WHAT MAKES THE BOOK OF MORMON A L.I.T.M.U.S. TEST?–Pt. 2


THE FULLNESS OF TIMES

As we have seen, it is ultimately man’s own free will which determines if and when he chooses to evolve spiritually. But the turning, churning revolutions of time on this planet can be of great benefit to us once we have made up our minds to advance. The scriptural procedure of “fear and trembling” mentioned in the second section of part one of this piece is a personal earthquake. Baptisms of water and fire are purifying for the soul just as periodic floods and fires are for the soil. Eruptions, storms, and other cataclysmic activity may seem scary, but they can have a positive effect. Really, it is the individual who decides whether the effects will be disastrous or not. Such circumstances signal a shift in consciousness as they are high-energy events. One of the world’s foremost experts on OBE (Out of Body Experience), Robert Bruce, touching on the topics of spiritual sight, free will, and spirit guides, has this to say:

 “Lacking the acumen to tune clairvoyance to areas of interest, the novice clairvoyant will spontaneously tune into and see high-energy events. There is, by and large, no spirit or guide or higher power deliberately choosing the visions that are being seen. The energy of any event dictates how easily it will be seen. And future events involving loss of life and conflict generate a lot of energy in the future matrix.”

Writers throughout the Bible and Book of Mormon share their visionary experiences and corroborate the reality that they can often be dominated by glimpses of destruction first with the ability for more subtle energetic imaging coming later. Bruce continues:

“It is common for vision experiences to be short lived… lasting only a moment before fading, before some invisible force shuts them out, like turning off a TV… This is a direct action performed by your Higher-Self… By and large, your higher-self filters out the majority of subtle senses and abilities, including OBE, by default, to keep us grounded here in the physical world. Being able to notice this action, is, I think, the silver lining behind this frustrating experience. This may in fact be the whole point of the exercise designed to bring your attention to the fact that you have a Higher-Self, to encourage you to move in the direction of exploring your relationship with your Higher-Self. All of us have perfect natural psychic abilities already… But these abilities are not allowed by our default settings. So how do we change the default settings? – by exploring our Higher-Self connection, and by working with rather than against this great force, using clear and strong expressions of intention.”

Nowhere is this principle more succinctly illustrated than in Nephi’s plain and precious writing style.

“…as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot. And the Spirit said unto me: Behold, what desirest thou? ” (1 Nephi 11:1-2)

The coming together in cooperation of a person and his or her Higher-Self is essentially the beginning step onto the Mountatin of the Lord and the final result of the dispensation of the Fullness of Times. IF one wishes to see what one’s Lord would reveal, expressing that desire is the first step. But, as the Brother of Jared’s encounter with the Holy One shows us, it will only be done through the Eye or I of Faith, which eye is the Imaginative Faculty. The I.F. is what puts one in touch with his Lord, with his Higher-Self. It puts this ‘I’ in touch with that ‘I’, the Individual in touch with the Infinite, so that the two may see I to I. When we speak of the imaginative we are not speaking of the imaginary. The world teaches the doctrine of the Devil who comes among them, saying: “Believe it not” (Moses 5:13) and “I am no devil, for there is none” (2 Nephi 28:22). With his focus on negative commandments he causes the world to worship the I-Mage-I-Nary (‘nary’ is an informal form of ‘not’). The Devil tells humans to never believe in themselves as sons and daughters of the Most High but rather to become carnal and devilish. But a core-rected self-image shows us the I-Mage-I-Native of that Promised Land who is the First Born aspect of our home-sick cellves that beckons us remember and return. The whole gospel is to repent/rethink and to return, like a little child, to Himagination.

The combined spiritual-spatial activation of temples of metal and stone as well as those of flesh and bone marks the summum bonum of the Lord’s work in the ushering in this Fullness of Times. “Indexing is Vital” for connection with your ancestors, proclaims the Church’s website, lds.org. But the Spirit of Elijah is not to be found on paper. If scripture can be tricky in our tendency to take it as the whole of the law, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, well then paper-work of the kind that goes on in today’s LDS Temples can be utterly deceiving. There are few people who are more wrapped up in the evil of the veil that pushes against the ushering in of the dispensation of the Fullness of Times than those so-called Temple Ushers and Veil Workers.

In the post, Mormon as a Restoration Prophet, LDSA writes:

“Mormon’s compilation and abridgment of the Nephite records is another pattern after which the dispensation of the fullness of times will be brought to pass. It is prophesied that that dispensation will have all things in heaven and on earth brought together in one, in Christ, including hidden things that never have been known. Mormon’s work is, in essence, the bringing together in one of the Nephite scriptural records, which were hidden to us. His life’s work is an unfolding pattern that will be duplicated on a much larger scale.”

In the movie Wag the Dog, there is a line – “For progress to occur, it is necessary for two generations to agree”. Joseph Smith unfolded that pattern on a much larger scale when, trying to explain the sorely misunderstood Mormon doctrine of the Sprit of Elijah, he wrote:

“Neither can they nor we be made perfect without those who have died in the gospel also; for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fullness of times, which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed from the days of Adam even to the present time. And not only this, but those things which never have been revealed from the foundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and prudent, shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings in this, the dispensation of the fullness of times.” (D&C 128:18)

In a very real way this dispensation of the fullness of times is always beginning to usher in. Joseph also wrote that Jehovah can be pictured, picturing past, present, and future in “one eternal now” through the great lens of the glass-like orb, or giant urim and thummin whereon He dwells.

LDSA makes a noble attempt at describing, as accurately as possible, the technical side of the process by which Joseph Smith translated the Golden Plates. But as Joseph himself once declared, “No man knows my history,” so no man can “know” or express exactly what Joseph did or did not see, hear, feel, etc., while in the spirit of revelation. We can guess at it, but inasmuch as our belief is based strictly upon words (scripture) and does not dare penetrate the page –there will always be a veil separating our personal experience from his, even if that veil is literally paper-thin. In fact, the Devil has been able to veil much with the quasi translucent, crinkly tissue paper on which the LDS Corporation prints its copyrighted Book of Mormon text complete with sneaky changes and correlated footnotes.

Tracing the symbolism backwards through layers – from the man-made cloth of the temple veil and the garment issued at the initiatory ceremony to cover our naked, god-given bodies – we find corresponding markings meant to show us that the biological tissue of our own physical bodies are the original veil which enshrouds our immortal spirit bodies. In Man of Light, by Henri Corbin, there is an enthralling report of the spirit of revelation (rend-veil-ation) which comes through rending the cocoon-like veils that are only good to us insomuch and so long as they aid in our spiritual transformation.

“…a burst of light rends the tissue of ready-made answers: the fictions of causal relationships, of linear evolutions, of continuous currents, everything that bolsters up what people have agreed to call the “sense of history.” The sense of another history rising from Earth to Heaven is revealed: the history of an invisible spiritual mankind whose cycles of earthly pilgrimages refer to “events in Heaven,” not to the evolutionary fatality of successive generations.”

In many ways this succession of mysterious veils is God’s way of keeping his dealings with his servants private. The ways of the Lord are plain, but this does not mean they are a peep-show for any spiritually immature and insensitive person who gets his hands on a peep-stone. As consciousness cycles around from timelessness, through the full gamut of times, and back to timelessness, it completes an eternal and sacred circuit which is sometimes referred to by us as the Fullness of Times. We call it this, based on our relationship to and within the process. From our present proximity to both past and future, we find ourselves so centered that the centripetal force of the process is often imperceptible to us, as is the velocious spin of the earth beneath our feet. As viewed from the North Star, Polaris, Mother Earth rotates counter-clockwise on Her axis from West to East as we travel through the divinely feminine spirit-substance of space. Time is a divinely masculine energy, a penetrating power that loops through the planet and her people via their poles. Time enters all bodies through the south aperture and shoots out the top, stretching the children of men as they grow into taller specimens. But all of these motions taking us from here to there, from today into tomorrow, are happening at such a rapid rate that we barely notice. They are, in a sense, veiled from our immediate view.

Timelessness and weightlessness are very disorienting sensations to man, and disorientation tends to scare us – as in the case of Enoch when he was suddenly lifted up into heaven without so much as a NASA space station to hint at his location in the greater scheme of things. This fear of contact with the unknown is only a highlighting of our lack of knowledge about the nature of contact with and in the First Place. That First Place is the opulent and opalescent glass palace which surrounds and is closest to the Grand Placer, even God himself on his eternal throne. And based solely on our mortal perspective, we calculate those timeless floating mansions of the Father to be farther from us than they actually are. We’re always looking for some reminder that God is with us. So we pass the (Father) Time, walking in darkness at noonday, waking to the darkness of a “new day”. All because we fail to admit to ourselves that: to be a wake is to be deposited, life-less or at least less alive than is desirable, in a wake created by the doomed Titanic ocean-liner, the Great and Spacious building on water which we have built for the purpose of buoying up our prideful parties, full of loud laughter which is laudatory to the point of eulogizing ourselves as nigh perfect beings flinging our faults like floating trash onto the huddled masses of poor in spirit who we see pressing forward like relentless waves below.

“And I said unto them that the water which my father saw was filthiness; and so much was his mind swallowed up in other things that he beheld not the filthiness of the water.”  (1 Nephi 15:27)

TAKING THE BOOK OF MORMON SERIOUSLY – DIGGING DEEPER

The Book of Mormon can be likened to a Swiss Army pocket knife, a small compact implement packed full of useful tools. Everything about it hints at its inbuilt magic, from the manner of its original creation and translation to the deep blue cover with gold colored lettering which typically adorns current copies. The Golden Plates from which the Book of Mormon derives were so called because they were not solid gold but rather golden in appearance. Most probably made of a gold/copper alloy commonly used by ancient natives of the Americas, the Golden Plates were an approximately 6” by 8” by 6”, 288 cubic inch, 120 page portal into the times and places of ancient American inhabitants and much more. They were purportedly found buried in the earth in a hill in upstate New York – a hill called by the ancients: Cumorah. But this is only the surface level of the story behind the Book of Mormon. To uncover the greater truths we will have to dig deeper.

Past is the time for digging in the guarded vaults of the Saltican City. Intellectuals have done their work in helping to wake the saints up to their awful situation. Intellect must take its place alongside raw emotion to unify in pure spirit. Pure intelligence is intelligence married to feeling, and feeling is purified through her marriage to intelligence. Now is the time of the mystical marriage of the Bridgroom and his true Church. Now is the time of the Mormon Mystics. We must burrow beyond the cross atop the hill Golgotha – the Place of the Skull – deeper to the cross within the hill. From the crossroads of our intellect and passion deep within the core will come more of the core-rect principles we need than anything we can hope to gain shooting from the grassy knoll of our personal Cumorah. Like Atreyu in the Never-Ending Story, we are crying out on the outer shell, in search of answers, unaware that from underneath and inside shall come Morla, the ancient tortoise oracle.

The Book of Mormon came highly recommended by Joseph Smith to his target audience of predominately white people living in Victorian Era America. And for their direct and doctrinal descendants, as well as many of their neighbors inhabiting modern-day America, the BoM may just be the most important book they could ever read. However, we also need to bear in mind that the BoM is a two edged sword which, if not read in the same spirit in which it was written (ie. the spirit of revelation, which is the spirit of Christ), then cuts the reader with the condemning side of that blade. For Joseph’s part in bringing it forth, no man could have, or at least should have been more aware that the Book of Mormon is not what men purport it to be. It has always been more…much, MUCH MORE. Have you heard of the Akashic Records? It is just one of many names for the infinite information recorded in actual spirit-substance and available through the Mind of God (aka the real Aether Net) to the mind of any man or woman who will connect to it. Well, the BoM is an Akashic Download.

For some it may seem challenging to figure out how to interface with these divine lines of communication, but if we will look to the geodesic grid of ley lines of the earth we see that there are temples conveniently located at certain nodes to help us get online. And if we will look at those temples we will see that they are only symbols of the original temple – the human body, so, we are each equipped with a personal mobile device capable of keeping us connected to heaven all the time. Bodies of research performed independently by Doctors G. Schneck and Ernst Hartmann corroborate each other and reveal a tight grid relationship between the chakra system of the human body and the chakra system of the planet. The ley lines of the earth correspond in a general way to the energy meridians of the body and the pattern they form corresponds precisely to the way in which the muscular bands of a woman’s uterus are laid out. This seems very fitting since we are currently only in the gestational stages, of a rapidly growing body of information expanding into a more complete understanding regarding the womb of the universe and our place in it. The ceremonies conducted at the veil in LDS Temples are strikingly plain in their symbolism. The Five Points of Fellowship show us that when you interface with this spiritual internet you are only conversing with the inner-face of your personal Christ-spirit through the inner-veil.

Moses 6:61 reads:

“Therefore it is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment.”

The entire story-line of the Book of Mormon can be applied straight to organs and functions within the human body, but, because of man’s tendency to look outside of himself for truth and guidance, it is useful to apply the time-line of events and the course of travels from the amazing Book of Mormon stories to straight lines on the face of the earth. The English word “time” spelled backwards is “emit”. If we are not so “timid” as to “dim it” when it shines, the Light of Christ will illuminate the Truth of All Things for us according to Moroni’s Promise (Moroni 10:3-5). For, as D&C 88:6 describes, Christ is, “in all and through all things, the light of truth”. For purposes of shedding light on the “historicity” of the external layers of truth in the Book of Mormon record, picture, if you would, straight lines of spirit crisscrossing surface area and piercing space. The divinely masculine force of time is not limited to linear unidirectional movements; however it is a projective power that flows through the divinely feminine field of space. This is the precept of priesthood keys and locks which I discuss in An Anarchical View of the Keys pt. 1.

