WATER AND FIRE - COMPARISONS BETWEEN THE TWO DESTRUCTIONS

Quick note here.  The reference to Bro. Ogden and a pig was a reference to how much he looked like the farmer in the movie, Babe.  It was not a reference to what I thought of him.....  I actually agreed with much of what he had to say, other than how he felt that what he said had to apply towards Spencer.  I probably would have enjoyed taking a religion class at BYU from him - and, asking my wife if she had, we both agreed we both had not had one from him.  I have to say, I laid a subtle word trap, and my "anti-Visions; the Brethren will tell us when to take a bowel movement and when to breathe" troll fell for it.  He obviously does not have little kids any more.......

I woke up in the night with a lot on my mind and I guess the next logical topic for my blog came into my mind.  It is this:  how much more we are in trouble than the people in Noah's day.  Under the leadership of Enoch (and Noah), the people were taught principles of Consecration - and then they lived them, to the point that they could no longer be stayed.  These principles were then taught to other worthies of the day such as Noah, who then taught them to his children.  One of those children, who is the father of the Shemites (Shem - or Melchizedek), then used those principles during his probation to bring another city of people to that state, who then were caught up to heaven, just as the City of Enoch was.  So now, we have a situation where one of the greatest men (besides our Savior) to walk the earth is sent to fulfill a mission to usher in the final Dispensation of the Fullness of Times.  The one every other prophet has talked of and probably longingly looked forward to (and probably wished they could be a part of).  This final great Prophet (with a capital P - we always address him as "The Prophet" and all immediately know who we are talking about, never calling him President So and So.), laid out the principles of Consecration and even the higher law that Abraham lived (sorry Denver, you pooped on Abraham and even Jesus who "did the works that Abraham did" when you said that Brigham had gone astray and made the whole plural thing up) and the people of the day pretty much full-on rejected him.  They were given a much lesser law (tithing) and still squabble over that one, trying to whittle away at it.  They were given the highest form of Consecration - where they simply seek after the needs of those whom they have been given stewardship over; and not their own - and they rejected it at the age that Joseph would have been 85 at, and now seek to bring about the most hellish and abominable thing in the very walls of the their own Church that brought the first destruction by water.  And I hear over the pulpit, that "All is well in Zion".  I about choked on my nachos when I heard that one - it shook me to the core.  The fact that those very words were uttered when all hell is about to break loose on the heads of the Saints for having done far less than was done in the days of Noah. 

Folks, God does not lower the bar.  We are in for one helluvah ride.  And it will be soon.  When the destructions come to this people that came to those in the Book of Mormon times to those who rejected those who came telling the people what their sins were, and who were then laughed at because they thought it ludicrous that "Ephraim {could} lose her fortress" or that they could any less than merit only the choicest of blessings rained down upon them collectively by a smiling, approving and doting Heavenly Parent, how hard it will be, what a shock it will be to see her fair cities disappearing, mountains appearing in their places, some being sunk under the waters, portions destroyed by earthquakes, some by fire; do not be surprised, nor bemoan your fate.  The warnings have been sent far and wide by very many.  The parallels have been drawn - and you stand to go it alone under very stark circumstances for all your troubles for having raised the stones (verbal and otherwise) against those who would have softened the landing for you.  Only after having gotten the hell beat out of you, and most not making it thru, will you then, by circumstance, begin to live the higher laws you were given a fair shot at living as a people.  In your extremity, you will begin to share ALL you have been given, or watch your brother or sister perish, or live out their days without the joy of posterity.  Under those circumstances, all will be set straight, if only by the things that we collectively must suffer as a people, and this nation, by default for having also rejected the words of the Prophet and prophets who were sent among us.

But there are pockets of those who will survive and even thrive. Those who were once willing and fled their former land of promise to live the laws they were given, freely and because they truly believed in them.  The Lord has hidden many peoples away - grafted them into other root stock, so to speak - so that they would not be burned in the vineyard when the purging of the bad fruit came.  So, these must be sought out.  It will be more tolerable for them, than for the rest who rejected the words of those sent to prepare them for the fire which surely must come.