THE SPIRITUAL SIDE OF GENOCIDE Pt. 1 – Of Remnants and Remnants of Remnants and Their Role in the Ongoing Plan of Deeming and Redeeming Mankind

THE REMNANT

Remnant:

1. Residue; that which is left after the separation, removal or destruction of a part.

2. A small remaining quantity of something.

The recent post, 1 Nephi 13&14 and its commentary generated much inspiration about the ‘Remnant’. Who is this group known as the ‘Remnant’? What are they a remnant of and where are they to be found? 3 Nephi 5:24 answers some of these questions.

“And as surely as the Lord liveth, will he gather in from the four quarters of the earth all the remnant of the seed of Jacob, who are scattered abroad upon all the face of the earth.”

So we are talking about a remaining part of the seed of Jacob and we find them here, there and everywhere – spread across the globe in a diverse diaspora. When I was young my father explained that America was a ‘melting pot’. The idea fascinated me. I have, since those days, lived in the East, West, Midwest as well as a couple countries in Latin America. I have become acquainted with a variety of people. I’ve been blessed to know people from practically every nation of the earth. There are certain groups who seem to be more widely distributed, like Filipinos and Mexicans. This is due mostly to economic conditions. Poor people feel obligated to leave their homelands and endure the spurn of others, all for the purpose of making a little money – very little money. These days it is the “Dirty Spics” in the past it was the “Dirty Micks”. Others were plucked from the land of their ancestors and brought forcefully to this land in chains. Any way you choose to look at it, all of these groups along with the groups they are removed from are remainders. This paternal splitting reveals a pattern-in-all.

THE CURSE OF ‘CHRISTIANITY’

But in 1 Nephi 13 the Lord specifies one particular portion of the remnant inhabiting the Americas when He interjects “—and this remnant of whom I speak is the seed of thy father— ” in verse 34. Earlier in the chapter Nephi records:

“And it came to pass that the angel said unto me: Behold the wrath of God is upon the seed of thy brethren.”

God’s wrath is mentioned and nowhere at this point is there any mention of the advent of Christianity in the Americas as any kind of blessing – not even in disguise. It should be clear to us that what follows then, is not to be misinterpreted or misrepresented as a blessing but a curse. Nephi looks and beholds a man among the gentiles who was separated from the seed of his [Nephi’s] brethren by the many waters. Even though we are told that the spirit of God comes down and works upon the man before he crosses the many waters to the Promised Land, we need to understand that the man was never moved upon to perform a mission of mercy. Therefore, the spirit is still one of wrath.

In The Devil In The Dust, I asked, “Does the blood of Christ cleanse, condemn or both?” I also spoke about the roles that trace metals and blood play in the devil’s trance-humanist scheme to thoroughly possess the bodies created for Adam and Eve. Eve specifically bears witness to the curse of bloodshed. Under the Iron Fist of tyranny, we see a wrathful element to the element of iron as it combines with oxygen in hemo-goblins to torment Eve and her children with a perpetual cycle of bloodlust and red rust. To many this may not sound like sound science or spirituality but to those with ears to hear they will detect both. Eyes to see will not perceive postulation on my part but will see beneath the pustulation from smallpox on the skin of millions of native inhabitants of this land. Deeper reasons than guns, steel or even germs reveal themselves when the facts are viewed through the microscopic lens of the Holy Spirit. POx (premature oxidation) poisoned the wine of a once pure sacrament. Spanish Conquistadors and Anglo-Catholics drank to their damnation. Drunk with the blood of European Saints, they proceeded to pour the bitter cup of affliction out upon the American Indians.

Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Itallian mariner-for-hire commissioned by the king of France in 1523 to discover whether one could reach Asia by rounding the Americas to the north, wrote the earliest description of the east coast of North America. Sailing north from the Carolinas, he observed that the coastline everywhere was “densely populated,” smoky with Indian bonfires; he could sometimes smell the burning hundreds of miles offshore.

But in the decades between Columbus’ “discovery” of America and the Mayflower landing at Plymouth Rock, the most devastating plague in human history raced up the East Coast of America. Just two years before the pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, smallpox wiped out about 96 percent of the Indians in Massachusetts. Within just a few generations, the continents of the Americas were virtually emptied of their native inhabitants. Some academics estimate that approximately 20 million people may have died in the years following the European invasion – up to 95% of the population of the Americas.

Far from the pious pilgrim we are taught to commemorate every thanksgiving, my direct ancestor, William Bradford, who led the celebrated Mayflower group to Plymouth, wrote in his journal: “The good hand of God favored our beginnings by sweeping away great multitudes of the natives … that he might make room for us.” Bradford’s use of the word ‘sweeping’ reminds us of the divine decree, repeated several times in Ether 2, that inhabitants of this land should serve God or be ‘swept off’ the face of it.Especially in the case of the areas known today as Canada and the U.S.A., there was no need for military occupation. Unfortunate souls who found themselves British colonists in the Americas were actually British or at least European, whereas colonies in India, China and Africa remained populated with the original inhabitants. But frequent and failed attempts at colonization by various expeditions of bewildered European explorers along the Eastern Seaboard ended with far more than mere frustration for the once bustling indigenous population.