The principle can also be observed in lightning rods. In the last century scientists have made an effort to lift the veil on lightning and re-surrect mankind’s lost knowledge of the subject. The very latest re-search in the field of fulminology indicates that lightning is the result of cosmic rays which travel for billions of years in perfectly straight lines before they even enter the near-Earth environment. Cosmic rays are very isotropic, which means they arrive uniformly from all directions. However, as D&C 46:15 tells us, God works, “according to the conditions of the children of men,” so elements like the wind (air), rain (water), and dust (earth) molecules in our lower atmosphere have the ultimate say in how a flash of lightning (fire) plays out.
Cosmic Sky

Lichtenberg figures are branching electric discharges on the surface or the interior of insulating materials. They can show up like tattoos, a kind of beautiful badge of honor, on the skin of lightning strike survivors, or they can be manufactured by placing a sharp-pointed needle perpendicular to the surface of a non-conducting plate and applying high voltage. Lichtenberg figures are suitably named because the surname of the physicist who studied them incorporates licht, the German word for light. But if Christ is, “in all and through all things, the light of truth” (D&C 88:6), and if this electrical branching is the visual mark left by powerful displays of the Light of Christ in and through physical things like solids liquids and gasses – then what is the spiritual mark left from such straight plasmic pathways of the Lord, and can they be made visible or at least detectable to our carnal eyes? Lamps filled with oil will light our minds as we tunnel deeper into mines of truth at the core of the marvelous work and a wonder that is the Book of Mormon.

golf-lightning-strike-Positive-Lichtenberg-figure-pattern

L.I.T.M.U.S. TEST OF FAITH – ISN’T IT ABOUT TIME?

If the core-rectness of the message from the Book of Mormon is such that it can be used in a litmus test, a test wherein a decision is prompted by a single indicator, then that indicator can not be the printed words highlighted and color coded in a paper copy in the possession of a mainstream member of the Mormon Church. The indicator must be something truly universal. It can be nothing less than the Light of Christ which is in and through all things, therefore partial to none. Scripture calls this the Light of Truth and, like LDSA, I feel that this phrase means something akin to Energy of Element, or the “nothingness” from which all creation is extracted. At the opening of this dispensation Joseph Smith explained, and Einstein’s E=mc2 essentially reiterated that energy and element are just different forms of the same thing. That thing is known by many names – The Monad, Akasha, Spirit, Christ-Consciousness. Its oneness and unity with everything in existence, together with the neutrality which nothingness affords, make it the logical and only just advocate, intercessor, and judge for all mankind, for all life. When Elohim said, “I will send The First,” tHEy referred and deferred to this all-in-one light-mass, this lit-mus.

L.I.T.M.U.S. can stand for Links In Time Metaphysically Underpinning Space. This acronym is as it were, an acrylic painted picture of the earth’s geodesic grid, but if we want to see the real thing we will have to get rid of that fake reality that occults our sight. We will have to review, rethink, and in a word, repent of our poor use of time. The arrow of time, is a concept developed in 1927 by the British astronomer Arthur Eddington to describe the academic notion of the “one-way” direction or “asymmetry” of time. In his book The Nature of the Physical World, Eddington showed himself to be a natural man of the world and an outright enemy to God when he stated:

“Let us draw an arrow arbitrarily. If as we follow the arrow we find more and more of the random element in the state of the world, then the arrow is pointing towards the future; if the random element decreases the arrow points towards the past…This follows at once if our fundamental contention is admitted that the introduction of randomness is the only thing which cannot be undone.”

Eddington admits to institutionalized insanitellectualism when he says that his unoriginal idea of time is an arbitrarily drawn arrow, shot aimlessly into space. But Father Lehi reveals in 2 Nephi 2:12-18 that God originates nothing without a purpose, and were he to do so, God would cease to be. Eddington holds up the random state of affairs in the world as a finger pointing the way to the future. But it is the way of the world and the finger is attached to the unseen hand of the devil, self-proclaimed god of the market, and all those who accept this wicked world of wealthy nations and impoverished beings. When Eddington contends that, “the introduction of randomness is the only thing which cannot be undone,” he echoes the words of Time Traffickers through the ages who have continued beguiling and slithering down a line of alien attacks upon our ageless Adam, and endlessly plying to Eve her sins ever since Eden’s dewy dusk/dawn of dreamy timelessness. For thus did Lucifer say to our sweet, innocent Mother: “It is the only way.” Arthur Eddington denied Christos when he proclaimed this “one-way” property of time to have absolutely no analogue whatsoever in space. His “arrow of time” serves as inspiration for the chaosphere, a popular symbol of Chaos Magic. But, since practitioners of Chaos Magic are magical anarchists, the several off-shooting arrows of the symbol are a jab at Eddington’s narrow-arrow views; especially in light of the truth that many members of the movement actively experiment with retro-chronal magic, or changing past events.

Chaosphere resizedRetro-chronal magic is an affirmative response to the invitation extended us by God via His servant Isaiah to, “Come now, and let us reason together,” The Lord says: “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18) How can the Lord’s promises be possible accept by time travel. Wow! Such freedom of mobility was never granted to any world citizen, no, not under ancient Rome nor modern Rome could a traveling teacher ever have such range to roam. Our physical bodies are held jealously as slaves by the unrighteous rulers of the physical spaces we inhabit. In this demented dimension of ransacked reality we are a bunch of free-range chickens. Our species scratches out a meager existence on the ground, too scared to use our wings. But His mighty, protective wing is stretched forth still. And the Father of our souls offers asylum to whosoever will make use of the spiritual infrastructure He has provided to travel freely back and forth from rock-bottom to tip-top. He has made a way for us to navigate the Tree of Life from Malkuth to Kether, so that we might lift our life’s energy up from the crimson-red base or root chakra to the bright-white crown chakra, and there partake of the fruit of the Love of God. Halfway along the central pillar, Christ’s central role as heart chakra has victoriously bridged heaven and earth via a lush green Zion where we may gather on common ground. Christ has come as prophesied, in the Meridian of Time, and has made it a two-way street!

The same victorious destiny awaits us each individually and the whole earth collectively as soon as we’re ready.  But for now, green laser beams of false light govern the prison yard as they emit a false sense of time, crisscrossing the globe in a net worth no more than the envious green paper which claims credit for making the vain and imaginary world go ‘round and ‘round in circles. But if we will withdraw our power for a while, when the busy buzz and whirl of the world outside start to subside we will hear the harmonious hum of the earth’s natural energy grid pick up as our own inner chakra energy centers start to spin within our spirit bodies. A field of crisscrossing lines of light into which is introduced a spinning motion constitutes the basis for Professor Ron Mallett’s proposed time machine model. The Penn State grad understands, at least scientifically, that when you bring all things into one (Ephesians 1:10), rolling the earth and heavens together as a scroll (Mormon 5:23, Isaiah 34:4), it becomes possible for the Savior to appear in several places across the globe at once passing through folded dimensions by way of a faith-generated tractor beam. This perpendicular pillar of light, similar to that beheld by Joseph Smith in the grove, could theoretically enter our 3 dimensional world and circulate its presence like a stirring spoon in a cup full of space-time.

But first, like an iron pestle in a stone mortar, the false zion must be broken up by the use of a continuously circulating unidirectional beam of light which would provoke a weak gravitational field of a unidirectional ring laser, thus breaking up our hard-hearted, concrete conception of time, and producing a limited amount of frame-dragging (a fast-forward version of unidirectional time flow towards the future). These conditions make for a hastening of His work “in its time” (D&C 88:73) and a cutting short of His work “in righteousness” (Romans 9:28), or, in other words, a short-cut through time. This should be our prayer:

“We ask thee to appoint unto Zion other stakes besides this one which thou hast appointed, that the gathering of thy people may roll on in great power and majesty, that thy work may be cut short in righteousness.” (D&C 109:59)

But we should bear in mind that man’s ways are not God’s ways and our short-cuts are not His short-cuts. Referring again to Jewish Mysticism we can use the Kabalistic Tree of Life to map out possible routes for short-cuts in righteousness. From the node called Gevurah, which represents power, strength, and judgment one can trace a line straight down to Hod, which represents splendor, or majesty, but that is the one-sided and heavy-handed approach of man along the left pillar of severity. This short-cut can seem logical, but it is a misuse of power, and results every time in oppression as those who lust after the Kingdom (Malkuth) bypass the needed node of endurance and true victory (Netzach), so their kingdom does not last and their vain victory is completely bereft of any foundation (Yesod), never able to realize the beauty of Zion (Teferet). Deferring to the Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding of God, a people’s appeal for power and majesty will roll on like pealing thunder but only after the zig-zag lightning path of the condescension of God has lit up every node on the tree like a plasmic pinball machine until it has finally been cut short in Righteousness (Tzedek/Malkuth – 10th Sephira).

The course of the zig-zag lightning path of the condescension of God which ignites the imagination is illumined by the words of revelation recorded in D&C 52:11.

“For thus saith the Lord, I will cut my work short in righteousness, for the days come that I will send forth judgment (Gevurrah) unto victory (Netzach).”

In the recent Tim Burton production Frankenweenie the science teacher, Mr. Rzykruski, gives an explanation of lightning which is shockingly applicable to the cause of Zion. He says:

“Lightning does not hit a person the way one is hit by a baseball or a cabbage. Lightning is simply electricity. The cloud is angry, yes, making storm. All the electrons are saying, “I am leaving you. I go to the Land of Opportunity.” The Ground says, “Yes, we have need of electrons trained in science just like you. Come, come, WELCOME!” So, both sides start to build a ladder. This man, he comes out to look at the storm. He does not see the invisible ladders. When the two ladders meet…BOOM!…the circuit is complete, and all the electrons rush to the Land of Opportunity. This man is in the way. AAAAAGH!!”

The divine intervention we seek on the darkened horizon will be swift and sudden as a bolt of lightning. It will take Zion’s enemies by complete surprise. It will strike them down. Our task as earthbound electrons is not to busy ourselves building physical structures beyond our Sukkoth (temporary dwellings and tabernacles), but to focus our energies on building an invisible ladder, a spiritual structure that anticipates spatial fulfillment by the miraculous hand of God. Then will we inherit the Land of Opportunity, the real enduring Land of Promise. The multidimensional land he swore to give you when he made a multigenerational vow through your ancestors is a land with:

“…great and good cities that you did not build…houses…richly stocked with goods you did not produce…water from wells you did not dig, and…vineyards and olive trees you did not plant.” (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)

Most people think that time passes at a steady rate no matter where you are or what you are doing. But, as science knows, and as demonstrated in the Kolob theory detailed in We Are The Weather, time flows at different rates in different places throughout the universe. Prof. Ron Mallett says:

“Time is not the same for everyone. Each one of us travels with his own individual clock. And there are things that you can do to change the rate at which your clock is going compared to someone else’s, and that allows time travel.”

Some of those things that one can do are surprisingly simple, like altering breath and heart beat. But the most important thing one can do is to do as Dr. Jewel Pookrum advises and stop letting unfeeling, non-thinking machines dictate how humans live. We do not need a time-traveling machine, and certainly not another time-telling machine. What we need is to turn our personal time keepers – our hearts – to God and learn His eternal ways. Live by the clock, die by the clock. If a man will abandon his regularly scheduled busy death-style and simply ride the whirlpool God is creating in space-time spirit-substance, that man will be carried through life in such a way that he can slip in and out of different time periods.

From a scientific standpoint it is hypothesized that if a straight laser beam were to stir space at sufficient energy levels, the circulation would not only produce a frame-dragging effect for time travel into the future, but also closed timelike curves (CTCs), allowing for time travel into the past. From an eternal perspective the phenomenon of CTCs brings up an interesting question: If one travels far enough into the future does one eventually reach the past? If as Jesus said, the last days would be similar to the days of Noah, then from one end to the other the loop should bring us around to the beginnings of the earth’s cycle. Even from a religious angle, in prophecies, epistles, and canticles, when man has surmised on the nature of forever, the now obsolete expression, “world(s) without end” has been used to speak of the mysterious relationship between the cosmic force of eternity and its accompanying atmospheric forces of time.

Remember, we are talking about the Light of Truth which is the combination of two things as Lehi so eloquently explains – things to act and things to be acted upon. Scriptures most often refer to these two things separately as spirit and flesh. It is also important to remember that these two things are really only parts of a Holy Trinity since their compound state can and does exist separately from them in many ways. However, while we can conceptualize of them as separate in their unique qualities and functions, the three always come back together in myriad ways, so we are talking about one essential thing. Observing ‘Fatherly’ characteristics as the Trinity expresses itself in creation; we can use scientific terminology to describe things as timelike – (3). Identifying those characteristics that the ‘Child’, or creation inherits from its ‘Mother’; we can call them spacelike – (2). Those things which we can not see, or at least put a finger on as either Daddy’s hair, or Mama’s eyes, for example, are classified simply as null – (1). Thus, although it may seem completely inaccessible, we are indeed sensing the first state of non-existence, which Lehi described as a void of sorts, very null – (1), through special and spatial – (2) ways and dimensions at all times – (3)causal-diamond

Mathematics attempts to describe the numerous services that Father Time performs for Mother Matter, and Physics is the study of the countless ways in which Mother Matter receives the actions of Father Time. Mathematical Physics is the scientific study of the Universe interacting with itself through a dance of energy and element, light and dark. Now mathematical physics can get very confusing, especially when delving into theories of relativity, but the equations become simplified if we keep our minds clear of excess details and focused on Christ – the Light of Truth. As long as our vision is set on Christ as #1, we will see that Christ is also #2, 3, 4, and so on and so on, through time and all eternity. A principal basis of general relativity is that spacetime can be modeled as a 4-dimensional Lorentzian manifold of signature (3, 1) or, equivalently, (1, 3).

