Tag Archives: Zion

The Economics of Gifting

29 Wednesday May 2019

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As one who speaks three languages, I find it interesting that the word gift is almost never used as a verb, though gift giving isn’t uncommon among friends. It is less common among acquaintances and even less so with strangers. I have heard it more commonly used in Spanish (regalar) and also in German (schenken) in daily use. But gift giving is detrimental to economics. How can you get people to pay you for what others give away for free? This also applies to religion and it’s why the Pharisees hated Jesus; He was bad for their business. Why pay ministers when the Son of God offers salvation for free? He gave the earth to Adam and Eve to cultivate freely without price.

Matthew 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

But fallen man exacts a price and he over exacts much. Modern economics deals with the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth, or in other words, money. You can buy anything in this world with money. But you must first get gain. This cannot happen except by extortion. Man robs God, takes ownership of the earth, then with his ill gotten gain, he does not transfer it unless he profits thereby. God has forbidden this or as we read in Matthew 6:24, you cannot serve God and Mammon (Hebrew Mamonut=finance, Mamonai=financier, Mamoni=monetary, etc.). This is the way of the world, or in other words, Babylon. It is the continual exchange of substance. But God has something else in mind:

D&C 59:18 Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;
19 Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul.
20 And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion.

It is by such extortion that  makes thieves of beggars like Jean Valjean and harlots like Fantine who after selling her hair and her two front teeth in order to provide for her child, resorts in desperation to surrender her virtue by prostituting herself so that she might survive.

A young man who wanted to follow Jesus, having kept all the statutes from his youth up lacked just one thing to become the Lord’s disciple. He needed only sell all his possessions in order to give of all his worldly wealth thereof to the poor. But the young man coveted his own substance and abandoned the Lord because his heart was set upon his worldly treasures. Such can never hope to become pure in heart for it is the pure in heart that constitute Zion. The pure in heart are pure, that is, unmixed, unadulterated, unalloyed by any other substance or material.

D&C 101:18 They that remain, and are pure in heart, shall return, and come to their inheritances, they and their children, with songs of everlasting joy, to build up the waste places of Zion.

And who are the pure in heart that constitute Zion?

Moses 7:18 And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.

“There was no poor among them.”

Isaiah 14:32 What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.

And why does nobody suffer poverty in Zion? Because they are one. One heart and one mind. They are righteous, or in other words just. There is no injustice and there is no injustice because there is no excess and no extortion. Like the saints in the first  few chapters of Acts, they have all things “common” among them. All of it is God’s who multiplies and gives freely.

Acts 2:44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common…

Acts 4:32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

They embodied the two great commandments for they loved God and also one another as themselves. The same discipleship was found in the Book of Mormon after Jesus Christ’s visitation:

4 Nephi 1:3 And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift.

Gift giving is kind. It is brotherly and selfless. It is faithful. Gift giving is Godly. Of such is the true disciple of Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

 

To All Mormons: An Open Letter

13 Saturday Oct 2018

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Recently members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the world learned that President Nelson announced the building of twelve temples. That seemed like a very impressive list. But missing from that list is the temple yet to be built in Independence, Missouri. There in Jackson county sits an empty lot today waiting for Lamanites to build it, assisted by repentant Gentiles. In 1975, During General Conference, President Spencer W. Kimball, giving his First Presidency message said:

“When I was a young man living among the Lamanites more than seventy years ago, the destruction of the Lamanites was a stark reality. It seemed impossible to me that this broken people could ever rise from the destruction and become a mighty people once more, as the Lord had promised. I remember reading the words of President Wilford Woodruff, spoken in a day when the Lamanites were literally the “vanishing Americans”:

“The Lamanites will blossom as the rose on the mountains. I am willing to say here that, though I believe this, when I see the power of the nation destroying them from the face of the earth, the fulfillment of that prophecy is perhaps harder for me to believe than any revelation of God that I ever read. It looks as though there would not be enough left to receive the Gospel.” (Journal of Discourses 15:282.)