Things played out very differently here than in Mexico and South America. The work was literally done for them by the time that Europeans started to arrive en masse to the East Coast of most of North America. Taking a more truthful look at the mysteriously poor timing and utter lack of preparation for the landing of the Mayflower group; evidence points to a scenario where, as the plague spread among the Indians, word must have spread among these first opportunistic pillaging pilgrims. In later written records from early colonial times, you constantly come across “settlers” being shocked at how convenient the American wilderness made things for them. The pilgrims couldn’t believe their luck when they found that American forests just naturally contained “an ecological kaleidoscope of garden plots, blackberry rambles, pine barrens and spacious groves of chestnut, hickory and oak.” The puzzlingly obedient wilderness didn’t stop in New England. Frontiersmen who “settled” what is today Ohio were psyched to find that the forest there naturally grew in a way that “resembled English parks.” You could drive carriages through the untamed frontier without burning a single calorie clearing rocks, trees and shrubbery.

Returning to the text of 1 Nephi 13, we find it testifies to the true American history that was left out of school books. Verse 33 plainly states:

“Wherefore saith the Lamb of God: I will be merciful unto the Gentiles, unto the visiting of the remnant of the house of Israel in great judgment.”

This is why the “stumbling” that the Gentiles are excused for does not include any atrocities committed against the “savage” survivors of God’s wrath. The “plain and precious parts” of the gospel which were left out of the Bible by that “abominable church” never justified murder. The Bible carried forth by those pre-restoration Christ-Shuns was sufficiently clear, with its Ten Commandments. And the conscience of any honest Gentile falling into the category of those fleeing captivity and seeking religious freedom, would not allow for aggression against anyone who was not violent towards them. In fact, we would do well to remember that, the although the word ‘gospel’ can and has been hijacked to mean whatever greedy men want it to, the gospel of Jesus Christ is Truth itself. Indeed we stumble today due to the great and abominable public school system of Babylon holding back many “plain and precious parts” of our history. Many so-called Pilgrims and Puritans are the worst offenders. Remember, that whether colonizers or CEOs, they are not agents of the Lord but false shepherds. As agents of the Church of the Devil they have blinded many to the truth since the inception of European Gentile society in this choice land.

The truth is, defection to join native society was so common that it became a major issue for colonial leaders. Ben Franklin, who never lost the empathy for the Iroquois, with whom he developed his reputation as a diplomat, noted that,
“No European who has tasted Savage Life can afterwards bear to live in our societies.”
Franklin wasn’t pointing this out as a critique of those who defected — he believed that Indian societies provided greater opportunities for happiness than European cultures – and he wasn’t the only Founding Father who thought Europeans could learn a thing or two from their Red Brothers. They didn’t dress up like Indians at the Boston Tea Party ironically. That was common protesting gear during the American revolutions. According to Loewen, “Europeans were always trying to stop the outflow. Hernando De Soto had to post guards to keep his men and women from defecting to Native societies.” Pilgrims were so scared of Indian influence that they outlawed the wearing of long hair. Long hair didn’t fully come back into style until a couple hundred years later when Hippy and Native youth started to catch a bit of Zion Fever once again. (Ironically, even the U.S. Military, during the Viet Nam War, allowed certain Native Americans, who they had recruited specifically for their extraordinary tracking skills, to keep their hair long when it was discovered that their spiritual sensitivity/extra sensory perception suffered greatly if required to get a customary military haircut) These chapters in the Book of 1 Nehpi that we are looking at pronounce great blessings on those who “seek to bring forth Zion” and “publish peace upon the mountains”. But sadly peace treaties as early as colonial times were consistently broken by shameless Gentiles. And the not so beautiful feet of greedy men trampling the Appalachian Mountains left them stained from massacres. Benjamin Franklin wrote of the massacres:
“The Wickedness cannot be Covered, the Guilt will lie on the Whole Land, till Justice is done on the Murderers. THE BLOOD OF THE INNOCENT WILL CRY TO HEAVEN FOR VENGEANCE!”

Not only were several of the Founding Fathers but also many colonial soldiers were directly inspired by the freedom of the Remnant peoples. Of course neither side was perfect but the ideas to form a “More Perfect Union” were very much based on the tribal ways of the more righteous remaining segments of a languishing Lamanite civilization. Historians think the Iroquois Confederacy had a direct influence on the U.S. Constitution, and the Senate even passed a resolution acknowledging that “the confederation of the original thirteen colonies into one republic was influenced … by the Iroquois Confederacy, as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the constitution itself.” So compliance to the revealed principles of The Doctrine & Covenants, Sections 98: 5-7 and 101: 77-80, in which the Lord justifies us, in “befriending that law which is the constitutional law of the land” – “the laws and constitution of the people, which [God] suffered to be established….for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles” has always and always will be contingent upon peaceful and cooperative relationship with the Remnant and the Land itself.

The land itself bears witness to the fact that a huge sprawling civilization once flourished here. Environmental scientists speculate that they must have cleared mass amounts of trees. Geologists and anthropologist can tell you what evidence they have uncovered from Cahokia, a massive Native American city that was located in modern day East St. Louis. In 1250, it was bigger than London, and featured a sophisticated society with an urban center, satellite villages and thatched-roof houses lining the central plazas. It also featured a gigantic man-made mound larger than the Great Pyramid at Giza. It was constructed with more than 2.16 billion pounds of dirt and brightly decorated with soil of various colors brought from hundreds of miles away. Wile the city was abandoned by the time Europeans reached the area, the evidence they left behind suggests a complex economy with trade routes from the Great Lakes all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. The picture that emerges from the lost civilization of the ancient American mound builder societies meshes with descriptions of Nephite culture in the Book of Mormon and from Joseph Smith’s personal insights from visions.

