Jan Griffith, August 2005
I was asked to conduct a two-day class at the
Kirtland Restorationist
I brought a
few props to the class – a sweet little sheep, and a wolf that howled. I asked the class to tell me which of the two
looked more like Satan’s kingdom. Many
initially answered “the sheep.” I made a
face at the class, and then some responded with “the wolf.” I made another face, and I heard “sheep and
wolf” together.
Satan is
probably best described in Genesis 3:5, “the devil, the father
of all lies, deceives, blinds men, leads them captive at his will;” and also in Revelation 12:8, “the
great dragon…also called Satan, which deceives the whole world.”
So Satan is a
deceiver. We Christians don’t like to
think that we can be deceived. After all,
we are the children of light. Isn’t it
interesting, then, that we are told in Luke 16:8 that “the
children of the world are wiser than the children of
light?”
Whose
Kingdom?
I asked the
class if we are presently living in Christ’s kingdom (or government). The answer, of course, is “No we aren’t.” In John 18:36, Jesus said that his kingdom was
not of this world, for if it
were, his servants would fight, and that his kingdom definitely was not
now; not from here.
When Jesus was
in the Spirit (Matthew 4), Satan came to him and showed him the
kingdoms of the world, and offered to give them to Jesus if he would
just fall down and worship him. This
identified the kingdom or governmental system in which we currently
live. It belongs to Satan and was offered
to Jesus. Jesus refused it, of course. That’s probably one reason why Jesus said that
we are sent as lamb among wolves (Luke 10).
About the
kingdom in which we live, the Book of Mormon said, “the kingdom
of the devil will be built up among the children of men…and established” (1 Nephi 7:49). It’s
very important for us to understand whose kingdom we are living in, for
only then can we begin to discern the lies that spew forth from the
books we read, the movies we watch, the news we hear, and so on.
Secret
Combinations and Conspiracies
I recently
completed a Book of Mormon “study guide” where I grouped various sets
of Scripture by themes or sub-titles. Under
the theme of “secret combinations” were at least 48 or 49 verses of
scripture. The point I wanted to make in
this class is that the Book of Mormon discusses secret combinations
from cover to cover. It was secret
combinations that destroyed the Jaredite and the Nephite people. More
importantly, we Gentiles* were warned that these same secret
combinations would destroy us in the last days; that is, unless we woke
up in time to recognize them. In fact, we
Gentiles were given a commandment via the prophet
“Wherefore, O ye
Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shewn unto
you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not
that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which
are built up to get power and gain, and the work, yea, even the work of
destruction come upon you; Yea, even the sword of the justice of the
eternal God, shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction, if
ye shall suffer these things to be; Wherefore the Lord
commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you, that ye
shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this
secret combination which shall be among you, or wo be unto it, because
of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust
for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who build it up” (Ether 3:96-98).
A good
scriptural definition of secret combinations can be found in 3 Nephi
3:33, “they entered into a covenant one with
another…into that covenant which was given by them of old…given and
administered by the devil, to combine against all righteousness.”
The Bible is
replete with conspiracies. It was
conspiracies that caused ancient
The Webster
1828 dictionary defines a conspiracy as follows, “a combination
of men for an evil purpose.”
~~~~~
*Who are the Gentiles? There
was some confusion and debate on this subject during class. We all have to seek out our own answers to
this question. I personally believe that
we are identified as Gentiles in the Book of Mormon, and that we were
identified as such for a purpose. During
the dedication prayer of the
Can there be
any doubt that secret combination and conspiracies are the exact same thing?
Therefore, given all the information available to us in the Book
of Mormon about secret combinations, we in the Restoration should be
true believers in conspiracies. If someone
mocks, and thinks we’re crazy, and wants to call us names like
“conspiracy theorist,” so be it. We’re in
good company, for so they would have accused the prophets before us. Even Jesus was accused of having a devil
(being crazy).
The Lord has
called us out of the world to be a peculiar people.
If we are comfortable in the world, then we’re doing something
wrong. Jesus said, “because you
are not of the world, the world hates you” (John 15:19). If
we are the Lord’s disciples, the world is going to hate us.
I asked the
class, “What is the number one reason most people discredit
conspiracy theorists who speak of a New World Order?” The fact is,
most people discredit “one world government believers” because they
find it impossible to entertain the suggestion that two or more people
could organize such a
conspiracy over the course of many years, decades, perhaps even
centuries. After all, it appears our own
two-party system can’t agree on anything, let alone organize a global
government. It’s inconceivable to most
people that such a long-term plan could truly be organized. Surely it is just “accidental.”
Yet onward the plan goes, and while that two-party system can’t
seem to get along, together they pass legislation that brings us closer
and closer to that global system.
“Is there an age-old conspiracy?” I asked. The
answer, of course, is “Yes!” The problem
with most conspiracy theorists is that they try to pin on dates of when
such a conspiracy started and who started it, and such arguments are
simply not credible. Some will pin it on
the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Others
will pin it on the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank.
Some have studied a bit more history and realize that certain
conspirators were hard at work in the 1700 and 1800s.
They are missing the bigger picture, though.
In 2 Nephi 11:93, we learn that “there are secret
combinations, even as in times of old.” In 3 Nephi
3:33, we learn that “they entered into a covenant one with
another…even into that covenant which was given by them of old.” So the Book
of Mormon definitely tells us that this conspiracy is nothing new. It’s been around since forever.
I know of a
few Bible-only believing
Christians who have recognized this spiritual component – that a
conspiracy has been around since forever – but those
Christians are far and few in-between. One
of my favorite Protestants who figured this out is Des Griffin, author
of Fourth Reich of the Rich. In
his book, he speaks of a centuries-old guiding force beginning
with the
So what is the conspiracy? The Bible
provides many clues, but the best summaries can be found in
How is such a conspiracy being accomplished? It is being
accomplished by uniting all pillars of government; the political, the
economic, and the social. But more
importantly, it is being carried out through deceptive spiritual means, which is the one pillar that must
be erected in order for the other pillars of world government to stand. Christians all over the world are being
grossly misled. Not that there hasn’t
always been a form of apostasy among the Lord’s people, but believers
of all denominations today
are being deceived in ways unprecedented. The
apostle Paul foretold a strong delusion that would befall the Christians of the
last days. We are there. The
ecumenical movement has many tentacles; some seen and some unseen. Trying to keep track of them all is
mind-boggling, yet those tentacles have reached into virtually every
denomination and institution on earth. When
John penned the words in Revelation 12 that “Satan deceives the
whole world,” he wasn’t
kidding.
How Satan
Works
In class, I
explained what I believed to be the two most successful means Satan has
of deceiving us. The first way is ignorance. Scripture warns us repeatedly not to trust arm
of flesh, but to trust the Word of God. In
John chapter 1 we learn that Jesus is the Word made flesh.
When we read our scriptures (and especially when we invite the
Lord to attend the session), it is the closest thing we have to being
taught by Jesus Christ, Himself. It is as
though we have entered a Holy Classroom, and it is His Words that pour
forth into our ears, our eyes, our minds, and our hearts.
When we read Scripture, He is our Teacher and we are His pupils. Sad to say, this generation has been
subliminally taught to place our trust in preachers and best selling
Christian books. Furthermore, our culture
is far too comfortable and complacent to give it much thought. We have largely ignored the instruction to
feast on the words of Christ, preferring instead to participate in past
times we find far more preferable, and for this we are suffering and
will suffer. Preferring to trust in the
arm of flesh (be it what we hear on TV, radio, or behind the pulpits at
our churches), we are unconsciously choosing to be led down a path of
prophetic ignorance that was foretold oh so long ago.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We
can choose to become students of Christ, any time we want to. We still live in a free country…at least for
the time being.
I believe that
the second most successful means Satan has of deceiving us is with our pride. It is pride that keeps us from considering all
things. It is pride that shuts our ears,
our minds, and our hearts. In second
Timothy, we read the words, “Consider what I say, and the Lord
give thee understanding in all things.” We are advised to reason and consider. Yet Isaiah said “my people do not
consider” and before we assume that
Isaiah was speaking of ancient
These were
Satan’s first two weapons in the garden (ignorance of God’s Word, and
pride). In Genesis chapter 3, Satan said
to Eve, “hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the
garden…?” His
first three words caused Eve to question God’s Word,
“hath God said?” In her ignorance, Eve did begin to question
the Word of God. Then the next thing Satan
said was, “Ye shall not die, for God knows that in the day you
eat, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods.” As gods? Yes, as gods. Satan
went right to the heart of Eve’s pride. He
is still working that way today, confusing the Word of God, nourishing
the seeds of pride, and making us think we are God.
Swearing
Oaths
To make sure
we had a good scriptural understanding of secret combinations, we
discussed swearing oaths, and keeping secrets.
Matthew 5 says, “swear not at all.” James 5
says, “above all things, my brethren, swear not.” 3 Nephi 5
repeats Matthew 5 that we are not to swear at all. In the Book
of Mormon, oaths are always
mentioned in conjunction with secret combinations.
There should be no question as to how the Lord feels about our
swearing oaths, be it in fraternity groups or secret societies,
especially groups that are renowned for keeping secrets, for it is in
such places that Satan can freely work his darkness upon the hearts of
men.
I quoted part
of a Jesuit oath (Jesuits are the modern day Knights Templars, the army
of the Roman Catholic Church) and compared the Jesuit oath to Ether
3:86-88 in which an evil man named Akish asked, “Will ye swear
unto me that ye will be faithful to me in the thing which I desire of
you?” The
idea behind swearing oaths is the same no matter the secret society in
which it is sworn. It involves the
swearing of obedience to man! Little
wonder the Lord would hate it so, and provide so many warnings against
it. The process of selecting a new Roman
Catholic Pope (the Conclave) required secret oath taking, and its
selection process was said to consist of a secret mystic
transference of power.
