THE VIEW FROM UNDER THE BUS

I have been wanting to write this piece for quite some time now as I have seen several troubling incidents come into my view.

I stand for the truth.  I do not really care where it takes me or what the consequence may be.  I have seen too much to know that the Lord has my back.  There are some who have erroneously - but understandably - come to the conclusion that Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ/John the Baptist and even Abinadi have stood up for the truth and have gotten thrown under the bus in the greatest way possible for their efforts.  I will knock that notion down right here - in that they had to die to seal their testimony, as testators of a new covenant (or, in other words - they brought in a new era or way of thinking that required their blood in order to more fully condemn those whose false or twisted words they were combatting).  See Hebrews 9: 16-17

I enjoy the luxury of being in a position where I can anonymously say what needs to be said in no position of authority - and I can mostly get away with it with little or no repercussion.  I have little to nothing to lose - and the satisfaction factor is VERY high.  There needs to be millions of people like me.  People who just don't give a damn about social cost - who are willing to just lay it down as it really is.  I have always done it - and the results have been stunning.  Once you get the feel that God will back you no matter what - then the more bold the stance.  When evil knows you will stand firm and stand up to it (just as President Trump has done), then the tide of evil turns.  It starts with you and I.  We are the groundswell; the grass-roots in the (seen and unseen) battle on this telestial orb.  God would that we were either hot or cold; He can do little with someone who is luke-warm as it states in Revelations.

I have one guiding principle - and that is a nearly unshakable faith that God will sustain me and that the consequences will work to my good and to the glory of God's kingdom.

I have shared my story from the Boeing days when Romney was running for President.  As a "Moron" in a very liberal group of folks in the 777 Systems and Installation Support Cell, I was catching all kinds of heat.  There was the liberal "free love" former hippy who was point man on the group with about 10 other Millennials who made the bad decision to challenge me on the Law of Chastity.  After listening to the diatribe about the "hook-up" culture and FWB (friends with benefits - which means just casually sleeping around with one person with no commitment) culture that my younger associates were pushing, I decided to stand my ground on the Law of Chastity.  In the end, after a pretty hostile exchange (yes, people can get quite charged when you challenge them on whether it is their right to be able to have an "endorphin release" with whomever they want - because this is tantamount, from a physiological standpoint, to taking the coke from the cokehead), Gene the hippy-dude let me have it, screaming and profaning God with f-bombs and the whole nine yards in our cube farm.  It was unprofessional as I simply was defending myself and my beliefs - that are NOT my own.  Gene was literally foaming at the mouth as I received my scathing rebuke for my "ignorance" and stupidity for believing in this mythical "sky god".  That was a tough thing to have to take.  In light of what I was going thru at the time, due to my wife's health situation, it was kind of about the last straw for me.

I got down on my knees after everyone had left for the day and asked that the Lord "stay his tongue" because I was at the end of my rope with the hostility towards my beliefs and my faith.  That was a Friday evening.  Monday morning came and Gene was there early as usual.  When I rolled in, all Gene could do was croak at a whisper level.  He was training the 'newbies' as part of a pre-retirement knowledge transfer exercise.  Instructions were given on a large post-it from then on out until a day before he retired when he went in to have it checked out.  I never had to listen to him above a whisper for the rest of that time with him.  At the appointment, he was immediately diagnosed with throat cancer and was sent immediately to the Fred Hutchinson cancer center in Seattle.  He succombed to throat cancer 13 months later.  I have to interject here that throat cancer really only comes about in one of three ways.  Due to a viral load - mostly associated with cancer from oral sex with multiple partners who have the Human Papiloma Virus on their soft parts, from a lack of selenium in the diet (there are only a few clusters related to this found world-wide - biggest being in India) and also from smoking; Gene was not a smoker and there are no clusters of this due to low selenium in our diets in the USA - that I am aware of.  Sooooo..... how ironic would it be that he happened to get the most common cancer found among "free-love" players.....).  You might say it simply was a cancer of "bad Genes"....  I just consider it bloody ironic - now that I think of it.

