VOLUME 10 # 1 Jan. 2004
For those who are of
Ephraim, holding the rights and responsibilities of the kingdom, this is your
forum; to pursue remedy for our ills, and accomplish the bringing forth of Zion.
What
articles should be written or will be written is up to the Forum. We all have our ideas and none of them seem
close enough that they could be super-imposed on one another and have anything
close to a match. That is what gives
the Forum so much ability to be great as we can learn from one another.
Where
I am coming from can be understood in part of one of my Psychology
classes. A woman was stabbed on her way
home, she yelled for help and a man yells out a window, “Leave that woman
alone!” The assailant starts to walk
away, but then turns around and comes back and continues his assault. Some 30 odd people witnessed what
happened. One couple put chairs near
their window so they could watch. Finally
someone called the police who responded to the call within 2 minutes, but by
then the assailant had fled and the woman was dead. I believe the attack had lasted 38 minutes and the woman
had been stabbed over and over again.
Another
case more recent was when a woman sideswiped a guys car and then was held up in
a traffic jam on a bridge. The man
walked to her car drug her out and beat on her for nearly half an hour. During this time her stripped her and even
held her up (he was an extremely large man, and she a small woman) and asked
any of the dozens of people watching from their cars if they wanted to get in
on the action. She finally jumped off
the bridge to her death in an attempt to escape from him.
What
they have learned is that either of these women (or anyone for that matter)
would have had a better chance of receiving aid if there had been less
people. People in a group tend to think
it isn’t their responsibility; that someone else will take care of it. That, according to my thinking, is where we
are, hundreds and thousands of people expecting someone else to save the
country, save the Constitution, or to establish Zion. What is our responsibility?
I want to say Zion is everyone’s responsibility, but that is between
each individual and God.
Personally
I am overwhelmed by it all; what can I do?
Perhaps we can learn from one another, and in our agreeing and
disagreeing with one another we may come closer to understanding what we,
personally, need to be doing. Perhaps
as questions arise we will find ourselves appealing to God for the answers and
in so doing bring ourselves closer to where we need to be. I may not know what I need to do, but I find
that when I am searching I do find answers, and it makes me feel more alive and
closer to God. L.B.
Zion’s
(New Jerusalem)
Latter part of discourse by
Elder Orson Pratt
Delivered in the Tabernacle,
Salt Lake City, September 7, 1879
Destiny of the Kingdom of
God and the Saints.
Page 7
“The
Lord has done it through this people.
And what will he yet do? Permit
me to prophecy, not in my own name, nor by my own wisdom, but on the strength
of that which God has revealed to this church since the year 1830, and that
also which is given in the Book of Mormon – I prophesy that this is only the beginning,
as it were of the great work of the gathering of the Latter-Day Saints.
The Lord our God has therefore fulfilled that which He
spoke; and instead of being nearly accomplished, nearly fulfilled, and all
things brought about according to the purposes of the Almighty, only the
Foundation, as it were is now laid, and instead of being gathered in a little
company of 150,000 by and by we shall be gathered in hundreds of thousands and
even millions. Now, do you believe
it? I not only believe it but know it
will come to pass just as much as a great many other things which have already
been fulfilled since the promises were uttered and published in the book … Book
of Mormon (Doctrine and Covenant). I
knew they would come to pass, for God has revealed these things to me, and
given me a Knowledge of them, and I also know concerning the future of this
people as also do a great many of our brethren that have received testimonies
concerning these matters. If God limited
to this little narrow spot, called the great basin of North America? Why, no.
It is only for the present for the time being that we dwell here. Where will we dwell in the future? What is our future destiny? It is not on the Sandwich Island, it is not
in New Zealand, it is not in Australia, it is not in any of the islands of the
sea, but I will tell you the future destiny of this people in a very few
words. Not many years hence – I do
not say the number of years – you will look forth to the western counties of
the State of Missouri and to the eastern counties of the State of Kansan and on
all the region round about – you will see a thickly populated country,
inhabited by a peaceful people, having their orchards, their fruit trees, their
fields of grain, their beautiful houses and shade trees, their cities and towns
and villages. And you may ask – who are
all these people? And the answer will
be – Latter Day Saints! Where have they
come from? They have come from the
nations of the earth. They have come
from the mountains of Utah, from Arizona, from Idaho and from the mountainous
territories of the North American Continent; they have come down here and are
quietly cultivating the lands of these states!