That should tell us something about the Roman Catholic Church.
The Book of
Mormon states quite clearly that “the Lord works not in
secret combinations” (Ether 3:93). Oh, how far the Lord’s people have fallen due
to lack of understanding the secret works of darkness.
Ignorance of Satan is no different than being ignorant of a
physical enemy during wartime. Ask any
soldier what it takes to win a war, and he or she will tell you that it
requires knowledge of the enemy and his battle plan.
In Hebrews 5, Paul cuts to the chase when he chastises a people
who will still be in need of the milk when they ought to be skilled in
the meat of the Word. Strong meat,
he explains, belongs to them who, by reason, have exercised their senses in order to
discern both good and evil.
Yet most
Christians not only lack such knowledge, many, themselves, are involved
in secret combinations, the majority of them having no idea of what
that involvement means. Like Giddianhi in
the Book of Mormon, they will say that their secret societies do good
works (see 3 Nephi 2:11). Little wonder
the Psalmist warned repeatedly to “get wisdom, get
understanding, forsake her not, preserve her, love her, and she will
keep thee…with all thy getting, get understanding, exalt her and she
will promote thee and bring thee to honor.” And little
wonder, too, that the prophet Hosea warned, “My people are
destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
Sons of
Perdition
I tried to
explain to the class that just because we’re not interested in Satan’s
servants, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t interested in us. They are interested in us, and we should be more
interested in them. I introduced them to
three of such sons.
1)
Adam Weishaupt was a Jew, yet he was a Jesuit (Roman
Catholic). He formed a secret society in
May 1, 1776 called the Order of the Perfectibilists, which to this day
is celebrated throughout most Western countries as May Day. This Order later came to be known as the
Illuminati (Illuminati means “Enlightened Ones”). A
common denominator among these secret workers of darkness is that they
are truly “illumined” in the sense that they do have great knowledge.
They truly fulfill what is written in Luke, that “the
children of the world are wiser than the children of light.” Of course,
it need not be this way. The children of
light are commanded to “get knowledge” and to “feast on the words of
Christ.” But
do they? It has been my experience that
the workers of darkness take their studies, and the devotion to their
god (Lucifer) much more seriously. Thus,
they truly do possess a kind of wisdom beyond the ordinary… a kind of
wisdom that has afforded them the opportunity to achieve great success
in this world—and we know whose government controls this world.
2)
Giuseppe
Mazzini became head of the
Illuminati in 1834, and founded the Mafia in 1860.
Mazzini was an international banker assigned to run European
activities, and who was later succeeded by Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin;
names we should all be familiar with.
3)
Albert Pike was the Grand Master of a Luciferian group
called Order of the Palladium which was a Sovereign Council of Wisdom
aligned with the Knights Templars (the Jesuits of the Dark Ages). He published a book in 1871 called Morals
and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry,
which resides in the House of the
While
Christians can receive the Holy Ghost, which teaches them all things,
Luciferians can receive spirit guides, which teach and direct them.
A Blueprint
In 1 Nephi
1:65, we are told that the Lord “gives no commandments unto the
children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may
accomplish the thing which he commands them.” In other
words, if the Lord tells us to “get knowledge,” He must provide a means
for us to do so. Of course, the best means
is Scripture and prayer requests to understand that Scripture. There is no better blueprint than the Holy
Scriptures. However, when it comes to
studying the enemy, that we might know his battle plan, the Lord has
seen fit in His wisdom to provide other blueprints along the way. Those Luciferian blueprints were
unquestionably never meant to be in the possession of the general
public, being reserved exclusively for “the illumined ones.” But with God, all things are possible. Some time during the late 1700s, a carrier who
was carrying just such a one of these blueprints was struck dead by
lightning while riding his horse. The
blueprint was retrieved on his body and turned over to the German
Bavarian government. From there, it was
published and a copy was even provided to our founding fathers, so that
they too might be warned of what George Washington called “those
vipers.”
The blueprint
I’m speaking of is commonly known as The Protocols of the Learned
Elders of Zion, and just the mention of it can cause a flood of
false accusation and persecution. Those
who tried to expose it in its early years (like Henry Ford) nearly lost
their livelihoods and some did lose their lives. Some,
like Ford, retracted whatever truths they believed out of fear. Still, these Protocols went forth, but never publicly, as the
media was already controlled even in those early years by the very
“vipers” George Washington had warned about. The
propaganda mill went to work very early to declare the Protocols a hoax or a forgery; a propaganda that
continues to flourish in the universities and the media even to this
day. Few ever dared to publish them
openly, yet copies did in fact leak to the general public, which is why
they are still available. While these Protocols are now openly available on the World
Wide Web, few bother to read them for the same reason that few read
their own Bibles…lack of time, lack of attention, lack of interest, and
especially, lack of knowledge. The general
public has been taught to ignore them, and therefore, they have been
ignored.
“Anti-Semitism”
is usually howled at the very mention of the word, Protocols, yet such a cry can only be truly
believed in ignorance. It was my intention
in these classes to acquaint everyone with this magnificent blueprint,
and to show how truly anti-Semitic it is if we don’t expose them for what they are! The Protocols are simply a century’s old blueprint for
world government and domination by a group who call themselves The
Scripture is
full of warnings about these Luciferians. Perhaps
the warnings that stand out most glaringly are the following:
“…they are not
all
“…I know the
blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the
synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2:9).
“…I will make
them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are
not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship
before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee” (Revelation 3:9)
“One shall say, I
am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and
another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname
himself by the name of Israel” (Isaiah 44:5).
We are warned
of a strong end-time delusion that would precede the Lord’s return. This blueprint of the Protocols, which was provided by an act of God (the
carrier was struck by lightning) helps us to see precisely what the
enemy is up to if we will but open our minds and our hearts to receive
it.
The rest of
Day One’s class was spent in discussion of just a few of these Protocols, how they were foretold, and how they
have been fulfilled. The ones that we
briefly discussed in class are listed below. Keep
in mind that they were discovered in the late 1700s.
“Every man aims at power; rare is the man who would not sacrifice the welfare of all for the sake of securing his own welfare.” (Protocol #1)
This shows his
smart these illumined ones are. They
understand what pride can do to people, and they know how to manipulate
that pride.
“Terror tends to produce blind submission.” (Protocol #1)
We are in a
“War on Terror.” We are so scared of being
terrorized, that we have allowed our governments to go to war and to
remove our rights, all for the sake of “feeling safe.”
Big brother is now everywhere to keep us safe.
Hallelujah. This is another good
example of how illumined these folks really are. They
have a keen understanding of what fear does to people.
God instructs us not to
fear man. Perhaps if this were preached
more often in the churches, we wouldn’t be in our current situation.
“Anti-Semitism is indispensable to us.” ( #11)
This is
precisely why these Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are anti-Semitic and need to be exposed. They call themselves Jews, yet anti-Semitism
is indispensable to them. Any questions?
“We shall create an intensified centralization of government…we are destroying the causes of your torment – nationalities, frontiers, differences of coinages.” (#5,10)
Here they
admit the plan for one world government or a New World Order. Notice how the plan involves the destruction
of national sovereignty and coinages. Boundaries
have been erased and are being erased. Cultures
have been inter-mixed. Borders are being
moved. And only in the last few weeks came
the announcement of a one-world currency from the Bank of International
Settlements in
“There is a great force that creates movement of thought, and that is the Press…which except for few exceptions, is already entirely in our hands. Those fools who think they are repeating the opinion of a newspaper of their own camp will be repeating our opinion…in the vain belief that they are following the organ of their party, they will follow the flag which we hang out for them.” (#12)
What do we get
on TV? Runaway Brides, Baseball Players on
Steroids, Perverts like Michael Jackson, the list is endless. Meanwhile, a global army is being shaped,
terrorism and related legislature is being redefined, Free Trade
agreements are being passed removing jobs and redistributing wealth. And no doubt about it, people parrot what they
hear in the news, not realizing their opinion was given them by the
propaganda manipulators. We are living in
George Orwell’s 1984. We are controlled
by the Press.
“In order to incite seekers after power to a misuse of power, we have set all forces in opposition one to another.” (#3)
In class, I
explained the technical term, “Hegelian Dialectic.”
In layman’s terms, we might call it the “Slippery Slope.” It works like this. The
dialectic involves a thesis (or core belief). A
person who represents an opposing belief (antithesis) then comes
forward to challenge the thesis. The two
(thesis and antithesis) will then “dialog to consensus.”
Once a consensus is reached, the thesis has been changed and
merged with the antithesis, thus forming a “synthesis.”
Once that has happened, the process starts all over again. The synthesis then becomes the thesis and a
new antithesis is pitted against it. This
is precisely how Satan works, and how we Slippery Slope toward
amorality. This explains how only a few
decades ago, homosexuality was considered a mental illness, and today,
to speak against homosexuality can be considered a hate crime. We’ve Slippery Sloped with the Hegelian
Dialectic. Now who would know that this
Slippery Slope was actually a conspiratorial plot?
Who could guess that our slide into perversion was actually
created and fomented by certain manipulators pitting opposites against
each other? Without spiritual eyes
and ears, it cannot be seen or heard. (It
doesn’t hurt that I had to study the dialectic, thanks to certain
required studies at the university…I had a “heads up.”)