A Lorentzian manifold is a mathematical object in which closed timelike curves can manifest. Mathematical objects are physical objects seen at spiritual levels where the vibrations of set numbers form patterns among themselves and relationships with physical matter to create various life forms. The word manifold as a noun means: a pipe or chamber branching into several openings. So all we really need to know about manifolds, was explained by Jesus when He told us: “In my Father’s House are many Mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2) A CTC is a world line of a material particle in spacetime that is “closed,” returning to its starting pointclosed_timelike_curveA more ancient and poetic description of a CTC can be found in the B’nai-Amen Israel interpretation of figure 17 from Facsimile No. 2 in the Pearl of Great Price originally taken from the Book of Breathings – A seed being lifted again to the Place of Origin, to become an origin unto itself, dwelling in a perfect society, free of death and disease – the End Of Ends.

In physics, a world line is defined as: the unique path of an object as it travels through 4-dimensional spacetime. A world line is like an orbit or trajectory path but with the added dimension of time. World lines typically encompass a large area of spacetime wherein perceptually straight paths are recalculated to show their (relatively) more absolute positions and states. The voyages of Lehi and crew, as well as those of the Jaredites could be logged as world lines, as long as a time tag is attached to every position with a metric appropriate for the curved surface of the Earth. But Lehi and Jared themselves, along with their family members aboard big boats, are not simple single points in spacetime. If they were to keep a ship manifest the contents listed would be manifold. A world sheet is the analogous two-dimensional surface traced out by a one-dimensional line (like a string) traveling through spacetime. The world sheet of an open string (with loose ends) is a strip; that of a closed string (a loop) is a volume. Once the object is not approximated as a mere point but has extended volume, it traces out not a world line, nor a world sheet, but rather a world tube.

Whole worlds are literally seeded and burst into world lines stretching upwards and downward, developing world sheets of roots and sprouts, eventually growing into sturdy trunk like world tubes. The concept of a world tube was known among the ancients as the concept of the World Tree or Axis Mundi. Our world or planet rather, has a world tree running through its axis. We can observe that the Earth’s axis is fulfilling the exact same stirring role as the cylinder of light hypothesized for Professor Ron Mallett’s time machine as it causes the Earth to wobble through outer space and causes time to play out the precession of the equinoxes. This central pillar is the key we have touched on in our comparison of the Kabalistic Tree of Life with Mormon scripture. In the most antiquated version of the Tree of Life diagram, the sephira of Kether was not depicted atop the tree but as a sphere encompassing the whole tree.

circle-casting-diagram1- axis mundi

This column of light relates perfectly to the age-old figure of Father Time through none other than Eshu, the trickster teacher who we have seen to be that aspect of the Eternal Father which lets his children learn the hard way in accordance with their willful decisions. As Eshu migrated with his children across the Atlantic to the Caribbean island of Haiti he took on the nick-name Papa Legba. Papa Legba still has his trickster side intact, but more often appears as an old and wise, no nonsense man carrying a staff. This staff is often depicted as a shepherd crook with a spiraling pattern at its top, and sometimes even features a curious belt like ring around the mid-section of its length. Is this trickster’s stick used to create a laser ring vortex which, according to Einstein field equations, is capable of opening the gate to multi-directional time travel? It is a common saying that: Haitians are 70 percent Catholic, 30 percent Protestant, and 100 percent Voodoo. As the Haitian Voodoo adaptation of Yoruba Eshu, who is guardian of the crossroads between worlds, Papa Legba can be compared to the Catholic personage of Saint Peter in that he is gate keeper between the worlds. If one manages to stay alert during the LDS Temple Endowment ceremony one will notice that the officiator at the altar represents Peter. He stands between the patrons and the veil beyond which is the Celestial room in our Father’s House.

But in most LDS Temples today the officiator does not speak with his own voice, he merely pushes buttons to play and pause pre-recorded voices. Besides the sometimes not so subtle variation in the many voices of the officiator, one may notice explicit instructions being passed along from a variety of sources, including the Devil himself. The most important parallel that one can make in regards to the staff, or axis line in the hands of Heavenly Father is to understand it as one’s own spine. Without this profound realization you and I will stiffen up our necks and place ourselves in a state of resistance to Papa’s strange workings among the children of men. Our hearts will not be stirred up to remembrance but rather to contention one with another. But if our own spinal axis is aligned with the axis mundi, and the core of our being aligned with the will of the Father, then, like Joseph Smith in the ironically named Liberty Jail, we will penetrate through the perplexing circumstances to perceive the wise purposes of the Lord, and hear Old Papa Legba comfort us, saying:

“all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.”
(D&C 122:7)

papa legba

THE SWORD OF TRUTH CUTS “STRAIGHT THROUGH” THE APPARITION OF ACADEMIA

Seeing instantaneously from a scientific and a spiritual viewpoint is seeing with both sets of eyes. And just like a person who is blind in one eye will experience problems with depth perception, those who insist on using only their physical set of eyes will not be able to perceive the depth of a book like the Book of Mormon. As addressed in previous sections, academia is a secret-combination which promotes and pushes a one-sided, therefore half-assed approach to history. Academics can only ever tell half of the story, and that is fine. But it is a serious fault to insist that others accept half-truths while dismissing the other half. So-called BoM scholars are more motivated to compete for acceptance in academic circles than they are driven by a desire to complete their comprehension of the time cycles of which they claim to make a thorough investigation.

Academia occupies itself with constant construction of thought systems through which inflated air heads can vent their conditioned airs, to stay acclimated to a tightly enclosed false environment, and continue to ignore the greater reality of the atmosphere all around them. Historians, especially when dealing with religious texts, are aware that there is an etheric realm which they can not see. But instead of hoping for that which is not seen, as per Moroni’s succinct definition of faith in Ether 12:6, intellectuals rather take that portion of the breath of life which is currently in their spiritual lungs and create an imitation world. This they do to shut out all supernatural elements, and seal themselves off in an imaginary independence to suck in stale oxygen devoid of spirit so that they may tell their (per)version of events while they can to anyone who will listen. The listeners bring in their small doses of sacrificial spirit and breathe small puffs of fresh air, life into the lie for establishment experts to ensure their continuance if only for a decade or two more. Compare this to the spiritually healthy practice of meditation which purifies and rejuvenates the mind because it is tuning into OUR energy; not one’s own limited level or private reserve, but the unlimited and consecrated mental capacity of ALL OF US.

But as was also stated in a previous section, the Sword of Truth, like the legendary Sword of Laban, has power “to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow.” It is even sharper than Ockham’s Razor which logicians claim to use expertly. If the Sword of Truth is used inappropriately it will divide asunder the two fundamental halves of full reality hitherto referred to as spirit and flesh. The mentally violent proponents of intellectual overkill will fall upon the Sword of Truth and it will slice straight through their body of facts. Fact is only one half of the Light of Truth. It is the ‘truth’ part but without ‘light’ the ‘truth’ is not comprehensive so we can not claim to comprehend her. When people tell you that the “fact of the matter” is this or that, they are speaking from a very restricted point of view since “fact” and “matter” both represent only the material side of things. Truth and Light can only be understood together. And light naturally travels as infinite little waves along infinite x axes, so from our perspective its effects are seen in straight lines. Swords are straight lines, and in essence the term Sword of Truth means the same thing as Light of Truth. We could call it a Light Saber of Truth. And if we are wise we will understand that the first and foremost application of this light and truth must be to our own temples, to our own bodies, and to the spine which runs through our personal spheres like a personal axis mundi. The spine was symbolized in ancient Egyptian temples by the Djed Column. And only a true Djedi Knight of the Holy Priesthood can wield the Light Saber of Truth in line with the Universal Force.

So we see that straight lines of light slice straight through the apparition of academia and expose it as a wispy would-be body of straight lies. It is the particular Angles of Light as it approaches that determine what kind of Angels of Light will appear to us. In the case of Book of Mormon historicity the most important factors are often overlooked in an academic lust for hard evidence. But of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and those who rely solely on their carnal eyes will misinterpret, or miss entirely, the beauty of certain Angles/Angels of Light. The specifics about the Angel Moroni’s visitation to Joseph Smith will reveal more about the Book of Mormon’s historicity than any archeological digs and academic research currently being conducted on the subject by University trained official Church Scholars. But before we look more closely at that angelic evocation and visitation, let’s first clarify in our minds this principle of straight lines which is observable in the workings of Light and Truth.

Remember that Light and Truth are two members of a Holy Trinity. The “Nothingness” from which these two emanate is the first and final member – f1rst in that Light and Truth were joined in a state that made them unaware of themselves until a splitting occurred, and fin3l in the sense that these two main ingredients of the “Nothingness” come together again to form something. Perhaps this is why the signature upon which spacetime bases the formation of a 4-dimensional Lorentzian manifold is (3, 1) or, equivalently, (1, 3). The “nothingness” plays a surprisingly important role throughout the processes of eternity. So, in order to understand what we are seeing we have to ironically look to the unseen with the 3rd eye of faith.

Using this key of three we can discern spiritual comings and goings between heaven and earth. It should come as no surprise that Papa Legba is always associated with the number 3 or multiples thereof. Papa Legba once again provides a perfect illustration as he stands at the crossroads with his staff. In voodoo he is the gate keeper of the poteau-mitan, the center stake of LDS vernacular, and the elevator of the gods. This portal is the vertical plasma fire pole from heaven perpendicular to the latticework of light that overlays the face of the earth. Angels of flame slide up and down it like fire-fighters, from the deepest infernal regions to the highest reaches of Mount Zion. Angels of flame are beings of light, both good and bad. They have been known by many names throughout history. The Koranic tradition calls them Ifrit and the European magic tradition, in which Joseph Smith was well versed, refers to them as Salamanders. So LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley could have saved himself and others a lot of trouble if, instead of trying to buy up the so-called Salamander Letters for the sake of avoiding embarrassment for the Church, he would have simply clarified that Joseph did the work of the Lord which work is magic, and “Salamander” simply means an Angel of Light. But as was the case with Presidents Kimball, Woodruff and others before him, Hinckley’s attempts to protect the “Church” resulted in harm and even death for people.

Now when these Beings of Light (Spirit) interact with Beings of Truth (Element) the results leave marks in much the same way that lightning strikes leave Lichtenberg figures. I am not saying that everyone who interacts with angels will bear a physically visible lightning mark somewhere on their body, like Harry Potter. Nor am I saying that the ground where the interaction took place will bear signs of a spiritual lightning strike. If we only search the physical plane with the physical eyes, we may or may not see anything unusual. But with the eye of faith I believe we can discover indicators of such a meeting at the crossroads having occurred as signs bleed in from the other world. What should we be looking for? Well, if physical lightning rods produce Lichtenberg figures on whatever physical surfaces they touch, and those figures resemble the beautiful but scattered schemata of branches, then the spiritually forensic evidence we seek should bear the likeness of the straight-shot tractor beam by which it was produced. But what is the medium in which we can find these straight spiritual Lichtenberg figures? The answer is – in time.

When Light of Christ particles travel as messengers from Heaven to Earth they create a world line. This world line is vertical like the world tree of ancient lore, but it will be traceable as a timeline through the horizontal hyper-surface of space which we inhabit at present. There is a T being formed here. When exploring the principle of pre-stood keys and locks in An Anarchical View of the Keys pt. 1 & 2 we talked a little bit about the significance of the letter T or the Tau symbol (τ) as it is known. Apart from being a sacred symbol in Free Masonry and one of the earliest forms of the cross had in many civilizations, the ‘T’ has many layers of scientific symbolism. When speaking of space and time separately or together as spacetime, the letter ‘t’ and certain variants of it can be used as an abbreviation to communicate the concept of “time”, or it can also represent a specific time period or other interval within time.

“I make a record of my proceedings in my days.”

(1 Nephi 1:1 – Coincidentally a repetitious series of 1s, whether seen on a digital clock or elsewhere, is a common spiritual trail marker which many these days have noticed frequently while journeying along the paths of awakening. It signifies, among other things a starting point.)

In the science of mechanics, which is usually thought of in very tangible terms, we find the T symbol representing shear stress from unseen and intangible forces like drag and velocity gradients. Shear stress deals with the force vector component which runs parallel to the cross section. So, from a scriptural stance it concerns simultaneously the spatial as well as the spiritual paths of living beings walking the earth.

“…we have wandered much in the wilderness, and we have suffered much affliction, hunger, thirst, and fatigue…” (1 Nephi 16:35)

When it comes to thermodynamic and related quantities, the ‘t’ talks about temperature, or absolute temperature. Coming from absolute zero, the soul rises by degrees out of the “nothingness” into three-dimensional reality, and finally the added dimension of time. In Introduction to the Thermodynamics and Eternodynamics of Desire, I said: “When any one of the Many Mansions in Our Father’s House is mistaken for a permanent stop, it becomes a prison and starts to bring about damnation” hence the need to keep it moving. But you do not want to burn out. That is why in that post I also wrote that: “On the proverbial path of life there is a fine line between travel and travail. Sure, there is something eternal about sadness and pain just as there is about happiness and pleasure, but the key to these experiences is you and the key to you is awareness.”

There has to be a balance in our lives. When we think that we have reached our final destination then the physical surroundings conspire to show us that we need a change of scenery. That change of scenery serves us as a temporal trigger to hopefully realize that the divine destination and eternal abode we seek is and has been inside of us all along. Each and every leg of Lehi’s journey was a vital part of the whole. It was an internal journey every bit as much as it was external. As I stated before, the entire story-line of the Book of Mormon can be applied straight to parts, organs, and functions of the human body. The land they called Bountiful for its abundance in fruit is a perfect example of this. The Chinese word for Bountiful is 丰富 – Fēng Fù. In The Thermodynamics & Eternodynamics of Desire – Continued, I wrote about the physiological application of the common scriptural phrase, “vessel of the Lord.” And I briefly touched on the importance of the Governing Vessel – a natural energy line starting at a person’s upper lip, running over the head and down the spinal cord. In the ancient Chinese practice of acupuncture, Point 16 along the Governing Vessel is called Fēng Fù.

