This in from Rhonda:
I met Rhonda at a Wood Zone meeting in W. Jordan about two years ago. She is an elect lady - among the top five that I have met in this life. Her knowledge base is awesome and she understands the earlies in the Church. In so doing, she gets the bigger picture that most do not. In order to understand what is coming, we have to understand what the original mission of the Church was about.Let me chasten you a bit-- we all need it from time to time. John Taylor, a man who experienced lots of persecution himself, said "Do you think we are going to fail? Do you think the Lord is going to back down? I think not. Men may combine against us ignorantly, for many of them are very ignorant. I do not cherish the least feeling of wrath in my heart when I see the courts, legislators or Congress take steps inimical to us. They do not know what they do, hence we should feel charitably disposed to those who seek our injury. David prayed that God would send his enemies to hell quickly. Jesus, when he was being crucified, suffering the pain of a cruel death, said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” I like that prayer much better than the other one. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. They are thy children, though in the dark. Thou hast enlightened our minds, for which we feel thankful; but, O Lord, forgive them and lead them, if thou canst, in the way of life. This is the feeling we ought to have."
-Journal of Discourses 21:98
On her comment; I struggle with charity, to some degree. I see things clearly - and do not have much tolerance for dissenting points of view. The way I see it, you are either on, or you are not. You are doing God's will, or you are not. Black and white. If you are not, REPENT. It is so simple to me. NO middle ground. Just the truth. All else is in "get thee hence" territory. I see the middle as weakness.
I do not like compromise - as far as I am concerned, the mess we are in as a church is from people who have tried to move the doctrinal body of the Church to a middle ground from a position of power. I see these people as whiners, opportunists who prey on the weak or doctrinally unstable. I see people who claim they are homosexuals, mostly as people who need a good whack upside the head, a dose of manhood (maybe some testosterone injections and an injunction to stay away from soy products) and a good woman to keep the interests in place.... These baffle me - although I do get the occasional environmental mistake where a baby is born with both bits and they have to prune one or the other... That is something God will have to sort out..... For the rest, I say that they would NEVER have to wonder about "their sexuality" if they were not playing with fire outside the clearly established bounds of chastity. This includes chastity as it relates to pornography and other mind-twisting distortions of reality and what God has put out there for His children to follow... We live in a perverse society - and we need to repent when lines are crossed until the devil takes one to the point where they can say they are "gay" or where they can go from a man manly enough to trash on the Russian and East German competition of the day to win a decathlon and then declare "itself" a woman 30 years later..... Perverse....
So, back to this comment. When Christ said forgive them, they know not what they do, He was referring to the soldiers who strung him up, not the children of hell that conspired to string him up. For them, according to Josephus, this very God who allowed himself to be strung up, reserved a special kind of hell for them. They had to eat their own children to sustain themselves during the Roman siege that came a mere 37 years later. When the deluded and hellish people who were so dull and desensitized that they could NOT see the Son of God in their midst, decided that the temple would afford them protection, they then locked themselves inside (per Josephus) and those cedars of Lebanon did quite a job of roasting them - yea incinerating them to ashes. Hot enough to melt gold, that fire was. For the dude who decided to lob off John the Baptist's head, the prize for that lovely deed was the "maggot treatment", complete with eyeballs falling from the sockets as the rotting flesh around the orb was consumed by writhing armies of destruction.
Why go into detail on this stuff? Because I know that we are not held guiltless for our unrepented crimes against those who are just men and women made holy. I hold those in power over this land in contempt of worse things. I can see, in my mind's eye millions dying in mortal combat, children suffering on an unprecedented scale, and so much rapine and murder as to shock the most hardened. This will come about by design - due to greed and the lust for power. So, do I think these who carry this out should get away with the crimes against the innocent alone - let alone those against the knowing who have rejected the truth in this land? Nope - I do not pray for them. I think they should be stopped in their tracks before they can do any more misery and cause any more hell on this orb than they already have. I want them gone - and gone now.
I know it is part of the plan, just as it was that a child of hell would betray Christ to those who meant Him harm - but that does not excuse the action, nor the consequence, nor the punishment.
As a woman, the role is to create life and nurture that life. As a man, I will have the unsavory role of defending innocent life. So when I see that a child of hell like obama and so many others who are giving him orders show blatant disregard for the life of my family and so many others, my first impulse as the defender, is to do a Teancum on him..... If I could change the course of history by doing something like that, so help me God, I would do it. Better early on before more innocent blood is spilled and hell is poured out upon the world. But, I know this is the plan - for us to be betrayed as a nation. We collectively, have brought it upon ourselves...... Now, we pay the price. It still does not absolve that monster, nor relegate him and those who work with him to the lowest place in hell until they have paid the uttermost farthing, or have comprehended the hell they have gone about creating. This is the God I know. One who is merciful to those who seek Him, just and perfect to those who seek the agenda of the adversary......
Rhonda, I respect you greatly - but I guess we will just have to call it a Mars/Venus kind of thing.
1 Nephi 4:13
ReplyDeleteAlma 46:35
Alma 51:14-16
Teancum was an INCREDIBLE, BRAVE, warrior of righteousness who lost his life because he took matters into his own hands. I've often thought of all the good he DIDN'T LIVE TO DO that would've changed the course of history guided by the King of the Universe and righteous military commanders/prophets because he got so spun up........I've often thought of his family left behind without his protection and guidance and priesthood authority because he.....you guessed it....got so spun up. He changed their course of history as well and perhaps not for the better.