“Gold is in our hands…economic crises have been produced by us…we have removed gold from circulation.” (#3, 20)
Everyone in
the classroom knew about the gold standard and the timeframe in the 20th
century when it was removed from circulation. Many
properly educated people know that the Federal Reserve is not Federal
and that it has no Reserves…that it is a private corporation, which
explains why
“We shall emasculate the first stage of collectivism—the universities, by re-educating them in a new direction. Officials and professors will be so placed as to be wholly dependent upon the Government.” (#9, 15, 16)
Universities
are about paradigm shifts, or shifts in beliefs. The
focus today is less on reading, writing and history, and more on
conflict resolution, consensus building, cooperative learning, critical
thinking/higher order skills, and values clarification.
Children’s Rights have been in the spotlight for many years
--recall that Isaiah 3:12 spoke of a time when “children would
become their oppressors.” I quoted a couple of prominent educators
to better explain where universities have lead our children. One said, “Every child in America
entering school at the age of five is insane because he comes with
certain allegiances toward our founding fathers, toward his parents,
toward a belief in a supernatural being…it’s up to you, teachers, to
make all of these sick children well by creating the international
child of the future.”
This was quoted in 1972 at the Association for Childhood
Education International. Schools are the
second greatest propaganda tool, next to the Media or Press.
“We shall destroy the importance of family and its educational value.” (#10)
This is
obvious. Female and male roles have
blurred. Marriage is no longer held in the
esteem it once was; the definition of “covenant” is almost completely
lost today.
“In
order that the masses may not guess, we further distract them with
amusements, games, pastimes, passions, etc. Soon
we shall begin through the press to propose competitions in art, in
sports of all kinds; these interests will distract their minds.” (#13)
This is
another no-brainer. Hard to believe it was
written as early as the 1700s, long before we had professional sports
teams or even Olympic Games. Has it worked? Have the masses been distracted from what’s
really going on? Tell me.
As for books, movies and similar amusements, there isn’t a
popular show in existence that doesn’t have something of the agenda’s
signature in it. For example, the fathers
of science-fiction, H. G. Wells and Carl Sagan, had remarkable
histories in secret combinations. In
“It will be no disgrace to be a spy and informer, but a merit.” (17)
Hitler’s
“Fatherland Security” was successful thanks to a cooperative public who
agreed to spy on each other. Today’s
“Homeland Security” has set up precisely the same scenario. Signs are posted all over the highways where I
live, reminding us to call the TIPS hotline if we suspect anything. Educators and health professionals have been
trained to report suspicious activities, and to encourage their
students and clients to do so as well. There
is a fine line in this subject. It’s one
thing to help someone in need; another thing to be encouraged to report
every little thing. Unfortunately,
government dollars are also often involved, further encouraging certain
professions to tattle.
“We have brought many of them to boast of being atheists, and more than that, to glory in being descendants of the ape!” (This came from a different set of Protocols, published in the Catholic Gazette in February 1936.)
Evolution
Theory is far more than just bad science. It
is a plan to take us from apes, to gods. In
psychology, Maslow’s Hierarchy addressed a pyramidal structure where at
the bottom were basic needs, and at the top was something called
“self-actualization.” Few people were ever
self-actualized. Knowing what I know now,
I realize that self-actualization was reserved for the illumined
ones—of which the ultimate goal is to convince us all that we are
illumined. Remember the lie in the garden? We won’t die. We
will become “as gods.” That lie is still
being taught. It is called Evolution.
“We are most grateful to Protestants for their loyalty to our wishes, although most of them are, in the sincerity of their faith, unaware of their loyalty to us.”
There is no
need to expound upon this particular Protocol because soon enough, we will see exactly
how the Christian Right has been led astray by their oft-times sincere,
albeit deceived shepherds. Again,
Christians were warned more than once about an end-time delusion. If we are headed in the same direction as the
rest of the sheeple, we might want to take a break and have another
look at the map.
This was the
end of Day One’s class.
An
Endowment or Spiritual Awakening?
I asked the
class how many Restorationists are anxiously awaiting an endowment or
neo-Pentecost, and then explained that we aren’t the only ones looking
for such a thing. Over the last several
decades, the Roman Catholic Church and her secret servants have also
begun the cry for a “spiritual awakening.” Pentacostal/Charismatics
like Rick Joyner (who belongs to a powerful Catholic secret order
called the Knights of Malta)
have started professing dreams and visions of a spiritual awakening or
Pentecost, publishing books on the subject and no doubt influencing
many. Speaking of Rick Joyner’s
involvement in the Knights of Malta (a modern day version of the old Knights
Templar), it would be well for us to
remember what the Book of Mormon says: “The
Lord worketh not in secret combinations” (Ether 3:93). So
who is giving Joyner all these dreams and visions?
Perhaps it is the same spirit that deceived Cardinal Roncalli
(who helped him attain the title of Pope John XXIII) or the same angel
that deceived Korihor in
The Christian
Right as a whole has begun to anticipate a kind of spiritual awakening,
a neo-Pentecost. Even Protestants who
speak of a coming Rapture are now beginning to hope for a spiritual
awakening, thanks to the popularity of shepherds like Pat Robertson and
Rick Warren. Warren, who wrote the book The
Purpose Driven Life recently made the
public announcement that the
Not only are
Christians starting to look for such a kingdom, so are Muslims, Jews,
Buddhists, and frankly, all world religions. Everyone is hungering and wishing for better days
in a better world. The problem is, I think
that the “better days” we are being promised is a strong delusion. Our knowledge in the gospel of Christ
assures us that “better days” truly are ahead of us, but I believe that
the Book of Mormon came forth specifically identifying the timeline of
those better days. And if it came
forth identifying a timeline, then we can assume that it also warned of
any deceptive counterfeits. The question
is, have we feasted enough on this Restoration gospel to identify the
counterfeits, or have we digested the same lies that have been fed to
the rest of the world? After all, if Satan
truly has the ability to deceive “even the elect” (Matthew 24:23) then
he would necessarily have to come up with a plan that looked, felt,
smelled, sounded, and tasted like a Restoration….a false Restoration.
What about
a Rapture?
I asked the
class if they understood the origins of the Rapture, a subject that has
plagued Restorationists for many years. And
why would it plague us, given that we also believe that a “quickening”
will occur, and that we will meet the Lord in the air?
It plagues us because for one thing, the word Rapture is not to be found in scripture, and its
usage of the word has been popularized ad nauseum.
It plagues us also because historically, we have been focused on
a gathering rather than a
Rapture, per se. Not that we don’t
believe in a Rapture, but some of us seek a gathering first. Yet the scriptures are clear that a form of
Rapture – a quickening – will indeed occur (I use the terminology for
the sake of communication, since we all know what “Rapture” means). 1 Thessalonians 4:17 says that “they
who are alive shall be caught up together into the clouds with them who
remain, to meet the Lord in the air.” D&C Section 85:26d speaks of a trump that
will sound long and loud, the curtain of heaven unfolding as a scroll,
and the saints who are upon the earth being quickened, and caught up to meet the Lord in the
air. So we are definitely provided more
than one witness to a coming Rapture.
If Section 85
is correct, then we may not be as “at odds” with fellow Rapture
believers as we think. The bigger
difference between them, and us, is that they lack understanding of the
“bigger picture;” namely, that
Those who have
studied the “Rapture” dogma will have heard of a girl named Margaret
McDonald who had a vision of the Rapture in 1830. I
always thought that was an interesting year to have a vision, given
that it was the same year that more of God’s truth sprang forth from
the earth (Satan doesn’t waste a second trying to destroy truth). Margaret McDonald was just a small piece
of the story, however. A man named John
Darby, who was involved in secret combinations and who was one of the
founders of the Plymouth Brethren Movement, was most eager to believe
McDonald’s vision, and thanks to his influences, much of the Western
world soon embraced what came to be known as pre-millennialism or
dispensationalist theology. Now
personally, I have nothing against the idea of dispensations because I
believe the Lord clearly identifies certain dispensations of time. It’s what was attached to these ideologies that are concerning.
The early
Reformers who broke away from Catholicism had a stark revelation
concerning Revelation chapter 12. They
came to recognize that the “woman” who fled into the wilderness
(Revelation 12:6) represented Christ’s true disciples, or in other
words, the Church. They also figured out
that the 1260 days recorded in that chapter (King James
Version) must have meant years. I
try to imagine what the Reformers would have given for an Inspired
Version of the Bible, as it vindicates what they believed. They
understood day-for-a-year prophecies (Numbers 14:34, Isaiah 34:8, and
63:4, Ezekiel 4:6, etc.), and they also recognized the “accuser of the
brethren” mentioned in Revelation chapter 12 as being Satan, whom Jesus
said had just been “cast out” in John chapter 12. From
these conclusions and more, the Reformers deduced that this entire
chapter of Revelation was revealing something extraordinary about the
Roman Catholic Church. Our Book of Mormon
reveals the same thing, of course, only uses different terminology.
“And the angel
said unto me, Behold the foundation of a church, which is most
abominable above all other churches, which slayeth the saints of God,
yea, and tortureth them and bindeth them down, and yoketh them with a
yoke of iron, and bringeth them down into captivity” (1 Nephi 3:140).
In other
words, the early Reformers began to recognize that there was a
historical aspect to the Woman; that she was to endure a wilderness
period of 1260 years. By this they would
also know that the accuser of the brethren (Satan) was already hard at
work on the earth, and that his being cast down from heaven, along with
his angels, would not be some future event. It
was now.