For a thousand years after the closing of the Book of Mormon record, these people wandered in spiritual darkness and were scattered upon the American continents and the isles of the sea. They lost their written language, their high culture, and, worst of all, their knowledge of the living God and his work. Faith was replaced by fear, rich language by crippled dialects, and an understanding of God and his ways by idolatry, even human sacrifice. Since the coming of the white man to the Americas, they have been driven mercilessly, killed, and degraded…Someone said, “If my pen might have the gift of tears I would write a book and call it ‘The Indian,’ and I would make the whole world weep,” Only the most brazen soul could fail to weep when contemplating the fall of this people, and yet it was the decree of the Lord that the Lamanites should be preserved in the land, that this remnant of Joseph should again come into their promised inheritance.”–Our Paths Have Met Again

In 1963, while an apostle, Spencer W. Kimball said:

“I’ve known people who have been promised in their patriarchal blessings that they would live to see the temple built and some of them are dying and haven’t seen the temple built. Do you know why? In my estimation, the Lord’s time table is directed a good deal by us. We speed up the clock or we slow the hands down and we turn them back by our activities or our procrastinations. And do you know why I think people who are actually promised that they would live to see the temple built are dying before the completion of the temple? Because we haven’t converted the Indians in large enough numbers; never shall we go to Jackson County until we have converted and brought into this church great numbers of Lamanites. Now you just as well set that down as a basic fact.”–From a copy of the December 1963 talk obtained from President Kimball’s secretary as quoted in Book of Mormon Student Manual (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2nd ed., 1981), 427-28

I have spent a great deal of time studying and writing about the Lamanites of the last days, which resulted in two recent blog entries, which I hope everyone reads or will have read:

To The Lamanites
To The Lamanites, Part 2

Nephi and other Book of Mormon prophets concerned themselves with two distinct categories of people:

1: Jews
2: Gentiles

There is a subset of Jews, which dissented from the covenant people:

3: Lamanites

If you read the title page, it becomes clear. By the end of their civilization, Moroni acknowledges and writes concerning them in his title page:

“Written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel; and also to Jew and Gentile…”

He knew that it would be a Gentile who brought forth their record:

“…Sealed by the hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the Lord, to come forth in due time by way of the Gentile…”

The Hebrew word for repent is “teshuvah” which literally translated means to return. This is the fulcrum of the message of the prophets of the Book of Mormon. They are calling us to repentance. Ultimately those who will “return” and build the New Jerusalem are:

1: Lamanite remnant
2: Repentant Gentiles

The Book of Mormon did come by way of repentant Gentiles when Joseph Smith and the early saints ushered in the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They were tasked to take the gospel to the Lamanites, which they attempted briefly, but instead they took the gospel to the rest of the Gentile world. To reiterate what Orson Pratt said, which I quoted in an earlier blog entry:

“We can pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus, to convert these Indian tribes around us, and bring them to a knowledge of the truth, that they may fulfill the things contained in the Book of Mormon. And then when we do return, taking them with us, that they shall be instructed not only in relation to their fathers and the Gospel contained in the record of their fathers, but also in the arts and sciences. They will also be instructed to cultivate the earth, to build buildings as we do, instructed how to build Temples and in the various branches of industry practiced by us; and then, after having received this information and instruction, we shall have the privilege of helping them to build the New Jerusalem. The Lord says—“They,” the Gentiles, who believe in the Book of Mormon, “shall assist my people, the remnant of Jacob, that they may build a city, which shall be called the New Jerusalem.”