ReplyDelete"Vengeance is MINE sayeth the Lord, and I WILL REPAY."
No, you don't have to feel all chummy and lovey toward the wicked. Their actions are to be disdained and viewed as repulsive to the righteous. That's why there's a permanent separation coming soon. Our God is going to make it so we don't have to put up with that any longer. BUT you can lament like the sons of Mosiah and Alma that their souls are going to perish and be sent to hell because they CHOSE that path. You see where they are heading and you can't change their course. Enoch, too, groaned for the same reasons.
You're doing things the right way IRAQ, but do simmer down with the Teancum mindset. The Lord, your family, and the Church need you to stick around.
This comment from Rhonda, edited by Iraq
ReplyDeleteIraq -
It appears that either you misunderstood my comment, or you are dealing with a false dichotomy. The quote I used was not justification for compromise with evil.
The choices are not between Christlike love or imposing consequences; removal of consequences was and is one of Satan’s strategies. Charity—the pure love of Christ—includes the ability to see every person, righteous or wicked, as a child of God. This does not mean there are not consequences for wicked actions. It does mean Christ’s followers watch their attitude toward and language about His other children.
Alma told Nehor that he (Nehor) had “shed the blood of a righteous man, yea, a man who has done much good among this people; and were we to spare thee his blood would come upon us for vengeance. Therefore thou art condemned to die” (Alma 1:13-14)
Did this mean the Nephites called their enemies names and looked on them in derision? Not the righteous ones. Alma clarifies this for us during a time when the Nephites were required to carry on defensive wars: they “were sorry to be the means of sending so many of their brethren out of this world into an eternal world, unprepared to meet their God.” Alma 48:23 (21-25)
What about being angry? Is that automatically either good or bad? It depends on what actions you choose. An earlier commenter mentioned a scripture where Moroni was angry, Alma 51:14-16. What did he do? He kept a clear head, yielded to wisdom, did not act out of malice (“desire to hurt another”) but out of the need to protect. He went through proper channels. Compare that to Teancum, who “did go forth in his anger” to kill Ammoron, and lost his life in the process (Alma 62:36)
The Lord’s people, those who see clearly, keep this principle in mind: during an extended period of war and persecution, “some did return railing (“bitter complaint or vehement denunciation”) for railing, while others would receive railing and persecution and all manner of afflictions, and would not turn and revile (use “contemptuous language” against) again, but were humble and penitent before God. And thus there became a great inequality in all the land, insomuch that the church began to be broken up” 3 Nephi 6:13
The task and challenge is to see others as God does, to not harden our hearts – closing off to the PERSON and not the actions--, hating the sin and not the sinner. Can we hate the actions, hold the person to account, while retaining the ability to see them as a child of God? With the help of the Spirit, it is possible. Final, eternal judgement is God’s. Though we are to make constant judgements on ACTIONS and their merit or ability to destroy, it’s not our job to condemn: the word ‘condemn’ indicates that we consider them incapable of progression.
Elder Robert D. Hales taught, “When we respond to our accusers as the Savior did, we not only become more Christlike, we invite others to feel His love and follow Him as well.
“To respond in a Christlike way cannot be scripted or based on a formula. The Savior responded differently in every situation. When He was confronted by wicked King Herod, He remained silent. When He stood before Pilate, He bore a simple and powerful testimony of His divinity and purpose. Facing the moneychangers who were defiling the temple, He exercised His divine responsibility to preserve and protect that which was sacred. Lifted up upon a cross, He uttered the incomparable Christian response: ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23:34).
“Some people mistakenly think responses such as silence, meekness, forgiveness, and bearing humble testimony are passive or weak. But to ‘love [our] enemies, bless them that curse [us], do good to them that hate [us], and pray for them which despitefully use [us], and persecute [us]’ (Matthew 5:44) takes faith, strength, and, most of all, Christian courage” (“Christian Courage: The Price of Discipleship,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2008, 72).
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-10-1440-how-jesus-christ-responded-to-his-accusers
QUOTE from above comment: "It does mean Christ’s followers watch their attitude toward and language about His other children." UNQUOTE
ReplyDeleteYikes! So then what are we to make of Amulek's and Joseph Smith, Jr.'s, and Brigham Young's attitudes/language toward and about God's other children?
Alma 11:23
23 Now Amulek said: O THOU CHILD OF HELL, why tempt ye me? Knowest thou that the righteous yieldeth to no such temptations?
And Joseph Smith, Jr.
Of one particularly tedious night, Elder Parley P. Pratt wrote:
“I had listened till I became so disgusted, shocked, horrified, and so filled with the spirit of indignant justice that I could scarcely refrain from rising upon my feet and rebuking the guards; but had said nothing to Joseph, or any one else, although I lay next to him and knew he was awake. On a sudden he arose to his feet, and spoke in a voice of thunder, or as the roaring lion, uttering, as near as I can recollect, the following words:
“‘SILENCE, YE FIENDS OF THE INFERNAL PIT."
In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you, and command you to be still; I will not live another minute and hear such language. CEASE SUCH TALK OR YOU OR I DIE THIS INSTANT!’
“He ceased to speak. He stood erect in terrible majesty. Chained, and without a weapon; calm, unruffled and dignified as an angel, he looked upon the quailing guards, whose weapons were lowered or dropped to the ground; whose knees smote together, and who, shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his feet, begged his pardon, and remained quiet till a change of guards.”
Brigham Young comments about blacks:
"You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind . . . Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin," (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 290).