9/11 Holidays

September the 11th, is a day that means different things for different people. For some it is the date when evil terrorists attacked the freedoms of Americans; for others is is a day when Islamic extremists flew planes into the twin towers. Some people feel we should remember those who have died “defending our freedoms” and remember the beautiful “freedoms” we have in God’s One True Nation®. Others feel we should remember those innocent people who have died because of the unholy wars brought about by a greedy and power hungry elite.

But for me September 11th means something else. To me it means…

 

it means…

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZO-MA-RAH!

That’s right, it is the 1st birthday of the Zo-ma-rah: Pure News blog.

Instead of getting all sappy and reliving past moments I’ve had during the first year of my blog I thought I would give my readers a preview of some of the posts that I’m working on. I don’t mean to copy Rock and one of his recent posts about his upcoming articles. But the post I’m working on right now isn’t finished yet and I wanted to do something for the blog’s birthday. I could have incorporated and then Zo-ma-rah would have legally become a person, but I decided not to.

I’m sure all my readers, all ten of you, are excited to see what I have coming up. Ok, well maybe not excited, maybe…slightly interested. If not slightly interested then apathetically aware. So here is what I have coming up for all of you who are apathetically aware of my blog:

The next post I’ll most likely publish will be a comparison of ancient Christian practices verses those of the apostate Christian Church. Then I will make a comparison between the restored church’s practices and the L-DS Church’s practices. After that there will be an overall comparison of the two churches and their movements away from their roots. It will conclude with some ideas for what we can do today to bring our personal and group worship back to its foundations.

Shortly after that post there will be a post about women and the priesthood. And if my current hypothesis holds out the conclusion may surprise you.

Hey, you try and search for Armies of Israel and see if you don't get inundated with "Hot Israeli Army girlz"

Another post will be about reorganizing the Armies of Israel; how this will relate to building Zion; and how it fits with the command to publish peace. A peaceful army?

I’m also going to do some posts about the City of Zion and the various Stakes of Zion. Each will come with downloadable maps and possible CG images of the cities.

There will be posts about the temple in Zion, the Nauvoo Temple, the Third Temple in Jerusalem, and possibly the Voree temple. Each will come with CG image walkthroughs of the respective temples.

I’ll probably have a couple more posts on what we was individuals and groups can do to function as the church in the midst of corporate churches.

I’m going to continue my “From the Dust” series with some posts about the Book of Enoch and the Book of the Law of the Lord

I may even do some posts reconstructing ancient artifacts relevant to church history. Like the golden plates, the translators, the breast plate, sword of Laban, Ark of the Covenant, etc.

You might get a post about the Chronicle Project and their translation of the Bible. And if I do that one I’ll also be doing an analysis of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers.

And don’t forget the annual Plural Marriage month coming up this October.

So keep watching the blog for more stuff. Hopefully some of that sounded exciting. And who knows, I might wind up writing another controversial post or two that will get me called into the bishops office. Also I have sixty-four previous posts that are still open for discussion if you like.

Thanks to all my readers and your great comments. You guys really make me think and bring up information I often haven’t found or considered before.

Happy Birthday Zo-ma-rah!

Prophecy and Paradigm

A few months ago I made a post where I examined the claim that Thomas Spencer Monson was a prophet. Foolishly I hadn’t realized how much of a hot button this would be. But regardless(and perhaps foolishly), I’m going to examine this topic again. However I’m going to look at it in a more general fashion.

There were a few things that happened after I wrote my Thomas S. Monson post that made me think about the stance I had taken. The biggest one was a member of the previous ward that I attended spoke of an instance where a General Authority of the Church was organizing a new stake in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in Canada. Instead of organizing just one stake this leader was inspired to organize two stakes. Years later having both of those stakes allowed for growth of the Church in that area.

So was I wrong to have stated that Thomas S. Monson and other general authorities are not Prophets, Seers, and Revelators? If yes, then why do they not produce written revelations? If no, then how can they still receive inspiration, as demonstrated above? One thing is for sure is that I overlooked one importance facet of prophethood. In this write up I intend to examine this facet, and again re-examine the prophetic claims of leadership within the corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We learn some important information in the Book of Revelation.

Revelation 19:10:

10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Any person who has the testimony of Jesus has the spirit of prophecy. Joseph Smith confirmed this when writing a Question and Answer about the church.

The question was, “Do you believe Joseph Smith, Jun., to be a Prophet?“

The answer Joseph Smith wrote was, “Yes, and every other man who has the testimony of Jesus. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.–Revelation, 19:10th verse.”

So does President Thomas S. Monson have a testimony of Jesus Christ? If so, then, Yes, he is prophet. Do other General Authorities have a testimony of Jesus? If so, then, Yes, they are prophets too. Does your bishop or other local leader have testimony of Christ? If so, then they are also prophets. Do you have a testimony of Christ? If so, then YOU are also prophet in the exact same fashion as any leader.

The problem is the prophet worship we have in the world today. Perhaps, “Prophet worship” might be too harsh of words. Regardless, there are many people today teaching that there is only one prophet on the earth at any time. This is incorrect as we have seen through Joseph Smith’s teachings and Revelation 19:10.

People are also taught to believe that THE prophet can never lead us astray. First of all there is never only one prophet at a time to thus qualify as “THE” prophet. Second, the prophet never leading the Church astray idea originated with Wilford Woodruff, in his pretentious rejection of Plural Marriage*.

Joseph Smith rejected the notion that a man could never lead the church astray. Even Brigham Young, surprisingly, rejected the same notion. The scriptures all together reject this apostate idea as false(1 Kings 22:21-23; Deuteronomy 13:1-4). I call this idea apostate because it is the exact same one that exists in the Catholic Church. Human beings are imperfect and fallible. Just because somebody gains a high corporate title does not mean that their decisions and statements are suddenly impervious to imperfection and error.

So we have learned two things thus far: First, that anyone who has a testimony of Christ is a prophet. And second prophets(since anyone with a testimony of Christ is one) are not perfect and can in fact lead people astray. We will come back to this second point later.

One of the biggest problems people have, including myself at one point, with the idea that there can be many prophets, is the thought of the disorder that must surely come with such an arrangement. If you are reading this and a faithful member of the L-DS Church, then probably this thought has already crossed your mind. Come on be honest.

And it’s true, this idea is ingrained into every L-DS members since their youth or conversion. There can only be one prophet leading. If there were more than one it would create disorder. I can witness that this is the case. Just last Sunday our Sunday School teacher spoke about he knows that the Church is true because there is only one prophet leading the Church. This is because God is a God of order, thus inferring that if there were more than one prophet then it would create disorder.

However, this concept is NOT what we are taught in the scriptures.

Numbers 11:24-28

24 And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the Lord, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle.

25 And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders; and it came to pass, that, when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.

26 But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad; and the Spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle; and they prophesied in the camp.

27 And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.

28 And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.

Here we read an interesting occurrence. Moses had gathered men to the tabernacle. They began prophesying. But low and behold what happened. There were these two ordinary guys in the camp, they were not part of those seventy leaders, yet they started going around “prophesying.” Aren’t the leaders of the Church the only ones who can do that? The Israelites seems to have had a similar idea, since one of the men named Joshua told Moses that he should forbid these two guys from prophesying.

I’m going to be honest too, it does make sense. Rationally if more than one person claims to speak for God it would be confusing. It would seem to make much more sense to only have one person speak for God. Then everything that one person says would be in harmony(we would hope).

So if Brother Joe B. Low gets up in sacrament meeting and starts prophesying he should be forbidden. After all, only the leaders of the Church can prophesy or give revelations.

Imagine, if you will, what President Monson, one of the Twelve, a Seventy, or even a Bishop would do if some people went around the Church prophesying outside of official channels. For me, I imagine that they would have a similar reaction to Joshua. They would want to forbid him, or at least call him into the Bishops office after sacrament meeting.

However pay close attention to what Moses did:

Numbers 11:29

29 And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them.

Moses basically said, “You’re jealous for me?” He was essentially saying, “Do you think I care if these guys are prophesying?” The fact is, that Moses didn’t care that others besides the leaders were prophesying. Moses even went on to say that God wants ALL the lord’s people to prophesy.