Now, a great many, without reading these things, have flattered themselves that we are the ones who are going to do all this work. It is not so; we have got to be helpers, we have got to be those who cooperate with the remnants of Joseph in accomplishing this great work; for the Lord will have respect unto them, because they are of the blood of Israel, and the promises of their fathers extend to them, and they will have the privilege of building that city, according to the pattern that the Lord shall give…We have got to be sent forth as missionaries to all parts of this American continent. Not to the Gentiles, for their times will be fulfilled; but we must go to all those tribes that roam through the cold regions of the north—British America, to all the tribes that dwell in the Territories of the United States, also to all those who are scattered through Mexico, and Central and South America, and the object of our going will be to declare the principles of the Gospel unto them, and bring them to a knowledge of the truth…

These are some few things pertaining to the redemption of Zion. I would to the Lord that we were righteous enough to know a few more! There are a great many things that I would like to know about the redemption of Zion that I do not know, and I presume that you also would like to know them. But what the Lord has revealed is very plain when connected together; and when we reflect upon it, it is astonishing to us to think that in our day the Lord has decreed to perform such a great work in the midst of the earth. It will be astonishing to us when the time comes for the Lord to gather in, from every part of this great continent, these poor, miserable, degraded Lamanites, that his servants may have power over them in order to bring them to civilization. It looks impossible to us, but remember that that is the day of the Lord’s power, and that then will be fulfilled the saying in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, that the Spirit of the Lord shall be shed forth upon the hearts of those who are ordained to that power; that every man among these remnants of Joseph will hear the Gospel in his own tongue, by the power of the Holy Ghost shed forth upon those who are ordained unto this power. There is such a saying as that in the Book of Covenants, and when that day comes the Lord God will work mightily by signs, wonders and miracles in various ways that will have an influence over these remnants of Joseph to convert them and bring them to a knowledge of the truth, that the prayers of their ancient fathers, and of the Prophets and Elders who once dwelt on this American continent, may be fulfilled upon their heads.” –(source: http://jod.mrm.org/17/289)

We read about this succinctly in some of Moroni’s final words to us:

Ether 13:6 And that a New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land, unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for which things there has been a type.
7 For as Joseph brought his father down into the land of Egypt, even so he died there; wherefore, the Lord brought a remnant of the seed of Joseph out of the land of Jerusalem, that he might be merciful unto the seed of Joseph that they should perish not, even as he was merciful unto the father of Joseph that he should perish not.
8 Wherefore, the remnant of the house of Joseph shall be built upon this land; and it shall be a land of their inheritance; and they shall build up a holy city unto the Lord, like unto the Jerusalem of old; and they shall no more be confounded, until the end come when the earth shall pass away.

New Jerusalem will never be built until the Lamanites in the latter days have been gathered up to accomplish their duty. The world may become dotted with temples and yet if this temple in Independence, Missouri (or be it somewhere else) is not built up and the New Jerusalem established, the Lord will not come. The world will continue to languish in corruption and decay. As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit until all the fruit is equal. The master of the vineyard labors tirelessly that perhaps the tree might bring forth fruit equally. So if you have wondered, like I have, why the Lord delays His coming, it is not He who delays, it is we who delay it.

D&C 49:24 But before the great day of the Lord shall come, Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose.

The Lamanites cannot do it without the Gentiles. And the Gentiles will never do it without the Lamanites.

Moroni Timbimboo

Moroni Timbimboo, 1888-1975 “Service Is A Way of Life For First Indian Bishop,” Deseret News, March 28, 1970

 

Peaceable followers of Christ

28 Thursday Dec 2017

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Is it more important to be right or to be one?

John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

And

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

The Pharisees, excelling in contention, continually sought to challenge Jesus Christ’s authority.

Matthew 22:34 ¶ But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Pharisees had no love for “publicans” and “sinners.” They took it upon themselves to exercise authority over the people over whom they presided, teaching for commandments the doctrines of men, or in other words, imposing traditions upon the masses, and meting punishments rather than extending “mercy” and “judgment,” the weightier matters, thus instilling fear upon the people of God. Then came the time when a variety of such “sinners,” outcasts, and undesirables converted unto Christ gathered to become one, apart from the authority of those who presided over and yet threatened them.