I stayed in touch with him after he left the company on a medical leave and urged him to allow the guys in white shirts into his home (that he had openly bragged about humiliating on his doorstep, when he still had a voice).  I promised him that if he entreated them and the message that they had, they had the keys to help to make him whole again.  As far as I know, he never did, choosing to rely on the arm of flesh (with chemo treatments) - which happened to let him down as he slid further and further under the bus he had attempted to throw God under.....

I will not go into detail further, other than to say that there were two other people who did the same during my career there at Boeing who ended up in a very bad way (there was death involved in both cases and extreme sorrow).  Both additional cases involved me being humiliated for being open about my beliefs, and me asking simply for respite from that.  Usually, it involved asking the Lord to judge between me and the actions of these people and to let the chips fall where they may (in favor of them, or in favor of me).  The results in each case were stunning.  I am a fallen and imperfect man.  I have to wonder what God would do for a man who is fully just and holy (a subject of another blog piece).

I am a home teacher to a "just man" who is from Africa.  His story of how he came to be here is stunning.  He is a miracle man. There are many who are being gathered here (to Cardston) that will largely be able to avoid the heartache that countless others will have to endure on the purifying journey as they come off the West Coast and from other areas.  It will be difficult beyond imagination, for a reason.  We must all be completely stripped of our pride (including myself and my family) until we are ready to receive and be in the presence of the Savior.  There were some unfortunate circumstances which led to this man's family being persecuted (older children no longer come to church).  The family was unrighteously judged for the action of one member of that family.  I sorrowed for him and his family and asked the Lord to judge between his family and those who had judged him and to give the family relief so that they could feel good about fully supping at the Lord's table.  God has and will judge for them.  God will have a Zion people, stripped of pride and who judge only righteous judgment.  We can either choose to be humble - or we can compelled to be humble.  It really is our choice - or we can choose to de-select ourselves on a Millennial scope of things.

We have several litmus tests that can be used in the judging of righteous judgment.  First, when talking to a person, do they throw the Savior under the bus?  The people of His day did - and they paid a horrific price.  Josephus writes that they had resorted to cannibalizing their own progeny in order to survive shortly before they were wiped nearly clean by the Romans.  Ironic, in that they rejected the "Bread of Life" in that they were invited to symbolically take and break in remembrance of the body that was broken and the flesh that was given up on the cross, and they were, out of desperation, driven to take and break the literal flesh of their own.  What a sad and filthy contrast.....  How the outcome would have been different with the opposite scenario playing out.  They would have had the very King of Heaven as their guide and nothing could have stopped that Kingdom - but it was not to be.

Amongst the Saints here in Cardston, it is largely implied that we believe in Jesus and The Book of Mormon, etc.  Another litmus that I use to develop a feel for where a person is at, is  and the vision of Sols GuardistoVisions of Glory.  I feel that these two pieces of writing were written for us.  My daughter recently went in to receive her PB.  The Patriarch is a good man.  I can tell that.  I shared with him our "Dallin story" prior to the blessing and then afterwards, shared with him some more thoughts and asked him about his feelings on Visions of Glory.  He had read it - but said he did not have a favorable view of it.  Not a caustic view of it - just not favorable.  When I told him that it will happen just as written, he back-pedaled a bit - but I did not want to punk the Spirit that was there and we politely brought the conversation to an end and we left his home.  I had borne my witness of things to come - to one who has those keys to pronounce the same - and my job was done.

About six weeks ago, I had the chance to randomly run into my daughter's Seminary teacher at a basketball tournament.  Before the game started, I was sitting there with my daughter in an area outside the gym where it was quiet and I proceeded to tell him the "Dallin story" and other events.  For the most part, he was polite (what do you tell a person who shares such a story? - "Sorry, sir - you are deluded and full of hu-hu?").  Then for the ultimate litmus - "Have you read Visions of Glory?".  "What do you think of it?".  His first statement was that he did not think it was inspired.  And that he could NOT believe it as an official emissary of the Church - Seminary teacher.  I then clarified - and said that I did not expect him to teach it across the pulpit nor to my children - but what did he think of it personally?  The same thing.  His defense was that he had read the FAIR assessment of VoG  (click the hyper-link to read that Pharisaical assessment) and that was all that he needed to know.   I sat there kind of speechless - he had let that useless group of intellectual Pharisees guide his thinking????????  Just wow.  I officially became a little concerned for my daughter's spiritual well-being as his student.  Just what else had he rejected?  Modern miracles?  True power in the Priesthood?  Because of our unbelief, we are living WELL below our means.  Myself included, at times.