Satan had to
destroy these newfound Reformation interpretations, of course, so the
dispensationalist idea was hatched. Certain
scholars began rejecting the
1260 day-for-a-year ideology. One of
these scholars was a Catholic Jesuit named Francisco Ribera who assumed
the Jewish Rabbinical name of Juan Josafa Ben-Ezra.
He and others like him began to destroy the newfound
understandings of the Reformers, and over time, the dispensationalist
ideology won the hearts and minds of Christians world-wide. Again, that ideology is not entirely wrong. It is what’s attached to the ideology that is
deceiving.
Having
successfully erased the idea that the Roman Church caused the woman to
flee into the wilderness for 1260 years, later shepherds of the
Reformation began preaching that the woman fleeing into the wilderness
represented a future Rapture. Reinterpreting
1260 years to mean 1260 days allowed these interpreters to remove the
Church from any future deception or antichrist figure (the accuser of
the brethren who would be
cast down). Thanks to this cunning
maneuvering of interpretation, Christians for the last couple of
centuries have been taught not to concern themselves with any great
end-time deceit, all the while they are being equipped to fall
head-first into the strong delusion that Paul foretold (more on that
later). Books like Late Great Planet
Earth by Hal Lindsey, or the Left Behind series by Tim
LaHaye have done much to further the delusion. The
latest craze along these same lines comes from Rick Warren’s The
Purpose Driven Life. Now that
Christians have been sufficiently put to sleep, awaiting a glorious
Rapture and unconcerned that they might be deceived, Rapture theology’s
evil twin sister – something called Kingdom-now theology – has started to take hold, which is
another way of saying that we are going to have a Great Awakening which
will precipitate the Lord’s arrival in the clouds.
Not to worry, of course! That woman
of Revelation chapter 12 will flee into the wilderness, not having to
concern herself at all with whatever happens back on Earth. We can thank secret combinations for this
grand delusion.
Just as a side
note, those Jesuits (and others like them) who assumed Jewish titles
paved the way for some of today’s most popular Bible texts. For these reasons and more, it would be
wise for Christians not to blindly accept whatever Bible versions they
are given. In class, I provided just one
example to make my point. In the Old King
James Version, Isaiah 14 describes Lucifer as “son of the
morning.” In
newer versions, including Catholic versions, the name Lucifer is
removed from the texts, and in place of “son of the morning,” we find
MORNING STAR. I asked the class if they
knew who the MORNING STAR was. Some of
them thought he was Satan or Lucifer. I
told them they would be in good company with that interpretation
because that’s what the world is teaching us today, and that’s also
what most modern bibles imply. So who
really is the Morning Star? It is Jesus
Christ, of course (see Revelation 22). While
flipping channels the other day, my husband stumbled on to a relatively
recent movie called Dogma. Just as
he was about to change the channel, I heard someone identify Lucifer as
the Morning Star. I have recognized the
title of “Morning Star” more than once in conjunction with secret
combinations. Yes, the bibles we choose to
study can make a difference in how we interpret things.
On that
subject, it amazes me how Book of Mormon believers are still plagued
with the argument that they have “added to” or “taken away from” the
Bible. What Bible interpretation out there
hasn’t undergone additions or deletions from the original papyrus
scrolls? It only takes a few
comparisons between two often used Protestant Bibles (New King James
and New International Version) to recognize that somebody out there has
done a whole lot of adding to and taking away from.
Like everything else, those who still make this dreadfully weak
argument have been deceived by their shepherds, who themselves have
been deceived. This subject of “adding to
and taking away from” is going to hit the Protestant world very hard
when The Da Vinci Code popularity heats up.
More on that subject in a minute.
Defining
Important Words and Terms
Before I could
proceed with Day Two’s class, there were some words that first needed
to be understood. I will briefly define
them below.
Esoteric: having hidden knowledge or inner wisdom;
beyond the ordinary person’s knowledge. As
discussed previously, esoteric knowledge is reserved for those who
believe themselves to be illumined…enlightened with a higher
knowledge…only those chosen ones who can supposedly correctly decipher the
mysteries.
Kabbalah: like the Talmud, the Kabbalah is a Jewish book
of oral traditions. Think about how many
times Jesus spoke against the Pharisees and their “traditions” and then
you will have a picture of the Kabbalah. It
is said that the Kabbalah was not available to the general public until
the last couple of hundred years because the public was not yet ready
for it. Apparently, we are now ready. Like the Bible, there are numerous versions of
the Kabbalah, also called the Zohar.
The Da Vinci Code: a best
seller book by author, Dan Brown, who is obviously an illuminist, or
who works with illuminists in some fashion. This
book is part two of a three-part series that I would describe as
“allegories” for the future. Dan Brown
mixes facts with fiction, but the facts he provides are more factual
than most people at the moment realize. His
stories resurrect paganism of old, and give the Dead Sea Scrolls
credibility. Conspiracy theorists have
long sought to obtain the information that the best seller The Da
Vinci Code rubs in our faces. The only
problem is, the conspiracy contained in Brown’s literature is so
extensive that even most conspiracy theorists can’t figure out what’s
truth and what isn’t. The Da Vinci Code
is currently being made into a movie, produced by Ron Howard, and Tom
Hanks will be the lead actor. I
predict that we will all be in for quite a ride the closer the time
comes for the movie to be released…unprecedented to the controversies
we have witnessed from other movies.
Noahide Laws: Judaism teaches that all of humankind is
morally bound to follow these set of laws. Most
people have not yet heard of the Noahide Laws, yet they have already
been introduced as the international laws of the future.
Assuming other deceiving titles, such as Natural Law or Moral
Law, George Bush, Sr. signed Public Law 102-14 in 1991, which agreed
that all of civilization is
based upon these laws. The recently
restored Sanhedrin has everything to do with the Noahide laws, as does
an eventual “return to morality” within our legal system (part of that
coming spiritual awakening, perhaps). This
legal system is based upon two separate covenants, one for Jews and one
for Gentiles. The seven Noahide
commandments or laws (for Gentiles) are as follows:
1)
Thou shalt not
engage in idol worship.
2)
Thou shalt not
blaspheme God.
3)
Thou shalt not
shed innocent blood of any human nor fetus nor ailing person who has a
limited time to live.
4)
Thou shalt not
engage in bestial, incestuous, adulterous, or homosexual relations nor
commit the act of rape.
5)
Thou shalt not
steal.
6)
Thou shalt
establish laws and courts of law to administer these laws, including
the death penalty for those who kill, administered only if there is one
testifying eyewitness.
7)
Thou shalt not
be cruel to animals.
I asked the
class if they could tell me what crime Jesus was charged with, or the
accusation made which put him to death. It
was “blasphemy,” of course, which is law #2 above.
For those who are interested in what the future holds for
Gentile Christians, check out www.noahide.com
and learn how blasphemy is interpreted.
“Remember the
word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If
they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20).
Without an
understanding of these Noahide Laws, and the forces that lie behind
them, we cannot hope to understand the schemes of The Da Vinci Code,
or why the Sanhedrin was restored late in 2004, or why the Ark of the
Covenant may soon make big headlines, or why all the fanaticism about
rebuilding Solomon’s Temple. Without an
understanding of these Laws and who is behind them, we are seasoned,
tendered, and ready to be charbroiled in the spiritual awakening that
lies just ahead of us.
Back to the
Protocols
In Day One’s
class, I used various passages from the Protocols of the
Learned Elders of Zion, not only to
show that there was an old blueprint formulated for world government,
but to demonstrate how that blueprint has been fulfilled.
Any learned conspiracy theorist could have taught that portion
of Day One’s class. Day Two’s class,
however, was a different story. I am still
waiting to find a “conspiracy theorist” who can connect the dots as I
attempted to connect them for my class. I
know it’s only is a matter of time before others will also reach the
conclusions I have reached, for I know that there are some very
discerning watchmen out there who truly are searching and desiring
answers. Having the Book of Mormon,
however, I do have a great advantage over the other watchman. Among other things, I am acquainted with
another group of folks who lived on this land in ancient times who
conducted their lives similarly to our lives today – and how a group of
robber barons filled up their judgment seats with great corruption, and
overthrew their laws of the land in order to place the Lord’s people in
bondage. I have a lot of history on my
side, which others do not have. It makes a
difference. The following are the Protocols
of the Learned Elders of Zion which
still remain a mystery to most:
Protocol #1
said, “Our power will be more invisible than any other…it will
remain invisible until it has gained such strength that no cunning can
any longer undermine it…a plan which was laid for many centuries.”
Of course, I
reminded the class that this “plan of many centuries” is most
comprehensively explained in Helaman chapter 2. The
whole Christian world stumbles today without that knowledge, and
unfortunately, even most of those professing to believe the Book of
Mormon are also stumbling. Why, when we
have been given so much? Because, as Paul
said in Hebrews chapter 5, “meat belongs to them who, by
reason, have exercised their senses to discern both good and
evil. The
Restoration was given the most, and more was therefore required of them. But it too has suffered its share of apostasy. Like in every church, there are a lot of
wonderful and sincere people, but also like in every church, there are
plenty of babes to go around, “unskillful in the word of
righteousness.”
What did the Protocol authors mean when they said that their
power would be invisible until it had gained enough strength to become
visible? It is like a beast who
lives in the sea, who remains in the sea for many centuries, but then
finally begins to come up for air. We are
living in that generation when the beast has come up for air – he is
showing his ugly head, and he can do it because we have been
sufficiently weakened in knowledge to the extent that we can’t see this
monster only inches away from our rowboat. I
offered the following sources as a comparison to Protocol #1.