Acts 4:29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
31 ¶ And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold…

These true disciples of Jesus Christ loved one another as they loved God and as themselves. They imparted their substance among themselves equally, having none among them that were poor and none were rich, for all had been equally rich in Christ.

By the time Jesus Christ had visited His “other sheep” (John 10:16), the wicked had been destroyed and all they that had been spared were they who did not stone the prophets and were “more righteous” (3 Nephi 7:7, 3 Nephi 9:13, 3 Nephi 10:12).

And like the people at Jerusalem who had been converted, the people at Bountiful had been converted.

3 Nephi 26:17 And it came to pass that the disciples whom Jesus had chosen began from that time forth to baptize and to teach as many as did come unto them; and as many as were baptized in the name of Jesus were filled with the Holy Ghost.
18 And many of them saw and heard unspeakable things, which are not lawful to be written.
19 And they taught, and did minister one to another; and they had all things common among them, every man dealing justly, one with another.

Such are the true disciples of Jesus Christ. They are filled with the Holy Ghost and they love one another as they love God and themselves. They suffer none to be poor among them, but have all things common among them.

NOTE: It is not the same thing to “have all things common” and to “have all things in common.”

True followers of Jesus Christ have stripped themselves of all worldliness, having no more desire to enrich themselves at the expense of another. They have “all things common” and “deal justly, one with another.” Futhermore, as the title I chose for this entry indicates, they are “peaceable” followers of Christ.

3 Nephi 11:28 And according as I have commanded you thus shall ye baptize. And there shall be no disputations among you, as there have hitherto been; neither shall there be disputations among you concerning the points of my doctrine, as there have hitherto been.
29 For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.

Is it more important to be right or to be one? How simple is it to inquire of the Lord what His will is rather than to engage in disputations over one matter?

3 Nephi 27:1 And it came to pass that as the disciples of Jesus were journeying and were preaching the things which they had both heard and seen, and were baptizing in the name of Jesus, it came to pass that the disciples were gathered together and were united in mighty prayer and fasting.
2 And Jesus again showed himself unto them, for they were praying unto the Father in his name; and Jesus came and stood in the midst of them, and said unto them: What will ye that I shall give unto you?
3 And they said unto him: Lord, we will that thou wouldst tell us the name whereby we shall call this church; for there are disputations among the people concerning this matter.
4 And the Lord said unto them: Verily, verily, I say unto you, why is it that the people should murmur and dispute because of this thing?

The people could not mutually agree on what to name their church. The Lord was not only displeased with their disputations, but also of their murmuring, which is to express discontent, engaging in petty grousing. And so Jesus gently corrected them:

5 Have they not read the scriptures, which say ye must take upon you the name of Christ, which is my name? For by this name shall ye be called at the last day;
6 And whoso taketh upon him my name, and endurethto the end, the same shall be saved at the last day.
7 Therefore, whatsoever ye shall do, ye shall do it in my name; therefore ye shall call the church in my name; and ye shall call upon the Father in my name that he will bless the church for my sake.
8 And how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in Moses’ name then it be Moses’ church; or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel.

If the people had erred in calling the name of their church after a man by mutual agreement, they could just as easily and effortlessly have been corrected by the Lord without having expressed disfavor over their disagreements. A child could have named the church, and that incorrectly, and still have been gently corrected by the Lord without reproving them for their discord.

We then get an account of the progress of the Lord’s people at Bountiful for a period of time:

4 Nephi 1:1 And it came to pass that the thirty and fourth year passed away, and also the thirty and fifth, and behold the disciples of Jesus had formed a church of Christ in all the lands round about. And as many as did come unto them, and did truly repent of their sins, were baptized in the name of Jesus; and they did also receive the Holy Ghost.
2 And it came to pass in the thirty and sixth year, the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another.
3 And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift.
4 And it came to pass that the thirty and seventh year passed away also, and there still continued to be peace in the land.