It is located on the midline at the nape of the neck, in the depression immediately below the external occipital protuberance. Interestingly enough this is the same spot which we discussed in the first section of this piece. That is to say, it is an exact match for the area designated by the Hebrew letter Qof, and the crossroads of West Afrikan tradition, the place where LDSA perceives as the source of stiffneckedness as long as the Chains of Hell remain attached there. Fēng Fù is treated when dealing with headaches, neck rigidity, or mental disorders. It’s the posterior fontanel, one of two literal soft spots we’re born with, where the “devil” attempts to siphon off our energy if we do not accept accountability for it. Through the same site, a false reality Matrix is plugged in and fed back to us.

In The Thermodynamics & Eternodynamics of Desire – Continued I also wrote about the Three Mother Letters (Shin – ש, Aleph – א, Memמ) which mark the central, right, and left columns on the Kabbalistic Tree of life respectively. They stand for the Spirit of God as Fire, Air, and Water, and also correspond to Sushumna, Pingala, and Ida channels in the Indian system of Ayurvedic medicine. The rather hellish system of allopathic western medicine, which deals only with the physical, carnal aspects of beings, knows these as the sympathetic chains that run down from the base of the skull to the coccyx. Fēng Fù is the meeting point of the Governing and Yang-Linking Vessels and is known by many titles in varying schools of acupuncture including – Point of the Sea of Marrow, the Wind Mansion, and the Point of the Window of Heaven. All of these names match with the words of the Book of Mormon regarding the place which Lehi and his fellow travelers called Bountiful. It was near the waters of the seashore. Nephi’s first major task there was to build a bellows wherewith to blow air into the fire to melt ore extracted from the earth. And of course, the phrase “Windows of Heaven” is always associated with abundance and bounty.

Though it may have seemed that they had reached the Promised Land and could finally rest from physical trekking upon reaching Bountiful – it was eventually revealed that all the terrain covered up to that point had been for the purpose of reaching these great waters, to then enter them on a boat of their own build. But this was only a continuance of the same ongoing movement. In a way they had always been at and in the great waters. Water even shows up in the mathematical equation , water equationwhich tells us that a world line multiplied by time is an element of rate to the 4th power. Riding the river of time we should heed the council of the wandering Sufi’s, to not be like a fish asking the waves and the bubbles, “Can you show me the way to the water?” Swimming with the school is appropriate for God’s children at first as little fry, but at some point all fish reach the age of accountability and are asked to leave the water to evolve our spirits further on the banks of the river of time. We can no longer just go with the flow and follow the crowd. At this point, if we were to continue doing what everyone else does, relying on the current trends to bear us up and bring us along, then we would be swimming in a filthy stream similar to the river in Nephi’s dream.
really so Time is a River eh well its a filthy one like Nephi sawNephi himself says that baptism by water is only the gate at the beginning of an eternal way. And as far as his family’s voyage to the Land of Promise, the Thermodynamics and Eternodynamics of Desire – Continued till, at some point midway from beginning to end, Air, Fire, and Water literally met. Until the three converge, don’t pretend to know what to do, and don’t think that your precious promised land will remain promised to you. Without the baptism of water and fire you are like untempered mortar, not wholly sanctified. You will fry and sizzle in your own zeal.

“…we were exceedingly rejoiced when we came to the seashore… And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters… And it came to pass that the Lord told me whither I should go to find ore, that I might make tools… and after I had made a bellows, that I might have wherewith to blow the fire, I did smite two stones together that I might make fire…For the Lord had not hitherto suffered that we should make much fire, as we journeyed in the wilderness; for he said: I will make thy food become sweet, that ye cook it not…And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led.”
(1 Nephi 17:6-13)

is also used to designate transmission or transmittance of radiation. Visible light is only one of many forms of radiation. Light is the photonic offspring of God the Father and God the Mother, the outcome friction between Father’s ELectrical skin against the MAgnetic skin of the Mother. When extreme levels of radiation propagate themselves through matter it can be dangerous to anyone who touches the medium through and from which the waves are radiating. This is what happened when Uzzah stretched forth his hand to steady the Ark of the Covenant. And Nephi’s transmission factor was exceedingly high when he spoke to his brethren and said:

“In the name of the Almighty God, I command you that ye touch me not, for I am filled with the power of God, even unto the consuming of my flesh; and whoso shall lay his hands upon me shall wither even as a dried reed!”
(1 Nephi 17:48)

The Bible story of the Hebrew Exodus and the Book of Mormon story of Lehi and his family’s travels share some common themes. Both are right and exact like the angles of a T-square. That ‘T’ was formed by intersection of the vertical axis of time with the space which was covered by foot in both instances and is therefore depicted horizontally. In the case of Moses and his people, a physical manifestation of the superterranean portion of the time axis is said to have preceded their steps in the form of a pillar of fire. In the Hollywood film, The Ten Commandments, it is represented as a tornado of flame. This is a rare but naturally occurring phenomenon in arid regions of the world, but the spiritual structure girding it can not be explained by natural means alone. The pillar of fire that led the Israelites by night was what is known as a future light cone. Although the vertical future light cone preparing the way for Lehi and his family may not have been physically visible to the naked eye, it still served the same basic function of setting time tags around which all participants had unique chances to unify, and both groups pioneered new ground in their own world lines.

The idea of world lines was pioneered by Herman Minkowski. World lines of particles/objects at constant speed are called geodesics. In special relativity these are straight lines in Minkowski space. This simply means that while the Lehi’s party and the Israelites would have drawn out their journeys as more or less straight lines on a two-dimensional map, they were of course following the curvature of the earth as they hoofed it to their respective promised points. But because neither of the groups’ exoduses was executed at constant speeds, the varying velocities of the individual observers literally caused them to experience the same events from entirely different angles. This is the short version of the scientific explanation behind such divergent origin stories among the Nephite and Lamanite nations. Laman and Lemuel told a very different version of events from those reported by their younger brother, Nephi.

Every event in spacetime is pinpointed between a future light cone and its accompanying  subterranean reversal, a past light cone. The two work together to bring us information which, if equally accepted, will give us a full and accurate picture of the present. 300px-World_line.svg                                            It may seem that we see clearly what is happening in our present, but in fact there is always a delay time for light to propagate. For example, we see the Sun as it was, not as it is “right now.” We need to activate binocular vision, meaning simultaneous spiritual and physical sight capable of seeing the past and future now if we want to see the Son “as he is” (1 John 3:2). The majority of information we receive comes to us through the light of the past. The difference in velocity between the approach of the Nephite civilization and that of the Lamanites account for the wide angle of the gap between how each group perceived, accepted, and/or rejected the Light of Truth. Velocity can cause the hare to think he has won the race, and fall into a dream of vain victory only to be rudely awakened to a reality where the slow but steady tortoise is truly victorious in the race. This is why we should consider the different races of the fallen “fair ones” and the “cursed” dark-skinned peoples whose parallel histories are partially played out in the story-line of the Book of Mormon. Reread Moroni’s words in light (and darklight) of the future and past light cones.

And now, my brethren, seeing that ye know the light by which ye may judge, which light is the light of Christ, see that ye do not judge wrongfully; for with that same judgment which ye judge ye shall also be judged. (Moroni 7:18)

Nephi envisioned a frighteningly accurate glimpse of that which was in store for his lineage, but felt that there was not too much he could do to alter that course. Laman and his followers stuck stubbornly to their old ways and stayed the course which they chose, perhaps more consciously in many aspects than Nephi and his descendents. For we find Jacob as spiritual leader of the newly born Nephite nation corroborating the true prophecies that no one wanted to hear. When reprimanding the hard-heartedness of his people he clearly delineates the future track of the supposedly depraved Lamanites.

“wherefore, because of this observance, in keeping this commandment, the Lord God will not destroy them, but will be merciful unto them; and one day they shall become a blessed people.” (Jacob 3:6)

Those who feel so sure of their bright future are often ignoring the shining shadow of their dark past. They see things through only one lens of the grand Urim & Thummin that their gods and their ancestors present to them. The principle of pre-stood keys and locks reveals that rays arriving at and departing from any particular point in spacetime will be infinite and multidimensional, but for now let’s concern ourselves with these straight lines of energy or, ley lines which are not detectable to the naked eye, yet can be found to traverse the face of the land.

Falling to the Earth as a Sign of Conversion


And now the astonishment of Alma was so great that he became dumb, that he could not open his mouth; yea, and he became weak, even that he could not move his hands; therefore he was taken by those that were with him, and carried helpless, even until he was laid before his father.

And they rehearsed unto his father all that had happened unto them; and his father rejoiced, for he knew that it was the power of God.  [Mosiah 27:19-20]

and

And it came to pass that they did call on the name of the Lord, in their might, even until they had all fallen to the earth, save it were one of the Lamanitish women, whose name was Abish, she having been converted unto the Lord for many years, on account of a remarkable vision of her father — Thus, having been converted to the Lord, and never having made it known, therefore, when she saw that all the servants of Lamoni had fallen to the earth, and also her mistress, the queen, and the king, and Ammon lay prostrate upon the earth,

she knew that it was the power of God;  [Alma 19:16-17]

When Alma saw his son being carried home by his friends, rendered completely unconscious – his first reaction was to rejoice because he recognized that as a manifestation of the power of God working.

When Abish saw the Lamanite queen and king, all their servants, and Ammon laying prostrate on the ground, unconscious – her first reaction was that this obviously meant the power of God was working.

Falling to the earth in this manner is a sign that the power of God is rending the veil of unbelief and breaking the chains of hell that are on that person:

Alma and Abish share one thing in common that explains why their first thought after seeing someone fallen to the earth unconscious was that the power of God was at work – they both had first-hand experience with the miraculous works of the Father.

Alma had witnessed the word of God delivered by Abinadi in the spirit of prophecy and revelation:

…the Spirit of the Lord was upon [Abinadi]; and his face shone with exceeding luster, even as Moses’ did while in the mount of Sinai, while speaking with the Lord.  And he spake with power and authority from God;  [Mosiah 13:5-6]

Alma went on to organize a church of believers gathered in the wilderness, himself and the church manifesting the miraculous works of the Father:

…both Alma and Helam were buried in the water; and they arose and came forth out of the water rejoicing, being filled with the Spirit

…Alma, having authority from God…  [Mosiah 18:14, 18]

Abish had witnessed a miraculous vision that had been given to her father in the spirit of prophecy and revelation:

…she having been converted unto the Lord for many years, on account of a remarkable vision of her father…  [Alma 19:16]

Falling to the earth is a result of the fear of the Lord coming upon that person:

And behold, he spake unto us, as it were the voice of thunder, and the whole earth did tremble beneath our feet; and we all fell to the earth, for the fear of the Lord came upon us.  [Alma 36:7]

It accompanies true recognition of one’s unjustified state before God, which is received when the word of God is preached in its fullness — in the spirit of prophecy and revelation, by the power of the Holy Ghost:

And now, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had made an end of speaking the words which had been delivered unto him by the angel of the Lord, that he cast his eyes round about on the multitude, and behold they had fallen to the earth, for the fear of the Lord had come upon them.

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 4:1-2]

Once the fear of being cast off forever from the presence of the Lord sinks into the right-brain-hearts of believers, it works there to create this “fear” spoken of in the scriptures.  Trembling/shaking and weeping/shedding tears follow next – working to rend the veil of darkness and remove the chains of hell attached to the brain of all sinners, and to manifest a broken heart and contrite spirit.

But, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”  [Psalm 126:5]:

Meaning the Lord is quick to hear the cries of his people and answer their prayers [Alma 9:26].  The conversion pattern found in the Book of Mormon shows that once the fear of the Lord comes upon a person/people, they’ve been overcome and have fallen to the earth, and have shed tears of sorrow and anguish for their carnal and sinful state – joy follows:

And it came to pass that after [the people of King Benjamin] had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them.  [Mosiah 4:3]

and

And it came to pass that [Abish] went and took the[Lamanite] queen by the hand, … ; and as soon as she touched her hand she arose and stood upon her feet, and cried with a loud voice, saying:

“O blessed Jesus, who has saved me from an awful hell! O blessed God, havecmercy on this people!”

And when she had said this, she clasped her hands, being filled with joy, speaking many words which were not understood; and when she had done this, she took the king, Lamoni, by the hand, and behold he arose and stood upon his feet.

[…] And it came to pass that when Ammon arose he also administered unto them, and also did all the servants of Lamoni; and they did all declare unto the people the selfsame thing—that their hearts had been changed; that they had no more desire to do evil.  And behold, many did declare unto the people that they had seen angels and had conversed with them; and thus they had told them things of God, and of his righteousness.

And it came to pass that there were many that did believe in their words; and as many as did believe were baptized; and they became a righteous people, and they did establish a church among them.

And thus the work of the Lord did commence among the Lamanites; thus the Lord did begin to pour out his Spirit upon them; and we see that his arm is extended to all people who will repent and believe on his name.  [Alma 19:29-36]

and

I [Alma] was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins.  Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments… the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror.

[…] And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.

Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart:

“O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.”

And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.  And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.

Yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there.  But behold, my limbs did receive their strength again, and I stood upon my feet, and did manifest unto the people that I had been born of God.  [Alma 36:12-23]

We must follow the example of the king of the Lamanites after he received the gospel from Aaron:

And it came to pass that after Aaron had expounded [the gospel] unto him, the king said:

“What shall I do that I may have this eternal life of which thou hast spoken? Yea, what shall I do that I may be born of God, having this wicked spirit rooted out of my breast, and receive his Spirit, that I may be filled with joy, that I may not be cast off at the last day?”

Behold, said he, “I will give up all that I possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy.

But Aaron said unto him:

“If thou desirest this thing, if thou wilt bow down before God, yea, if thou wilt repent of all thy sins, and will bow down before God, and call on his name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou receive the hope which thou desirest.”

And it came to pass that when Aaron had said these words, the king did bow down before the Lord, upon his knees; yea, even he did prostrate himself upon the earth, and cried mightily, saying:

“O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day.”

