WHO ARE THE GADS? - HUGH NIBLEY

I think we have to dial in our definition just a little better than we have in the past.

There are many in our congregations, sitting on the podiums and in places of high power.  Heck, by this definition, you could probably account for a minimum of half of the people in power.  By this definition, most of the North Dallas neighborhood that I visited the other week, needs to go.

I am suspicious of anyone with excessive power and excessive popularity (in the inner circles) and so many others and so much else.  We literally worship these people in gay, WhollywEIRd and amongst the power-elite in DC - and we do not distinguish them. 

Basically, my litmus is this:  if they rise quickly to the top and seem to come into money when there is no clear reason why they should have; you may have a gad on your hands.   For example, Hillary as Sec of State should not be a fractional billionaire along with her hubby.  If the same person would normally be in prison for the same thing that other, lesser people are currently rotting in prison for, you probably have a gad on your hands.  Nothing simply adds up.

If you have a guy who works hard and is wise in his use of money and treats people fairly and does not have a list of literally hundreds of suspicious deaths on their hands, then you probably do not have a gad on your hands.  If you see the same kind of person rise to the top quickly in a meteoric kind of way, you may have a gad on your hands.  They promote from within.  I brushed with them in high school.  They come in and pick the best of the best and put them on special tracks and they are tested to see if they will "play ball".  Those that do not (who have principles), will fall to the side.  The way these jokesters work is to get dirt on people - to ultimately control them, or steer them like a horse with a bit in it's mouth.  Those who are unimpeachable or not smart enough, they will let fall to the side.  You will notice that every one of these slimeballs is actually quite smart.  They are usually quite charismatic (until their souls are sucked out of them like Clinton and then they are cold and calculating with no warmth or light in them - or if it appears to be so, it is just fakery and the façade can be easily shattered and they exposed for who they really are). 

Just like the skull and bones, they always get the dirt - and dirt trumps any attempt to leave the agenda or the group itself.  At the lower levels, it is always having the punk do a hit on someone the gang does not like - and it kind of seals the deal for the (the gangbanger does not have any out or other options, but to stay with it).  Similar language and modus operandi of the devil, and you are "sealed his".  Once the meat hooks are in deep - there is little hope of escaping.

This is the exact opposite of the way the Lord operates.  It is always an invitation to "come follow me" (with full agency intact) and teaching of correct principles.  The motivation is love and desire to please God.  The opposite is control, coercion, manipulation and fear.  For those who actually are successful at breaking free (who do not end up dead), the process is profound and a total transformation at the core is required.  It is no small thing.

Here is what Hugh Nibley had to say on the matter (and thanks to Heather at Awaken for bringing this gem to light):

"Our Book of Mormon authors speak a great deal about the secret combinations that arose among the Jaredites and among the Nephites and that were destined to arise among the Gentile nations in the last days. They tell us that these secret combinations brought to pass the destruction of the Jaredites and the Nephites and will bring similar destruction on any latter-day nations that permit them to gain an ascendancy. Writing of nations in the last days, Moroni says: 'Whatsoever ...nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed; for the Lord will not suffer that the blood of his saints, which shall be shed by them, shall always cry unto him from the ground for vengeance upon them and yet he avenge them not.' (Ether 8:22.)

"What are these secret combinations which have such powers that whole civilizations are destroyed by them? They wear many guises and appear in many forms. They were the Gadianton robbers among the Nephites, and the perpetrators of the Spanish inquisition in the dark ages. Among us they include some secret and oath-bound societies and such Mafia-like groups as engage in organized crime. They include some political parties, some revolutionists who rise up against their governments and those evil and anarchist groups which steal and kidnap and murder in the name of this or that political objective. They are always groups that seek money and power and freedom from the penalties that should attend their crimes." (Bruce R. McKonkie, The Millenial Messiah, p. 64)
"If the reader has imagined to himself the Gadianton band as abandoned wretches or street Arabs lurking in dark alleys and fleeing from the light of day in dingy and noisome hideouts, let him disabuse his mind of such a concept. They were a highly respected concern that made their handsome profits by operating strictly within the letter of the law, as they interpreted and controlled it. They were the government, the well-to-do, the respectable, and the law-abiding citizens." (Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, p. 385)
"So this is the situation: they were in office to get gain and the glory of the world, and they did everything with an eye single to their glory. They were politically, socially, and economically ambitious. They were opposed by the common people organized by Moroni, who made them conscious of themselves as the poor and humble afflicted outcasts of Israel, always calling upon the Lord. Here we have the two totally different, clearly defined ideologies; the one prevails throughout the world today and throughout ancient, medieval, and modern history." (Hugh Nibley, Approaching Zion, p. 101)

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