  Just that a hardened mind, conceived in sin, perceives this-and-that, good-and-evil, heaven-and-earth, mental-and-physical, spirit-and-flesh, gods-and-humans, etc. as these separate and exclusive things – and our minds just need to be soften, or broken.

Next Article by Justin: The Concept of Race, in the Gospel

Previous Article by Justin:  Intimacy as the Opposite of Sin

[When Things Get Broken …]

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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Two Plasma Interpretations of Portions of Revelation


Since posts on the subject of plasma cosmology and interplanetary interpretations of prophecy have already been written, in this post I will avoid expounding on particulars such as the sun darkened, moon turning to blood, hail mingled with fire, beasts, olive trees, thunderings and lightnings, etc. and focus on the new pieces of information I have received.

Even though I just said that — as an introduction, I will state here that it is my understanding that the prophetic narratives in scripture take as their template events that unfold in the heavens:  i.e. the movements of planets and their interactions with each other.  “Prophecy” is merely the description of planetary movements and plasma interactions.

The imagery in a prophetic story is imagery observed in the sky.  The mention of a “sword”, doesn’t mean a literal, physical sword floating around in outer space – but that there are planetary movements and plasma formations that, when seen from the perspective of Earth, create the image of a sword.

Prophecy is simply the movements of planetary bodies and the resulting plasma interactions, converted into a narrative that describe patterns that likewise play out in earthly evens.  Meaning that after the planets go through their described motions, fulfilling the elements of the prophecy every whit – the same story then plays out here on Earth.

The planets are not just big physical balls of gas and rock – but they are also the idea of what those planets mean – the planets being used as a way to represent a pattern of things taking place among mankind [or within yourself] as thought it is a physical event transpiring in the sky.

Mankind has a natural tendency or instinct to worship, which is tied to what happens in the heavens, among the planets. This is because human brain cycles are tied to the cycles of the heavenly bodies (planets, sun, comets, etc.), and when the planets are active, the urge to worship comes as a fanatical devotion.  This urge is as basic as our sexual urge and is a part of our natural state of existence [meaning atheism, like monogamy, is a more recent human invention].

When the heavens are active, the devil’s strategy is to direct that fanatical devotion in the wrong direction by introducing idolatry.  However, when the skies are asleep [like they are right now], the instinct to worship does not pull on us as greatly and so the devil works to suppress the urge to worship altogether.

Now — with that in mind, I want to introduce the following post as a new piece of information that I received with respect to two particular portions of the Book of Revelation.  In this post, I will not go into the planetary interpretations of the trumpet blasts, earthquakes, lightnings, moon turning to blood, the two witnesses, etc.  Nor will I go into the various earthly interpretations that these events may also represent.

Piece of Information #1:  When the calamities associated with the Book of Revelation begin to unfold, mankind is going to respond one of two ways. 

A Planet and a Plasma Column Descending to the Earth:

And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.  And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices:

The one who sits on the throne is the planet known as God, or Elohim.  His throne is a pillar or column of a plasma channel that reaches down to the earth.

Four Planetary Pass-bys Affect the Unrighteous of the Earth:

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him.

A planetary body passes by that appears white in color, with a plasma discharge resembling a bow at the South pole and a crown at the North.

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill on another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

A planetary body passes by that appears red in color, with a plasma discharge resembling a sword.

According to Velikovsky, “The Roman god Mars was pictured with a sword, and he became the god of war.  Of this same sword Isaiah spoke when he predicted the repetition of the catastrophe, a stream of brimstone, flame, storm, and reeling of the sky.  The ancients classified the comets according to their appearance.  In old astrological texts, as in the book of Prophecies of Daniel, comets that took the form of a sword were originally related to the planet of Mars,” — which planet just so happens to be red in color.

But that’s just my speculation on this particular planetary body.

And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

A planetary body passes by that manifests no color, with a plasma discharge resembling a pair of balances on either side.

And I looked, and behold a pale [green] horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.

A final planetary body passes by that is green in color, with an orbiting satellite.

There was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us, and hid us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.”

The effect of these four near pass-bys of planetary bodies is a great earthquake, the sun being darkened, the moon glowing red, and asteroids falling to the earth.  When these events start to unfold, the great men of renown on the earth will seek out their underground compounds to hide from the asteroid collisions.  Others will merely seek out caves and mountain hiding places.

The Righteous do not seek Refuge Underground:

I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”

These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.  They shall hunger no more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.  For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

The meek of the earth will not seek refuge in underground compounds.  Rather, they will gather together under the shadow of the God who sitteth on the throne [within the plasma column].  Here, in his “temple”, the righteous will be fed by precipitating carbohydrate compounds [manna] and fountains of water.

Piece of Information #2:  The woman clothed with the sun and her relationship to the Babylon the whore.

A Planet Ready to Birth a Rocky Satellite:

A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve starts: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

The woman is a radiant [or discharging] planet that is about to give birth to a rocky satellite out of one of her polar openings.

A Red Planet Attempts to Destroy the Birthed Satellite:

A great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

The great red dragon is a planetary body that displays a plasma discharge characterized by ten horn-like projections with seven orbiting satellites.  It will resemble a comet [because it will have a tail].  The Red Planet travels near to where the radiant Woman Planet is in an attempt to destroy the rocky satellite that she is about to expel.

The Woman Planet Births the Rocky Satellite:

And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

After the rocky satellite comes out of one of the polar openings, it is captured by the gravity of the planet seated on the plasma “throne” where it will orbit – and not be destroyed by the Red Planet.

And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

After the birthing process, the Woman Planet departs to a different place in the sky, low on the horizon.

The Servant Planet Michael Wars with the Red Planet:

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.  And the great dragon was 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.

The Servant Planet known as Michael and his accompanying Servant Planets come in and scatter the Red Planet and cause it to be cast down low on the horizon.

The Red Planet Persecutes the Woman Planet:

“Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.  Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea!  for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”

And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly unto the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.  And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Now that the Red Planet is cast low on the horizon, it is near to where the Woman Planet traveled.  This Planet then manifests a plasma discharge resembling wings and travels out of sight below the horizon and out of the scene [for the time being].

The Two Beasts:

I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.  And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

And all the world wondered after the beast.  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, “Who is like unto the beast?  who is able to make war with him?”

The first beast is a planetary body that arises up from the horizon over an ocean, discharging ten horn-like projections and having seven orbiting satellites – much like the Red Planet earlier.  At this point, the interplanetary displays between the Red Planet and this new beast will cause real idolatry to return.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.  And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast.  And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on earth in the sight of men.

And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast.  And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their forehead: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.  For it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

The second beast is a planetary body that arises up from the horizon over the land, discharging two horn-like projections.

Babylon:

And great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.  And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

“Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand.

“I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.”

The great Babylon is the same planet that had previously appeared as the radiant Woman Planet who birthed the rocky satellite.  After the manifestation of the plasma wings, the Woman Planet descended below the horizon – where she will reappear after “coming in remembrance before God”, who is that Planet who sits on the plasma “throne”.

The Queen of Heaven, or Virgin Mother, returns as Babylon the Whore.  Both of these characters in the story a different representations of the same planetary body.  Once it returns, the planet will form a polar stack with the planet that arose from the horizon above the ocean [the first beast].  And this event is the final event before the massive EEAAOOAAEE Planet returns to our solar system and encapsulates the earth in its plasma cocoon for the duration of the Millennium.

At first, I didn’t understand what it meant that I was being shown that the Woman clothed with the sun is the same as the Whore.  From Catholic school, I know that the Catholics associate this imagery with the Virgin Mary – so it was strange for me to think about this planet also being the Whore.

As I read through some material to see what might explain this dream, I came to realize that it all has to do with my perspective.

Clothed, she is the Mother.  Virgin because she is not yet known.  But upon her return she is the Whore, revealing herself to all mankind, that they all may know her – for in the scriptural language, “to know” expresses the sexual union.

And Adam knew his wife, and she bare unto him sons and daughters, and they began to multiply and to replenish the earth.

We needn’t think that the “Whore” is an insult to the “Mother”.  Sex and nudity get labeled as vulgar or shameful because they represent the denial of individuality [the left-brain, masculine dynamic].  With sex, because it is the complete reception of another [becoming one flesh] – and with nudity because, well, we all look the same naked.  Clothed, I can distinguish myself into rank, class, or social group – but naked, I am Adam, retelling the creation drama of the garden of Eden.

So — she returns from her place in the wilderness, nourished, and now known as revelation — because she is fully revealed.  Of course, “revelation” is merely the Latin way of saying “apocalypse”, or the end of the world.  And it is her return that is the world’s destruction.

The cup of wine that she carries was given to her by God when she came in remembrance before Him.  It is the sacred cup – the sangreal – the bottomless chalice of compassion that King Arthur’s knights sought after so diligently, carrying their swords.  Which is, of course, the job of the knight – to break down the tower that holds the princess captive, to liberate her – to immerse the will in charity.

Thus, she is the Mother because of her compassion.  But the Whore because she receives all who come unto her and stoops low enough to encompass all things.  She represents the Heavenly Mother – the Womb that yields and receives, endlessly.  The outer darkness into which the Father’s seed will expand for ever and ever.

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. [without compulsory means].  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 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.

