This is one of my favorite stories from Church lore. It makes a remarkable point and I think it has merit for relying on when things progress in the future and we have Asian and Russian troops on our soil in a "peacekeeping" role. It will be those times that the US is under seige and the Christians are persecuted, with specific aim on members of the Church and other upstanding Christian organizations who stand for Liberty.
When reading these accounts of miraculous events in our temples, I cannot help but think of the claims by the DoCers that the endowment is at least partially satanic in nature. If there was one shred of indecency or lack of approval of the Priesthood lines/authority within those walls, would God have never sent the protection that He sent on behalf of the building and those that may have been in them? There was the miraculous saving of the Logan Temple from the Federal Marshalls during the polygamist days (previous blog piece with the stories from the Logan Temple Recorder about the Nephite warriors protecting the temple from threats of burning it to the ground). If God considered polygamy and other elements of the Endowment an abomination, what exactly then was this event recorded in the Logan temple archives? Would God not have let the evil carry out their work? I think He would have....
A little chiasmus here: But God did not let the evil come upon the Lord's anointed and upon His House. And He did protect them in the hour of their need. Therefore, we can assume that these claims of malfeasance since 1832 are invalid and illogical and are pushed by desperate people who cannot properly assess things as they are. Again, mentally ill.
Another story here (amongst so many more) and these witnesses will stand against those who blaspheme God's House to such an end that they bring upon themselves a cursing. The time for repenting is over and this is already in progress. For, when you, after so many witnesses, throw out the Lord's house, you throw out the testimony of these witnesses and you will have yet one more on the jury in the heavenly trial, after your earthly buffetings are over. It is always a two-edged sword. One edge of the sword cannot be avoided over the other.
This is not some kind of threat. This is some kind of fact. God will see to it in His own way and in His own time, which I have prayed is short, just as it was for Alma the Younger, etc.
Here is the story:
Today marks the 77th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. While I am certain this was not the only miraculous deliverance that happened that day, it is a pattern of God's deliverance for us to learn and take solace from. Those who exercise faith in God will be protected and saved by what is, by all appearances, supernatural means, even from what seems to be impossible odds. As President Russell M. Nelson has said "God uses the unlikely to accomplish the impossible."
(My recollection of this story was published in the LDS online magazine Meridian Magazine, where other witnesses commented on and corroborated this story. I will also add that this temple was the third operating temple in the Church, built at great sacrifice of the Hawaiian members and miraculously finished when a shipwreck occurred near shore, the crew saved by the Laie saints, and the wood from the ship offered to them to finish the temple. God and His angels would not have it be destroyed!):
We toured all over Japan for 10 days, visiting Okinawa, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo, and ending in Sendai. In each city we were hosted by a mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In Hiroshima, we were privileged to be hosted by the very warm and accommodating President Yafuso.
Before our concert in Hiroshima, President Yafuso and Nobuaki Irie took us to see the beautiful Miyajima island with the Itsukushima shrine, complete with wild sacred deer who were quite friendly.
After touring around the island for awhile and taking some amazing photos (and petting the deer), we had some time to tour the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park - the area devastated by the atomic bomb. We learned that the dome was directly underneath where the bomb exploded - chosen as the target because of the "T" the streets made right next to the Genbaku Dome.
After visiting this touching memorial and seeing the heartbreaking pictures and pleas from the Japanese citizens for "No Moer (More) Hiroshima", we had a chance to visit with President Yafuso where he solemnly told us his conversion story in Japanese (translated by Brother Irie).
President Yafuso's father was killed by the Americans in World War II. As a young boy growing up on the island of Okinawa he told his mom not to cry, assuring her that he would grow up to become a general and exact revenge on the Americans for killing his father. With this mindset he tried to avoid the American LDS missionaries whenever he would see them in the streets. On one particular day, he crossed the street back and forth several times to try to avoid the missionaries, who seemed to cross the street exactly every time President Yafuso did. He met with the missionaries and became converted as a pre-teen.
The missionaries who taught President Yafuso the gospel told him of another investigator they taught who had actually been involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor. While teaching this man about the role that temples play in our church they showed him a picture of the then-closest temple to Japan - the Laie Hawaii temple. When they showed him the picture his face turned white when he was the picture of the Hawaiian temple because he recognized the building from the attack at Pearl Harbor as he explained to them:
As a bomber in the attack on Pearl Harbor, he had one bomb left after the attack and was supposed to find a building to destroy. As the Laie Hawaii temple was directly on the flight path from Japan to Pearl Harbor he saw the temple and decided to drop his bomb on it. He flew over the temple and attempted to drop his bomb, but it wouldn't drop. Surprised, he flew a second time over the temple and again tried to drop the bomb, but again it wouldn't drop. Then he decided to attack the temple with his machine guns, but they wouldn't shoot. Utterly confused, as he was flying back to the aircraft carrier and, while flying over the ocean, he attempted to drop the bomb one more time - and this time it dropped - directly into the ocean.
I will never forget the solemnity with which President Yafuso told this story, and the spirit that I felt as I heard his words. I can hear them and see him like it was yesterday. I know that God is in control and can save His people from what appears to be certain destruction. He will create places of spiritual and physical safety to protect those who love Him and are prepared. He will not have His covenant people be destroyed!
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