And so on in “all” the land:

13 And it came to pass that there was no contention among all the people, in all the land; but there were mighty miracles wrought among the disciples of Jesus.
14 And it came to pass that the seventy and first year passed away, and also the seventy and second year, yea, and in fine, till the seventy and ninth year had passed away; yea, even an hundred years had passed away, and the disciples of Jesus, whom he had chosen, had all gone to the paradise of God, save it were the three who should tarry; and there were other disciples ordained in their stead; and also many of that generation had passed away.
15 And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.
16 And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.
17 There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.
18 And how blessed were they! For the Lord did bless them in all their doings; yea, even they were blessed and prospered until an hundred and ten years had passed away; and the first generation from Christ had passed away, and there was no contention in all the land.

For about seven decades, they were one. They were the “children” of Christ (Matthew 5:9), partakers of the heavenly gift, or in other words, the heirs to the kingdom of God. Such peaceable followers of Christ are they who Mormon addresses in an epistle to his son, Moroni:

Moroni 7:3 Wherefore, I would speak unto you that are of the church, that are the peaceable followers of Christ, and that have obtained a sufficient hope by which ye can enter into the rest of the Lord, from this time henceforth until ye shall rest with him in heaven.
4 And now my brethren, I judge these things of you because of your peaceable walk with the children of men.

Peaceable followers of Christ are the “children of Christ.” They do not feel the need to contend or dispute or murmur with the “children of men” to prove a point or just to be right, even if they are right. They allow the children of men to learn by their own experiences just as the children of Christ had to learn by their own experiences to become one. The meek who inherit the earth are the quiet. They are gentle and easily imposed upon. It is their acquiescent nature, which makes smoother transitions from a fallen state to an exalted one. They are flexible, pliant, cooperative, willing, obliging, agreeable, persuadable. It is the peacemakers and the peaceable followers of Christ who endure and become Zion. They become one heart before they become one mind. I believe it is this way on purpose.

Moses 7:18 And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.

Until then, the world will continue with competing theologies, religions, creeds, ideologies, organizations, and so on.

Babylon, The Final Frontier, Part 1

02 Friday Oct 2015

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I served a mission on the other side of the world and when I returned, I went to the mountains of Ephraim to dwell. I saw Babylon bigger and brighter than ever. And I partook thereof until decades later, having been born of the Spirit and experiencing a mighty change of heart, I saw with new eyes how idolatrous I had been. Back then I thought worshiping idols, at least as depicted in scripture, meant nothing more than adoring or reverencing statues as the ancient Israelites did with the golden calf built by Aaron. But it is so much more than that.

The primary commandment given to Israel was to have no other gods before the Lord. Jehovah acknowledged the existence of other gods, though they were all fictions of imagination. If we love the Lord, truly love Him, there would be no need nor even use to go whoring after anything or anyone else. But the Lord’s covenant people did so and still do so. I like what Gileadi had to say in his essay, Twelve Diatribes of Modern Israel:

The final test in the scriptures of whether a god is true or false is whether he saves his people in the Lord’s day of judgment.

And so it was:

Judges 10: 13 Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more.
14 Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.

Isaiah 37: 18 Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries,
19 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
20 Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only.

Jeremiah 11:11 ¶Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.
12 Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.
13 For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.
14 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.

And so it will be:

D&C 112:24 Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord.
25 And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord;
26 First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord.

Idolatry is the great obstacle. Babylon and her idols are alive and well among the Lord’s covenant people upon the mountains of Ephraim (as well as throughout the world). It is so difficult to not be stained by it all. I cannot help but dirty my hands as I contribute to feeding Mammon, though I weep for Zion. I hate money. I hate that I have to work for money in order to exist in a system, which has too great a hold of us all. The people of Limhi learned the hard way. Today there really are no more places of refuge in the world. Above all else, I am vexed by my own sinful and carnal state. I am truly my own worst enemy.