So if we went back in time, and asked Moses if God’s form of order was that only on leader should speak for God, we can assume his answer would be not only, “No,” but, “Heck, NO!” Moses helps us realize that prophecy is not a gift limited to one man who is a leader. Rather it is a gift that can occur in any person when the Spirit comes upon them. And that it is God’s will that this gift come upon ALL His people.

As we can see, this again reinforces the idea of not only more than one prophet, but the common membership being prophets.

Moses understood that the Lord wants ALL His people to be prophets. Not just one leader. God wants a people of prophets. The idea that it is the Lord’s will for one man to sit on top and dictate prophecy and revelation while everyone else follows what that man says is a false one. We must each develop a close personal bond with Jesus Christ. We must be our own prophets. We cannot rely on the words of other men. The iron rod is the Word of God, not the words of some corporate leaders in a, dare I say, Great and Spacious Building.

In 1 Corinthians 14 we again learn the same thing:

1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.

5 I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied; for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.

24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all;

25 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.

We should be desiring to prophecy. Additionally, the prophesying of the common membership is one way to help bring people to Christ and help convince them of the truthfulness of the gospel.

But again, we are stuck with the mass confusion that such a system would create. If every member of the church is giving different prophecies and revelations then the Church would be thrown into chaos! It appears much more logical, and easy, for us to listen twice a year at general conference to fifteen men who speak for God and whose prophecies and revelations never contradict.

However this is not so. In addition to other resources 1 Corinthians 14 also gives us instruction on how to handle the common prophet system.

We read:

26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

Here the same question is asked. Just how is such a thing done?

29 Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.

When the prophets, that is, the average ward member, prophecy there should be one who sits and judges what they say. That might even be applied to say that each member judges for themselves.

30 If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace.

31 For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.

Everyone must take their turn when prophesying in meetings.

32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.

33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

The meaning of the “spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” means that any true prophecy cannot contradict a previous true prophecy given by any other prophet. Joseph Smith likewise confirmed this when he taught that a true revelation will not contradict a previous one.

However, instead of understanding this chapter, people look at verse 33 and think that supports the idea that there is only one prophet at a time. Yet this verse is directly supporting the idea that there can be order even when every member of the church is a prophet.

36 What! came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?

The word of God does not only come to one leader. This verse, to me at least(and I may be interpreting it wrong), seems to be expressing dismay at the idea that the word of God would only come to one person.

37 If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.

38 But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.

39 Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.

40 Let all things be done decently and in order.

Again we are told in this chapter to “covet prophesy.” When was that last time you actually wanted to be a prophet and give revelations? The scriptures teach us that this is something that we should be doing. I don’t think that God will give us the gift of prophecy if we are unwilling to accept it.

Thus far we have seen two opposing ideas:

One Prophet	Many Prophets
There is only one prophet on the earth at a time.	All, most, or many of God’s people are prophets.
God speaks to him and he teaches God’s word.	God speaks to all people according to their gifts.
The people listen and obey.	All people listen to the words of others, they use the Spirit to determine what is true.
Requires little effort on the part of the listener.	Requires extensive effort on the part of the listener.

While the “One Prophet” system may sound very logical and easy, those are precisely the reasons why it is not the correct system.

1 Corinthians 1:27

27 For God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

Many prophets at once, sounds illogical, and foolish. It sounds like confusion. Yet, God does not always use what is logical according to men.

God, also, does not want an idle people.

Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-28

26 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.

27 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;

28 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.

The “One Prophet” system would have us believe that it is our leaders’ “province to teach to the Church what the doctrine is. It is [our] province to echo what [they] say or to remain silent.”** We must follow all “official church policies” regardless if they align with the scriptures or not.

However the scriptures teach that as long as we do good and work to bring to pass righteousness then we will not lose our reward. It doesn’t matter if we are inline with a Church program or policy so long as we are engaged in a good cause and do it of our own free will.

There are, Sections in the Doctrine and Covenants which state that only Joseph Smith may receive revelations for the whole church. There are a couple ways we can address these scriptures. One way is that they only applied to Joseph Smith, Jr. Another way is that revelations(revelator) are different than prophecies(Prophet). I also find it interesting that Joseph Smith organized the Anointed Quorum to be able to hear revelations from any member and accept them for presentation to the whole church. The Anointed Quorum was an actual quorum of members who had received their Nauvoo Endowment. It was not just a generic group of endowed members. I’d like to hear more thoughts on the idea.

Furthermore, how do we square the multiple prophet system with the principle of having a President of the Church? Well let’s looks at a scripture pertaining to the duties of the President of the Church.

Doctrine and Covenants 107:91

91 And again, the duty of the President of the office of the High Priesthood is to preside over the whole church, and to be like unto Moses

Yes, the President of the church does play an important role. They are to preside over the church, which in God’s terms means to serve the whole church. Their duty is not to be supreme infallible dictator. Additionally according to section 107 the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve, Quorum of the Seventy, High Council of Zion, and the combined High Councils of all of the Stakes of Zion, all are equal in authority.

Additionally you’ll notice it said the President’s duty is to be like unto Moses. As we read earlier it was Moses who didn’t reject the general membership from prophesying. It was also Moses who said that God wanted all His people to be prophets.

I don’t want you to think that I advocate rejecting Thomas S. Monson as a prophet. If Thomas Monson has a testimony of Christ then he is a prophet. It would be wrong to reject the words of a prophet. However just as with any prophet, we must examine their words and determine if they square with what is taught in the Scriptures. Those words they speak that do align with scripture then we accept them. Those words that don’t we are duty bound as children of God to reject them. As discussed earlier this is were he must be weary of a fallible human leading people astray.

According to Their Idols

One problem we may encounter is when true revelation given to someone regarding incorrect ideas. As in the example I gave at the beginning a General Authority received real revelation about organizing stakes. However the problem is that the organization of stakes in the L-DS Church today runs contrary to how they are supposed to be established in scripture. How then, can real revelation be received?

The reason is given to us in Ezekiel 14:1-6

1 Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.

2 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face; should I be inquired of at all by them?

4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the Lord will answer him that cometh, according to the multitude of his idols;

5 That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.

6 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

When we set idols up before ourselves, God will answer us according to those idol. While a stake may be organized by revelation, that does not mean that the organization of the stake has been done as God wants it. It just means that God is speaking to that person through their idols.

Another example could be the Church Handbook of Instruction. I’m sure there are many Bishops and even regular members out there who have received true revelation from God regarding something concerning the Church Handbook of Instruction. This is real revelation. The problem is that instead of following God’s Word in the scriptures, we have set up the Church Handbook of Instruction as an idol in our hearts. Therefor God will inspire us according to that idol.

However, even though the CHI may have some good instruction, it may even have some wise council, and people probably have had positive experiences with it; we have been commanded to turn from our idols. When we obey teachings, books, manuals, magazines, and cultural practices that run contrary to scripture and the words of the prophets, we are setting those things up as idols before us. We are commanded by God to reject them.

As we begin ridding our lives of idols(and for me this is quite a task) the Spirit can teach us more freely. One week we maybe be quietly enjoying the Spirit, while partaking of a sacrament administered by priests while elders are present. But the next, the Lord might withdraw His Spirit from that same sacrament because now we understand that the sacrament cannot be properly administered by priests if elders are present.

There’s one example of something taught today that is not correct the, administration of the Sacrament. Let’s look at some others(the problem is most messages today are not specifically declared as revelation or prophecy):

Tithing

The Gospel Principles manual teaches that Tithing is paying one-tenth of our income. However Doctrine and Covenants Section 119 gives us a different story. Only after we consecrate all of our property to the Bishop can we begin to pay tithing. Tithing itself being ten percent of our excess property after one year. This means that after one year everything that is left over after our expenditures is consecrated to the Bishop. Ten percent of THAT, our interest, is given as tithing.

However tithing has an additional definition. Prior to Section 119 tithing referred to any offering. So you can still pay tithing as an offering but there is no requirement of ten percent. The ten percent definition of tithing can ONLY be lived as part of the Law of Consecration. Think of that next time you fill out a tithing slip; or go for a temple recommend and you are asked if you pay a full and honest tithe. The answer is you can’t because we are not living the Law of Consecration.

Word of Wisdom

Gospel Principles Chapter 29 teaches that “We must obey the Word of Wisdom to be worthy to enter the temple. If we do not obey the Word of Wisdom, the Lord’s Spirit withdraws from us.”