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

Previous Article by Justin:  It maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no [one]‘s person

Masculinity, Femininity, and Gender


This is a topic about which I have much more I could write and spend more time coming to understand personally — however, considering the general interest on LDS blogs over the topics of:

I thought it expedient to expound on what I currently understand the nature of these questions to be.  Each point could be illuminated on further if a reader finds any jumps in reasoning that they perhaps cannot follow.

Male/female gender vs. masculine/feminine aspects:

Every intelligence that was created from nothing by God chose a gender for itself at the point when it was made independent in that sphere in which God placed it.  This was its first “act for itself” – choosing to be either male or female in gender.

All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence. [D&C 93:30]

Masculine and feminine, however, refer to aspects of character – not to gender.  Whether male, female, or of no gender [things] – all aspects of existence may act in either masculine or feminine aspects, and thus may be considered as male or female.

The earth rolls upon her wings, and the sun giveth his light by day, and the moon giveth her light by night, and the stars also give their light, as they roll upon their wings in their glory, in the midst of the power of God. [D&C 88:45]

The sun is considered as a male because it fulfills a masculine role of emitting light, while the moon is considered as a female because it fulfills a feminine role of receiving and reflecting light.

A better example of the distinction between gender and aspect/role is in considering Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost:

Personal harmony:

The Eastern concept of the yin and yang is a symbol for explaining the dance that goes on between the masculine and feminine aspects within each individual person.  Whether we chose to have a male or female gender as a personage – we are all comprised of masculine and feminine particles, aspects, and characteristics.

Just as an atom – though it contains some particles called protons [positive charge], some neutrons [no charge], and some electrons [negative charge] – may manifest [over-all] either a positive [e.g., sodium] or a negative [e.g., chlorine] charge.  And it is this over-all charge that allows the atoms to interact with each other and form the molecules of life [sodium+chlorine = salt].

Every person [whether created male or female in gender] contains in their make-up the masculine aspects [yang] – or those of creation, acting upon, the left-brain-mind, the right side, etc. and the feminine aspects [yin] – those of resting, yielding, the right-brain-heart, the left side, etc.  [See also, the Split-Brain Model of the Gospel]

When in balance within an individual person, the right-brain-heart will receive [feminine/yin] inspiration and the left-brain-mind will act upon [masculine/yang] that idea and be the tool that carries out the will.

The key to harmony in this system is for masculine and feminine aspects to be in balance.  It would be improper to ask the moon [feminine] to shine like the sun – or the sun [masculine] to reflect like the moon.  Each has its proper role, power, purpose, and way of doing things.  Activity must be balanced with rest.  Contemplation must be balanced with creation.  Etc.

The two cannot be mixed together or pitted one against the other – as though “on” could ever gain victory over “off” or vice versa.  The masculine and feminine are to come together and become one – joining together, but retaining the masculine and feminine aspects undiluted, untainted, and unmixed.

Tribal harmony:

The masculine aspect pertains to males by virtue of a male birth, and the feminine aspect pertains to females by virtue of a female birth.

Humans are not born into this world absolutely free.  That is not to say that I think we are slaves to some nature that we must overcome – nor do I think we are born in any way enslaved.  I simply mean that we are all limited.  The natural completion of any one human can only be found in the joining of two humans.  The natural completion of any two humans [a marriage couple] can only be found in the joining of them to God.  Man or woman [alone] know but one part of human nature.

The male is born into this world with the symbolic wand, scepter, or sword [covered by a hood].  This is God considered as a male.  It is the will that acts to bring about something from nothing [creation].  It is the tool to penetrate the mystery.

The female is born into this world with the symbolic cup and orb [again covered by a hood].  This is God considered as a female.  It is the sacred chalice of divine compassion.  It is the fertile soil yielding to and receiving the seed.

Husbands are [by virtue of a male birth] to act in the masculine aspect of a priest.  Wives are [by virtue of a female birth] to act in the feminine aspect of a priestess.

Males must embrace and magnify their masculine aspect – while at the same time honoring feminine-ness by loving their wives.  Females must embrace and magnify their feminine aspect – while at the same time honoring masculine-ness by yielding their consent to their husbands.

For there to be true equality between males and females, matriarchy must exist along with patriarchy and gynocracy must exist along with androcracy.  There must be a balance of power, and power must be shared – not concentrated in the hands of a few.

Women are to hold the keys of common consent by which they are free to authorize, validate, and direct the work of the priesthood.  Men are to hold the keys of the priesthood by which they are to act as the voluntary slaves of all and minister the gifts and powers of the Spirit.  Though wives are to submit to or follow their husbands – this is balanced inasmuch as the priesthood of the husband cannot be handled without the consent of those it is intended to serve [the servant must hearken to his masters in all things].  All things must be done by common consent, or else disharmony and tyranny result [rather the men or the women are at fault].  Men and women are judged by God according to how they use their respective set of keys and how they treat each other.

There is no need to consider the particular aspects of the feminine nature [or the male nature] to be a burden.  Nor do we have to somehow neutralize the difference between woman and man in the quest for some androgenous equality of andro-gyn-archy where we demand the sun reflect light and the moon emit it.

What we are to understand by the division of masculine and feminine natures is that man or woman [alone] are but half of a true person – just as a person’s flesh is incomplete without his/her spirit.  However, it is being half that allows the whole to be constructed without denying each part what it truly is.

What of Heavenly Mother?

All Gods, irrespective of gender, are masculine aspects – or are to be considered as male.  When they become the feminine aspect [the mystery, that which is penetrated], they enter the passive, sleep-state of outer darkness — and we do not relate to them here in the created universe.

The exception to this is Jesus Christ during his life on earth.  For though he was God, and therefore did not consider “Godhood” to be something he needed to cling to – he gave up or emptied himself of the masculine aspect of God, took upon himself flesh, appeared in human form, humbled himself in obedience to God, and suffered death on the cross to have his bowels filled with compassion for humanity [See Philippians 2:6-11].  Thus, for that duration of time, Jesus Christ [being God] was considered as a female while being a male personage.  However, thereafter he is seated at the right hand of God [masculine] and all humanity is subject to him [masculine] – and is therefore, as God, he is currently considered as a male.

The created universe [associated with the left-brain-mind/right side] is a masculine aspect, therefore – whether a God is a priest/king or a priestess/queen, He or She is considered as a male by humanity.  We refer to all of them as Gods [rather than Goddesses] – and we must relate to them as masculine, as in yield to the Spirit and submit our will, etc.

Outer darkness [associated with the right-brain-heart/left side] is a feminine aspect.  It is the mystery [a sea of “nothing”-ness] that is penetrated by the will [expansion of the sphere of light].  It is the passive state of non-existence that is contrasted to the active state of existence.

Thus, the Gods are all considered as males and we must relate to them in that way.  The difference in the offering of Cain [fruits of the earth] and of Abel [animal sacrifice] is that Cain could not act in faith towards God while approaching him as a feminine aspect [fertility worship].

As Gods, the purpose is to begin the Arthurian quest to drown in the cup of the Divine Feminine.  Once a God [whether male or female in gender] achieves this state of progression – they return to a state of passivity and rest in outer darkness.  The cycle of creation and expansion of this created universe must be balanced with the rest and withdraw of outer darkness.

The nature of all energy is a wave.  There is no static position in nature.  The full moon will be immediately replaced by the waning gibbous.  Once the moon’s light is altogether withdrawn — a new moon phase begins with the waxing crescent.  The sun goes thru similar phases of active solar activity and more quiet periods.  The earth wobbles on its axis to form seasonal intervals.  The sun moves thru the sky from the summer solstice to the equinox to the winter solstice and back.  Etc.

Eternal progression does not defy this natural pattern by being linear.  The course is one eternal round – or that of an undulating wave.  The kingdom of God is associated with “on” [yang, creation, left-brain, masculine] and outer darkness is associated with “off” [yin, rest, right-brain, feminine].  The point at which any God [male or female] reaches the crest of the wave – they pierce thru the created universe and begin the state of rest [as was counseled to be so since the beginning].

This state is the Divine Feminine, what people call the Heavenly Mother – this is God considered as a female.  This substance is what yields to the universal sphere of light [the seed].  This substance is what the power of creation [pro-creation] uses to bring something out from nothing.  Once any Goddess [male or female] reaches the trough of the wave – they become awake to their left-brain-mind and spawn a new universal sphere of light [a seed].

Outer darkness is, in every facet, the right-brain-heart of God – it is the Mother or Goddess – the waning or sleep state.

The created universe is, in every facet, the left-brain-mind of God – it is the Father or God – the waxing or active state.

This principle – explained in three tiers:

I.  As a person [rather born male or female], each of us must seek to harmonize the feminine and the masculine aspects inherent in our person.

This is done by subjecting the flesh [feminine] to the spirit [masculine] – and by placing the right-brain and the left-brain into their proper harmonious roles.

II.  As a marriage couple [who are made up of one male and one female], the wife and the husband must seek to harmonize the feminine and masculine aspects inherent in the role each one is to play.

This is done by women acting in the aspects of the feminine and men acting in the aspects of the masculine.  Wives [feminine] must follow their husbands [masculine].

III.  As the church of God [who are made up of the foundational unit of marriage families], we are all – as the bride of Christ – to seek towards harmonizing ourselves as the feminine with our masculine Bridegroom and Father.

This is done by all believers acting in the aspects of the feminine by relating to God only as a masculine aspect [even the Gods that are female in gender, i.e. the Holy Ghost].  The church [feminine] must subject its will to the will of the Father [masculine].