The truth is that the United States was not really founded on Christian principles at all. Though it could be and is argued by many that this is or at least was at some point, a Christian nation; that is simply not the case. If you want to, you may call it Christian. To me, it is Christ-Shun. What has passed for Christianity here was already so perverted by the time it reached America’s shores that it was a curse to everyone it touched. The Nephite nation was one that was more justly founded on Christian principles but it too fell into devastating cycles of corruption. Approximately 400 miles due west of the ancient site of the aforementioned Cahokia is the place where, presumably, The New Jerusalem will be built in these latter days. And so, it is possibly in that vicinity, where the Resurrected Jesus appeared to the survivors of a much earlier wave of destruction that swept over that same land. The Living Christ has, over all, been rejected more than accepted on this continent. Here we worship the Dead Christ. It brings to mind the words of English trader Thomas Morton upon surveying the scene in the New England woods.

“And the bones and skulls upon the several places of their habitations made such a spectacle that it seemed a new found Golgotha”

E א–D I G-E א Ø Ç – G E א–א Ø-Ç I D E

Genocide is a term invented by Raphael Lemkin in order to put a name to the horrible specter of mass murder that is perpetrated on a scale so huge that it tends to be overlooked, dismissed or disbelieved by the vast majority of humanity. It seems to monstrous to even deal with psychologically. But by putting a name on the demon, we gain power over it, like in the story of ‘Rumplestiltskin’. In sincerely seeking the Lord’s inspiration to come up with a word that would capture the essence of the sin and impress the seriousness of it on the minds of men, Lemkin succeeded, if only subconsciously, in literally capturing the spirit of the evil one himself. The new name, which Lemkin divined through ponderous prayer, revealed the underlying designs of the menace and contains a code that is only decipherable to the wise. If we are wise as serpents and harmless as doves we will discern and apply this knowledge to the service of the Lord. But if after having been shown, we to deny or downplay this truth – be warned – arrogance is not ignorance and neither arrogance nor ignorance is innocence. The separate syllables and the same sounds, which compose the word ‘genocide’ can be rearranged to closely match the phonetics of the word ‘indigenous’

Indigenous is a word we inherit from Latin ‘indigena’ meaning “sprung from the land,”

Aboriginal – from ab origine, literally, “from the beginning.”

Tribal societies in all four quarters of the earth are targeted by genocidal maniacs, possessed of Satan, simply because as residues of the original way, members of the tribes of the earth embody and maintain much of the potency rejected by the larger group. And this power has the potential to be manifested in more miraculous ways due to the compact purity that has come about due to millennia of pressure. They represent the remnant because no matter how small the residue of literal blood of Abraham, according to our definition, that may or may not flow through their veins, they hold true to the Original Spirit of humanity. Even when it comes to detectable DNA, the coveted Cohen Marker which they claim as a sure sign of priestly heritage is typically more prevalent in East Afrikans than in any Khazar or Ashkenaz group of Eastern Europe. If blood is thicker than water, then spirit is vastly more pure and therefore more powerful than both. God is less concerned with Semitism and more involved with sentiment. God is not checking you against some scale of ‘Coheness’ or ‘Choseness’. He has chosen to call everyone to the great work and it is up to us to accept that calling and choose Him in every moment. God does not allow Himself to be tied down by cult-sure and those who obsess over such things usually end up torturing most viciously, themselves in thought and the saints of God in both mind and body.

The etymological pairing of the Greek prefix –Geno– and Latin suffix –Cide– for a literal meaning of “killing a tribe” invokes a chilling perversion of the LDS Article of Faith #10, which states:

“We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.”

Do we believe in the annihilation of the Tribes of Israel? We would deny such a notion. But if we do not wish to support the killing of the tribes then why do we stand aside, look the other way and in some cases act as a willing party to such crimes? Perhaps we do not know how to recognize genocide. The devil has used man’s fear of confronting demons to narrowly define the word genocide in our minds and thereby distract them. Parading Hitler’s Holocaust is advantageous to Satan since one unfamiliar word will establish unfamiliarity with the other. Genocide and Holocaust are practically synonymous terms in our heads. How many give any thought to the fact that the word Holocaust means “Burnt Offering”? How can we say “Never again” if we don’t know what happened? Oh that’s right the battle cry is no longer “Never again” but “Never forget!” so the feeling, thought and strange fruit of genocide may continue indefinitely.

Genocide is – “the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group”

This seems quite straight forward. However, as mentioned earlier, the human tendency to do whatever possible to avoid the issue made it necessary to spell it out in greater detail. Legally defined, it is:

“Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

As LDS and as Americans, as members of modern society wherever we live, we have been guilty of every single one of these items listed in the official definition of genocide. The methods by which we have soiled our garments are sundry and were I to just rattle off a few or dive into the task of detailing the diverse ways we take part in these atrocities, neither approach would do much good. He who searches his soul will recognize that sincerity begins with sin and will reconcile with God.