1) “The Kabbalah was brought down from
(Rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple: the Revival
of Biblical Festivals and Animal Sacrifices, by Dr. Ellison, www.noahide.com.”)
2) “The brotherhood vowed to stay silent as long
as it took, amassing enough influence and power that they could
resurface without fear, make their stand, fight their cause in broad
daylight. The Illuminati were no longer
about hiding. They were about flaunting
their power, confirming the conspiratorial myths as facts.”
(Angels
and Demons, by Dan Brown, page 183)
3) “These teachings were entrusted to a
small group of individuals who could benefit from them and could handle
them responsibly. The esoteric tradition
continued, hidden from the masses and from church authorities who tried
to suppress it, to benefit future generations qualified to receive and
make use of the teachings.”
(Esoteric
Lectures, Dr. John Nash)
4) “We are grateful to the Washington Post, New
York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors
have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion. It would have been impossible for us to
develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights
of publicity…but the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march
towards a world government.”
(David
Rockefeller, June 1991)
In each of the
above sources, we learn of a plan that had been laid for a very long
time; a plan which would reveal itself when the time would be right. Protocol #1 said that it would remain
invisible until it was safe to be visible. IT
IS VISIBLE! The
monster in the sea has surfaced and its head is showing.
All of these sources and quotes are only but a few of the many
ways this monster is now revealing itself to the public, with plans to
reveal more of itself in the
very near future.
I have
wondered if the Lord’s commandment to “awaken to our awful
situation” (Ether 3:98) applies
specifically to this generation, this time, right now.
After all, these secret combinations have been among us for many
centuries.
Protocol #1
also said that “out of the temporary evil we are now compelled
to commit will emerge the good of an unshakeable rule.”
In the first
day of class, I discussed the Hegelian Dialectic. Satan’s
agents have pitted oppositions against each other in order to bring us
down the slippery slope to amorality. Down,
down, down we have traveled…down that very slippery slope.
And why? So that when the time was
right, these same agents of Satan could throw us back UP!
Give us a set of laws that would look good!
Fix all of our problems! The
slippery slope was only a distraction in preparation to be pulled back
up “to the truth;” their
truth, that is…and their truth may look a lot like our truth. Look at those seven Noahide Laws again,
and tell me if strict enforcement of them wouldn’t be a welcomed change
compared to what we’re used to? That is,
of course, eliminating the knowledge that with Noahide Law #2, we will
be put to death for professing that the Lord God is Jesus Christ. But who would know it?
A law against blasphemy, in and of itself, sounds like a good
thing.
What a plan of
the adversary! For as long as I have
studied these things, I could not imagine how old Lucifer would
actually be able to deceive the majority of Christians in the world. This is how he would do it.
Create the “temporary evil” in order to “eradicate the evil.” Again, I have yet to meet anyone who
understands these mysteries of Protocol #1. Every
fundamentalist Christian I know is knee deep in the “temporary evil”
part…worried about homosexuality…worried about abortion…worried about
prayer being removed from the schools, and so forth.
They do not see how they have been set up, and are being set up
by this “temporary evil” in order that they may be deceived into
embracing “the good of an unshakeable rule.”
Protocol #5
says that, “we shall regulate new laws.” This goes
without saying. The Noahide Laws are those
new laws. They’re not yet implemented, and
I doubt they will be fully implemented until the public has undergone a
massive spiritual transformation with the help of The Da Vinci Code
along with certain treasures
yet to be unveiled.
Protocol #13 says that, “When we come into our kingdom, our orators will expound great problems which have turned humanity upside down in order to bring it at the end under our beneficent rule.”
Here again we
catch a glimpse of the trouble makers who made the trouble to begin
with, and who are now ready to jump in with all of their great
solutions…namely, a kingdom of god with a godly set of laws. WATCH OUT! And
as for their “orators” expounding the great problems, this too has
already begun. For those who are not babes
in the milk, who have gained a knowledge of both good and evil, I might
suggest hearing a few tapes orated by Dr. Boruch Ellison, which can be
purchased from www.noahide.com. Dr. Ellison is one of their “orators”
who is already going forth, expounding the great problems of humanity,
and speaking very openly about the solutions that will be provided to
end those problems. He speaks eloquent and
fluent Hebrew and English, describing the “true enemy” and how that
“true enemy” has brought us to this generation of crisis.
Ahhhh… but Dr. Ellison never identifies himself as that “true enemy.”
No, the “true enemy” always has another name.
It has many names, in fact, like the Roman Catholic Church,
Protestant Evangelicalism, Freemasonry, Communism, and so forth. And to make things even more confusing, his
enemies are our enemies! Isn’t that
wonderful? He too hates abortion,
homosexuality, lack of prayer in schools, removal of the 10
commandments, corrupt liberalism, blasphemy, idolatry, and so on. He even speaks against secret societies! Never mind that he (and those like him), the
illumined of those societies, the highest of the high initiates, are
the very ones who fomented
the liberalism and discontent in the first place! You
would never know it by listening to him. Oh
no, because he (and the other orators) are here to solve all of our
problems, and to bring the world its final solution, the kingdom of
[their] god on earth. He sounds a lot like
our God, but he is not our God.
How can these
things be explained to a sleeping population? The
Lord commanded us to wake up, but is it already too late?
“Repent or Perish” has been the cry of all the prophets since
the beginning of time. The trumpet sounded
again in 1830 to “preach nothing but repentance to this
generation,” but that call to the
Gentiles has gone largely unheeded. We are
truly in the generation when we will reap our deserved rewards for
ignorance.
Protocols #2,
3, 15, and 20 all speak of a time when the world will receive a “sovereign
lord,” or a king.
“Let them amuse themselves until the hour strikes…when
our Sovereign Lord of all the world is to be crowned…when the King of
Israel sets upon his sacred head the crown offered him by Europe…we
will come into our kingdom, our autocratic government.”
Protocol #10
says, “the moment will come when the people, utterly wearied by
the irregularities and incompetence of their rulers – a matter which we
shall arrange – will clamour: ‘Away with them and give us one king over
all the earth who will unite us and annihilate the cause of discords.’”
The Bible
alone tells us how God feels about earthly kings. The
Lord said to Samuel that by
“And thus an
unrighteous king doth pervert the ways of all righteousness” (Mosiah 13:32).
And finally, Protocol #17 provides an interesting twist to this
most complex and convoluted plan. “When
the time comes finally to destroy the papal court, the finger of an
invisible hand will point the nations toward that court.
When the nations fling themselves upon it, we shall come forward
in the guise of its defenders as if to save excessive bloodshed. By this diversion, we shall penetrate to its
very bowels and be sure we never come out again until we have gnawed
through the entire strength of that place. The
King of the Jews will be the real Pope of the Universe, the patriarch
of an international Church.”
Of all the
disingenuous twists and turns of the adversary’s plans, this final
diversion may just turn out to be the most twisted and deceiving of all. Notice four very important things in the above
paragraph. 1) The
papal court (Catholic Church) will be destroyed. 2) The world will be the ones who want it
destroyed. 3) Some
kind of transformation will happen to save or transform that church. 4) The Noahide
Laws may sound Jewish, but
the solution, aided by those laws, will still be a Church. Dan Brown’s
books, Angels and Demons, and The Da Vinci Code, each
contain a recipe for destroying the Roman Catholic Church, followed by
some kind of odd transformation of it.
Scripture
defines Satan as “moveable” and that he is. I
have theories or educated guesses of what lies ahead, but I often have
to modify those theories or educated guesses because of how fast things
are moving and changing. God doesn’t
change, but Satan does (or I should say that Satan is consistently
inconsistent). The overall picture is very
clear. It’s just the little technicalities
of that picture that force me to keep watching.
My guess is
that The Da Vinci Code will generate a disturbance in the
world, especially the closer we get to the film’s release date. Because most Christians do not know the
difference between the histories of Roman Catholicism and Christianity,
I would expect many to defend Catholicism not realizing what it is they
are defending. We have already seen a
preview of this very thing when Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion
was about to hit the big screen. Christians
everywhere jumped on Catholicism’s bandwagon, defending a movie that
was almost entirely inspired by 18th century mystics. Book of Mormon believers are warned not to “unite
with the great and abominable church”
(2 Nephi 5:31) so I do have to wonder if the finale of that prophecy is
just around the corner. Numerous events
are on the horizon. Another terrorist
attack could send the world into a tailspin. The
discovery of a fake Ark of the Covenant and other treasures could set
the spiritual awakening in motion. Anything
involving
Isaiah
Foretold Success
In Isaiah 10,
we learn that the Lord intends to punish the fruit, or the works, of
the king of
“By my wisdom I have done these things, for I am prudent.”
In all of
Satan’s blueprints, we find this common denominator.
His children are wise and prudent, or illumined.
They believe they know the mysteries of God, and often fall
under the title of “mystics” for this reason.
“I have moved the borders of the people.”
This is
globalization, of course, which largely means the erasure of national
borders. One international term,
describing how it would be accomplished is “sustainable development.” Economic international trade agreements such
as NAFTA, CAFTA, and now FTAA are also speeding the process of border
elimination.
“and have robbed their treasures”
We’ve all
heard of “robber barons” and Book of Mormon believers ought to be
acquainted with the Gadianton Robbers.
“I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.”
True
Christians have been tried for their faith, and will be tried again in
ways unprecedented in the near future.
“And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people; and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.”
The illumined
ones have historically called this “a silent revolution.”
The Protocols
explained how this process would work; how such a system of world
government would be accomplished without any fear of world retaliation.