I recently came home from visiting my parents in Texas and as I drove north along I-15, I looked toward downtown SLC at all the tall buildings and also the construction going on. I remember a time when the temple was easily visible. Now it is shadowed and eclipsed by great and spacious buildings, which recently enticed the world to partake of glamorous materialism.

If those giant posters and billboards advertising to the world to come visit the heart of Salt Lake City are disturbing, even more disturbing are the overpriced brands advertised with very attractive models. But isn’t that how all commercials are? Everyone is smiling, all made up, wearing beautiful clothes in the happy settings of Utopian society.

I’m reminded of Hugh Nibley’s words in “What is Zion? A Distant View” where he says:

Elders of Israel are greedy after the things of this world. If you ask them if they are ready to build up the kingdom of God, their answer is prompt–”Why, to be sure we are, with our whole souls; but we want first to get so much gold, speculate and get rich, and then we can help the church considerably. We will go to California and get gold, go and buy goods and get rich, trade with the emigrants, build a mill, make a farm, get a large herd of cattle, and then we can do a great deal for Israel.

I have heard this many times from friends and relatives, but it is hokum. What they are saying is, “If God will give me a million dollars, I will let him have a generous cut of it.” And so they pray and speculate and expect the Lord to come through for them. He won’t do it: “And again, I command thee that thou shalt not covet thine own property” (D&C 19:26). “Let them repent of all their sins, and of all their covetous desires, before me, saith the Lord; for what is property unto me? saith the Lord” (D&C 117:4). He does not need our property or our help.

Every rhetorician knows that his most effective weapons by far are labels. He can demolish the opposition with simple and devastating labels such as communism, socialism, or atheism, popery, militarism, or Mormonism, or give his clients’ worst crimes a religious glow with noble labels such as integrity, old-fashioned honesty, tough-mindedness, or free competitive enterprise. “You can get away with anything if you just wave the flag,” a business partner of my father once told me. He called that patriotism. But the label game reaches its all-time peak of skill and effrontery in the Madison Avenue master stroke of pasting the lovely label of Zion on all the most typical institutions of Babylon: Zion’s Loans, Zion’s Real Estate, Zion’s Used Cars, Zion’s Jewelry, Zion’s Supermart, Zion’s Auto Wrecking, Zion’s Outdoor Advertising, Zion’s Gunshop, Zion’s Land and Mining, Zion’s Development, Zion’s Securities–all that is quintessentially Babylon now masquerades as Zion.

On The Turning Away…

19 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by in Just Marc

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On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won’t understand
“Don’t accept that what’s happening
Is just a case of others’ suffering
Or you’ll find that you’re joining in
The turning away…”

This song has always resonated with me. I am reminded of an address given by a King hundreds of years before Christ:

16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.

So my question to you, dear reader, do we really bring upon ourselves our poverty? Does a man who seek Zion become poor in heart? What did Christ finally advise a certain rich man who had seemed so sincere in obtaining eternal life?

18 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.
21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
23 And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.
24 And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!

It isn’t enough to keep the laws. The Pharisees kept the laws and prided themselves in their zeal and knowledge of the laws. But their hearts were far from the spirit of the laws, even from He who gave them the laws. The laws don’t save us. Jesus Christ saves us. When we forsake everything to follow Him, even all our riches and worldly possessions, thus leaving us poor; when we have experienced that mighty change of heart, we truly become reborn.

Our hearts become one with Him. This is what prepares us for His kingdom. This is what prepares us for Zion, wherein no rich man exists, for there are no poor among them either. There are only the pure in heart who have all things common and where nobody esteems himself above another. Isaiah and others have prophecied of its coming. Who will abide the day? Until then:

…It’s a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting it’s shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that we’re all alone
In the dream of the proud

On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
And mesmerized as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night

No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It’s not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there’ll be
No more turning away?