Although God suffers genocide, God does not condone it. Does God’s intervention, somewhere before the point of total destruction is reached, save the victims and perpetrators of genocide alike? Yes, for He is perfect in both mercy and justice. But what does He save each party from respectively? The victimized group is obviously saved from their oppressors. What then are the aggressors are saved from? Is this process a simple dichotomy with justice served on one side and mercy on the other? The Book of Mormon tells us that mercy can not rob justice. (Alma 42:25)  If this is true then the converse is also. So both parties will receive equal parts mercy and justice. Now, what does mercy for the disinherited look like? What form will it take when delivered to the wicked? And as far as justice goes – “What man among you, having twelve sons…. saith unto the one: Be thou clothed in robes and sit thou here; and to the other: Be thou clothed in rags and sit thou there—and looketh upon his sons and saith I am just?” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:26) Why does the Lord commence this parable in the context of 12 Sons (Tribes of Israel), then proceed to mention only 2 (Ephraim & Manasseh), before finally following it up with an admonition to be 1? “If ye are not one ye are not mine.” (D&C 38:27)

To be one is to be complete and whole. Whether in whole or in part – genocide is genocide. Just as reward for righteousness is not withheld when we fall short in our performance, retribution for evil will not be stayed simply because we stop short of some imaginary line in the sand. Thank God, we are not judged for our actions any more than we are for our appearance. Actions are only appearances after all – the appearance or emergence of that which lay beneath the surface. Jesus said “by their fruits shall ye know them” and we often take this to mean that we are safe judging another by their actions or inaction. But Jesus wants us to look deeper than protocol so as to not be fooled by false fruit. He was speaking of the fruits of the spirit. The spirit in which a thing is done, not the action itself must be our indicator. This may seem a foreign concept to many. But herein hides the reason for all of our sin in the first place. Action is not the first place. Jesus tells us that thought precedes all action and this makes us guilty of the sin inwardly before and regardless of whether we ever commit it outwardly. Thought is no more the first place than is action. Feeling precedes thought. Feeling is a vague term to our minds and is still far from the throne of God. But the word feeling is close enough to the source for our purposes, because if we honestly seek to follow the word of the Lord and bridle our passions (Alma38:12) then we will eventually, through experimentation; (Alma34:4) position our selves properly so as to watch (Mosiah4:30) not only our words and thoughts but our feelings. No one who feels good and desires that good reign in his life will ever participate in genocide from any angle, plain and simple.

Adolph Hitler did not feel good inside. He was not a man who bridled his passions. He did venture inside himself but he did not think himself able to change his feeling from bad to good. So he remained an open portal for evil. As a whole, those who were forced into concentration camps did not feel and find good in their selves. Or if they did, they did not hold those good feelings sacred enough to honor above all else. They thought that holiness came as a result of monitoring action alone. They were observing ritual and not thought; much less feeling. Too ‘modest’ to approach the shining Throne of God situated high up on the mountain, they could feel zeal but not much else. Their moderation was not in all things, rather it was a mutation of modesty that left all revealing to a dead Moses while it reveled in the self righteousness of a limited view from within the shadow of the valley of death. The English word ‘martyr’, comes to us from Late Latin – martyros. Martyr literally means “witness,” probably related to mermera “care, trouble,” from mermairein “be anxious or thoughtful,” Modesty makes martyrs. Martyrs make mortar mixed with blood for the building up of the Kingdom of the Devil and the establishment of Traditional Thought. Adolph aligned himself with the swollen thought and deep feelings of millions and Nazis and Jews together hummed the same hymn of human sacrifice:

I prefer peace
Wouldn’t have to have one worldly possession
But essentially I’m an animal
So just what do I do with all the aggression?

Well I’ve tried
Everything but suicide
But it’s crossed my mind

Life is a one-way street, aint it? and if you could paint it
I’d draw myself going in the right direction
So I go all the way – like I really really know
But the truth is I’m only guessin’

And I’ve tried
Everything but suicide
Ooh but it’s crossed my mind
Just a thought

It’s even dark in the daytime
It’s not just good – it’s Great Depression
When I was lost I even found myself
Looking in the gun’s direction

And so I’ve tried
Everything but suicide
But yes – it’s crossed my mind

Just A Thought – Gnarls Barkley

The Root Cause of the Current Financial (Monetary) Crisis and Its Solution

Ever since I learned of the biblical prophecies—and later of the additional prophecies of the LDS—concerning these days in which we live, I’ve always wanted to be an observer of the affairs of men, watching the winding up scenes unfold before my eyes, without participating in the iniquities, frivolities and foolishness of men, nor in the judgments of God upon them.  However, I believe that the Lord wants more than this:

And now, as I spake concerning my servant Edward Partridge, this land is the land of his residence, and those whom he has appointed for his counselors; and also the land of the residence of him whom I have appointed to keep my storehouse; wherefore, let them bring their families to this land, as they shall counsel between themselves and me. For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.  Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; for the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.  But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.  (D&C 58: 24-29)

Notice that the Lord didn’t say we should be engaged in good causes (plural) but in a good cause (singular).  Many will interpret this passage to mean that we can be engaged in any cause that is good, but I believe that the Lord had reference to only one cause which is defined by Him as being good: the cause of Zion.

For thus saith the Lord God: Him have I inspired to move the cause of Zion in mighty power for good, and his diligence I know, and his prayers I have heard.  (D&C 21: 7)

Zion holds the solution to all of the world’s problems.  Zion is not just for the saints, but for all men and the time will come that many of the wicked will flee to it (see D&C 45: 68 and 133: 12) to escape the wrath of God and the judgments upon Babylon.  Every LDS, then, after escaping Babylon themselves, should also be helping others escape.  After all, as saints, we are supposed to be a light unto the world, setting an example of godliness to all those that view our good works, so that they can glorify God.