A Strong
Delusion
In 2
Thessalonians 2:9, Paul wrote that the second coming of Jesus Christ
would not occur until after a falling away. People
can’t fall away from untruth. Paul was obviously speaking of Christians who
had the truth. Some have interpreted this
to have occurred in the Dark Ages; however, we need to read all of
Paul’s words before reaching a conclusion: “…Jesus,
whose coming is not until after there comes a falling away by the working of Satan
with all power, and signs and lying wonders.”
Revelation 13
provides a little more information:
“And I beheld
another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a
lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the
first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell
therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he
maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those
miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to
them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the
beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live” (Revelation 13:11-14).
Has this
happened? Of course it hasn’t happened. We can conclude, then, that the return of
Jesus Christ will not occur until after there has been a strong delusion or
falling away, which will deceive even some of the elect (Matthew 24:24,
Colossians 3:12). Why will God allow such
a delusion? Paul goes on to explain in the
same chapter, “because they did not love the truth…they
believed a lie…they had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
This is a
bitter pill to swallow for many Christians, who have been taught to
believe that Satan cannot deceive them because they are the children of
light, and somehow chosen and wiser than the rest of the world. Only two things can make us think we are
chosen and wiser than the rest of the world: ignorance
and pride.
“And for this
cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a
lie” (2
Thessalonians 2:11).
What is this
strong delusion foretold by Paul? Do we
know? Has it already started, or will it
wait until Satan performs his mighty signs and wonders?
I believe it has already started.
I cannot
overly emphasize the desire that I not be misjudged as anti-Semitic by
the information I am about to explain. As
a student of Scripture who loves the Lord, I also very much love the
Lord’s people, be they Jews or Gentiles. As
a believer in the Restoration gospel, I look forward to the day when
the Jews and the whole House of Israel will return to the Lord and be
restored.
Since 1948 (
“And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said,
Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto
the Lord, who appeared unto him”
(Genesis 12:7).
“In those days and in that time, says the Lord,
the children of
“Now it shall come to pass, when all these
things come upon you…and you call them to mind among all the nations
where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God
and obey his voice, according to all that I command you today, you and
your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the
Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion
on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your
God has scattered you” (Deuteronomy
30:1-3).
As previously
mentioned, some believe that the Jews being gathered are primarily of
the tribe of
In the Bible,
we learn that
In 740 A.D.,
the Emperor of Khazaria (
What about a
Jewish race? The Encyclopedia Britannica
says, “The designation ‘race’ has been applied to language
groups (the Aryan race), national groups (the Scottish race), religious
groups (the Jewish race), and the entire species of humans (the human
race), but these usages are biologically and scientifically
meaningless.” In
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, a Semite is defined as “a member
of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern
If the
identification of
In one of his
latest American Conservative publications, Patrick Buchanan advertised
a most interesting article titled, The Two Jerusalems, written
by a Jew named Alan Morrison who had converted to Christ.
To order this piece, go to www.scp-inc.org
or call 1-510-540-0300. Morrison,
obviously a very historically and scripturally knowledgeable
individual, lays out the arguments one by one against the nation-state of
Here is the
sad news. Although Morrison and a remnant
like him have not been caught up in what I believe is the beginning of
the latter day strong delusion, they have unfortunately historicalized these prophecies, which also results in
an imprecise interpretation of the future. To
their credit, they recognize the preconditions that are necessary to
fulfill the prophecy of inheritance, yet they do not have the Book of
Mormon which completes the explanation of how those
preconditions will be met. There is a reason we are called THE
RESTORATION.
It’s unfortunate that even many in the Restoration Movement have
been unable to identify what may be the greatest discovery in their
book…that much of what we call prophecy will not come until after there has been a restoration of body and
soul, or in other words, a resurrection.
A
Restoration of Land
It appears
that we too have been recipients of Satan’s lying Synagogue (Jews
who say they are Jews and are not,
see Revelation 2-3). Could all of the
prophetic interpretations about Jews gathering back to their homeland
or land of their inheritance really be a hoax? Could
it be the strong delusion Paul foretold? As
I said in my class, I can prove it with the Bible alone.
However, there is no question in my mind that the Book of Mormon
came forth to completely dispel this strong delusion, together with the
Bible, so that Scripture-feasting Christians would not get caught up in
such a gruesome end-time deception. Because
there may be non-Book of Mormon believing Christians hearing my tapes
and reading this paper, I want to start with the Bible to hopefully
help prove why I believe the whole world is already under this very
strong delusion.
In Ezekiel 20:33, the Lord said that “with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm and with fury poured out, will I rule over you…and bring you out from the people and gather you out of the countries wherein you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm and with fury poured out.”
Ezekiel wrote
of this process of gathering as one that would occur with a mighty
hand, a stretched-out arm, and with fury. Where
can we find such an explanation elsewhere in scripture?
We can find it in the ancient exodus when the Lord used Moses to
deliver the children of
“Therefore,
behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say,
The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the
land of Egypt; But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the
seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all
countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own
land”
(Jeremiah 23:7-8).
The Book of
Mormon spends far more time than the Bible discussing this future
Greater Exodus. For example in 2 Nephi
5:86 we read, “Awake! Put on strength O arm of the
Lord: awake as in the ancient days…Are you not he who dried the sea,
the waters of the great deep, that had made the depths of the sea a way
for the ransomed to pass over? The
redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing into
Notice the
mention of the Lord’s arm again, and notice also the description of how
it will repeat itself as in ancient days when the Lord dried up the
waters of the great deep so that ancient
“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon
the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up,
that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared” (Revelation 16:12).
There will
be a Restoration of Israel to the
lands of their inheritance, and the process of gathering to the
nation-state called
In Ezekiel 37,
the Lord said, “when I have opened your graves…and brought you
up out of your graves…put my spirit in you, and you shall live…I will
place you in your own land and then shall you know that I the Lord have
spoken it and performed it.”
Chapter 37 of
Ezekiel describes what the Lord will do once the whole House of Israel
is resurrected. The Synagogue of
Satan folks have led us to believe that Ezekiel was writing about a spiritual opening of the graves, not a literal resurrection. The
greatest victory of our Lord and Savior was His resurrection, for it
assured us of our own. Satan would like
nothing more than to destroy this hope we have for a resurrection, and
he has tried every which way to do exactly that, even since the days of
Nimrod. It is this very subject that
I personally believe the Book of Mormon (the RESTORATION gospel) came forth to explain and to
prove, the Lord foreknowing the spiritual attacks and
misinterpretations we would face at the end of this age.
In 2 Nephi
7:12, the Lord said, “When the day comes that they shall
believe in me, that I am Christ…they shall be restored in the flesh
upon the earth unto the lands of their inheritance.”
Wouldn’t Alan
Morrison and others like him love to have this verse in their back
pocket? Already Morrison has discerned
that a return to inherited land is conditional, and that belief in
Jesus Christ is necessarily one of those conditions.
Here we have 2 Nephi 7 proving the very words Morrison lays out
in his argument in The Two Jerusalems, that the House of Israel
must first believe in Jesus Christ!
The Book of
Mormon is simply loaded with these preconditions concerning a gathering
to inherited lands. 3 Nephi 9:69-85 says
that, “the fullness of the gospel will be preached to the House
of Israel and they shall believe in me and then shall their watchmen
lift up their voice and see eye to eye, and then will the father gather
them together again and give them Jerusalem for the land of their
inheritance.” The
chapters of 3 Nephi (where we read Jesus’ own words) help explain the
parts of Isaiah that have confused Jews and Gentiles for centuries. More preconditions! The
watchmen will have lifted up their voice and be seeing eye to eye
before the Lord will gather them. And just
a few verses further down the page, we learn more about the process of
that gathering, “Then shall a cry go forth, Depart ye! Depart
ye! Go out from thence…you will not go with haste nor by flight, for
the Lord will go with you and the God of
Isaiah
confirms what I have presented both in the Bible and in the Book of
Mormon:
“Thy watchmen
shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for
they shall see eye to see when the Lord shall bring again
So what
exactly are those preconditions for the Greater Exodus, or gathering of
Jews and House of Israel? They include a
resurrection, a stretched out arm, watchmen lifting up their voices and
seeing eye-to-eye, and the Jews and House of Israel will believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly none of these
things have yet happened. The current
gathering to the nation-state of
In
This is a very
simple, straightforward message letting us know that at the time of the
Lord’s coming, His Word will be taught. This isn’t
to make light of our probationary period on earth.
There is no question that today is the day of our probation.
We are being proved, just as Nephi explained that he was in the
final days of his probation in 2 Nephi 1:126. The
judgment we receive on Judgment Day (when the Lord returns) will be in
accordance to our works in this life, our day of probation.
In
This is
astonishing information, yet it is perfectly in harmony with the
preconditions required for
I can hear the
growing questions among my Restorationist brethren.
“But what about our gathering to
Among other
things, Isaiah tells us that the Lord will stir up a scourge for our
enemy according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb (Isaiah
10:26). Surely there is a reason why
Isaiah said that
“Go ye
straightway unto the land of my vineyard, and redeem my
vineyard, for it is mine, I have bought it with money. Therefore, get
ye straightway unto my land; break down the walls of mine
enemies, throw down their tower, and scatter their
watchmen; and inasmuch as they gather together against you, avenge
me of mine enemies; that by and by I may come with the residue of
mine house and possess the land” (Section 98:7e-g).
Whatever the
timeframe for a people to “flee to
“… the Nephites
did begin to flee before the Lamanites, and they were pursued until
they came even to the land of Jashon, before it was possible to stop
them in their retreat” (Mormon 1:42).