However in Doctrine and Covenants 89 teaches us something different. Verse 2 states that the revelation is, “to be sent greeting; not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom.” The Word of Wisdom cannot be a commandment because in the original revelation is says it is not to be sent by commandment. Anyone who teaches that the Word of Wisdom is a commandment is not in harmony with the scriptures and is preaching false teachings.

Matthew 15:11 teaches that “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.” This is why section 89 is not a commandments but a word of wisdom.
Additionally the Word of Wisdom allows for drinking wine for the sacrament*** and also for drinking beer****.

Gathering Israel

Gospel Principles Chapter 42 says, “The Israelites are to be gathered spiritually first and then physically. They are gathered spiritually as they join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and make and keep sacred covenants. This spiritual gathering began during the time of the Prophet Joseph Smith and continues today all over the world. Converts to the Church are Israelites either by blood or adoption.”

This is not correct. There is no such thing as being gathered spiritually first. Saying that the spiritual gathering began with Joseph Smith is, to be frank, an outright lie! Joseph Smith firmly believed in a literal physical gathering. That is why converts from all over the world got on boats and came here to North America. To say it was a Spiritual gathering is an insult to the sacrifices of those ho came before us. They were literally gathering Israel. That is why the Saints as a whole moved from place to place establishing cities.

Doctrine and Covenants 133:12, 13 says:

12 Let them, therefore, who are among the Gentiles flee unto Zion.

13 And let them who be of Judah flee unto Jerusalem, unto the mountains of the Lord’s house.

In the gathering the gentiles are to be gathered to Zion and the Jews are to be gathered to Jerusalem. If the gathering is spiritual, and Zion symbolically means becoming a member of the Church, then what does Jerusalem symbolically mean for the Jews? The Jewish religion? Are we really to believe that our missionaries to be recruiting for the Jewish religion as well?

The gathering is very literal. It has never been revoked by God. Anyone who preaches otherwise is not teaching in line with the scriptures.

Correct Teachings

The leaders of the Church do teach many correct things as well. They teach us to love our families. They teach us to be Charitable to our fellow beings.

President Monson gave a message for August 2011 it included this:

“To you who are parents, I say, show love to your children. You know you love them, but make certain they know it as well. They are so precious. Let them know. Call upon our Heavenly Father for help as you care for their needs each day and as you deal with the challenges which inevitably come with parenthood. You need more than your own wisdom in rearing them.”

There are many other good teachings in the Church. But at the same time there are many things the we should be cautious of. As we make the scriptures part of our lives we must use them to determine correct principles. We must reject those teachings that run contrary to the scriptures and the words of the prophets.

Conclusion and Invitation

I hope this write up was helpful in expounding upon the multiple prophet system. God truly does want a people of prophets. We must overcome the temptation to be thankful for “our living prophet,” rather we should be thankful for “living prophets.” We need to look around and find those who prophecy for God. And believe me there are many. We must examine the claims of the prophets and reject that which is false, but also accept that which is true.

There is no such thing as “official channels” for God. If God wants to give a prophecy through your next door neighbor He will. We become a lazy, slothful, idle, and idolatrous people when we think we can listen to the words of fifteen men and be assured that what they say is God’s will. It is idleness! It is laziness! Have any of you read the revelations of James Strang? What about Joseph Smith III, the Prophet’s son? Have you read the Second Book of Commandments? What about Christopher Nemelka? There’s even the Mentinah archives, a record of the descendants of Hagoth. Have you even bothered to search and examine these things? Some may be true some may be not.

Do you only have time to listen to General Conference or read the Ensign? Or will you “treasure up in your minds continually the words of life” and SEEK after everything that is virtuous, lovely, of good report, and/or praiseworthy? Seek doesn’t mean wait for it to be handed to you over the television, or in a magazine twice a year. It means to go out and search these things out.

I want to invite everyone who reads this, yes even you people who may be reading this offline, to come here to my blog. I want to hear your comments and ideas. I’m an imperfect person, my ideas and write ups are not perfect. There is a comment section underneath every post, it is very easy to use. The address you will need to go to is http://zomarah.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/prophecy-and-paradigm. I don’t censor anybody’s comments(unless it’s spam). Even if you are in complete opposition to what I wrote feel free to make your voice heard. Rest assured you will probably bring up something I hadn’t considered before or give me something to think about.

Let’s examine the teachings of not only the Church, but of anybody. Let’s find out what is being taught that is in line with the scriptures. Please, I want to hear your opinions I really do.

I hope this post hasn’t been as hot button pushing as my previous one. But at the same time I hope it has given you something to consider. Something to research, and ponder, and pray about. If you ask me, if I believe that Thomas Monson is a Prophet, my answer will be, “’Yes, and every other man who has the testimony of Jesus. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’”

References for Offline Readers

* Official Declaration 1 (http://lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/od/1?lang=eng )

** Bruce R. McConkie

*** D&C 89:5

5 That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him.

**** D&C 89:17

17 Nevertheless, wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the field, and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks, as also other grain.

Monogamy for the ben[e]fit of women?

I found this post here and just had to copy it to my blog. It’s pretty good and it brought up some ideas I hadn’t considered before.

Probably the most irritating thing to me when I read about things against polygamy is the constant assumption that monogamy is better for women or somehow in womens best interests. Are people really so naive to think that monogamy and womens lib went hand in hand or had anything to do with each other? Monogamy was not implemented for the benefit of women, why is there so much talk as if it was? Weather we trace it to Roman Law to prevent too many full citizens or popular early gnosticism that viewed sex and marriage as of the devil or slightly better than hellfire we don’t have a woman friendly policy.

In the 300′s we see monogamy mandated for clergy. In the 600′s we have it for everyone, and in the same century we have the view that women are not even to touch the altar and that the Eucharist was too holy to be touched by a woman’s bare hands, she had to wear white linen gloves. We hardly have time where monogamy would be established for womens sake. Even up to the 1700′s we have writing on how monogamy hurts women, its only in the last century that its been seen as something for them or for their benefit.

Even in more recent history we have monogamy working directly against women. Among the Mormons we have Martha Hughes Cannon, the first woman in any state senate in the States. She was the wife of a polygamist. We have women gaining the right to vote in Utah in 1870, then that right being taken away in 1887 by the Edmunds-Tucker antipolygamy act. That’s right, women lost the right to vote in an antipolygamy act… It took them 8 years to get it back. Monogamy once again is against women, its simply not to their benefit, its to mens benefit. Frankly most men prefer girlfreinds, mistresses, or worse than wives. They certainly don’t want to be outnumbered by wives, it becomes much harder to promote total top down control of women.

To whit many would respond that polygamy usually practiced with that kind of control in our time. Well, yeah, but its because in deeply Islamic countries the law directly opposes women. Women aren’t kept down by the family but by society at large. Without the law backing him the husband doesn’t have total top down power in polygamy, he has less power since he loses the strength advantage and he has more views and reasons to consider.

Put it this way, in monogamy if a man is head of the house and has veto power, any split vote is 1:1, his veto power wins, he is an automatic dictator. In a house of a husband and 3 wives you have much more of a republic, the man as head of house might resolve 2:2 votes but he ought to hesitate if there is a 1:3 vote against him. He should believe his wives to be intelligent and responsible and realize that he would be leading the family into trouble by ignoring their council.

If a man is abusive is he really going to have a use for polygamy? 2:1, even though men are much stronger than women if they support each other he is in trouble.

The only way polygamy goes wrong is if laws or culture prevent women for standing up for themselves. At present thats what polygamists cultures in the medias limelight either actually do or are accused of doing.

Organize a Church

I have provided scriptural understanding for what the church is. I have also provided some basic scriptural backing for the acceptability of establishing individual congregations without requiring permission from other leaders. What I would like to do know is provide a guide for beginning to establish a church in your area.

Before this though I need to talk a bit about how the church is established overall. The church organization given in the scriptures is much more egalitarian than what is practiced by the L-DS corporation. Also it is much more diverse and interesting. The modern organization of the Church typifies a Babylonian pyramidal hierarchical organization. But the scriptural organization of the church is a progressive, yet humble organization, which is designed to bring forth God’s kingdom on the earth.

Just for example here is a diagram of the Church organization.

Pretty straight forward Leaders at the top members at the bottom. And if you insist the leaders of the Church are servants then you can flip the pyramid upside down, but you still get the same organization, just upside down.