And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if he were dead.

[…] Now when the queen saw … she also began to fear exceedingly, lest there should some evil come upon her.  And she commanded her servants that they should go and call the people, that they might slay Aaron and his brethren.

Now when Aaron saw the determination of the queen, he, also knowing the hardness of the hearts of the people, feared lest that a multitude should assemble themselves together, and there should be a great contention and a disturbance among them; therefore he put forth his hand and raised the king from the earth, and said unto him:  “Stand.” And he stood upon his feet, receiving his strength.

Now this was done in the presence of the queen and many of the servants. And when they saw it they greatly marveled, and began to fear. And the king stood forth, and began to minister unto them. And he did minister unto them, insomuch that his whole household were converted unto the Lord.  [Alma 22:15-13]

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How to receive what you ask for


It is a gospel law that if you ask God for something that is good and right, in the name of Jesus, in faith, believing that you will receive, doubting nothing, you will receive what you ask for.

A new investigation

Lately I have been perplexed by the lack of spiritual best gifts among the church of God. In my interactions with church members, I had come to the conclusion that we do not have the gifts “because [we] ask not, neither do [we] knock” (2 Ne. 32: 4), after all, Jesus said that “every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened” (3 Ne. 14: 8.) Nevertheless, with over 13 million members of record, I found it awfully strange that not even one person sought these gifts. I mean, what are the odds of that?

That got me thinking that in all likelihood the truth was that while the vast majority of the membership no longer sought the gifts, a small minority did. Yet even among them the gifts are absent. I wondered, why haven’t these people received what they are asking for?

Moroni records Jesus as saying, “Whoso shall believe in my name, doubting nothing, unto him I will confirm all my words, even unto the ends of the earth” (Mormon 9: 25.) He also gives his own prophecy, “Whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth” (Mormon 9: 21.) God cannot speak a lie and still remain a God of truth. This means that for the entire gospel to be true, all its individual parts must also be true, including this promise, because the principle is that God “never doth vary from that which he hath said” (Mosiah 2: 22; also Alma 7: 20 and D&C 3: 2.)

I decided, then, that I would put Moroni’s promise to the test and follow the prescribed steps so that Jesus would have to confirm His words to me. I believed the word of God to be true and had full confidence that I would receive what I asked for. Specifically, I was going to ask for a spiritual best gift, for the gifts of the Spirit are things that are right and good, which is one of the qualifications necessary for the promise to be fulfilled. (See 3 Ne. 18: 20 and Moroni 7: 26.)

I began my trial sometime between the 19th and 26th of January, 2011, and have continued it to this very day. This post contains what I have so far learned from this ongoing experiment with the word of God.

Ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith

And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. (Ether 12: 6)

A trial is a proof. A proof is “any effort, process, or operation designed to establish or discover a fact or truth; an act of testing; test; trial; as to put in proof.” The trial of your faith, then, is the proof of your faith, or an effort, process or operation designed to establish or discover whether or not you have faith.

The “effort, process, or operation” that is used to establish that we have faith is a very specific type of prayer. By praying in a specific way, our faith will be instantly put in proof and we will immediately know whether we have faith.

How to pray, part one

For the purposes of this experiment, we shall attempt to obtain one of the gifts of God. In particular, we will seek a gift that is easily recognizable as having been received. Of the three lists of gifts in the scriptures, the list given to the Lamanites is the only one that contains the gift of the beholding of angels (see Moroni 10: 14 and The role of angels in Nephite preaching.) So, this is the gift we will seek, for once an angel of light appears and is discerned (see D&C 129: 4-9), there is no doubt that the gift has been received.

The instructions of how to ask God for one of His gifts, which were given by Jesus and Moroni (in Mormon 9: 21, 25; 3 Ne. 18: 19-20; and Moroni 7: 26), are summarized in the following manner:

Ask the Father

Ask in the name of Christ

Believe in Christ

Believe in the name of Christ

Ask for something good and right (the gift of the beholding of angels qualifies)

Ask in faith

Believe you shall receive

Doubt nothing

The promise is that if the above steps are followed by anyone, it shall be granted/done/given and Jesus’ words will be confirmed.

Let’s write up a sample prayer based upon the above instructions.

My heavenly Father, your name be blessed. Show mercy upon me and hear my words. Baptize me in the Spirit and cause that I speak the words of this prayer by the power of the Holy Ghost. I thank you for the gospel and your Beloved Son: His life, suffering, death and resurrection. Grant me belief in Him and in His holy name. Give me faith in your Son. Bestow upon me the belief that I will receive what I ask you for in this prayer. Take away my doubt so that I pray, doubting nothing. Confirm Jesus’ words to me. Send your angel to me. Let me behold his face. Allow me to converse with him. Have him declare the word of Christ to me. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

A deadline

On the surface, the above prayer seems to serve its purpose of putting our faith in proof. If you have faith, the angel will appear. If you do not have faith, the angel will not appear. What it lacks, though, is an element of time. When does the angel have to appear? The prayer does not specify. The time frame is left up to the Lord. If the Lord decides to send the angel at the end of your life, 60 years from now, how does this tell you now whether or not you have faith? It doesn’t. What if the Lord decides not to send an angel because you didn’t exercise faith, would you know? Nope.

Prayers that don’t have an element of time in them are insufficient to put your faith in proof. A deadline, such as a day and time, must be included so as to make a discovery of faith (or lack thereof.) If the deadline comes and goes, with no result, you didn’t pray in faith. If the deadline arrives with an angel, you now have passed the trial of your faith and have received your witness.

Here is the same prayer altered slightly so that it serves as a trial of faith:

My heavenly Father, your name be blessed. Show mercy upon me and hear my words. Baptize me in the Spirit and cause that I speak the words of this prayer by the power of the Holy Ghost. I thank you for the gospel and your Beloved Son: His life, suffering, death and resurrection. Grant me belief in Him and in His holy name. Give me faith in your Son. Bestow upon me the belief that I will receive what I ask you for in this prayer. Take away my doubt so that I pray, doubting nothing. Confirm Jesus’ words to me. Send your angel to me right now. Let me behold his face. Allow me to converse with him. Have him declare the word of Christ to me. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

All things can be asked for

Notice in the above prayers that I asked for everything. I didn’t say, “Give me this according to the faith that I have,” I said, “Give me faith in your Son.” I didn’t say, “I believe that I will receive what I ask you for in this prayer,” I said, “Bestow upon me the belief that I will receive what I ask you for in this prayer.” I didn’t say, “I have no doubts whatsoever,” I said, “Take away my doubts.” The Lord has everything I need to make a prayer work. If I lack anything, He can make up for it, if I ask Him for it.

O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. (Mormon 9: 27)

Different amounts of faith

To move mountains, you need faith the size of a mustard seed. Jesus told Peter that he had little faith. The scriptures speak of having the gift of exceedingly great faith. All of this shows that faith comes in different amounts. Depending on what you are asking for, you will need a greater or lesser amount of faith.

The mere act of asking God for something, believing that you are going to receive, is an act of faith. How much faith? No one but God knows. However, if you ask, believing that you will receive, and do not receive what you ask for—and you know for a fact that you have not received what you asked for because you asked in the manner detailed above, using an element of time so that the prayer creates a trial of faith—it causes you to confront your false beliefs. You must then admit to yourself that the belief that you had that you would receive what you asked for was false. Again, you may indeed have asked in faith, because the very act of asking is an act of faith, but it was of an insufficient quantity to receive what you asked for, therefore your belief that you would receive was false.

When a man is faced with a false belief—not determined by someone else, but determined by the man himself—the natural tendency is to discard the belief. You will no longer wish to follow Jesus’ instructions to believe that you will receive, because your mind, shown by direct evidence, will tell you that that belief is false. The evidence will be incontrovertible. In order for you to pray again, again believing that you will receive, you will have to completely ignore the evidence. You will have to call black white and white black. You will have to act totally irrationally. You will have to step into the unknown. You will have to close your eyes and walk blindly in darkness. You will have to face the fear and trembling spoken of in the scriptures and work out your own salvation under these conditions.

If you are able to get back on your knees and offer another prayer, asking again for something with a deadline, so that the prayer becomes another trial of your faith, and with the (irrational) belief that you will receive, the very act of attempting the experiment again requires more faith than your first attempt.

Each subsequent attempt will again naturally increase your faith. But each time you fail to receive, you will be faced again with a religious crisis that can only be overcome by faith.

The theory in all of this is that eventually, continuing on in this manner, you will finally arrive at the amount of faith required for what you are asking for, and you will then receive the gift you seek, obtaining the witness promised in the scriptures, which comes after the trial of your faith.

The veil of unbelief

The Lord prophesied that the people of our day would have a veil of unbelief, which, unless rent, would keep us in a state of wickedness, blindness of mind and hardness of heart, and He would withhold the greater things from us.

Behold, when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind, then shall the great and marvelous things which have been hid up from the foundation of the world from you—yea, when ye shall call upon the Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he made unto your fathers, O house of Israel. (Ether 4: 15)

The purpose of the veil of unbelief is to hide “the great and marvelous things” of God from us. As long as it is upon us, we can pray until we are blue in the face to see angels or obtain the powers and gifts of the Spirit and we will forever remain in the dark about such things, never tasting of the goodness of God, nor feasting upon his fatness. Only those who pray to God “with a broken heart and a contrite spirit” are the ones who rend the veil of unbelief and partake of the greater things, such as the ministration of angels. To all others, the heavens are closed.

God has power to cast away the veil of unbelief from our minds

Now, this was what Ammon desired, for he knew that king Lamoni was under the power of God; he knew that the dark veil of unbelief was being cast away from his mind, and the light which did light up his mind, which was the light of the glory of God, which was a marvelous light of his goodness—yea, this light had infused such joy into his soul, the cloud of darkness having been dispelled, and that the light of everlasting life was lit up in his soul, yea, he knew that this had overcome his natural frame, and he was carried away in God— (Alma 19: 6)

Anyone can ask for the same blessing from the Lord.

It is extremely important that the veil of unbelief be removed, because it will prohibit us from exercising faith.

And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust. (Mormon 9: 20)

Using disappointment to rend one’s soul

…when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief… (Ether 4: 15)

The disappointment of not receiving what we ask for, as promised in the scriptures, is a heart-wrenching experience. If repeated over and over again, using back-to-back deadline prayers, it feels like your whole soul is being ripped apart. This might be the reason why the Lord chose the word “rend” when speaking of what to do with the veil of unbelief.

To rend means “to part, tear off, or take away, by force.” It also means “to separate into parts with force or sudden violence; to tear asunder; to split; burst; tear; to affect as if tearing asunder; as, ‘powder rends a rock in blasting; lightning rends an oak; a lion rends its prey; to rend one’s garments; the nation was rent by discord; a heart rent with grief.’” So, there is nothing gradual or subtle about rending the veil of unbelief. It is supposed to be done suddenly and violently, creating rapid change in the individual.

What the veil is

Man cannot perceive the veil of unbelief that covers him. The word veil is used to describe it because it feels very much like a thick piece of cloth that envelops the spirit. We can’t see out through it and, in fact, can’t even feel that it is there. However, once a part of the veil is rent, suddenly we can perceive that something real (an actual thing) is covering us, like a cocoon that gets cracked, letting the airy breeze in. The breeze feels good to us and the contrast between the exposed and covered parts (where the veil is still intact) enables us to finally perceive the veil.

The first perception of the veil is an alarming experience. The initial reaction is, “Get this off of me!” It feels like an uncomfortable, alien, spiritual cloth. And indeed it is. The veil of unbelief is Satan’s spiritual garment that he imperceptibly places upon all mankind when they arrive at the age of accountability and sin. Its purpose is to reduce agency, faith, knowledge, wisdom, etc. It allows him to more easily deceive us and lead us to destruction. It is the counterpart of the garment of the priesthood.

The veil of unbelief appears to be an extension of the spirit of the devil and not an individual thing placed upon each person. The result of being subject to it is damnation (see Damnation.) Once you can perceive that it is on you, you want it off of you immediately, because you can perceive that it is not a part of you and that it has been placed there without you even realizing it and that it is stopping you from spiritually progressing. In other words, you can perceive that an enemy put it there.

Even if one goes through all the ordinances of the gospel and wears the physical priesthood garment, etc., as long as Satan’s spiritual garment (the veil of unbelief) is still being worn, spiritual progress will be stunted and the gifts of the Spirit will remain off-limits. The gospel teaches that the proper order is to first rend the veil of unbelief and take it off, and then we are to put on gospel covenants and clothing. But even if things have been done out of their proper order, it is of utmost importance that Satan’s veil be removed.

The chains of hell

The chains of hell are twin filaments of spirit matter (plasma) that twist and revolve around each other in a pattern that looks like the links of a chain.

One end of the chain leads to, and is held by, Satan (see Moses 7: 26.) The other end of the chain leads to the veil of unbelief. It is attached to the veil at the back and base of the skull. One filament is attached to the half of the veil that goes over a man’s left brain hemisphere (the mind) and the other filament is attached to the half of the veil that goes over a man’s right brain hemisphere (the heart.)

There are three modes of plasma discharge: glow, arc and dark. The chains of hell are twin filaments of plasma discharging in dark mode.

The mind operates in arc mode, while the heart operates in dark mode. The mind is designed to believe what it sees, therefore it is designed to be lit up so that it can see everything and thus believe everything. The mind is also designed to be firm or fixed. When illuminated, it clearly can see where everything is and instantly can fixate upon what it sees without any wavering. When minds are darkened, it cannot clearly see things or where things are and must waver in order to try to find its way in the darkness, just as a blind man moves his cane left and right to figure out where things are.