“…every man that
will not take his sword against his neighbor, must needs flee unto
“…wo unto them
which are with child, for they shall be heavy, and can not flee;
therefore they shall be trodden down, and shall be left to perish”
(Helaman 5:88).
“… the wicked
shall slay the wicked, and fear shall come upon every man, and the
Saints also shall hardly escape”
(Section
63:9a).
Hard times
will undoubtedly come, yet some of the Lord’s people will be preserved in their flesh. How do I
know that for sure? Because of the
quickening that is promised to occur when the Lord comes.
He promised that those who are alive, will be caught up to meet him in the air
at that time, implying that some of His people will be alive, in their
flesh and blood.
Paradigm
Shifts
In graduate
school, one of my required classes involved shifting paradigms. The textbook for the class said it all. We were taught to change our general way of
thinking on many topics, which ranged from heterosexuality, to
religion, to our views on patriarchy versus a matriarchal system, to
basically everything involving morals and values, all in preparation
for the dawning of a New Age. The world
view as we supposedly knew it was
wrong, and enlightened times were ahead. It
wasn’t all that hard to convince our class of this new world view, for
we were already so fully enmeshed in it, we were believers. This is where my testimony of graduate school
kicked into high gear.
From the start
of undergraduate school, I learned quickly that unless I wanted to be
greatly deceived, I’d best be on my knees daily asking for discernment. The Lord heard those prayers, and gave me
spiritual eyes to see through each class. I
watched good, decent, Christian peers change their world views ever so
gradually. In one of my first classes in
graduate school, I sat next to a young Baptist girl who was
experiencing some confusion over the curriculum. I
remember a number of good discussions we had that semester, and she
seemed to be drawn to all that I had to say (the Lord was with me – I
was on my knees every day). I didn’t see
that girl again until my last class prior to graduation, and by that
time, I could tell by her comments and presentations that she had
fallen into the mire head first, just like all my other peers. She was a perfect example of the paradigm
shift in completion. What I had witnessed continually during those
two years of graduate school was the paradigm shift in
progress; class mates being deceived
little bit by little bit, precept upon precept. It
wasn’t that the professors were evil people, for they, too, had been
deceived by their professors, and their professors by theirs, and so on
down the line.
Through many
means and filters, the whole world has been and is being prepared to
face another monstrous paradigm shift, or new way of thinking. The teachers are already in place and ready to
teach us.
“For the time
will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own
lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And
they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned
unto fables”
(2 Timothy 4:3-4).
These teachers
have already begun expounding their doctrine of fables, as is very
clear from the Noahide and other esoteric literature, but the time is
soon coming when this doctrine will be expounded publicly and
world-wide, and no one will escape it. On
one of my Noahide tapes, I heard Dr. Boruch Ellison say that the
Kabbalah was released in part to the world in 1730, and then more fully
later in that same century. He said it was
released at that particular time in preparation for the
enlightenment that was soon to come,
and also in preparation for the coming Judgment Day. It was
time, he said, for the people to be gradually taught and prepared for
what lay ahead. This is all very
interesting, of course, given that the Book of Mormon came forth only a
few short years later. I used to say that
when God moves, Satan moves, but since I’ve undertaken all these
studies, I have begun to rethink that statement. I’ve
learned that Satan was already hard at work in the Reformation even
before the Reformers ever protested the Roman Catholic Church, and it
would certainly seem that Satan was hard at work in the Restoration
even before Joseph Smith, Jr. was born. The
plan to deceive the world with a “pagan Jesus” was apparently in the
works since the days of Nimrod in the book of Genesis.
Satan doesn’t just show up arbitrarily—he’s a planner; he thinks
ahead.
I mentioned
earlier how the enemy has worked this coming plan.
Down through the centuries, Satan’s servants infiltrated and
corrupted various institutions and churches so that his 21st
century servants could point their fingers at those institutions and
churches and accuse them of being corrupt! In
other words, those early forces of evil created the problem so that the later forces of
evil could come along and solve
the problem. Get ready for a few curve
balls. If I remember right, the popular
phrase (found on our one dollar bills among other places) is “Novus
Ordo Seclorum” which stands for this very thing: out
of chaos, order.
What a plan! Conspiracy theorists
the world over often quote that famous saying, but they haven’t yet
fully figured out what it means!
In other
words, here we are in the 21st century with corrupt
institutions and churches. We have been
fed many truths, but we have also been fed many lies, and how could we
not believe what we have been taught? We
are a composition of what we have been taught. I
certainly will not discount that we all possess a kind of innate system
of “truth” (a portion of the holy spirit); however, there can be no
disputing that our overall understanding of things comes from the
programming and conditioning we have been fed our entire lives. We didn’t just automatically know about Jesus. We
learned about him. Someone taught us, and
what we learned about Him came through the filter of that someone. Over the course of many years, we have
been taught many things, all through various filters, which makes us
into the people we are.
One of the
primary topics of this paper is the latter day strong delusion foretold
by Paul, which was hinted of by other prophets as well.
Has this delusion set us up (with chaos) in order to bring about
the greatest deceit of all (order), a false Messiah?
“I am come in my
Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own
name, him ye will receive” (John 5:43).
“For there should
not any come, save it should be a false Messiah, which should deceive
the people”
(2 Nephi 11:33).
How about a
metaphor?
Picture
three boxes – one box on
the left (the lie), one box on the right (the truth), and one box in
the middle (where we sit, having been fed by the world a mixture of
truth and lies). The middle box represents
what we have been taught; it represents our paradigm, or what we
currently believe. We may be reaching out
to the box on the right (or left), but in our current condition, the
whole world is in the middle box.
Satan’s
servants are working feverishly on a paradigm shift which will hurl us out of our middle
boxes, forcing us either to land in the box on the left, or on the
right. They would prefer that we land in
the left box, and from what I can tell, most of us will.
Their lies have been drawn up since the dawn of time, and these
21st century servants of Satan are ready to give them to us. They will include not only certain unveiled
treasures, but also an interpretation of all scripture.
I’m not kidding. I have heard some
of their scriptural interpretations already. Talk
about counterfeit. Think of counterfeit
money. Unless we are trained to identify
it, can we tell which is real money and which is counterfeit? It looks like the real thing!
This is what the whole world is soon going to face…the dilemma
of having to figure out what is real and what is fake.
One way or another, we are all going to be removed from
our middle boxes.
The point I am
trying to make is that we are all going to be forced to undergo a
paradigm shift. Those who shift into
the left box will believe the lies of their televisions, their radios,
their news magazines, their teachers, their friends, their family
members, their traditions, and yes even many who call themselves their
shepherds. Those few who refuse to believe
the lies will be shifted into the right box, having recognized the
lies, making the truths all the more clear to them.
What may look
like a Spiritual or Great Awakening or even an Endowment may end up
transporting many to the box on the left. The
theory of Evolution is not only about being co-creators
with God, it is about evolving through various kinds of reincarnation
which can sound oh-so-close to the truth (the box on the right), but is
in reality that box on the left. Of
course, those reading this paper are probably thinking, “I could never
fall for such things.” Are we sure? What if there are forces upon the earth that
cause us all to hear and/or feel something at the same time? Perhaps it’s hard to believe that such a grand
deception is possible, yet in Revelation chapter 13, John did say that
a certain man will be given power to perform mighty wonders, even
making fire come down from heaven, on the earth, in the sight of men. Will we experience these things all at the
same time? We might. There
is much literature suggesting that Satan’s servants actually have a
plan to make us think we are illumined and endowed by the spark of
Christ that runs through all of our veins (God in Us – God is Us). They plan to accomplish this through usage of
alchemy and other similar esoteric means. Have
you wondered why there are so many popular movies and television shows
portraying wizardry and magic?
Who knows all
the tricks that may be employed to get us hurled into that left box. For a small taste of Satan’s coming plans of
miracles, healings, signs and wonders, visit the following website, http://www.uriel.org/articles-presentations/presentations3.htm.
What about the
box on the right? I’ve already
suggested that the world has deluded us about the gathering or
restoration of
Like everyone
else, I have been intrigued with the book of Revelation, having read it
a number of times. Not long ago, I decided
to embark upon a massive project wherein I began to compare the
trumpets, seals, and related events, and drew them out on a 2x3 feet
sheet of paper, with the hope that some discernment of a timeline might
emerge. We in the Restoration have a
little extra insight on those trumpets, thanks to certain commentary in
the Book of Mormon, but also especially in certain sections of our
Doctrine and Covenants (D&C). Although
I worked on the project for several weeks, the picture that began to
emerge was so overwhelming that I finally had to lay the project aside. It was not the picture I had anticipated.
Trying to make
some sense of what had emerged on that graph, I wrote a paper called Day
of the Lord, not to be shared (for I was afraid to share it). Without revisiting that entire paper, I want
to list only a few mind-boggling things for those who like to have
their minds boggled, or who like to consider things outside the [middle] box.
There are
seven seals in John’s book of
Revelation that begins in chapter 5. The
first six of those seals precede the Lord’s return.
The sixth seal brings a great earthquake, mountains
moving out of their places, kings and captains of the earth fearing the
Lord’s coming wrath (judgment), a great hailstorm, and heaven being
opened like a scroll. These are the exact
same descriptions that can be found in other Scripture that describe
the Lord’s coming in the clouds of heaven. We
also know (adding 2+2) that when the Lord returns in the clouds, there
will be a quickening (or rapture) and a resurrection.