However I’m going to refer to some scriptures in Doctrine and Covenants that help us understand the true organization of the church.

Lets start with the world. There are two major areas of division in the scriptural church. These are the world, and the Land of Zion. The Land of Zion consists of North and South America. The world is everywhere else.

But for matters of jurisdiction Zion consists only of those stakes of Zion organized in the Land of Zion and around the world. The world then consists of all lands that are not part of a stake of Zion. The exception being the stakes scattered abroad which are not considered stakes of Zion.

Jerusalem and the land of Israel are also important. Jerusalem and Zion(New Jerusalem) are parallel cities. With the gentiles being gathered to Zion and the Jews to Jerusalem one can imagine cities patterned after Jerusalem being built in the land of Israel as described by Ezekiel.

The Stakes of Zion(except for the stakes scattered abroad) are self sufficient cities. Each having their own United Order. There are three types of Stakes of Zion. This first is the center stake meanings Zion itself.

The second are the Twelve Stakes of Zion. Section 101 describes a parable of Twelve Olive Trees. Joseph Smith stated that these Twelve Olive Trees were symbols of Twelve Stakes of Zion that would be built before Zion herself is built. I have been able to identify eight possible locations for these twelve Stakes. I’m sure some searching through the Joseph Smith papers or some other historical archives would reveal the location of the others. But I have neither the time nor resources to do that at this moment. Perhaps when the movement is a little further underway this information can be discovered/revealed. (For my frequent readers you may have noticed I dropped Voree from the list. I am now inclined to believe Voree is a “place appointed for refuge” rather than an intended Stake of Zion. But I’m open to being wrong.)

1. Kirtland
2. Far West
3. Seth
4. Adam-ondi-Ahman
5. Nauvoo
6. Zarahemla
7. Macedonia
8. Nashville
9. (Unknown to me)
10. (Unknown to me)
11. (Unknown to me)
12. (Unknown to me)

The third type of Stake of Zion are Stakes patterned after Zion that are to fill the world. On the first plat of Zion there was a command that “When this square is thus laid off and supplied, lay off another in the same way, and so fill up the world.” We can assume that this command was carried through for the revised second Plat of Zion. So after the Twelve Stakes have been built and filled, then Zion can be built and filled. Only then, can we start building Cities and Stakes around the world. This also answers the question about temples around the world. Yes, temples around the world are acceptable, but only if they are build in cities of Zion after Zion itself has been completed.

So you ask, where will my branch of the church fit in? Most likely your church will be part of one of the stakes scattered aboard. A stake is just a collection of congregations/churches. You shouldn’t have to worry about the United Order in outlying stakes nor temple/city building. Your focus should be on bringing souls to Christ through the Gospel. Then meeting together as a church. I’ll discuss the move to Zion in later posts.

Priesthoods and Councils

The church has two divisions the Melchizedek Priesthood and the Aaronic or Levitical Priesthood. The Melchizedek Priesthood, which is in charge of Spiritual things, is overseen by a President and two councilors. These three, form the “Presidency of the High Priesthood, after the order of Melchizedek”. Also these three must be High Priests chosen by the body(the church). Now I’m not necessarily advocating we all start electing our own first presidency or anything. While that time may come in the future lets just focus on organizing a local church. This stuff is just for review.

The Twelve Traveling Councilors, or Twelve Apostles, or to be special witnesses of Christ in all the world. They do their work as missionaries first to the gentiles and then to the Jews. They as a quorum are equal in authority to the three presiding High priests. However they have no jurisdiction in Stakes of Zion. Only in the world and stakes scattered abroad. They are to officiate under the direction of the Presidency of the church. The twelve are to call upon the Seventy to help them in their duties. They twelve may ordain evangelical ministers in the large branches of the church in the world.

The Seventy or also special witnesses to the world. They do their work as missionaries first to the gentiles then to the Jews. The Quorums of the Seventy have equal authority to the Travling High Council(Quorum of the Twelve) and the Three presiding High Priests. Like the Twelve they only have authority in the world and outlying stakes. the Seventy act under the direction of the Twelve. Eventually there will be one hundred forty-four thousand of these Seventy, twelve thousand from each tribe, who will preach the gospel to the world.

Each Stake of Zion both in the Land of Zion and around the world has a High Council. All together these High councils form a Quorum. This Quorum is equal in authority to the Presidency, the Traveling High Council, and the Seventy.

Zion, the center place, has a High Council. this High Council is equal in authority to the Presidency, the Traveling High Council, the Seventy, and the quorum of the High Councils.

If any decision of any of these quorums is made in unrighteousness it may be brought before an assembly of the other quorums.

In regards to the Aaronic Priesthood it is overseen by a Presiding Bishop or Bishopric. The right to the office of Bishop belongs to a literal descendant of Aaron. He does not need to have councilors. But in cases where there is no literal descendant a High Priest of the order of Melchizedek may be ordained to the office of Bishop. In this case he is to be assisted by two councilors.

According to D&C 107:74-75 Bishops which are under the Presiding Bishop are to be ordained as needed.

Baptism

Ok, there you have the grand scheme. Now lets look at the local stuff. A church begins when two or more people who have repented and come unto Christ meet together. This church is formed by the social bonds between those meeting. The purpose of meeting as a church is to strengthen each other. This includes socially, spiritually, temporally, etc.

Entry into the church begins with baptism, which includes rebaptism. The guidelines for determine who should be baptized is given in 20:37. Those who:

1. Humble themselves before God,
2. Desire to be baptized,
3. Come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits,
4. Witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end,
5. Truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins,

Are they who should be baptized. There is nothing about having a solid understanding of every little thing taught by Joseph Smith. No, it is simply about the gospel.

A person may be baptized by an Elder or a Priest. If you have an Elder or Priest in your church that’s great. If not, I’ll talk later about how to get one.

D&C 20:68 After being baptized but before being confirmed or partaking of the sacrament a new member must have all things concerning the church of Christ expounded to their understanding by the elders or priests.

If you don’t have a steady supply of people are already members coming to you church then missionary work and baptism is the best way to increase your church.

Meeting As The Church

Since the purpose of the church is to support each other it is vital that you meet together often20:75. You can meet for a variety of reasons, even if it is just to get together and chit-chat. Other meetings you may want to consider having are:

General meeting – Gather to listen from speakers as inspired by the spirit. Healings, gift of tongues, prophecy, etc.
Sacrament – Gather to partake of the Lord’s Supper. Partake of bread and wine as symbols of Christ until full, both physically and Spiritually.
Confirmation – D&C 46:6
School of the Prophets – D&C 88:127-141
Anointed Quorum – For saints who have participated in the Nauvoo Endowment. Discuss the mysteries.
Female Relief Society of Nauvoo – Click here for more study.

Many of these other meetings require some sort of officer to administer the meeting. So lets look at what officers you should have in you church.(I’ll discuss these meetings more in depth at a later date.)

Priesthood

I have to make sure that we recognize that there is generally no requirement in the scriptures for an officer of the Church to request permission from a “superior” in order to fulfill their duties. These duties are simply what each officer must do. God gives you permission to fulfill these duties. JUST DO THEM.