Next Article by Justin:  Zion will not be Established by Unrelated Persons

Previous Article by Justin:  Punishment

The Fulness of the Father


The Celestial Cloning of the Gods
by OneWhoIsWatching. www.threewatches.blogspot.com
[Editorial Note: I have been meaning to blog about this topic for sometime but have procrastinated. I hurriedly put this post together before leaving to go to Logan today. I plan on adding more to this post in the days to come. I will gladly accept any content from readers that supports this premise and would love to include it in this post. A very important foundational part of the doctrine contained herein, which explains how the male and female genders interrelate and how the man is not without the woman neither the woman without the man in the Lord, may be found in the literal interpretation of the creation story as provided in JST Genesis and related scriptures. For additional info pertaining to the doctrine of composite beings click here. As always, credible documentation to the contrary and comments from skeptics are welcome as well.]

We live in a world that instills in us a love and desire to be different. We love our uniqueness. We take great pride in our individuality… our separateness from others if you will.

We love our freedom of choice, our agency.

The world we live in is an ego driven world where the self centered natural man takes credit for his own accomplishments and covets his separateness from his fellow man and from God.

The natural man has a natural desire to excel above others. Hence we live in a world of class distinction.

We must remember however that Satan is the God of this world and everyone in it until a person repents and begins worshipping the only true God. Until we become a new creature of the Holy Ghost,  we are carnal sensual and devilish creatures. The purpose of the Gospel is to bring about a mighty change wherein we become new creatures;

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”  2nd Cor

For, said he, I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit. And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.” Mosiah 27

Hence our existence here is at best a distorted typological glimpse of the hereafter. Some speculate how life in the hereafter will be based on how life is here, yet this is not accurate.

It is therefore not surprising that the concept of sameness, equal-ness and oneness is repugnant to the natural man. It is a disconcerting thought to those who are carnal sensual and devilish.

The doctrine I want to address may well be considered a mystery in the sense that many members of the Church are not familiar with it or not very knowledgeable about it, however it is not necessarily one of the mysteries that has never been revealed by the prophets.

It is not one of the deeper mysteries which has been hid up and reserved to come forth for the first time when the marvelous work rolls forth. It is simply one of those doctrines that the masses tend to shy away from because it does not resonate with most people, in fact it can feel downright uncomfortable.

Nevertheless, I am going to show from the scriptures and from the teachings of the latter day Seer and the latter day Spokesman that;

There is only one perfection in the celestial kingdom, anything that differs from it is not perfect. When someone receives the fulness of the Father they are transformed in the express image of the Father and possess the same mind and glory as the Father.

Exalted beings in the highest glory are exactly identical to each other physically, mentally and spiritually. Their actions and thoughts are exactly the same. They even have the same mind, which is the Holy Ghost.

As a young boy in Sunday School my teachers, when speaking about the appearance of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith in the grove would often hold up a picture depicting Jesus Christ as a younger man with brown hair standing next to the Father who was an older man with white hair. When I went on my mission in 1973 the missionary flip chart also showed a similar picture depicting a younger Jesus with brown hair and an elderly Father with white hair. That picture is shown below;

Years later I found it curious that the church started using different pictures of the Father and the Son showing them to be identical. I don’t know what caused them to change pictures but interestingly enough, according to the description of Joseph Smith, the Father and the Son “exactly resembled” each other.

In one of the accounts of the first vision the prophet Joseph Smith described the Father and the Son as exactly resembling each other in features and likeness;

whose brightness and glory defy all description” and who “exactly resembled each other in features and likeness: (JS—H 1:17; Wentworth Letter, Backman, p. 169)

In another interesting account provided by the Prophet Joseph Smith, he told of seeing the Twelve Apostles after they had been glorified and he noted that;

He saw that they all had beautiful heads of hair and all looked alike.” (Autobiography of Vilate Kimball)

Years later, Sidney Rigdon Spokesman and Joseph Smith the Seer prepared and the information contained in “Lectures on Faith” to the school of the prophets. The main purpose of Lectures on Faith is to increase faith in God, teach the deepers things about the nature and character of God and to enable those with faith to see God.

The content within the lectures teaches that Christ and all those who become perfected will  be TRANSFORMED INTO THE EXPRESS IMAGE OF CHRIST AND THE FATHER AND POSSESS THE SAME MIND AND GLORY AS THE FATHER.

Lectures on Faith teaches that if you ever saw two beings that differed from each other in any way, you could know for sure that at least one of them was not a perfected being. There is only one perfection and anything that differs from that perfection is obviously not perfect.

I have provided numerous excerpts from the Lectures below;

“And he being the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and having overcome, received a fulness of the glory of the Father-possessing the same mind with the Father, which mind is the Holy Spirit,”

“…The Father and the Son possessing the same mind, the same wisdom, glory, power and fulness: Filling all in all–the Son being filled with the fulness of the Mind, glory and power, or, in other words, the Spirit, glory and power of the Father–possessing all knowledge and glory, and the same kingdom: sitting at the right hand of power, in the express image and likeness of the Father–a Mediator for man–being filled with the fulness of the Mind of the Father, or, in other words, the Spirit of the Father: which Spirit is shed forth upon all who believe on his name and keep his commandments:

and all those who keep his commandments shall grow up from grace to grace, and become heirs of the heavenly kingdom, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ; possessing the same mind, being transformed into the same image or likeness, even the express image of him who fills all in all: being filled with the fulness of his glory, and become one in him, even as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one.

“Q. Do the Father and the Son possess the same mind?
A. They do

Q. Does the believer in Christ Jesus, through the gift of the Spirit, become one with the Father and the Son, as the Father and the Son are one?
A. They do. John 17: 20,21. Neither pray I for these (the apostles) alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word; 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.”

“..let us ask, where shall we find a prototype into whose likeness we may be assimilated, in order that we may be made partakers of life and salvation? or in other words, where shall we find a saved being? for if we can find a saved being, we may ascertain, without much difficulty, what all others must be, in order to be saved – they must be like that individual or they cannot be saved:

we think, that it will not be a matter of dispute, that two beings, who are unlike each other, cannot both be saved; for whatever constitutes the salvation of one, will constitute the salvation of every creature which will be saved: and if we find one saved being in all existence, we may see what all others must be, or else not be saved.

We ask, then, where is the prototype? or where is the saved being? We conclude as to the answer of this question there will be no dispute among those who believe the bible, that it is Christ: all will agree in this that he is the prototype or standard of salvation, or in other words, that he is a saved being. And if we should continue our interrogation, and ask how it is that he is saved, the answer would be, because he is a just and holy being; and if he were any thing different from what he is he would not be saved; for his salvation depends on his being precisely what he is and nothing else;

for if it were possible for him to change in the least degree, so sure he would fail of salvation and lose all his dominion, power, authority and glory, which constitutes salvation; for salvation consists in the glory, authority, majesty, power and dominion which Jehovah possesses, and in nothing else; and no being can possess it but himself or one like him: Thus says John, in his first epistle, 3:2 and 3: Behold, now we are the sons of God, and it doth not appear what we shall be; but we know, that when he shall appear we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And any man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.–Why purify himself as he is pure? because, if they do not they cannot be like him.”

“That he proposed to make them like unto himself; and he was like the Father, the great prototype of all saved beings: And for any portion of the human family to be assimulated into their likeness is to be saved; and to be unlike them is to be destroyed: and on this hinge turns the door of salvation.”

The above passages out of Lectures on Faith may seem a bit mystical and extreme. However, I would point out two things about them;

1) The principles and concepts contained in the Lectures on Faith produced results. Several accounts by and about participants of the school of the prophets used this sacred information to unlock the heavens. One of the most incredible testimonies that was recorded was that of Zebedee Coltrin who participated in the school. He was one of several people who also saw Jesus Christ and bore testimony of it. His vision took place a year after section 76 was given.

2) The other observation about the Lectures on Faith is that it is completely consistent with the New Testament! Some of these verses will be provided below.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what weshall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is .” 1 Jn. 3: 2

I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was crucified for the sins of the world, even as many as will believe on my name, that they may become the sons of God, even one in me as I am one  in the Father, as the Father is onein me, that we may be one.D&C 35: 2

The above verses in modern revelation are building upon the intercessory prayer that Christ offered in the New Testament;

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that theymay 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.” John 17

Divine Investiture

Despite talks by modern leaders to the contrary, there is nothing wrong with worshipping Jesus Christ. He is the God that atoned for our sins and he is one with the father. The Nephites worshipped him when Christ visited them and he did not rebuke them for doing it.

There is a most interesting account in the 19th and 22nd chapters of the Book of Revelation where a personage that apparently looked exactly like Christ and spake as if he was Christ, appeared to John the Revelator to reveal things to him.

Thinking the messenger was Christ, John knelt down to worship him but was quickly rebuked by the angel who acknowledged that he was a fellow servant of John. He commanded John to worship God;

And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage super of the lamb.  And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of  prophecy….

And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true… Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God. And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.”

Realizing that the plan of salvation is calculated to transform the repentant man into the exact image and likeness of Christ and his Father, and infusing us with all of their attributes, powers and former accomplishments, let us now review various aspects of the scriptures to see if perhaps there is a deeper meaning and significance to some of them.

When the Lord began speaking to the Saints through the Prophet Joseph Smith in the 1800’s the underlying theme was quite a paradigm shift to the thinking of the world.