When a chain of hell is attached to a veil of unbelief, the dark mode discharging filament that goes into the half of the veil of unbelief that encases the mind causes the mind to go into dark mode. The mind becomes darkened, and undergoes a state of blindness. It begins to waver. As it cannot see anything or much at all, it does not believe much either, or it begins to doubt or exhibit unbelief. Wickedness is simply a state which goes against the purpose God designed. It is a perversion. The mind was designed to operate in arc mode, in a digital manner. The veil of unbelief causes it to operate in dark mode, in an analog manner. The mind is now in a state of wickedness.

As stated above, the heart operates in dark mode. It is designed to operate in this mode and is designed by God to be soft and malleable, or easily entreated. When the other filament of the chain of hell goes into the half of the veil of unbelief that covers the heart, it cannot change the discharge mode of the heart, because the chain of hell is also in dark mode. However, it does have an effect upon the organ of the heart: it causes the heart to become hard or fixed. So now, instead of feeling its way around its environment like a blind man, as it was intended to do, the heart functions like a mind, fixating on individual emotions, instead of expanding to encompass the infinite gradations of feelings. In other words, the heart is designed to embrace the infinite, or feel an infinite variety of feelings and emotions. When the veil of unbelief, powered by the chains of hell, covers the heart, it becomes selective in what it feels, acting in a digital manner instead of the analog manner it was designed to operate in. It, too, is now in a state of wickedness.

Satan is able to deceive mankind through his chains of hell and the veils of unbelief that are attached to all sinners. Through sin, the veil of unbelief and its chain becomes attached to man around the age of eight. Through continual sin, it becomes increasingly more difficult to be removed.

The chains of hell not only look like chains, but also function as chains. If a man does not, while in mortality, repent and shake off the chains of hell and rend the veil of unbelief that is attached to his mind and heart, when he dies he becomes exposed to the full captivating power of Satan. Satan has power to pull on his chains, dragging the souls down to hell, but he has no power to pull the spirits into hell while they are still in their physical, mortal bodies. Only when the spirit leaves its body can the devil pull the helpless souls into hell. The body serves as a temporary protection from the devil in this manner. Once in hell, the devil can fully subject the spirits to him, through his spirit (the chains of hell and veils of darkness). (See Alma 34: 33-35.)

Having an understanding of these things is extremely important, in order that we can work out our salvation with fear and trembling before God. (See Alma 34: 37.)

A tare sown

The chains of hell and the veil of unbelief, if turned upside down, look like a plant stalk with roots going into the heart and mind of man. This is, in actuality, the tare that is sown by the enemy. The tare seed is planted in the heart of man first (see Moses 6: 55) and then takes root in both heart and mind. In other words, the first plasma filament of a chain of hell first begins its connection to man in the heart, then the second filament connects to the mind, creating the veil of unbelief which encompasses the mind and heart of man.

(Note: the veil of unbelief only covers the heart and mind of man, not any other part of his spirit body.)

Secret works of darkness

Man cannot discover the chains of hell, nor the veil of unbelief that is upon him. If it were not for the word of God, which reveals the secret works of darkness of the evil one, no man would ever know that actual chains of hell exist, nor that veils of unbelief are secretly placed upon all mankind. These invisible plasma filaments (chains of hell) and plasma coverings (veils of unbelief) can only be detected by a manifestation of the gift of the discerning of spirits, for these are extensions of the spirit of the devil.

Satan operates in secret. As long as we have no knowledge of what he is doing to us, or what he has done or plans to do, he can work his destruction upon us with impunity. The word of God ruins his plans, because it fully exposes the danger the devil poses to us. Once a man knows that he is in chains of hell and covered in a veil of unbelief, secretly put there by the devil upon reaching the age of accountability and sinning, man can use his agency to fight it and attempt to get it off of him by calling on the power of Christ to help him. This puts a clog in the works of the devil, so he has always attempted to destroy the scriptures, or corrupt them, or get people to disbelieve them or misinterpret them. For those of us that have uncorrupted scriptures (the Book of Mormon), the devil’s strategy to stop us from liberating ourselves with the power of Christ is to deceive men into believing that all is figurative in the scriptures, or at least the parts that pertain to him. So, the expression “chains of hell” is not considered a real thing that binds man. And the “veil of unbelief” is not considered a real thing that covers the heart and mind of man. They are thought to be just figurative expressions of states of mind, not actual things that must be actively sought to be removed from one’s spirit body.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord

O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him. (Mormon 9: 27)

Most LDS interpret this scriptural expression as referring to respect. In other words, when we fear God, we don’t actually exhibit fear of Him, meaning that we are frightened by Him, but accord Him the respect that He deserves. However, this expression does not refer to respect. Such an interpretation is a deception of the devil, a snare meant to blind the minds and harden the hearts of the church of God.

What fear in the expression actually means

The word fear in the expression “fear and trembling” signifies actual fear, as in fright or horror. It is the fear of being cast off forever.

And thus did the Spirit of the Lord work upon them, for they were the very vilest of sinners. And the Lord saw fit in his infinite mercy to spare them; nevertheless they suffered much anguish of soul because of their iniquities, suffering much and fearing that they should be cast off forever. (Mosiah 28: 4)

Such fear is instilled in a person when the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached in its fulness and purity (see Alma 16: 21), meaning that those parts of the gospel which reveal the power and captivity of the devilthe reality of death and hell, the chains of hell, the darkness and blindness of minds, the hardness of hearts, the state of wickedness, the fallen, evil nature and nothingness of man, the bands of death, the doctrine of damnation and endless torment, the spirit of the devil, the mists of darkness and temptations of the devil, the veil of unbelief, the wavering state of the mind, the lake of fire and brimstone, the flaming sword of justice, the rivers of filthy water, etc.such parts of the gospel sink home into the heart and mind of a man, and this new awareness causes him to fear to die because of the knowledge that the instant he leaves his mortal body he will be “taken home to that God who gave him life” (Alma 40: 11) and, being found unclean and possessed by the spirit of the devil (for the chains of hell are still attached), will then be cast off into hell (Alma 40: 13), to be kept in captivity by the devil, because of his sins.

Again, this is according to the power and captivity of the devil, which the Lord respects:

And again, doth a man take an ass which belongeth to his neighbor, and keep him? I say unto you, Nay; he will not even suffer that he shall feed among his flocks, but will drive him away, and cast him out. I say unto you, that even so shall it be among you if ye know not the name by which ye are called. (Mosiah 5: 14)

Satan possesses all who have his chains of hell upon them. We are his property and the Lord respects that and will respect that so long as we have a chain upon us sealing us as the devil’s. This is why we are cast off when we return to that God who gave us life and cannot enter paradise or the gates of righteousness. The chains of hell are still attached to us, the veil of unbelief remains intact and our minds are still in a state of blindness or darkness, or “filthiness” and “uncleanness.” No unclean thing can enter the gates of righteousness, otherwise paradise would also be unclean. So, we are cast off and dragged down to hell.

What trembling in the expression actually means

The trembling is both physical and spiritual, or the trembling of the entire soul when a man is confronted with his deepest, darkest and most horrifying fear, that of being cast off forever. Trembling happens when a man is conscious of his own guilt before God, having transgressed His laws and commandments.

Now Alma, seeing that the words of Amulek had silenced Zeezrom, for he beheld that Amulek had caught him in his lying and deceiving to destroy him, and seeing that he began to tremble under a consciousness of his guilt, he opened his mouth and began to speak unto him, and to establish the words of Amulek, and to explain things beyond, or to unfold the scriptures beyond that which Amulek had done. (Alma 12: 1)

Shaking loose the chains and rending the veil

Fear and trembling before the Lord causes man to be confronted with the realization that he does not have faith unto salvation, unto repentance, unto redemption. It is faith that saves a man from the hell that is prepared for him. The realization that he does not have faith plunges his soul into its own personal hell, where darkness envelops him and hell fires scorch and burn him up, in a process that, if the man learns to trust the Lord, repent of all his sins and continue on through the darkness and fires, will sanctify him, for these are the refiner’s fires, which are meant to consume the impurities found within his heart and mind, his very soul.

The trembling and shaking is not a mental process alone, but also a physical one. When it is discovered that the devil has actual chains upon his spirit, with an actual veil of unbelief upon his mind and heart, the spirit of man reacts violently against the foreign spirit of the devil, of which the chains of hell and veil of unbelief are a part, and attempts to shake it off itself. As the spirit of man is connected to his physical body, when the spirit suffers in anguish because of the awareness of the presence and attachment of the spirit of the devil,―and such suffering is known as “the pains of hell”―and then attempts to shake the chains of hell loose, the physical body likewise begins to shake uncontrollably. (See 2 Ne. 1: 13, 23; 9: 45 and Alma 5: 9-10; 26: 14.)

Faith unto repentance brings relief and liberation

If a man is able to obtain faith unto repentance, by offering to the Lord a broken heart and contrite spirit, the fear of being cast off forever and his trembling under a consciousness of guilt is turned into the joy of the saints, knowing that the Lord has redeemed his soul from hell and forgiven his sins. This happens when the chains of hell have finally been shaken off and the veil of unbelief has been rent by all the fearing, trembling and crying to the Lord with a broken heart and contrite spirit. The man is now free from the power and captivity of the devil and can worship the Lord free from the guilt of his sins, with the understanding that Jesus has taken them away and that should he die this instant, he will go to paradise and not hell.

“O blessed Jesus, who has saved me from an awful hell!” (Alma 19: 29. These were the first words king Lamoni’s wife said, when she arose and stood upon her feet, after having been under the power of God.) The relief of liberation from the devil and deliverance from hell is the first thing on everyone’s mind.

In this state, the man is now justified (guiltless), purified (having no more desire to sin and, in fact, looking upon sin with abhorrence), and sanctified (having desires to do only good continually). He can now ask the Lord for a gift or power of the Spirit, with faith in Christ, believing he will receive, doubting nothing, and the Lord will grant his request.

Fear and trembling, part two

“O blessed God, have mercy on this people!” (Alma 19: 29; which were the second words that king Lamoni’s wife said after arising and standing upon her feet.)

Once free from sin, the liberated man turns his attention to those around him and his now acute knowledge of the power and captivity of the devil, and how narrowly he was able to escape his grasp and hell, causes him to fear and tremble for others. He begins to fear that those around him will be cast off forever and he begins to tremble and quake at the thought that if his fellowmen do not go through the same process that he just did, liberating themselves by faith on the word of Christ, that they will perish.

Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble. (Mosiah 28: 3)

The man of God, having been born as a new creature, even born of God, now desires that all should have the same privilege. Instead of fearing and trembling before the Lord because of his own sins, he now fears and trembles for the sins of others. If the man’s heart remains broken and his spirit contrite, he will continue in this purified, sanctified and justified state, working tirelessly to save as many souls from hell as he can, by exercising his faith to obtain and use the powers and gifts of God to benefit others and to help them also liberate themselves from Satan’s grasp.

This principle applies even to those who overcome the world and are translated, becoming sanctified in the flesh. Such persons still “suffer…sorrow…for the sins of the world.” (See 3 Ne. 28: 38.)

Fear and trembling, part three

The unrepentant man, whose soul is cast into hell, quickly finds himself in torment, with no apparent means of escape, bound to the devil by the chains of hell, which he can now plainly see are attached to his spirit, along with the veil of unbelief, in an environment of darkness, filthy rivers, magma, mists of darkness, surrounded by souls who are weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth, in continuous anguish and misery.

He sees his situation as hopeless. Although he walks in every imaginable direction, hell appears to be endless and its gates are all one way. Souls continually enter but none have power to leave. There is no relief to his torment. Not even death can get him out of this prison, for he cannot die. Finding himself literally in hell, which appears to him to be a never-ending prison, he begins to fear and tremble uncontrollably and without cease, which causes him to enter a state of misery and indescribable suffering. The fearing and trembling, however, that the damned soul in hell goes through, is insufficient to shake loose the chains of hell that bind him, because he still has no faith, hope or charity. Unless he is able to obtain the word of Christ and plant it in his heart, and go through the process of repentance, by which he exercises faith unto repentance, he must remain chained as a possession of the devil and be subjected to the devil’s power to make him miserable.

All must fear and tremble

All men who arrive at the age of accountability and have chains of hell placed upon them because of their transgressions must eventually fear and tremble. A man can either do it voluntarily before the Lord during mortality and allow the hellish process to work out his own salvation, purify his heart and shake off the devil’s chains, through faith on the Son of God, thereby causing the gates of hell to be shut before him, or he can be compelled by the devil to fear and tremble while he resides within the confines of hell.

Fearing and trembling before the Lord in mortality is the same process as that in hell, except that you have a physical body. The body makes it much easier and quicker to shake off the chains of hell and rend the veil of unbelief. The fearing and trembling occurs before the Lord, in prayer, as you wrestle with the understanding that there is a satanic veil covering your mind and heart, with a chain attached to it that leads directly to the devil himself. And this veil and chain is causing you to remain in a state of wickedness, blindness of mind and hardness of heart. It is deceiving you and not allowing you to exercise faith. And unless you exercise faith, you aren’t, can’t and won’t be saved. And if you were to die this instant, with this satanic spirit attached to you, this same spirit would possess you and drag you down to hell and cause you to be in subjection to it and all would be lost. (See Alma 34: 34-35.)

These are scary thoughts, the thought that you are unsaved and doomed to hell unless you can rend the veil of unbelief. This fear, when it works its way into a frenzy, causes your spirit and physical body to start shaking uncontrollably.

Again, it is the trembling of the spirit that leads to the veil of unbelief being rent and cast away and the chain of hell being loosened and shaken off. This is how all the ancients worked out their own salvation. It is a personal trip to hell done in the presence of the Lord, where the fires of hell sanctify the person by causing him to fear and tremble, which eventually frees the man from the bonds of hell that held him tight. Mind you, these aren’t the literal fires of hell (magma), but the spirit fires of hell (the twin plasma filaments discharging into our human spirits in dark mode, known as the chains of hell.) Hell, in a very literal way, is already attached to all of sinning mankind, by way of the spirit of the devil (the veil) that is rooted in us. The spiritual fires of hell is the spiritual torment a man feels knowing that he is not saved. It is a reaction by the spirit host (the man) to the alien, devilish symbiote (the veil and chain).