Elders

• Baptize
• Ordain elders, priests, teachers, deacons
• Administer bread and wine
• Confirm those who are baptized
• Teach
• Expound
• Exhort
• Watch over the church
• Take the lead of all meetings
• Conduct meetings as led by the Holy Ghost
• Officiate in absence of a High Priest.
• Officiate in all of these offices in the church when no higher authority is present.
• Ordain where there is no branch of the church
• Travel
• Sign letters certifying memberships of members(if they are personally acquainted with the member)

Priests

• Preach
• Teach
• Expounding
• Exhort
• Baptize
• Visit the house of each member
• Exhort members to pray vocally and in secret and attend to family duties
• Ordain priests, teachers, deacons
• Assist elders in the above duties
• Take the lead of Meetings(When no Elder is present)

• Administer Sacrament(When no Elder is present)
• Travel
• Sign letters certifying memberships of members(if they are personally acquainted with the member)

Teachers

• Watch over the church
• Be with and strengthen the church
• See that there is no iniquity in the church, neither hardness with each other, neither lying, backbiting, nor evil speaking.
• See that the church meets together often
• See that members do their duty
• Take the lead(When no Elder and Priest are present)
• Warn
• Expounding
• Exhort
• Teach
• Invite all to come unto Christ
• Sign letters certifying memberships of members

Deacons

• To assist Teachers in their duties
• Sign letters certifying memberships of members

High priests

• Officiate in administering spiritual things
• Officiate in office of elder, priest, teacher, deacon, and member.
• Officiate in all of these offices in the church when no higher authority is present.
• Ordain where there is no branch of the church
• Travel

Bishop

• Administer all temporal things
• Be a judge in Israel
• Do the business of the church
• Ordaining where there is no branch of the church
• Receive the substance of the members to impart unto the poor
• Keep the storehouse
• Discern the gifts of the members of the church
• Appoint unto members where to lay the foundation of the City of Zion
• Receive payment of money that was given from this church unto another
• Make preparations for those families who have been commanded to come to the land Zion
• Determine privileges of the lands in Zion.
• Receive accounting of stewardships
• receive the funds of the church
• Take an account of the elders to administer to their wants and pay for that which they receive
• Pay the debts of those elders who have no means to pay
• Issue certificates that render elders and acceptable to receive an inheritance
• Manage the affiars of the poor
• Travel, searching after the poor and administer to their wants by humbling the rich and proud(Traveling Bishop)
• Administer inheritances

Ordaining Officers

I highly recommend reading the post by LDSAnarchist: “Every elder, priest, teacher or deacon is to be ordained according to the gifts…of God unto him.”

D&C 20:65-66

65 No person is to be ordained to any office in this church, where there is a regularly organized branch of the same, without the vote of that church;

66 But the presiding elders, traveling bishops, high councilors, high priests, and elders, may have the privilege of ordaining, where there is no branch of the church that a vote may be called.

If there are already members in your church then the consenting vote of the members of that church are required before officers can be ordained. But in places where there are no churches(branch of the church), then officers may be ordained without a vote of the non existent church. For example if you go on a mission to some remote area.

After being ordained an elder must receive a license to be able to fulfill his duties. This license is given by the consenting vote of the church to which they belong or at a conference of the church.

If an priest, teacher, or deacon is ordained by a priest then they should receive a certificate from that priest. The priest, teacher, or deacon should then present that certificate to an elder. The Elder will then give him a license. Or the license may be given at a conference.

If there is a priest in your church then he may ordain other priests, teacher, or deacons. If you have an elder then he may ordain elders, priests, teachers, and/or deacons.

However Presidents of the High Priesthood(or presiding elders), bishops, high councilors, and high priests, may only be ordained at the direction of a high council, or a conference of the church.

Here is a License template that could be used. I just copied it from those issued during Joseph Smith’s time:

Licenses

The scriptures have given us the guidelines for operating branches of the church in our own locations. Please reread sections 20 and 107. Also what helps me is just to do a search one scriptures.lds.org for a term then read all the entries. For example I just searched bishop in the Doctrine and Covenants and then read every entry. Those duties I found are what I wrote on my list.

Members Moving Around

Members who are moving to another area and hence another branch of the church, or who are visiting another branch, should take with them a letter. The church that they are leaving must give the member a letter certifying that they are regular members in good standing. This letter may be signed by any elder or priest if the member personally knows the elder or priest. If not then the letter may be signed by any teacher or deacon.

Conclusion

There you go. You have your very own how to guide for establishing a branch of the church in your area. Not that you didn’t already have it in your D&C but whatever. I hope this will motivate some people to start holding their own meetings as the church. On Rock’s posts I heard a lot of people wondering what alternatives we have to L-DS sacrament meetings. Well here is your alternative. Meet in your homes as the church as directed by the scriptures and the Spirit.

P.S. I haven’t been able to find any historic texts for the Priest/teacher/deacon certificate that they take to an elder to get their license. Likewise I haven’t been able to find historic text for the D&C 20:84 letter of membership. If any of you know of any historic text I would love to see it.

Book of Mormon: A Guide for Our Time

Note: I want to apologize for this post. I started writing it about a month ago and then got distracted with other things. I just want to get it over with and on to other topics. So I finished it today and haven’t gone through and made any revision. So I apologize and I hope you get something from it.

My most recent studies in the Book of Mormon have been in Mosiah. I’ve been studying the different breakaways and unifications in this book. Even the history of Lehi leaving Jerusalem gives some of the same things. Those of you who have also read these account probably have noticed many similarities between these accounts and our times today. What I would like to do here is examine the events in the Book of Mosiah and see how they can relate to us today. If so, then perhaps we can get guidance in what we must do.

Just a little backstory, I’m sure many of you are already familiar with it. Lehi was commanded by God to flee Jerusalem and the Apostate Jewish Church. He took his family and they fled. After crossing a great sea they arrived in what we call the Americas. Led by the Spirit Lehi’s family build up a church. The family was split in two with one group fleeing to another place, the Nephites. And the others developing a hatred towards the Nephites, the Lamanites.

The Nephites fled into the wilderness and settled in a land they called Nephi. There in Nephi they built a temple. They went through times of righteousness and wickedness. Eventually one Nephit named Mosiah was commanded by God to flee the land of Nephi. Mosaih eventually found the land of Zarahemla. Zerahemla had been established by agroup of people called the Mulekites. The Mulekites were another group of people who had fled Jerusalem. The Mulekites made Mosiah their king. This began the reign of Kings in Zarahemla. At some point a temple was constructed in the land of Zarahemla. Mosiah was not only the King but also established the church. All of the righteous people followed Mosiah out of the land of Nephi. Those who stayed were destroyed by the Lamanites. Mosiah’s son Benjamin became the king after his father. During this time the army of Zarahemla was sent to look for the land of Nephi.

A man by the name Zeniff was part of a scouting party. And he spied on the Lamanites. When Zeniff saw the good in the Lamanites he did not want them to be destroyed. Instead we wanted to make a treaty with them so they could poses the land of Nephi. But the ruler of the army was a bloodthirsty man. There was a battle where part of the army who sided with Zeniff fought against the part who sided with the ruler. Everyone who survived, including Zeniff, returned to Zarahemla.

Zeniff had a strong desire to reclaim the land of Nephi. So he gathered as many people as he could and went there. He made a treaty with the Lamanite King and began to rebuild the old city. They also established a righteous branch of the church. They began to reuse the old temple. There were also a few conflicts with the Lamanites.

Now we get to the interesting stuff.

Eventually Zeniff conferred his Kingdom upon his son Noah. This made Noah the proper leader both politically and religiously. We can liken this today to the leaders of the Church who were appointed by a certain process.

Noah put down all of the Priests his father had conferred and replaced them with his own. He put a tax on everything that the people produced.

Today it is required that you pay ten percent of everything your income in order to be able to enter the temples of the Church.

Noah also built many great and beautiful buildings. He decorated the temple and build a place for his priests to sit.

The Church uses the money from tithing to build large and beautiful temples. They also use investment income(which originated from tithing) to build many other building. For example a $6 Billion shopping center.

Noah also built a great tower near the temple. This to me is a shocking parallel in that a few hundred feet in one direction from the temple is a tower known as the Church Office Building. And a few hundred feet in another direction are two more towers that are part of the City Creek Center.

While towers may be interesting there is an even stronger parallel with today. If there are any Believing Mormons reading this, and you have made it this far, I advise you to carefully study this interaaction in the Book of Mormon.

There was a citizen of the land of Nephi named Abinadi. The Lord gave him a message to deliver. So Abinadi began preaching. The people turned Abinadi in to King Noah.

Now when we read Mosiah 11 we read it with hind sight. We can see obviously that what King Noah was wicked. But strangely the people supported him completely. When Abinadi began preaching the people rejected him. Abinadi was just some nobody. Now these are people who followed a righteous leader, Zeniff, just a short time before. So how could a people support a righteous leader and then a wicked one without even batting an eyelash? The answer is because they were not following the principles of righteousness they were following the leader. I guarantee that as some point early in his ministry King Noah taught that he could never lead the people astray. All the people had to do was follow him and they would be fine.

So when Abinadi came the people hated his words because he didn’t follow the leader. He taught that what their leader was doing was wrong. But the people, remember they supported a righteous King before so they didn’t love wickedness, continued supporting their leader.