Oneness

In one of the earlier revelations the Lord commands the Saints to be ONE;

“I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.” (Section 38)

A surface interpretation of that scripture might incline someone to assume that God is simply encouraging his people to be united in a common cause and faith, however the previous statements from the Spokesman and the Seer suggest that there is a more ultimate and literal state being alluded to than just the attainment of a common cause and faith in mortality.

Equality

Again, in modern scripture, the Lord commands his people to be EQUAL.

Yes, he is referring to their current temporal condition; however, the goal of being equal temporally in this life is typological to our ultimate state of being in the eternal world.

“And behold, none are exempt from this law who belong to the church of the living God.. Nevertheless, in your temporal things you shall be equal, and this not grudgingly, otherwise the abundance of the manifestations of the Spirit shall be withheld.” (Section 70)

They who dwell in his presence are the church of the Firstborn; and they see as they are seen, and know as they are known, having received of his fulness and of his grace..And he makes them equal in power, and in might, and in dominion.” (Section 76)

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” (Section 78)

Celestial Imaging

Again, in light of what the Seer and the Spokesman have revealed about the literal reality of the saved person being transformed into the exact image and likeness of the Father, let us look at a few more statements in the scriptures;

And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this …I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?” Alma 5

Enticing of the Spirit- Yielding- Submission
Becoming a Prisoner of Christ

Some people speculate that in the highest glory within the Celestial Kingdom there will be differences of opinion between the various inhabitants and that there is some kind of necessity in having some type of common consent among the inhabitants before God can do his will.

The scriptures and the words of the prophets seem to challenge this notion. There cannot be any contention or disagreement among exalted and perfected beings. Indeed, the gospel of Jesus Christ is calculated to take away our imperfect individuality and take away our personal ego and personal will. All exalted beings are in perfect harmony with each other having the same mind… even the mind of the Holy Ghost.

Just as the Savior said “not my will but thine” and allowed his will to be swallowed up in the will of the father, each of us who enter into the straight gate will, through the grace of God and by the power of the holy ghost need to shed our egos and our separate will and allow our independent will to be swallowed up in the will of the father. We must use our agency to freely give up our agency;

Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father.”  Mosiah 15: 7

The Apostle Paul speaks of being made a minister unto the Gentiles through the mysterious grace of Christ which made him a “Prisoner of Christ”.  He uses the term prisoner which is unusual because the term prisoner usually has a negative connotation to it.

Nevertheless some prisoners are taken into custody against their own will while others freely surrender themselves. Paul seems to fall into both categories. Initially it appears he was spiritually abducted long enough to have his spiritual eyes opened. After that, he freely surrendered himself to the higher authority.

For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,

Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ Eph 3

but men drink damnation to their own souls except they humble themselves and become as little children, and believe that salvation was, and is, and is to come, in and through the atoning blood of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and putteth off the natural man and becometh a Saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” Mosiah 3

With the deeper understanding that those who achieve Godhood are transformed into the image of God and how their mind is piloted by the  Holy Spirit as their ultimate guide. It becomes apparent that that agency is not an eternal entitlement but rather a temporary gift. One that brings forth the condemnation of man if not used wisely.

While it is important to exercise agency to choose light over the darkness during probation, perhaps the most important and last choice that we will use our agency to make, is to freely give up our agency and allow our will to be swallowed up in the will of the Father.

It is interesting that the Kingdom of Heaven appears to have hierarchy in relationship to the three kingdoms of glory however, within the highest kingdom there does not seem to be a traditional kingdom hierarchy with regard to knowledge and power since all of the Saints in that kingdom are made equal with Christ

And then shall the angels be crowned with the glory of his might, and the saints shall be filled with his glory, and receive their inheritance and be made equal with him.” (Section 88)

Indeed, the oath and covenant of the priesthood informs us that all of the previous attributes,  powers and accomplishments of Christ and the Father who have gone before us are inherited by everyone who becomes exalted:

And also all they who receive this priesthood receive me, saith the Lord; For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me; And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father; And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him. And this is according to the oath and covenant which belongeth to the priesthood.” (Section 84)

From this we find that we are infused with the same glory and accomplishments of all of Christ and his Father, each of whom had inherited the same from their fathers that went before them and so on. Therefore each person that becomes exalted inherits the fulness of the attributes, power and accomplishments of all the Gods who came before them.

Satan the Great Counterfeit

It is important to realize that God allows sons of Perditions to gain temporary entrance into the pre-existent celestial realms so that he can use them to separate the various intelligences and create division and war prior to the mortal probation however it is interesting to note that they don’t enter in by the same gate that the righteous enter in. Notice the following observation by Christ;

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” (John 10)

It is erroneous to teach that Lucifer was at one time a righteous man who became exalted through the approved plan of progression and then fell from his exaltation. He was simply a very smart and crafty individual that God allowed to climb up through the back door so that God could use him to fulfill his purposes. He functions on borrowed light for a season.

Notice the following assurance by Christ that those who enter in at the gate through Him shall never fall;

whoso cometh in at the gate and eclimbeth up by me shall never fall”  (Moses 7)

Paul warns us that Satan and his minions have the ability to transform themselves. Satan transforms himself into an angel of light from time to time. Even false apostles have the ability to transform themselves into the image of the true apostles of light. With this warning, it is almost incomprehensible that one of the foundational claims coming out of the succession crisis of the LDS restoration movement is the account of a transformation

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works2nd Cor

Summary

To summarize, when a person accepts the fulness of the Gospel and becomes meek and submissive and childlike, willing to submit himself to the laws of God and to allow his self will to be swallowed up in the will of the Father, he will receive the baptism of fire which will make a new creature out of him.

This prepares him to receive of the fulness of the Father and to be transformed into the express image of the father, possessing the same mind and glory as the Father.

Why is this important to understand?

Because we have been commanded to seek the face of God and to truly know him. We have been commanded to gain a better understanding of the nature and character of God. We have been commanded to understand who and what we worship;

And I, John, bear record, and lo, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove, and sat upon him, and there came a voice out of heaven saying: This is my beloved Son. And I, John, bear record that he received a fulness of the glory of the Father;

And he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, for he dwelt in him. And it shall come to pass, that if you are faithful you shall receive the fulness of the record of John.

I give unto you these sayings that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness.

For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorfied in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace. And now, verily I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn D&C 93

Seven Shepherds and an Angel


Seven Shepherds and an Angel
By OneWhoIsWatching www.threewatches.blogspot.com

There are numerous channels by which personal revelation comes to each of us.

When studying and searching the scriptures, my wife provides one of these conduits for me.

She brings many things to my attention that I don’t catch… possibly this is because of her simple childlike faith and unassuming nature. It is probably also because she doesn’t allow preconceived notions to color her view of the scriptures. Of course the main reason is that she has been blessed with a spiritual gift in this area.

I will sometimes share a principle or some knowledge with her and then she will turn around at a later time and show me how to use that knowledge as a key to unlock additional knowledge. I sometimes refer to her as a Sibyl.  (“…women of antiquity reputed to posses powers of prophecy or divination… a female prophet…”)

While studying prophecy years ago I showed her Rev 12:14 and told her that some prophecy scholars believed that the word “time” = “one year”, the word “times” = “two years” and the phrase “half a time” = ½ year” hence, the Church would be nourished for 3 ½ years at some point in time:

“And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”

She quietly cataloged that information. It would come up many years later in a scripture study.

Fast forward several years later…. we were studying Micah and noticing how he refers to the Seven Shepherds that are upon the earth at the time that invading armies come into the latter day land of Israel. This is also the general time period when the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles and among many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest to tread them down.

We wondered if these seven shepherds were the same seven servants of God mentioned in the 3rd and 4th chapter of Zechariah which are referred to as the seven eyes of the Lord who run to and fro in the whole earth.

We also wondered if these seven Shepherds that acted as the eyes of the Lord running to and fro in all the world could be the seven angels which had the seven trumpets and prepared themselves to sound in Rev 8 and/or the seven thunders that uttered their voices in Rev 10 or the seven angels having the seven last plagues that bring judgment upon the whore in Rev 15, 16 & 17 etc.

We could not help but wonder if these seven angelic beings lived on this earth in mortality prior to their missions in the last generation… in the 3rd Watch….And if so, is it possible that they had been part of the LDS restoration movement?

Possibly they were the first laborers in the last kingdom that lived during the Kirtland, Jackson County and Nauvoo eras of the Church.

We were aware of the LDS fundamentalist beliefs that there had been a secret quorum of six Apostles/High Priests functioning under the direction of Joseph Smith which makes a quorum of 7 Apostles. This cryptic Quorum was also known as the Friends of God.

This tradition, as with many corrupted legends and traditions, appears to originate from a true principle/event. It appears to come from the revelation known as section 84 of the D&C which states in the first verse:

A revelation of Jesus Christ unto his servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and six elders, as they united their hearts and lifted their voices on high” (D&C 84:1)

We found it very strange that the entry of this revelation into the history of the Church and the Doctrine and Covenants did not document who the six other elders were yet it did document how many elders were present… very curious.

It seemed odd to us that such an important revelation containing very specific promises to and about these six elders who had the higher priesthood confirmed upon them by the voice of God out of heaven would not bother to document who these elders were.

We perused various historical documents attempting to verify exactly who these six elders were but it is not an easy task to get an identity of these six players.

In section 88 these six elders are referred to as the “first elders” of the Church and the “first laborers in the last kingdom”.