So, when I see the crisis happening on Wall Street and the $700 billion dollar solution our president is providing, I wonder what the latter-day saints will do.  Will we accept the solution provided us by our Gentile, Babylon-based government and be cast out as good-for-nothings?  Or will we provide the Zion solution and become the temporal saviors of men, even saviors upon Mount Zion?

For they were set to be a light unto the world, and to be the saviors of men; and inasmuch as they are not the saviors of men, they are as salt that has lost its savor, and is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.  (D&C 103: 9-10)

The Financial Crisis

By now everyone should be aware that there is a financial crisis happening in America.  It is no longer a question of whether bad financial times are upon us, but how bad they are and how long they will last.  The doomsayers predict a financial depression that will last many years and make the American Great Depression of the 1930’s seem like a walk in the park.  The optimists say we can ride this wave out because America is still dynamically very strong.

On everyone’s mind is both how to fix the situation and who will do the fixing.  Specifically, the question is, “Which presidential candidate, Obama or McCain, can fix it?” The two, major, political party candidates have become the saviors of men in the eyes of the masses who support them.

As an anarchist and a latter-day saint, my view is that government is usually the one that causes these problems to begin with, and therefore, should never be called upon to fix them, as it usually only ends up making things worse.  If there is a solution to our economic situation, it will come from the people themselves, working independent from the government.

But before a solution can be offered, the problem must be identified, not just the symptoms of it.

A financial crisis is a monetary crisis

A financial problem is a monetary problem, it usually being either that there isn’t enough money going around (deflation) or that there is too much money going around (inflation).  That seems to be simple enough to fix.  In deflation, you just print more money and circulate it.  In inflation, you just stop or slow down the printing presses and also destroy money that comes into your hands.  Yet, despite (more or less) being in control of the amount of money in circulation, by being in control of the printing presses, the Fed has failed to stabilize the economy, bringing us into the Great Depression of the 1930’s twenty years after it (the Fed) was created and now bringing us into an even greater depression known by some as the Global Systemic Crisis seventy-eight years after that.

So, owing that the Fed isn’t really doing the job we were told it was supposed to do (stabilizing the economy), maybe we ought to look a bit further and deeper and consider that the problem is not how much money is going around, but whether what is going around is actually money.

The Lord talked about money

In 17 of the revelations given to Joseph Smith, the Lord mentioned money.  Here are the specific scriptures: D&C 24: 18 given in July, 1830; D&C 48: 4 given in March 1831; D&C 51: 8, 11, 13 given in May, 1831; D&C 54: 7 given in June, 1831; D&C 56: 9-12 given in June, 1831; D&C 57: 6, 8 given on July 20, 1831; D&C 58: 35-36, 49, 51 given on August 1, 1831; D&C 60: 10 given on August 8, 1831; D&C 63: 40, 43, 46 given in August, 1831; D&C 69: 1 given in November, 1831; D&C 84: 89-90, 103-104 given on September 22 and 23, 1832; D&C 90: 28-29 given on March 8, 1833; D&C 101: 49, 56, 70, 72 given on December 16, 1833; D&C 103: 22-23 given on February 24, 1834; D&C 104: 26, 68, 84 given on April 23, 1834; D&C 105: 8, 30 given on June 22, 1834; and D&C 124: 70 given on January 19, 1841.

The above scriptures cover the time between July 1830 and January 19, 1841.  This means that whatever currency was used by these Americans during that time was considered by the Lord as actual money.

But what was money during the years 1830-1841?

The 1828 Noah Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language was the dictionary in use among Americans during this time and defined money in the following manner:

MONEY, n. plu. moneys.

1. Coin; stamped metal; any piece of metal, usually gold, silver or copper, stamped by public authority, and used as the medium of commerce. We sometimes give the name of money to other coined metals, and to any other material which rude nations use a medium of trade. But among modern commercial nations, gold, silver and copper are the only metals used for this purpose. Gold and silver, containing great value in small compass, and being therefore of easy conveyance, and being also durable and little liable to diminution by use, are the most convenient metals for coin or money, which is the representative of commodities of all kinds, of lands, and of every thing that is capable of being transferred in commerce.

2. Bank notes or bills of credit issued by authority, and exchangeable for coin or redeemable, are also called money; as such notes in modern times represent coin, and are used as a substitute for it. If a man pays in hand for goods in bank notes which are current, he is said to pay in ready money.

3. Wealth; affluence.

Money can neither open new avenues to pleasure, nor block up the passages of anguish.

(Money entry of the 1828 Noah Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language)

The Lord talked about talents

Within this same time period, the Lord also mentioned talents in two of the revelations given to Joseph Smith:

But with some I am not well pleased, for they will not open their mouths, but they hide the talent which I have given unto them, because of the fear of man.  Wo unto such, for mine anger is kindled against them.

Behold, they have been sent to preach my gospel among the congregations of the wicked; wherefore, I give unto them a commandment, thus: Thou shalt not idle away thy time, neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it may not be known.

(D&C 60: 2, 13; revelation received on August 8, 1831)

And all this for the benefit of the church of the living God, that every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord’s storehouse, to become the common property of the whole church—every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God.

(D&C 82: 18-19; revelation received on April 26, 1832)

But what is a talent?