(Kansas, Missouri?) Now, this
will all come to pass, just as sure to come to pass as there is a God that
reigns in yonder heavens, and not many years hence either. Thus you see that for some time to come, our
future destiny is not to build up this kingdom upon any of the islands of the
sea, but to be located where God has decreed by His own power that His people
shall dwell. (D&C 62:6) (God has promised to preserve the Faithful
in the Land of Missouri. D&C 63:27) Purchase the Lands that you may have
advantage of the World. “Will we have
a beautiful city? Yes, one of the most
beautiful cities that will ever be erected on the continent of America will be
built up by Latter Day Saints…In Jackson County, Missouri. Consequently when congressmen and statesmen
and the great men of our Nation, want to know what the future destiny of the Latter
Day Saints will be, let them remember the words of your humble servant, who has
addressed you this afternoon; for they will come to pass – they will be
fulfilled. We have seen too many
revelations fulfilled, to be mistaken in regards to these matters. Amen.
Section 101:17 Zion shall not be moved out of Her place not
withstanding her children are scattered.
They that remain and are pure in heart, shall return, and come to their
inheritance, they and their children, with songs of Everlasting joy to build up
the waste places of Zion… And all these things that the prophets might be
fulfilled.
(20) And behold there is non
other place appointed thou that which I have appointed; Neither shall there be
any other place appointed than that which I have appointed for the work of the
gathering of my Saints.
D&C 104:1 Verily I say unto you my friends, I give
unto you council and a commandment concerning all the properties which belong
to the order which I commanded to be organized and established to be a United
Order and an Everlasting order for the benefit of my Church and for the
Salvation of men until I come.
D&C 58:51 Purchase lands for an inheritance for the
children of God!
D&C 57: Which is the Land of Missouri, which I have
appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the saints. Wherefore this is the Land of Promise and
the place for the city of Zion… (5) buy
lands. Behold this is wisdom that they
may obtain it for an everlasting inheritance.
D&C 45:65 And with one heart and with one mind, gather
up your riches that ye may purchase an inheritance which shall here after be
appointed unto you. (6) And it shall be called the New Jerusalem a land of peace, a city of refuge, a place
of safety for the Saints of the Most High God;
And the Glory of the Lord shall be there and the terror of the Lord also
shall be there, insomuch that the wicked will not come unto it. And it shall be called Zion. And it shall come to pass among the wicked
that everyman that will not take his sword against his neighbor must needs flee
unto Zion for safety… And there shall be gathered unto it out of every
nation under heaven; and it shall be
the only people that shall not be at war one with another.
D&C 101: 74-75 Buy lands and gather together upon them;
and in this way they may establish Zion.
There is even now already in store sufficient, yea even an abundance, to
redeem Zion and establish her waste places no more to be thrown down, were the
churches who call themselves after my name, willing to hearken to my
voice. S.B.
“If
when the world becomes Christian, churchmen become as lordly as senators, and
emperors banish bishops, what should the serious Christian do?” “Get out of the world,” answered some. “Go to the desert. Flee the world, flee the cities.
Go back to the fields where the farmer sings psalms at the plow. Flee the murderous emperors and the sleek
ministers. Flee everybody and live all
alone.” The people who did this were
called hermits and monks. “Hermit”
means one who lives in the desert.
“Monk” means one who lives alone.
The first monks were hermits.
But later “hermit” was used of one who lived entirely alone, and “monk”
of one who left the world of cities and families to live apart with a group of
other monks. The movement began in
Egypt.
The hermits and monks believed that the world was bad and
also that the body was bad. Here they
were falling into the ideas of the Gnostics.
If the body was bad, then it must be beaten down by hardship. For this reason they lived in caves and
slept on rocks, and ate only enough to keep alive, often just dates and
cabbages. Some went without sleep till
they were so drowsy that at meals the food would fall from their mouths. Contests arose as to who could stand the
most hardship. One monk stood on a
single leg like a stork until he fainted.
Others lived on the tops of high pillars and had their food sent up on
poles.
The first monks were so strict that they would not even
look at women. Living alone in this
fashion without friends and work is not good for people. The hermits, with no one to talk to and
little to do, imagined that devils were after them. Saint Anthony spent most of the time fighting the devils in his
mind. Artists have had a grand time
drawing his devils. (Like the “Temptation of St. Anthony” by Jacques
Callot) The hermits soon found out that
living entirely alone drives one crazy, so they decided to live in communities
known as monasteries. (The women had
nunneries.)
Even though they had withdrawn from the world, the monks
did not feel quite right about going off and leaving it. The world was still there and all the people
in it. And when the world was in
trouble, the monks did come back. One
of the great monks was Saint Jerome. He
began as a “hermit” but the desert did not help his thoughts. He was alone save for the beasts, yet
dreamed of dancing girls in Rome.
Though he beat his chest with a rock, his thoughts still troubled
him. After some years he gave up and
came back to the world of men. A lion
is said to have followed him and wherever he went, the lion was sure to
go. Jerome became a great student. He learned Hebrew and translated the Old
Testament from that language into Latin and the New Testament from Greek into
Latin. The translation of Saint Jerome
is called the Vulgate. It is the Bible
of the Roman Catholic Church. From the
Latin, various translations have been made.