In section 88 the Lord commands those who are not the first elders of the Church to continue laboring in the vineyard but he promises the first elders that he will send them into the vineyard again at a later time to bind up the law, seal up the testimony and prepare the Saints for the hour of judgment which is to come.

We thought that it would be fun to search section 84 to see if this quorum of Apostles will have a role in the 3rd Watch when the dispensation of the fullness of times and the Marvelous Work are ushered in.

It is worth noting that section 88 was given several years before the quorum of the 12 Apostles were called, Joseph Smith and these six elders were referred to as apostles by the Lord. He even calls them his friends. A favored status that few people other than Abraham ever achieved in the scriptures:

And as I said unto mine apostles, even so I say unto you, for you are mine apostles, even God’s high priests; ye are they whom my Father hath given me; ye are my friends.”

The thought that these brethren might return as a quorum to play an important role in the winding up scenes was intriguing to us.

As we poured over section 84 searching for hidden treasures of knowledge pertaining to the events of the very last days we were ecstatic when we read the incredible unconditional promise that Bishop Newel K. Whitney will return to warn the inhabitants of New York, Albany and Boston of the desolation and utter abolishment that await them if they reject the gospel.

Every time I hear of reports about nuclear suitcase bombs that have been strategically hidden in major cities like these and orchestrated terrorist attacks that are going to be taking place, I can’t help but think of this incredible promise and associated prophecy given to Bishop Whitney. He will come back and warn the people in these cities.

I think this warning must take place before major desolation takes place.

The Lord then gives an unconditional prophecy that the rest of the first Elders being spoken to in this revelation will also “go to the great and notable cities and villages reproving the world in righteousness of all their unrighteous and ungodly deeds setting forth clearly and understandably the desolation of abomination in the last days

And then the Lord reveals this most remarkable promise to these First Elders who are the First Laborers of the Last Kingdom:

For with YOU saith the Lord Almighty, I will rend their kingdoms; I will not only shake the earth, but the starry heavens shall tremble..”

The Lord who knows all things and cannot lie… the Lord who has infinite foreknowledge because all time, past, present and future is continually before his eyes, promised these specific brethren that they would be the ones to return to the vineyard at the time of the last generation to shake the earth and bring down the kingdoms of the world!

While we were pondering these amazing promises and studying this section my wife and I began pondering the following verses:

And your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief and because you have treated lightly the things you have received. Which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation.  And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all.”

We were aware of the several statements President Benson had made concerning the above verses and that he had inferred that the church was still under condemnation.

Dallin H. Oaks had given a talk at the Church Educational system Satellite fireside on June 1993 and had quoted President Benson regarding these verses. He claimed that President Benson had declared that the Saints had brought the whole Church under condemnation and that it was still under condemnation:

” President Benson had been stressing the reading of the Book of Mormon. Repeatedly he had quoted these verses from the Doctrine and Covenants, including the Lord’s statement that the Saints’ conduct had “brought the whole church under condemnation” (D&C 84:55). In that temple meeting, President Benson reread those statements and declared, “This condemnation has not been lifted, nor will it be until we repent.”

As we pondered the verses in section 84, it occurred to me that a the word of God was not saying that the conduct of all of the Saints in the Church had brought the whole church under condemnation, but rather God was saying it was the unbelief and vanity of those specific Apostles that had brought the whole church under condemnation! This revelation was being directed specifically to the first elders to whom the revelation was being given: And YOUR minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief and because you have treated lightly the things you have received. Which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation.  And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all.”

As I was making this observation, my wife was making an additional one. She said something to the effect of:

Yes, I agree. Those specific Elders brought the Church under condemnation… And it appears that the Lord gave these specific apostles’ another revelation two years before he had given them this one. In that revelation he must have told them some things they took lightly… perhaps it was difficult for them to believe some of the things he had told them.”

I was really taken back by her observation. “How did you divine that deduction from those verses?” I asked. “What makes you think the Lord had given Joseph Smith and these six Apostles a revelation two years prior to section 84?”

That’s what it says” she replied. “Remember how the prophetic definition of the word “times” = two years?”

I looked at the verses again in context of how the word “times” was used in Rev 12:14 and then I realized what she was seeing:

And your minds in times past [two years ago] have been darkened because of unbelief and because you have treated lightly the things you have received. Which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation.  And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all.”

I was shocked at her interpretation and began chiding her: “What have you been smoking? That is a HUGE stretch… Just because the word “times” had a prophetic interpretation in the vision of St John 2,000 years ago, in the New Testament, that does not mean that the same word would have the same definition in modern revelation!”

Finally, after brow-beating her for a while I decided to really drive my point home by showing her how easy it would be to prove that there was no revelation directed through Joseph Smith to six elders two years prior to section 84.

I said to her:

If your interpretation is correct, it would be easy to prove because such a revelation would be important enough to canonize in the Doctrine and Covenants. Such a revelation would clearly be directed to Joseph Smith and six elders just as section 84 was, and it would undoubtedly contain prophetic information about their ministry

I then went to the beginning of section 84 to verify what month and year the revelation was given. It was given in September of 1832. I then turned to the beginning of the Doctrine and Covenants to view the “Chronological Order of the Contents” section. I noticed that four revelations had been given two years prior to section 84. Section 28, 29, 30, and 31 were all given in September of 1830.

I then turned to section 28 to see if it was addressed to six elders… Just as I thought, it was given directly to Oliver Cowdery… no other elders were involved in receiving the revelation.

I then turned to section 29 and looked at the section heading. What I saw sent chills up my spine…


Revelation through Joseph Smith Jr. in the presence of six elders


Unbe-freakin-lieveable!


Again, the identity of these six elders is withheld… why? Why did Joseph Smith choose to withhold the identity of these chosen servants yet document the number of them that God was talking to?

I didn’t have much time for ingesting much humble pie at that moment as my wife and I were both quite anxious to devour section 29 to see what the Lord had revealed to Joseph Smith and these six elders! We were hoping that this section would reveal additional information regarding the role of these seven apostles during the 3rd Watch.

When we got to verses 7 & 8 we could hardly believe our eyes:

And ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect: for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts; Wherefore the decree hath gone forth from the Father that they shall be gathered in unto one place upon the face of the this land, to prepare their hearts and be prepared in all things against the day when tribulation and desolation are sent forth upon the wicked.”

Wow…

These first laborers of the last kingdom will return to the earth as ministering angels to gather the elect to prepare them against the day when tribulation and desolation are sent forth upon the earth!

Could it possibly be that Joseph Smith and these six elders that will give the final warning, gather the elect and bring about the fall of the kingdoms of the world are the ones being referred to in Zechariah, Micah and the Book of Revelation?

Are these the ones that run to and fro in all the world as the eyes of the Lord?

Are these the Seven Shepherds that are the “peace” when God’s Promised Land is invaded by foreign armies and the remnants of the land tread down the unrepentant gentiles as a lion among sheep?

What an incredible thought, that Joseph Smith and the first elders of the Church would return to the earth to gather the elect.

Notice the promise given in Matthew 24 that before Christ returns in his glory he will send his angles to gather the elect:

For the Son of Man shall come and he shall send his angels before him with the great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together the remainder of the his elect from the four winds and from one end of heaven to the other…” (JST Matt 1:37)

Just as Gabriel returned to the earth as a ministering angel to minister to the father of John the Baptist, just as Moses and Elijah returned to the earth to minister to Christ at the Mount of Transfiguration and just as John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John returned to the earth as ministering angels to minister to Joseph and Oliver, priesthood keys were given to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple. These keys enable them and the other first laborers of the last kingdom to return to this earth to minister unto all those who are found waiting, watching and willing.

Do you believe in angels?

I do..

I am married to one.



[Editorial note: It is not uncommon for the Lord to use the key words within differing sections of the four standard works to point to each other and help those who are searching to connect the dots, particularly when both sections of scripture are speaking about the same topic. Therefore it is possible if not likely that the 3 ½ year period of time spoken of in Revelation 12 is literally or typologically related to the last gathering that is to be done by the first laborers of the last kingdom.

I want to clarify that section 84 is actually a composite of two separate revelations given on consecutive days, the 22nd and 23rd of September. On the first day there were six elders present, on the following day, it is not clear if there were additional elders that were invited to participate in the promises the Lord was making to the leading elders of the Church.

The first laborers of the last kingdom more than likely consisted of more than just those seven elders being addressed during the revelation given on the first day. Interestingly enough, it appears according to the “Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants by Woodford that in the original manuscript of the second part of the revelation given on the 23rd, the following phrase was included and has since been taken out:

“The 23rd day of September AD 1832 Eleven High Priests save one”.

It is not clear what this statement is referring to. It could be referring to  the fact that Judas would be missing when the 12 Apostle from New Testament times return to judge Israel. Another possibility is the implication that four additional Elders were present on the 23rd bringing the total count to 11 and one member of the quorum of the 12 was not present.

There is evidence to suggest that the quorum of seven was part of a quorum of 12 Apostles that had been chosen by the Lord by 1832. This quorum appears to have more power and authority than the quorum chosen by the three witnesses. In fact at least two of the three witnesses were very likely part of the first, mystical quorum of the 12.