TALENT (Lat. talentum, adaptation of Gr. τáλατον, balance, weight, from root ταλ-, to lift, as in τληναι, to bear, τáλας, enduring, cf. Lat. tollere, to lift, Skt. tulã, balance), the name of an ancient Greek unit of weight, the heaviest in use both for monetary purposes and for commodities (see Weights and Measures).  The weight itself was originally Babylonian, and derivatives were in use in Palestine, Syria and Egypt.  In medieval Latin and also in many Romanic languages the word was used figuratively, of will, inclination or desire, derived from the sense of balance, but the general figurative use for natural endowments or gifts, faculty, capacity or ability, is due to the parable of the talents in Matt. xxv.

(Talent entry of the 11th Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, published in 1910)

(See also the talent entry of the 1828 Noah Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language.  That entry explains: “Among the ancients, a weight, and a coin. The true value of the talent cannot well be ascertained, but it is known that it was different among different nations.“)

So, the talents mentioned in D&C 82: 18, which were “to be cast into the Lord’s storehouse, to become the common property of the whole church” could be a reference to money, specifically, a unit of weight used for monetary purposes.  But what American unit of weight used for monetary purposes was in use on April 26, 1831?

The Lord talked about dollars

In two of the revelations received by the Prophet, the Lord mentioned dollars:

Or in other words, if any man among you obtain five dollars let him cast them into the treasury; or if he obtain ten, or twenty, or fifty, or an hundred, let him do likewise; and let not any among you say that it is his own; for it shall not be called his, nor any part of it.

If it be five dollars, or if it be ten dollars, or twenty, or fifty, or a hundred, the treasurer shall give unto him the sum which he requires to help him in his stewardship—until he be found a transgressor, and it is manifest before the council of the order plainly that he is an unfaithful and an unwise steward.

(D&C 104: 69-70, 73-74; revelation received on April 23, 1834. See also the Book of Commandments XCVIII: 12, page 244, which used the word talents in stead of dollars.)

And they shall not receive less than fifty dollars for a share of stock in that house, and they shall be permitted to receive fifteen thousand dollars from any one man for stock in that house.  But they shall not be permitted to receive over fifteen thousand dollars stock from any one man.  And they shall not be permitted to receive under fifty dollars for a share of stock from any one man in that house.

Verily I say unto you, let my servant Joseph pay stock into their hands for the building of that house, as seemeth him good; but my servant Joseph cannot pay over fifteen thousand dollars stock in that house, nor under fifty dollars; neither can any other man, saith the Lord.

(D&C 124: 64-66, 72; revelation received on January 19, 1841.)

From the above it becomes plain that the words dollars and talents are interchangeable, meaning the same thing.

But what is a dollar?

DOLLAR, n. [G.] A silver coin of Spain and of the United States, of the value of one hundred cents, or four shillings and sixpence sterling. The dollar seems to have been originally a German coin, and in different parts of Germany, the name is given to coins of different values.

(Dollar entry of the 1828 Noah Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language)

DOLLAR, a silver coin at one time current in many European countries, and adopted under varying forms of the name elsewhere. The word “dollar” is a modified form of thaler, which, with the variant forms (daler, dalar, daalder, tallero, &c.), is said to be a shortened form of Joachimsthaler. This Joachimsthaler was the name given to a coin intended to be the silver equivalent of the gold gulden, a coin current in Germany from the 14th century. In 1516 a rich silver mine was discovered in Joachimsthal (Joachim’s dale), a mining district of Bohemia, and the count of Schlitz, by whom it was appropriated, caused a great number of silver coins to be struck (the first having the date 1518), bearing an effigy of St Joachim, hence the name. The Joachimsthaler was also sometimes known as the Schlickenthaler. The first use of the word dollar in English was as applied to this silver coin, the thaler, which was current in Germany at various values from the 16th century onwards, as well as, more particularly, to the unit of the German monetary union from 1857 to 1873, when the mark was substituted for the thaler. The Spanish piece-of-eight (reals) was also commonly referred to as a dollar. When the Bank of England suspended cash payments in 1797, and the scarcity of coin was very great, a large number of these Spanish coins, which were held by the bank, were put into circulation, after having been countermarked at the Mint with a small oval bust of George III., such as was used by the Goldsmiths’ Company for marking plate. Others were simply overstamped with the initials G.R. enclosed in a shield.  In 1804 the Maundy penny head set in an octagonal compartment was employed. Several millions of these coins were issued. These Spanish pieces-of-eight were also current in the Spanish-American colonies, and were very largely used in the British North American colonies. As the reckoning was by pounds, shillings and pence in the British-American colonies, great inconveniences naturally arose, but these were to some extent lessened by the adoption of a tariff list, by which the various gold and silver coins circulating were rated. In 1787 the dollar was introduced as the unit in the United States, and it has remained as the standard of value either in silver or gold in that country. For the history of the various changes in the weights and value of the coin see Numismatics.  The Spanish piece-of-eight was also the ancestor of the Mexican dollar, the Newfoundland dollar, the British dollar circulating in Hong Kong and the Straits Settlements, and the dollar of the South American republics, although many of them are now dollars only in name.

(Dollar entry of the 11th Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, published in 1910)

The American Dollar is a Silver Coin

This may come as a surprise to many LDS (and Americans), but nowadays we don’t use American dollars, which is a quantity of silver, usually coined for ease of use.  What we use today are Federal Reserve Notes, otherwise known as fiat currency.  In all of the modern revelations quoted above, whenever the Lord was referring to money or talents or dollars, He was referring to the commodity currency then in use, specifically, a quantity of (usually coined) silver.