Saint Jerome was not so strict as the first monks had
been about having absolutely nothing to do with women. His monastery was at Bethlehem. Some noble women of Rome cane and
established a nunnery nearby. They
helped him with his translation. One of
them had a married sister at Rome to whom a baby girl had just been born. Jerome wrote to the mother; “Send the baby
to her aunt at Bethlehem. Let her grow
up near the manger of the Savior. She
won’t learn to lie here. She will live
like an angel. Or send her to me. I will teach her myself. (The monks did teach children.) I will take her in my arms. I will help her with her first lisping, old
man that I am.” (He was over
sixty.) The baby never came. The barbarians were thundering down the
roads to Rome. The Eternal City fell,
and soon the refugees were pouring into the monastery at Bethlehem. Jerome had his hands full looking after
them.
To be continued…………….. Mark
Like Mel Gibson in the movie Conspiracy Theory I too believe there are conspiracies, but more to
point, a conspiracy to take from us our freedoms. Like Mel Gibson I too must look like a kook to those who have
been raised in our government controlled public education system, saturated and
immersed in our society, our culture of permissiveness, immorality, and
irresponsibility. Having accepted, and
then indulged in the doctrines of the day, one readily comes to that point
where any contradictions of those doctrines are looked on narrowly and with
suspicion. So you have those speaking
about conspiracy as those most likely to be thought of as conspirators. Somewhere in the equation you have those who
are calling darkness light, and light darkness.
In the introduction to The Federalist Papers it says, “The
Federalist stands third only to the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution itself among the sacred writings of American political history. …
And the message of The Federalist reads: no happiness without liberty, no
liberty without self-government, no self-government without constitutionalism,
no constitutionalism without morality—and
none of these great goods without stability and order.”
Morality
is, “a system of the principles of right and wrong conduct.” We as a people, as well as the whole world,
have been diverted from the morality of our fathers; of those men who
bequeathed to us this noble land and the principles of government that have
been a blessing to all mankind. I say
blessing to all mankind because it has been those principles of government as
established in our Constitution that have been emulated the world over. Like Abraham who was told, “In thee shall
all the families of the earth be blessed.”
So it has been; or were our fathers the children of Abraham? Did they, in establishing our government,
fulfill, to a greater degree than any other, the words spoken by our dear Lord
to Abraham?
In The Federalist Papers #2 John Jay wrote,
“I have as often taken notice that Providence has been pleased to give this one
connected country to one united people—a people descended from the same
ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached
to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and
costumes, and who, by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by
side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established their general
liberty and independence.” I propose
that our Savior, in all he spoke, was proposing for us to be self-governing
upon, “a system of the principles of right and wrong conduct.” A system our fathers patterned after His
teachings to a greater degree than anything, we know of, since God Himself gave
His laws to ancient Israel.
To
me it stands as fact that Christianity was the cataclysmic force, more than any
other, that brought forth our system of government, and with it more freedom,
more happiness, and more peace than had been known for ages. Our father’s policies or politics were based
upon their firm and deep-set beliefs, those beliefs being religious in
nature. We now have an up and coming New
World Order with a new morality, a new “system of the principles of right and
wrong conduct,” a new religion with its policies and politics called secular
humanism that has become, for all intents and purposes, the “State Religion.” We have conspirators who give lip service to
uphold the Constitution while violating it in a flagrant manner; as if by their
violations they might turn a virtuous woman into a whore who will do as they
please. This is the conspiracy, and it
is in full force.
For
those who may not know a conspiracy is, “the planning of two or more persons to
do an evil act; also, the plan so made.”
Moroni speaks of “secret combinations.”
“The Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you
that you shall awake to a sense of your
awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; …
[it] seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and
it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people.” (Ether 8:24-25) Helloooooo…….. anybody listening? Is anyone awake to the sense of our awful
situation, because it is here!
Look at our schools, which just happen to be hell holes for some
children. A teacher by the name of John
Gatto was named New York City teacher of the year, I believe in 1991, the
following are parts of a speech he made at that time. "... We live in a time of great social crisis. Our teenage suicide rate is the highest in
the world and suicidal kids are rich kids for the most part, not the poor. In Manhattan seventy percent of all new
marriages last less than five years. … Our school crisis is a reflection of
this greater social crisis. We seem to have lost our identity. Children and old people are penned up and locked
away from the business of the world without precedent; nobody talks to them
anymore. Without children and old
people mixing in daily life, a community has no future and no past, only a
continuous present. … The truth is that schools don't really teach anything
except how to obey orders. This is a
great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools
as teachers and aides and administration, but the abstract logic of the
institution overwhelms their individual contributions. Although teachers do care and do work very,
very hard, the institution is psychopathic; it has no conscience. … Our form of compulsory schooling is an invention of the State of
Massachusetts around l850. It was resisted - sometimes with guns -
by an estimated eighty percent of the Massachusetts population, the last
outpost in Barnstable on Cape Cod not surrendering its children until the l880s
when the area was seized by militia and children marched to school under guard.
