THE SALT LAKE TEMPLE WAS RENTED BACK TO THE CHURCH

Can you say, coercion, manipulation and general nastiness on the part of the fed gubbmint?  Since 1890 and, more specifically 1913 with the creation of the Fed and the national takeover by the banksters, nothing really good came out of DC and I wonder what would have happened had we (our predecessors) possessed just a little bit more faith and had a little more fight up to that pivotal moment.....

Good news is that Utah was able to obtain statehood into a corrupt Union.....  That was really important in the big picture......(sarcasm).  Zion's chances were blown with those people.  I do not believe that Utah was the Zion that the scriptures speak of.  It was to be a stake of Zion - but not the center stake, as the New Jerusalem will yet be.  This is part of the "anti-Spencer" crowd - those, who like those in Lehi's day, could not fathom something catastrophic happening to their city.  "After all, are we not the chosen people of God?", they would smugly reassure themselves.  And then the dust clouds rise on the horizon.  Anciently, the clouds were from the beating of horse hooves and chariot wheels, today it comes from tank tracks and thermonuclear devices......  But the results are generally the same.......

So now, we are left with the heavy lifting of coming out of an increasingly corrupt and backward world and trying to strip the stragglers of their 50 shades of gray, because people are no longer operating in a black and white world.  The slide towards babylon is often very slow and almost imperceptible - "and thus he cheateth their souls carefully".  No one would fall headlong into an illicit affair with babylon - but they would slowly slide into it, if they were not completely aware and anchored to solid things around them.  My anchor is Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon - and when I hear people telling me that "All is Well in Zion" when the statistics bear out differently, I have to question their motivations and their authority.  When something doctrinally foundational is minimized, I do the same.  When the Book of Mormon gives a warning, I heed it.  Those prophets saw our day and raised the warning voice - but most people are asleep in a dreamy sleep.

In Jesus' day, he raised the warning voice.  Tried to bring the ship back into the middle of the channel, but he ended up paying for his efforts with his life.  Yet the people thought they were still in the way - and had not departed the path as the chosen ones.  They were so certain of themselves, that they killed the very Son of God and then martyred the Apostles.  They thought they were doing everyone a favor - but how very wrong they were in their zealistic oversight.

In the case of the US gubmint, they thought they were doing the world a favor by resolving once and for all the "Mormon question" back in 1890.....  Here was their solution after dissolving the assets of the Church (was the charter ever revoked??):

The Salt Lake Temple was rented back to the Mormons for over $400 a month. The annual rent for the Tithing Office and Historian's Office was $4,400 a year, and the Gardo House was rented to the Saints for $400 a month. When Utah gained statehood in 1896, most of these possessions were returned to the Mormons, but much of the land seized by the Federal Government has never been returned.

One wonders what happened to the glorious government that was founded by inspired men with an inspired Constitution! Where did it get off course and when did it begin to decline? The Prophet Joseph said that it reached its greatest moments under President Andrew Jackson (who served two terms from 1828 to 1836), and it has deteriorated ever since:

General Jackson's administration may be denominated the acme of American glory, liberty, and prosperity; * * *