From historical sources it appears that there was some type of quorum of special witnesses long before the three witnesses was commanded to choose another quorum of the twelve:

“It was also announced that “twelve chosen witnesses, had been allowed to see the gold plates” (The life of David Marks, pg.340).  Also, there were newspaper references from 1829-1831 to twelve apostles in Mormonism.  September 1829 a Palmyra newspaper noted:  “the number of the gold bible apostles is said to be complete.”  (Palmyra Reflector, 23 September 1829. The issues of 19 April and 1, 22 June 1830 also make reference to Mormon apostles.)”  Mormon Hierachy: Origins of Power by Quinn]

One last thing on note pertaining to section 84, in the original manuscripts of the revelation it states that John the Baptist had been baptized from the womb, not at the age of eight days. This is consistent with the various scriptures stating that he was the transmigration of Elijah the Prophet and had previously been baptized before being born into the world as John the Baptist.]

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine


For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine
The higher Priesthood contains the Key of the Knowledge of God
© Onewhoiswatching www.threewatches.blogspot.com

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2nd Tim 4:14

One of the great evidences that the Marvelous Work was to be a separate work from the foundation work of the 1830’s is the prophecy given by Paul in the above verses, that the time would come when the Saints would not be able to endure sound doctrine, but rather, they would turn away their ears from the truth and would be turned unto fables.

Obviously many of the Saints in the Meridian of Time drifted into apostasy and the dark ages followed, during that time men were unable to endure sound doctrine. However, as we have previously discussed, most if not all prophesies have a dual fulfillment. If it can be shown that Latter day Israel has not been able to endure sound doctrine following the restoration of the church in these latter days, then it provides another evidence that another great work is needed to restore true doctrine to Gods people.

We all have our opinions based on our own interpretation of the scriptures which doctrines are true and whitch are false. However  I want to begin this post by showing that modern LDS leaders have stated publicly and privately that false doctrines have entered into the Church.

President Ezra Taft Benson once said:

“Not only are there apostates in our midst, but there are apostate doctrines which are sometimes taught in our classes and from our pulpits and which appear in our publications. The these apostate precepts of men cause our people to stumble. AS the Book of Mormon, speaking of our day, states: “..they have all gone astray save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men” (Book of Mormon ref 2 Nephi 28:14 E.T. Benson ref CR April 1969 )

Not too many years prior to President Bensons statement President Joseph Fielding Smith had entered the following notation in his person diary:

“I attended sessions of meetings for the institute teachers, held in the assembly room on the fourth floor of he Church Office Building. I cannot say that I was very greatly edified. Too much philosophy of the worldly nature does not seem to mix well with the fundamentals of the gospel. In my opinion many of our teachers employed in the church school system have absorbed too much of the paganism of the world, and have accepted too readily the views of the uninspired educators without regard for the revealed word of the Lord. What to do about it I do not know. It is a problem for the Presidency to consider. It is a very apparent fact that we have traveled far and wide in the past 20 years. What the future will bring I don’t know . But if we drift as far afield from the fundamental things in the next 20 years, what will be left of the foundation laid by the Prophet Joseph Smith? It is easy for one who observes to see how the apostasy came about in the primitive church of Jesus Christ. Are we not traveling the same road?” (The Life of Joseph Fielding Smith 212. Deseret Book Co., 1972 )

Prior to that observation by President Smith, George Q. Cannon had made the following remark:

“I tell you we are beginning to follow along the course of the early Christian Church. So long as that church was persecuted from without, it prospered, but when it began to be polluted from within, the church began to wither. There is, creeping into our midst, and I warn you brethren about it, and urge you to meet, a great host of sectarian doctrines that have no place amongst us. The gospel in its simplicity, is to be found in the revelations… we must accept them as God gave them to us and there must be amongst us a unity of the faith.” ( CR October 1944 )

Erastus Snow made this observation:

Over fifty years have passed away since the light of the glorious gospel in its fulness began to dawn upon us, and still we are measurably walking in darkness.” (Annual Conf Report April 6 1883 )

Finally, let me share this sobering proclamation from John Taylor:

We are getting into such a condition that if we were to meet the Lord, we could not look him in the face and the way we are going, it will soon be impossible to tell what we do believe.”

As you can see from the testimony from numerous leaders of the Church, the restored church is plagued with false teachers teaching false doctrines.

Obviously we do not have time in this post to discuss and document the countless false doctrines that have snuck into the fold since the time of Joseph Smith’s 1st commission in the 2nd Watch.

But I do want to speak about one of the most important foundational doctrines upon which I believe all other doctrines rest.

The Prophet Joseph Smith said:

It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God” (Teachings, 345).

In other words, one of the foundation stones of the restored gospel is a knowledge of what kind of being God actually is. But not only do we need to understand what kind of being God is, we must come to know God. In the same sermon from which we just quoted, the Prophet Joseph further stated,

If any man does not know God, . . . he will realize that he has not eternal life; for there can be eternal life on no other principle” (Teachings, 344).

In His great high-priestly or Intercessory Prayer, the Savior confirmed that life eternal was to “know . . . the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [the Father] hast sent” (John 17:3).

Joseph Smith also endorsed the following teaching taught in the School of the Prophets:

One of the three things necessary in order that any rational and intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation, is to have a correct idea of his character, perfections, and attributes.” (Lectures on Faith, 3rd Lecture)

In modern revelation the Savior has stated that:

I give unto you these sayings that you may understand and know how to worship, and aknow what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness.” (D&C 93:19)

It seems to me that the first principle constitutes the foundation doctrine of the Gospel. It is the doctrine upon which all other doctrines are built. It sets the stage for learning additional truth. If one has a correct understanding of this fundamental doctrine one stands a reasonable chance of getting the next principle or doctrine right, and the next and so on. Conversely, if one begins with a false perception of who and what God is, it is likely that the belief system that follows will also have erroneous assumptions.

Realizing how important it is to have a knowledge of the true character of God, modern revelation tells us that the “greater priesthood” administers the gospel and holds the key of the knowledge of God:

And this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God.

Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest. And without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not  manifest unto men in the flesh; for without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father and live.” (D&C 84:19-21)

Clearly, those who truly hold the higher priesthood are those who know God and can lead the Saints to him, teaching the truth about who he is and revealing his nature and character.

Having established the incredible importance of the true nature of God and having leaders who truly hold the key of the knowledge of God so that they can lead the Saints to him and protect the Saints from false teachings about God, let’s review an incredible event in LDS Church History:

According to a significant amount of historical documentation, some of which may have been suppressed for a time, it appears that on April 9th 1852 … my great great great grandfather Brigham Young shocked the church by teaching the following doctrine concerning the nature and character of God. In this sermon he declared:

Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and sinner! When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is Michael, the Archangel, the Ancient of Days! about whom holy men have written and spoken—He is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later … (Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, pp.50-51).

Related quotes and doctrines from Brigham Young are varied and to numerous to include in this article, among other things, Brigham taught that Adam is the father of Jesus Christ:

When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family … I could tell you much more about this; but were I to tell you the whole truth, blasphemy would be nothing to it, in the estimation of the superstitious and over-righteous of mankind. However, I have told you the truth as far as I have gone…. Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the garden of Eden, and who is our Father in Heaven. Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, pp.50-51).

As a descendent of Brigham Young I have had a particular interest in knowing his place in the restoration movement, who he really was and what he really taught. There is a very large 4 volume document in the Church Historical Library containing every known discourse that Brigham Young ever gave. They don’t let you make copies of it but you can go into a secure room and read it. One day I sat down and read the entire thing. It took many, many hours to read.

I was surprised at how many times Brigham taught the exact opposite doctrines that Joseph Smith taught. I am compiling a list of these contradictions and perhaps will do a post on them someday.

One of the things Joseph and Brigham disagreed on that jumped out at me as I read this volume of discourses is how they both viewed the creation story in Genesis.

Joseph Smith was a biblical literalist. He was once asked how Mormonism differs from other Christian Churches and he answered We believe the Bible. His apparent use of sarcasm was somewhat uncharacteristic but provided a poignant way to point out how most protestant religions pick and choose which Biblical verse they want to take literally.

Although this must have seemed offensive, and condescending to protestants, I think he was simply making a very important distinction… simply that Latter day Saint theology believes the Bible literally as long as it is translated correctly. We have the JST of the Bible to show us any mistranslations in the Bible an it confirms that the creation story is literally true.

The Book of Mormon and the revelations contained in the Doctrine and Covenants reinforce a literal interpretation and belief in the Old and New Testaments.

Joseph Smith interpreted and believed the creation story in Genesis in the literal sense. So important was the literal interpretation of the creation story in Genesis to Joseph Smith that he provided two other versions of it. One was from the JST of Genesis and the other was obtained from translating the papyrus that became known as the Book of Abraham. Both of these accounts of the creation story are published in the Pearl of Great Price.  This provides two witnesses that the literal interpretation of the creation story in Genesis is true and that Adam was literally created out the dust of this earth and Eve was literally taken from his rib.

I was shocked while reading Brigham Young’s discourses to find that he discounted the creation story as a “fairy tale”.

Many members of the Church silently accepted the new Adam-God doctrine that Brigham Young taught, however, some prominent members of the church took issue with the doctrine. Most significantly, Apostle Orson Pratt, one of the greatest doctrinal scholars in the Church at the time, disagreed with the doctrine, and expressed that disagreement publicly and in private meetings with other apostles.