At the
beginning of the seventh seal, there will be silence in
heaven for half an hour, which
precede great judgments to come forth upon the earth.
Section 85 of our D&C (which I believe is inspired for a
number of reasons) picks up where this seventh seal leaves off. At the sound of a trump, there is silence
in heaven for half an hour, and then
a quickening (rapture) of saints and a resurrection.
The trumpets
of Section 85 are given in a sequential order so that there can be no
mistaking what events precede other events. Because
of traditional interpretations of prophecy, I was shocked to learn that
the angel with the everlasting gospel does not fly through the midst of
heaven until the fifth trumpet (four trumpets after the
resurrection) and that Babylon is not
destroyed until the sixth trumpet blast (five trumpets after
the resurrection).
If that wasn’t overwhelming enough, I soon thereafter realized
that certain trumpets of Revelation were also paralleling those Section
85 trumpets. It’s really too
difficult to explain without a birds-eye view of the diagram, and even
with that birds-eye view, it is difficult to explain.
This project answered a number of questions, yet also left me
with new questions. The old adage is
certainly true—the more we learn, the more we realize the less we know. The Lord’s ways are higher than ours, it
doesn’t matter how much we learn or how much knowledge we obtain
(Isaiah 55:9).
I bring up the
subject of that Revelation project because it has everything to do with
that strong delusion that Paul so aptly named. Perhaps
the reason why certain parts of scripture sound like they can’t occur
until the millennium, or even after the millennium is because they really
won’t occur until that time. Like the
gathering to the nation-state of
This is just a
fraction of what I believe God has been trying to reveal to me. I say, “trying to reveal to me” because I, too, am sitting inside this
middle box. We all are.
What we think we understand, we have been taught.
The Lord wants us to be taught from on high, to learn from HIM, not to trust arm of flesh.
We can and do learn from each other, it’s an inevitable fact,
but those who place their trust in HIM are more apt to recognize that there
truly are some discrepancies
in how the world interprets prophecy versus how our own hearts and
minds want to comprehend it based upon what we read in our Holy
Scriptures. If something looks
inconsistent in Scripture, the Lord may be trying to tell us something.
With all my
heart, I believe that the Lord’s Word is the ticket to that box on the
right. We look for more Word to come
forth, but maybe the Word we already have is enough for the time being. Can there be any doubt that the Book of
Mormon (the D&C and Inspired Version of the Bible also) were given
in large part to help us latter day Gentiles wake up and be spared of
the strong delusion? Yes, I am still
working my own way out of this delusion, but I am so thankful that the
Lord opened my spiritual eyes when He did (more than ten years ago) so
that I still might have ample time to repent and prepare for the day
when I, too, will be thrust from my middle box. If
there is anything I am most certain of concerning this hidden agenda of
the enemy, it is that we will have to choose between the box on the
left or the right. Satan’s sons are
already shaking our middle boxes, but all in good time, the shaking
will stop and the paradigm shift will have been accomplished. Then there will be no more middle box.
Hope
I try to
caution loved ones about building their hope around a salvation of the flesh,
for our hope should not be in a fleshly salvation—that’s what the Jews
have sought for over two thousand years, and still seek.
It was their desire for a flesh and blood kingdom that persuaded
them to kill their Messiah; their King who preached of a Kingdom and
salvation not of the flesh.
“Now this I say,
brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
The natural
man fears and dreads death, and in fact, it has been scientifically
proven that when death is near, our natural reaction is to fight or to
flee from it. Yet what did the prophets
say?
“Then shall they
deliver you up to be afflicted, and kill you, and ye shall be hated of
all nations for my name's sake” (Mark 13:11).
“Whosoever shall
seek to save his life, shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his
life, shall preserve it” (Luke 17:33).
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
“For me to live,
is to do the will of Christ; and to die, is my gain” (Phil 1:22).
Haven’t we
read that the natural man is an enemy to God (Mosiah 1:119)? The natural man’s desire is to live in a
kingdom of flesh and blood, and that is precisely the utopian kingdom
Satan intends to give us. If we put off
the natural man (Mosiah 1:120), everything should change, even
including our attitude toward death. If we
truly believe in the promises of Jesus Christ, then we should have a
hope, unlike anything the world hopes, and unlike the natural man. This isn’t to suggest that we should desire
death or attempt to hasten it in any way, but rather that we should not
fear it, and that we should look forward to the promises of life that
come after it. Our mortal lives are but a
flicker in time. The best is yet to come,“that
being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope
of eternal life” (Titus 3:7).
“…ye shall have hope
through the atonement of Christ and the power of his
resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal” (
Conclusion
I offered a
thesis at the summer camp. I reminded
everyone that Abraham was promised a son, but received Ishmael before
that promised son, and that Jacob was promised a wife, but received
Leah before the promised wife. David was
promised a King who would establish a Kingdom and sit on the throne
forever. Solomon (who went into great
apostasy) came first. It looks to me like
we are going to get a counterfeit kingdom before we are going to get the Promised
Kingdom of Jesus Christ. I believe
that the strong delusion, which Paul foretold, got its foothold with
latter day Christians beginning with the nation-state called
Finally, I
asked the class “Why?” Given what was
presented in the class, “Why might it be important that we obey
the commandment to awaken to our awful situation?” (Ether 3:98) It
should have been obvious by this time, and there were a number of
wonderful responses to that question, one being that it is a
commandment that we awaken, and that the Lord loves it when we obey. Others suggested that we should awaken so that
we have time to prepare, and time to repent. We
also need to awaken to this strong delusion so that we are not deluded
by it. We don’t want to unite to the Great
and
A Testimony
Proverbs 5
describes Satan as a strange woman whose mouth is smoother than oil,
her lips as honeycomb, yet her end is bitter as wormwood.
This “strange woman” is said to be movable, making her hard to
follow. Yet in the same chapter, we are
commanded to get wisdom and get
understanding.
I was an
ignorant sinner for many years and made certain choices in my life that
have been hard to confess publicly, even to this day.
Furthermore, I hated school, hated to learn, and avoided college
at all cost, fearing I could never make good grades or have what it
would take to graduate. I hated to read; I
mean I really, really hated to read! It
took a lot of years of hard knocks; it took a nervous breakdown; it
took some good old-fashioned reality therapy by a doctor of social work
who would not allow any excuses; it took being knocked down to the
ground and humbled by the Lord Jesus Christ; it took all these things
and more to WAKE ME UP, and to give me the courage I needed to choose
the right course in life. Up until that
time, I had not chosen the right courses; I had chosen the wide road. But when that wide broken road finally
weakened my knees to the dust; when it finally sunk in that everything
I was, and everything I could be was a choice, that’s when my life changed, and I began
the long journey down the narrow road. That
is also when I realized that I could do anything I set my heart out to
do. If I wanted a college degree, I just
had to choose to get it. If I wanted to
learn, I just had to choose to expend the time and effort.
If I wanted to make straight As, I just had to choose to work
hard enough to achieve them. If I really
wanted to know the Lord, if I really wanted to make up for all the lost
time when I had neglected Him, then all I had to do was to have the
desire, and take all my questions to Him. Until
1994, I had floated in and out of my relationship with Jesus, but since
1994, there has been no looking back. That
journey has taken one frightened and insecure little girl who once
couldn’t understand the Bible, who once hated to read and to learn, and
who was once even afraid to go to college, to one who now is
occasionally called an “intellectual.”
It makes me
chuckle, but it also humbles me, for it just goes to show how the Lord
can take the weak things of the world and make them strong for His
purposes. I certainly don’t consider
myself an intellectual; as far as knowledge is concerned, I feel like a
preschooler…well, maybe a middle schooler. Whatever
knowledge I do have is the result of fervent desire, hunger, thirst,
and a commitment not to look back. I think we
all, at some point in our lives, possess this tendency to want to wait
for the right time, as if the
magical moment will one day come, and we will be fully ready to serve
the Lord. What are we waiting for? Serving the Lord is a journey; it is a process. Life is short, and knowledge is cumulative; it
comes here a little and there a little; none of us will ever be equal
in knowledge in this life; we shouldn’t expect to be.
I know a lot of people who sure are a lot smarter than I am, and
I’m certain I will die in this mortal body with others out there who
are still a lot smarter, and more informed, than I am.
I do recognize
and appreciate the blessings I’ve been given, to include having the
opportunity of so many hours available to study and to learn. I know that not everyone has such
opportunities, and that we all have different gifts and that we are
called to share those gifts. That is why I
am thankful and glad for any opportunity to share, whether it is
teaching a class, or writing a paper. My
ongoing prayer is to serve the Lord in whatever way He can use me. As a work still in progress, and a woman who
is trying to find her place and role in this generation, I often wonder
where I will yet be called to perform, and how I will respond to that
call. These questions and more will
hopefully keep me hungry and feasting on the words of Christ until the
opportunity no longer exists to do so.
I’ve heard it
suggested that we can hunger too much, or feast too much; that it can
isolate us or even make us crazy if we’re not careful.
The Lord wants us either hot or cold.
I don’t think there is such a thing as “feasting too much.” Proverbs 28 says that he who puts his trust in
the Lord will be made fat. Is that why I
outgrow my clothes? J Seriously,
I’m happy to accept that kind of obesity, and even that kind of
isolation if need be. Aspiring to be an
Elijah can’t be a bad thing (a strange comment coming from someone who
once obsessively sought love and approval no matter how high the cost).
May God bless
us all on this journey.
Cassette
tapes are available, both of the two-day class offered at the July 2005
Kirtland
Please
write to me at jrgriffith@verizon.net
if you would like copies of either.