Bondage Both Temporally and Spiritually

This posts isn’t directly related to Plural Marriage but I think it is important to understand this in order to understand our relationship to Plural Marriage today. In my previous post I discussed brought up and quote from John Taylor given in 1886. This quote was given in a meeting of a select group of saints. It was during this meeting that his 1886 revelation was given. Additionally Brother John gave a prophetic warning:

 “In the time of the seventh President of this Church, the Church would go into bondage both temporally and spiritually and in that day (the day of bondage) the One Mighty and Strong spoken of in the 85th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants would come.”

So who was the seventh president of the Church? For those of you who aren’t sure, or don’t remember the primary song, the seventh President of the Church was Heber J. Grant. He was ordained an Apostle on October 16, 1882. He became President of the Church on November 23, 1918 and served until his death on May 14, 1945. In 1901 Heber J. Grant opened the Japanese mission of the Church. During his time as President Heber J. Grant had many accomplishments which seem great on the surface. However it was these same “accomplishments” and many more that put the church into temporal and spiritual bondage.

So just what were these “accomplishments?”. Heber J. Grant was the last president of the Church to practice Plural Marriage. And it was during his term that the 1890 manifesto was enforced without exception. Every previous Church president had authorized Plural Marriages in some way or another. That all ended with Heber J. Grant. And now members of the Church, God’s people, were completely forbidden, by the leadership of the Church, from obeying the Patriarchal Law of Abraham, which is Plural Marriage. So just as John Taylor had prophesied, it was during the time of the seventh President of the Church that the church was put into spiritual bondage.

It was also Heber J. Grant that enforced the Word of Wisdom as a commandment. In the second verse of Section 89 it explicitly says that it is not to be given by command or constraint. Heber J. Grant ignored the Word of God in Section 89 and made the Word of Wisdom a commandment. The effects of this are still felt today in that members of the Church cannot enter the temple unless they are obedient to the Word of Wisdom. Christ Himself said that it is not what we take into our bodies that defiles us, but what comes from our heart. Heber J. Grant’s actions put yet another shackle on the Spiritual freedom of the Church.

Still yet, Heber J. Grant ended the practice of Re-baptism. Re-baptism is a practice with two functions. First it is a re-commitment of one’s self to Jesus Christ. Second, it is a practice for healing the sick. This principle which was restored by revelation, “I know that in my traveling and preaching, many a time I have stopped by beautiful streams of clear, pure water, and have said to myself, ‘How delightful it would be to me to go into this, to be baptized for the remission of my sins.’ When I got home, Joseph told me it was my privilege. At this time, came a revelation, that the Saints could be baptized and re-baptized when they chose, and then that we could be baptized for our dear friends.” (Brigham Young, J.D. 18:241) Yet was ended because the First Presidency “felt” it should be stopped. This lost teaching is something that could purify the Saints in preparation for building Zion. Yet, thanks to HJG we have lost it. More spiritual bondage.

In 1921 Heber J. Grant removed the Lectures on Faith from the Doctrine and Covenants. These Lectures are actually what made up the “Doctrine” of the Doctrine and Covenants. He removed them of his own volition withouth seeking the consent of the Saints. Heber J. Grant claimed that the Lectures on Faith had never been presented to the Saints for acceptance in the first place. However not only Did Joseph Smith intend the Lectures on Faith to be included in the Docrtine and Covenants; but they were part of the book when it was accepted by the saints in 1835. The Preface of the Doctrine and Covenants stated:

“The first part of the book will be found to contain a series of lectures as delivered before a theological class in this place, and in consequence of their embracing the important doctrine of salvation, we have arranged them in the following work.

The second part contains items or principles for the regulation of the church as taken from the revelations which have been given since its organization, as well as former ones.”

To clarify, this preface said that the Lectures on Faith “[embrace] the importnat docrtines of salvation.” While the revelations in the rest of the book, the Covenants or basically what is left over in our modern Doctrine and Covenants, was said to be, “items or principles for the regulation of the church.” So here we have Heber J. Grant removing the important doctrines of Salvation from our scriptures, while only leaving the principles of the regulation of the church. Most saints today have never read, or even heard of, the Lectures on Faith. To be honest I haven’t finished reading them yet either. What else could we call it, when the important doctrines of salvation have been taken from our canon, except Spiritual bondage.

In 1927 it was Heber J. Grant that authorized the “Good Neighbor” policy, which put the people of God further into the hands of Babylon. The Saints had already been brought into Babylon through the statehood of Utah. Now Brother Heber wanted the Saints to make friends with Babylon. I don’t know about you, but to me this sounds awfully familiar to an earlier group of people. But anyway, this surely brought the Saints further into the temporal bondage spoken of by John Taylor. Members of the Church today are dependant on the governments of the gentiles rather than the government of God.

Heber J. Grant was also the last man who was part of the Council of Fifty. For those who don’t know the Council of Fifty was a secret organization created by Joseph Smith that was God’s Political Kingdom on the Earth. The Church was in charge of the Religious and Spiritual Matters and the Council of Fifty was in charge of Political matters. Heber J. Grant let the Council of Fifty be lost since he failed to reorganize and activate it. The government of God was then lost. Again more Temporal Bondage.

Just as when the Tribes of Israel were taken into bondage by some invading foreign power. The People of God in our days had been taken into temporal bondage by the invading United States Government. For Joseph Smith, when the gentiles tried to kill or enslave they saints, they fled to safety. Not so with later leaders. Rather they welcomed Babylon with open arms. Truly the parallels between God’s people anciently and God’s people today are astounding. How can we say that we are much more righteous than they, when the exact same things happen to us?

I’m sure there are many more examples of what Heber J. Grant did that put the church into spiritual and temporal bondage. If you have any more please post them in the comment section. All of these things seem to me to suppot John Taylor’s prophecy. And also the revelation that came with it that the Lord has not and will not do away with Plural Marriage. Truly are in a day of bondage when the leaders of the church are the very ones hindering the Saints from obeying the commandments of God.