Silver is the only legal, American money

Douglas V. Gnazzo of the Honest Money Gold and Silver Report web site wrote an excellent article entitled Honest Money and published in 6 parts, in which he went over the history of American legal currency.  In it, Douglas explained that a “dollar” is defined both by the Constitution and by the Original Coinage Act of 1792 as being a specific quantity of silver, namely, 371.25 grains of silver.  This legal definition has never been changed, meaning that what we are currently calling a “dollar” is not real American currency.  To read the entire Honest Money article, click the following links:

Honest Money, Part I: The Constitution and Honest Money

Honest Money, Part II: Silver Standard with a Bimetallic Coinage System

Honest Money, Part III: Coinage Acts of 1834-1900

Honest Money, Part IV: Treasury Notes

Honest Money, Part V: History of American Money and Banking

Honest Money, Part VI: The European Connection

Honest Money, Part VII: The Moneychangers – Secrets of the Temple

Honest Money, Part VIII: Final Summary and Conclusions

You will recall, for example, that Congress has power to “coin money.”  It doesn’t have power to “make money” or to “print money,” but merely to coin it.  The money referred to in the U. S. Constitution is silver, thus, a power to coin money is a power to coin silver.  The two phrases are synonymous.  In fact, in many Latin American countries the word for money is plata, which is the word for silver. We can see from this that the Spanish milled dollar, which is what our American dollar is based upon, has had influence in many countries.

Fiat Currency, Fractional Reserve Banking and Usury is the Problem

Like evil bedfellows, fractional reserve banking and usury almost always accompany a fiat currency.  (See the above Honest Money article for an explanation about these banking practices and why they are so evil.)  Usury is condemned in the scriptures (both ours and others’ scriptures) and religions past and present have spoken against it as a great evil.  However, all three principles have been generally accepted among today’s society and even among most Latter-day Saints.  In fact, even in the church we find usury among ourselves (e.g. Perpetual Education Fund), though many do not consider it so as they interpret usury to mean excessive interest and not just any interest.

Notice that the current financial problem has nothing to do with regulation (or lack thereof) of the banking institutions by the government.  As long as a currency is metal-based, society naturally regulates itself without any need of government intervention, eliminating the practice of usury and making sure that only full-reserve banking occurs.  So, the roots of the financial crisis go deeper than mere de/un/regulation.  They go all the way to the currency itself, for fiat currency will always result in financial instability and prosperity for the few at the expense of the many.  This is a long way off from the Zion ideal of all having all things common.

Commodity Currency is the Solution

The use of metals as money has historical precedent and is the surest foundation upon which to build.  The following is part of the money entry of the 11th Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, published in 1910:

The Metals as Money. Reasons for their Adoption. Superiority of Silver and Gold. – The employment of metals as money material can be traced far back in the history of civilization; but as it is impossible to determine the exact order of their appearance in this capacity, it will be convenient to take them in the order of their value, beginning with the lowest.  Iron – to judge from the statement of Aristotle – was widely used as currency. One remarkable instance is the Spartan money, which was clearly a survival of a form that had died out among the other Greek states; though it has often been attributed to ascetic policy. In conjunction with copper,  iron formed one of the constituents of early Chinese currency, and at a later time was used as a subsidiary coinage in Japan.  Iron spikes are used as money in Central Africa, while Adam Smith notes the employment of nails for the same purpose in Scotland.  Lead has served as money, e.g. in Burma.  The use of copper as money has been more extensive than is the case in respect to the metals just mentioned. It, as stated, was used in China along with iron – an early instance of bimetallism – and it figured in the first Hebrew coins. It was the sole Roman coinage down to 269 B.C. and it has lingered on to a comparatively recent date in the backward European currencies. It even survives as a part of the token coinage of the present.  Tin has not been a favourite material for money: the richness of the Cornish mines accounts for its use by some British kings. Silver holds a more prominent place than any of the preceding metals. Down to the close of the 18th century it was the chief form of money, and often looked on as forming the necessary standard substance. It was the principal Greek money material, and was introduced at Rome in 269 B.C. The currencies of medieval Europe had silver as their leading constituent; while down almost to the present day Eastern countries seemed to prefer silver to gold.

The pre-eminence of gold as money is now beyond dispute; there, is, however, some difficulty in discovering its earliest employment. It is, perhaps, to be found in ” the pictures of the ancient Egyptians weighing in scales heaps of rings of gold and silver. ” According to W. Ridgeway’s ingenious theory gold comes into use as a currency in due equation to the older cattle unit, the ox. It was certainly employed by the great Eastern monarchs; its further development will be considered later on. Metals of modern discovery – such as nickel and platinum – are only used by the fancy of a few governments, though the former makes a good token coinage.

The preceding examination of the varied materials of currency, metallic and non-metallic, suggests some conclusions respecting the course of monetary evolution, viz.: (I) that the metals tend to supersede all other forms of money among progressive communities; and (2) that the more valuable metals displace the less valuable ones. The explanation of these movements is found in the qualities that are specially desirable in the articles used for money. There has been a long process of selection and elimination in the course of monetary history.