Pratt also published his disagreement in his east-coast publication The Seer. Pratt continued to debate the issue in public forums for months, despite being rebuked privately and publicly by Brigham Young on more than one occasion until 1860, when faced with possible disfellowshipment, he agreed to the language of a public confession as negotiated during a series of meetings among the church hierarchy.” Wikipedia

The following entry is found in the journal of Joseph Lee Robinson:

Oct. 6th attend Conference, a very interesting Conference, for at this meeting President Brigham Young said thus… that Adam was, God our Eternal Father, this as Brother Heber remarked was letting the cat out of the Bag, and it came to pass, I believed every word … our Beloved Brother Orson Prat[t] told me he did not believe it. He said he could prove by the Scriptures it was not correct. I feared lest he should apostetize [sic] …” (Journal of Joseph Lee Robinson, Microfilm copy in LDS Genealogical Library)

Pratt felt so strongly that the Adam-God doctrine was wrong that he expressed a desire to resign his position from the quorum of the Twelve. Brigham’s response to Pratt was “No you won’t Orson, I’ll rub your ears until I get you right..”(Pg 174 Unpublished Revelations by Collier)

Although I am related to Brigham Young through my fathers side of the family, ironically, I am also related to Father Edward Bunker and his son Bishop Edward Bunker Jr. through my Mothers side of the Family. Father Bunker was a contemporary of Brigham Young. In fact Brigham Young had called Father Edward Bunker to settle parts of Southern Utah.

I believe that there is a special place in heaven for people like Orson Pratt and the Bunkers because they had the guts to QUESTION AUTHORITY. Bishop Edward Bunker was possibly the single biggest reason that the Church discontinued teaching the Adam-God doctrine.

For a number of years questions on church teachings had been agitated in the Bunkerville Ward. “Bishop Bunker had stated he did not believe Adam was our God and he had expressed his opinion that some teachings in the temples were wrong, notably part of the Lecture at the veil- That Father Bunker had the same views.” Father Bunker felt that the wrong teaching of God would negate the purpose of the sealing ordinances done in the temple… had stated that-

the principle of adoption would be of no avail as administered in the Temple. All such work would have to be done over again.”

Bishop Bunker created quite a stir in his ward when he began challenging the Adam-God doctrine. In 1891 he made the following declaration to the Stake Presidency when they called him to task for not believing in the doctrine taught by Brigham Young:

I do not believe that Adam is the father of Jesus Christ and the God we worship and the God of this earth…” “Pg 170 Unpublished Revelations)

After the Stake Presidency got an ear full from Bishop Bunker, they turned him over to the First Presidency of the Church. The President of the Church at the time was Wilford Woodruff.

Bishop Bunker got reprimanded by the First Presidency for challenging the official doctrine of the Church concerning God but curiously, shortly after that meeting with Bishop Bunker President Wilford Woodruff was quoted as saying:

“it was not wisdom for the Elders to contend about such matters and things they did not understand. And not to teach such things to the children in the Sunday Schools; they could not comprehend them.” (Pg 174 Unpublished Revelations)

President Cannon later said: “…it is not necessary that we should [teach] or endorse the doctrine that some men taught that Adam was the Father of Jesus Christ” (Pg 174-5 Unpublished Revelations)

Shortly after this, the Adam-God doctrine was no longer taught at all in the Church by the leaders.

A few generations later the Adam-God doctrine was virtually unknown to most members of the Church. When anti-Mormon documents would reference the doctrine some LDS apologists denied that the doctrine had ever been taught. Some have claimed that those who recorded the sermons of Brigham Young made mistakes.

In recent years, a private letter from Bruce R. McConkie to a BYU professor has been copied and made available to the general public. In it Elder McConkie made the following statement:

Yes, President Young did teach that Adam was the father of our spirits, and all the related things that the cultists ascribe to him. This, however, is not true. He expressed views that are out of harmony with the gospel.that is something he will have to account for…. I do not know all of the providences of the Lord, but I do know that he permits false doctrine to be taught in and out of the Church… If we believe false doctrine, we will be condemned. If that belief is on basic and fundamental things, it will lead us astray and we will lose our souls …. This clearly means that people who teach false doctrine in the fundamental and basic things will lose their souls. The nature and kind of being that God is, is one of these fundamentals. I repeat: Brigham Young erred in some of his statements on the nature and kind of belng that God is and as to the position of Adam in the plan of salvation …. If we choose to believe and teach the false portions of his doctrines we are making an election that will damn us: (page 7) (page 6 of McConkie’s letter)

Despite the fact that the Adam God doctrine was taught and believed for many years, it is really quite remarkable that the Church was able to “self correct” and put down the false doctrine that suggested that Adam is the Father of Jesus Christ and the only God with which we have to do. Even more remarkable is that the correction appears to have been initiated from individual Saints in both high and low positions who had the wisdom to compare a questionable doctrine to the word of God and then have the courage to question authority and challenge the doctrine by utilizing the laws of agency and common consent.

The Apostle Paul chastened the Saints of his day for allowing members from within the Church to pervert the true Gospel of Christ and gave a strict warning not to follow anyone… not even an angel from heaven if they preach any other gospel than the gospel of Jesus Christ:

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Gal 1) He later gave one of the most simple and concise definitions of the Gospel of Christ:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power  of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Rom 1:16)

Looking at our day the prophet Nephi observed that many of the humble followers of Christ would be led astray because they followed the precepts of men:

They wear stiff necks and high heads; yea, and because of pride, and wickedness, and abominations, and,  whoredoms they have all gone astray save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of menCursed is he that putteth his trust in man, or maketh flesh his arm, or shall hearken unto the precepts of men, save their precepts shall be given by the power of the Holy Ghost. (2nd Nephi 28)

The Book of Mormon reinforces that most basic foundational belief that it is through faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved and there is no other name under heaven by which man can be saved:

And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.” (2nd Nephi 31)

There is no other cname given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ..” (Mosiah 5)

If the historical documentation about Brigham Young teaching the Adam God Doctrine is true and if Elder McConkie’s statement is accurate that Brigham Young did in fact teach a false doctrine about who the true God of Israel is, it is deeply disturbing to think that a presiding officer of the Lords Church could lead us incorrectly regarding such an important doctrine. It was Brigham Young himself that expressed his concern that a President of the Church might some day lead the people astray:

“What a pity it would be if we were led by one man to utter destruction! Are you afraid of this? I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by Him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken that influence they could give to their leaders, did they know for themselves, by the revelations of Jesus, that they are led in the right way. Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not. This has been my exhortation continually.” (Brigham Young, January 12, 1862, Journal of Discourses, 9:151)

He also said:

“I have often said to the Latter-day Saints– Live so that you will know whether I teach you the
truth or not. Suppose you are careless and unconcerned, and give way to the spirit of the world,
and I am led, likewise,to preach the things of this world and to accept things that are NOT of God, how easy it would be for me to lead you astray! But I say to you, live so that you will know for yourselves whether I tell the truth or not. That is the way we want all Saints to live.” (Brigham Young, JD 18:248)

In previous posts I have noted that there was a difference between the “first elders” of the Church who were designated as the first laborers of the last kingdom vs Brigham Young and others who were called about five years later to serve in the quorum of the 12 apostles. They were identified as those who were not the first elders. According to latter day revelation, Brigham Young and the other members of the quorum of the twelve did not enjoy the same relationship with God that Joseph Smith and the First Elders enjoyed. In section 84 Joseph Smith and six others received an incredible confirmation of the higher priesthood by the voice of God out of the heavens… few people have ever received this endowment:

this priesthood which ye have received which I now confirm upon you by my own voice out of the heavens…” (D&C 84:40)

In section 88 Joseph Smith and the other First Elders were promised that God would send them again into the vineyard at a later time to testify and warn the Gentiles for the last time and to bind up the law and seal the testimony and prepare the Saints for the hour of judgment with is to come, however Brigham Young and the other members of the 12 who were not among the first elders and who were not clean from the blood of that generation, were to “continue in the vineyard until the mouth of the Lord should call them…” (D&C 84:74-85)

In the general charge given to the 12 Apostles in the month of April 1835 the Prophet Joseph Smith provided this counsel, admonition and charge:

You have been indebted to other men , in the first instance for evidence; on that you have acted but it is necessary that you receive a testimony from heaven for yourselves; so that you can bear testimony to the truth of the Book of Mormon, and that you have seen the face of God. That is more than the testimony of an angel…. never cease striving until you have seen God face to face, strengthen your faith, cast off you doubts, your sins, and all you unbelief… Your ordination [ as Apostles] is not full and complete till God has laid his hand upon you…  you have our most fervent prayers that you may be able to bear this testimony, that you have seen the face of God.” (DHC2:195-198 see also HC AD 1835 pg 195-6)

It is very important to understand that Brigham Young and his brethren of the 12 were ordained to be Apostles but their calling would not be full and complete until they had seen the face of God and been ordained personally by him..