The game was about to start and we moved towards the gym.  I told him that we would have to have his large family over for dinner so we could chat more.  I told him that I could help straighten him out on the "Spencer question" at that time.  I kind of punked him - but I was a little incensed at the ignorance and mild arrogance I had seen.  I expected more of him.  I had heard great things about him.

We did invite him over the other night, and it did not go well.  It was kind of an ambush, but he and his wife were having none of what we were serving on the menu.  Sadly, they have judged and they will have to go through some learning and possibly sorrows on that account (only God knows their true hearts).  The elect are usually not blinded by their professions, their status in life and much else, and hear the call to truth and do not throw it under the bus - as the socially and powerfully connected priestly class did in Jesus' or Abinadi's day.  I have experienced the same reaction from all of those who are in official Church capacities in the Cardston area.  From Stake Presidents to regional Seminary coordinators to ranking temple workers.  Those in positions of power have summarily thrown Spencer under the bus.  Those in lesser stations, only whisper approval in hushed tones.  On the flip side of that, there are many who have been in positions of leadership, who hold an opposite view.

My concern is this:  we are supposed to be a place of refuge and ready for the influx.  If we are busy rejecting things as they will be, then we will NOT be ready.  When my wife and I were discussing this (at times, she has been mildly annoyed with my preps and obsession on the matter), she asked me why I did not throttle back a bit and let "the Elders of Israel" handle this.  I said, "I AM the Elders of Israel!".  I feel that if I do not show a little backbone and leadership (at least plant some seeds or sprinkle some phosphates around - then the ground will be simply sterile when the time comes.

When it becomes painfully clear that he was right (by force of circumstance), or the official word is disseminated from SLC - then people will suddenly change their tune.  But not til then.  Even with the official statement from SLC, that the Mrs. Sols Guardisto vision is all good, few believe it nor accept it.  As someone who knows how well that first temple President, Edward James Wood is revered in this area (who embraced the Sols vision and forwarded it to the Prophet of the day for review), this is shocking to me.  How easily the people forget.

Thus my assessment, without a mighty change of heart, less focus on materialism and so much else, that the purge will be equal here in Cardston to anywhere else - before the lesser remnant are allowed to turn it into a hallowed gathering spot.  The purge will begin in the Lord's house first.  Then it will go forward from there.

So, yet one more time, I put out a generic warning that there are "just men" and "just men made holy" among us and I always give this warning to people when it concerns these two classifications of men and women:  "it is not they who are being judged in the balance, it is you!".  I said the same thing to my wife years ago, when she chose to side with the feminist wenches who threw Joseph Smith under the bus with the rest of the foulest of the eternities.  I warned her that she would pass through a sort of furnace of affliction until she saw things as they truly are.  And she has.  We have, jointly.  It has been excruciating - and I am not sure if that is strong enough of a word.  I understand the metaphor of the winepress.  It is crushing in all senses of the word.

When we throw those who are just and holy under the bus - the outcome is not good.  YET, God has spoken through unlikely channels that the Saints WILL be ready here.  If the official priestly class is resistant and even hostile to what is coming - then who will lead the official charge forward?  Things must be done in wisdom and in order.  As Joseph said, it is the Lord's economy to send out personal revelation to many so that they will be ready to receive the truth when it is disbursed through official channels (happened with polygamy) - but only those with keys have the ability and stewardship to move forward with the "program".

Until then it is a waiting game.  For now, it is comforting to know that those at the top, in positions of power and who hold the keys, know the program and that it is just a matter of patience and time until it is laid out and revealed.