First, it is plain that nothing can serve as money which has not the attributes of wealth; i.e. unless it is useful, transferable and limited in supply. As these conditions are essential to the existence of value, the instrument for measuring and transferring values must possess them. A second requisite of great effect is the amount of value in proportion to weight or mass. High value in small bulk gives the quality of portability, want of which has been a fatal obstacle to the continued use of many early forms of money. Skins, corn and tobacco were defective in this quality, and so were iron and copper. Sheep and oxen, though technically described as ” self-moving,” are expensive to transport from place to place. That the material of money shall be the same throughout, so that one unit shall be equal in value to another, is a further desideratum, which is as decidedly lacking in cattle-currency as it is prominent in the metals. It is, further, desirable that the substance used as money shall be capable of being divided without loss of value, and, if needed, of being reunited. Most of the articles used in primitive societies – such as eggs, skins and cattle – fail in this quality. Money should also be durable, a requirement which leads to the exclusion of all animal and most vegetable substances from the class of suitable currency materials. To be easily recognized is another very desirable quality in money, and moreover to be recognized as of a given value. Articles otherwise well fitted for money-use, e.g. precious stones, suffer through the difficulty of estimating their value. Finally, it results from the function of money as a standard of value that it should alter in its own value as little as possible. Complete fixity of value is from the nature of things unattainable; but the nearest approximation that can be secured is desirable. In early societies this quality is not of great importance; for future obligations are few and inconsiderable. With the growth of industry and commerce and the expansion of the system of contracts, covering a distant future, the evil effects of a shifting standard of value attract attention, and lead to the suggestion of ingenious devices to correct fluctuations. These belong to the later history of money and currency movements. It is enough for the ordinary purposes of money that it shall not alter within short periods, which is a characteristic of the more valuable metals, and particularly of silver and gold, while in contrast such an article as corn changes considerably in value from year to year.

From the foregoing examination of the requisites desirable in the material of money it is easy to deduce the empirical laws which the history of money discloses, since metals, as compared with non-metallic substances, evidently possess those requisites in a great degree. They are all durable, homogeneous, divisible and recognizable, and in virtue of these superior advantages they are the only substances now used for money by advanced nations. Nor is the case different when the decision has to be made between the different metals. Iron has been rejected because of its low value and its liability to rust, lead from its extreme softness, and tin from its tendency to break. All these metals, as well as copper, are unsuitable from their low value, which hinders their speedy transmission so as to adjust inequalities of local prices.

The elimination of the cheaper metals leaves silver and gold as the only suitable materials for forming the principal currency. Of late years there has been a very decided movement towards the adoption of the latter as the sole monetary standard, silver being regarded as suitable only for a subsidiary coinage. The special features of gold and silver which render them the most suitable materials for currency may here be noted.  “The value of these metals changes only by slow degrees; they are readily divisible into any number of parts which may be reunited by means of fusion without loss; they do not deteriorate by being kept; their firm and compact texture makes them difficult to wear; their cost of production, especially of gold, is so considerable that they possess great value in small bulk, and can of course be transported with comparative facility; and their identity is perfect.” The possession by both these metals of all the qualities needed in money is more briefly but forcibly put by Cantillon when he says that “gold and silver alone are of small volume, of equal goodness, easy of transport, divisible without loss, easily guarded, beautiful and brilliant and durable almost to eternity.” This view has even been pushed to an extreme form in the proposition of Turgot, that they became universal money by the nature and force of things, independently of all convention and law, from which the deduction has been drawn that to proscribe silver by law from being used as money is a violation of the nature of things.

(An excerpt from the money entry of the 11th Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, published in 1910)

So, when the Lord told the kings of the earth and the saints to bring their gold and silver to Zion, He was referring to commodity money, as that was the commodity money of the time.  (See D&C 124: 11, 26 and 111: 4.)  Have we complied?  Do we contribute commodity money to the cause of Zion, or do we contribute fiat money?

We need a private, LDS, commodity-based (gold and silver) currency

I am among those who believe that we are currently witnessing the beginning of the eventual (and planned) break-up of the United States of America.  We may also soon witness a corresponding break-up of the Church.  Regardless of what happens, though, the prophecies must be fulfilled, which means that when we cast our talents “into the Lord’s storehouse, to become the common property of the whole church”, upon living the law of consecration, we will be casting in commodity money, specifically, gold and silver money, and not fiat money.

In anticipation of the complete break-up of the USA, the total devaluation of our current fiat currency, the attempted introduction of another currency and another type of government, even regional government, and, after all these (and other) tribulations, the cleansing of the church and the establishment of the law of consecration, we ought to be pro-actively engaged in the good cause of Zion.

Zion needs a currency, independent of the governments of the world, meaning that it must be a private currency.  As private currencies are legal in this country, there is nothing to stop the LDS from creating one.  To get us started in that direction, in the Establishment of Zion Think Tank Forum I gave some examples of what can be used as this private, LDS currency.

The corporate Church won’t do it

Many members wait for Salt Lake to issue the instructions, but the Lord has already told us that “it is not meet that I should command in all things.”  Besides, I have reason to believe that the dissolution of the corporate Church is on the horizon.  So, if a silver and gold-based commodity currency is to be had again among the saints, in fulfillment of prophecy, the saints themselves must be the ones to create it.  Such a currency would not only stabilize all LDS communities who use it among themselves, but would also allow non-LDS to escape the financial wrath of God upon all those who transact in fiat currency.

A side benefit

Having a private, LDS, precious metals-based currency will also allow those using it to get around the mark of the beast prophesied by John in the Book of Revelations.  (See Rev. 13: 16-18; Rev. 14: 9-12; Rev. 19: 20; and Rev. 20: 4-6.)

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