Mary Rollins Lightner was a convert to the church who had seen an angel, she noted that Brigham Young had said to her in Nauvoo “he would give anything to have seen what I had.” (Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, Autobiography, in B. Carmon Hardy, ed., Doing the Works of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy: It’s Origin, Practice, and Demise (Norman, OK: Arthur H. Clark Co., 2007),

Susa Young Gates recorded that when asked if he had ever seen the Savior, Brigham responded that he hadn’t, and that he didn’t expect to until he died. ( Note, 1885, Susa Young Gates Collection, Box 11, Folder 1, Subfolder 1, Utah State Archives, Salt Lake City  )

Brigham Young was very open and honest about his own status as the President of the Church. He understood that the President of the Church did not necessarily need to be a prophet: “I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet…” (Fred C. Collier, ed., The Office Journal of Brigham Young, 1858-1863, Book D (Hanna, UT: Collier’s Publishing Co., 2006),

When responding to a skeptic that was expressing doubt that Brigham was a prophet seer and revelator he responded that he had never made such a claim:

“A person was mentioned to-day who did not believe that Brigham Young was a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator. I wish to ask every member of this whole community, if they ever heard him profess to be a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, as Joseph Smith was?”  (Brigham Young, Sermon, April 7, 1852, JD 6:319-320 See also a related post in By Common Consent)

One of the things that confuses people concerning the succession issue is that it appears that one can be the legal presiding officer of the Church, elected by the voice of the people without holding the key of the knowledge of God and without being a prophet, seer and revelator.

This doctrine was true in Book of Mormon times as well as pertaining to church government in modern times:

“Thou shalt not leave this place until after the conference; and my servant Joseph shall be appointed to preside over the conference by the voice of it, and what he saith to thee thou shalt tell…. For, behold, these things have not been appointed unto him, neither shall anything be appointed unto any of this church contrary to the church covenants. For all things must be done in order, and by common consent in the church, by the prayer of faith.” (D&C 28 see also D&C 20:63 102:9 )

Brigham Young states that on December 27 1847 he was “unanimously elected president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” (HC 7:621 see also HC pg 82 )

As we consider the doctrines taught by Brigham Young, we must not hold him to a higher standard than what would be appropriate. It is not fair to accuse someone of being something they have never claimed to be.

Brigham Young never claimed to be the legal successor of Joseph Smith in reference to holding the keys of the kingdom or of being a prophet seer and revelator, those claims became a tradition within the Church over time. By his own admission, it appears he felt he was simply trying to steady the ark until he who had the higher authority rose up:

“The brethren testify that brother Brigham is brother Joseph’s legal successor. You never heard me say so. I say that I am a good hand to keep the dogs and wolves out of the flock. I do not care a groat who rises up. I do not think anything about being Joseph’s successor. That is nothing that concerns me” (Journal of Discourses 8:69).

Years ago I walked into Sam Wellers Book Store and saw a large poster on the wall having to do with the genealogy of the 12 tribes of Israel and I felt compelled to find out who had created it and speak with him. The book store gave me his number… we became fast friends. He is a fascinating personality that has provided me with a differing perspective of the gospel as we have studied the gospel together and debated various aspects of it during the last two decades.When I first met him he was a Jewish Mormon Fundamentalist who had worked for the Boarder Patrol and then served as a security officer at he White House. After joining the LDS church he worked as a security guard at the Washington Temple. He was also a veil worker. Eventually he joined the Allred polygamous group and took on two more wives.

Eventually it occurred to him that he had been deceived about the so-called doctrine of Celestial Plural Marriage and he left the Allred Group.

A friend of his in the Allred Group believed that I had been a bad influence on him but felt that if I would be willing to meet with Owen Allred, the leader of the group, that perhaps I would see the light and join their group. She brokered a meeting between Brother Owen and myself.

After being introduced to Owen, he quickly began speaking about the Adam-God doctrine and began quoting profusely from the words of Brigham Young out of the Journal of Discourses. I sat quietly and listened. After a while he divined that I was extremely unimpressed and he asked why the words of Brigham Young did not have more impact on me.

I replied that I use the Word of God in the Four Standard Works to measure the words of every man regardless of his position.

I quoted the statement by Joseph Fielding Smith to him:

It makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed, we can set it aside. My words, and the teachings of any other member of the Church, high or low, if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them. Let us have this matter clear. We have accepted the four standard works as the measuring yardsticks, or balances, by which we measure every man’s doctrine. You cannot accept the books written by the authorities of the Church as standards in doctrine, only in so far as they accord with the revealed word in the standard works.” ( Doctrines of Salvation 3:203)

I then said lets take the doctrine that Brigham Young thought that Adam is the Father if Jesus Christ and lets measure that doctrine against the holy and infallible word of God to see if it squares with the scriptures. I then opened the D&C to section 29 verse 34 and handed it to Brother Owen asking him to read it.

Wherefore, verily I (Jesus Christ) say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the children of men; neither Adam, your father, whom I created.” (D&C 29:34)

The look on Owen’s face was priceless. Talk about a deer caught in the lights of an oncoming car! He kept reading the scripture over and over again to himself as if to see if there was another way to interpret it. I could see the wheels turning in his mind trying to come up with an answer to the doctrinal dilemma he was facing.

As he sat there confused I asked: “How can Adam be the father of Jesus Christ if Jesus Christ is the one who created Adam?

I got the distinct impression that was the first time Owen had ever read that scripture… although I was excited to review additional scriptures with him, lost interest in the discussion and had me ushered to the door.

I don’t mean to single out Brother Allred, I mention this experience with him simply to demonstrate what has been the rule rather than the exception as I have conversed with LDS Fundamentalists on doctrinal issues. They tend to be very knowledgeable when it comes to the doctrines taught by Brigham Young, John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff in the Journal of Discourses, but less knowledgeable about the holy and infallible word of God as contained in the Bible and Book of Mormon and virtually illiterate in the D&C.

I had a similar experience in an LDS fundamentalist chat board a few years ago. A fellow who considered himself to be an authority on the fundamentalist view of the everlasting covenant of Marriage (Plural Marriage) was jousting back and forth with me and I pointed out the distinction between the “Biblical Doctrine of Plural Marriage” vs the “Spiritual Wife Doctrine” that originated in Nauvoo in the 1840’s… which teaches that you must be sealed to multiple wives in order to attain the highest degree of exaltation. The former was purely for the purposes of procreation while the other was a prerequisite of the Gospel to enter into the highest exaltation.

I then challenged him to prove the spiritual wife doctrine from the Old and New Testament without using any of the teachings from the Journal of Discourses. He enthusiastically accepted my challenge and assured me his response was forthcoming soon. A few hours went by.. then a few days. Eventually he returned to the chat board with a humble acknowledgement that he could not prove such a doctrine in the word of God contained in the Bible. I could tell he was surprised at this realization.

Obviously this did not change his beliefs. My father had a favorite saying that really annoyed me when I was growing up but I have come to realize there is a lot of truth to it.

“A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still”

Even many members of the restored church believe that Celestial Polygamy is a true doctrine that will be lived someday by the Saints. False doctrines have infiltrated the Saints in the latter days as was prophesied by the Apostle Paul. I have provided the testimony of several latter day Presidents of the Church and general authorities to this end. I have even provided an example of one of the most blasphemous false doctrines that was apparently introduced pertaining to the true nature of God. Thankfully the Church self-corrected and later rejected it.

This is another sign that the Marvelous Work and a Wonder did not take place in the 2nd Watch at the time the church was restored to the earth in 1830, rather it is to be a future work that takes place in the 3rd watch when the fulness of the Gospel and the fulness of the scriptures will be restored to the earth.

In closing I want to provide a most remarkable testimony from one of the early members of the restored church who really did know who God the Father and his son Jesus Christ were because he held the key of the knowledge of God and he saw them:

Brother Zebedee Coltrin is one of about 9 people  that has been documented from credible historical sources as having seen God the Father and/or Jesus Christ during the Kirtland Era of the Church. Many years later, after coming to Utah, he was asked to give the following account of what happened in the School of the Prophets in Kirtland:

At one of these meetings after the organization of the school, (the school being organized_ on the 23rd of January, 1833, when we were all together, Joseph having given instructions, and while engaged in silent prayer, kneeling, with our hands uplifted each one praying in silence, no one whispered above his breath, a personage walked through the room from east to west, and Joseph asked if we saw him. I saw him and suppose the others did and Joseph answered that is Jesus, the Son of God…. Afterward Joseph told us to resume our former position in prayer, which we did. Another person came through; he was surrounded as with a flame of fire. He (Brother Coltrin) experienced a sensation that it might destroy the tabernacle as it was of consuming fire of great brightness. The Prophet Joseph said this was the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I saw Him. When asked about the kind of clothing the Father had on, Brother Coltrin said: I did not discover his clothing for he was surrounded as with a flame of fire, which was so brilliant that I could not discover anything else but his person. I saw his hands, his legs, his feet, his eyes, nose, mouth, head and body in the shape and form of a perfect man. He sat in a chair as a man would sit in a chair, but this appearance was so grand and overwhelming that it seemed I should melt down in his presence, and the sensation was so powerful that it thrilled through my whole system and I felt it in the marrow of my bones. The Prophet Joseph said: Brethren, now you are prepared to be the apostles of Jesus Christ, for you have seen both the Father and the Son and know that they exist and that they are two separate personages.

This appearance occurred about two or three weeks after the opening of the school. After the Father had passed through, Joseph told us to again take our positions in prayer. We did so, and in a very short time he drew our attention and said to us that Brother Reynolds Cahoon was about to leave us, and told us to look at him. He (Brother Cahoon) was on his knees and his arms were extended, his hands and wrists, head, face and neck down to his shoulders were as a piece of amber, clear and transparent, his blood having apparently left his veins. Upon the attention of the brethren being thus called to Brother Cahoon, the change seemed to pass away and Joseph said that in a few minutes more, Brother Cahoon would have left us, but he came to himself again.” (Minutes, Salt Lake City School of the Prophets, October 3, 1883)