No one, except it be little children, will escape the fear and trembling of hell. When little children die, they go straight to paradise, avoiding hell altogether, and while little children are alive, they are sinless and have no chains of hell placed upon them, therefore they need not go through any fear and trembling. The repentant saints of God, though, must go through hell on earth, by which they work out their own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord. This allows them to enter paradise when they die, thus avoiding the gates of hell. The unrepentant wicked, on the other hand, do not go through this process on earth, therefore they must go to literal hell when they die, where they do not work out their own salvation, yet still fear and tremble under Satan’s power.

Suffering and sorrow is what it is all about

Suffering and sorrow are the sanctifying, purifying and justifying principles of the gospel. Fearing, trembling and having a broken heart and contrite spirit are the three principles that bring us to the Lord. The fear of being cast off forever, or, in the case of the righteous, the fear of other people being cast off forever, is a form of suffering. Trembling under a consciousness of one’s own guilt, or, in the case of the righteous, trembling under a consciousness of other people’s guilt (because of the knowledge that they will perish unless they repent), is also a form of suffering. And a broken heart and a contrite spirit is sorrow for one’s own sin (demonstrated by uncontrollable weeping), or, in the case of the righteous, sorrow for other people’s sins.

All of this suffering and sorrow is over, or about the consequences of, sin. It is sin-centric suffering and sorrow. If we go through suffering and sorrow about anything else that is not sin-centric, such as an illness, or failure at a relationship, or poverty, etc., none of such things does us any good whatsoever in the process of working out our own salvation. Only suffering and sorrow for sin sanctifies, purifies and justifies.

Deceptions of the devil

It is the intent of the devil to have all mankind fear and tremble in literal hell, under his satanic power, and not in mortality under the power of the Holy Ghost. The doctrine of working out one’s salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord destroys the devil’s captivating power, therefore, he inspires mortal men who are under his evil spirit to preach against this doctrine. One such individual was Nehor.

And he also testified unto the people that all mankind should be saved at the last day, and that they need not fear nor tremble, but that they might lift up their heads and rejoice; for the Lord had created all men, and had also redeemed all men; and, in the end, all men should have eternal life. (Alma 1: 4)

Nehor’s preaching had devastating effect among the church of God, leading many members into sin and many were excommunicated. Since the time of Nehor, however, the devil has changed strategies, but the result is the same. Now, instead of getting the church of God to believe that the doctrine of fearing and trembling before the Lord is false or unnecessary, the devil has caused the church to re-interpret it as something other than what it is. Now the church believes it is merely showing respect towards the Lord by striving to keep His commandments, with no spiritual and physical suffering needed. This new strategy of the devil is more effective, at least for our time, because the church actually believes that they are working out their own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord, without going through any of the steps of the real doctrine.

Again, although the strategy has changed, the end result is the same. No one goes through the process of fearing that they will be cast off forever. No one goes through the spiritual and physical shaking and trembling under a consciousness of his guilt. And no one manifests the uncontrollable weeping associated with profound sorrow for one’s sins, known as a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

The doctrine of working out one’s own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord requires that a knowledge of the chains of hell, of death, hell and the devil, of the captivity and power of the devil, and of all things associated with Satan and hell and sin and death be explained to a person. Unless a person understands that he is in the devil’s grasp and is going to hell if he does not repent, he can never fear and tremble before the Lord in mortality, and if he never fears and trembles before the Lord in mortality, he must fear and tremble before the devil in hell.

Owing to the necessity of teaching the doctrine of hell and the captivating powers of the devil as part of the plan of salvation, the devil has enacted a plan whereby he now gets the church of God to avoid all mention of hell, death, the devil, fear, sin, trembling and any other “negative” emotional state. We focus on heaven and salvation and avoid all mention of damnation and hell. Fear is never, ever mentioned, at all, and when it is mentioned, it is immediately struck down as a barbaric relic of old-time religion. (For example, see this comment.)

Nephi saw our day (as well as the days to come) and saw the strategies that would be employed by the devil to emasculate the doctrine of fearing and trembling before God:

For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish; for behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.

And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.

And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance.

Yea, they are grasped with death, and hell; and death, and hell, and the devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God, and be judged according to their works, from whence they must go into the place prepared for them, even a lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment. (2 Nephi 28: 19-23)

Nephi said that “the kingdom of the devil must shake.” He understood completely the doctrine of fearing and trembling before the Lord. Also, he foresaw that hell would no longer be considered an actual place (see Teachings on hell and the spirit world), but a state of mind, as if people could release themselves from the misery of hell merely by thinking a different thought. Such deceptions are already upon us, and even greater deceptions are to come.

The gospel has already been compromised

The Book of Mormon preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ in purity. If you look at every preacher found within that book’s pages, you will notice that when they preached Christ, they also preached the devil and hell. When they preached salvation through Christ, they also preached damnation through the devil. When they preached liberation through the Son of God, they also preached captivity through the devil. When they preached of the Holy Ghost, they also preached of the evil spirit of the devil. They preached the gospel in its fulness and purity.

Now compare that to how the Gentile church of God preaches. We leave out fully one-half of the gospel when we preach it. We never talk of damnation, or captivity or hell, etc. When we talk of the atonement, we briefly mention sin and death and how the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ liberates us from that and then move on. There is no mention of fear, trembling, or any other thing that people might consider “too negative.” We focus on the positive and largely discard anything negative from our minds and conversations. As a result, we have stopped preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, for, like a scale, balanced coverage must be given to both sides in order for a man or woman to repent of their sins.

Truth be told, even the half that we do preach isn’t preached all that much. The vast majority of our conversation is centered on prophets and apostles, obedience to leaders and commandments, blessings of paying tithing, attending church and temple, and every other conceivable topic that has nothing, whatsoever, to do with Jesus Christ’s suffering, death, resurrection and judgment upon all mankind.

Now, I normally put the blame of all things wrong with the church of God on the member’s backs, but this time I point the finger at the church leadership. They are not teaching the gospel and instead of getting the people to repent, they are causing the hearts of the people to become more and more hardened.

The plan of salvation has also been compromised

The Gentile church has likewise modified the scriptural plan of salvation. The plan is, in a word, Christ. It is not a flip-chart with circles representing kingdoms of glory, earth and the Spirit World. Christ is the plan. He was sent to deliver us from death, hell and the devil. Through faith on the power of His deliverance He can blot out our transgressions, all our afflictions, all our pain, take away our temptations and even blot out death, in other words, everything that causes a tear of sadness to fall from the eyes of man. He took all this upon Himself so that He could blot it all out.

Without Christ we are subject to the devil. We are not subject to sin, but to the devil. This is an important distinction to make. Sin and death are but tools of the devil. The real danger is the devil. The plan of salvation is a plan to save us from the devil. For example, death is a problem because

“…if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself…” (2 Ne. 9: 8-9.)

And sin likewise causes us to become subject to him, so that, were there no plan of salvation, “our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils,” even angels to a devil. So, Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection is designed to save us from the devil for he is the one holding all the chains of hell.

When we focus on sin and death and leave out the devil, we destroy the plan of salvation and faith. If sin were just a nebulous concept, without an actual being of power behind it, we could all be Buddhists or of any other religion and not need Christ. But this is not the case. No one can break Satan’s chains of hell. No Buddhist, no Muslim, no religion or philosophy of men. Only faith in Christ can. He, and He alone is the plan of salvation and we need saving from Satan and Satan alone. Christ and Satan must go hand in hand when presenting the plan of salvation, otherwise, it is no longer the plan of salvation and is of none effect to save men.

The Gentile church of God has pretty much divorced sin from the power and captivity of Satan. For example, if you look at the Mormon.org page on “Jesus Christ,” sin is mentioned 24 times with no mention of the devil. (A little better is that site’s page, “God’s Plan of Happiness,” which mentions sin 7 times, with Satan mentioned twice.) As a result, no one can properly exercise faith as a principle of power. Instead, we get hit and miss manifestations and no gifts.

Also, the focus of the plan of salvation is no longer Christ. Now when we think of the plan of salvation, instead of viewing the sufferings, death and resurrection of Christ, we think of three degrees of glory and of exaltation in the celestial kingdom. And we most certainly do not think of the devil and hell. In fact, we don’t even use the word hell anymore, having replaced it with the more politically correct term, “spirit prison.” Yet, even with that term, we do not see it as an actual prison, with real shackles upon a person. All has become figurative states of mind.

All fear is negative and bad and inspired by me,” says the devil

All of this is according to the deceptions, plans and power of the evil one, for it is his intent to remove both Christ and himself from our conversations. As long as he remains out of sight and out of mind, he is free to go about destroying souls.

In this way, the people are deceived and never realize the danger they are in, nor do they learn the process by which to go about removing themselves from that danger. They are deceived into thinking that fear, meaning actual fear, as in fright, is contrary to the gospel, and that fear can only be inspired by the devil. So, they never enter the process by which all the ancient saints went through to shake off the chains of hell and rend the veil of unbelief and save themselves, which is the process of fearing and trembling and crying before the Lord.

Again, what is it that we are to fear in this process? We are to fear being cast off forever. (See Mosiah 28: 4.) It is this fear that causes the body and spirit to tremble. And, why should we fear this? Because as long as the chains and veil are attached to us, we cannot exercise faith, cannot be saved and will be dragged down to hell once we leave our physical bodies, to become subject to, and possessed by, the devil’s spirit. Once people learn of these things, they begin to fear death, while the righteous, who have been liberated from this captivity, have no fear of death.

To be clearer in writing, no one can be saved without faith in Christ and no one can exercise faith in Christ unless they go through the process of fearing, trembling and crying before the Lord. So, to ascribe all fear as inspired of the devil is to commit spiritual suicide, for you will then never be able to exercise faith unto salvation.

The scriptures explain these things in plainness, so that people can understand that they ought to go through this process right now, this very moment, while they are still alive. Such plainness necessitates Satan’s strategy to get us to misinterpret these real things as mere symbols.

The one mighty and strong is a deception

There are many who are waiting for “one mighty and strong” to show up and save the day, performing miracles and wonders and signs. Such a doctrine is inspired of the devil. I’m not saying that there will not be one or more persons arriving who will be mighty and strong and manifest miracles and perform great works. Of course there will be. However, the waiting for such a man or men to arrive is inspired by the evil one, that he might keep all those who believe such a doctrine in the status quo and ever relying upon the arm of flesh and looking for someone to lead them.

The true doctrine of Christ is that every man and woman is to repent of their sins and harden not their hearts, receiving a remission of their sins, and then asking God in faith to obtain the gifts and powers of the Spirit, so as to work miracles themselves, and not to wait for miracle workers to show up. Those who wait for miracle workers to show up, without learning how to work miracles themselves, will end up being deceived, for Satan will send miracle workers with the intent to deceive such people.

We are to obtain the gifts ourselves so that we are not deceived (see D&C 46: 8.) If you do not obtain the gifts, but merely wait for a savior to arrive, you will get a savior, but he will be sent from the evil one.

Pray against the power of the devil

The scriptures indicate that we must pray always and not faint, that we be not led into temptation. In other words, we are to pray against the power of the devil, against his power to tempt and deceive us and others.

Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness. (Alma 34: 21.)

The Lord will grant us what we ask for in faith, but if we do not ask for something, He will not grant it. The ancients always prayed against the devil’s power and taught all men to do so. The Gentile church typically neglects this duty.

The ordinance of prayer

Prayer is an ordinance (see New thoughts on prayer) by which we offer a sacrifice to the Lord. He only accepts one type of sacrifice: that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. A broken heart and contrite spirit is a heart that is inundated with sorrow for sin. Initially, it is sorrow for one’s own sins. Later, when forgiveness through faith on Christ has come, it is sorrow for the sins of the world.

Prayer only works if this sacrifice is offered up. If any man or woman prays to God without presenting before Him the required sacrifice, which is the only sacrifice He will accept, the prayer is counted as evil and profits the man nothing. (See Moroni 7: 6-9.) Just as Cain brought the wrong sacrifice to the Lord and was rejected by Him, while Abel brought the right sacrifice and was accepted, so if we pray to God without a broken heart and contrite spirit, our prayers will not be answered, or will be of no profit to us.

The Son of God is “quick to hear the cries of his people and to answer their prayers” (Alma 9: 26), but only if they offer the required sacrifice. If they go to the prayer altar and offer up nothing, or some substitute sacrifice, they have no such promise.

If you are not weeping, you are not broken-hearted

The Lord has given us a key whereby we might know if we have a broken heart and contrite spirit: the crying of tears of sorrow. When we are crying tears of sorrow for our own sins, or for others’ sins, then we are broken-hearted. If we have not, as yet, reached that point, our hearts are still hard.

Yea, his weeping for Zion I have seen (D&C 21: 8 – The Lord, speaking of Joseph Smith, Jun.)

For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry. (2 Ne. 33: 3 – Nephi)

There is a reason why the scriptures tell us to “cry unto the Lord.” The word cry can mean “to make a loud call or cry, as in an effort to be heard, in prayer or supplication, in pain or anger, etc.; to call out or exclaim vehemently or earnestly; to shout; to vociferate.” But it can also mean “to utter lamentations; to lament audibly; to express pain, grief, or distress, by weeping and sobbing; to wail; to shed tears with or without making a sound; to weep.” It is the latter type of crying that demonstrates a broken heart and contrite spirit.