"Now
here is a curious idea to ponder.
Senator Ted Kennedy's office released a paper not too long ago claiming
that prior to compulsory education the
state literacy rate was ninety-eight percent, and after it the figure never
again reached above ninety-one percent, where it stands in l990. I hope that interests you.
"Here
is another curiosity to think about.
The home-schooling movement has quietly grown to a size where one and a
half million young people are being educated entirely by their own
parents. Last month the education press reported the amazing news that children schooled
at home seem to be five or even ten years ahead of their formally trained peers
in their ability to think. ...
"We
need to realize that the school
institution "schools" very well, but it does not "educate"
- that's inherent in the design of the thing. It's not the fault of bad
teachers or too little money spent.
It's just impossible for education and schooling ever to be the same thing.
"Schools
were designed by Horace Mann and Barnas Sears and W. R. Harper of the
University of Chicago and Thorndyke of Columbia Teachers College and others to
be instruments of the scientific management of a mass population. Schools are intended to produce, through the application of
formulae, formulaic human beings whose behavior can be predicted and
controlled. To a very great extent schools succeed in doing this.
… I think we need to make community service a required part of schooling. It is the quickest way to give young
children real responsibility.
For five years I ran a guerrilla school program
where I had every kid, rich and poor, smart and dipsy, give three hundred
twenty hours a year of hard community service.
Dozens of those kids came back to me years later, and told me that this
one experience changed their lives, taught them to see in new ways, to rethink
goals and values. It happened when they were thirteen in my
Lab School program - only made possible because my rich school district was in
chaos. When "stability"
returned, the Lab closed. It was too
successful, at too small a cost, to be allowed to continue. We made the expensive, elite programs look
bad.
There
is no shortage of real problems in this city.
Kids can be asked to help solve them in exchange for the respect and
attention of the adult world. Good for
kids, good for the rest of us.
Independent study, community service, adventures in
experience, large doses of privacy and solitude, a thousand different
apprenticeships - these are all powerful, cheap, and effective ways to start a
real reform of schooling. But no
large-scale reform is ever going to repair our damaged children and our damaged
society until we force the idea of "school": open - to include family
as the main engine of education.
Family is the main engine of education. If we use schooling to break children away
from parents - and make no mistake that has been the central function of
schools since John Cotton announced it as the purpose of the Bay Colony schools
in l650 and Horace Mann announced it as the purpose of Massachusetts schools in
l850 - we're going to continue to have the horror show we have right now.”
Here
are the words of a man who was named “teacher of the year” in our nation’s
largest city; there is no way he could have gained that distinction in any
other way than be being extremely good at what he was doing… teaching. We might wonder if he hadn’t gained that
honor via political connections, but his speech leaves little doubt that this
man is not functioning on political correctness, he is functioning somehow in
spite of it. He calls what we are
seeing a horror show and says that unless we engage family in the educational
process we are going to continue to see it; but, most of all, he names
conspirators who are using our schools in an experiment to control the
masses. If we simply had a problem we
could resolve it, but we have a problem that has been contrived, planned out
and executed. We have people who are
able to resolve the problems before us, but they will never be allowed to do
so.
A
large factor in this, and virtually every issue that needs attention, is the
media. It is the media’s business is to
keep us informed, but the media forms the greatest obstacle when it comes to
being informed on such issues as these.
The media industries are in control of the most effective way to
communicate to the people at large. Yet
not only does the media make it difficult, if not impossible for certain
information to get out, the media is also guilty of disseminating information
that is biased and tainted even to the degree where they deny, repeatedly, such
things as research confirming that the effects of media violence are long
lasting. [A University of Michigan
study showed that TV viewing between the ages of 6 and 10 predicted antisocial
behavior as a young adult… the conclusions of the research found media violence
to engender and foster violence in children.]
The
media’s bias, misrepresentation of facts, as well as denials of the same can
lead to no other conclusion than that the media is controlled. The evidence seems to make a case for proof
positive, to some extent at least, that we are being manipulated and controlled
by the media similar to the way Hitler and others used it to manipulate and
control the people in their times. It
happened and is happening just as Aldous Huxley predicted in his book, Brave New World. The point being, if you tell people something
often enough and long enough it eventually comes to be accepted as truth. Self-evident truths need to be exposed to
the eye of scrutiny if we hope to remain free.
We need to remember that freedom is not free it is bought at a price,
and people incapable or unwilling to think will never acquire even the
down-payment on freedom; they must depend on others if they are to have freedom
at all. We are in a situation where we
need to awake to the sense of our awful situation and begin to act! L.B.
(Conspiracy Theory will continue….. )