This same exact(I don’t mean closely resembles, I mean exact) attitude exists in Church members today. Church members will support their leaders no matter what they do. Even when Church leaders violate or command the violation of God’s commandments the people don’t care. They support the leaders in these things. In fact if some random guy, just like Abinadi was, went to Salt Lake and started preaching against the wickedness of the Church, the members would HATE him. I bet some would even want to kill him. Members of the Church today would fit perfectly into King Noah’s Church.

If anything comes from Mosaih 11 let us remember that Church leaders can and do lead us astray. It’s part of the program! This chapter teaches us that we must be constantly on guard and defend ourselves against incorrect teachings that may come from our leaders.

Back to the story. After being taken to the king, Abinadi preached against the him and his priests. One of Noah’s priests, Alma, listened to Abinadi’s words and wanted Abinadi to be set free. But Abinadi was eventually killed and Alma was cast out.

Because Alma was now an outlaw he hid and recorded the words of Abinadi,. He repented of his wicked actions. He then went around preaching Abinadi’s words to the people, but he did it in secret. I have demonstrated in this post and previous ones, that we live in a time of wickedness. We should look to Alma as an example of what to do in times of wickedness.

First Alma wrote the words of Abinadi. We need to treasure up the word of the Lord.

Secondly Alma repented of his sins. This is a process that all of us should be doing. Repentance is change. So when we learn something more or different than what we are currently doing we must change to come into alignment with the correct teaching.

Third Alma began preaching to the people in secret. The reason he was preaching in secret was to avoid the king, who wanted him killed. While we don’t have a king who wants us dead, we do have powerful church authorities. For some of us it may not yet be time to depart the L-DS Church. In this case it may be better to preach in secret. Others of us may have already become significantly distanced from the L-DS Church the we can preach openly. Regardless it is vital that we begin preaching to the people.

Those people who believed Alma, went to his hiding place in Mormon. After a few days there were many people there and Alma began teaching them. He taught them about faith, redemption, and repentance.

After teaching them Alma asks them to be baptized. He gives some qualities a person should have before baptism. The attributes are as follows:
- Be desirous to come into the fold of God,
- Be desirous to be called his people,
- Are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light,
- Are willing to mourn with those that mourn,
- To comfort those that stand in need of comfort,
- To stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death.

Notice that none of these are about having a strong knowledge about Church doctrines or policies. Rather they are attitudes that we should possess before baptism. I’ve heard many people say that this is the baptismal covenant. But this is not the covenant. Instead we learn that baptism is a witness of a covenant we make. The covenant we make is that, “[w]e will serve [God] and keep his commandments.” Baptism is not the covenant but a witness of the covenant.

Additionally we must recognize that all these people were already baptized into the church under Zeniff and Noah. So what they were doing was participating in rebaptism. Members of the Church today claim that weekly partaking of the sacrament is a renewal or re-committal of the baptismal covenant, but this is not correct. Rebaptism is a renewal of the baptismal covenant.

After being rebaptized these people were called the church of God or church of Christ. And anyone else who was baptized was added to this church.

This is also an example for us today. Baptism is the way to enter the Lord’s church. And either by a n initial baptism, a valid former baptism, or a rebaptism we likewise enter the Lord’s church. In the church Elders and Priests are authorized to perform baptism. I would encourage anyone reading this that if you possess those attributes listed above, that you be baptized, or rebaptized into the church. You can locate and Elder or Priest and have them perform this. You can use the comments section below to find someone.

Alma commanded the Priests he ordained to teach nothing except the words of the prophets, and faith and repentance.

Alma also commanded them that they shouldn’t have any contention. This is something that I believe is important for becoming unified with other people who believe differently about certain things. We must “look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.” The Gospel is all that is important for our function as the church. Other topics are interesting and edifying but we should only be preaching faith and repentance.

Another thing is interesting is that immediately Alma instituted the Law of Consecration. Just like in the first years of Christianity. all people gave what they had and it was distributed among everyone.

It was about this time the the King found out about this movement and sent his army to find them.

Now imagine this was occurring in our days. There is a group of people gathering without the permission of the Church(TM). They are holding meetings, baptizing, preaching, and living the law of consecration. All of this without the consent or permission of the “mainstream” Church.

Now imagine that Thomas Monson finds out about this movement(I am not insinuating that Thomas Monson is participating in the same activities as King Noah was). What do you think Thomas Monson or other general authorities would do?

I think that if any of the members were still attending L-DS wards then they would be pulled into Bishops offices. They would most likely undergo Church discipline. The First Presidency would issue warnings against participating in such groups. They would condemn such groups as apostate and having gone astray. Granted this is just my own thoughts, but it may reflect reality.

Instead of embracing such a movement as branch of the church, the Church today would assume the same role that Noah did in Alma’s day.

Well it so happens that Noah did what any good power hungry leader should do. He told everyone that Alma was stirring up the people to rebellion against him. So he sent his army out to squash the “rebellion.” But meanwhile back near the waters of Mormon Alma and his people were somehow “appraised” of the coming of the King’s army. So they go out of there and fled into the wilderness.

Now this seemed to snapped some of the people out of the apathy they were in. Because after this a “lesser part” began to threaten the king. This tells to me at least that the people had at least some sense of reason. The majority of the people may have sided with with Noah, knowing the prophet(or king in their case) can never lead them astray. But when he sent his army out to kill a bunch of innocent crazies gathered in the woods at least a few of the people realized there was something wrong in whoville.

Long story short a guy name Gideon comes to kill the king. And chases him up the tower. But I love King Noah’s reaction. If any of you have seen the movie Madagascar, there is a scene where Melman the giraffe is stuck in a shipping crate, after being shipwrecked on Madagascar. Alex the lion is trying to get him out by ramming him with a tree trunk. But Melman realizes Alex is about to ram him in the crotch. As Alex is running closer Melman is screaming for him to stop. Then suddenly he shouts, “There’s Gloria!”(Gloria is a hippopotamus that is part of their group and hasn’t been found on the island yet) Alex stops to look and to Melman’s surprise Gloria’s shipping crate really has washed up on the beach. Melman says to himself, surprised that his ruse was true, “It IS Gloria.”

I can just imagine this same reaction with King Noah. Gideon is chasing him up the tower. Fearing for his life King Noah desperately shouts out, “Oh look it’s the Lamanites!” Then to his surprise the Lamanites really are there!

So then Gideon spares him and King Noah ordered all the men to leave their wives and children and flee into the wilderness. Now I imagine that the TBNs(True Believing Noahites) where wondering what king of trial of faith this was. Why was the Lord commanding the priesthood holders to flee into the wilderness and leave the women and children at the mercy of the Lamanites? But we must be obedient to the Lord’s anointed because he knows what’s going on more than we do. However this seemed to be another dividing line, shattering many of the TBNs beliefs because many decided it was better to stay and send their fair daughters out to plead with the Lamanites.

The other dividing line was with those TBN men who had fled into the wilderness. They realized that what King Noah was doing was wrong. So the burned him, fulfilling Abinadi’s prophecy. Now I wonder if the people had hear of the prophecy and made a conscious decision to fulfill it rather then, “Oh wadaya know, the prophecy was fulfilled.” Perhaps they took it upon themselves to fulfill the prophecy. This can serve as an example to us. Do we sit around waiting for prophecies to be magically be fulfilled or are was actively trying to fulfill the prophecies?

Anyway before the people can kill the priests they flee. The men who fled returned home(I can just imagine the explaining they had to do to their wives).

But the pleading the beautiful daughters did worked. The Lamanites allowed them to live in the land with Limhi(one of Noah’s sons) as their king. They had a great tax placed upon them.

Limhi was a more righteous man. He worked to establish peace in his kingdom.

Meanwhile the old priests under Noah stole some of the daughters of the Lamanites to be their wives. This cause trouble for Limhi when the Lamanites blamed him for the disappearance of their daughters. But after a great deal of trouble Limhi got it sorted out. He started to again establish a peaceful kingdom.

Eventually Ammon from Zarahemla wanders into their town. He starts figuring out what happened. And they morun for everything that happened. And interesting key word is that they mourned that Alma, who had formed a church of God, had fled. Alma hadn’t formed THE church of God, but a church of God. Since the church of God was still around in other areas what Alma formed was just part of the church.

Now that the people had been forced to see that Noah could in fact lead them astray the people wished that they could have joined Alma’s people. Now the people wanted to be baptized but for some reason Ammon felt unworthy and didn’t baptize them.