When we cry to the Lord, with uncontrollable weeping for our sins, the Lord is “quick to hear the cries.” Only those who have a broken heart and contrite spiritwho are they that are truly penitent and sorry for their sinshave access to the atonement of Jesus Christ, “and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered” (2 Ne. 2: 7.) This means that unless you are brought to tears for your own sins, or for the sins of the world, you are currently in a state of damnation, because your heart is still hard, the veil of unbelief is still intact, the chains of hell are still attached to you and you are still in subjection to the devil, being an enemy to God.

The condition of the heart

It all comes down to our hearts. Our hearts are hard, like a stone. This is the reason, the only reason, why those of us who ask God for a gift of the Spirit, do so in vain. This is the reason why we do not receive.

No one can exercise faith while in a state of damnation. No one can be saved in his sins. He must be saved from his sins. A hard heart is a wicked heart. As long as his heart is hard, a man is still in his sins. The heart must be broken before salvation goes forth. Before Christ can forgive anyone of any sins, there must be the all-important sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Simply saying you are sorry for your sins does not cut it. You must feel sorrow for your sins. And this must be the sorrow unto repentance spoken of in the scriptures. This is sorrow that is accompanied by tears, by uncontrollable weeping. It is this sorrow that causes you to turn from (repent of) your sins.

And for those of us who have turned from our sins without the accompanying sorrow for sin (the weeping of a broken heart), such “repentance” is but a change of lifestyle and profits us nothing in the afterlife. The Lord looks upon the heart. Regardless of how one has stopped using drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and breaking the law of chastity and other laws of God, if the heart is still hard, that man is still in a state of wickedness, with veil of unbelief firmly attached, and has no faith unto salvation, which is why he cannot perform any miracle and will find himself in hell upon his death if he continues in the iniquity of his heart. So, it is sorrow for sin (the broken heart and contrite spirit) that is the first and chief gift of God that one needs to be saved.

But before you can attain to that state of sorrow, you must understand the consequences of sin. You must have a proper understanding of death, hell, and the devil and the captivity of the devil. And this understanding must work in you until you fear being cast off and tremble under a consciousness of your guilt before God. Only then can you come close to obtaining a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

All of this brings us to the role of the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon is the solution

The word of God, found in the Book of Mormon, contains everything necessary to bring people to repentance, to the broken heart and contrite spirit required before miracles can go forth. This volume of scripture is designed to “pull down all the pride” (see Alma 4: 19) of the church of God. The opposite of pride is humility, meekness, lowliness of heart. These words refer to the broken heart and contrite spirit, not to mere “teachableness” as many LDS would interpret them to mean.

The church of God is currently in a rising pride cycle, which means that it does not desire to repent, nor feels the need to. It enjoys the status quo just fine. It resembles the Nehor perversion in certain aspects.

(The order of Nehors created exceedingly hard-hearted people. It was the Nehors of Ammonihah who murdered the women and children believers by fire. See Alma 14. It was also mostly the Nehors who slew the Anti-Nephi-Lehies who were prostrate and praying to God. See Alma 24.)

So, many members no longer care about obtaining the gifts. But even the members that are concerned about the lack of gifts, and that attempt to receive them, are incapable of doing so because they “are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men.” In short, the devil has the entire world under darkness, both within and without the church.

The Book of Mormon is the Lord’s solution to this problem. It is intended to give us the word of God in purity so that we can learn everything we need to know about Christ’s atonement and His power of deliverance, as well as the devil’s power of captivity. It continually calls us to repentance and shows us exactly what to do to escape the grasp of the devil and avoid entering hell, how to obtain a glorious resurrection, how to repent and receive forgiveness of sin, and how to obtain any gift or power that God has ever given to any saint of any age. In short, it gives us exactly what we need to gain the victory over the devil and overcome the world by faith.

Enos and Amulek as our models

Enos knelt before his Maker and “cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication” for his own soul, “all the day long.” And when the night came, he did still raise his voice in prayer. And then the Lord spoke to him and told him his sins were forgiven.

It took Enos less than 24 hours of “crying to the Lord,” or less than the waking hours of a day, before the Lord finally spoke to him and he obtained a remission of his sins. It was accomplished in a single day.

Amulek said:

Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you. (Alma 34: 31)

Again, the implication is that it takes but one day to obtain forgiveness.

How to pray, part two

Remember the list of steps? Pray to the Father, in the name of Christ, with faith in Christ, believing that we will receive, doubting nothing, for something good and right? Well, if you pray that way without a broken heart and a contrite spirit, you won’t receive a damn thing.

Before approaching the Lord in prayer to obtain the gifts of the Spirit, you must first obtain a remission of your sins, and before that you must first obtain a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And to do that you need to be harrowed up with guilt, you need to tremble and fear before the Lord, and nothing does that like the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, even the word of God as written in the Book of Mormon. The broken heart is the first thing to ask for. With prayer and the word of God, as found in the Book of Mormon, pride will eventually be pulled down and your heart will be softened and the tears will flow for your sins.

At that point, you must pray to God for forgiveness, while in your state of tears, or broken-heartedness, for as long as it takes. As demonstrated by Enos, it won’t take longer than a day, for the Lord is quick to hear the cries of His people. When you finally receive forgiveness of sin and have had your sorrow wiped away and replaced by joy, being full of the Holy Spirit and being baptized with fire, with the ability to speak the tongue of angels, etc., then, and only then, will you be able to ask and receive whatever you want.

Right after Enos received a forgiveness of sins, he got back onto his knees and poured out his whole soul to God for his brethren the Nephites. His broken-heartedness was in their behalf. Again, the Lord spoke to him. Later, he again prayed in this same manner, this time asking for something specific regarding the preservation of their records. He received what He asked for, because once again, he prayed with a broken heart and contrite spirit.

This is the grand key to the doctrine of ask and receive. If you have a hard heart, you receive the lesser portion until you know nothing and are taken captive by the devil. If you do not harden your heart, but keep it broken, you receive the greater portion of the word until you know the mysteries in full. (See Alma 12: 10-11.) Again, the key to know if you have a hard or soft heart is whether you weep over sin.

The Atonement has power to melt hearts

And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me. (Alma 7: 11-13)

The suffering that Jesus went through is designed to move the Universe to tears, compassion and forgiveness. All mankind would unavoidably perish were it not for the redemption of Christ, and He came down to save us, not to save Himself, because He loves us and does not want the workmanship of His hands to perish. So, this was a completely selfless sacrifice. Both the reasons for the sacrifice and the intensity of it work on all who plant this word in their hearts.

This means that when we plant this word in our hearts and believe it, viewing the cross of Christ and all the suffering that He underwent, we, too, can be moved to tears, compassion and forgiveness. In other words, the atonement has power to take away our stony hearts and give us a heart of flesh. For this reason, studying the word of God tends to pull down pride and humble us to the dust, making it easier for us to obtain a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

For those of us who find that we cannot cry to the Lord, meaning that we cannot feel the sorrow for sin necessary to obtain blessings from the Lord, because the tears do not come, the Lord, in His infinite foreknowledge and mercy, knowing that the preaching of the word in purity has power to break hearts and that the Gentile church would not preach the word in purity, began the foundation of the church with the Book of Mormon, for the Book of Mormon prophets preached it in purity. In this way, anyone who desired to obtain a broken heart and a contrite spirit, could do so by reading the Book of Mormon with a believing heart. This would be as effective as hearing the pure word preached in power.

A doctrine of two atonements

The process of working out your own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord, and of calling upon the name of the Lord with a broken heart and a contrite spirit is an atonement. To be saved, two atonements are required. The infinite atonement of Christ in which He feared that we would all be cast off, trembled with a perfect consciousness of all our guilt, and sorrowed under the enormous weight of our sins, was the first one, without which no one would be saved. But a second one, a finite one, in which each person must also go through this process of fearing, trembling and sorrowing, is necessary to activate the first one.

A sense of our own nothingness

Ammon said, “Yea, I know that I am nothing” (Alma 26: 12.) Mormon said, “O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth” (Helaman 12: 7.) And king Benjamin said, “The knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness, and your worthless and fallen state” (Mosiah 4: 5.)

The broken heart and contrite spirit is attendant with a sense of our own nothingness. Lehi preached the nothingness of man to his children (see Deep Waters: Lehi’s model of the universe) who then kept up the teaching throughout their generations to the end of their civilization. We are, quite literally, nothing, having come from the nothingness. All that we are and possess has been given to us, or leased to us, by the generosity and charity of God. If we do not turn the lease into a permanent ownership, by filling our hearts with charity, which is the love of God, our lease will end and we will return to the nothingness from whence we came. Just as from dust we are taken and to dust we shall return, so from nothing we come and to nothing we shall return, unless we take advantage of the atonement of Christ.

Even before obtaining a broken heart and a contrite spirit, getting a sense of one’s own nothingness assists in softening the heart, for the contrast between God’s absolute greatness, being a possessor of all things, and our nothingness, causes us to quake and tremble. Shaking, quaking and trembling are helpful in softening the heart. And after the broken heart is received, always remembering one’s nothingness and the greatness of God keeps everything in a proper perspective, so that it becomes that much easier to retain a remission of sin.

Retaining a remission of sins

And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel. And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true. (Mosiah 4: 11-12)

The key to retaining a remission of sins, given by king Benjamin, is to continually perform the ordinance of prayer, offering a sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, which is the required sacrifice or atonement that is acceptable to the Lord. Doing so will fill us with the love of God (charity) so that it will be well with us at the last day, for whoever does not possess charity is counted as nothing and must return to the nothingness from whence they came, while those who do possess charity remain in the kingdom and receive an inheritance.

It is imperative, then, that we pray always and do not faint, after the prescribed manner.

There is no going back

To those who wish to use the information in this post, know going into it that once you start the fearing and the trembling, there is no going back. The pure gospel awakens you from the sleep of hell into a state of torment, even the pains of hell. The realization that you do not have faith will torment you as if your soul has been set on fire, for without faith no man can be saved.

One option (temporary at best) is to reject the gospel altogether and to believe that the promises of the Lord are false and thus the plan of salvation is a sham. But that will only work until you die and then you will find yourself in hell, in your unsaved condition. So death does not bring relief from this misery.

If you make an agency choice to continue to believe that what the Lord has promised in the scriptures is true, and that all who ask in faith, believing they will receive, nothing doubting, will indeed receive, then you must remain in your miserable, faithless state until you obtain the promised witness.

The very misery you find yourself in, then, knowing that you have no faith sufficient to save yourself, will either impel you forward to ask again and strive to obtain the witness, or drive you backward to reject the entire gospel. In this way, all who arrive at the trial of faith must make a choice. There is no middle ground. It is all or nothing.

Closing summary: A gospel prescription

Just as one goes to a doctor who then prescribes a medication or procedure to cure the ailment, so we can write a prescription based upon the above information to “cure” the world of a deficiency of gifts and miracles.

There are three steps to receiving what you ask God for. The first is the fear of being cast off forever. The second is a trembling under a consciousness of your own guilt before God. The third is a broken heart and a contrite spirit, which is extreme sorrow for your sins, manifested by uncontrollable weeping.

Once a man has the fear we are speaking of, this automatically leads him to trembling. The fear and trembling, if they are continued through prayer and studying the word of God, will eventually lead to a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

It is the broken heart and contrite spirit that rends the veil of unbelief, shakes off the chains of hell and casts away every doubt. Once a person has a broken heart and a contrite spirit, he can pray to God for forgiveness of his sins and within a single day of prayer become justified, sanctified and purified. This is because God is quick to hear the cries of those that have a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

After his sins are remitted, the man must continue in prayer and fasting, praying against the power of the devil, acknowledging the greatness, goodness and long-suffering of God and His hand in all things, and always remembering his own nothingness, and by so doing, he will always retain a remission of his sins.

Such a man, whose sins are now remitted due to his broken heart and contrite spirit, can ask the Lord for any gift or power of the Spirit and it will be granted him. So long as he remains broken-hearted and with a contrite spirit, he will grow in the knowledge of the glory of God, and partake of as many gifts, marvels, signs, wonders and powers as he asks for.

Now, backing up a bit: the first step is fear. To obtain this fear, a man must have the gospel preached to him in its purity, so that he has a good understanding of the power and captivity of the devil, of hell and of death, and also of the power and deliverance of the Son of God, of heaven and of the resurrection and judgment. The volume of scripture that God has given to us to preach the gospel in purity is the Book of Mormon. Therefore, to all who are serious about obtaining and exercising faith and receiving the gifts and miracles of God into their lives, may I make a suggestion?

Put every other book you are currently reading and studying aside and just read the Book of Mormon, preferably out loud, so that you actually hear it preached. Every available moment that you have, read from its pages, with the above understanding in mind, and allow it to soften and affect your heart, afflict your soul, harrow you up with your sins, instill fear in you and cause you to tremble under a consciousness of your own guilt. This can only be accomplished if you believe everything that you read and apply all the sermons of repentance to you, as if they were spoken directly to you and with you in mind. Do this until your pride has been pulled down by the word of God and you have obtained the broken heart and contrite spirit that you seek.

Also, pray to God in the above prescribed manner, using a deadline so that each prayer becomes a trial of your faith. In this way, you will be able to plainly see that you do not have faith, which will cause you to fear and tremble exceedingly.

Continue on with these prayers and scripture readings, and petition the Lord for the broken heart and contrite spirit and to rend the veil of unbelief and shake loose the chains of hell. Use every available moment to do these things and submit yourself fully to the fearful and trembling pains of hell. Eventually, the Lord will take away your stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh and you will finally feel the relief that comes from uncontrollably sobbing because of your sins. You will finally be able to feel sorrow for your sins, instead of just saying you are sorry and not really feeling it.

When those tears come, continue crying (with tears) to God, in your broken heart and contrite spirit, asking for forgiveness of your sins until you obtain forgiveness.

Once you obtain forgiveness, you can now ask God to see an angel or a vision or whatever, and it will be given to you. Then go and bear testimony to others of what you have seen so that they can exercise faith to see the same things. This is how it works.

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