Eventually Limhi and his people escape from the Lamanites and return to Zarahemla.

Meanwhile in the wilderness Alma and his group found a nice place and started to build a city. The people wanted Alma to be their king but Alma refused. He told them, “It is not expedient that we should have a king; for thus saith the Lord: Ye shall not esteem one flesh above another; or one man shall not think himself above another; therefore I say unto you, It is not expedient that ye should have a king.”

Eventually the army of the Lamanites, who had been in search of the escaped people of Limhi, stumbled upon Alma’s group. The Lamanites agreed to spare Alma’s people’s lives and liberty if they showed them how to get back to the land of Nephi. But the Lamanites went back on their promise and ended up putting the people who came from Noah’s priest, led by Amulon, over Alma’s people.

After a time of trial Alma, and those people of Amulon who had join their church, decided to break the (Lamanite) laws of the land and flee again into the wilderness. They left and found another place to stay, but the Lord told them to keep moving because Lamanites were after them. So they kept forging ahead in the wilderness and lo and behold the found their way back to Zarahemla.

After Mosiah, the grandson of Mosiah and son of Benjamin, talked to the assembled body of people, he had Alma speak to them. Alma eventually baptized the people of Limhi. Now I do have a question why nobody of Mosaiah’s people was able to baptize the people of Limhi. Or perhaps Limhi’s people arrived only a short time before Alma and didn’t have time for anyone else to baptized the.

Now I’m going to quote here what happened next:

“And it came to pass that king Mosiah granted unto Alma, that he might establish Churches throughout all the land of Zarahemla; and gave him power to ordain priests and teachers over every Church. Now this was done because there was so many people that they could not all be governed by one teacher; neither could they all hear the word of God in one assembly; therefore they did assemble themselves together in different bodies, being called Churches; every Church having their priests and their teachers, and every priest preaching the word according as it was delivered to him by the mouth of Alma: and thus, notwithstanding there being many Churches, they were all one Church; yea, even the Church of God: for there was nothing preached in all the Churches except it were repentance and faith in God. And now there was seven Churches in the land of Zarahemla. And it came to pass that whosoever was desirous to take upon them the name of Christ, or of God, they did join the churches of God; and they were called the people of God. And the Lord did pour out his spirit unto them, and they were blest, and prospered in the land.”

This to me is a key indicator to support the idea that “the church” is in fact many different individual congregations. The church is the people as a whole but at the same time each independent congregation is also the church.

I hope you’ll forgive me for this overly long summary of these chapters of Mosiah. The overall point I want to draw from this is that establishing a church(meaning a congregation) can be done as dictated by the Spirit. It does not require authorization from “Presiding Authorities.” These chapters provide a real example of how this can work and that is IS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD! We must look to the Book of Mormon to see the will of the Lord. The Doctrine and Covenants deals with more of the nitty gritty of establishing churches, which I will discuss later.

For now I leave you with this. Don’t be afraid to gather in settings apart from L-DS meetings. You are the church and wherever you are gathering that is a gathering of the church.

What is the Church?

Before I get into some of the other areas of discussion I feel it is important to establish some basic concepts. These center around understanding what exactly the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is.

So let’s dive right in. We’ll start by turning to(if you still use old fashioned paper books) or clicking on(if your into hip, modern, digital books) Doctrine and Covenants 10:67:

67 Behold, this is my doctrine—whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church.

As a natural extension of Christ’s doctrine, the Gospel(which consists only of Faith, Repentance, Baptism of Water, and Baptism of Fire and the Spirit), those who repent and come unto Christ are Christ’s church. Notice how it says that “the same IS my church.” Not “the same is in(or part of) my church.” This is an important distinction. Christ’s church is the members. It is not an organization or club that people join. Rather when they live the Gospel they become the church. The church is the people not the structure.

This is a really difficult concept for some to understand. Members of the Corporate Church are used to thinking of the Church as the organization or hierarchy. We ask, “What is the Church’s stand on this issue?” When someone says something like this I always get an image in my mind of Salt Lake City or Temple Square. It is as if we think(or at least I did) that “the Church” is the officials and the leaders. But in reality if we ask that question we are asking what the view of every repentant person, who has come unto Christ, is.

Other times we may view the Church as the building we meet in or the meetings we attend. We can see this as, “Let’s clean the Church,” or “I’m attending Church.” These are all gross misconceptions and undermine the true definition of the church. I have an assignment for you. If you have repented(meaning in the process of repentance) and come unto Christ as stated in section 10 I want you to find a mirror. Now go stand in front of that mirror. Take a good long look at the image you see there. That is the church. YOU…ARE…the church. The church is the people. When people who have repented and come unto Christ meet together that is the church meeting together.

Meetings and Gatherings

Matthew 18:20

20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

This is the church in action. There is no geographical limit to who is in the church. If you gather with others in your home that is a meeting of the church. If you gather with thousands of others, that is a meeting of the church. You don’t have to meet with the permission of anyone else.

If you’ve ever visited LDSAnarchy’s blog you have probably heard about tribal church meetings. This is something that is frequently discussed there. Now I’m not sure if I understand it completely. But let my try to explain what I understand about it.

Basically instead of meeting together under the authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints(TM) people can meet under the authority of the family. Ordinances can be performed for the family. For example and person could be baptized into the tribe this would gain them entrance into the tribe but not the corporate Church.

As I’ve thought about it more and more this is essentially how the church should actually be operating. The church is not the corporation but the people. The priesthood authority to perform valid ordinances resides not in how the Corporate Church dictates how they should be used, but how the scriptures, revelations, and Holy Spirit say they should be used.

I’ll expound on this in later posts, but one example is the Elder’s duty to administer the sacrament. Section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants says that one of the duties of an Elder is to administer the sacrament. The scriptures do not give additional qualifiers that and Elder must get permission from a Bishop to administer this ordinance. So while the corporate Church may require this permission, an Elder can still perform a valid sacrament ordinance without Church(TM) permission. This is because it is one of his authorized duties.

As I mentioned, in the LDSA model of tribal church meetings people can be baptized into the tribe but not the corporate church. However the scriptures give the duties for priesthood officers. One of them is to baptize, given to elders and priests. But the scriptures do not require that a person have permission from “higher ups” to baptize. But according to Church policy if a priesthood officer is not baptizing with their permission then it is not valid for entrance into the Church(TM). However, I believe that a Priesthood officer, even without permission from corporate Church authority, CAN baptize someone into the church. Why? Because that is what the scriptures say.

Likewise, gatherings of the church(remember that’s the people) may be conducted without the permission of the corporate L-DS Church. The scriptures, revelations, and Spirit give guidance on how such meetings should be conducted.

Congregations and Organization

The scriptures give no geographical or social qualifications for the gathering of congregations. This is unlike the corporate Church. The Church’s leadership defines the boundaries by which wards and branches are determined. This is a top down hierarchical pattern. All elements, branches, districts, wards, stakes, etc. are conglomerated into one large Churchy machine.

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “The Church is the same everywhere you go.” What sets the Church corporation apart from the McDonald’s corporation? In both you can visit their convenient location near you, take part in a meal of little nutritional value, and have it be the exact same experience anywhere around the globe(You know, actually in the Philippines you can get McSpeghetti, and Chicken McDo.).

The scriptures however teach something completely different. In the scriptures congregations themselves are churches.

In section 31 Thomas Marsh is commanded to establish a church.

7 Yea, I will open the hearts of the people, and they will receive you. And I will establish a church by your hand;

What? Thomas is to establish another church organization separate from the one Joseph Smith established? Just like those apostate Strangites or Reorgs. That can’t be!

This demonstrates the true meaning of the church. The true church of Christ is not viewed as one homogenous organization. Rather is it a collective of many individual congregations or churches. Like the seven churches in the New Testament. Christ hadn’t established seven separate church organizations. Instead there were seven independent churches(congregations).

The corporate Church functions on a hierarchy with the ward being subordinate to the stake. The stake is subordinate to an area. An area is subordinate to the Twelve. The Twelve are subordinate to the First Presidency.

However the scriptures, again, give us a completely different picture. Rather all congregations stand on equal footing. They are above the leadership. They are independent in their function and operation. What keeps all these independent churches functioning the same? Why the scriptures of course, and the Holy Spirit. With the Spirit guiding the actions of congregations, huge hundred page Handbooks of Instruction are not needed.

So what determines a congregation? In my opinion a congregation should be determined by whoever wants to attend. In the true church of Christ there is not competition between churches. Money is not distributed based on sacrament meeting attendance. If farmer Joe wants to leave Mr James’ congregation and form his own, why not? As long as the Spirit is guiding his choice. After all, even just two people are enough to make a congregation.

As I sit here pondering this blend of unity and independence I just get this amazing feeling of peace and excitement. And this is part of my solution to the problem that currently plagues the L-DS Church. If you have a desire to continue to attend L-DS church services then that is up to you. I have my own reasons for continuing to attend for the time being. But we must all work to establish our own congregations where the Spirit can manifest itself among us. In Section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord tells us that Elders are to lead take the lead of meetings by the Spirit. If an Elder is unavailable then a Priest may do so. If a Priest is unavailable then a Teacher may do so. So gather together and have a nice spiritual discussion. If you have an Elder, Priest, or Teacher then let them take the lead of the meeting. It doesn’t even have to be on Sunday. It doesn’t even have to be limited to once a week.

These are just some thoughts for you to consider. I will be addressing this topic again in much more detail in the future. In the meantime your homework assignment is to read Section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Take some notes and we’ll compare them at a later date. What really helps me is to write a one or two line summary of each verse in the Section. It helps me focus on what is being discussed rather than letting my mind wander.

That’s all I have in mind for this post. I just sort of wrote as I went along and it probably shows. But I hope you got something out of it. There are things we can do to function as the church, while the corporate L-DS version of the Church is going off the deep end.

So stay tuned for more information about how we can function as the church.

P.S. I’m hereby declaring a standard when referring to the corporate Church. I will be using either:

the Church™,

the Church(TM),

or

the Church,

to refer to the corporation that is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I will use:

the church,

or

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,

to refer to the church as defined in section 10 verse 67.

Waiting Mentality (or What are We Doing?)

For this post I just want to analyze my own experience in the Church(TM). The feelings I’m going to talk about here are my own. You may or may not have felt the same things. So when I talk about the Church being a certain way or seeming a certain way it is because I felt it was like that.

What I want to talk about is how the attitude of the Church has changed and what we are focused on doing now.

When I think back to my younger days in the Church I remember there was almost a hint of a waiting attitude. It was almost like we were waiting for something to happen. In church lessons you would hear references to someday going back to Jackson County. Or you’d occasionally here about Plural Marriage being someday restored. To me I felt as though we were waiting for some future command to get everything going and fulfill the prophecies and purposes of the Latter-day work.

But now today in 2011 even that faint hint of waiting is gone. I sat in Sunday School and pondered just what our purpose is as member of the Church. If it isn’t to pave the way for building a City in Zion, or consecrating all our property to the church, then what is it?

I came to the conclusion that our purpose as Latter-day Saints, today, seems to be to live life as normal but with a churchy flair. When talking about building Zion I’ve never heard a reference to Jackson county in years! What it seems to me is that the Church just teaches people to get through school, get a good job, retire, and then live happily ever after. We are just supposed to live out our lives and do it while being involved in Church activities.

When it comes to building the Kingdom we are taught to do our home teaching and attend our meetings. We are focused on increasing membership numbers by converting our neighbors. We focus on doing temple ordinances, like endowments and baptisms for the dead. I’ve also noticed a sense of pride when we make more progress in becoming accepted by the world. But what are we actually doing?

I don’t know about you, but shouldn’t there be some improvement each Sunday I go to church. Why haven’t our lesson manuals improved since forever? Why are we still being fed milk. Granted, I’ve only been an official member of the Church for eighteen years, but shouldn’t I have earned some sort of increase in knowledge?

I know, I know, the Church has to teach things at the most basic level so all the new converts can understand. Well what about me and others who have been members for many years now? Ok, yeah you’re right I’m not perfect in the basics. I don’t always have the most heartfelt prayers. I don’t always have the best scripture study. I don’t make it to the temple every month. But guess what. It is impossible for us to be perfect at the basics. We cannot be 100% obedient to the law in this life. That’s why we need a Savior to help us overcome our weakness. It is ridiculous to say that we don’t need/deserve anymore because we can’t live what we’ve already been given. In fact many times when I hear people talking about this subject it’s almost as if they don’t want any more. It scares me because it sounds awfully a lot like, “A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible…and we need no more Bible.” We are either increasing or decreasing. If we aren’t receiving more than it means that we are losing what we already have.

You’ll have to forgive me. I know that God’s ways are not man’s ways but it seems like there is an awful long way to go in preparing for Christ’s coming. There is so much that needs to happen, but the Church is not doing ANYTHING to help us progress towards these things. Now like I said, I’m just a simple Elder in the church. I don’t hold the title of president of anything. Nor am I perfect at the basics, so my view may be limited. But I just can help but stand aghast when the Church is spending an estimated $6 BILLION US dollars to build a shopping mall. That is a six with nine zeros. That’s three Burj Dubais(tallest building in the world). I just did a quick estimate, but that amount of money could buy about thirty thousand homes in Independence, Missouri.

It seems to me that we have completely lost focus on what is important, on the revelations and commandments of God. We used to at least be waiting for these things but now we don’t even acknowledge them.

So just what are some things we need to be doing? Well lucky for you I complied a short list. This list isn’t comprehensive nor is it in any particular order.

Be able to become disciples and have the Gifts of the Spirit manifest among us – I’ve posted before about scriptural references of attributes true disciples of Christ must possess. I know I don’t possess them. So while I may be a believer in Christ I cannot say I qualify as a disciple. I also know that the Gifts of the Spirit are not manifest in me.

Receive ancient record and words of prophets – There are the greater things, the Brass plates, the records of the Ten Tribes, the records of the nations, and the Sealed Portion to come forward all before Christ comes. We need to begin the process of gathering true ancient records.

Preach Gospel to all creatures(first to gentiles then to Jews) – The Church does have a large missionary force which preaches a Church approved curriculum. But there are several problems with this curriculum. The main one is that missionaries bring converts into the organization of the Corporate Church. Rather than simply preaching the gospel they preach many other things as if they have the same level of importance as the Gospel.

Additionally missionaries do not distinguish between Jews and Gentiles. Instead they preach to everyone they can. We are specifically told in scripture to preach first to the Gentiles and then to the Jews.

Build Twelve Cities of Zion – Joseph Smith interpreted the twelve olive trees in Section 101 to be twelve stakes of the Zion that would be build before the City of Zion. These twelve Cities/stakes must be built before the City of Zion can be built.

Build Temple and City of Zion – The construction of the City of Zion must begin first with the construction of the Temple. After that the houses, other temples, streets, and farms can be built.

Fill the World with Cities of Zion – The first Plat of Zion explains that after the City of Zion was built then many other Cities after the same pattern were to be built around the world.

Establish the Political Kingdom of God – Joseph Smith established the Council of Fifty as a governing body for the “Kingdom of God and His Laws”. This Council consisted of not only members of the LDS church but of members of other Christian denominations. The polictial Kingdom of God was to be a literal government of God.

Gather the Twelve Tribes – The scriptures teach that we are to gather the tribes of Israel to a literal place called Zion. The gentiles are to be gathered to Zion and the Jews are to be gathered to Jerusalem. This gathering of Jews to Jerusalem may facilitate their preaching of the Gospel to them after it has been preached to the Gentiles.

Establish Israel – Ezekiel speaks of the land of Israel divided into portions for each of the twelve Tribes.

Build the Third Temple – Ezekiel also describes the dimensions of the Third Temple that must be built on the temple mount.

Another problem I’ve noticed is that those of us who are aware of these things seem to have the same waiting attitude the Church used to have. Many of us talk about waiting for the cleansing of the Church, or waiting for the One Mighty and Strong.

But I think that the time for waiting is over. We must now take action to accomplish these things. If the Church(TM) will not do it, then we must.

We each need to search the scriptures and the revelations. We need to each seek the Spirit to determine what we should each be doing. If the Spirit is telling you to wait that’s fine. But if the Spirit is telling us to do something then we should start doing it. Over my next series of posts I’m going to examine what we can do to help further the Lord’s work. It will of course be my own opinion and you should search for yourself. But I’m done waiting and I’m going to take action.